National Museum of India

The National Museum has a large number of very cool sculptures, paintings, crafts, weapons, armor, and archaeological items like pots, tools etc dating back thousands of years.  I particularly liked the carvings and statues.  Also, they had a several thousand year-old dead guy:

This incredibly intricate gold vessel contains actual relics from the Buddha himself, given to the Indian Government by the Thai Government.  The glass around the vessel made it hard to get a good picture:

And here are a couple more carvings:

And I will leave you with this guy:

Ahh!

India Gate & Rashtrapati Bhavan

After the Tomb, my driver took me down the Raj Path - a long. straight parkway that runs from the President's house (Rashtrapati Bhavan) down to the India Gate, which celebrates their independence and the founding of the Republic.

Here you can see the dome of the Rashtrapati Bhavan on the back right, behind one of the two large Secretariat buildings that flank the Raj Path:

And here is the President's residence, and a view back down the Raj Path to the India Gate from the Governement buildings:

Humayun's Tomb

First stop today was to see the Humayan's Tomb, which is a World Heritage site, and contains several other structures as well.  Humayun was the second Mughal emperor, and this is apparently where one can find him today.  The first thing to check out is Isa Khan's tomb - he was a noble at the court of Sher Shah's.  Here is your first glimpse through a surrounding wall:

And here is Isa Khan's octagonal tomb itself:

Isa is in the large tomb in the middle, and then there is a close-up of the detailed painting on the ceiling of the dome, followed by some detail on the tomb itself:

Next to the tomb is Isa Khan's Mosque, with a detail shot of an inscription inside followed by a view of the tomb from inside the Mosque:

This is the massive West Gate which leads to Humayun's Tomb:

Once through the West Gate, you are treated to this:

Humayun's tomb is a precursor to the Taj Mahal, and stands 47m high, and contains over 100 graves, making it both impressive and creepy.  Next is a shot of the intricately designed dome above the body of Humayun himself which is, of course, beneath the marble - 7 feet down, I was told:

And here's me, with the help of a friendly tourist:

Next post will focus on The India Gate, President's House, and other Gov't buildings.

Shhh. Don't tell Mom...

'Thrilled' was not the feeling that came over me when handed the basket containing a live cobra.  Neither was, 'happy', or, 'relaxed'.  Nonetheless, the poor creature completely ignored me and couldn't take his eyes off his handler, who then promptly tried to shake me down.  I stuck to my guns and didn't back down despite his terrifying companion, and I think we parted ways respectong each other, if not as friends.

Today was an excellent day of site-seeing, thanks to my very friendly and helpful driver Akbar.  He took me to Humayun's Tomb, Rashtrapati Bhavan ( the President's house), the Secretariat Buildings. the Raj Path, India Gate and the National Museum.  He then took me to a great little lunch place:

After some excellent Chicken Tikka and garlic naan Akbar dropped me a the dilli haat market in INA, where I found some cool stuff at good prices.

I will log several posts in order to keep anyone of them from  getting overlong, and will include more photos and details from each of the areas visited today.

Arrival in India

Welcome to India!

This huge flag flies in the middle of a beautiful park at the center of Connaught Circus, a huge, dual-ring of shops built by the British in a decidedly colonial style:

There are shops, a few restaurants and an open air market (several, actually) as you walk around the circle.  I should be able to get some good market pictures later in the week as some of my colleagues have kindly offered to take me to some interesting ones.

My hotel room backs up onto a Hockey stadium, and this is the view from my room:

Though sadly, there are no matches this week while I am here.

The flight over through Dubai was pretty easy, and I thought it was funny that we flew straight across Iraq, except for the jog to the east to conspicuously avoid Bahgdad.  I am glad I arranged a ride to the hotel from the airport last night - and not just because I arrived at 3am local time.  Even at that hour the driving was crazy, even by Boston standards.  Lane markers - and apparently physics - are mere suggestions to be ignored, and we weaved in and out of lorries, tuk-tuks, motorbikes with no lights on, and other cars.  Exhilarating to say the least.

Also, while I was writing this post, this happened outside my window:

I'm sure it's totally safe.  Anyway, all is well, and much more to come.