 |  |
The fruits for sale in the Central Bazaar were fresh and excellent and we later returned to our room at Express 66 with grapes, oranges, mangoes and lemons that all helped in our rehydration. Lee Tuan carries in her pack a small plastic orange juicer that’s worth its weight in saffron. All over India we’ve had freshly squeezed orange juice every morning and refreshing lemon sodas in the afternoon, the latter simply made from the juice of a lemon or lime with added soda water. The perfect drink for a hot day. The locals add sugar and/or salt but we prefer it plain.
We took auto-rickshaws to see some of the sights around town. Having had our fill of forts and mosques in recent weeks, we zoomed past the imposing early 17th century sandstone Red Fort and Jama Masjid, and stopped for an hour at the National Gandhi Museum, a tribute to the life of the Father of India, Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma was a small man in physical stature but a moral giant.
We visited the world heritage listed Tomb of Humayun, son of Babur, the first Mughal Emperor of India and descendant of Genghis Khan. Our guide book describes this tomb, the first example of Persian influence in Indian architecture, as the most sublime sight in Delhi. Whether or not this is true we cannot say, but it is certainly much less sublime than the Taj Mahal and “Baby Taj” in Agra, both later refinements of the Humayun architectural style.
We ended our sightseeing in Connaught Place in the New Delhi city centre where we stumbled upon a western-style bakery stocked with Danishes, cookies and classy chocolates. Still a little weak from the stomach upset, these seemed exactly the sort of nourishments one should be having to replenish vital energy reserves. So we chose a selection, perhaps wider than was strictly necessary, and returned to Express 66 to pack our bags for tomorrow morning’s dawn train departure north, to see the largest religious gathering in the world.
 |  |  |  |
