The Red Fort and Akshardham

I spent the weekend hanging out with and being taken around by my buddy Sarvesh, who I met in CO last year when he came over for some training at Agilent. He and I cruised around Saturday picking up lots of tourist brochures about all of India in an attempt to formulate some plan, had some spicy veg dishes for lunch (I've decided to go all vegetarian only while in India), and then went to check out the Red Fort, a place where the old Mughal kings used to reside before the British came along. He also helped me find a new hotel to stay down by the railway station, where I get a nice quiet room all to myself for under $10/night.

The next day Sarvesh and his wife picked me up and we went to Akshardham, a new temple in Delhi which opened last year. It was very interesting and informative and somewhat like Disney land. We walked through an exhibition (complete with animatronics) about the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, took a boat ride (a kin to 'its a small world) explaining 10,000 years of Indian heritage in 10mins, watched a movie about the an 11-year-old child-yogi’s epic 12,000 km pilgrimage of India on foot, watched an incredible musical fountain show, and then wrapped up the night with dinner in the food court. Some fun and educational religious entertainment. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take cameras in, but the detailed carving was amazing, check it out in the 'photo gallery' page. Apparently it took 11,000 artisans 300 million man hours to build everything. If you pass through Delhi, definitely worth a visit!

Photos: Delhi