muumuus and mosques.

Hi guys,

I'm a little late to this blogging game (no surprise to anyone I'm sure), so I'm going to have to take you back to our last day in Delhi. After visiting the Red Fort (Lal Qila) and braving a harrowing cycle rickshaw ride down Chandni Chowk to visit the Spice Market (VA & I were seeing our lives flash before our eyes, Khanh apparently enjoyed himself), and then eating lunch at Haldiram's, which was akin to an Indian McDonald's with excellent bhel puri and ice cream, we set out to see the Jama Masjid mosque - the largest in India and standing for nearly 400 years.

Taking the advice of our guidebook, Virginia and I were completely covered from the neck down to be modest women. We even brought head scarves just in case. We all took our shoes off at the entrance and then we were approached by a man holding a large bright neon orange sheet. He proceeded to try to put it on Virginia. She protested. He insisted. We looked around at all the other women entering the mosque, and none of them were wearing anything resembling a neon sheet. We pointed this out and the man continued to insist that we needed to put the sheets on. Finally we gave in, convinced that it was all some big joke on us tourists (or as VA said "we're targets!").

Once inside we saw other muumuu clad tourists all in various shades of neon. Khanh has some great pictures. We ended up bonding with a French couple, who also had dressed modestly, but who was told that the wife needed to don a muumuu. Despite all the fuss, the mosque was peaceful and lovely, and a much needed respite from the insanity outside. More to come....

Ammu