Full day exploring Delhi

We rise early to eat breakfast and be ready for a full day exploring Delhi. We eat our breakfast (a buffet with cold foods and some hot options) before we meet up at 8:45 with our guide, Isha and Ranjit to head out. Isha is an "experience guide" and is intending to show us the city in a more experiential way. She takes us first to see the Red Fort in Delhi, which is beautifully laid out with red sandstone. Many forts like this exist in India, monuments as they call them. Visiting these monuments is a must on at least some part of the trip, and Delhi was the best place for us given the short time schedule we were on. She shares with us the history of the fort. Including showing laminated drawings of how the fort looked originally as needed. After about an hour we then leave the fort and next drive to visit the module in Old Delhi. Here many Muslims come for prayers and it is still actively used today. You must enter barefoot and with arms and legs covered (as a woman), they let you rent a robe out front for this purpose. We see the mosque and take in the square. Sometimes prayer is held here which can be visited as well. Next, we board a Rickshaw at the bottom of the stairs to the mosque to experience the alleys of Old Delhi and see a lot of sights in a short amount of time. The rickshaw is bumpy, as expected, but we see many shopkeepers, some selling very nice saris and wedding attire, some trophies, and some jewelry. And other shops. Many shopkeepers are standing out in front watching us drive by. We see piles of garbage out front in some, and a man coming by with a head trolley to pick up the trash for the day.  They do this cleanup daily. After the 15 min Rickshaw ride, we walk down a wider shooting street and into an oil store. Here you can buy some of the world's most expensive oils in undiluted form. We then get to sit down and make our own scent to bring home with us. I end up making one that smells of lotus while my mother makes one of Jasmine. We get to write down our created name.  

Next, we get back in the car to head to the New Delhi part of the city. New Delhi was built by the British and while both are "Delhi", once this new section was built, the term "Old Delhi" started being used. Here we visit the Sikh Temple and Community Kitchen. We visit the Sikh community kitchen. Sikhs run and volunteer in this kitchen to feed up to 15,000 a day. The operation is run by what the Sikhs donate (for the food) and run entirely by volunteering. We sneak in back to see the kitchen workers preparing the meal, and the large vats of curried dahl they are cooking.  Next, we climb the stairs to enter an open-air Temple with heads covered. Live music is being played in the center of the room, not as a concert, but to create an atmosphere that lends itself to others praying.  Many people are offering prayers and bows to various items around the room. We walk through the room taking it in, then enter outside to view a courtyard where one could walk around and listen to the music for a solo meditation. Nearby we are able to buy a pudding, a sweet treat that many kids may like when they come to visit the temple. Next, we get back in the car and drive to a special visit, an Institute for the blind. Here the organization works to teach the skills of candle making, sewing, and massage to give skills to people who are blind. We sit down in a room where chairs await us for a foot and shoulder massage. My masseuse works very well and I am amazed by his ability. It is such a special treat after the day and I am grateful to have met them and seen the work this place is doing. 

Next, we go for a late lunch at the Imperial Hotel for lunch at the Spice Route, named by Conde Nast as one of the top 10 restaurants in the world. The design and decor alone inside are exceptional, with a well laid out architecture and structure to the restaurant to resemble the 9 stations of life. The meal is served in multiple courses and is exceptional in quality. 
This afternoon I meet up with another guide, Vashal, to go visit Humayun's tomb. This is a monument built by his late wife after he died. The mausoleum is impressive and was the inspiration for the Taj Mahal. Inside you see the tombs of himself, his wife, and her young baby, his three daughters, and his two favorite concubines, all laid out in different sections of the structure. The gardens outside are all designed with symmetry in mind. This evening we return to our hotel, tired from the day, for dinner in the hotel's restaurant.