We had a full day of Delhi tourism on Saturday! We woke up bright and early, packed up our respective bags and headed out to meet Dharminder at his car. Our first stop was the India Gate. It was a beautiful morning, probably in the low 70s. It’s hard to explain the enormity of it, even with the pictures! The gate was built in 1931 and is also known as the All India War Memorial. It honors the 90,000 soldiers who died fighting for the Indian Empire.

Our next stop was Jantar Mantar. When you enter the area, you are surrounded by 13 fascinating structures. All of the structures are astronomical instruments that were used to predict the movement of the sun, moon and planets. It was built around 1724. Ryan and I read every single plaque that explained how each structure was used. We got about halfway in and were entirely confused. Needless to say, we were left in awe.

Also, there were quite a few fieldtrips visiting Jantar Mantar that same day so we enjoyed watching little kids run up and down the structures, the boys throwing a ball around in the grass and the girls skipping around in circles and singing little rhymes. Some things are the same everywhere ;-)

Then we stopped at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial. We walked down a beautiful path to a huge expanse of green grass. When we got near the center we were asked to remove our shoes. The memorial is exactly what you would expect: beautiful, unimposing, and serene.

We next stopped for lunch at an amazing restaurant. We invited Dharminder to eat with us and we each had an enormous Masala Paper Dosa. I think we finished in about 4 minutes without taking a break to drink or breathe!

Lastly we stopped at the Lotus Temple. It was the most grand, yet subtly beautiful structure I have ever seen. Upon approaching the temple we again removed our shoes. We walked barefoot up the bath until we saw the beautiful pools of water. There are a total of nine pools surrounding the temple. The temple is made up of 9 “petals”. The contrast of the teal blue with the stark white of the temple was breathtaking. We sat near the water for about half an hour just soaking in the serene surroundings.

Before we entered the temple, guides (in both Hindi and English) explained that the Lotus Temple is also known as the Baha’i House of Worhip. The Baha’i faith’s principles are the oneness of mankind, independent investigation of Truth, the common foundation of all religions, the essential harmony of Science and Religion, equality of men and women, elimination of prejudice of all kinds, universal compulsory education and universal peace. The inside of the temple had no real focus point or “front” and was silent for the most part. After we spent fifteen minutes or so inside, we again relaxed outside before calling it a night.
And we'll end it with an artsy picture courtesy of Ryan

Ryan and I have now gotten settled into a schedule with work and trying to go to the gym. Trying is certainly the keyword. Ryan is going into the market more, taking the motorcycles with the sales reps, so here is our first showing of how crazy the traffic is here:

And I looked sweet:

Also, this caused some major delays

Ryan has made a friend with a Rickshaw driver.

One day I got off the Metro (train) and got a bicycle driver to take me home. Before we left, we agreed upon 30 Rs. ($0.60). When we got to the house, as he was giving me my change, he left me 10 Rs. short and tried to get me to give him 10 more. Smiling, he finally gave me my change and turned to another rickshaw driver to say something that I can only imagine was "Had to try with the white boy."

A couple of days later, as I got in again, I decided to walk home. Several of the rickshaw drivers were yelling at me to come with them, but one in particular got up smiling and yelling. He held up three fingers so I remembered the 30, so I had to take him. I ended up giving him 40 (an extra $0.20 for laughing the whole way.

Bhaina (older brother, Renu's cousin), Renu and I were leaving the grocery store and walking to the car and there was a rickshaw driver waiting. Sure enough, the same guy puts up three fingers. He was very disappointed to see I had a car this time, but it's funny to see him recognize me around the city.

Ryan and I spent the weekend working on a website and watching movies. What goes better with that than pizza? Tuni, the house help, told us in Hindi that she was going to the market. We said "acha" ("good") and she left. We ordered pizza from Dominoes (I know it's a crime in the US haha) but it's actually a lot better here! As the delivery boy rang the door bell and Ryan went to open the door I heard him start cracking up. We then realized that Tuni had actually locked us IN to the apartment!! So we stood on one side with the money and the delivery boy stood on the other with the pizza. So after we laughed for a while Ryan slipped the money under the door and we convinced him to leave the pizza (in broken Hindi and English) we waited for Tuni to come home. We warmed up the pizza and it tasted better than ever!

While Ashish bhaina got a haircut we got lured in by a familiar scent. We just couldn't help ourselves. We went to Subway. The prices weren't as good as I thought they'd be ($3 for 6-inch) but it was the EXACT same as home. Sometimes it is very nice to be able to get back that home feel. Miss you all.

Also, requisite picture of a cow. This guy was a MONSTER, but extremely "skinny."