You Can't Take the Sky from Me

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Intermission

Well, clearly I got behind on the blog, because hey, hanging out with family and seeing India are more important to me than writing about it. We're headed to the airport today, and will be traveling for quite a while. Will probably not be posting anything until I get home. Except maybe during my 11 hour layover in the Chicago airport. In the mean time... here is picture of a large bird for you to contemplate.

Maybe you can't tell from the picture, but it is several feet tall. If anyone can identify it, that would be awesome. :)

Day 4 (January 1): And so we rested

In the morning, we video-chatted with Ravi and Dylan - yay!! Because we’d arrived so late, and were exhausted, we felt we had to change our itinerary so we would be able to appreciate the Taj Mahal. We spent the morning working on that. When we were down in the lobby after breakfast, Ekta (one of the fabulous people behind the reception desk) asked if we still were interested in upgrading our room (for free) to one with a Taj view. So we moved up two floors, looked out the window, and had our first view of the Taj Mahal. (Well, first view on this trip.) We had to take some pictures of the view and of our new (slightly fancier) room. Also, there were some people playing cricket on a rooftop. :)

We did some shopping in the hotel gift shops for a bit, and checked out the spa. I had every intention of getting some sort of massage, but every time we had down time from exploring, it just seemed more enticing to sleep.

All the guide books rave about seeing the Taj Mahal at sunrise and sunset, so we planned to see it that evening at sunset. When we went to the reception desk to ask the best way to get there, we were told that it closed at sunset. Also, it hadn’t been sunny at all, so there wouldn’t be any light reflecting off the marble. So, we thought we’d go around town a bit and explore, and try to get a peek at the Taj from a distance. Our tuk-tuk driver (that’s what they call the auto-rickshaws in Agra) drove us around and showed us various markets. We kept asking to be driven by the Taj Mahal, and he kept saying it was closed. We tried to convey that we just wanted to peek at it, but either he didn’t understand us, or we didn’t understand that there is just no way to do a drive-by of the Taj Mahal. We did a bit more gift-shopping, ate dinner, and went to bed. The food at this hotel was just amazing! Uppma and dosas and aloo for breakfast, paneer tikka and dal makhani for lunch, Indian buffet for dinner – we were very content.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Day 3 (December 31): A Fabulous Journey

Apparently we were not the only ones with the idea of spending New Year’s Eve in Agra. And apparently if we wanted a train from Delhi to Agra, we should have booked it a lot earlier. So. We ended up taking a cab. It was definitely an eye-opening experience. The roads were packed, and there was copious horn-honking and careening around various other cars, trucks, busses, auto-rickshaws, and motorcycles. Many of those were full of a lot more people than one would have seen in the States. Along the road we saw poverty like you don’t really see in the US. I tried to get some pictures, but we were going too fast for good clean shots. We saw tons of animals, many eating garbage, and people living in a variety of home-made shelters by the side of the road and on the edges of the fields. Parts were just beautiful, and parts were just heart-breaking, and reminded me how fortunate I am.

Eventually we made it to our hotel (note to self: print a map to your hotel so your cab driver can find it and/or double-check the phone number before you have no access to the internet). It was gated, and they had a mirror on a pole to check under the car (for bombs, I assume?). They also checked the engine before letting us in. We were greeted, and people unloaded the car for us. They took our luggage to be x-rayed, while we tipped our driver a *lot* because he presumably had to drive all the way back to Delhi on New Year’s Eve. Once we walked through the metal detector, it was like we entered a different world! Incense was waved around our heads, and a bindi was painted on our foreheads. The lobby was gorgeous! We were asked to sit while they checked us in, and they brought us lemonade. Mmmmmm. We asked if a Taj-facing room was available, but the hotel was full, so no joy. When we got to our room, we hardly cared about the view, because the room was so amazing. Marble screen (small), fancy carpets and lamps and bedding, a chaise lounge – very classy. Plus, it was dark, so we couldn’t enjoy a view anyway.

We rested a bit, and then went down to the “Gala New Year’s Eve Party.” The display of food was beautiful and varied (Indian, Continental, and Chinese). The entertainment was… well… entertaining. There was a band, but it seemed more like karaoke, with the playlist including songs like Hotel California, Hello (by Lionel Ritchie), Achy Breaky Heart, and others I’ve now forgotten. Julia wrote down the playlist though – maybe I can get her to post it later. Some dancers also performed – very nice. The party was not compelling enough, though, so we went to bed at 10:30, figuring we could welcome in the new year in the morning. J

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Day 2 (December 30): and a-sightseeing we go!

We started our day with room service breakfast (turns out that was included in the cost of the room, so, yay!). We chose “Indian Breakfast,” which included paratha (flat bread) stuffed with potato or paneer, fried eggs, white toast, and curd (yogurt), with tea/ coffee/ lassi to drink. Too much food, so we packed the parathas for lunch.

Lakhan came and drove us to the Red Fort, which was built by Shah Jahan (the same guy who built the Taj Mahal (well, really, he had other people build them). It is huge, with beautiful and diverse architecture. We stood in the “Ladies” line to get frisked and enter (the other line was “Gents,” and they had to climb up a couple steps and get frisked. Unclear why the women didn’t have the steps. We entered into a courtyard, which led to a string of shops, full of amazing shininess. I restrained myself, although it was a challenge (so many shiny, glittery, sparkly things!!!).

It was so peaceful there (after the shops), after the crazy loud roads full of trillions of people (Yes, it was trillions. I’m sure of it.) The buildings were made of red sandstone or marble. They had relief work carving, stone inlay, latticework and tons of other beautifulness. There was a marble throne, and there were buildings for public and private audiences with the emperor, living spaces (separate areas for women), animal fights, and more.

There was a garden with fountains and other water features (they weren’t functional any more). We saw an amazing tree – not sure what kind, and tons of chipmunks. Really an amazing place.

Here's a link to more pics from this day.

While waiting for Lakhan, we had about a million rickshaw and auto-rickshaw drivers offer us rides and tours of Old Delhi. Several hundred thousand people tried to sell us postcards and brochures about the fort. Horn-honking is possibly the most common form of communication we heard (there, or anywhere else we drove). Next, we went to Connaught Place for some shopping. Some guy offered to show us around the shops, and we sort of agreed (I thought we were agreeing to him pointing us in the right direction, but that was not the case).

He led us to the Kashmiri Emporium, where we looked at pashminas (which we didn’t buy) and saw some rugs (again, didn’t buy), and to an awesome wood-carving shop (where I got some elephant bookends). The two guys in the shop were promising magic boxes, so I had to give them shit about that. They were beautifully carved walnut boxes with tricks for opening them. The guy who showed them to us, Rizwan, was pretty good at sleight of hand, and said he was another David Blaine. He was unable to levitate on request, but did invite us into the shop for a Kashmiri tea called kawa – not really tea, but almonds, saffron, and cardamom in hot water. It was really really good!

Our unexpected and not-entirely welcome tour guide was waiting for us outside the store. He led us around for a bit, until we decided he wasn’t leading us anywhere useful or nearby. So we left. He wasn’t happy, but we gave him his tip and sent him on his way. Then we went back to the shops he’d led us past, and had a great time buying kurtas, kids’ outfits, shawls, and wall hangings. Yay!!!

For those of you prone to worrying, please don’t – we know to be cautious of people randomly offering to lead us to places, and approach it all with a healthy dose of skepticism and caution. We’re really pretty competent, so you needn’t worry, ok?

After that, it was home for a quick nap, and then over to see family, Amitava and Taponeel. They made us dinner (Bengali food), even though they had just gotten home from a trip that afternoon! The food was amazing!! We also had a great time talking with them, and the time flew. It was so good to see them. I maybe last saw them in 1989? Julia has seen them (or at least Amitava) more recently, though. What an awesome time we had with them – the perfect conclusion to a fabulous day!

Day 1 (December 28-29): Airport shenanigans

I finally have some time to blog, so let me catch you up. First, I will entertain you with stories of our silliness and awesomeness – two stories from airports. In Chicago, before we boarded, Julia was doing some fabulous dancing/ exercise to prepare for the long sitting-stillness of the airplane ride. People were cheering her, she was so awesome. I tried to get in on the action, and tagged her and ran away. Well. I tried to run away, but slipped on my really long pants and fell on my ass. Pretty classy, but entertaining for all the lookers-on. Sadly, no action pics, but here’s one of us waiting for the plane.

And then we got on the airplane. No upgrade to business or first class, but coach wasn’t bad. We got some sleep, but not as much as we wanted. The food was pretty awesome – Indian yumminess! Sixteen-ish hours later, we landed in Delhi!

No photography allowed in the Delhi airport, which was too bad, because there was a lot of beautiful art there. Also, some Christmas trivia, the most interesting being that there is apparently a famous town in Indiana (yes, IN, not India) called Santa Claus. Maybe it’s as famous as Christmas, MI?

Best part of the trip at that point? In customs, at the passport check, the guy looks up from my passport and stares at me and says, “You’re so cute!” Ummmm, thank you? Stares at both of us… “So innocent…” Yeah, um. Looks can be deceiving? (Well, maybe Julia’s innocent?) This view of our utter adorableness (adorability?) and innocence seems to be pervasive throughout India so far. Huh. It’s been nice having people watching out for us, though.

Our amazing cousin Lala lent us his driver for our time in Delhi, so Lakhan is waiting for us just outside the airport. Within 5-7 seconds of leaving the airport, we get pulled over by an officer on foot. It appears that our driver has put his seatbelt on only partway. Much yelling ensues. I’m not a big fan of yelling, and begin to get a bit uncomfortable. No need, it was resolved quickly, and now we are on our way to the hotel.

The freeways are insanely crowded. They are filled with cars and auto-rickshaws (natural-gas powered). Men are strolling along the fume-filled esplanade (meridian?) and along the shoulder. Pretty soon we start to see little stands selling chaat and drinks. I wanted to take a picture, but my brain was too fried after staying up all night the night before my flight, and then a long day of traveling. At last, we reach our hotel, settle in a bit, and collapse into our beds.

Here are some pics of our awesome shower.

OK, I'm blogging here again

Turns out I don't really like Tumblr for blogging, but it's good for showing pictures. I'll do the rest of my blogging here, with links to Tumblr for pictures.