Day 3: Monday, Feb 16th - Delhi

So this morning we took our time getting up. We had asked Gansing to pick us up around noon and take us around for our last day in Delhi. So, after breakfast since we had some time we decided to go our exploring on our own! Was that interesting... everyone wanted to help us, well, show us to some shopping center. It's funny how cultures can be so different. We were actually getting frustrated with everyone coming up to us and grabbing our map or pointing in a direction and telling us to follow them this way. We would kindly say, "no thank you, we're just walking and exploring". We thought maybe we should have taken some more advice when we stumbled upon a cross-dressers neighborhood. But hey, that's part of the experience right! Yes, there are cross-dressers in India! We headed down another alley way where we found some people selling bangles. Mom and Mrs. Holmes got their first taste of bangle shopping and it was a success. We finally made our way back to the hotel where Gansing was waiting for us! We checked out of the hotel, loaded up the car, and headed off to the India Gate. We got to a huge open area which we realized to be Parliment. It was interesting to see how similiar it was to Washington D.C. There were a lot of television cameras, lots of green grass and flowers, and lots of buildings that were definitely from the British. We just jumped out quickly, took some pictures, then jumped back in the car. Now we were headed for Humayun's Tomb.

The tomb of Humayun was built by the orders of Hamida Banu Begum, Humayun's widow starting in 1562. It took 8 years to build and had a Chahr Bagh Garden style in its design, which is a Persian-style garden layout and was the first of its kind in the South Asia region. (A little history for you!) The area around the Tomb is again so beautiful, with gardens and flowers and lots of trees. The tomb was actually the inspiration for the Taj Mahal, so you can see a lot of similarities. We walked around the complex and then up the amazingly steep stairs that lead to the actual tomb. For being such an important figure in history, Humayun's cenotaph is just placed in the center of a large room and you can go in and even touch it. We took lots of pictures again, especially of the ornate designs on the tomb and buildings. After that we jumped in the car, and after a brief lunch we headed to Qutb Minar.
Qutb Minar is the world's tallest brick minaret. It was built in 1193 under the orders of India's first Muslim ruler Qutb-ud-din Aibak, and the topmost storey of the minaret was completed in 1386. It is surrounded by several other ancient and medieval structures and ruins, collectively known as Qutb complex. The purpose for building this monument has been speculated upon. It could take the usual role of a minaret, calling people for prayer or could be a tower of victory, a monument signifying the might of Islam, or a watch tower for defense. Either way it is a very important strucutre in Muslim history so we decided to look around the complex and learn about its history. It's unbelieveable some of the carved columns we saw, so intricate in design it was amazing. There was a large iron pole in the middle of the complex believed to be a symbol of Muslims coming to India that is said to have been put there in the year 300! During our walk around I took a stop to look at the map and Mom and Mrs. Holmes went ahead. When I caught up to them, I found a them with a group of 4 teenage Indian girls who were each individually taking their pictures with the two of them. I thought this was hilarious, but it seemed like a lot of people appreciated us being there, as foreigners. We noticed it was getting late, and we still had one stop to go! So we jumped in the car and headed for the Garden of Five Senses.
The Garden is a newer attraction here in Delhi, so it was definitely a little under-tended to, but what was there was gorgeous. They had some really beautiful flowers and the area itself was designed very well, very modern yet earth-conscious. The had a lot of artwork throughout the gardens which I appreciated. I even got to ride a....CAMEL! No, not an elephant, but the camel was pretty cool. His name was Babu and I rode him around an area in the garden. That was pretty fun. We were in the gardens until just about sunset. At that time we got in the car and headed for the airport.
Our flight back to Pune was only delayed by 30 minutes, and it was a pretty good flight if you don't count the really loud/strange noise that came from the top of the plane as we landed..but it was fine apparently! We got out into the parking lot and hailed an autorickshaw to take us home to Sangam...well, my home while I'm here. We reached Sangam by 12:30 and slipped right into bed...another good day behind us.