I did get up and check out of that hotel. I went into the street with lots of hotels and started asking around. It was a bit early, so I wasn't having much luck. People still had not checked out and so many places had no vacancies yet. Then, despite my best efforts, a tout attached himself to me. He told me he was with a hotel that just opened. I asked if he really owned the hotel and he said yes. I followed him because I figured I might find somewhere I could stay. But when we got to the hotel I asked them if he worked in the hotel or out on the street. They didn't want to tell me, but I stopped on the stairs until I got an answer. And no, he didn't work for them. I walked out. And I ripped the guy a new one. I suppose it wasn't really fair to the hotel to make them lose out because the tout was a moron and a liar, but that's the way it goes I suppose. Maybe they will stop paying these guys who lie and cheat people as they are “helping” them.
I walked out and into a hotel nearby. They were going to have rooms. I checked in, but I wanted to go out and see things. So they let me leave my bags at reception until a room came ready. Perfect!!
And then I headed out to see what I could see. I had heard from someone that a good place to walk was along a road called Chandni Chowk, from the Red Fort to Jama Masjid. These were two of three World Heritage Sites in Delhi. That sounded like a place to start. I asked at the desk how to get there and headed out to catch a subway. I got to the old Delhi railway station and looked around. I had forgotten to get a map at the hotel, so I was flying blind. I keep making these dumb little mistakes. Sometimes I can wander around and find the things that I want, but not usually in a big city like Delhi.
I asked a couple of people which direction I should head in, but I only got kind of vague gestures of direction. Not overly helpful. So I went to a book stand and they had a map. And I was on my way. I first headed to try and find the Jama Masjid. This is supposed to be a fairly impressive mosque with lots of great architecture. It is still a working mosque as well, so I had to arrive at a good time when prayers were not in progress. I would be allowed in for free, but if I had a camera (and I do), that would cost me 200 rupees. They always seem to get you in these places somehow.
Well, I ended up on a street that ended up at the Red Fort, Delhi's premier World Heritage Site. But I was getting tired of paying 250 rupees for each World Heritage Site, and I had been to the Agra Fort, and someone had told me that the Agra Fort and the Red Fort were really quite similar, and it was so hazy in Delhi that day that you really couldn't see too far clearly, and I didn't think that I would want to be in the fort if I couldn't see that far. So I just wandered around the outside. I don't know for sure if I missed out by not going in. I don't feel particularly like my experience has been diminished by not going into the fort. But I will be leaving from Delhi, so if I change my mind, I can go when I come back to the city before I leave India.
The outside is fairly impressive though. I thought at first that it was just a wall with a small fort area that bulged off the front.
Later I realized that what I took as a fortress wall was really the bulk of the fort. It's really big. It could be I'll spring for the ticket when I return to Delhi. And yes, it's red. It was built of red sandstone. But lots of Mughal buildings were built of red sandstone. But the fort comes by its name honestly.
After deciding not to enter the fort, I headed back out to find the mosque, which I was far more intrigued about. I thought I knew where it should be. I don't know if it was the haze, or if it was more hidden than I imagined. It could be a bit of both. But there is supposed to be a minaret on the mosque grounds that gives a good view of the city, so it should be a fairly tall and identifiable structure. So I think the haze must have bee too thick for it to be seen. In any case, looking at the map later, I walked right by without any idea that it was there. That is another place I will have to have a go at when I return to Delhi. But in my passing by, I had a happy accident in return. I ended up an intersection that I had seen on the map that sounded like a good spot to investigate. There was a museum dedicated to Gandhi in Delhi as well. Delhi is the where Gandhi was assassinated (although they refer to in India as “martyred”). I'm not exactly sure where he was killed, it was at some place called Birla House, but I'm not sure yet where that might be. The morbid part of me wants to find the spot to see where it happened. But I found the museum that gave another chronicle of his life. On the museum grounds there is an exact replica of the building where Gandhi lived at the ashram in Ahmedabad. I walked through it again and it was exact. It's kind of weird to walk through the same building twice, but in two different places.
Inside the museum, I was not supposed to take photos, but I couldn't let this picture go by. I'm really not sure they all belong in the same company while others, like fellow Indian Mother Teresa, are absent, but the painting gives some idea of the reverence in which Gandhi is held. They even have in the museum the clothes he was wearing when he was shot. And they point out that the bloodstains are still visible.
The museum is located across the street from where Gandhi's body was cremated, so that was where I headed next. It's quite a nice park actually. There are a number of cremation spots for various people all in the same area. There was a cremation spot for one of the former Indian prime ministers who was also “martyred.” I would like to find out more about some of the people who were important enough to have been cremated on these grounds.
It certainly seemed to be a popular spot to bring school children. While I was there there must have been a couple thousand school children all wandering about, although they didn't seem to be overly impressed with the gravity of what happened there. But then I probably wouldn't have been overly impressed with the meaning of it all at their age either.
By the time I finished with the cremation grounds, it was getting kind of gloomy and starting to get like dusk. It was still only 3:30 though, but the haze was that thick. So I headed back to the hotel area and got some dinner. And then I had the best sleep I have had in a while. The hotel was off the main street and down an alley. And there didn't seem to be any noisy guests. It was really, really nice.
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