On Saturday, we decided to walk through Deer Park again so we could walk through Hauz Khas Fort. The humidity was unbearable! The monsoon season is wrapping up, and we’ve experienced the range of weather here this past week. The first day or two are quiet hot and humid with some rain, then it got “better” (less humid, no rain, not as hot) and then on Friday, in the 3 minutes it takes to get from the street to the classroom to pick up Luisa, it poured! A couple of kind mothers offered Olivia and I each spots under their umbrellas and then, by the time Luisa had collected her stuff, the rain had ended.

By Saturday the humidity was back in full force. By the time we had finished our 30 minute walk through this fort, we were all so hot and sweaty. Germany can get humid as well but it is much more intense here.

a video of the fort:

We decided to take a tuk tuk ride home instead of walking because of the heat, and the driver wanted to squeeze us all in together. It was a wild ride! It started pouring as we drove and in the tuk tuk, the sides are open. so we started getting wet which actually felt good. The driver was going a little fast over some of the bumps and noticed how we were all laughing. So he started playing it up, going over the bumps faster, and we were bouncing all over the place! A much more fun way to get home than walking through the heat/pouring rain.

That evening we drove about an hour south to a suburb where Steffen’s friend and his family live. They live in a modern high-rise with all the amenities–like a little enclosed town complete with playgrounds, pool, cafe, gym, etc. The girls were excited to swim there but unfortunately it started raining pretty quickly so the pool closed. But we enjoyed a lovely evening with great hospitality–a wide variety of homemade Indian dishes plus some pasta and pizza for the girls, wonderful conversation and some nice reminiscing about our days in California as well as some tips on what to do while here in India. We are so grateful for their kindness!

On Sunday we decided to venture out to do some sightseeing. We started at Khan Market, an upscale shopping district with some gourmet restaurants. It is an interesting dichotomy because the interior of the stores/restaurants are pristine but outside it is the same crowded, loud, gritty Delhi. We really enjoyed our meal at The Big Chill where they served delicious Italian food and some decadent desserts.

Afterwards we wanted to see the India Gate (war memorial) and Rashtrapati Bhavan (residence of the President), so I convinced everyone we could just walk there. A good idea in theory (it’s only 2 km to the first destination and then another 2.5km to the next) but it was so humid we were all pretty miserable by the end. I always prefer to walk when we are somewhere new because I feel like you get a better feeling for the place and you see things that you would otherwise just rush past while in a car/bus. But even I admit it was too hot for walking! We did get a little reward in that we saw a bunch of wild monkeys (Rhesus macaque) climbing in a tree along the way.

From there we continued walking to the landmarks. It was super hot and humid, then rained a bit but instead of being a relief, it made things hotter. It was like when you put water on the hot stones in a sauna and the steam just makes everything more hot and humid. We were living in a sauna! After maybe 30 more minutes, a bigger rain came in and that did bring some relief. But by then, we were all so sweaty and exhausted so we went back to the apartment, showered and put on fresh clothes for dinner. We ended up taking a Uber back to Khan Market, this time to eat at Town Hall which was also excellent. Then we hopped right back in the Uber to avoid the need for another shower!

Something funny did happen while we were visiting these monuments–a lot of Indians asked the girls (especially Charlotte) to take photos with them. We haven’t seen many international tourists but there are quite a few domestic tourists, and they were all fascinated by our blond-haired, blue-eyed kiddos.