Wouwoouwhwouwuouowh. Time warp…..back to June 9th!
SUSAN: After finally overcoming our illness in Rishikesh, Dave and I, slightly emaciated but still bouncing with energy and determined to squeeze the last bit of pleasure out of our India adventure, decided to treat ourselves to a “luxury bus” to Delhi rather than our usual 3rd class train booking. Well, we soon discovered that “luxury bus” meant that the seats reclined about 2 inches. Aside from that, the only other luxuries were a broken engine, a lengthy departure delay sitting in the stifling hot bus, a bumpy detour across a river bed and through a wildlife reserve, a second engine breakdown, a sick driver who was taken to a doctor while we waited, a second detour through a rural village, and a final stop in the middle of nowhere, leaving us prey to extortionate rickshaw drivers. All in all, it was worth every rupee for such an all-inclusive package!
Well, tired out, the next day my first plan of action was the sterilized, air-conditioned, refuge of McDonald’s and Café Coffee Day- the ultimate benefit of being in a big city like Delhi! Ahhh… ice cubes made from filtered water. BET rap videos on huge LCD screens. Giant McVeggie Maharaja with cheese. Never before did I realize that such shallow pleasures could suffuse my very soul with nirvana-like joy. Oh India, what have you done to me?
DAVE: Over the next few days, Susan and I prepared ourselves for Russia and Europe by, well, spending rupees as if we were already in Russia and Europe. We treated ourselves to an air-conditioned hotel room, swanky bistros and coffee shops, the latest Indiana Jones (in English!!!) at a movie megaplex, a multi-day shopping spree at the exclusive shops of Connaught Place, and a real luxury bus trip (with AC!) to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.
Our five days in New Delhi were made all the more enjoyable by our newly-acquainted friend Rohit, who we had met at the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
SUSAN: Oh Rohit, Rohit, Rohit. All my misgivings and disillusionment towards this country, accumulated from the many weeks of constantly being lied to and manipulated, seemed to dissolve instantly in his joyous, lighthearted company. What did we not do? We went shopping! And had coffee! And he suggested a beautiful wine bar where he used to go with his French “petit ami”, where Dave and I finally sat on a real couch for the first time in months. We even went to a cowboy bar! We had so much fun.
DAVE: Aaand, most memorably of all, he took us to a 21st century temple complex (complete with a white marble edifice hand-carved by 7,000 workers, animatronic figures, an IMAX theatre, and a boat ride through time). We dubbed it “Indian Disney World”…but that is another story.
Stay tuned for photographs which will hopefully complete the picture, plus more from Russia and the Ukraine!
hehe..nw we r here after revolving widout a reason arnd the road..n nw we r confused as wt all cn we take inside..our wallets,belts,mobiles,cameras,blah blah blah...gosh its a big list of things that we cant carry inside..ask davy he read all that...n thank god susan's lower was till her knees otherwise she had to wait outside..after unlockin the car twice n puttin our stuff inside we finally managed to be inside the temple premices..n there we found a unique thing..the male toilets n the female toilets...gwad one can choose as per his/her wish..i chose the male toilet..i always choose males..hehe..temple is an example of mesmerising piece of architecture..a wonder created by men..after seeing the main temple we moved towards the exhibition the tickets of which we had already bought..n the exhibition was wonderful...we had a choice to listen either in english or in hindi.it comprices of three parts.the frst includes the portrayel of the life of lord swami narayan to whome the temple is dedicated,through the robotic models, beautiful n very realistic environment of huts,trees,water,lakes,jungles,temples created.wow that was awsom..one needs to go to different auditoriums to see different parts of the story..the second part was the most awaited by us...the boat ride..an artificial canal created and a wooden boat to carry us showing the whole history of india 1000s of yrs back..the history of indian medical sciences,architecture,education,astronomy,dances,art,food,agriculture,war,family systems and a lot all sitting on a boat with a live commentry..i cant ever forget that ambience..we for sure wanted to go again n again n if i cud manage i wud hv sat smwhr in between those statues for the whole day...the third part was a movie on the life of lord Swami narayan who wore a sexy piece of cloth that every fashion concious person can envie of...other than the cloth there was mch more to see in the movie..bt unfortunately the microphones of susan n dave dint wrk well..bt i hope they understood the movie..i was missing cyril a lot as i had seen all these things wid him for the frst time..oh cyril i wish u cud be there...so the great exhibition finished n we came out of a dream land..again in between huge pieces of excellent art n architecture..wt happnd aftr akshardham????m gonna post it soon...hey davi n susan..seems as if i hv invaded ur blog...i hope u wont mind...i wud like to write more of our adventures in delhi...cya..