Greetings from Delhi! We arrived in Delhi early morning on Friday and were surpisingly not too jet lagged. We were greeted by an interesting fellow who could not hold back on the overly sugar coated, somewhat tacky compliaments.....I look like a hollywood star and azam has a buff body.Apparently people here like to stare and it is not unusal to see grown men walking aroud with their pinkies intertwined! Azam and I were amazed at how pervasive this is in Lodhi park. There were a lot of dates going on and then there were groups of single, ugly men hangng out! Azam and I were followed constantly. Anyways, the first day was spent doing the textbook tours of old and new delhi. There is quite a gap in status and aura of the two cities. Old Delhi is...well..OLD. Houses are close together, the roads are so narrow that roofs of houses across from each other are touching. We saw some conventional businesses which were made up dentistry being practiced on curbside, on the ground, ear wax cleaners who walkd around with a towel, palmsists and so on. We saw Chandni Chok from the car, and it was chaotic and crowded just like the hindi films. New Delhi is quite different in that roads are spaced out, it's clean, green and developed. We saw Humayun's tomb(aka as the Poor man's Taj Mahal ), the Red Fort( which is what the pic is) Gandhi's cremation site, Qutub Minar( leans towards one side like the Tower of Pisa), drove by parliament and governemnt buildings.We drove on a street called Raj Pat which means gateway of the kings and then Jan Pat which is the people's road. We discovered that Rajan is where the king and people meet!! Anyways we also saw the monument India Gate and had lunch at Moti Mahal. Very yummy Moghlai cuisine.Now for the shopping stories. I must say i found some lovely sarees at a store called Frontier. Yes, Sophia there is a frontier in India and it is awesome!! Then we went to Karol Bagh which is market. It was ok, busy crowded, and dusty. We went to Lodhi gardens (as i mentioned earlier) and had lunch at Lodhi restaurant. It was very nice and posh.. Now the story of BayIman starts.
The tour guide took us to a Kashimiri carpet store and we got duped into buying a rug for wayyy more than it should be. We were told a sob story of how a Kashmiri family spent 5 months making the rug and that it is a lost art that they are trying to preserve. So we buy the rug and come back to our hotel. Guess what we see at a store in the mall....yes that same bloody rug for less than half the price!! The nice man in the shop looked at our receipt and told us that we got taken advantage of. Drivers and tour guides get commissions when they bring shmucks likes us. We are going back tomorrow to raise hell...and get our $$ back on visa. If they are difficult, Azam will use his legal expertise (ya right, if it's not TAX) and contact the Canadian Embassy..that should scare them.
So after a day of intense heat and shopping and more heat, we came to the hotel and rested. Then got dressed up for dinner at the hotel. The restuarnt at the hotel was very nice and had a live gazal band. We requested "Aaj Mausam bada Bayiman hai.... by Mohd Raf", Papa: the one we heard with you. They sang it for us a couple of times.
We are now going to head to the diso at the hotel as it is Bollywood night and Azam has practiced his dancing skills at family weddings and will now make some use of these skills.
Soph, my hair has been amazingly cooperative and so has my husband. hahahhah!
Love to all.
acha to hum chalte hai...
Love Azam and Saima
