Day 2 - More Delhi

A whole day of Delhi’s delights. An hour’s drive south through the city took me to Qutub Minar, a UNESCO world heritage site, and home of a 22-storey tower built around 1200 AD. It uses no cement and is held together by ingenious masonry - cut to fit together like LEGO. Until 1981 you could climb to the top but after a tragic accident, where a power-cut thrust the internal stairs into darkness creating a stampede in which 45 people died, one can no more.

My trusty driver then took us NE to see Humayan’s Tomb, sometimes called ‘baby Taj Mahal’. It’s a 16th-century Mughal-era tomb of Emperor Humayun in Delhi, India, built by his Persian wife, Bega Begum. It is another UNESCO World Heritage site, recognized as a masterpiece of Mughal architecture, and which served as an inspiration for the Taj Mahal.

Driving around today was just as crazy as yesterday. It is a miracle that there aren’t more collisions. When waiting at lights, kids often wash your windscreen, hoping for payment; one boy today was so young he could barely see in through the window. A young girl, maybe 8 years old, barefoot and wearing face paint, doing cart wheels between static cars, hoping to be paid for her acrobatics. More cows on roundabouts, and even watched a tuc-tuc, waiting at another roundabout, turn INTO the oncoming traffic….🤦🏼‍♂️

I caught up with Ruth for coffee, a long-time friend from home also travelling out here, then we hoofed up to see ‘India Gate’, a triumphal arch similar to the Arc de Triomphe. This was unveiled in 1931 to commemorate the 74,000 Indian soldiers lost in WW1. It sits on the eastern end of the ‘ceremonial axis’ - a tree lined straight road with the original colonial parliament building on its western end, government offices on either side and the president’s residence at its head.

All the stray dogs are a sad sight, but they do appear to be content with their lot. Nice to see dog bowls out and the occasional dog bed… 🐾

Another veg curry tonight and an internal flight south to Jodhpur tomorrow. 😊Read more