Day 2

"All the buildings are built with 9 sides, because 9 is the largest one digit number which symbolizes unity."

Today we were given a tour of the city. We got to visit about three places - well, three and a half to be exact - and the rest of the time was spent in traffic.

First stop was the Lotus Temple of Baha'i. It was midday and we were asked to remove our shoes at the bottom of the steps leading to the shrine, so basically we got a good feet baking. The photos in the info center also seemed to indicate that the temple was hand built. Talk about Egyptian blood. Anyhow, there are a couple of temples like this strewn across the world - Australia, Chile, Ugando, Samoa, Chicago.. hmm, the last one seems pretty accessible. Guess where the next trip is going to be planned for?


After the temple we went to the tomb gardens, whatever the name was. Entrance was 10 rps per local and 250 rps per foreigner. Not only was the place huge, about 10 minutes in a battalion of middle schoolers came shrieking in, apparently on a field trip of some sort. At least two dozen of them ran up to us at separate intervals and were especially amused at John's Shaktimaan impression. Needless to say the place ended up being very chaotic. I hope the dead were not disturbed too much.

Due to sleeping difficulties the previous evening Guan and Candi were pooped after the two sites and requested food, drink and air conditioning. Guan in particular insisted on seeing the mega shopping mall so that was basically the last destination for today. According to John, the place was every bit as superficial as the places in the US. They did have decent restaurants though, one of which we got to stop for dinner before squishing back to our place through ultimate rush hour traffic.

Last minute on the clock. Guan's phone died just now so no photos today still. We'll be leaving for Dharam Shala tomorrow! Will update again once we get there.

Namaste, good night!