When we arrived in a Delhi, we thought our hotel was a 5 star Hotel but it looked like a 2 start hotel! The bed was not washed! The room was tiny, there was bird poop on the window, but the good news it they had a flat screen tv!! I thought is was great, until I found out the bed I was sleeping on the (extra bed), was the hardest thing I have slept on in my life. The next day we went to this beautiful guest house called "The tree of life". On trip adviser it has no bad reviews at all! We decided to see for our self and we did, my eyes melted like ice in the middle of the desert. It was the greatest thing to live! Nice beds, tv, wi-fi, balcony, air conditioned, and a great breakfast room with amazing breakfast. As soon as I looked around the place I told my mom that I found my happy place in india! So we settled in the room and had a good night sleep.
The following day, we took a subway to "old delhi" it was not at modern as were we were. We went to see the the "red fort" for a while, the thing was we picked a bad time to go, it was the hottest time of the day, 1:00 pm, it would have been 45-50 degrees. For the first time I was actually sweating from my arm pits, I feld like my dad when he rides his bike home everyday from work ( 12 km ). We looked around for a bit but after 20-30 mins we left to go see the spice market. What I found very interesting was when we wanted to get on a bike rickshore, ten men came up to us try to get us to come into THEIR rickshore. I thought this was hilarious! They were saying," Come, come were you want to go??" I was having so much fun watching my mom talk to them! I was almost on the ground laughing! Any ways after 10 mins of mom arguing we got some one to take us to the spice market, which was the last thing I wanted to do. We looked at all the different spices, including tobaco. I have never seen tobaco in my life but I was surprised to see it sitting in a bag right infront of me! I examined it well, but then I got bored of it and moved on to another spice. The men here don't smoke, instead, they would put tobaco in their mouth and chew on it, then after a while they spit it out. Kind of like gum.
Anyways we took the bike rickshore down an allyway where there were shops all along the side. We did this on a Sunday so it was not busy, if we did this on Monday or a week day we would not be able to move! The roads were terrible, bumpy, windy, and narrow. But we worked our way through it eventially. After we looked at some of the Jain temples, we decided to go to a mall for dinner. The first mall we ended up going to was outside!!!! Literally, no roof no walls! I had the feeling that this was going to be hard to find a mall that didn't have dogs following you all the time. We asked a man that owned a little candy store, he said to walk down ln the street and didn't point which way. My Mom looked at me puzzled, We asked him again and he said," go down that way and its a 5 min walk" this time he pointed. We asked someone who owned a rickshore and he said it was a long way. We hopped in and it ended up being a 12 min drive with no traffic! Must of been 3-5 km. Ya sure 5 min walk. We got to an inside mall and had chicken wraps for dinner. We got back to the guest house and had a good night sleep.
The day after, we just stayed in the guest house all day and watched movies. We were very tired that day and it was my Moms idea surprisingly. I have nothing to say about that day so moving on to the next day. In the morning we got up had breakfast and left to go see a bollywood show. Never seen anything like that in my life!!!!!!!! I am speachless. The light show, the dacing, singing, acrobatics, display, props, costume, better than a James Bond movie. And me, a 12 year old boy saying that, thats how amazing it was. The arcitecture around the theatre was amazing as well!
The next day, we woke up at 4:00 am ready to go to the Taj Mahal, it was a 3 hour drive, my mom wanted to see it at sunrise, but we didin't make it in time. We got to security, with no line up we were able to get through. While we were waiting for a little girl crying and whining, ( the most annoying thing ever ) with her mother and the other daughter, were just standing in the security scanner while this woman behind us desided to push us aside and walk in front of us. I was getting very tired of people pushing us aside and staring at us. I moved over and completly blocked her off. I felt a great power rush come over me. I got my revenge to all the Indians that have cut me off or pushed me to the side! But I though to myself this is ridiculous! Men here don't have any respect for woman, they don't hold the door open for them or anything! I did not want to become one of them. I looked back a her and said sorry. But then she shoved me again!!! I am thinking to myself, "can you hear a world I say??" I just stood there not trying not to move a musle when finally she stopped. "Thank god" I thought to myself. My mom started to get a bit impatient. The women with two kids that were crying and whining were standing in the middle of the security scanner for at least 8 mins. My mom said," Hello???? Can we come past???" I realised that over time, here in india, we have become ruder and ruder!If we stayed any longer we would become one of them. I would be kicked out of school!! NO!! I've got to snap out of this. I did but then my mom started talking. Uh oh. This can't be good! She was trying to get the woman and kids to move. The kids decided to have a melt down right in the middle of the scanner. They moved and we got through. While my mom was saying that she hates how people behave here and the pushing and the shoving, I tuned out I wasn't listing. She says this speech after every security check. I have almost memorised it! Anyway, we got to the gate of the Taj Mahal, and wow. Just wow!
I have never, EVER, seen anything like this before in my life! The beautiful carvings, the fountains, the view from where we were! It can't be real, my eyes were seeing things. It is massive!!! We got closer to take pictures and some guy came up and helped us with photos. He took one of me jumping high and made it look like I was taller that the Taj. After that we went inside the place. I have to admit, the outside is much more apealing than the inside. But it was fine, long hallways, many people, very very hot. After being in this beautiful place we left to a stinky hostpital. ( see my moms blog page ) We also learnt alot about Gandhi and what he did for India. Pretty cool guy. The next day we left early for the air-port, we had a great breakfast and I had my last chai tea for a while. We took a 2 hour flight to Nepal. So exited to see my moms best friend from school!!