India 5: Jeremy has arrived

 There was another large gap before getting to this blog installment, but I will do my best.  

  The next day I transferred to Le Meridien Hotel, south of Old Delhi.  When they assigned me the fourteenth floor, I considered asking for a lower one, but figured I would just deal with it.  The reception was located away from the rooms, so I had not discovered that once away from the lobby, you could look up and see every room in the hotel.    To make matters worse, he only elevators were half glass, and you could see everything.  I spent a lot of my time staring at the elevator door.  Later in the trip, I experimenting with requesting to use the service elevators.  These were normal, albeit large elevators, with no glass. Unfortunately, you needed a key to get to them, so it wasn't worth the hassle, and I scrapped the idea.

  I stayed in my room for the day.  For dinner, I tried chicken biryani  I'd only ever had it in frozen meal form.  It was good, but extremely spicy.  Jeremy's flight would arrive late at night.  He likes waking up early, so I went to bed, to meet him early the next morning.

    We began our day by ordering an uber, taking a route southward, to Hauz Khas Fort.  We passed a really neat looking white temple, so before the park, we backtracked toward it.  Shri Jagannath Mandir was a beautiful structure. Photos were not allowed, but since others ignored this, I snuck two pictures.

  We weren't sure which way the fort was.  We could enter the park or go through a street filled with odd looking shops.  We chose the park, which didn't allow access to the fort, so we walked all the way back and tried the street.  Not long after entering,  two young ladies walked up to us, asking if we would be willing to be in a picture with them. Jeremy was wary that it was a scam.  I decided to do it.  They took the picture and then walked away.

    Our next uber took us north, to walk around Lodhi Garden.  This large park had both tombs and monuments.  Inside the Bada Gumbad tomb were two couples having their wedding photos taken.

This photo was suggested by Jeremy.

The silhouette here is Jeremy.

  To the east was the Isa Khan and Humayun's Tomb complex.  They were both magnificent.  The steps up, leading to the Humayun Tomb was extremely steep.  I was irritated by some European tourists that sat themselves near the side and spread themselves out, blocking others from holding onto the rails.

  Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to take a break.  After a stop at our rooms, we met for coffee and cake.  It was then that I revealed to Jeremy that it was my birthday.  Neither of us have ever been much for celebrating birthdays, which is why he had not known.  I take joy in being abroad on my birthday.

  As the evening approached, we left for two last temples.  The first was a unique temple that reminded me of Legos. They unfortunately did not allow photos.  We had to deposit our shoes and phones into a locker, near a side that explicitly stated that tips were not to be offered to the attendants there.  When we returned for our items, the woman insisted that we tip her.  I relented.  Jeremy did not.  We walked around the perimeter to take pictures.  

  The last temple, Gurudwara Sri Bangla Sahib, was very, very crowded.  It wasn't altogether obvious what we should do before entering.  We discovered a set of rooms off to the side, and down some stairs, where we left our shoes.  However, when we tried to enter the temple grounds, we were turned back,  walked back to the room.  We were asked to remove our socks and were given a hair covering.

    We followed the crowd and stayed in a line that would take us into the temple.  Video cameras were recording the ceremony, which involved chanting.  We exited to a large pool of water, which people were circling clockwise.  We did one revolution before heading back to our hotel for the night.

  The next day we left for our reservation with the Salaam Balaak Trust.  This private charity walk was run by a young woman who had been saved by the organization from the streets.  She led us from the Rail Reservation center to a room above the police station in the New Delhi Railway Station.  This was used as a temporary classroom and office.  Then we were brought to the DDA Community Center, which served as their headquarters.  She explained the organization's mission, which focused on aiding homeless children.  It aimed to provide an alternative life for children living on the streets.  The process was primarily through introduction to a classroom environment, with the goal of having them live full time at one of their facilities.  Some children were so used to the freedom of living on the streets, that they would only come for daytime class.  They encouraged higher education, followed by help finding employment.  We were informed that most people did not go hungry in India, as there were many places that freely gave food.  

  Next, we chose what ended up being a very slow moving tuk tuk towards Old Delhi.  Every other vehicle seemed to pass us.  We eventually ended up in the congested standstill of Old Delhi, not far from where I took pictures in the intersection a few days prior.  We stood up and walked from there.  I took us north, towards the textile district that I had not yet been to.  Then we made our way toward the Red Fort.  

  I walked briefly into the Shri Digambar Jain Atishay Kshetra La Mandir.  Jeremy wasn't interested, so turned back to an area away from traffic.  I looked around, but wasn't able to find angles for good pictures.  When I returned to Jeremy, he had made two friends.  They told him that the Red Fort was closed on Mondays, and were trying to sell him on the idea of using their tuk tuks for private tours.  Instead, we decided to use one of their tuk tuks to return to our hotel.  His name was Akbar, and he was quite a character.  He took us into the subway, to use the subterranean path to cross the street.  He kept insisting that we looked him up on Tripadvisor, where had very good reviews."  He drove like a maniac.

Back at the hotel, Jeremy decided to look him up.  He was listed on Tripadvisor as "Akbar, Old Delhi Rickshaw Ride."  He had over 250 high scoring reviews.  

  We decided to relax at the hotel for the rest of the night.  After cake and coffee, we walked around the upper ring of the promenade.  One store caught my eye with beautiful sets of clothing in the window.  The store attendant insisted I go with him inside.  I was tired, and wasn't in the mood for dealing with the inevitable hard sell.  I promised him that I would return the next day.  He shared that from his experience, when people say that they will come back, they never do.

  The next day we spent the day in the hotel.  Before meeting up for our daily cake and coffee, I returned to the shop.  He was very happy to see me.  I spent an hour with him, choosing to buy a full body outfit that he described as a "maharaja," as well as some shawls. 

  We went to sleep around 7:00 PM, so we could wake up at midnight to leave for Bhutan.