Ahhh, didn’t get to bed till 4:30am! Problems with customs at the airport. First we cued up in the wrong slow line, then we realized we needed to be in another short line. Once our group got in the right line, half the inspectors went home, and the long, slow line finished before we did.
Nice hotel, Crowne Plaza. Wake up call at 7:30, big buffet breakfast, then a bus tour of New and Old Delhi. The British created New Delhi next to Old Delhi beginning in 1911. Same civil engineer/architect as Pretoria in South Africa, they aren’t “sister cities” they are identical cities.
We first visited where Gandhi was cremated. He was assassinated in 1948 by a Hindu radical, (Gandhi was Hindu). Then a rickshaw ride through Chandni Chowk. This neighborhood was laid out in 1648. Pictures below. Just as we were starting to walk through a section of it, one of our tour members got hit by a rickshaw and went down pretty hard. No real injury, both our tour guide, Ashok, and a local policeman yelled at the rickshaw driver, he yelled back, and life went on.
Chandni Chowk surrounds the Jami Masjid Mosque. The biggest in India, and with no roof! Also unique to the Mosque is that women roamed freely throughout the mosque, and few women were wearing head coverings.
What is unusual here, and the reason it is the biggest Mosque in India, is the courtyard is actually the Mosque. Lines are painted at right angles to Mecca, so that at prayer time 5 times a day, you can line your little carpet up, correctly.
Many of the Muslims were doing their abultion, (ritual washing) prior to prayers.Men, women kids, this mom agreed to pose with her little boy.
Tourist women and men with shorts were given a cover up, otherwise, it was a great place for Muslim families to just hang out, have a picnic, or for tourists to roam around taking pictures of the Mosque and the Muslim families hanging out. A great place to watch and mingle with the locals.
The younger Indian men liked to pose with Gloria, all very courteous, lots of handshaking.
The rickshaws, motorcycles, motorcycle rickshaws, busses, trucks, cars (and an ox drawn cart every once in a while) and people all competed for the same space in the streets.The most aggressive always wins. Lots of “bumper car” action as you creep along.
Incredible traffic on these little streets. Our guide said it was a “good day” for traffic. We couldn’t imagine it being any worse!
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