We had a tight schedule, as we were due at Gitsy's (a college friend who's from Delhi) parents' house by 1, so we hustled through the New Delhi train station (it seemed like the entire population of 1 billion was there!) toward the metro.
We arrived at the Red Fort, and were pleased to see that there were shops lining the entrance so that Karla could continue to look for her green scarf while Alicia visited the fort (Karla scampered in soon afterwards). Both were successful - Alicia wandered at her leisure, pretending not to speak English to escape those pesky teenaged boys, and Karla found what she was looking for with enough time to see the fort as a brisk clip (we were experienced fort goers by this point).
We headed back to our hotel and picked up our stuff and an autorickshaw to take to the Prasad's house. We were only going to be about 10 minutes late (which is very close to on time) but unfortunately no one we talked to knew where their house was. Luckily, Mrs. Prasad called (she'd been texting Alicia but Alicia canceled her text service for the trip!), and we arrived safely.
The Prasads were wonderful. We had a lovely luncheon with them outdoors at their club, and chattered away with them freely as they stuffed us full of rich Indian cuisine. We definitely weren't used to eating so much. By far the best part was the Indian ice cream - it tasted like frozen masala chai!
They dropped us off at another craft market (we are now experts at browsing), where we wandered for a while before getting a rickshaw to Humayan's Tomb (sp?). Unfortunately, we got there 20 min before closing time, and balked at the price (five dollars each!). We got a glimpse of it from outside the gate (while trying to ask the guard to let us in for five minutes) and figured not seeing it would give us an excuse to come back.
We took a rickshaw back to the Prasad's (not an easy task - they were all trying to overcharge us and laughed at us when we asked them to use the meter!), where we relaxed for a while, before having another full meal, this time home-made. We're not used to this!
Mr. Prasad helped us figure out our flight (which had miraculously changed times to almost an hour earlier from our itinerary...thank goodness we checked before we left!) and called us a cab. We thanked our generous hosts, and headed to the airport.
After checking in, we wandered around, trying to spend our last ruppees (around $3). It was harder than we anticipated, and we left the country with 19 Rs in our pockets. Luckily this is less than $0.50, but we were still disappointed because it could have bought us a pair of earrings or at least another chai! See you in Thailand.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
1 comment:
I MISS YOU GUYS SOOO MUCH! Keep safe! much love!!! Mamma Googs
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