Jaipur

From Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, we continued by car to the "Pink City" of Jaipur in the state of Rajasthan. Jaipur is in a hilly area; as we entered, the road wound uphill through narrow walls.  We stayed at a lovely hotel, Le Meridien (pronounced by the locals as "Lee Meriden") where we were greeted with music, marigold necklaces, and cool drinks.  They didn't have our reservation, but they upgraded us to a suite anyhow.  This hotel places an emphasis on local arts -- in the evening they had drumming, dancing, and a Rajasthani puppet show.  The elevator featured a soundscape that made you feel as if you were being flushed -- that part was just weird.  We found a rooftop bar and had pizza under the stars.

Our first tourist destination was the Amber Fort, built by a maharajah about 400 years ago.  Our guide, Sunil, was great at creating images of what the palace was like in its heydey.  The palace featured a central sleeping area covered with small mirrors that would have reflected candlelight and moonlight.  This would have been richly carpeted and hung with silk curtains blowing in the evening breeze.  There was an early form of air conditioning involving water & air currents.  Underground passages provided a secret means to travel from one palace-fort to another.  It was fascinating.

At the end of the tour, Sunil took us to the "official" store where we learned about the traditional methods used for block printing and carpet weaving.  This was all part of a sales pitch of course. We were tempted by some beautiful carpets, very reasonably priced, but we just don't do that on vacation.

Early risers can ride elephants (locals say "elly-fants") up the hill to the fort.  We were lucky enough to see them bathing in the afternoon, and in the streets again later.  Steve fed some rolls to one from the car window -- it was fun but a little scary too.

The other site on our list was Jantar Mantar, a 400-year-old observatory.  (Interesting that most of the sites we've seen have been about the same age.  I guess it was the Indian Renaissance.)  It had just been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Our driver couldn't find the place at all the first day, but we went back the next morning and I'm so glad that we did.  The place was like a sculpture garden, but instead of art they had very large scale astronomical "instruments."  This first picture, for example, is a sundial.  It's said to be accurate within two seconds.  Pretty impressive that this maharajah chose to use his power and wealth for scientific (or at least astrological) purposes.

The observatory was peaceful and green.  There were some workers cutting the grass, but no one was trying to sell us anything or take us anywhere.  All of a sudden, a whole bunch of monkeys appeared and ran along the wall.  We took lots of photos.  Here's one of the best.

The Taj Mahal

After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to see the Taj Mahal.  Ved took us to a parking area where we hired a horse-drawn rickshaw to take us the last half-mile to the gate.  Steve bought our tickets, which included 2 bottles of water (warm) and paper covers for our shoes. I was mobbed by hawkers while waiting in the rickshaw, but I'm okay with that.  After awhile they started imitating my "No thank you" refrain. 

We had hired a guide, Aboshek, who was quite knowledgeable.  He made sure we noticed the little details:  The towers -- minarets really -- on the corners are tilted slightly so they look straight from a distance.  They were once open to the public but had to be closed because they attracted too many suicidal lovers.  The black calligraphy is bigger at the top than the bottom so it looks even from the bottom.  The black-and-white chevron striping is flat, but it creates a 3-D illusion.  The marble is inlaid with precious stones that glow in light.  The whole thing is completely symmetrical except for the emperor's tomb, which was added after it was finished.

The emperor didn't want the marble workers to create another Taj when his was done, so he made them promise never to work again. According to Aboshek, he could have cut off their hands, but instead he created a village for them and provided for all their needs. Although they couldn't work themselves, they taught the stone-working arts to their children, who carry on the tradition today.  This romantic little tale turned out to be the start of a sales pitch.  We didn't buy.

It was very hot, over 100 degrees, and humid. If you look closely at the picture of us above, you'll see sweat running down my face. And that photo was taken right aftger we got there. When we got up to the monument itself we had a choice of removing our shoes or donning the shoe covers. We went barefoot; the dark stone in front of the monument was HOT but the white marble was nice and cool.

When we were finished looking at the monument itself, we put our shoes back on and strolled through a shady garden. What a relief!

Despite the free botles of water & shoe covers, I am happy to say that we saw no litter at the Taj Mahal.

The Road (to Agra)

I read a book called The Road to Agra when I was a kid.  I had forgotten all about it until this trip.  I would like to find it and read it again.

Once we got out of the Delhi traffic jam, it took about 4 hours to arrive in Agra.  Ved, our driver for this trip, is adept at Indian-style driving.  You must constantly weave to avoid a myriad of obstacles:  cows, dogs, goats, donkeys, people, auto-rickshaws, motorcycles, trucks, tractors, horse-drawn carts, speed bumps ("breakers"), potholes.    At each village, you face the congestion of the local bazaar, where the crowds, goods, and pushcarts take up the sides of the roadway. 

Most of the commercial vehicles are colorfully decorated with images of gods, animals, the Indian flag and other emblems.  Many trucks are adorned with black tassles -- for good luck.  The backs of trucks are lettered with signs -- typically requesting other drivers to Blow Horn.  Honking is extremely important because it lets everyone else know you're coming through on one side or the other so they should watch out. 

There were many stops to pay tolls and taxes, or to show that we had already paid the tolls and taxes. The hawkers and beggars hang out at these spots, knocking on the windows of the car to get your attention.  There was even a guy with a monkey.  We had been advised,  "If you look at the monkey, the man will want money, and if you pay the man then everyone else will want money too" -- so we strenuously avoided looking at the monkey, even though it was pressed right up against the car window.

At last we arrived at our hotel, the ITC Mughal, where we were greeted with signs asking our forgiveness for construction work in progress.  Uh-oh.  I was already very anxious because all of our arrangements had been made at the last possible moment by someone else.  And then they told us we'd been upgraded and showed us to to a suite and opened the door to a beautiful, cool suite with the best bathroom ever.  Steve said the tub was "almost too big."  Plus an unbelievable massage chair (it did a complete 14-minute program of neck rolls, shoulder thumps, leg squeezes...). 

The property was beautiful, with singing birds, butterflies, green lawns, and an arboretum. 

Before the sun set that night, we had a chance to walk up to the observatory where we got our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal in the distance.

Delhi Revisited

Guess what?  There's a lot more to India than Hyderabad.  This week we are vacationing in the Golden Triangle, visiting Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Udaipur in northern India.

I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Today Gurgaon (that's the official name of the hotel) when I first arrived in India in May.  Unfortunately, I was sick most of the time then.  Now I'm fully acclimated. 

New Delhi seems  so much more orderly than Hyderabad.  The drivers stay in their lanes most of the time and they don't honk their horns so much.  We didn't see any gigantic holes in the ground, and very few abandoned, unfinished buildings.  Plus, compared to a few months ago, the landscape was much greener.  What I thought was a DMZ turned out to be a horse-pasture.

Our flight arrived around midnight, but the luggage and driver both showed up quickly.  Heading to the hotel, we noticed many processions of young men dressed in orange, carrying these yoke-like  things.  Turns out there's a big Shiva festival on August 8.  For the next several days, we continued to see similar processions, accompanied by blaring music, and also noticed that many women wore orange.  Kind of like the wearing of the green for St. Patrick's day.

We stayed up waaay too late in the bar with a Brit named Mick.  Next morning, Steve enjoyed the best shower of his life with the Rainforest Shower (kind of like the Commando 450 that Kramer bought in that Seinfeld episode, only used to wash elephants).  We thought we'd take a quick tour of the major sights before heading out to Agra.  Unfortunately, even on Saturday, we got bogged down in traffic.  Delhi is hosting the Commonwealth Games in a few months, and there are a lot of "diversions" (detours) due to construction.

Nevertheless, we visited the India Gate, which is a monument to the soldiers who died in World War I.  It's pretty impressive, kind of like the Arc de Triomphe.  Since it's a major tourist attraction, there were lots of hawkers, including our first snake charmer.  Steve is scared by snakes and is completely intolerant of hawkers, so this was not his favorite scene.  I am fascinated by everything and everyone, enjoying the people more than the monument.  This will be a theme for the whole journey.

More tomorrow.

Sights of Hyderabad

This weekend we really stepped up the pace of our sight-seeing.   Yesterday, we went to Lumbini Park on Hussain Sagar Lake, known for its big Buddha statue.  The park itself isn't much.  You can take a ferry over to the big Buddha from there, but we didn't do that.  It was a mostly sunny day, and we noticed lots of young couples spending time together.  It rained for a little while and we took shelter under a big banyan tree.  As always, any time we stop to rest is a great photo opportunity for everyone else.  I use these opportunities to get my own shots of everyday people.

From the park, we could see Birla Mandir up on a hill.  It's a Hindu temple made of white Rajasthani marble. We were surprised to find out that it's only 40 or so years old.    This is the first place we've been where we were required to remove our shoes, and we also had to check the camera.  It was definitely the most serene place we've been.  There were individual shrines dedicated to different Hindu deities -- Ganesh, Shiva, and others I can't name.  Interestingly, there were also carved panels about Confucius, Moses, and Jesus.  We climbed up and up to the top and were rewarded with cool breezes and expansive views of the city. 

We finished up our day by going to Shilparamam, an Indian crafts village that was built by the government to preserve the traditional ways, or so they say.   Maybe the government just wanted a piece of the action.  Steve befriended a stray dog while I shopped for a few more souvenirs and textiles.  I would have bought a lot more fabric there, but we had already used up most our energy and needed to head back to the hotel.

Today we went to Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad's version of the MGM Studio theme park at Disney World.  First we had to travel by car for about 90 minutes through the city, finally emerging into green and hilly countryside.  Once inside the gates of the park, it was about a 15-minute bus ride to the attractions.  Along the way we passsed various statuary (a painted Venus-on-the half-shell, for example), whimsical landscaping, and fountains (usually not working, for reasons I can't explain).  We went on a little ride that was very much like It's a Small World, only cheesier.  Then we went to the Movie Magic show, where they picked some people out of the audience to be in a little movie, do sound effects with Foley equipment, and the like.  After that, it was a Tower of Terror ride where we got sprayed with water and tickled by "rat's tails."   If you'be been to Disney World, this will all sound a bit too familiar.  Can you say trademark infringement?