Sometimes countries can start to feel the
same, or I’ll recognize many similarities between places I’ve visited. But India is a land all its own. All the ladies were dressed in vibrant
saris, the buildings were all red sandstone, the streets were bustling and
packed with pedestrians, bikes, rickshaws, motorcycles, buses, cars, elephants, camels...all weaving in and out of each other’s space in a way that boggles my mind. The sights, the sounds, the smells – it
was just so alive. I was charmed.
In four days, we blitzed India's Golden Triangle.
Jaipur (Rajasthan) highlights:
Amber Fort, and riding an elephant up to it, and petting one on our way back down.
Seeing monkeys climbing all over buildings.
Jal Mahal and Hawa Mahal (even though it was covered in scaffolding).
Our dinner show.
And while we're at it, our dinner. And our lunch, and breakfast. Every single day. (Indian is my second favorite food, is this a great trip or what?!)
Falling victim to the our rickshaw driver taking us to the "textile market" (which is code for "my friend's textile shop, and after that, my other friend's silver shop, where you will experience some high-pressure sales tactics and haggling, even though you don't need any jewelry and didn't ask for any") for the first time ever in my life. Not cool, rickshaw driver. Earlier, we'd been asking if he'd take us to a market to see some art, but we bailed on that before we could meet any more of his friends.
And finally, our bus ride to Agra. We took the "semi-deluxe" bus, which is actually second-to-last on their caste system of buses, with sticky seats and no aircon, but at least the windows open. (I also made friends with the baby sitting across from me - as usual, I make friends with kids easier than adults.)
In four days, we blitzed India's Golden Triangle.
Jaipur (Rajasthan) highlights:
Amber Fort, and riding an elephant up to it, and petting one on our way back down.
Seeing monkeys climbing all over buildings.
Jal Mahal and Hawa Mahal (even though it was covered in scaffolding).
Our dinner show.
And while we're at it, our dinner. And our lunch, and breakfast. Every single day. (Indian is my second favorite food, is this a great trip or what?!)
Falling victim to the our rickshaw driver taking us to the "textile market" (which is code for "my friend's textile shop, and after that, my other friend's silver shop, where you will experience some high-pressure sales tactics and haggling, even though you don't need any jewelry and didn't ask for any") for the first time ever in my life. Not cool, rickshaw driver. Earlier, we'd been asking if he'd take us to a market to see some art, but we bailed on that before we could meet any more of his friends.
And finally, our bus ride to Agra. We took the "semi-deluxe" bus, which is actually second-to-last on their caste system of buses, with sticky seats and no aircon, but at least the windows open. (I also made friends with the baby sitting across from me - as usual, I make friends with kids easier than adults.)
Agra highlights:
Um, the Taj Mahal. There is a reverent atmosphere to that place that no picture can capture. But here's a bunch of pictures, anyway.
Our hotel room with a rooftop view of the Taj - if you look through the open-air restaurant. (How is there no trickle-down to the local economy for all the tourism this place gets?)
Our round bed.
This guy.
Did I already mention the Taj Mahal? It's not that Agra doesn't have anything else (well, maybe it kind of doesn't), it's just that the Taj is that good.
Um, the Taj Mahal. There is a reverent atmosphere to that place that no picture can capture. But here's a bunch of pictures, anyway.
Our hotel room with a rooftop view of the Taj - if you look through the open-air restaurant. (How is there no trickle-down to the local economy for all the tourism this place gets?)
Our round bed.
This guy.
Did I already mention the Taj Mahal? It's not that Agra doesn't have anything else (well, maybe it kind of doesn't), it's just that the Taj is that good.
That time when we came up with the idea of documenting all the people who asked to take pictures with us.
Please note: in this one we're facing the Taj, which meant it wasn’t even in their picture.
And last and most certainly least, our bus ride to Delhi. Let me try to summarize this as best I can. (By now, no aircon and all that stuff is a given.)
Bus showed up a half hour late. As it rolled up, its horn honked – an ear-splitting, obnoxious 7- or 8-note melody that was used extremely liberally throughout the drive and still haunts my dreams. We forgot rule #1 in India and did not run to board the bus immediately, which meant there was only one seat left when we boarded. No problem! You know that bench seat in the back, where 5 people can sit comfortably? They just pulled one of the 5 people who were already there, put him in the lone seat, and had us take his place.
Are you doing the math? 5-1+2=6. Six of
us shaing a space meant for 5. It
was cozy. And we made lots more stops before we left town to pick up even more people. Those guys? They all got to sit in that little space in between the door and the bus driver. (It could always be worse, right?) A couple of them tried to come squeeze in with us at one point, claiming that the bench had room for 7, so scoot over. (6+2=8, dude. And no, it doesn’t.) To everyone’s credit, none of us moved an inch.
As proof of how bad it must have been to sit up in that space in the front, about halfway through the trip, many of those people climbed a little ladder on the side of the bus while it was in motion and opted to ride on the roof for the duration of the ride. This is not a smooth ride. It’s a bumpy road, full of frequent, sudden full-stops, bumps, turns, and jerks from side to side. And they preferred to be on top of the bus instead of inside it and next to the driver.
Our 3 1/2 hour bus ride took 7 1/2 hot, sticky hours. And then, when we finally got off the bus in Delhi and jumped into the first rickshaw we could find...the rickshaw got a flat tire.
Womp wooooomp...
As proof of how bad it must have been to sit up in that space in the front, about halfway through the trip, many of those people climbed a little ladder on the side of the bus while it was in motion and opted to ride on the roof for the duration of the ride. This is not a smooth ride. It’s a bumpy road, full of frequent, sudden full-stops, bumps, turns, and jerks from side to side. And they preferred to be on top of the bus instead of inside it and next to the driver.
Our 3 1/2 hour bus ride took 7 1/2 hot, sticky hours. And then, when we finally got off the bus in Delhi and jumped into the first rickshaw we could find...the rickshaw got a flat tire.
Womp wooooomp...
Delhi highlights:
The street market (a legit market, not a friend's textile shop, thankyouverymuch).
People-watching at a huge mosque in Old Delhi (David has some killer pics of this).
All these people are waiting to take a picture with us. There were too many to document each individual shot, so I just got a shot of the crowd. What the what? Could somebody please explain this phenomenon to me?
Humayun's Tomb - it's like the Taj, only with sandstone and fewer people.
And then we got more pics with strangers (the monk may be my favorite of the whole trip).
Realizing just how dirty our feet got after all that walking around.
Sunset at the Lotus Temple. On a day that it was closed. Which we figured was okay, because we just wanted to take a picture from outside with all the lights, anyway. Except that it turns out that they don't bother turning the lights on when they're closed. (This is what we were trying to capture.) Sad.
Even so, pretty amazing building, no?
Thanks for the memories, India.
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