It turns out that Amy has a lot in common with our new friend and host, Janis. We both clicked with her immediately and felt like we had known her for years. She is definitely strong-willed and had all these great plans for us, which was wonderful because our brains were shot and recovering from our first several weeks in India.
Janis was adamant about us seeing several things in India, one of which was Wal-Mart. They changed their name to Easy Day for the Indian market, but the signs and the way the store is set up is exactly the same as an American Wal-Mart store. It was kinda creepy. The one nice thing is that there is a way better selection of what we would consider to be “ethnic foods,” and they have instant coffee, peanut butter, and Gatorade powder, which would later prove to be critical grocery items that are very hard to find. So we guiltily picked up some grocery items and made our way out of there, hoping that we weren’t contributing to the destruction of local family
businesses. But peanut butter cannot be passed up when you're overseas. You never know when there won't be safe food around, or there may be no food at all, so peanut butter is a life saver.
Janis and her daughter, Sophia, also took us to Chhatarpur Temple. One day back in the 70’s, this guy started building temples in a suburb of Delhi called Chhatarpur. For whatever reason, once he finished one, he started another, then another, and another, and now there are over 20 temples together in a complex called Chhatarpur
Mandir, and you can find your favorite Hindu deity in one or several of these temples. They are massive. And talk about ornate: one Shiva temple we visited had an entire room covered in silver plate, with incredibly detailed friezes and other designs all over the walls, ceiling, railings, and doors. Other parts of the temple were entirely
made of carved white marble, and it simply boggles the mind to think about how much time, money, and work went into crafting these temples. We visited one Shiva temple, then we drove past a host of temples
dedicated to Durga, Hanuman, and other major Hindu deities. It was one of the coolest things we've seen.
The next day we decided to take the HOHO bus (weird name, I know, but is stands for "Hop on, Hop off"). We usually don't do these bus tours, but Delhi is so massive and crazy, that it seemed like the best way to see the sights. We saw several important monuments, but didn't end up going in too many, due to time constraints and the incredibly pricey foreign tourist entrance fees. The one place we had to see, was the Baha'i Lotus Temple. However, on our way there, a sudden rain storm started and completely flooded the streets. Traffic stopped and the waters raged. We were thankful to be safe and dry inside the bus. The water was up to the doors of cars, and getting higher. Just as we're peering outside, marveling at the massive amount of water, we see this group of young kids - maybe 5-8 years old - turning this street water into a pool. They started swimming around, dunking their heads, laughing and splashing around. We were horrified! The water was so unimaginably dirty. All the unmentionable and unknown things that coat the streets were now freely floating around, creating a dark brown mini-sea. Just thinking about it makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. To each his own, I guess! So, unfortunately, we didn't make it to the Lotus Temple and spent the rest of the day sitting on the bus. We planned to catch the Lotus Temple when we returned to Delhi in a few weeks.
We were happy to finally get back to Janis' house, where we could lounge around, hang with Sophia, and eat some mind-blowing Indian dishes. Rob had a good time hanging with Janis' husband Micky, talking politics over a few glasses of Scotch. We would have been content to stay much longer! But we had a date with Buddha that we couldn't pass up, so we got ready to do an overnight train ride up North. We rearranged our travel gear so as to leave our non-essentials with Janis and free up space in our backpacks for more souvenirs, then we bid our new friends farewell for a few weeks.
Janis was adamant about us seeing several things in India, one of which was Wal-Mart. They changed their name to Easy Day for the Indian market, but the signs and the way the store is set up is exactly the same as an American Wal-Mart store. It was kinda creepy. The one nice thing is that there is a way better selection of what we would consider to be “ethnic foods,” and they have instant coffee, peanut butter, and Gatorade powder, which would later prove to be critical grocery items that are very hard to find. So we guiltily picked up some grocery items and made our way out of there, hoping that we weren’t contributing to the destruction of local family
businesses. But peanut butter cannot be passed up when you're overseas. You never know when there won't be safe food around, or there may be no food at all, so peanut butter is a life saver.
Janis and her daughter, Sophia, also took us to Chhatarpur Temple. One day back in the 70’s, this guy started building temples in a suburb of Delhi called Chhatarpur. For whatever reason, once he finished one, he started another, then another, and another, and now there are over 20 temples together in a complex called Chhatarpur
Mandir, and you can find your favorite Hindu deity in one or several of these temples. They are massive. And talk about ornate: one Shiva temple we visited had an entire room covered in silver plate, with incredibly detailed friezes and other designs all over the walls, ceiling, railings, and doors. Other parts of the temple were entirely
made of carved white marble, and it simply boggles the mind to think about how much time, money, and work went into crafting these temples. We visited one Shiva temple, then we drove past a host of temples
dedicated to Durga, Hanuman, and other major Hindu deities. It was one of the coolest things we've seen.
The next day we decided to take the HOHO bus (weird name, I know, but is stands for "Hop on, Hop off"). We usually don't do these bus tours, but Delhi is so massive and crazy, that it seemed like the best way to see the sights. We saw several important monuments, but didn't end up going in too many, due to time constraints and the incredibly pricey foreign tourist entrance fees. The one place we had to see, was the Baha'i Lotus Temple. However, on our way there, a sudden rain storm started and completely flooded the streets. Traffic stopped and the waters raged. We were thankful to be safe and dry inside the bus. The water was up to the doors of cars, and getting higher. Just as we're peering outside, marveling at the massive amount of water, we see this group of young kids - maybe 5-8 years old - turning this street water into a pool. They started swimming around, dunking their heads, laughing and splashing around. We were horrified! The water was so unimaginably dirty. All the unmentionable and unknown things that coat the streets were now freely floating around, creating a dark brown mini-sea. Just thinking about it makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. To each his own, I guess! So, unfortunately, we didn't make it to the Lotus Temple and spent the rest of the day sitting on the bus. We planned to catch the Lotus Temple when we returned to Delhi in a few weeks.
We were happy to finally get back to Janis' house, where we could lounge around, hang with Sophia, and eat some mind-blowing Indian dishes. Rob had a good time hanging with Janis' husband Micky, talking politics over a few glasses of Scotch. We would have been content to stay much longer! But we had a date with Buddha that we couldn't pass up, so we got ready to do an overnight train ride up North. We rearranged our travel gear so as to leave our non-essentials with Janis and free up space in our backpacks for more souvenirs, then we bid our new friends farewell for a few weeks.
