March 28, 2015 (Delhi, India)

March 28, 2015

I started the day off by eating by myself at the lounge. When I walked back my room Mom was already talking to my school teacher April and I was ready to work. After a couple hours of working I had another stop at the lounge before leaving on our tour to the Sikh temple, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib. The Sikhs are kind of like a mix between Hindus and Muslims. They broke off from Hindus but they believe in only one god and their temples and seem to look more muslims with their turbans. Our Sikh tour guide toured us around the temple. At the temple Mom and I got pictures with some of the temple worriers who carry with them at all times a huge double edged swords. Sikhs are half saint and half worrier. 

Our guide also showed us the kitchen and the dinning room where they feed around 45,000-50,000 people a day!  This is part of their oath as Sikhs to serve others in need and anyone that needs a meal can get one at the temple. Mom and I also placed our feet in the holy water. This temple was white and Gold and has some Muslim architecture to it.

From there we left our tour guide at the temple and moved on with Benson, the head of the touring company we were using. With Benson we drove to the next temple named Akshardham. which was pretty recently built. This was a big temple! From the outside it was a tan color, but from the inside it was white marble with hundreds of carvings! Inside the temple they had one room that had a statue of a holy man. That one room was all so decorated in gold unlike the other rooms. Some of the marble carvings on the wall told stories. The ceilings were great with their 3 dimensional carvings. After walking around the temple I got my sandals on and walked towards the exit. On the way to the exit we walked through this place named something like the Lotus Garden. We walked on a raised path through the manmade lotus, on either side big grass Lotus pedals.

Next, we jumped in the car and drove to our lunch restaurant. This resturaunt had one of the biggest menus I had ever ordered from. We talked with Benson during lunch. He is also LDS and lives in Delhi and heard about his life here. After lunch we had one last stop before driving back to the hotel, it was the shopping area called Dlli Haat. This shopping area was outside, had much smaller stores than yesterdays, and was less westernized. Mom got some stuff while I got a bird painting and a meditation bowl which we had to bargain for.

Back at the hotel we had a little while before leaving again to the train station. At the train station we were met by the people of the Maharajas express. The Maharajas Express is a train ride that we are doing from Delhi to Mumbai, India. Once seated at the train station we listned to some music and waited for our train. On the train we met our helper, Dash that would help us throughout the trip. Later we ate dinner then fell asleep.