Today was our last day in Delhi and the first thing we noticed was Monday morning traffic. Our driver once again proved his worth by continually squeezing the car into small spaces in order to get us to the first stop of the day – The Hymayan Tomb. It was originally built by the grandfather of Shah Jahan and has similarities to the Taj Mahal.
I had visited ‘this monument’ before, and had promised myself I wouldn’t end up paying an unofficial guide again. True to form, on the way in a man attached himself to us and recanted the same script. While it is a touch annoying, it is usually $2 they want… although today’s guy asked for $10 … I gave him $4. I decided not get too perturbed that I’ve been caught twice, but to say it’s all part of a working economy and it’s not a large amount of money to us. There are quite a few other buildings set in quite beautiful gardens, but while restoration is in progress, there is much to be done. It is a World Heritage listed site and the Aga Khan is financing some of the restoration works.
We had next intended to visit the Lotus Temple (Bahai) and Mahatma Gandhi Museum, however it turned out that neither are open on Monday. I felt a little dejavu from our trip to Spain a few years back when we seemed to be constantly thwarted on Mondays by venue closures. We drove past the Lotus Temple, took a quick photo over the fence and moved on.
The driver then found us another restaurant for lunch which was also a good call, all though the standard of ambiance had steadily declined over the three days. Today’s was up a strange flight of stairs that were quite difficult to scale into a room that hadn’t been renovated since the 1950s. The presence of locals was reassuring and we had another great meal that was a little spicy and had lots of traditional Indian flavours.
As we ate a rain storm rolled in which had me gravely concerned about the impact on the traffic, but it seems in Delhi traffic is diabolical no matter the weather conditions. The change of plans took us to the Safdarjung’s Tomb. Again, another impressive piece of Mughal Architecture, this one only dating back to the mid-1700s.
The Mughal Dynasty spread into North India in the 1400s and they were replaced by the British Raj across all of India in 1858. From there we went to Lodi Gardens which were established by the Mughals in the 1500s. It wasn’t really until 1936 that they took today’s form. There are a number of Mughal tombs across the park that are worth seeing and the gardens themselves are very pleasant. I was surprised that anyone had tried to grow rose in the stifling humidity of Delhi, but they had and some of the bushes were even flowering. They also have lots of exotic plants and trees including Silky Oaks and Eucalyptus trees as well as more tombs. (Here is one)
Today has been the hottest and most humid of the three days we’ve been here, so after walking through Lodi Gardens we were both pretty weary and dehydrated. We came back to the hotel and farewelled Samson (our driver) and went to the bar for a couple of quiet drinks. Once again I had that familiar experience of being presented with a beer list of international beers, none of which were available. Of course the waiter gleefully informs me – ‘We have Kingfisher Sir, but none of those other beers today’. So I had a Kingfisher, while Deb had a cocktail.
So that is the Delhi leg completed, and we are off to Amritsar tomorrow morning and we both agree that we are looking forward to the drier heat.
Until tomorrow!
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