I am not much of a blogger, I am not trying to force my life down anyone's throat. Just letting you know. Im pretty sure you dont get tweets from me saying "at the store" five minutes later "left the store". So if you dont like the fact that im blogging. Not my problem. Also comments and blogs do not represent me or my ideas or the ideas of the greater Jacob Seidenberg corporation. Do not try this at home. (it wolnt work, youll need to be in india for most of this stuff).
May 22, 2011
Today we visited four places, starting with the dilli haat, than the Lodhi gardens and went to the kahn market and then the india gate. We got a cab for the whole day, 1000 rupees. I assume people that care will end up looking up the conversion at this point, its about 44 rupees per dollar. The easy way is to think of it as 50 rupees per dollar. Not too bad. Guy smelled pretty bad. Also it was about 100 degrees but very nice out.
First part of the day was breakfast. Starts at 7. Woke up at 530 went to breakfast at 730, nothing there. 830… nothing there. Awkwardly ask the staff. Sit down, watch staff frantically run around looking for food and eventually bring us toast with butter and jam and some juice drink. I think it was mango but not positive. After filling up on toast and butter and being sufficiently awkward we were off…. To wait in the hotel for an extra 30 mins as the taxi was really late. Haha.
The dilli haat was incredible. We were some of the first in line as we thought it opened at 10 as we arrived at 1026. Though it opened at 1030. Entering the dilli haat, we were greeted by each shop owner as “good luck first customer”. Kelly bought a scarf. It was really nice. 850 rupees originally. “Oh I make a special price for you!” “750 rupees” “how about 600” “650 final” “well there is a lot of other stores here” “okay okay 600” BOOM. We walked around some more. Saw some of the same things everywhere, many dogs lying on the ground, being shooed by angry store owners. “Hey you come over here”. There was a food station for every state in india. We did not eat there but the menus were interesting and exciting. “Use me” save the ground. I bought some relatively cheap bracelets for Lena. They are more like fun jewelry. The set of bracelets that run up your arm. Blue and silver with gold sparkles. Can’t go wrong. There were many food and crafts from all over india. Over to the pearl man, he tried to convince us that his pearls were real, I was suspicious. However I did end up buying my second gift there, a sandstone pair of earrings for Lena. Kelly bought a stone necklace. Together they cost 750, I jewed them down to a total of 400. After walking around noticing all the marble sculptures and elephants, wasting many many shopkeepers’ time we left.
On to the Lodhi gardens, it became more and more noticeable how terrible our cab driver smelled. He was a very nice man, I wish I knew his name. He told us several times, but just a bit too difficult for us ignorant Americans. The lodhi gardens were breathtaking. The trees, the water, the birds and the little chipmunks. It was a gorgeous display of old money. However there was more displays of public affection (PDA). It seemed more than pollen was in the air at this garden as couples were seen on every bench, stone wall and side of the water. A lake ran through the garden with gardens in the middle of the lake with fountains. Continuing past the basic nature walk we came to the bada gumbad ( or as we eventually learned it as “big dome” ) The bada gumbad is a collection of the artwork comparing both Islamic and Indian. It was very interesting. A man who we attempted to show no interest in talking to, eventually persuaded us to learn about the bada gumbad. Though his explanation was interesting I have now learned an important lesson in India, its all about the money. Im sure someone could have told me that earlier but I learned firsthand as he expected a tip and the end. It was fairly intertaining as Kelly handed him a single rupee ( equivalent of 1/40 dollar= 2 cents) He was far from pleased so we offered slightly more. Walking away I decided not to talk to any more people. During the tour we saw the bada gumbad, the tomb of the bada gumbad (Sheesh gumbad), the guest house and the mosque of the bada gumbad. Earlier in the Lodhi gardens, I should have learned my lesson then, a man walked up to us, asked if I wanted a pin. I answered politely no and walked away and then he still walked up to us asked us where we were from and said he just wished us happy landing in india and that we should have a good time. He then put a pin on me and asked me to write down my name as someone who was nice enough to talk to him…. I was un aware… kind of.. that at the end he asked for a donation for his blind son or something. No thanks I said as he ripped the pin off me and walked away in disgust. India, what are you going to do. After our tour, we walked around the rest of the gardens obviously pissing off choice few couples macking in the fields. Off we went back in the cab of nasty smells.
Off to the kahn market as we were hungry and running low on water. We walked around the market, Some American stores some Indian stores. We poked into some fruit shops as I wanted to see some of the fruits I am not familiar with, lechi and dragon fruit. Though we didn’t buy, the fruit did smell good. We ended up in a ritzy store, “good earth” the sold everything from clothing to forks to incense, all at exorbitant prices. On the 2nd floor of this store was a restaurant called Latitude 28 degrees. We made a reservation and went on a trip to the ATM. The rest of the market square was somewhat nice, some guy welding stuff, dogs in the street, and random nike stores. Upon getting money we received a call on our Indian phone and were off to the restaurant. I ordered a fruit smoothie as this place seemed pretty legitimate and Kelly just got bottle water. Kelly ordered the special. Kerala pepper chicken with kerala brown rice and bean thoran. It was good, a little spicy, but somewhat bland. Mine was very different. The udon noodles with garlic sesame mint and mushrooms. They did not hold back on the garlic. The dish was delicious. Very pungent and flavorful. I was not over stuffed when I left but simply could not tolerate any more of this voraciously powerful food. Not to give it a bad rap, it was amazing. We both remarked that if we ate food that tasted half that good for the entirety of the trip we would consider ourselves lucky. Now this was not all that cheap of a meal, not too pricy either though. Came out to 800 for me and 700 for Kelly. Worth it. Absolutely worth it. Upon walking outside, the wind picked up, and the clouds moved in as my ears popped. It was going to rain, and storm. I knew it, Kelly knew it, our cabby probably had some idea. We hightailed it to a small shop we had seen before. Sugar and Spice was the name. They had everything nice, from candy to cookies to fajitas. Yes fajitas. At very low prices! I picked up some cookies as we planned on not going out for dinner that night. Very cheap! Kelly had not bought cookies so had paid for her drink, a gatorade, before me. When I went to pay for my cookies and gatorades, the clerk reminded me that I had one local gatoraid and one import. I then realized, local gatorade, local water. No thank you. Kelly changed out her gatorade and we were off to the car. So close to the India gate we had to visit.
Our cabby cruised down the road, pointing out several parliamentary building that reminded us of a DC like situation. How about that. Taking pictures out the window we made a loop down the road where all these buildings lie and made our way to parking in from of the India Gate. IT was huge however we did not get too close to it. The storm was picking up and we wanted to grab a picture and head out. Kelly took my picture and I as went to take hers a group of Indian male teenagers ran up to her and pleaded to take her picture or get in a picture with her. She obliged and her stardom was born. Another woman, us assuming she though Kelly was famous also asked for her picture. I took all the pictures and then the lady took our picture. Pretty funny. We ran back to the cab only to find the cabby missing. Kelly at this point was making the switch from kinda having to go to the bathroom to life and death situation of needing to go to the bathroom. The traffic didn’t help once we finally got in the car. We arrived at the hotel as Kelly jumped out of the car, tried to use the wrong door to the building and then found that our key card was broken. By the time I had paid the driver and gotten upstairs she was still there. I pointed her to the nearest bathroom and went to fix my key. We both passed out, prob needed some extra sleep. Its about 12 midnight here now. 
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