Delhi and Udaipur

We are so unbelievably happy that Andy and Leslie have flown from NYC to spend 10 days with us here in India. Until the day we met them, India had been really cold and we often slept in several layers of clothing and blankets at night. From the day they arrived, we have been blessed with amazing weather. The sun is shining, the evenings are cool and, with the exception of Delhi (severe pollution problems), the sky has been bright blue. We met them at our hotel the afternoon after they arrived and spent the time catching up before we went to dinner at Connaught Place. Connaught Place is a very modern shopping area that surrounds peaceful gardens in New Delhi. The traffic was pretty brutal, which made it very difficult to cross the street- quite a welcome to India for Andy and Leslie. The masses of cars and the endless honking was certainly an overload of the senses but we all braved the traffic and made it to a restaurant that served delicious and unlimited Gujarati thalis.
The following day, we had a packed schedule of sightseeing in Delhi. We drove through New Delhi, passing many embassy buildings, the High Court, the president's house and headed towards Chandni Chowk, a section of Old Delhi full of narrow pathways, shopkeepers, cows and monkeys wandering/climbing freely and barbers giving cheap shaves on the corners. We took a cycle-rickshaw through this neighborhood, taking in all the sights before heading to Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque. This mosque can hold up to 25,000 people and Leslie and I looked quite festive in the neon colored polka-dotted smocks that the guards had us wear inside.
From there, we passed the memorials of Gandhi and Nehru and the Red Fort, which were all closed to the public as it was a few days before India's national holiday. We then went to Humayun's tomb. Humayun was the second Mughal ruler in India and this magnificent complex of marble and sandstone buildings and gardens was built by Humayun's wife at the middle of the 16th century. Our last stop was Qutab Minar, a Muslim tower that is 72.5 metres high, making it the tallest minaret in the world. Built in the late 12th century, this tower is surrounded by a nice park and ruins of Jain and Hindu temples that predated it. We ended the evening with a delicious dinner.
We have spent the last three days in Udaipur, the City of Lakes. Udaipur is known as the Venice of the East and, having been to another "Venice of the East" in Suzhou, China, this one definitely takes the cake. The city has 5 lakes and Lake Pichola is the largest one, with many of the city sights around this area. We took a private boat tour and stopped by two palaces built in the middle of the lake in the 16th century. We had relaxing afternoons at our incredibly beautiful hotel Oberoi Udaivilas after mornings spent visiting royal gardens, the City Palace, a crystal gallery collection and some old yet still active temples. We took a cooking lesson one afternoon and also had a yoga session on the balcony of a small palace located within our hotel. Throughout the whole trip, we have continued to pinch ourselves that we are with Andy and Leslie in India. We ate great Indian food every meal, tried some delicious Indian wines and spent the evenings watching the sun set on Lake Pichola or enjoying cocktails on our balconies. We are so excited for the days to come. Tomorrow, we will head to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan before driving to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.