Welcome to Delhi, Again

August 26, 2019

By: Mark

Comments Off on Welcome to Delhi, Again

Cars. And bikes. And motorcycles. And Autos. Everywhere.

After three busy days of interviews, block printing, Ubers, and, of course, sitting in traffic, it was time to pack up our gear one last time to head back to Delhi. Side note: My concerns about the food in India never came to fruition and I surprisingly quite enjoyed the various (and copious amounts of) Indian food I consumed. That said, I can honestly say I don’t know/remember the actual name of anything I ate … well, other than naan. But what I really learned is that there’s a HUGE difference between real Indian food and the North American version of said cuisine.

Our flight from Bangalore to Delhi was at 11:30 AM which meant there was plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast before being shuttled off to the airport once again. However, once at the airport, things didn’t go entirely without incident.

In keeping with the apparent randomness that frequently goes with the rules regarding baggage, our bags that were deemed acceptable for check-in on the flight to Bangalore were deemed to be WAY too heavy for the flight back. This of course made no sense but neither did trying to get an explanation. Our options were to either pay a fee for the now “excess” weight or upgrade (for a lesser fee) to Premium Economy which would allow the heavier bag. As you would expect, we went for the lesser fee option (which happened to come with more leg room). Fortunately, that was the only incident of the day.

: Bicycle

: Motorcycle

: Auto rickshaw

: Cars. And bikes. And motorcycles. And Autos. Everywhere.

: Looking back

: Large birds? Nope. BATS!

: This was hanging on the hotel room door. I have no idea what it’s for. Anyone??

: Weighing in after a week or so in India.

: Qutb Minar

: Yes, it’s crooked. There’s a reason for it but I won’t get into it. Suffice it to say it was intentional.

: Qutb Minar

: Generic photo of tourists.

: Our guide, Ajay.

: Parrots.

: The tower was built in 1193.

: Detailed carving on the tower.

: Twin Towers. The one in the foreground (The Iron Pillar) is about 1,600 years old.

: The Iron Pillar was moved to Delhi about 1,000 years ago.

: 1,600 years old and no rust. Clearly we could learn a thing or two from the forger!

: More parrots.

: If you look closely you can the vultures.

: Ajay. Again.

: Generic shot of tourists in front of the President’s residence.

: President’s residence

: A lot of birds trying to thermal.

: More birds.

: Tourists at Gurudwara Bangla Sahib. Sikh Temple.

: Volunteers at the temple feed over 10,000 people a day. ANY people.

: Seriously, there’s a LOT of food.

We were back in Delhi on Sunday (the 25th) and the following day we had another day of sightseeing before embarking on the long flight trip back to North America (again via Heathrow). While our first tour in Delhi was interesting enough, tour number two was by far more enjoyable.

The first stop of the day was Qutb Minar which seems to have a variety of possible spellings including Qutab and Qutub … obviously, I’ve opted for Qutb. Regardless of the spelling, had we not seen anything after Qutb Minar it still would’ve been the best tour of the trip. Such an incredible site. Granted, I tend to be partial to ruins so that likely had a BIT to do with my enjoyment level.

Anyway, I’ll let the Photo Gallery put a wrap on this entry. Once again, for better or worse there’s no shortage of photos in this gallery.