On Thursday, December 30th, we started the morning out by going to the place where Ghandi was cremated. There is an eternal flame that burns there to remember his legacy. After that, we drove into old Delhi where we met up with our tour guide. She explained to us a lot about the history and layout of Delhi. We then started our journey through the city. It was a very dreary day, raining off and on all day long. Old Delhi is not a very modern city at all. The various temples definitely stand out as diamonds in the rough. Sadly, most people in old Delhi look to live in poverty. It seems each of them has a shop selling the same cloth and materials as everyone else throughout town. I honestly don’t see how they make a living.
The buildings in Delhi are more disorganized and rundown than I could have ever imagined. We were told that no one really knows who owns which property and buildings so it is hard to implement reconstruction. The locals just build on where they need. The buildings appear filthy, disorganized and dangerous. I really like to be organized so Delhi honestly stressed me out. After we ate lunch, there were a few highlights that lightened our hearts. We got to see the largest mosque in India. It was very cool to see. We climbed to the top of one of the minerets. It was quite the view.
We concluded our visit in old Delhi by visiting the Red Fort. It was really neat to see the differences between the Indian and British buildings within the fort.
After the Red Fort, we traveled to New Delhi where we visited the Imperial New Delhi Hotel. It was fascinating and quite the contrast to what we had seen earlier that day. Honestly, it is probably the fanciest hotel I have ever been in. We went in and relaxed for a while at one of the restaurants inside. Afterwards we traveled back to the hotel to catch up on some more sleep.
On Friday, December 31, we began the day by visiting a museum in Delhi. They had a bunch of different art work and sculptures along with various huts and shelters that have been used by people across India over the years. After we were done touring there, we went to a very new and impressive Hindu temple called the Akshardham Temple. The architecture and sculpture was incredible. All of the columns and domes have extraordinary detail put into them. I’ve never seen such a piece of art. It is hard for me to imagine how much money was spent on the temple or how much time it took to build.
After touring the temple, we traveled into New Delhi for lunch at a sports bar. Cricket seemed to be the most popular sport. We watched a few matches while we ate and had already passed many live games in parks along the roadside. In the afternoon, we traveled through the government complex in colonial New Delhi. It was impressive to see. We also exchanged some more money. Luckily, I got along fine. But, the machine did eat my roommate Chandon’s debit card. We traveled back to our hotel for the evening to bring in the New Year! We went to the nearby McDonalds for a snack. Surprisingly, their fries tasted the same as in America. They were delicious!! So long 2010!!
On January 1st, we started the day by visiting the Qatar Minar. It was an ancient place of worship that had housed many different religions. When the Muslims took it over from the Hindus, they built their mosque with the remains of the Hindu temple. Out of disrespect, the flipped many of the Hindu sculptures upside down.We then traveled to the Lotus Temple of the Bahai faith. It had a really neat design. The Bahai faithis interesting. They bring up many good points, but I still do not entirely understand their religion. Once we were done touring there, we went to have an American lunch to celebrate the New Year! It was delicious!! I have never been so happy to have bacon and pancakes. After lunch we went to an observatory. The instruments were neat to see but I enjoyed climbing on them as much as anything.
We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. I was excited to buy a Mountain Dew from one of the street vendors. It was the first one I had since we left the U.S. The shops we went to had a lot of neat things. I ended up breaking down and buying a nice chess set. I learned that chess was actually started in India many centuries ago...I figured that should at least justify my purchase. I ended up buying quite a few gifts. The low prices made things hard to resist. When we were done shopping we came back to the hotel. I took a quick shower. I have found the trick to keeping the water warm is to cut the water on and off when applying soap and shampoo :) After another brief trip to McDonalds I began to catch up on emails. To my surprise, I actually had access to Facebook. I uploaded all the pictures I had taken so far. Once they were done uploading I went to bed to prepare for an early morning.
On Sunday, January 2nd, we woke up at 5:00 a.m. to leave for Jaipur. After packing all of our belongings we had a short breakfast. We got to meet some of the students from the University of Virginia who had arrived during the night. I was excited that my fleet of Virginians showed up! We loaded the bus and began making our way to Jaipur. The roads were extremely bumpy. I would bet almost all of our cattle pastures back home are smoother. When we arrived in Jaipur we got lost for about an hour trying to find our hotel. Turns out there is not a very effective map for Jaipur because most of the streets are not named. When we finally arrived at our hotel we were all impressed with how nice it was. The floors were all made of marble and the rooms were quite fancy. They also had free wifi which was very nice. After eating a late lunch we headed to the center of the city where we spent the evening shopping around many of the local shops. Once we were done shopping, we got to ride in rickshaws to our bus. They were a lot of fun. Given how people drive over there, though, I still prefer the bus. When we got back to the hotel we were on our own for supper. Bradon, Chandon and I were rooming together so we ordered two pizzas from Dominos. The pizzas did not have tomato sauce, but it was still nice to have American food. We then showered and went to bed. It was really nice to have a shower with hot water and pressure!
On Monday, January 3rd, we woke up and went for a walking tour around part of Jaipur. Jaipur is also known as the Pink City. We got to go into a few temples and a hospital. Although the hospital looked relatively nice for India, it reassured me that I did not want to get sick. The walking tour took a couple hours and our guide was very informative. We, however, were excited about the next part of our journey: going to Amber Fort to ride elephants! We loaded back up in the bus and headed that direction. On the way we passed a palace that appeared to be floating in the middle of the lake. I wish we could have gone to see it! When we got to Amber Fort we were disappointed; an important government official had passed away so the monuments were all closed for the day.
Since it was closed, we went back to the center of town and visited the palace. We ate lunch at a local McDonalds and then took auto rickshaws into town. Those little buggies are fun! They don’t handle potholes that well though. We shopped for a while and then headed back to the hotel. We got to take auto rickshaws again!! We ate at the hotel restaurant and loafed around the rest of the evening. I was really glad the hotel had free wifi. I was finally able to Skype my parents and upload photos to Facebook. We packed our bags and went to sleep.
On Tuesday, January 4th, we woke up early to go ride elephants. Unfortunately, Lauren woke up sick. Although she wasn’t feeling the best, we still loaded up and headed back to Amber Fort. We waited in line to ride the elephants. While we were waiting, locals were constantly trying to sell us items. By this point in our trip we had already become accustomed to it. It is a lot different than the United States. The people selling things would ask double or triple the price they actually wanted and then negotiate with those who were even remotely interested in buying. They became aggravating, but I eventually bought a turban for the elephant ride for 300 rupees.
Jenna and I rode an elephant together. Our elephant was really fast and our guide was nice. He took a lot of pictures of us. When we got to the top, we waited on the others and then walked back down. There were a tremendous amount of pigeons along the sidewalks. We had fun scaring them while we waited on the bus. We boarded the bus and headed toward Agra. After a couple hours we stopped in a village to see the largest step well in India. It was an incredible site. I can’t imagine how long it took to build. It was connected to an underground water supply and captured rain from the monsoons as well. This stop was my favorite on the trip. After we saw the step well we got to go walk around the rural village and find lunch. Although I didn’t find too much to eat, I enjoyed seeing what life was really like for those who did not live in the city. When we left, we got to drive through a lot of farmland. They grow a lot of mustard and rice in this part of the country.
After driving for a couple hours we had to stop for a bathroom break and lunch. We found a hotel to eat at. I ordered chicken curry and French fries. I thought it was a nice combination of Indian and American food. After we ate, we got back on the road. Little did we know, there was a protest going on that blocked the main road. We had to take the back roads for several hours and boy was it bumpy. I have never been on worse roads in my life. It was extremely bumpy!! We had to stand for a while because that was more comfortable than sitting. It seemed like forever, but we finally made it to Agra.
When we got there, we encountered another slight problem. The house we were supposed to stay at had us booked for the wrong date! Because of this, we had to divided up and stay in 3 different places. Once we got settled in we had Dominos ordered in and went to bed. The rooms were very cold and there was no warm water where Chandon, Daniel, Tim and I stayed. One thing about India, like our trip, it is predictably unpredictable.
On Wednesday, January 5th, we woke up and had omelets for breakfast. They were good. Our host sat and talked to us while we waited for the bus. He was very informative and told us more about the laws and customs in India. When the bus came we loaded up and headed to see the Taj Mahal! When we got to the Taj, we got to ride a cart pulled by camels to the gate. We met our guide there and went inside. After hearing about the history of the Taj, we got to go inside. It was magnificent! Our guide told us it took 22 years to build. It is the greatest symbol of love in the world!
We spent the rest of the morning walking around admiring the Taj, one of the wonders of the word. We loaded up on the bus and headed to a ghost town named Fatehpur Sikri. We walked around there for a while. I became friends with a little guy there. His family had a shop there so when we were done looking at the monument I went and visited. They had a lot of nice things. I felt obligated to buy something because of how nice the boy was. I ended up buying my sister a marble jewelry box which had the same stones in it as the Taj. We then left and headed back to Delhi. Although it was a long bus ride we finally arrived and went to bed to catch up on sleep.
On Thursday, January 5th, we slept in for a good while. We woke up and relaxed at the hotel for most of the morning. After eating lunch, we went to the Mahatama Ghandi museum. It was really neat to walk through. Ghandi was a great leader. It is hard to tell what India would be like without him. After visiting the museum we were dropped off at the Imperial Hotel. We did some last minute shopping at stores around that area and also went to the ATM for the last time. Some of us ended up finding a KFC to eat at. It was delicious!! Once we ate, we went to another shopping center. There were a lot of higher-end stores there. We didn’t buy much, but we did find an Australian restaurant called Oz. We went up and those of us who had not eaten had supper. They actually served hamburgers there!! I really wanted one but was already full. I can’t wait to get home and eat some beef! Once we were done there we went back to the hotel and slept.
On Friday, January 7th, we woke up and drove around New Delhi for a while. We got to see all of the embassies which were neat. After that we went to DLF shopping center. It was huge and really nice. I felt like I was back in the states when I was inside. It was quite the contrast to the other places we had been to in India. We had lunch there and then came back to the hotel to pack. We are going to the airport at midnight!!
