Jaipur and Agra

We two kings in the orient are

Bearing gifts and traveling far

Have you seen the Darjeeling Limited? You know the beginning, with Bill Murray chasing the train? Well, when leaving Mumbai, we were Adrian Brody in that scene.  We had to rush to the railway station to catch the train and we got there right as it was about to leave.  We walked up and down the train looking for our compartment, but we couldn't find it.  Indian trains don't have very good signage, they just expect you to know where to go.  Finally, after five or so minutes of panicked searching, with huge bags on our backs, the train started to move and we dove on to the closest car to us.  As it turned out, this was the "Ladies Only" Car and the ladies inside were none too pleased to see two foreign invaders in their space.  Luckily, the train stopped again before taking off for good and we were able to find our proper place.  We were officially on our way to the Pink City, Jaipur.

The trip to Jaipur was mostly uneventful, although our cabin had a resident mouse that reared his tiny, ugly head a few times. John almost screamed like a girl a few times, but he maintained. Jaipur is an interesting city, mostly pink...well, entirely pink...and it is HOT. Seriously, obnoxiously hot. And, per usual, the AIESEC people who we contacted to get us a place to stay were unreliable and put us up in the tiniest little room imaginable. No A/C, one bed, and a thin-as-a-pancake mattress on the floor. Plus we had to pay to stay there (only 400 Rps. total, which amounts to about $8) for two nights.  Plus cows for neighbors! (They were nice though, never too loud and they brought us a pie as a housewarming gift).  After sorting out our accommodations, we ventured out to the old city to find a restaurant.  This was when we realized just how pink Jaipur actually is.  All of the buildings are washed in the same pinkish-red color and it creates a very strange yet picturesque scene.  We wandered around, enjoying the architecture, until we came across the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds.  Since the whole thing is pink it kind of appeared out of nowhere and took us by surprise.  It is a beautiful, five story palace, with ornate and intricate windows and molding.  Also, it is only one room thin.  As we stood in awe, staring at the building, a man approached us and invited us to his shop on the second floor for a better view.  We went up the stairs and, indeed got a great view, without all the merchants on the street barking at us.  We also ended up buying some things from the man's shop, so I guess it was a good business plan by him.  He also gave us free beer and we chatted for a while, so it was a fun shopping experience.  After that we walked around the bazaars for a while longer, but we were pretty tired from our travels so we retired to our sweatbox for the night.

Hawa Mahal

In the morning we set out for Amber Fort, one of the coolest and most beautiful palace-forts ever.  It is a centuries-old building that sprawls across the mountain.  There is another fort above it as well, with a big Great Wall of China style wall around it.  We wandered around for several hours, exploring different rooms and taking a ton of pictures.  There was a garden that was especially cool looking and a room with the walls all mosaiced with tiles and mirrors.  It's hard to find the words to do this place justice.  We will just have to let the pictures speak for themselves.  After Amber Fort, we went to the water palace, which was built in the middle of a lake.  You can't go inside it, but we walked around the promenade in front of it and took a lot of pictures. Very beautiful. Again, wait for the pictures. During our picture-taking, we met two Indian guys who of course wanted to talk to us because we are foreigners. These two will come in to play later in our story. Our very exhausting day culminated with some American-style indulgences: McDonald's and a showing of Terminator (which is way awesome, by the by).

Day three in Jaipur was the craziest day of all. In the morning we received a phone call from one of the Indian guys we met the previous day. He invited us to his music shop to hear him play his instruments. We went to the address on his business card, which turned out to be his house. It was in the back of some winding streets and down an alley, so naturally we were a little skeptical. There was no music shop, but rather his whole family's residence. They showed us a video of their performances, and then played a bit on their Sarangi and Tablas. It was a weird, but interesting and certainly a non-touristy experience. Like everyone else in this country, they wanted money for their performance, but did not give us a hard time when we refused. Following our departure, we visited the Jantar Mantar, which is a large collection of astronomical instruments. It consists of a vast courtyard with about twenty objects of various shapes, colors, and sizes which are used to make measurements of astronomical bodies. It was very cool to see, but not the most interesting aspect of our journey. On our way out, we chanced upon Dana, a friend from Bangalore.  When I visited Bangalore we had talked about traveling together, but the timing didn't work out.  I never expected to see her again, but while we were walking down a random back alley she appeared out of nowhere.  It's crazy how these things can happen.  She was on her way somewhere else though, so we decided to meet up for dinner later.  After that, we met up with another friend, from Hyderabad, and had some lunch.  The waiter was doubtful when we said we could handle spicy food, but he made us one of the best chicken masalas that we've had so far.  

Once we were properly satiated, we traveled to the easternmost point of Jaipur to visit the monkey temple.  By climbing a huge mountain and then descending into the valley between two granite peaks, we found an ancient temple that has been overtaken by monkeys.  As we gazed at one rock wall, it looked like it was moving because of the hundreds of monkeys climbing down it.  Again, we took a ton of pictures of monkeys and the scenery, which will be available for your viewing pleasure in the next few days.  On our walk back up the mountain from the monkey temple we noticed another temple at the apex.  We climbed the rest of the way up to the peak and found ourselves at the Temple of the Sun God.  This is a typical Hindu temple, but with a stunning view of Jaipur.  We got bracelets from the caretaker and looked around for a while.  You have to take your shoes off when you enter a Hindu temple, so we left ours outside by the door.  As we were leaving, we noticed that John's sandals were missing.  The caretaker told us that they were probably snatched by monkeys.  Given my past experience with monkey theft and our close proximity to hundreds of the little devils, I was not surprised.  We searched around the grounds of the temple for a few minutes, but found no sign of the flip flops.  It was only after we had given up and I had given John my socks to wear that the caretaker discovered that it was no monkey at all, but his little girl who had stolen the sandals and hid them away in the closet.  Relieved that we didn't have to walk down a mountain in just socks, or in shoes without socks, we made our way back to ground level.

On our way to meet Dana for dinner, I asked for directions from a guy on the road.  He was very helpful and directed us right to the restaurant, but he had one request in return.  He wanted me to write a letter for him to a friend in Australia.  I told him that we would be eating and that I had no time, but he said it was no problem, he would just come meet us at the restaurant.  He was a nice guy and did help us out, so I consented.  When we got the restaurant it turned out to be a pretty cool place, on a rooftop.  We had a great view and enjoyed some delicious food.  Our new friend actually came up to the roof and joined us at our table, where he proceeded to dictate a love letter to me.  I wrote his words down and then read them back to him in a dramatic voice, really putting on the yearning fervor of long-lost love.  He ended up staying with us through our entire meal, which was OK because he was an interesting fellow, with a lot to tell us about Hinduism.  After dinner he wanted to do a favor for us since we had helped him out with his letter (Karma and all), so he took us to his jewelry shop and let us pick out one gem each, for free.  Then he gave Dana a private Astrology reading while John and I waited outside, growing more impatient as time passed.  Finally, around 11:30, they finished their meeting and we said our goodbyes.  Then we went back to our sauna, packed up and left for the train station and for a short trip to Agra, where the Taj Mahal awaited us.

The train for Agra left at 2 am and arrived at 6 am, so our first course of action was to find a hotel and go back to sleep, which we did with great vigor and enthusiasm. The hotel we found ended up being very cool and cheap (again, only 400 Rps.). On the rooftop was a small restaurant with a view of the Taj Mahal. This constituted our first in-person glimpse of the building, and it most literally took our collective breath away. Following an early-afternoon All-American breakfast, we left for the Taj (as it shall henceforth be referred to). As we found at other attractions, the entry fee for foreigners was significantly higher than for Indians...we paid 750 Rps., while natives pay only 100 Rps. It was completely worth it. Imagine every picture you have ever seen of the Taj. No matter how beautiful the photo, it could never capture how wonderful it is in person. One enters the grounds through a magnificent gate that could pass as an attraction on its own. Through the gate, a long pond stretches between green grass and beautiful gardens right up to the steps of the Taj. It is similar to the Mall in Washington D.C., but much more impressive. It is difficult to put into words what it's like to see such a marvel of design and engineering in person.  The intricacy of the monument and the beauty are mostly indescribable.  We spent hours there, simply gazing at the building (and of course taking pictures).  As we walked up to the Taj we were in awe and not quite convinced that it was actually real.  It was only when we touched the marble with our own hands that we realized it was more than a dream.  As we walked around the gardens and auxiliary buildings, it was easy to forget that the Taj was right there.  Every time we would turn around and see it again, it stopped us dead in our tracks.  I hope that everyone reading this has a chance to see this building in person at some point in his or her life.  They didn't make it one of the Seven Wonders of the World for nothing, you know.  Unfortunately, we did not get a beautiful day to go along with the beautiful scene.  It rained on and off the whole time we were there and towards the end it began to monsoon.  The rain was coming down so hard that it stung when it hit our skin and we had to run for cover even though we were already soaked.  We had put in a good three or four hours at that point anyway, so we decided to call it a day and walk back to our hotel.  The trek got us even more soaked than we thought possible and the road up to our hotel was flooded so we had to wade through shin-high plague water to get back inside.  Once alee from the storm we promptly scrubbed our feet, legs, and sandals in order to eradicate any parasites or poop particles.  We spent the rest of the day on the covered roof in our boxers, airing out and gazing at the Taj.  It's impossible to grow tired of the sight of it (I even went back up on the roof in the middle of the night and was captivated by its silhouette in the darkness).

We slept well that night, knowing that the most anticipated day of our trip had been just as incredible as we had hoped.  This morning we woke up and boarded a train to Delhi, where we are now.  It is a bit strange to realize that we are at our last stop before returning to the good ol' U.S. of A, but we are also very excited to be home.  See you in a few short days (the 13th to be exact).  Get excited!