Delhi day 1

Our morning began bright and early with a full buffet breakfast of indian and american food including, dragon fruit, papaya, mango yogurt, eggs, French toast, etc. Here we met up with Christine and Kevin, who arrived a day earlier. Our driver, Rampel, met us at the hotel and decided where we should go based on the traffic patterns of the day. Our first stop was Humayan’s Tomb, which is the precursor to the Taj Mahal. It was built by the Emperor Humayan’s grieving widow and holds over 100 graves.

Our next stop was the India gate. This was our first time experiencing blatant stares, people taking photos of us, and vendors following us around. The amount of trash was also a bit overwhelming, making this a fairly quick stop.

We quickly moved on to the buildings of parliament, which were heavily guarded and have quite a population of monkeys. This was our first experience crossing the street, where luckily everyone obeyed the laws while we were making our way across.

By this point we are ready for lunch, but of course, don’t really know where to go. Trusty driver to the rescue! Rampel brought us to Pindi restaurant, where we were not disappointed. Garlic naan, lamb kabab, butter chicken, mutton in spinach and basmati rice, was our first real Indian meal. We got a little nervous when we saw the server pour water from a pitcher into a water bottle and re-seal the bottle “slum dog millionaire style.” But there were many other foreigners in the restaurant with their Indian guides and so far no one has had significant complaints. Here’s hoping!

The next stop was the location of Ghandi’s assassination and his Delhi residence. This was a great exhibit because it wasn’t the coolest, but it was definitely the most informative.

Lastly, we ventured to Dilli Haat, for our first shopping experience at the out door market. Luckily, Asians are gifted negotiators, and therefore we were able to buy gifts without getting completely ripped off. 🙂

Dinner of champions! Spicy Paneer sandwiches from Micky D’s. (Note: Paneer is cheese, NOT chicken, as the packaging suggests.)
Conversation:
Sonya: “Wow this Paneer sandwich is really good, I bet it would sell in the US. People love spicy food.”
James: “Yea maybe”
Lucy: “What is Paneer again?”
Christine: “Cheese”
Lucy: “Sh*t I can’t be eating this I’m lactose intolerant.”
James: “Oh yea, once people found out what this is there is no way they would eat it in the states.”
…major fail!
While too expensive for the average Indian, our meal,(despite not knowing what it was half the time,) still came to about $6.