Second Day in Delhi

 

    The first thing I did in the morning (this was Thursday, Jan 26) was splurge and book a room for my second night in Delhi in a better hotel than the dismal place I woke up in. This was the view out the window, to give you some sense of the place:

    I got an early check in at the new place, the LaLit, and tuk-tuk'd it over and got set up. With my late return the previous night, and the need to recuperate, I finally got out to explore about 1 in the afternoon. I wanted to walk, so decided I was going to see Humayun's Tomb, about 6 miles away.

    I think this is a type of banyan tree? There are a lot of them in India:

    And all the well-fed, good-luck pigeons:

    Today was Republic Day in India, a day celebrating India's start as an independent state. There were big parades in the wide boulevards in New Delhi, but I think because India is so paranoid about terrorism and disruption, they seem to limit the viewing of the parade to a few tens of thousands of the millions living in Delhi. President Modi spoke there, and there were big displays of military might, etc., but I (and most of Delhians) couldn't see that in person.

    By the time I was walking through the India Gate (Delhi's version of the Arc de Triumph) area mid-afternoon where the parades had been in the morning, the pomp and the president were gone, and all the plebeians were thronging to the area for...what? It was kind of strange, as there really wasn't much of anything going on or on display. There were some floral displays and some tanks and military gear that was getting shipped out, but thousands were milling about, and I cut a path through them on my quest to see Humayun's Tomb.

    And here's the selfie of the day:

    Farther along, in a commercial area, I stopped at a bookstore and bought some airplane reading material:

...watched some street cricket:

...and stopped by the convenient men-only, street-side, open air comfort station:

    It was getting close to 4:30, and I thought they closed Humayun's Tomb around sunset, so I decided to cave in and get an auto rickshaw. Maybe I was still just too exhausted to think straight, but I skipped my new rule about getting everything nailed down (where we're going, how much is it going to cost) before getting into a cab or a tuk-tuk. The driver of the tuk-tuk I hailed just gestured to get in, after I said where i wanted to go and he said "one hundred [rupees]". Get in! So I did.

    We only went about a block before he pulls over next to another driver and talks to him a bit. The second driver, with limited English, said that my driver didn't speak any English. When I told him where I wanted to go, drive #2 said oh, it's closed now and I know a better place to go, etc., etc. I said no, I don't care I just want to go there. I didn't quite understand anything, but driver #1 wasn't going to take me to Humayun's Tomb, so I got out of the tuk-tuk and gave him 100 rupees. He wouldn't take it, and said, "two hundred!" I said no, you said 100. This went on a little while, and I finally walked away. 

    They both followed me, and I ended up giving him the 100 rupees, which was still more than I should have for not taking me where I wanted to go. Anyway, I finally got there, it WAS open, and here it is:

    Humayun was the one who built the massive Purana Qila fort that I saw on my first short day in Delhi on Tuesday.

    They did end up closing it around sunset, so I didn't get a lot of time there, but that closed out my shortened day of sightseeing. It was really a transition day. 

    I had an uneventful tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel. If anyone wants to experience three more minutes of tuk-tuk action (including a bonus sighting of four-on-a-scooter), here it is:

    Anyway, it was back to the hotel, do some laundry, and turn in early: