I'm sitting on the rooftop of my Havali in Jodhpur, one of Rajasthan's largest cities, a busy, bustling city with the famous and colossal Mehrangarh Fort which dominates the city's skyline. It is very hot - too hot for me to go out in the afternoon so I will attempt to update my blog.
My flight from Nairobi to Dehli was uneventful, though long, and I arrived in Dehli in the morning. The airport was surprisingly easy to navigate and I arranged for a prepaid taxi near the exit. I love these taxi kiosks as there is no haggling, you just book it and they give you a number and when you go outside to the mayhem, you don't feel so overwhelmed. I got to my hotel just in time to meet my roommate, Debra from Australia, and then met the rest of the group. This type of tour I'm on is a basic tour where you have a guide who arranges all the local travel - busses, trains, subway etc. and you get lots of free time to explore on your own. Our guides name is Mayank and he is absolutely lovely. There are twelve of us - 8 young women under 30, two single men over 50, and then me and Debra, roughly the same age. It's an interesting dynamic as I find myself, once again, more comfortable with the young people. Not sure why, but they are all lovely and good fun.
The next day we headed out for a walking tour of Old Dehli. I have to say, after the peaceful time in the Serengeti, I was finding it all a bit too much. Dehli is a filthly, noisy, smelly, chaotic place teeming with people and heat. I was overwhelmed with it all and not sure if I was going to like it here. We made our way by bus to the centre of the city amidst all this utter confusion. India's capital is an exciting, busy, and often chaotic city but it's also one of the most interesting in the world with historical sites from different eras, museums and galleries, shops and endless bazaars! We walked through the famous Chandni Chowk where we tasted masala chai and street snacks made with peanuts, sesame seeds and honey. Its hard to describe the utter filth - gutters streaming with garbage and sewage, people releiving themselves wherever they want and spitting the gross chewing tobacco (pan) onto the street. Yuck! Cows and oxen roam freely amidst the rickshaws, tuk-tuks and motorcycles with surprising calmness and ease. We then set off on the city's modern metro system, and then India's famed public transport, tuk-tuks through chaotic streets. We visited to the Jama Masjid, Delhi's oldest mosque and one of its most impressive buildings, then to the Sheeshganj Gurudwara (Sikh Temple) to learn about the Sikh religion. I have a whole new appreciation for the Sikh religion as they serve free food every day to all the devotees and anyone, rich or poor, without any distinction of caste, creed,or distinction will be served.
Jama Masjid, Delhi's oldest mosque and one of its most impressive buildings, is the largest mosque in India. The Jama Masjid stands across the road in front of the Red Fort. Built between 1644 and 1658, Jama Masjid is one of the last architectural works of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. The spacious courtyard of the Jama Masjid holds thousands of faithful. Jama Masjid is located on a mound in the heart of the old city and projects beautifully into the Old-Delhi skyline. Jama Masjid Mosque was built in red sandstone and marble by more than 5000 artisans. Originally called the Masjid-i-Jahan-Numa, or "mosque commanding view of the world", the Jama Masjid stands at the center of the erstwhile capital city of the Mughals, Shahjahanbad.
