Thursday evening, we flew Kingfisher Airlines to New Delhi. Earlier, Thursday morning, we spent most of our time with the hotel administration talking about how they ruined our stay and what they were going to do about it. By the time we had to catch the bus to the airport, the hotel management satisfied our complaint with crediting us one nights stay.

We took a bus from the airport and got dropped off at the Palace hotel India where we had made reservation previously. We’ve stayed here before, so we know they won’t disappoint us like that last hotel. As soon as we got in our room we fell fast asleep. My husband’s teaching commitment only was for our first week here, he had split off from the other teachers so we could explore the jungle safari when we were in Mumbai and Goa.

Friday, we called a driver service to take us sightseeing around the city. We saw the India Gate and we tried to walk around the park surrounding the gate, but we were consistently pestered by Indian men. So much so, we got very unpleasant and basically just headed back to our car and driver. We found out that we had to just get used to this, because crowds of Indians followed us everywhere we went. I mean everywhere. Guides tried to literally force their service on us, and this little boy pursued us all around a temple trying to get us to buy a postcard. People would walk right up to us and ask us to take their photos! We walked around the Parliament and the Ministry buildings and some guards ushered us away while other guards were taking their own photos of a fountain. Plus, it was so hot, we felt like pigs roasting over an open pit.

Our favorite place was the Lotus temple, it’s a fairly new structure that resembles the shape of a lotus flower, the Hindu’s symbol for prosperity. But, what was more interesting was the temple isn’t Hindu. Our driver began to frustrate us because he didn’t speak a word of English and he kept burping, loudly and never excused himself. Other than that, he was very nice. We didn’t finish our full day of driving around the city, we were too tired. It took all our energy just to stay on our feet with all the heat and to fend off all the street urchins. When we got back into our hotel room, we ended up sleeping for almost four hours! But, ready and refreshed to find a place to have dinner.