Delhi

This morning since we were short of time I decided to try out the room service breakfast.  Needless to say I did have plenty to eat.

We quickly did a site inspection of our beautiful hotel after breakfast this morning. Then we walked over to the Trident, Guargon  which is a beautiful hotel with gardens, reflections pools, etc. Here we were greeted with pastries and hot chocolate.





How would you like this for your view out your window







As we travelled on thru Delhi our next stop was the Qutb mosque which was created by the founder of the slave dynasty. It is completely made of red sandstone and marble and is 73 meters high.

 



 

As we continued on our tour of New Delhi we saw many of the majestic boulevards and grand government buildings, so different from Old Delhi where we were yesterday. We saw the India Gate which stands at one end of the Rajpath and the other end is the official residence of India's President.  This is a complex of buildings which mix the Mughal and Western architectural styles.

Then we stopped at the Tomb of Humayun-- a great example of Mughal architecture.  

 

 



Lunch was next on our agenda and we were treated to a beautiful buffet lunch at the
Oberoi New Delhi  hotel. But before lunch we were given a site inspection and there is a small mall attached to this hotel.  Here we found ourselves in this little deli and saw these beautiful pair of shoes and purse--- this was completely edible and made of chocolate. What a surprise!

Onto lunch for one of the best Indian buffets I had on my trip.  I was learning about Indian food as I dined with the general manager who I found out later was a king. He explained to me the different food and I soon knew that I loved the Indian bread.  It was delicious and I was told it is made with clarified butter. Now I understand why I liked it so much.  However I continued to eat it thru the whole trip.

After our wonderful lunch we continued on but this time we were able to do a little shopping.  We went to this little small mall area and found some fun jewelry, purses and then onto where we had a wonderful time picking out pashminas at Shaw Brothers.  However let me warn you around 3p I became very tired as I was still jet-lagged since this was 1AM (the day before) San Diego time.  Went back to the hotel for a short time before we were treated to dinner and drinks at the home of Vivian and Karen Peres from Ventours.  They live in private gated area in a large high rise  apartment building overlooking a pool and golf course.  The view was spectacular as we were treated to cocktails on their beautiful verandah.  Since they are used to entertaining we had a full staff waiting on us for drinks and a beautiful buffet dinner.  Here we were introduced to the founders of this awesome company who would be hosting us all thru India.

 
We were thrilled to partake in this wonderful event and after talking to Vivian who accompanied us on our trip, found out that they entertain quite frequently-- even during the week.  He had 2 lovely daughters who we all met and enjoyed talking to them about their lives.  Most of the dinners don't even start until 9P or so and you can imagine how tired we were when we left but honored to be a part of this.




Samantha, Vivian (our host), myself, Laura, and Elaine

 

If we look like we are cold let me warn you that this one of the coldest days they had  in Delhi.  Even the schools closed

that day as they have no central heat.   So dress accordingly if you come-- could be cold, could be hot just depends on the time of the year.

 

Off to bed and ready for a new day!!!