This section is dedicated to Hasnain and Vikas. Simon got to know Hasnain through http://www.couchsurfing.org/ and met both of them in Delhi. They even took him to an Indian post-wedding reception which Vikas was organizing as an event manager. As you can imagine, it was quite an event but you would have to ask Simon for details.

The British built New Delhi for centuries - not really imagining that they would only use it as the capital of a British colony for a few more years. You can still experience the enormous straight Rajpath (King’s Road) connecting the India gate to the Viceroy’s (today President’s) palace, flanked by the two Secretariat buildings which housed British (today Indian) government offices. The nice thing is that the fancy Mughal gardens behind the President’s palace are open for just a few days in February and March. Once you are through the tight security controls and leave behind your bag, camera and cell phone, you share them with tons of people but you get right to the President’s backdoor.

Quite a different story is the House of Worship (or Lotus temple) set up by the Bahá’í world religion movement as a prayer and meditation place open to all religions. It was built in 1953 and has 9 sides like the other Bahá’í houses of worship set up in Apia (Western Samoa), Sydney (Australia), Kampala (Uganda), Panama City (Panama), Frankfurt (Germany) and Wilmette (USA).

Janta Mantar in Delhi, then the capital of the Mughal empire, is the oldest of a set of unique 18th century observatories constructed by Jai Singh II in the name of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah Rangila. The giant instruments allowed fairly accurate observations e.g. of the apparent solar time and solar declination, altitude and longitude with the naked eye.

Humayun’s tomb was built by his loving wife and grieving widow Hamidu Banu Begum in the 17th century. You can tell by looking at it why it is considered a precursor to the Taj Mahal. It contains 100 graves making it the “dormitory of the Mughals”.

At sunset time we go to Lodi Garden, a really nice park spotted with buildings from the time of the Lodi dynasty in the 15th and 16th century. There are graves, mosques and a nice bridge built under the rule of the Mughal Akbar (this is the guy who built also Fatehpur Sikri). In between you find large trees, flowers, birds, people relaxing on the grass and people walking and jogging for exercise - a good place to conclude our visiting program in Delhi.
After that we have a very nice farewell dinner at Hasnain’s place. We have great food, talk a lot, enjoy ourselves - and miss the last bus to the airport. But in India there is a solution for everything - in this case an auto rickshaw.
Well, this is the end of our 5 month trip - watch out for the epilogue though. It has been a fabulous trip, a lot of fun and a great father and son experience. We both learned a lot at the places that we visited, from the people that we met and from each other.