India Gate

 

One afternoon last week we headed out to see the India Gate.  Think Arc De Triomph in Paris. Think Washington Memorial in D.C.

As we were headed out, Katrina read an email from a friend with a link to this article (click for link), talking about how New Delhi is more polluted than Beijing. This article (and many other similar ones online) had the photo above with the article as an example of the thick pollutiony smog.  Yup! It’s India Gate! Just where we were headed… greeeeeeat. But what can you do? You certainly can’t keep four kids in the house all day cause the air outside is dirty… cause you’d be dead faster from cabin fever than you’d be deaf from breathing the air outside. Seriously.  So off went!

It’s a bit disappointing how dirty it is. This is India’s National Monument, built to commemorate the 90,000 who lost their lives fighting for the Indian Empire.Yet the place is overrun with trash and dogs and other yuckiness. It’s sad.

Can you see the sun eclipsed by the smog over on the right side above the trees? *Cough cough sputter sputter*

Entrepreneurs abounded on the grounds around the gate.  We weren’t really in the market for anything, but that wasn’t for lack of people trying to sell stuff!

This guy cracked me up.  You probably can’t see what he has in his briefcase so I’ll tell ya… it’s a Spiro-Graph. Remember those from back in the day? But this guy didn’t yell “Spiro-Graph!” as we walked by. He yelled “India-Graph!!”

Ha.  Really hitting up the tourist market, eh? Gotta respect his marketing strategies. Kinda.

So funny.

Lots for sale. You get it.

‘

Here we are. Hi!

On the grounds there is also this huge Children’s Park with a map that looks similar to some stuff I did when I was in design school fourteen thousand years ago…

But wait. Before you play please read the signs first and kindly follow the instructions below.

Oops… guess we broke the rules cause we had 1 year olds on the revolving see-saw and apparently that is only for children from 8 to 11 years.

No harm done!

Kids have gotta have fun!

The little white chillins are quite the attraction all to themselves. No age limitation on who can gawk at them.

Can’t blame ‘em. Perty darn cute even with her “Mama I don’t wanna smile” face.

This slide freaked me out at first.  I was sure my children would come off the end of it with less than ten fingers each. It was supposed to be four ages 4 to 8.

Or not-yet two year olds. Whatever… it was the kiddos favorite thing!

Whoa. Check out that awesome outfit. Wonder where I can get Sweet N one of those jackets?

Think Disney approved this Mickey Mouse ride?

This other playground had a scary tall slide and many hazards. Use caution people. Use some serious caution.

Bye bye Delhi Gate and park! Time to go home and take a shower. Any ideas on how to de-tox one’s lungs? :)