Our
luggage needed to be out in the hall by 7 a.m., for our 8 a.m. departure. Forgot to include the final steps from
yesterday > 11,134. Opening the drapes, from our seventh floor
vista, we could see a light fog or smog hovering above the trees. The weather websites varied for the current temperature
from 24 to 26 at 6:30 am. There was a chance of thunderstorms. We have been lucky so far that there has not
been any rain. In 2016, the World Health
Organization declared Delhi the eleventh worst in the urban air quality
database.
Today’s agenda started with a tour of Old Delhi, the Mughal capital,
which was established by Shah Jahan in 1638. Then we drove into Imperial Delhi
and finally New Delhi, passing the India Gate, a memorial to the soldiers of
World War I and II and other wars, which Indian soldiers have fought in, some
palaces and the Supreme Court. India Gate was built in 1931 and the eternal
flame, Amar Jawan Jyoti, was added to commemorate the soldiers who perished in
the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.
We
also passed the Iron Pillar of Delhi, thought to have been erected during the
Gupta Dynasty around 400AD. We drove through the narrower streets of
the Old City and could see the tangle of electric and telephone wires hanging
from poles just five meters above the roadways. We passed the Red Fort built of
local red sandstone by Shah Jahan, which is not far from our first stop, Jama
Masjid mosque. The Red Fort’s walls surrounded Shah Jahan’s city established in
1638. Red Fort, being a royal residence, it was plundered of its artwork and
jewels in the late 18th century, then the British destroyed most of
its marble structures following an Indian mutiny in the mid 1800s.
Jama Masjid
is the largest mosque in India. It also was part of Shah Jahan’s construction
of his city. It is a partially enclosed building on three sides, but the front
has large arches, without doors, so a breeze blows through the red sandstone
structure. To enter the Jama Masjid
mosque, there is a staircase of 36 sandstone steps. Before entering, to conform to Muslim dress
codes, women are given a light shoulder to ankle colourfully printed coat to
wear to cover their body including arms and legs, and the men in shorts need to
wear a waist to ankles wraparound cloth. You also had to remove your shoes to
walk in the mosque, as we did at Taj Mahal. Close by is Chandni Chowk (meaning
Moonlit Market), one of India’s oldest bazaars, covering several streets and
extending into the narrow alleys off the main streets. It is a wholesale market
where tourists find bargains from souvenirs to clothing to Indian food and
spices. From the plaza of Jama Masjid, which can hold 25,000 people, you get a
good view of the bazaar and, a few streets away, the walls of Red Fort, also
constructed in the mid 17th century.
On August 15, 1947 at Red Fort, the flag of the newly independent Union
of India was unfurled by Jawaharlal Nehru, a tradition followed every
Independence Day.
Back on the bus, we drove through the streets of Old Delhi and New Delhi
stopping to visit the site of Mahatma Gandhi’s cremation which has become the
gardens known as Raj Ghat, sponsored by the Gandhi family.
Next, we drove through Imperial Delhi, and stopped at the India Gate
memorial and its gardens. Walking around the three stops easily accumulated
steps so as we returned to our bus seats we had 7639. Although the sun appeared
occasionally, a smog was settling over the city. It was noticeable when looking
at distant views.
Since we were ahead of schedule, after a drive past the circular
Parliament House and the Royal Palace beside it, the bus went to the Lotus
Temple of the Bahai faith. It was built between 1980 and 1986. The beautiful
ivory coloured pieces are shaped into the leaves of a lotus. (Evoking a memory
of the Sydney, Australia, Opera House.) Since it was Sunday and there is a
Hindu temple also in the vicinity, the buses were stuck in traffic to get to
the parking lot. The guides advised us
to leave the bus and walked almost shoulder to shoulder with tens of thousands
of others, about 900 meters to the entrance of the gardens surrounding the
Lotus Temple. Then another 200 meters to the best location for photos followed
by a quick exit but then over a one kilometer walk back to where the bus had
found a parking space. Besides the crowd, there were hawkers selling bangles,
books of Delhi, toy tuk-tuks, sunglasses, Indian recorders, and food. There
were also beggars, including women in colourful saris holding young babies, babbling
to us as we hurried to the buses. The step count was 10674.
We continued the journey to the airport with a quick drive around the
square which surrounded Qutub Minar, the tallest (72.5 meters) free standing
brick minaret in the world. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Built in 1199
by Qutub-Ud-Din Aibak, after the death of his master, the former Sultan, to
commemorate his own ascent as Sultan of Delhi.
Then the trip to the airport took about one hour. During the morning,
envelopes had been passed around with suggested contributions for tips for the
driver and his assistant, just like yesterday.
Today’s crew were different from the rural tour. Also, an envelope for our guide of the past
six days, Raj, was also circulated. As
we entered the airport property, Dale presented the tips to Raj with applause from
the passengers. Once the luggage as claimed from the buses, we all paraded
through the first security check to enter the airport, then went to the
check-in lines of budget airline, IndiGo, then immigration for the stamp to
leave India and on to the security check. It took about 90 minutes of standing
in lines. We stopped to browse in the
duty-free shops and other shops before stopping for snack at the India coffee chain,
Café Coffee Day. Farewell to India and
hello to United Arab Emirates.
The flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), left five minutes ahead
of the 5:15p.m. scheduled departure and took almost four hours. The latitude of
Dubai is 25.27 North which is close to the position of degree in Nassau,
Bahamas at 25.02 North and Monterrey, Mexico at 25.4 North. We needed to adjust our timepieces by 90
minutes earlier than Delhi time, so our gate departure was 3:40 p.m. in Dubai.
The 3.5 hour flight passed quickly either reading or creating today’s blog
entry.
The
plane landed in Dubai at 7:05 and taxied about six before arriving at the gate.
Once off the plane, we walked through the corridors following signs for arriving
passengers and were surprising when we arrived at the train station to take us
to Terminal 1, in less than three minutes, to continue to the Immigration hall
where we stood in line a mere 10 minutes for a passport check and processing
which took less than two minutes for both of us. (Compared to India waiting
almost two hours and the processing taking 4 or 5 minutes each.) The whole
group was waiting by an exit for the Indus representative in less than 45
minutes from when we walked off the plane. We bought a bag of Lay’s potato
chips to eat on the bus. There was a small glitch, there was no Indus representative
to greet us. After a few minutes, Ellen was told that the representative was at
the wrong terminal. Within a few minutes
we were walking to the bus which can hold 50 passengers. The luggage was loaded and the trip to the
Hilton Garden Inn – Mall of the Emirates took about 30 minutes.
Check-in was the smoothest yet. As in India, we were reminded not to
drink the tap water, but to use the bottled water provided. There was no
security screening of the guests nor our luggage. We lined up at reception
staffed by three staff members, who scanned the passports and handed us the
already prepared room card envelope. We
collected the luggage that was already in the hotel and were in our room within
15 minutes of entering the hotel; a much smoother experience than yesterday
afternoon in Delhi. Once in the room, we placed the passports in the room safe,
as usual, made a cup of tea (made from bottled water) and each ate a 30gram bar
of Guylian milk chocolate as our dinner desert.
It was 9 pm in Dubai, but 10:30 in Delhi. With the finishing events for today’s blog
completed, we chose photos, posted the blog and went to bed. Final step count
14,342.
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