John and I have a leisurely morning. We take the stairs to the lobby, passing one of the hotel staff making toast in the stairwell landing. We meet up with Garima for breakfast at the restaurant/sweet shop next to our hotel. It seems weird without the rest of the group. Garima leaves today for her home town of Jaipur.

John and I head out by subway to see a few more New Delhi sites. The day is cool with intermittent sunny and cloudy periods.

We are barely out of the subway station when a number of tuk tuk drivers come racing towards us. Like, they were down right running. The winner asks where we are going, we negotiate a price of 50 rupees and we head towards our first site.

He stops the tuk tuk and says he will take us to the market first for the same price. We say we just want to go to our site. He keeps insisting. Finally I start to get out and he grudgingly agrees.

When we get to the site he is sulky and says he doesn’t have change for John’s 100 rupee bill hoping we have nothing less. John digs around and finds exact change.  He drives off in a snit.

The sky is overcast but the temperature is perfect for walking around. We pay our admission and enter the Qutab Minar a UNESCO World Heritage Site which is an area of ancient temples, monuments and buildings from numerous periods with the oldest being from the 10th century.

We pick up a guide who shows us his official guide credentials. Whether they were legit or not, who knows. We still agree to his 25 minute orientation tour and I do learn a few things.

The most famous structure in this area is the Qutab Minar, a very tall minaret. You cannot climb it because some people committed suicide by jumping and also one time the electricity inside cut out during a school tour and forty five kids fell off the stairs to their deaths…according to our guide.

Our guide also shows us an area of an ancient Hindu temple with carvings from the Kama Sutra. Another point of interest was the petrified wood beams.

After the tour, John and I explore the parkland and buildings on our own. I sit and feed the friendly chipmunks some of my snacks. A beautiful and peaceful site. I strongly recommend a visit.

 

 

We negotiate for a tuk tuk to our next destination. A 20 year old student  is our driver. Once again shortly after we get started he says he’ll take us to the market for no extra charge. We say no. He begs and says it’s on the way and if we stop for five minutes he will get a benefit from the market for bringing us, that we don’t need to buy anything and the ride would be 50Rs less. Having two student boys of my own, I agree. We stay for exactly five minutes at the big, over-priced store and leave. His tuk tuk runs out of gas on the way to our initial destination and we are transferred to a new driver at no extra cost. But the student still wants the original full price because we didnt buy anything at the market. Obviously his ‘benefit’ was based on us buying something and we’d told him that we would not buy anything. It’s not worth arguing over 50Rs (.90 cents CAD) but lesson learned.

 

 

Hauz Khas Village and its neighbourhood is our next stop.

First we go into the park and see an abundance of dogs and red bottomed monkeys. These monkeys are really aggressive. A lady pulls out a bag of chips and a few come running at her. She throws the bag at them and one of them grabs it and runs away.

 

 

From the park a path leads to an emerald green lake (I think polluted) with garbage floating in it. There’s a big treed island in the middle. I hear a bird-like screeching coming from the trees and after closer examination realize that the trees are filled with the largest sleeping bats that I’ve ever seen. Creepy but fascinating. These are Indian flying fox bats also known as the greater Indian fruit bat. It is one of the largest bats in the world with a wingspan of 1.2 to 1.5 metres.

    

 

A path encircles the lake and above us we can see the village and ruins. However these cannot be accessed from the lake and we must return through the park to the road leading into the village.

The village is small with one main street lined with shops, bars and restaurants. At the end of the street is the entrance to Hauz  Khas archeological site. These ruins from the 14th century were built around the royal water tank called a Hauz Khas (now the lake) which provided water to the city of Siri. Mosques, tombs and a college were constructed here. This is a quiet, picturesque place to spend some time.

While strolling through the area on the way out, coffee addict John has to stop and try Cafe Coffee Day, which is India’s answer to Starbucks. We each had fancy coffees that were very good….and the washroom was fairly clean.

 

 

We catch a tuk tuk to the subway station. I am very clear with the driver that we have no interest in going to a market, we just want to go directly to the subway station. He gets the hint.

We head Into the very packed subway trains, make our connections and get off at our stop. Our final site for the day is to be Akshardham Temple or as our travel mate Paul described it, the Disneyland of temples. It is the world’s largest Hindu Temple and also has a water show, IMAX  explanation movie, cultural boat ride and other attractions.

Unfortunately when we reach street level of the subway station we’re met by torrential rain, thunder and lightening. We wait to see if it gets better…it gets worse. I can see the temple in the distance from the station. So close and yet so far. 

We hop back on the subway. Running back through the rain to our hotel, John stops and shares a dry spot under a store awning with a holy cow.

We make it back to Hotel Perfect and call it a night.

 

Next day we read that the rainfall from the storm was the 2nd highest amount in New Delhi in the last 15 years causing flooding and traffic chaos.

 

 *Qutub Minar Archeological Site – 600Rs    cash or 550Rs with credit card=  $11.50 or $10.50 CAD

   *Hauz Khas Archeological Site – 300Rs cash or 250Rs with credit card= $5.70 or $4.75 CAD