Day 2 – New Delhi

Friday, Nov. 11, 2022 ( Rememberance Day )

Temperature 18 – 28 C ( 64 – 82 F ) , Smog Index 301 ( High )

When we got up, we had another large breakfast due to our lack of restraint from the many choices we were given.

During breakfast, our tour guide Shailendra Singh Rathore, joined us and we had a quick introduction of our tour which would start the following day. After breakfast, Prat ordered an Uber ride and we drove to to the site of Humayun”s Tomb.

Just outside of the wall surrounding the tomb, there was an entrance to Isa Khan’s garden-tomb, where some musicians were in the process of setting up for a concert on the lawn in front of the tomb.

Build in CE 1548, Isa Khan’s garden-tomb precedes Huymayan’s Tomb by two decades and is the culmination of an architectural style used for royal tombs in Delhi during the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties from the early 15th to the early 16th centuries. It is the only surviving octagonal tomb enclosed with walls, mosque, and gateway intact.

A plaque for Huymayun’s Tomb reads:

‘ Hamada Banu Begum, the grieving widow, built Emperor Humayan’s mausoleum, precursor to the Taj Mahal, it stands on a platform 0f 12000 m² and reaches a height of 47 meters. The earliest example of Persian influence in Indian architecture, the tomb has within it over 100 graves, earning the name ‘ Dormitory of the Mughals ‘. Built of rubble masonry, the structure is the first to use red sandstone and white marble in such great quantities. The small canopies on the terrace were originally in glazed blue tiles and the brass finial over the white marble dome is itself, 6 meters high ‘.

The site where the tomb is located, has a large wall surrounding it, with 4 gateways, one in each wall.

The mausoleum is extremely large as can be seen in the following picture with Prat & Bijaya standing in the foreground.

The immense size of the lower building’s footprint can’t be adequately shown on a picture but a side view gives you an idea of how large it is. Each of the indentations of the wall contains a grave.

Although not as large, the upper building is quite big.

Upon entering the center of the structure, the large domed area, gives access to several tombs.

To adequately show the size of the area within the walls, an aerial picture would have to be taken.

When we had seen enough, Prat ordered another Uber ride and we drove to see the government buildings. We couldn’t get close to them for security reasons, so we had a picture taken of us in front of them.

As we exited the area, an auto rickshaw (tuk-tuk) driver offered to give us a ride back to the hotel, and after some negotiation, Prat excepted his offer on our behalf. The back seat was a little tight for the three of us but we managed to safely get back to an area near the hotel.

Bijaya did a little shopping and then we walked back to the hotel for a nice lunch and then a little relaxing time by the pool.

At 6:30 pm, we walked down the street to the Kwality Restaurant Bar. This was an excellent restaurant.

We choose Kwality Channa ( Chicked Peas cooked in secret spices in an overnight process ), Kasturi Kebab ( Boneless chicken thighs marinated with dry fenugreek leaves, ginger garlic and yellow chilli, coated with eggs, cooked on glowing embers of charcoal ), Lachlan Parantha & Rotti ( Naan breads ) and Kwality Kali Dal ( a combination of black lentil cooked overnight in a clay oven ).

The food was excellent and afterwards we went for a little walk. On our way we stopped at a restaurant that was selling ice cream on a stick at a window at the front entrance. The ice cream had pistachios in it and it was a nice topping to a delicious meal.

We had to walk a little further to burn off a few more calories before returning to our hotel for the night.

The following day we would begin our official tour with Gate1 Travel.