New Delhi

It has been a fun, but busy few days in Delhi!

On Tuesday Abhishek took us to Sarojini Nagar which is a place for street shopping. The area was packed with vendors and people. Here is Veer, Abhishek, and I in the middle of it all:

After shopping for a bit, we visted a cultural themed center called Kingdom of Dreams. It is sort of a cross between the Epcot center and a Las Vegas hotel, with different area's representing different regions of india. Here we tasted food, visited themed shops, and watched "street" performances from areas all over the country. Here I am driving the guys on a rickshaw in the Delhi themed area -- they are terrible tippers!

Here we are on a catwalk -- this is actually inside.

Last night we visited Akshardham temple here in Delhi -- this was one of the highlights of my entire trip. Unfortunately, camera's were not allowed on premise, so I have to show you a picture I found online. The temple is only 7 years old and I think gives the Taj Mahal a run for it's money. On site there was a fountain light show which was better than anything similar I have ever seen before. I wish I had photo's of the diamond, gold, and marble interior -- it really is something.

After the temple we headed over to Delhi Haat which is a craft market. Abhishek's wife Shreya did a great job helping me barter for some goods to bring back home!

Today I was excited to join Abhishek at his work for the morning. His family business manufactures plastic parts for automobiles, things like interior duct work, gas tanks for scooters, and even door panels inside cars. I toured the site and got to see Abhishek in action as he managed this impressive company.

A very nice welcome!

Abhishek outside the factory

After work we headed to a large and famous bizzare, Chandni Chowk. This maze of a place had everything you could ever imagine -- and then some. To get there we decided to take Delhi's 3 month old metro -- this was an experience!

Here is the metro station as we were waiting to get on -- very nice and not crowded at all, right?

This is the station after we got off! We actually got off early because the train was completely packed. When I say completely packed I mean PACKED -- you can see people literally pushing their way onto the train. For the most part people were light hearted about it, which made it better, but we still decided to cut the metro ride short when we saw all these people trying to get on the already jam packed train. India is a place where you have to leave any issues you may have with personal space on the airplane!



And finally, here are some pictures of us in the market after we eventually made it. Note the electrical work.

An actual rickshaw -- I do not envy the job that these guys have to do day in and day out -- biking 2 people around the streets is backbreaking work, all for about 50 cents.