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Published: April 29th 2008
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Jess and I thought for the length of our trip on how to describe India to all of you, but as usual you have to see it to believe it. Those of you who have visited other developing countries will be able to see the scene - there is a lot of trash, pollution, people and its HOT! The people are in general very nice, however Jess was less than thrilled at the behavior of men in the country. A lot of staring at foreign women with no shame in doing it. The dress of the Indian women in their beautiful sarees made all of our pictures bright and colorful. A bustling country worth seeing for sure.
The biggest cultural/social standout is the traffic. Best I can tell the right-away is not by direction or traffic laws it is determined by the size of your rig. So the numerous bicycle-rickshaws are lowest on the food chain (pedestrians don't even rank), then the auto-rickshaws, then the cars, then the camel/elephant/ox carts (I think), then the huge - WAY overloaded trucks (see photos), and then the buses - who don't stop for anyone including those who have to literally "run" and catch
The Taj Mahal from the Fort
The Taj Mahal from the Red Fort's Palace windows. the bus. There is however one thing they all give way for --- THE COWS! Now I know the origination of the exclamation: "Holy Cow!" Its been screamed by millions of Indians since the invention of the automobile and the many traffic accidents that India's National animal has caused.
We had planned to take trains most places but found it much more cost effective to take private cars for all but one cross country trip. (For travelers: the cost we paid worked out to around 5 rupees ($.12 USD) per km plus any tolls or taxes, for everything including driver...but not the tip).
While in Australia we had booked our first night in New Delhi (a great move on our part because after our less than exemplary service at customs/immigration by the Delhi airport staff upon arrival the last thing we wanted to do was find a hotel at 11pm). Our hotel in Delhi hooked us up with Om Prakesh of the Sea and Sky Travel Company (For Travelers: he was great with finding good, reasonably priced hotels in all the areas around Delhi, Agra, and Rajasthan although we got better deals with the private cars at the
From the Black Taj
This is the site of the foundation for the proposed Black Taj that was never built. It is quite a trip over a dodgy bridge to get here, but the view at sunset was amazing! individual hotels.) We would recommend his services, and enjoyed our hotels that he booked for us.
Our car picked us up in Delhi and we headed for the Taj Mahal in Agra. We had been waiting the whole trip to see the Taj Mahal...and we were not disappointed. We arrived in Agra in the afternoon, so we drove around the city to see the Taj from the other side of the river. The mogal's original plan was to build a white marble Taj for his wife and then a black marble Taj for himself on the opposite side of the river...to be joined by a gold bridge between them. The foundation for the black one is in place in a park across the river. It would have been beautiful, but his son figured out that while people are starving it is not all that smart to make them build tributes to your greatness. So the son ousted his dad and saved the local folks from starving, and most likely the family jewels...so I guess I can just imagine it in my mind just fine.
A side observation: the river that runs past the Taj Mahal is very Taj Mahal...looking back
The courtyard and the entry gates are amazing in their own right...but you never see pictures of them. So here is one. We have a ton more! polluted...it is a strange contrast to the beauty of the Taj Mahal and left a big impression on us.
The next day we got a guide from our driver and we went to see the clear 'New Seven Wonders of the World' winner up close. The inlaid, precious and semi-precious stone work is totally amazing. The work of the craftsmen on the details will just bowl you over. Our guide's name was Ronnet and he was perfect...talked just enough, and then let us see the sights for ourselves.
Another side note: Guides are no problem to find at any of the various monuments in India. However they believe that the amount of their tip will increase as long as they increarse the random information they give you and how much and how fast they talk. Sometimes you just wish they would shut up...Ronnet was perfect and made the whole day totally enjoyable.
We spent several hours walking around taking a ton of pictures...I suppose never enough. Jessica keeps telling me that if you could actually capture the moment in a picture than there would be no reason for anyone to see if for themselves...I keep trying to
Jessica and Ronnet at the Red Fort
Our guide Ronnet was THE BEST! He just knew when to give you information, and when to let you just walk around. Here is the inside of the Red Fort in Agra...great...but SO HOT! capture it all anyway. You can't take pictures inside the actual tomb area, but a few of you got postcard pictures of the inside....the detail of the work inside the actual Taj was just amazing.
Ronnet also took us to see the Red Fort where the royal families lived in Agra...it was fine, but in the heat of the day...ouch, it was HOT! Couple pictures and we were out of there.
We found out very quickly that every tour, trip, guide, car service in India was also a detour to a tourist shop of some kind. Carpets, leather, artwork, jewelry, marble, restaurants, souveniers...whatever you want...or didn't know you wanted. The driver and guide make part of their salary by dropping you by these places. That night we had a great time with a young kid who was the driver of our bicycle-rickshaw. He ended up telling us that he makes 10 rupees ($.25) for just getting us to one of these many shops and then 2% of whatever we spent, so we just spent the evening going from shop to shop with him making him some money and Jessica spending a little bit of money here and there.
Jaipur, the pink city and elephants
When Jess took the picture of me we had and elephant go by -- I took a picture of her with a camel cart going by. Once we realized the game...we just played along and had a great time, and we saw some cool stuff.
Also, the tourist restaurants are really good, and the food is not too hot (they tone it way down for us). We really love Indian food -- so the week was heaven.
The next day we booked a car from Agra to Jaipur (the pink city) in amazing Rajasthan. We stopped at the big fort along the way...it was fine. But what amazes you about Rajasthan is that every hill has a massive stone fort. Two questions, (1). how did you get anyone to build those things at the top of the hills in this heat, and (2) why would you need to defend this intensely hot desert from anybody and would they have the energy to fight you without AC? BTW: It was very hot and the sun was intense.
In Jaipur Mr. Prekash had arranged for us to stay in a former palace that was really wonderful. The downtown area is painted pink (or kind of orange now)....and the big palace and fort were called the Amber Fort. Here are some shots around the city for
The trucks that dominated the roads
These overloaded trucks OWNED the road. We got ran off the road by a truck like this numerous times. you to view. We also stopped at the City Palace...very nice and great history too.
Our guide was the opposite of Ronnet...nice guy..but would NEVER shut up. And we were so tired of shopping that we just couldn't see anymore shops. We gave him a big tip, but that was just to calm our guilt (mainly mine - Jessica has no guilt about saying "no!!!") of making him take us back to our hotel early.
We had a great time in Jaipur, but we were really excited about our trip to the National Park of Ranthambore and to go on safari to see the wild tiger!!!!
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