Feb 23 - Dehli to HOME
We slept in this morning until 8:30 - well I couldn't sleep after about 6 since we have been getting up so early, my body thought it was time to get up. Once we did finally get up, we went for breakfast in the hotel since it was included and the breakfast was awesome! They actually had pastries that tasted right LOL.
After breakfast we decided to go with Renata and Gustavo on a shopping adventure, so we asked the hotel staff where we could find a market (since the mall nearby wasn't very good according to the group who went last night), so they told us the fastest way to get to the market would be by metro. So off we went, grabbed a tuk tuk and went to the metro station. The metro station was very confusing for us as there were signs everywhere pointing in many directions but we had no idea which direction we needed to travel other than what's top they told us to get off at, so we had to ask for assistance. Once we got to the platform we found the women's only section that the hotel staff told us about (in case we were feeling nervous they said this would be a good choice, but Gustavo would have to ride alone). When we seen how crowded the cars were, we decided to go this way and thank goodness we did. Us ladies were squished into the women's car and Gustavo was crammed in the next car by himself. We had to travel approximately 9 stops which took about 25 minutes. Overall it was a good experience as they had some strange signs up like "no spitting", seating for "differently abled" or "physically challenged and old"LOL.
We arrived at the market place called Connaught Place (CP) and there was a protest going on (not sure for what) so we steered away from that area and found the shops. It was a large outdoor shopping centre in a large circle. They had some trinket shops outside as well and lots of people, so we were happy to explore. We found all our items that we were hunting for and then some guys told us about a bazaar behind these shops that was free of taxes and has lots of souvenirs, etcetera. We didn't go at first but we heard several times from other people saying the same thing, so we decided we would check it out. We were walking behind the shops and not seeing anything like they described and then a young guy approached us and we told him what we were looking for and he pointed us in the right direction and then said he would take us there since he lived nearby and was on his way home anyway. He kept saying no charge as he could see we were hesitant, as nobody does anything for free in India as far as we have seen. So we crossed the road and were making our way farther and farther from the shops and there were some guys ahead of us and then when we crossed the road they somehow ended up behind us shortly thereafter. We all started feeling like something was a little off since we still could not see what was described to us and now there were 5 young guys surrounding us. Gustavo decided to shout to the guy who was leading us that it was too far and we didn't have time to keep walking, to which the guy kept insisting it was only a few minutes more, but we decided to stop and turn around. After walking away for a few minutes, Gustavo looked back and noticed the guys all talking and then walking back in the same direction as us, so the guy who was supposedly going home that way was not really going home after all. We figure that while we were on the busy road we were fine, but they likely would have gotten us to a more quiet road and jumped us for our cameras and purses since we would have been outnumbered. We just figured there should have been more people around if there truly was a bazaar that close to the shops. So thankfully we returned to the shops, stopped in at the Starbucks to use the clean washrooms and headed back to the metro station.
We once again got lost in the metro as we had to get to the opposite side of the tracks to head back and it was also a multi line staton and we didn't know which direction to take. Once we figured it out we boarded our train and it was a nice quiet ride back with barely any people! We got off and went to grab a tuk tuk and when we thought about taking one nearby, some guy came running up waving a stick and yelled at the guy (likely he was trying to steal us from the back of the line instead of waiting his turn), so we headed to the front and got in another tuk tuk, but it was weird as they were all shouting the name of our hotel...
After we got back to the hotel we quickly packed and checked out (we asked for late checkout at 3:00 which worked awesome). We then got onto the tour bus and headed to the temple, the largest Hindu temple in the world! It was a crazy line up and many of the group didn't want to wait in line, but we decided to give it 30 minutes and sees here we were in line. It only took us 45 minutes to get through the line and security and then we toured quickly. It is truly amazing, it is only 8 years old, but took 300 million man hours to build. It is extremely intricate marble carving work, I bought a book since we weren't allowed to take cameras inside the gates.
After this we headed to the airport to check in to our hotel for a few hours. Thankfully it was a nice room with a shower and clean bathroom, etc so we could hang out and repackage our bags and shower and get ready for the long flight home. Eva discovered that she is missing a bag of souvenirs she bought which super sucks as it had gifts for some coworkers and some keychains for me and for gifts for her family and friends. We have no clue where they went as we did sweeps of every hotel we stayed in before leaving. Super sucks!
We are almost ready to go and checkin for our flights!
See you all soon!
Miranda
We slept in this morning until 8:30 - well I couldn't sleep after about 6 since we have been getting up so early, my body thought it was time to get up. Once we did finally get up, we went for breakfast in the hotel since it was included and the breakfast was awesome! They actually had pastries that tasted right LOL.
After breakfast we decided to go with Renata and Gustavo on a shopping adventure, so we asked the hotel staff where we could find a market (since the mall nearby wasn't very good according to the group who went last night), so they told us the fastest way to get to the market would be by metro. So off we went, grabbed a tuk tuk and went to the metro station. The metro station was very confusing for us as there were signs everywhere pointing in many directions but we had no idea which direction we needed to travel other than what's top they told us to get off at, so we had to ask for assistance. Once we got to the platform we found the women's only section that the hotel staff told us about (in case we were feeling nervous they said this would be a good choice, but Gustavo would have to ride alone). When we seen how crowded the cars were, we decided to go this way and thank goodness we did. Us ladies were squished into the women's car and Gustavo was crammed in the next car by himself. We had to travel approximately 9 stops which took about 25 minutes. Overall it was a good experience as they had some strange signs up like "no spitting", seating for "differently abled" or "physically challenged and old"LOL.
We arrived at the market place called Connaught Place (CP) and there was a protest going on (not sure for what) so we steered away from that area and found the shops. It was a large outdoor shopping centre in a large circle. They had some trinket shops outside as well and lots of people, so we were happy to explore. We found all our items that we were hunting for and then some guys told us about a bazaar behind these shops that was free of taxes and has lots of souvenirs, etcetera. We didn't go at first but we heard several times from other people saying the same thing, so we decided we would check it out. We were walking behind the shops and not seeing anything like they described and then a young guy approached us and we told him what we were looking for and he pointed us in the right direction and then said he would take us there since he lived nearby and was on his way home anyway. He kept saying no charge as he could see we were hesitant, as nobody does anything for free in India as far as we have seen. So we crossed the road and were making our way farther and farther from the shops and there were some guys ahead of us and then when we crossed the road they somehow ended up behind us shortly thereafter. We all started feeling like something was a little off since we still could not see what was described to us and now there were 5 young guys surrounding us. Gustavo decided to shout to the guy who was leading us that it was too far and we didn't have time to keep walking, to which the guy kept insisting it was only a few minutes more, but we decided to stop and turn around. After walking away for a few minutes, Gustavo looked back and noticed the guys all talking and then walking back in the same direction as us, so the guy who was supposedly going home that way was not really going home after all. We figure that while we were on the busy road we were fine, but they likely would have gotten us to a more quiet road and jumped us for our cameras and purses since we would have been outnumbered. We just figured there should have been more people around if there truly was a bazaar that close to the shops. So thankfully we returned to the shops, stopped in at the Starbucks to use the clean washrooms and headed back to the metro station.
We once again got lost in the metro as we had to get to the opposite side of the tracks to head back and it was also a multi line staton and we didn't know which direction to take. Once we figured it out we boarded our train and it was a nice quiet ride back with barely any people! We got off and went to grab a tuk tuk and when we thought about taking one nearby, some guy came running up waving a stick and yelled at the guy (likely he was trying to steal us from the back of the line instead of waiting his turn), so we headed to the front and got in another tuk tuk, but it was weird as they were all shouting the name of our hotel...
After we got back to the hotel we quickly packed and checked out (we asked for late checkout at 3:00 which worked awesome). We then got onto the tour bus and headed to the temple, the largest Hindu temple in the world! It was a crazy line up and many of the group didn't want to wait in line, but we decided to give it 30 minutes and sees here we were in line. It only took us 45 minutes to get through the line and security and then we toured quickly. It is truly amazing, it is only 8 years old, but took 300 million man hours to build. It is extremely intricate marble carving work, I bought a book since we weren't allowed to take cameras inside the gates.
After this we headed to the airport to check in to our hotel for a few hours. Thankfully it was a nice room with a shower and clean bathroom, etc so we could hang out and repackage our bags and shower and get ready for the long flight home. Eva discovered that she is missing a bag of souvenirs she bought which super sucks as it had gifts for some coworkers and some keychains for me and for gifts for her family and friends. We have no clue where they went as we did sweeps of every hotel we stayed in before leaving. Super sucks!
We are almost ready to go and checkin for our flights!
See you all soon!
Miranda
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