Sunday 5-12 - India Day 3

Happy Mother's Day to all and an overseas happy monther's day to my mom.

Also happy Birthday to my oldest neice, Bella, she turned 7 today.

Today started early with a 7AM wake up and my eagerness for my first Indian breakfast.  They had my fav - Idle and Sambhar, I had plent of this to eat.  I also saw Chole, which I thought was a meal, but found out it was a nothern breakfast dish, I learned something new.  They did not have Puri - bread for Chole - I wanted to compare it with Seema's as she makes this very tasty.  Instead the had Kuchta , which was a fluffy but plain tasting, stil was good with the gravy dishes.  they had the typical eggs, pancake and bacon too.  Again lots of good food, rested a bit for my sightseeing outing.  The taxi was delayed as it had to change its flate tire, so we began a little late.  Anwarul came with the cab on my journey and we met Ashish in Delhi, many sites were very familar, as we past the Akshardam - bad spelling and the Oberi hotel I stayed during my last vist,  We were on to the Lotus temple/  Last trip the sightseeing was on the weekend so there was limited queues, we waited for about 15 mins to get into the temple, then had a lengthy walk, needed to remove our shoes, so I keep my socks on.  We walked up to the temple on a mat, I saw many foot prints as I walked and noticed i was making foot prints too, my feet were wet as the mat was watered due to the temp.  I remove my wet socks.  We lined up to get into the temple and they gave a brief into in Hindi and English, no picutures or talking in the temple.  It was very cool and a unique bulding, we sat for a bit,  then left for some pictures.  While taking pictures, two young kids approached me and asked for a picture, I said not problem.  I stick out a bit as I am so big and fair skinned.  They family appreciated it and the one ran away saying his name was Rohit, i responsed as mine was Jeff.  The kids were happy - it was very strange to me and odd....

We left the temple for the Otob Minor, I thought it was going to be just one tower, but was I wrong, they had a small qeue but no too bad, it was 1PM and getting a little hot, not very sunny so I lucked out a bit here.  We stopped for a couple breaks, but overall very good weather, better than I expected.  The had one completed tower and one completed walk way, the others sites were buiding and beginings of anothe tower and more walkways,  It was similar to the other fort I visited last trip, every turn had a new bulding with unique features,  This was really old and cool. There were three difference attempts to complete these buldings starting the 1700s.  pretty old.

Then we went for dinner in Connaught place, QBE, it was on the third floor, very nice, we had the buffet, and half way through the electicty failed, so it was a candle light meal.  Food was very good and a little more spicier then the hotel, which was good too.  We left by candle light too as nohting was working, there seemd to be a major outage.  This area is known for shopping and eatings.  We looked for some store to get an indian dress but as it was Sunday all were closed.

Then we went to India gate, all the roads to were closed do to some demonistration and lots of police presence.  We got left off, near the park on the India gate and took some close pictures, lots of food, panni puri and ice cream and lots of picnic lunches.  this is the closest I got as last year we were prevented even to get this far.  very nice view.  We travelled around India and all the government offices and officer house, lots of good views, then headed home.  two sighing were golds gym, they are very global now, interesting.  I also saw many american cars - Ford, which was odd, toyota has a bigger presence too, bigger and SUVs are poplular too.  Heading back to the hotel it started to rain, we got some, which was unexpected.  Got to the hotel and rested had dinner and watch the Channi and Ragistan, spelling if off match, which the underdog Ragistain team won in Japur their home town, now updating the blog and heading to bed - good night.

Thanks Anwarul and Ashish for a great day!