I'm still waiting

I have always said I'd love to go and see an active volcano, all the photos and films that I have seen make them look exciting if terrifying.  However, the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland is one volcano that I wish would just put the lid back on and stop belching out ash.  The European airspace has started to open up a little today but the renewed volcanic activity may bring it all grinding back to a halt.  It is very frustrating, after reaching that difficult decision to end my placement early as I'd completed most of the tasks that I set out to achieve and had little prospect of being able to make further progress in the immediate future, I now just want to be back home with my family and friends.

We had a bit of excitement in the apartment yesterday evening.  I returned back from my daily wanderings of Delhi and noticed a strong, pungent and unpleasant smell filling the main living-room and dining area.  Assuming it was some cleaning product I just walked through quickly to my room and proceeded to fling down my bag and boot up my computer to check the state of the airspace before going for a shower.  This was followed up by a strange man flinging open my bedroom door and telling me to get out quickly.  It seemed that there had been a release of battery acid following a reaction with water and gases had filled the apartment.  We traipsed round to another apartment while poor Junior leaned over a drain retching and coughing as he'd had a face full of the gas, emitting from the back-up electricity supply battery that kicks in during the many power cuts.  Fortunately he had not suffered any serious injury and seemed fine after a good night's sleep.

Delhi is really hot.  I have a thermometer that I've been using to monitor the temperature while here in India.  On Sunday, I went out to do some sightseeing and took the thermometer for a ride with me.  It measured a maximum of 51.4c (that's 129.38f for my American friends).  No wonder I was thirsty.  However, despite the blazing sun, I had a really interesting visit to Mehrauli, a district not far from Vasant Kunj where I am currently based in south Delhi.  Mehrauli is one of the 7 ancient cities that make up the state of Delhi.  There are some fascinating archaeological remains there which deserved more than the few hours that I stayed out in the sun to explore properly
Mehrauli

One of Delhi's great monuments is the Qutb Minar, at over 72m high the world's tallest free-standing minaret.  The minaret was built on the site of Lal Kot, the red citadel of the city of Dhillika, the capital of the last Hindu rulers of Delhi.  Materials from that ruin was used to build this tower with it's red sandstone and carvings of verses from the Qur'an.

The minaret was built as a victory tower, celebrating the end of the Hindu kingdoms of northen India and the start of muslim rule.  It is one of the earliest examples of Indo-Islamic architecture and building was started in 1193 by the first muslim ruler of India Qutb-ud-din Aibak and completed nearly 200 years later in 1386.

It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and I was fortunate enough to have visited on World Heritage Day when entrance was free.

There are many other interesting ruins in the Qutb Complex, including the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque. This was built around the same time as the minaret was started and the first mosque built in Delhi after the Islamic conquest of India.




 

In the surrounding archaeological park of Mehrauli there are more stepwells, similar to the one I had visited a few days earlier near to Connaught Place.  They are all dry now but used to fill during monsoon season, providing a water supply and a place of leisure, people finding shade under the arches and swimming in the water.  Rajon ki Baoli is the bigger of the two wells that I found, very wide and spacious and an impressive piece of architecture.  Gangdak ki Baoli, situated down a narrow lane in Mehrauli is much deeper comprising 5 tiers, each narrowing as you move towards the base.  Shame the wells were dry, I'd have loved to go for a swim to try to cool down a little.

I had only got part of the way round my planned walk of the park when I realised that I had nearly run out of water.  This was not a good position to be in with the sun reaching it's zenith.  An Indian man started to talk to me about the Rajon ki Baoli, next to where we were standing.  I asked him where the closest bottled water seller was and he kindly ran off with 15 of my rupees, returning 5 minutes later with a bottle of chilled, clean water.  There are some lovely people around in India.  He carried on telling me about the area and walked with me to find a couple more of the ruins that I was interested in seeing.  I would never have found the second stepwell without his assistance.

He also took me to a spectacular Jain temple, the Jain Mandir Dadabar, a glittering marble, coloured glass and mirrored confection.  It was amazing but I had to keep my sunglasses on all the way round, even under cover because of the glare from the bright materials.  The hard thing about this visit was removing my shoes before I entered the sanctum.  The ground was burning hot so I had to run across the tarmac, concrete and baked marble as quickly as I could to escape the burning sensation on the soles of my feet.

The best thing about still being in Delhi is that it is now mango season.  Bring them on!