Day 10 and 11

Day 10

We went on a Delhi city tour and went to the super modern Lotus Temple. The whole temple was in the shape of a, well, lotus and was whiter that white. All around there was greenery, something rare in India. Tropical trees, trees from temperate countries and desert shrubs were all mixed up. It looked odd but I'm not complaining as all these contribute to fresh air! We said a prayer in the temple and left.

We then went to another relic site where a tall free-standing sandstone tower was. Again, the structure was like the Red Fort, as of all of the buildings built at that period. It was quite fun, as we clambered up and down some old rocks.

At night, we went to some light and sound display. It was quite boring. It was just lighting up some lights in the building and listening to a story. We were quite glad that we left as the weather was very cold.

Hell.

Day 11

The girls from Uttam School hosted us today. Personally, I found it quite fun. The parents of the girls picked us up from the school and we went to the girl's house to play. Haha. It was two boys to one host and me and my "partner" played a board game with the host girl before we had lunch. After a good lunch, which with luck, was not spicy, we watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I pretended to watch. After all that, the host parents took us shopping and eventually to Shipra mall, the biggest mall in Ghaziabad. I spent down to my last rupee to buy some gifts and then returned to the school to bid a final farewell.

Then, it was off to the airport back to Singapore.

AND THAT, concludes out trip to USG, Ghaziabad, India.

Day 8 and 9

Day 8

Off to Agra! This will be the highlight of our trip to India as we were going to see the Red Fort and Taj Mahal. We took the train and the interior was susprisingly clean and new and we had a comfortable trip in the sleeper coach. Upon arrival, we went immediately to our new hotel, which was by Singapore standards, 3-star but at the time, it was way better than the motel-class hotel in Ghaziabad. The rooms were nicely furnished and we took a nice rest in our rooms (mine is a suite!) after our long journey on the road and railway.

Near death experience waiting for the train.

Suite sweet suite.

We saw the Red Fort first, which was rather like the castle of the rulers of the Moghul empire. The whole place was built in sandstone and we were greeted by a big gate which used to be surrounded by a moat - but now they emptied it and grew grass all around the fort. The view was very good, and from the place we entered the emperor used to ride with his army carrying the treasures he took away from conquering distant lands. The people of the city would climb up the red towers and throw flowers, with all the bands playing and pretty girls waving.

Back to reality. We then entered a big garden where a large stone vessel was displayed. The vessel hollowed out from a single large rock used to be the emperor's bath tub where he bathed in wine. His life was basically, extremely exorbitant. Architects at the time believed in duality and almost every structure there was another one mirroring it. The architecture was also rather like the Forbidden City, where you entered garden after garden, pavilion after pavilion. We also saw where the emperor did his administrative work, it was the only marble structure in the entire fort. In winter the walls were filled with hot water to ward off the cold and in summer, cold water. That was about it, the Agra Fort.

Back to the hotel for lunch. No continental stuff, still Indian cuisine.

We had a long rest all the way to 4 pm in the hotel till we visited the Taj! The Taj, being addressed as a female here as it was the tomb of emperor Shah Jahan's favourite wife, had a veil, like all the woman wore at that time. The veil took the form of a giant sandstone gate with inlaid marble and semi-precious stones. The artwork on the Taj was never painted on or carved on, created only from the collage on jewels. Inside, we finally saw the Taj Mahal, a true wonder of the world. It was every bit as beautiful as they saw as we saw the white marble turn pink in the sunset. This marble used to build the Taj was of the highest grade as it would change colour under different light, never get scratched, gets shinier with every touch and waterproof. My my, the price of true love. Haha.

If I had that kind of money...

Taj's veil.

The Taj's surroundings were as beautiful as the mausoluem itself; very well-maintained and everything. The thing I like most about the whole thing would be how meticulously the Indian government preserves this wonder; the surrounding area banned fuel engines and allowed only battery-operated vehicles, no shoes on the Taj or buy a shoe cover and security everywhere. The wonder was not damaged to the slightest bit and everyone was caught in the air of respect, never crossing anyone mind to vandalise the Taj or carve grafitti.

Day 8 was wonderful.

Day 9

We started the day by visiting our sick friends who spent the night in the hospital. They had a bad fever and had to go under drips. At the sight of us, they lighted up immediately and we had fun taking pictures of them. Haha. We moved on to another "excavation site" of India's many relics. It was the home of a Moghul emperor and the walk was quite nice. (Don't know what to say here) It was very much like the Red Fort. However, something we dreaded from the start of the trip finally hit us. I did not expect it to happen here, though at the Red Fort it did occur to us a little bit. These dealers who tries to force into our hands every bit of low-grade souvenirs that we practically do not want or already bought. Words fail me here to describle them, let's just say that they were beggars with a cause; but at least they were doing something to make a living.

A story: Here I was walking, minding my own business, and there came a horde of souvenir-desperadoes trying to sell something to me. Be it bead necklace, terribly made models of the Taj Mahal or postcards, they were all the same. Finally, I decided to buy postcards to ward these guys off. I need not walk far (or any further from the place I was "assaulted") before a young boy tried to sell me postcards. "Four for 100" (Four sets of postcards for 100 rupees - SGD3.8) I said, "Five for 100. Final." Along came a middle-aged man who pushed the boy away and said, "Five, I sell you." The boy incensed, cried, "I came first, six!" The middle aged man: "I sell you six! 100!" Then they started fighting. As I could watch on no longer (our group was leaving), I upheld justice and paid the boy, 100 for six. The last I saw of him was his triumphant look...

At night, we went to a marble emporium to buy models of the Taj. This emporium sold genuine marble and those who had bought beforehand discovered that theirs were fake.

REAL MARBLE: let light pass through
no powdery residue
cannot be scratched by a wooder plank

second biggest taj in the world

Of course, all this came with a price.

Day 7

Today was a special day as we vistited the Akshardham temple. It is quite a modern temple; construction started in 2000 and ended in 2005, taking only five years to complete the entire structure out of sandstone, with all the complex artworks on it hand-carved. The grandeur of the temple was beyond comprehension. And the beauty of its vastness and at the same time, the intricate carvings commanded all respect. We feasted on the sight of the temple and gulped in every detail. And as we were told that there was no photography allowed, sadness took over us. Haha. But at least we bought a guidebook on the temple with every aspect of it photographed.

First, we went for boat ride in the temple. It was not a real one, obviously. We journeyed through time on a boat with wheels, looking at the history of India from the very beginning. It seems that the very first idea of trigonometry, "Pythagoras" theorem, aviation and plastic surgery originated from India. It was just that nobody "patented" it and passed on history from word of mouth until primary history sources were found. The experience left all of us very open to new ideas and taught not to be definitive on anything in history as anything could be possible.

Along the way, someone puked in the temple after the boat ride.

After some cleaning up, we moved on to watching a movie in an "imax" theatre. We saw the inspirational journey of Neelkanth Darshan on 85 by 65 feet screen. He left home at 11 to seek spiritual understanding and along the way, inspired many across India by his wisdom and understanding of what is right at just a tender age. His most wonderous story would be his time in the Himalayas, with no food and only a piece of loincloth covering him, he survived for 4 months. Though I know that would be seemingly impossible, it is his determination and strength that inspires, just like religions all around. Finishing the story of the child-yogi, we rushed to catch the musical fountain display (told you it was a modern temple). The fountain display was fine, the water and lights were choreographed to Indian music so we did not really understand it. Still, we enjoyed it, it whole show, water and all.

After all that, we were semi-drenched and feeling very cold. We finally moved in to the main temple, which was warm! There were many pieces of artwork, a gigantic Buddha in gold, many beautiful statues of the Hindu gods and most wonderfully, no incense! We totally enjoyed the walk in the glorious space of gold, with hundreds of gods in sandstone smiling down on us from the ceiling. We smiled soon after as they informed us it was time for dinner. (Not me, though, I was still dizzy that night of vomiting!)

Dinner was less exciting as the temple, so I will stop here as we returned to the hotel later. Day 7 ends. Or not, as we moved off to Delhi railway station at 3 early in Day 8 morning.