Howdy ya'll!
Its the morning of day 4 of this lil adventure, and I've got a whole bunch of photos and a couple stories already.
The flight from Amsterdam to New Delhi was again uneventful, however once we got off the plane it was go time. 2am my dad and I are rolling into customs and having to go through all that rigamarole. A process involving us going into a line, getting almost to the front, and being told we were in the wrong line. Dang it (x3 times no less). Takeaway lesson - read the signage.
At least it was pretty to look at.
Finally, around 3 we made it out to the taxi area (After a long snafoo involving us not quite understanding how a SIM card works) with a grand total of 5 bags and our two weary selves. I think it was about this time that things set in just how far from Kansas we are.
Heavily armored men on steel pulpits.
80 degree heat with a high humidity.
Wandering dogs and no one to pet them. 🐕
At any rate, we secured a taxi and after a bit of tactful we-know-where-we're-going-I-have-google-maps-open-how-did-you-find-another-dead-end-to-go-down-please-just-take-us-to-our-hotel-ing, we made it to The Pride Plaza Hotel. Where we had to go through a metal detector and have our bags x-rayed again.
But finally we made it, and enjoyed a little gift we'd gotten while flying KLM (the airline) when we'd settled into the room.
Which is/was quite a nice place to do an express course in trying to fight jetlag.
Any which way, the next day we got to meet the groups that we'll be rolling with, which will compose the 2 other Tuk-Tuk teams that'll be our caravan.
Steve Sweeney, Sween
Morrie Trautman, More
Brian Churchill, Church
Kyle Andrews, Kyle
Sween, More, Church, and my dad (Jim) were all in the Lambda Chi Alpha house around the same time during their undergrad at Washington State University, and thus the fraternal connection. Kyle is a current member of LXA, and is part of the ski group Church is part of, and a brave volunteer to come on this route as his teammate.
The day after arrival, we all decided to pile in and see Delhi a bit before we have to take a train to Jaisalmer (leg 3 of our journey). We hired a van, loaded up, and got a small taste of what's to come.
These guys were pushing their cart in 40mph traffic.
A bit of the architecture.
I found an Indian restaurant.
My dad's face for most of the driving.
More or less, the road lines are points of offense to be vigorously ignored, other drivers are combattants, and 2 lanes doesn't mean a damn thing. We regularly saw motorbikes gun it through quickly closing gaps between vans/trucks, bicyclists going down the center of fast roads, and whole families loaded onto single mopeds. We're going to be riding the crazy train soon enough.
Our destination for the day was the Qutub Minar, a world heritage site and location to an incredible layout of ruins and non-ruin stone structures.
The Minar, at a distance.
The structure of what would have been the base of another Minar.
A detail of some of the construction techniques, with a rough foundation of stone/mortar covered with decorative carved sandstone.
The group, posing.
The group, posing with a few other happy tourists that wanted to take a photo with us.
Two towers, one slightly younger than the other it supports.
The Iron Pillar, set up around 400AD that features old Sanskrit inscription.
Part of the surrounding ruins, showing the care of carving and architecture.
Overall it was quite a sight, and it was good to get out in the sun for more than 20 minutes. We had lunch at our drivers recommend spot, and got to enjoy a good helping of curry and naan. And with that we wrapped up our day tour of Delhi and went back to rest.
After a couple naps, a few gin and tonics, a great dinner, and an even better night's sleep, I'm all caught up. We'll see what's in store for the next leg of the journey to Jaisalmer.
Until then, cheers!
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