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| The entrance to the tomb complex - or just a mirror trick? |
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| A beautiful day for visiting a tourist destination |
We started the day in a bittersweet mood: ready to enjoy our last full day in India, but sad to be so close to the end of our trip. Nasir met us over breakfast to return Chris’ wallet, which he had forgotten at the Desai house last night (and which made for a pretty stressful few minutes when we arrived at the hotel last night with a taxi driver who wanted to be paid), and we said one
final goodbye to him.
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| Not all strangers are skilled photographers... (case in point here) |
As our last touristy activity, we headed to Humayun’s tomb, a gorgeous complex built out of red sandstone and marble in the mid-16
th century by the senior wife of the Mughal emperor Humayun (obviously). The tomb is the first real example of Persian-style architecture in Delhi and was the inspiration for the Taj Mahal. The complex is full of many other small tombs from the Mughal era (including the emperor’s favorite barber), and we enjoyed a wonderful, sunny afternoon exploring all of them. We also stumbled into a rehearsal for a Sufi musical performance being held on the grounds of the tomb complex, and Chris got to show me some great examples of North Indian classical music.
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| The dome housing Hunamyun's Tomb - last time I was here there was no water in these water features...India is changing! |
After a late lunch at a nearby restaurant (see picture of ridiculous cricket pitch made out of food below), we walked back to the hotel to start the tedious process of packing. It took a while to pack all our stuff and all the gifts and souvenirs we picked up along the way, but we were done by evening and left for one last visit to the Sufi dargah of Hazrat Inayat Khan (see the Feb. 17
th entry for details). The dargah was empty when we got there and we had a peaceful and touching time together there before heading back to a late dinner and early bedtime.
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| 16th century doors would not have worked well for Chris |
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| Sufi musicians rehearsing for the evening's performance |
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| A reminder of home (parrots' humble abode) |
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| Emily in her new blue sari (given to her by Zeena the night before) |
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| "Bloody 'ell, man!" |
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India is in the grip of Cricket World Cup madness
- meant to look like a cricket bat and two wickets |
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