day two in india -- cooking, shopping, and temple/mosque/tomb-viewing

It's been an action packed day here. We got a pretty early start out on the town, and withing 10 minutes of being in the car, smack--we were in our first Indian car accident! It wasn't bad, all that happened was the drivers got out and yelled at each other as a good 20 people gathered to watch the excitement, and we were soon on our way again.


Then we were back on our way to visit Hamayun's tomb. It has one large building with a hundred tombs, a smaller tomb building, a mosque, and nicely looked-after grounds. Most Indian schools run on Saturday mornings, so there were field trips with many many uniformed children touring as well. As cool as all the architecture and the history was, I think my favorite part was the woman below here who was sitting on the steps waving a stick to scare off a group of high school boys who were about to walk into one of my pictures.




After the tomb, we went to a local market, which made our Indian friend flinch, but he was willing to grin and bear it for our amusement. We saw several tailors on the street with pedal operated sewing machines. Who knew anyone still used those? Also to be seen--sari dying on the streets, super cool produce, chickens in cages, three wheeled "scooties" (small motor taxis), bike taxis, and families of four or five on a motor bike.


Then we headed off to learn how to cook Indian food. I think my favorite part was learning the technique for making chapatis--Indian bread made over the stove. All in all, a delicious meal.




Our final stop for the day was the Swaminarayan Akshardham, a modern temple where they don't allow photos! Sorry you'll have to either imagine it or look it up. It was accompanied by a religious and historical video and human-like robots talking about the religious sect and special things about India. It's a hundred acres, with a lotus garden , a visitor's center, a fountain/light show, and an elaborate temple. It was so amazing, it's a shame we have no pics.