Delhi sightseeing - like a tourist

After our eat like a local tour we decided to spend the next day taking it easy within the confines of the hotel. Our India tour doesn't officially start until the evening when we meet the tour group then of full swing on Wednesday morning with a sightseeing tour of Delhi.

First stop was a mosque but no photos taken taken because they charge for use of a camera. As far as mosques go it was not particularly decorative. After that we had a rickshaw ride around the Chandni Chowk market area. Organised chaos. Moved on from there to visit the memorial of Mahatma Ghandi, drove past India Gate and a look around the Parliament complex - lovely buildings made from red and white sandstone.

Lunch was held at a silk rug factory. Plied us with food and drink, demonstrated how the rugs were made and then proceeded to convince us that we needed to buy one. Very expensive and probably worth it as they are completely hand knotted- takes a family of four around 2 years to make a large rug. Cost would be around $25,000USD. Fortunately, the designs were too traditional for my liking but I believe 2 members of the group did buy a rug each (probably more in the $2000 range)

After lunch and rug sales we visited Humayun's tomb. This mausoleum built in 1560's is a precurser to the Taj Mahal and you can see that in the symmetry and domes. Final stop was Qutab Minar, an ornate 72m tall minaret . Beats me how they make these things. Finally the drive back to the hotel should have only taken about an hour, however India is currently in Dwali season (sort of the Hindu equivalent of Christmas) and the roads were absolutely gridlocked. Two and a half hours later we finally arrived back after hitting all the major tourist hotspots in Delhi.Lue lisää