Alice says: Using the guidelines Dan and Greta gave us, Kaila, Ellen, and I (Alice) set out to conquer Delhi. We ambitiously decided to go to the Lotus Temple, or the Baha’i House of Worship, which was located across the entire city from where our hotel was. We found our way to a Metro Station, a bit farther from where we originally intended to go and with many stops along the way to ask directions (and then to get bombarded by men offering us rickshaws to take us to tourist offices…we definitely looked lost). We rode the Metro as far as we could and enjoyed greatly the air-conditioned and women-only cars. We took an auto-rickshaw from the station to the temple, then entered with a big group of Indian tourists. We spent about 10 minutes inside, praying and meditating in the temple. We then went outside and sat by a group of beautiful blue pools to cool down for a bit. We were famous for 15 minutes when 6 groups of Indian families and friends asked to take pictures with us, the white Americans. Ellen got to hold 2 babies, one of which managed to yank a hair off of Kaila’s poor head.
We took an auto-rickshaw from the temple to yet another Metro station, and found our way to Old Delhi, where we’d been the previous day. We had yet to complete almost every task on the scavenger hunt sheet, so we frantically bought some water (first bottled water since we arrived in India; who knew water could taste SO good?) and went to look for a place to buy passport photos. We walked down a very crowded street, and I spotted an old, ratty sign advertising for passport photos. The sketchy guys trying to take pictures of us with their phones were happy to help, pointing us to a dark staircase to the side of a fly-infested and terrible-smelling meat shop. We walked up the stairs to find a bare little office with computer, where a lovely Indian man took our photos and photoshopped a white background around our heads.
We left the passport photo office and walked around a bit, hoping to find postcards or some chai, both items on our list. We found neither, and decided after some exploration (and after seeing a severed donkey head in the middle of the road, which was not the most encouraging sight) to drive back to the hotel to make it back in time for our curfew. We succeeded in getting an auto-rickshaw yet again for a reasonable price, and we got back to the hotel with 30 minutes to spare. Just as we were leaving the rickshaw, Kaila noticed the driver try to give us back some money that we’d left in the back of the rickshaw until he noticed that he was holding 500 rupees, which he then pocketed, claiming it was his. Kaila fervently insisted that the money was in fact our own, but to no avail as the driver started his engine and drove away. Losing 6 dollars never hurt so much until we realized it was actually 10.
Kaila says: Namaste!
Ellen says: BABIES BABIES BABIES!!!