After going to bed at 1:30am because I was updating the blog, I proceeded to wake up at an alarming 4:30am, but luckily it was not because any geckos were crawling anywhere around me (that I know of, anyway). Shortly after that the rest of the family woke up, so we have all been awake since about 5:30 this morning. It is now almost 2:00 in the afternoon, so now we're ready for yet another nap.

Before breakfast, and because we had so much time this morning, we all showered and got ready for the day. I honestly don't know exactly how long it had been since I showered.  I know it was Saturday morning in Florida, but not sure how that translates to Tuesday morning in India. Gross, I know. So, our room that we are staying in air conditioned (we would otherwise die), however the bathroom is not. There is probably about a 30-40 degree difference between the two rooms. In India you have to turn on the hot water before needing to use it. It takes about 15 minutes to warm up. Well, I didn't get the instructions on how to do it. So, I just started the water like normal, turned on the "cold" and it came out about what the temperature I would want at home. The "cold water" is more like room temperature and with the room being hot already, it was the perfect temperature. Of course it could have been that I was so sticky I just didn't care. 

We ate breakfast at 8:30, the family that is hosting us is so nice, always asking what they can do, making sure we are taken care of. We had toast again, probably because the boys eat 4 pieces each, fresh mango, cantaloupe (but they refer to it as "orange") and honeydew. We also had porridge which would be close to a cracked wheat, but there were other fibers in it as well. It was slightly sweetened and in hot milk. Ryan, Brayden and I liked it after adding a bit more sugar, the other boys wouldn't try it. We were also served fried potato wedges and omelets for those who wanted them. After breakfast our host showed us and let us taste a local fruit called a "wood apple". He picked one off his tree and broke it open. Davis and I were the only ones brave enough to try it. You eat it by breaking it, the skin is more of a nut shell, the eat the insides with a spoon or you would juice it. Neither one of us liked it too much. It was very mushy and tasted to me of an over-ripe mango that is gritty. But, we tried it.

After breakfast, we headed to Humanyun's Tomb. It is a Persian style tomb that mixes red sand-stone with the traditional white marble. We found out that the tomb is resident to some 150 corpses, but the main level houses all the immediate family, which included 3 daughters, 3 sons, 3 wives,  and 2 grandchildren. The architecture is beautiful and the grounds were not very crowded.  We paid 500 rupees to  gain access to the tomb which is equivalent to about $10.

After leaving the tomb we headed to Red Fort. This massive fort was used during the Mughal dynasty. It was constructed between 1638 and 1648 and was only ruled by one ruler, Shah Jahan. The grounds are adorned by beautiful gardens (mostly beautiful, there are still some renovations currently going on), and the buildings are lined with precious stones.

Funny thing about visiting here was that it was a major tourist attraction. There is a question to be asked, however...what was the biggest tourist attraction, the Red Fort...or the Riley's. We were asked to be in multiple pictures, but even more so, people were not so non-nonchalantly taking our photos...posing in front of us with nothing behind them. We were quite the show stoppers. Brayden counted up to 16 different people/families most likely feeling sorry for the white people who were sweating profusely, with the youngest being a beet sort of shade. 

The best part about visiting Red Fort was the rickshaw ride we had to take to get into the entrance area. I have to say, I was a little concerned having to trust people I did not know, and breaking up my family...we had to take 2 rickshaws...and riding this time in traffic. Literally. Riding. In. Traffic. We only encountered almost having one accident incident. Our rickshaw driver was not happy about what someone had done and he made it very clear. Dallan's observation today about the rickshaw drivers (who by the way were about 1/3 of my size, pulling Brayden, Dallan and I) "They have a poor job". Yes, yes they do. We paid them 200 rupees to drive us up (about 5 min), wait for us to do our tourist thing and carry us back to our taxi driver. It cost about $3.40.

Wood Apple

Humayun's Tomb

Inside, leading up to the tomb

Rickshaw ride

In traffic to the Red Fort

We had to make a u-turn and cross traffic

See anything you want?

Inside Red Fort

Some of the structure, called the Diwan-i-Am

The Khas Mahal

Cool tree

Outside the Red Fort