The Red Fort

Delhi, India -- Day 3

There were two goals for the day: first, see the Red Fort, arguably the biggest tourist attraction in Delhi, and second, find a theatre to watch a movie. Initially, I had recommended a Bollywood film, but I think we’re much more in the mood for something in English.  

The Red Fort was a reasonable success. It wasn't far from where we were staying, and, unlike Meg, I felt no obligation to use Sunny to get to there -- he certainly hadn't honored our request to skip the souvenir shop yesterday -- so after breakfast, we found the nearest tuk-tuk driver and went on our way.

Entrance to the Red Fort

To our surprise, they actually offered audio guides, which helped fill in some of the historical facts. Unfortunately, the actual state of the various buildings inside the massive red walls leaves a lot to the imagination. Most of the buildings are just ghosts of their former glory. You need to imagine flowing fountains, gilded archways, hanging tapestries, musicians playing….

The Fort was the living quarters of the great Shah Jahan, who was responsible for building the Taj Mahal in nearby Agra when his third wife, his favorite, died while giving birth to their 14th child. He had amazing wealth and was not afraid to flaunt it. Accumulating great wealth is one thing, holding onto it, apparently, is another as conqueror after conqueror plunder the diamonds, jewels and gold that once adorned the fort.

The second half of the day had us searching out the Delhi Metro -- who knew there even was one! It turned out to be a joy to ride. Though crowded, it was cool, quick, and inexpensive. We simply walked the 15 minutes to the nearest station, took the half hour ride to the "Noida Sector 18" station (sounded like something from a sci-fi movie) and the took a tuk-tuk to the Spice Center Mall.

The Mall turned out to be a six story building with a wall around it. Inside though, was exactly what you'd expect from a mall: food courts, clothing stores and a theatre on the top three floors. We needn’t have worried about tickets as there were only 10 of us in the super-cooled theatre large enough for at least a hundred. For nine bucks we got four 3D tickets and for ten we got flavored popcorn and a couple Cokes. The sound system was good and the film only went out once for a few minutes. I did find myself, though, wishing continually that film were brighter. This was either due to missing bulbs in the projection system, Tim Burton’s penchant for dark films (figuratively and literally), the light reduction from the polarized 3D glasses, or, quite possibly, my aging eyes. All in all, it was a nice diversion and, on the plus side, gave us something to keep us occupied for a few hours.

Over the last couple days, we discovered some of the half dozen rooftop restaurants near the Hari Piorko Hotel. Dex and I opted for the “Exotic Rooftop Restaurant” when we finally got back from the theater tonight while Meg and Kylie were happy to huddle up in the room. Most of these restaurant, if you can find the doorways, have crazy steep, narrow staircases, but you are rewarded with a moderate decrease in noise level and views overlooking the chaotic, ever mesmerizing street scene below. How the cows survive in this crazy city, I’ll never know.