Lori is here!! a visit to Qtab Minar and Dilli Haat

YAY!! Somebody loves me!! Enough to come all the way to India! Lori Clancy, who now lives in Spokane, but whom I have know since we first moved to DesMoines way back in 1997, decided to come and experience "Incredible India". You may have to ask her if it matched up the hype! (She told me when people say "did you have fun in India?" she says "...I don't know that FUN is the right word...") But we tried to show her some amazing, fascinating, bizarre stuff, anyway. (FYI she has 6 kids but most notably, her son Jeffrey is Isaac's long-time buddy, and Kiersten and Alex have also been friends since they were in preschool together.)
I was at the airport to pick her up, and wanted a photo, but I was just one of hundreds cramming up to the rails to see the people getting off the plane, so there was no opportunity. I wish I had photos of the airport - it doesn't look much like an "International terminal". But I digress. Lori had a list that I sent a few weeks early, and she did well to bring us some staples...cake mix, hair colour, spaghetti, tortillas, baked beans, marshmallows, mosquito spray, tortellini, Miracle Whip, croutons, and printer cartridges. You know, more of the essentials of life. She was severely jet-lagged, of course, so we went immediately for facials. (A well-known remedy for jet-lag!) Before I came here, I had never had one. I don't know how they are in the US but a facial here is not all I hoped for, but then, what do you want for $6, right? They cream, buff, steam, massage, cream some more. I think we got pedicures, too, which I love. More on the salon in another blog. We had a fairly relaxed schedule while she was here - we went somewhere one day, then stayed home one day, then went somewhere, etc etc. It seemed to work good. She did NOT get sick, so that is very good. We kicked Alex out of her room (the nicest room with the largest bathroom) so Lori could have it. The first place we went, to ease her into India, was to Delhi to Qtub Minar. I had been already, but without Randy and the kids, so we all went. Qtub Minar is a Muslim site, with a tower (the Minar) that in this case is 72.5 metres tall. You used to be able to go up in it, (all 379 steps) until recently when people were throwing themselves off the top a bit too frequently. (Suicide is VERY common here.) It is most noteworthy for the 7.2 metre iron pillar, known to be erected in the 4th or 5th century as part of a Vishnu temple and with NO rust at all after 1500 years. No one can explain this. It is carved all over with Sanskrit inscriptions. There is also a hall of pillars - this we found similar to things we saw in Mexico, at Chichen Itza - rows and rows of hundreds of intricately carved pillars. I love that - the amount of work is so overwhelming, and it is so beautiful.

Of course, there are many buildings on the site, including a mosque, and a tomb. And amazingly, some very nice lawns!





This is the 24 metre tall ruins of a really big idea - another tower that would have dwarved the Qtub Minar - the plans were for it to be twice as tall. Only problem was that the king building it died, so it never got completed. These photos are in the tomb area, so pretty with all the carvings and those gorgeous arches. Isaac is playing Indiana Jones here, hoping to discover a secret entrance, or something.

And then there is a hill, so we must roll down it.


This is a funny one !

I don't know, am I too easily impressed? I love this stuff - 800 years old and still standing. I am constantly blown away but what those guys did with no heavy equipment and primitive tools. Of course, they had elephants, and that's a lotta horsepower!!




So, when we left Qtub Minar we headed to Dilli Haat, which roughly translated means Delhi Market. I have probably mentioned it before - you pay 10 rupees to get in (25 cents which keeps beggars out) and there are booths which are rented out to vendors from all over India, on a rotating basis, so each time you go, the stuff is different.

The prices are higher, and the people are usually foreign, but it is a nice way to start out shopping here - it is clean, quiet, not threatening. And there is food. We ate garlic and butter naan bread (my absolute favorite Indian food - but it's a short list) and had kulfi for dessert. Kulfi is a pistachio flavoured ice-cream thing on a stick. The kids and I love it, Randy not so much.

We bought a few things, a beaded door curtain for Kiersten, and a GORGEOUS all-over embroidered jacket for Lori among others. This is a great time of year to visit India - hot but not intolerable.

Next stop - the fabric market!