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Day Two of Delhi, India

Today was my last full day in Delhi before heading to Gurgaon for the work week. I had organized a day trip to see the Taj Mahal; however, after talking with a Googler who went on the trip on Saturday, we decided to postpone the trip. The drive is only suppose to be 3.5-4 hours; however, it took 5.5 hours each way! Not to mention, the temperature was 115 degrees and you had to wait in line for 2 hours to get in! The unanimous vote was to go to the Taj Mahal in the fall and instead do a tour of Old Delhi.

So, we booked a tour guide through the hotel and spent the day traveling throughout Delhi. I highly recommend booking our tour guide, Sunil. He was fantastic and took to all kinds of amazing places throughout Delhi. If anyone is plan a trip to Delhi and would like a tour guide, we all recommend Sunil. You can email him at sunil_59@hotmail.com or can reach him by phone at +91 9810179026.

The first area we visited were the government buildings and drove past India's version of the Arc de Triomph, which is a memorial for the Indians who died during WWI.
Delhi's Arc de Triomph in the distance

Next, we headed to Ghandi's house where he spent the last 144 days of his life and was ultimately killed in the garden. It was pretty incredible to see his bedroom, meeting room, and mediation area, as well as where he conducted his prayer groups in the garden. The house has been turned into a museum and has so much history and personal accounts. Definitely a must see in Delhi!
 Gandhi's bedroom
 Gandhi's meditation room
 Gandhi's meeting room
 Gandhi's last meeting before he died
 The watch Gandhi was wearing when he died. He was shot at 5:10pm and died at 5:17pm. Notice the time of his watch....It also stopped at 5:17pm when Gandhi took his last breath.
 Gandhi's last footsteps before he was shot
 The place where Gandhi was shot
Where Gandhi led his prayer service in the evening

After we visited Gandhi's house, we headed to Sai Babba Temple where our tour guide, Sunil, prays at every day. It was really cool to attend a service with the locals. Hundreds of people pile into the temple with singing, offerings, and prayer. Out of respect, I didn't take any pictures; however, it was truly an amazing experience.

From Sai Babba Temple, we headed to the Sikh Temple where 50,000-70,000 attend services, drink the holy water, and share a meal together. It's absolutely massive and all made of white marble with a gold roof. It's quite impressive!
The Sikh Temple
 We had to have our heads covered before entering the Temple
 People waiting to get in line for the soup kitchen
 People lining up for the service
The singers for the service
 "The Book" on display, which is what the worship
"The Book's" bedroom. Everyone stops by to pray at it.
 Bathing in the holy water. There's a woman only pool a well.
 Large holy water pool
 Googlers in front of the holy water pool
Distributing the holy water to worshipers

After we toured the Temple and pool of holy water, we headed to the Temple's soup kitchen. This was one of the most amazing soup kitchens I have ever seen. The temple feeds between 50,000-70,000 people for free each day. All of the food is prepared for by the volunteers (anyone can show up and help cook) and the cost of the food is covered by donations from worshipers. We got to tour the hall where everyone eats and then got to walk through the kitchen. It was so cool to see!
One group sharing a meal. The next group was lined up outside waiting for these guys to finish.
 
The food made us hungry!
Volunteers preparing the vegetables
 Huge pot of food
 Volunteers preparing the bread
 So much dough!
 Cooking the bread
 We got to stir the pot!
 These adorable kids were hanging out while their mom's cooked :)

After the amazing tour of the Temple and soup kitchen, we headed to lunch at a fabulous Indian restaurant called Pindi. I highly recommend going here if you are in Delhi. It was the best traditional Indian food I've ever had! 
When we finished lunch, we headed back to our car and came across a snake charmer outside of the restaurant. I'm petrified of snakes, so I used my camera lens to take pictures while Sarah and Sam each held the snake...gross! One thing that was sad to hear is that these snakes are captured from the wild and their fangs are taken out. This prevents them from being aggressive and basically sedates them, which is why they can be "charmed." Once the fangs are removed, a snake only lives for about 2.5 months :(
 Snake charmer
Love Sarah's face!

After lunch and the performance by the snake charmer, we headed to Old Delhi to do a tour on a bicycle rickshaw, which was sooooo cool. I definitely recommend doing this as you really get to see the businesses and how people live. 
Jama Masjid, the largest Mosque in Delhi
Samantha and Sunil on the rickshaw
 Look at those powerlines!
View of an alley
 Even more powerlines!
 Street vendor
 Little blurry since we were moving...View of an alley
Wedding attire shop...A whole alley dedicated to wedding clothing!
 Melon cart
Cow in the alley :)

The tour was really fantastic and I highly recommend it! After our tour, we headed back to our hotel where we grabbed a quick bite to eat, did some work, and then treated ourselves to an Indian head massage. Sadly, the massage wasn't that soothing and actually left me extremely sore! The day was an simply amazing and filled with so many cultural experiences and learnings :)

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