Thursday 20/3/2014
Old Delhi Sightseeing

Today we have visited several attractions in Delhi, firstly the India Gate which is a memorial to all of the fallen soldiers of the First World War, Pakistani War in 1971, and the Afghanistan War. 

Next we went to the Red Fort, Jama Mosque, and the Ghandi Samadhi, where Ghandi was cremated and it  has an ever burning flame in remembrance of him.

We walked between the Red Fort and the Jama Mosque through the heart of Delhi's markets and what an experience, stalls with everything you could imagine, people of all walks of life, smells , filth, people trying to sell us their wares in sometimes a very intimidating manner. Monkeys, goats, horses being ridden through the market, tuk tuks, bicycles, hand pushed carts brimming with all manner of things. The whole experience was mind blowing.

Friday 21/3/2014

We headed to the Swaminarayan Akshardham temple, amazing. Its a new Hindu temple only about 10 years old. It tells the story of the Gurus over the years. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs, and there was very high security getting in.

The temple was elaborate in its carvings both inside and out, and took five years to build. I particularly liked the carvings of the 148 carved elephants, which were all different and intermingled with people and other animals of India. The inside main dome was decorated with precious and semi- precious jewels, just beautiful. The grounds were immaculate which is a complete contrast to what you see outside the grounds. But that is India in a nutshell a complete contrast in ever way.