Day 3 in Delhi

Saturday morning started off like usual with breakfast at the hotel. Alex was in a meeting and Uncle Kurt was at the gym so I took the time at breakfast to review the India guide book and look for places to go that day. We decided to go to Red Fort and Lodi Gardens and the Lakshmi Temple later in the day if we had time. I was wearing my yellow and pink salwar kameez that day and I thought that I might be blending in a little more by wearing it but I think it may have attracted more attention. While I was sitting in the lobby, waiting for Uncle Kurt, a group of Chinese men that were attending a confrence at the hotel asked me something I couldn't understand because I don't speak Chinese. With them gesturing at the camera, I figured that they wanted me to take a group photo for them with their camera, so I nodded my head. Then before I knew it, they had snapped a picture of me and I realized that they didn't want a picture of themselves. They wanted a picture of me. Not liking the attention so much, I put on my sunglasses and sat in a more isolated, hidden part of the lobby, by the restaurant. When we finally left the hotel, we drove to Red Fort and parked a few blocks away and took a bicycle rickshaw closer to Red Fort. We told the rickshaw biker that we wanted to go to Red Fort and he seemed to understand but when we got closer and stood in front of the fort he asked us if we wanted to take a picture of it so we did and then he gestured for us to get back in the rickshaw. We thought that he was going to bring us closer to the entrance so we could go inside but he must have thought that we just wanted to take a picture of the outside because he brought us back to the car! I noticed while in the rickshaw that a lot of people were staring and I looked down at my outfit to make sure that I was wearing it correctly and it looked like the way that everyone else was wearing it so I wasnt sure why they were staring. Then I noticed that many of the women and girls that were staring, were also smiling and some were waving, so I then concluded that they were just being friendly. We were able to communicate with the rickshaw biker enough to tell him that we wanted to go inside and he brought us to the entrance where we bought our tickets and got in line to go through security. When I approached the woman security gaurd, she looked through my bag and asked me what country I was from. I told her that I was from the U.S. and she said "from the U.S. and wearing traditional clothes? That is so sweet! Thank you!". I realized then that the people were happy that a foreigner was wearing tradtional Indian clothes and I was happy to be honoring their culture! Inside Red Fort, we were looking around and admiring the huge structure and the detail in the architecture and a few women came up to me and said hello and smiled. I would have loved to stay there and chat with them and try speaking the very little Hindi that I know, but Uncle Kurt was walking further towards another part of the venue and I didn't want to get seperated from him, so I just smiled back and said hello. Red Fort is really big and it is hard to imagine how huge it is unless you go there and see it! We had been looking around for a long time there and still hadn't seen the whole thing! There is so much to take in because every corner has so much detail! I noticed that I was one of the only foreigners there and deffinitly the only foreigner wearing a salwar kameez that I had seen at all since I was in India. At one point, Uncle Kurt and I were still looking around the fort and two girls came up to me and said hello and shook hands with me. They asked if they could take a picture with me so I agreed and they took the picture and Uncle Kurt took a picture of me with them on my camera. Then they asked what country I was from and how old I was. Knowing that they were just interested because they were not used to seeing foreigners made me not mind the attention from other people as much and I didn't feel so awkward, like something was wrong with me. Uncle Kurt and I wanted to see the whole fort but we also wanted time to see Lodi Gardens, so we left the fort and got back in the car and drove to the gardens where we spent most of the rest of the day! Before going to the gardens, we took a rickshaw ride back to the hotel car where our driver was. We paid the rickshaw biker but then the driver who had parked next to a expensive, tourist targeting shop told us that the shop had already paid him and he wanted us to go in the shop. We had clearly told him before that we didn't want to visit any stores but we had a problem with that before Red Fort also. He wanted us to go see the India gate and the president's house, probably because he knew of a store there that would give him a deal if he brought us there. We told him that we had already seen it and we didn't want to go there but he brought us anyways but then we told him to turn around and bring us to Red Fort. We didn't want to do any shopping and wanted to go straight to Lodi Gardens but the driver insisted that we go in the shop because they had paid for the rickshaw so to get out of an akward situation with the driver and the shop owner we agreed to go in and look around quickly, so reluctantly, we went into the store for literaly, a minute. There was obviously an agreement made with the driver and the shop owner while we were at the fort. If we had bought anything from the store, the driver would have gotten a cut from what we had purchased. You can expect that this would happen when you hire an independant driver but this one worked for the hotel and was not supposed to be affiliated with shops offering to make deals like that. When we got there, we wanted to buy some bottled water so Uncle Kurt gave me the money to buy it from the street vendor and I was able to succsesfully purchase two bottles of water, using only Hindi! I know it's not much of an acomplishment but I couldn't have done it a year ago! When we first started exploring the gardens, we were looking at the bonsai trees and were a little bit dissapointed. The trees didn't look very well taken care of and some of the plants around the stone walls were dry and sparse. I had had high hopes for the gardens so I was a little bit shocked and I thought that I might not want to see the rest of the gardens but I am glad we did! When we walked a little bit further in, it was such a relief to see all of the beautiful flowers and the perfectly kept grass! The flowers were so bright and there were a ton of them! The gardens were so peacefull and there were people relaxing and kids running around and playing in the grass and other people, peacefully walking around the gardens on the stone paths. The garden is home to two tombs and two mosques that you can go inside and admire the stuctures and the views of the garden from up on the walls. The fragrance of the garden was a very nice change from the smells of the city streets. From the garden, you could no longer here the screetching breaks or beeping horns from the road. India has squirells like the U.S. but in India the squirrels are so tiny! They are the size of chipmunks! There were a lot of squirrels and birds in Lodi Gardens! For a squirrel, Lodi gardens must be the ultimate paradise! While walking in the garden, we saw the same little girl that we had seen at the India gate and on the street near our hotel. She was wearing the same clothes, ful length boy's pants, a red sweater, and a blue baseball cap that had a string with a ball attatched to it that she would swing around by bobbing her head while doing cartwheels, walkovers, and other cirus-like performances. There was also a boy nearby the time we saw her near the hotel and at the gardens that had face paint on and was playing music with a makeshift drum. The children looked a little bit alike so I am thinking that they may have been brother and sister. In Delhi, children can get free schooling and books but sometimes poor families decide not to send their children to school because they make more money by begging or street performing. We gave the kids a few boxes of raisins, granola bars, and lolipops. When we saw her the second time, on the way back from the India gate, she had one of the lollipops we had given her in her mouth while doing her performances. It worried me a little that she might choke on it but then I started to think that if she could make money and survive on the streets alone, then she could handle not choking on a lollipop. It was really sad to think that she was out on the street trying to make money for her family when she could be in school, learning things that would help her get a job as an adult and escape poverty. If I had enough money, I would offer to cover a family's living expences if they promised to send their children to school. So many children don't even have the chance to get an education so it makes me wonder why so many people want to drop out of high school and not even finish when they have the chance to! We often think of school as a burden but in reality, it is a privelege that can make or break our futures! A couple of times at Lodi Gardens I was asked if I could be in a photo with someone and one time Uncle Kurt and I had our pictures taken with a whole family! That night, we went out to dinner at restaraunt with live music but we got there early and we still had over half an hour before our reservation. There were some stores nearby, in the same building so we looked around some of them. I was really cold because I am not used to the temperature drop at night so we went into a shop, looking to buy a shawl for warmth and we were being shown the more expensive ones of course but I told them that I wanted the cheapest one and they showed me a blue shawl for 150 rupees which is less than 4 dollars. It was nice and warm during dinner that night so I am glad that I got it! While Uncle Kurt was looking at some art to buy for his house, I was walking around and looking in the other shop windows and I was getting bored so I decided to peek into a jewelery store, forgetting that in India, it's unlikely to go look around a store and leave without someone trying to sell you everything! The store was only one small room with glass walls facing the other stores so I could see Uncle Kurt and Alex if they left the art store. There were two jewelery sellers in the store and the insisted that I sit down and look at some jewelery. The woman was wearing a western style business suit and she complimented me on my outfit and asked me how long I had been living in Delhi, so she was shocked when I told her that I had only been there for 4 days! She said that she had moved to Delhi a year and a half ago from China. They put out a bunch of bracelets on the table and I didn't feel like I wanted to buy anything. They were trying to persuade me to buy something with my birthstone in it but I was more interested in buying something for my mom and sister if I were to buy anything at all. Uncle Kurt was still looking at art and I figured that if looking at art took him as long as looking at rugs, than I would have quite a bit of time on my hands. So I asked them what they had for May birthstones. They showed me some items with emeralds but they were too expensive. Then I learned that for each birthmonth there is also a semi-precious stone in adition to the traditional, fancier stones, like rubies and garnets. So the stone for the month of May is peridot. They showed me a cute, little bracelet, with light greet peridots on an elastic string. I thought that is was pretty but the tag was marked as 750 rupees and that was 750 rupees that I hadn't been planning on spending. Then without even asking about the price, the man told me that it was 700 rupees. Still that was too much and I said that I didn't want to buy it, thinking that the price would never go any lower than 600 rupees. But then he said he would sell it for 500 rupees. I was still not convinced because I didn't have much money on me at the moment so I said, again that I did not want to buy it. They seemed to be alright with me not buying anything and they started asking me about what I was doing in India. I told them about my plans to volunteer in schools and the man said that he was very impressed and it was a nice thing to do and he offered me the bracelet again, but this time for 250 rupees. I was shocked at first and began to concider buying the bracelet. I was still a little torn because it was a good price and would look great on the wrist of my little sister but I kept thinking that I should save the money for something else until I was sure that I wanted to get a bracelet for her. I was just about to accept 250 rupees as the price and buy the bracelet and then the woman, out of the blue, said that she would sell it for 200 rupees! I couldn't pass up the great price and I bought the bracelet that came in a little gold, embroidered pouch! So I left the store with a gift for Claire and about 10 minutes to spare before Uncle Kurt was done in the art store. I had considered going into another store, but by then, I didn't have the energy to repeat the "just looking around" again! When the art barganing was done we went to the restaurant and had a lovely dinner with live music. The desert was very good also! Alex and I both got fig ice cream and Uncle Kurt got saffron ice cream. The ice cream wasn't the light and fluffy kind that I was expecting but it was more dense and frozen and was in little rectangular blocks, like it was cut off of a larger block of it. It was delicious but very filling! I was really tired by then and I acctually started to fall asleep on the way back to the hotel!