Sunday, August 19, 2007

Adventures in India-part 2-"Agra & Jaipur"

I'm back with the second installment of my India adventures. I think there should only be one more after this...or at least I hope so. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post all of this. It would probably help if I wasn't so OCD and ADHD. I want everything to look just right but I get distracted as I go along so it takes twice as long!

Friday, July 27--We packed up our goods and piled into our little car to hit the road for Agra which was supposed to be about a 4 hour drive. It was interesting to see the changes as we moved out of metropolitan Delhi...still tons of people everywhere on the outskirts. As we moved further away there was actually a lot of green space with towns that would pop up here and there. The craziest thing was seeing camels hooked up to carts (as if they were oxen or horses) pulling loads down the road! It was also crazy to see buses fly by with a bunch of people riding on the top!

I'm not sure what our driver had eaten that morning but let's just say I don't think it agreed with him. I would have given anything to not be sitting right behind him! Our driver stopped the car a number of times...just pulled over to the side of the road for no apparent reason and would disappear for a while. Later we stopped at this "motel" type place that had a bathroom if we needed it, a restaurant and a slew of overpriced souvenirs. Mind you, none of us had asked for a bathroom break but we soon learned that the driver had his route marked and stopped where he wanted no matter what.

It was a pretty long drive and we were grateful as we finally pulled into Agra. Our driver stopped at Akbar's tomb and we were grateful to stretch our legs and check out another site. It looked a lot like some of other tombs we had visited but there were some sort of antelope or something roaming the grounds. They had the craziest swirly antlers.


I really am quite impressed at how well preserved these sites seem to be. They are very old and I am sure that a ton of people visit them each year. But I think there is great care taken to maintain and restore them. We had to walk down this long tunnel to get to the actual tomb and were surprised to find some random guy there "standing guard" and doing some weird chant. But it was definitely a pretty cool place.




Our driver then took us to our hotel--Holiday Inn Agra (yes, we decided to splurge a bit and enjoy a more "American" atmosphere.) It was very obvious that this was a higher class establishment than where we had previously stayed. We even had a cool doorman in full Maharaja costume. It was strange to walk on carpet again but we were pulled back to Indian reality when we saw that the rollaway bed again consisted of a folded wooden platform.

We got to the hotel in the early afternoon so we had a whole evening ahead of us. Heidi was really wanting to go see a Bollywood film so we talked to the front desk and they pointed us in the direction of the local mall. The mall was actually pretty normal although you had to buy the movie tickets on the ground level and the theater was on the top level. Weird.

Anyway, we chose to see the movie "Partner"--not only had the hotel recommended it to us, but it happened to be showing at just the right time. People kept looking at us like we were crazy..."You know the movie is in Hindi, right?" Little did they know it was more for the experience than anything. Anyway, the theater was actually really nice and had comfy seats. We were on the very back row as this is the reserved seating they gave us even though the theater wasn't very full.

So, here's the lowdown on Bollywood films in case you haven't seen one (try Bride and Prejudice if you're interested in learning more.) Anyway, these films are 3 hours long with an intermission...yes, an intermission in the middle! Randomly during various parts of the movie it cuts away to these massive song and dance numbers that have nothing to do with the plot. Hysterical! Plus people in the theater are clapping and standing up all during the show when they see something they like. Part way into the movie we realized that "Partner" is almost a perfect rip-off of "Hitch" so even though it was in Hindi we had a good idea of what was. All in all it was prett fun and I'm glad we got to experience it. Our little driver was waiting for us outside the mall and took us back to the hotel for the night.

Saturday, July 28--We got up really early...5-something to drive to the back side of the Taj Mahal to watch the sunrise. To get there we had to drive through some pretty poor parts of town...people sleeping all along the road and shanties made of tarps and plastic and whatever people could find. I was surprised to see how many people were out and about at that early hour. We got to the end of this road and had to walk down through some fields. Mosquitos kept biting us and we were sure we would all get malaria from it!

Sadly, it was way too cloudy and we never saw the sun come up. But it was nice to see the Taj...we practically had it all to ourselves except for some Indians that came to gawk at the 3 whities taking pictures! We got some good shots, including Heidi and I playing London Bridge with the Taj...yeah, yeah, I know...tacky tourist photo but it was just too funny.

We went back to the hotel and took a nap before getting ready and heading out for the day. Our first stop was Agra Fort and our driver asked if we wanted to use the company tour guide for the day. We said yes and boy was that the best decision we could have ever made. Our guide was Raj and he is officially my second favorite Indian (after Boddu.) There were a ton of vendors outside the fort and we were swarmed the minute we got out of our car. This was true in a number of places and probably on of my biggest pet peeves about India.

Agra Fort is a very impressive complex and it was nice to have a guide. It is across the city from the Taj and you can see it from different areas of the fort. The builder of the Taj was actually later imprisoned in Agra Fort and had to look upon his beautiful creation from his confinement. The Fort also boasted a couple of moats to improve its security and many beautiful areas designed by different members of the reigning family such as one daughter who loved the light and wanted lattice work with large spaces and another who hated light and wanted lattice work with very small spaces.

After the Fort we headed back to the hotel to meet up with Candice's coworker Melissa who had traveled up from Bangalore. We then went to have the full Taj Mahal experience. All I can say is that this place definitely deserves its spot as a Wonder of the World!! The intial view is so breathtaking and it seems almost surreal to be standing there taking it all in. The outside structure is amazing, but once inside it's just like any other tomb. And to think that this was all built as a tribute to the love one man had for a woman! Not to mention that many workers and designers either had their tongues cut out or their thumbs, hands or arms amputated so it could never be recreated!

I think I have never been as hot in my entire life as I was at the Taj. I honestly thought it would possibly be my last day on earth. But I figure, if you're gonna go there are a lot worse places to be buried than the Taj Mahal. Worst case scenario they could have just thrown me in there next to old what's-her-name! I didn't know my body could produce that much sweat and not get any cooler!

After we finished Raj took us to learn about artisan work that was used in the building of the Taj--specifically marble inlay work (all of the designs in the Taj are inlay, not paint.) Precious stones are crafted and used as inly design in the marble. This type of work is of Persian origin and all of the workers were brought in from Iran. This artisan work is still performed today...mainly as restoration work for the Taj. The learning of this work is a closely guarded family secret...those who do it now are the 12th generation descendants of the original Taj workers and are paft ofa family guild 7,000 strong. Part of the year they work to restore and maintain the Taj and the rest of the year they create artisan pieces to keep their skills honed. It was interesting to see them working. We were then led to the show room where we all ended up buying something...most of us got something small because it was expensive. But with something as unique as that, how could you pass it up.

It was getting late in the afternoon and our driver was pretty anxious to get on the road. We were supposed to have stopped at more ruins (Fatehpur Sikri) on the way out of town but with 5 hours ahead of us we opted just to get on the road. What followed was honestly the drive from hell. Not only was the road bad, it was under consruction and I would not suggest driving at night. I was claustrophobic (we now had 5 of us crammed in a small car) and the lights from oncoming cars gave me a headache. It was honestly just miserable and I thought we would NEVER get there.

After what seemed like an eternity, we finally arrived in Jaipur and checked into what is quite possibly the coolest hotel I have ever seen--the Umaid Bhawan. Highly recommended to anyone who might be going to Jaipur. We had a huge suite with stained glass windows, great Indian furniture and decore and a huge bathroom with a shower and separate tiled shower/huge tub thing. We stayed there on advice from one of my old college roommates and it was great.


Sunday, July 29--We got up in the morning and left for Amber Fort. On the way we drove through the old part of the city which is all painted pink. Hence, Jaipur is also known as the Pink City. We drove up through some hills to the base of the fort and were then able to ride an elepant to the top where the entrance is. How cool is that?! Once up top I made the mistake of taking out a bag of candy to give some to some kids and was promptly accosted by children and grown men alike who all wanted to get their hands on some. I didn't think it was possible, but the vendors in Jaipur were even more aggressive than in Agra and we were grateful once we entered the actual fort and were out of their reach.

Again, this was a really cool complex. It was different than the
other places we had seen because it is not built out of red sandstone and is also set up in the hills. There was so much cool architecture and lots of great photo opportunities. We had to walk back down the big hill to get back to our car and were hassled by more people trying to sell us stuff...I've never met so many persistent/pushy sales people in my life!


We went back to Jaipur and opted out of paying more money to tour the inside of the City Palace. It just didn't look that interesting. We paid a minimal fee to wander around this dumb outdoor astronomy thing that made no sense. Then as we came around the corner we ran into the coolest thing in the whole world--genuine snake charmers! We all stood there practically in shock. I think we were almost just as mesmerized as the snakes were! It was crazy!! You can see a short video here...

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to do some shopping as Jaipur is supposed to be famous for jewelry (particularly silver), silk and other things. We really did not have a positive experience shopping here (just ask Heidi about the pushy silk bedspread guy) and because of the pushy agressive people trying to sell us stuff we really had a bad taste in our mouth about Jaipur in general. We stopped in to grab a quick bite to eat before we had to get Candice and Melissa to the airport it was sad to see Candice leave but I am so glad we got to spend a few days with her. Heidi and I were pretty much done battling the people of Jaipur so we just went back to hotel, wrote some emails and relaxed the rest of the evening.

TO BE CONTINUED....

2 comments:

Cory or Cari said...

I am tired just reading about this adventure. Add jet lag to the mix and no wonder you were so wiped out when you got home.

Alyssa said...

For a second I thought you said you were tired of reading about it! Maybe the jet lag is still making my brain run slowly. But now I catch your drift. It was a pretty full trip...fortunately for all of us there is only one installment left!