At the center of New Delhi stands the 42m high India
Gate, an "Arc-de-Triomphe" like Archway in the middle of a crossroad. Almost
similar to its French counterpart war memorial. It commemorates the 70,000
Indian soldiers who lost their lives fighting for the British Army during
the First World War and bears the names of more than 13,516 British and
Indian soldiers killed in the Northwestern Frontier in the Afghan war of
1919. This picture was taken from the side of the road, and
I didn't get any closer than that because there were recent terrorist threats
to blow up the India Gate. The only reason I was even this close
was that the path between the sites I had seen and my hotel went right
past it. The taxi driver pulled over on the side of the road, stoping
traffic long enough for me to snap a picture, and we were off again.
You can see that security was high, the road directly across the street
from me was closed, as were many other streets in the area. The Presidential
Palace and the Parliment Building are near by (also closed to the public
due to terrorist threats). Take note of the rickshaw on the left
hand side. It is a little three wheeled taxi, they are all over the
city and I had the opportunity to ride in one (see the next picture).
This is Parag (a co-worker who is originally from
India) and I inside of the rickshaw. They are a really cheap form
of transportation, however the drivers speak no English (as compared with
the taxi drivers who speak a little). Even though they are cheap
the drivers get your money! We got in one about 3 kilometers from
my hotel, and by the time the driver dropped me off the meter read 7 kilometers
(double what it should have been :). Oh well, I think the entire
ride was something like 50 or 60 cents!