From the international Museum of Toilets it is time to explore the last park for the day. Sunder Nursery is a recommendation from our driver and because we really do not have any better ideas, why not? It is quite far but we have time to spend and this way we can spend one more time admiring the controlled, most time, chaos of the city. We also pass unexpectedly near the tulip festival that is happening this weekend, an unexpected bonus.
Sunder Gardens is a relatively new park, opened in 2018, between Humayun’s Tomb and Purana Quila and we really do not know a lot about it so we are looking forward to discover it. It is paid entrance (with the usual extra for foreign tourists) but at least we get a map for that extra, a first throughout our trip through India.
Following the map we walk to the first highlight, Sunderwala Mahal, and to our surprise it is quite beautiful, not popular and you can enter it and explore. Really nice with no beggars or peddlers. We even find out that it is an Unesco World Heritage Site, nice.
With our curiosity peaked we walk to the next attraction, Mirza Muazzafar Hussain’s Tomb, the grand-nephew of Emperor Humayun and son-in-law of Emperor Akbar, surprisingly even more beautiful and also an Unesco WHS.
Again there are very few people and we can explore the interior in peace, in fact now we are scared that no one is around, why really?
Nearby is another structure which has not been renovated but it seem stabilized in its current form. We think that this makes sense to show some structures in a more decayed state, with the impact of time and erosion and to repair others to show how they looked during their heyday.
Going further in this direction we reach a closed gate, behind is the only structure we cannot reach during our visit, no big loss given how many other ones we can enter as we explore the Nursery.
With fewer people in this section, the birds and the animals come out to play. The black kites are ever present in the skies as usual but here we also see them in the trees watching us together with the palm squirrels.
Another section that is not that popular either is the forest section. We enjoy it as we look for birds and walk slowly towards the pond that is the centerpiece of the section.
It is quite a nice pond with a guard loitering around but at least he doesn’t seem enclined to pester us or show us something special or whatever new scam is running around for guards to foist on tourists.
We even find a few interesting birds including a leucistic babbler and our first Indian Silverbills, even on the last day we find something new, how nice.
From here we enter the gardens which are more popular. There are fruit trees, including banana trees and a closed bonsai garden in this section and we move through it slowly, there is no hurry and we want to stay as close to sunset as possible in the gardens.
The central garden area with the major lake is however very popular compared to the sections we have walked through. There are people picnicking and enjoying the great weather, it seems that this park is a bit more local and less touristy with a lack of peddlers and beggars.
We make our way to Lakkar Wala Burj next, one more Unesco WHS, there are six in total inside the Sunder Nursery and we really want to see them if possible. The interior is quite beautiful but being close to the main area it is also more popular so we soon move on.
We then follow the central passage which is beautifully restored/redone with a beautiful water feature splitting the path right down the middle.
The last major attraction is Sunderwala Burj, the last of the Unesco WHS sites that can be visited. As it sits right in the middle of the central path it is also the most popular for photos and video shoots. We spend only a short time admiring the beautiful interior before continuing on back towards the entrance and our car.
We decide to explore a bit off the main trail following the map and we find the amphitheater and a small pond but there are no more new birds and it is getting late so we return to the car, we plan to spend the rest of the evening in a mall close to the airport and then move to the airport as soon as we can to enjoy the lounges if at all possible.
