We were up at 5:00 am for an early breakfast and on to our buses for an early morning visit to Old Delhi (New Delhi generally refers to the administrative center built by the British to govern their colony). The original capital of India was built by Shah Jahan after the death of his wife. He wished to move the capital of Mughal India from Agra which held too many memories of his dead wife. He also wished to build a great planned cities like those that he had seen in Persia.
I have yet to talk about the traffic in India and particularly in Delhi but now I must. A road marked for 3 lanes of traffic often has as many as 6 lanes of actual traffic. It is not unusual to look out the window of your bus to see a raging torrent of cars, buses, tuck tucks (small 3 wheeled vehicles most often used as cabs, motor scooters and motorcycles. Nor is it unusual to see vehicles making their way the wrong way down a road or on the wrong side. At times the side walk simply becomes another lane. Then, at times, you look out to see a cow or bison ambling along in traffic or standing in the middle of the street trying to decide which current of traffic to join. It is amazing that anyone can get anywhere … but they do …
Our first stop in Old Delhi was a line of rickshaws. We transferred from our bus to bicycle powered rickshaws because the streets of Old Delhi are too narrow for the bus. After we boarded our rickshaws, we took off on a wild ride through the narrow streets past shops and homes to the walls of the Old Fort. We also saw the Grand Mosque but only from afar and while moving.
Returning to our buses, we drove to Mahatma Gandhi’ s mausoleum.
Then we were whisked off to the airport where we sat around for a couple of hours. Finally we took off for our flight to Mumbai (Bombay). The flight was fairly short but quite spectacular. If you had a window seat, you were treated to a landscape of high mountains and plains on great plateaus that fell off at high cliffs. It really was worth seeing.
In Mumbai we again boarded buses for a quick ‘orientation’ drive through the city before returning us to the Pacific Princess. Unfortunately, our guide didn’t seem to be interested in telling us what we were passing or what we could see. Mostly he told us his opinion on the political relationships between India and Pakistan and Britain. We were scheduled to stop at the Gate to India but we didn’t. We did see it out the window. We also passed the Victoria Train Station but I can’t say much more.
We were finally returned to the ship and got back on board. It was a quick trip through India and we didn’t get much time to sleep but it was really worthwhile …
