Kingdom of Some Really Crazy Dreams

Life-size elephant. Life-size me.

What is the guy on the left even holding?

I spent my last day in Gurgaon mostly napping at KB's place. I didn't realize I was so tired but that nap was DElicious. I hadn't intended on staying another night, but KB's aunt said I had to see this show called Zangoora, which was playing at a place called Kingdom of Dreams. I didn't really know what to expect when I got there, but it was definitely a sight to see. As I'm walking in, I see a girl taking a ride on a camel toward the entrance. There are these two HUGE elephant statues in front. There's a trampoline bounce (one of those ones you strap into and then jump really high) to the right. Three men are dressed in... either costume or local garb (it was kind of hard to tell at this place) playing instruments I've never heard. And I'm like "...what IS this place???" I go up to the ticket counter only to find out that my show was already sold out. So much for spending that whole day in Gurgaon so I could see the show...

Fake sky. Real magic.

All was not lost. Kingdom of Dreams also houses the Culture Gully, which is an enclosed corridor of food places and stores. The food is supposed to be a cross-section of the whole country, with each place serving food from a different city or state of India. If you didn't know it, you could easily mistake the place for somewhere in Las Vegas. The ceiling is painted to look like the sky and the decor on the walls is totally over-the-top in a pretty impressive way.

It was more appetizing than this photo would lead you to believe.

...WHAT?!

I don't actually remember where I ate from, but I had some sort of lamb meatball dish. Pretty good. Too spicy and not enough naan to go with it, but pretty good. I ended the night with a selection of three desserts. Because, why not? You should never be shy about having dessert.

Puppets! Dancing puppets!

There were people dressed in costume so you could take pictures with them. There were also shows going on. Like the inappropriately seductive puppet show and the what felt like Hawaiian dance show.

Self Driven Parking

On my way out, I saw a sign saying "Self Driven Parking". And we thought we were ahead of the curve at Google with our self-driving car tests. India's already got PARKING LOTS for these things. Jokes, jokes.

A Day to Relax. Finally.

I hung out with KB all day today and it was wonderful. This was the first day I spent not doing touristy things or traveling, but just... hanging out. I spent the day at her uncle's place, mostly updating my blog, doing a little India research, and relaxing. Tonight we went out with KB's friends in Delhi at a speakeasy. This place was such a scene. It's just like a speakeasy you'd find in San Francisco, modeled after the Prohibition-era speakeasys of the U.S. To get in, you had to locate the secret, unmarked door and enter a code in on the keypad. The decor on the walls was like a fake library, there were portraits of old-timey U.S. celebrities, and everyone was dressed up for going out. I'm beginning to see that India is an even more diverse place than I already thought.

My First Auto Ride

Driving in India is insane. But believe it or not, it's actually less insane than in Bangladesh, so it's actually been comparatively nicer here. Still, it's ridiculous. Today I took my first trip in an auto, which here isn't synonymous with car, but instead refers to these three-wheeled open-air taxis (in Bangladesh they called the baby taxis or CNGs because they run on Compressed Natural Gas). There are no seatbelts and with the crazy driving, you could fall out at any moment, so I was holding on for dear life, with my huge backpack between my legs.

I went to Jummah (Friday prayers) at my mosque in Delhi. At first, people were a little suspicious (which is to be expected, my sect is pretty highly persecuted in this part of the world, so safety is definitely a concern for them), but as soon as I showed them a picture I have of me with the leader of our sect, I was very warmly received by the people there. They showed me around and invited me to stay in the guest house there.

After Jummah, I had an awful, awful time trying to get to my hotel. First, someone from the mosque helped me get onto a bus. We literally had to walk through the streets, with the cars driving around us, and I had to hop onto a moving vehicle. Then I got to the train station, where I had to navigate an incredibly confusing train map that gave me no hint as to what stop I needed to get off at to get to my hotel. I finally figured it out, got to my destination station, and then had to take a cab. The first four cab drivers tried all quoted ridiculous fares, I finally settled on one driver who had the least inflated fare. Unfortunately, he didn't know where my hotel was (none of them really did, as far as I could tell), so he dropped me off somewhere near where I needed to be and then it took me another 20 minutes of searching to find the hotel.

My new hotel is in Gurgaon, where a lot of the multinational corporations have their presence in India, Google included. The whole reason I'm here is because my friend KB lives around here and I wanted to meet up with her and I still feel so badly that she came all that way without getting to see me because of the train delay. So tonight we finally go to meet up. She picked me up and took me to her uncle's house, where she is living. Her aunt and uncle are awesome. They're young, really friendly and super welcoming. They took us out tonight to a trendy spot in New Delhi. This is definitely a side of Delhi I haven't seen before. There's... wealth here. I had the second most expensive Coca-cola of my life at ~$4 (the first was in Spain and it was 6 euros, about $8). It was so nice to be with friends for a night.