It's culture shock
by jmmorgan
My favourite thing was everything. I just loved the place. Old Delhi for it's bustle and fervour and New Delhi for it's spaciousness.
Above all I met some really great people there and will visit again when time permits That indefinable India smell. Spices, heat, sweat, sewers, I can't define it but if you have been you will remember it!
WHAT MAKES IT SO SPECIAL?
by Siddha3th about CONNAUGHT PLACE
While writing this down, I've been asked to give a description of the 'shop'. Truth is, it would be impossible to really describe Connaught Place. It's not so much a shopping experience, as it is an experience. Period.
Another VT tip-pointer here is to put down what makes the place so special. Walking down the paved pathways surrounding Connaught Place, eating delicious roasted peanuts bought from a street vendor, you'll be able to answer that pretty easily yourself :) Designer labels/ cheap second-hand goods, American eating chains/ good ol' Delhi dhaabas, vintage book shops/ roadside magazines - take your pick. You could end up buying a shawl from a small shop for about 700 Rupees. You could just as easily pick up a designer stole for anything upwards of 7,000 Rupees. It's that kind of place.
Haus Kas Bazaar
by jmmorgan about On the roof
On the roof of this interesting retail outlet in South Delhi is a restaurant where you can enjoy dinner while watching a cultural performance.
There was a set menu of dishes including a lamb stew in an odd clay pot. My friend found the toenail of the dead sheep in hers.
It struck us several times during our trip that Indian butchers do not prepare cuts of meat as we do here in Europe. Indeed, it appeared that they frequently didn't bother to even skin these creatures according to the amount of sheep fur we saw. All of it- it was hilarious. Oh and a very gay dancer with an interesting line in raising eyebrows took a fancy to my friends husband.
You must go here it is brilliant.
Inside Red Fort
by josephescu
The palace complex is is counted among the best examples of the Mughal style at its Shah Jahani peak, being designed as an imitation of paradise as it is described in the Koran; a couplet repeatedly inscribed in the palace reads, "If there be a paradise on earth, it is here, it is here".
The planning of the palace is based on Islamic prototypes, but each pavilion reveals in its architectural elements the Hindu influences typical of Mughal building:
-Lahore Gate
-Drum House, where musicians used to play for the emperor, it has an Indian War museum upstairs
-hall of public audiences, in the centre of the interior gardens, whose precious stones encrusted in the marble walls have been looted following the 1857 uprising;
-hall of private audiences, near the private palace, constructed in white marble, whose centrepiece was the famous solid gold and jewel studded Peacock Throne, taken to Iran in 1739;
-Pearl mosque
-Khas mahal, the emperor's private palace
-Rang mahal, or the palace of colour, who took its name from its painted interior which is now gone.
-Mumtaz Mahal heaquarters, sheltering a small exposition displaying relics from the Mughal era.
A special note to the reminders of the British presence = the monumentally ugly large barrack blocks situated in the compound, built when the British army used the fort as its headquarters
Qutub Minar Complex - Alai Darwaza
by DaDrifter
The Alai Darwaza - Southern gateway of the Quwwatul-Islam mosque was constructed by Alauddin Khalji in AD 1311 and is often refered to as the most treasured gem of Islamic architecture.
Some very intricate carvings in stone - motifs, geometrical patterns and inscriptions from the Holy Quran add to the beauty of the Minar and its surrounding structures.
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