Delhi Time!

Delhi Trip has arrived! We left for Delhi this morning at 4AM!!! Our flight left at 7:20 and we got into Delhi around 10. Northern India is COMPLETELY different from Southern India. Northern India is much more westernized and is definitely more like the India seen in Slumdog Millionaire and Bollywood films. Women here wear jeans and shirts and are not as bound to tradition as women in Southern India. People also don’t drive as crazy here, which is sayin something because driving here is still crazy. Northern India is also not as muggy, which is SUCH a nice relief! It feels great not having your clothes stick to you all day long.
When we arrived in Delhi we met Praveen at the airport. Praveen is a travel and tourist agent that Rising Star works with on a regular basis. He took us on a bus tour of New Delhi. One other difference between Northern and Southern India is how GREEN Northern India is! There are big lawns and trees everywhere and it is really gorgeous. Praveen showed us all the embassy buildings, the President’s building, all the government buildings and other famous landmarks. After driving through New Delhi we headed into Old Delhi. Old Delhi is like nothing I have ever seen before. It is filled with all these dilapidated buildings and tons of people all pushing and weaving and trying to get everywhere. When we got into Old Delhi we all got in pairs and got bicycle rickshaws and drove through the narrow alleys of Old Delhi. It was seriously SO COOL! There are tons of animals and stores and motorbikes and people all milling through these narrow old alleys. It’s seriously awesome. We stopped in the middle of the main market and went into the oldest temple in Old Delhi. We had to take off our shoes (which you basically do everywhere) and wash our hands before we could enter the temple. The temple occupied the second floor of the building and really was beautiful. It is so interesting to see temples from different religions and the things that they find important. After going through the temple we shopped at the market. Shopping at the market was exactly how I pictured shopping in India would be. Anne Marie and I got sari’s at one store and it was really cool. You take off your shoes at the entrance and then walk upstairs where the whole floor is padded and there are just tons of sari’s wall to wall. It was really cool to try one on before I bought it and see how amazing sari’s are.


Getting ready for our bicycle rickshaw


The market in Old Delhi--SO COOL AND CRAZY!

After sari shopping and meeting back up with the group we went to dinner at….Pizza Hut! We all definitely took advantage of the American food in Delhi. After dinner we started on the five hour car ride to Agra where our hotel is and where we would see the Taj Mahal at 5:30AM the next day…apparently the person who planned this trip does not believe in sleeping in. The car ride was uneventful and when we arrived at our UBER FANCY hotel we all basically checked in and then went to sleep. While we were checking in, though, a waiter came up to the whole group and offered us these bright green drinks. I’m always up to try stuff but after one sip I was done. It was one of the grossest things I have ever tasted. It had a minty nasty taste to it that was really sick.


Our swanky hotel--The Jaypee Palace


All of us had bought genie pants so we all traveled to Delhi/Agra in them. Yep. we're that cool.

Well, those are the highlights from the first day in Delhi! More to come on the Taj and shopping in Agra.

Namaste!

P.s. I have TOTALLY missed the kids from Rising Star this weekend! I’m seriously excited to see there little faces on Monday ☺