Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi: February 2015

On our way to Jaipur. Look at Hanuman hanging from the mirror. Punjabi music blasting.

We were picked up from our hotel before the sun came up. Our driver was Gurdeep, a friendly guy in his late 20’s from Punjab. I add that he was from Punjab because he liked his Punjabi music. We enjoyed it too, and we listened to it over, and over, and over again…for three days straight. 🙂

Our first stop was the Holiday Inn. This was a bit of a mix-up, but worked out in the end. We were set to meet Annette in Agra in a couple days. She told me that she was staying at the Radisson Blu by the airport, close to the train station. When I looked up the Radisson Blu, I searched for one near the airport. Since it was out of our budget, we asked Annette if she minded moving down the street to the Holiday Inn. She of course, didn’t care, so Javier and I decided to store our big bags there and only took small backpacks for the next two nights. 

Poor elephants working hard in the heat. Very sad.

Gurdeep likes his masala tea, and so do we. So over the next few days, we would randomly stop at roadside shops for tea breaks. It took us about 5 hours to reach Jaipur. Once we arrived, we met our local guide. The first thing we noticed in Jaipur were the elephants. There were several elephants walking on the street with the cars. They were all brightly painted and looked very festive, but they looked very out of place on the road.  The second thing we noticed was why Jaipur is called the “Pink City.” Everything is made from red sandstone and it is truly pink everywhere you look. Our guide took us to the Amer Fort, which is just one place along what looks like, the great wall of India, that surrounds the city. It was quite impressive and our guide was very informative. 

The Amer Palace.

We also visited the Jal Mahal in the middle of a lake, and stopped for the obligatory textile tour. This one was actually fun. They showed us how they make the prints, and we even made our own elephant print! We stopped by the Hawa Mahal, with its stained glass and beautiful facade, and ended at the Jantar Mantar. The Jantar Mantar was built in the 18th century and is a large collection of architectural astronomical instruments. Its quite impressive and holds the worlds largest sundial! Yay! The last stop was the City Palace of Jaipur. There was an event taking place later that night, so we didn’t have much time to explore, but we were able to enjoy the architecture, especially the peacock door. 

Jal Mahal is a palace located in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake

We opted to find our own lodging, and found a homestay close to downtown. When we arrived, a little boy answered the door. He let us in and told us his mother would be arriving in about 30 minutes. He showed us to our room and returned to his video games. When the mother arrived, she made us tea and gave us a great dinner recommendation. The restaurant was really crowded, so we agreed to sit with another young couple. Turns out they were Americans. We started chatted and got to know one another. We talked about traveling and they asked what we did for a living and how we were able to travel for so long. As we talked about our jobs, it turned out the husband is a cardiologist. We had a really nice dinner with them- good food, good company. 

at The Amer Palace

We were up again early in the morning. The husband and wife we stayed with made us a traditional breakfast. Afterward, Gurdee picked us up and we made our way to Agra. I have to say, while we enjoyed our day and night in Jaipur, we really missed a great opportunity. A friend we met on our travels, Akanksha, is from Jaipur, and told us to let her know when we would be going. Time sneaked up on us and by the time I remembered, it was only a couple days before we were leaving. As it turns out, Akanksha not only offered for us to stay with her family in Agra, but also offered her family’s house in Delhi for as long as we needed! Doh!

Anyway, on the way to Agra, we stopped for masala, and then Fatehpur Sikri. Fatehpur Sikri was recommended to us and sounded like a cool place. While it was interesting, we were really annoyed by the local tour guides.

Fatehpur Sikri

There are several sites to see at this location and our guide offered to purchase our tickets. When I went to the ticket counter with him, he told me that I could wait by the entrance. I told him I would rather stay where I was. He kept our tickets and guided us through the main points of the city. Afterward, he said the tour was concluded and we made our way out. I started thinking…we never used our tickets. I asked him if there was more to see and he said there were more ruins, but he doesn’t give tours through that part. I asked for our tickets. He hesitated before giving them to us. Javier and I entered the ticket zone and gave ourselves the tour.

Salim Chisti’s Tomb

We started talking about what just happened, and what we gathered was that they reuse the tickets and keep the tourist’s entry fee. That’s why he didn’t want me at the ticket counter. He would have acted like he purchased tickets, kept our money, and assuming we didn’t ask for the tickets after his tour, reused the same tickets for the next people. All in all this bad experience overshadowed our trip to Fatehpur Sikri, which could have been a much more pleasant experience. The place itself was quite impressive, and Salim Christi’s Tomb grants your wishes if you pay the money and tie a ribbon on the wall. 

Fatehpur Sikri India

We arrived to Agra in the evening and were dropped off at our guesthouse. Interesting story…on the road to Agra, there was a traffic mix-up. Our lane was first diverted to the opposite side, due to an accident, but about half a mile down the lane, we were told to turn back and take an alternate route. After about 30 minutes of waiting, driving down wrong roads and having to make U-turns, we were back where we started from and continued our journey. While we were driving in circles, Gurdee was trying to figure out what was going on. He found out that there was a family of three on a motorcycle that turned in front of a truck. The mother and father were killed and the baby taken to the hospital in critical condition. Here’s the interesting part. Gurdee says that in the eyes of the local people, the guilty party is ALWAYS the driver of the bigger vehicle. So, it doesn’t matter that this family turned left into oncoming traffic, the fault is still with the truck driver. So, after the accident, if you’re the driver of the bigger vehicle, and someone’s dead, you’d better start running, and hope you make it to the police station. He says the people will swarm and beat the driver to death. So, I ask him. What would happen to Javier and I if we were in an accident and we’re the bigger car? He shrugged and said, “We run.”

Home-made dinner.

Back in Agra, we opted to have dinner at the guesthouse, made by mama. The food was delicious, and since we were going to be leaving before sunrise the next day, she offered to make us a modest breakfast that we could take with us. The plan was to meet Annette at the Taj Mahal, but there was a glitch on her end. She arrived in Delhi the night before, and the concierge, who was apparently the only person in the hotel that could help her, was not there. She had tried to book a train ticket earlier, and even asked the hotel to book it for her, but they refused. Before I went to bed, I tried to message her to coordinate a meeting point and time. No response. I guess along with incapable people, she had no internet. Now, her story the next morning is pretty harrowing, but I received a message at 5am with her telling me that the train was a no-go, and she hired a private car to drive her to the Taj Mahal. We had a meeting point and time.

6 am entrance to Taj Majal

Gurdee picked us up for our sunrise experience at the Taj Mahal. Funny thing, they advertise “sunrise at the Taj Mahal” but don’t actually let you in until after the sun is already up. Kind of a waste. It was still beautiful, though. How could it not be? Our guide for this part of the tour was less than great. Actually, he was a crook, but his scheme didn’t work on us, so I’m not too mad at him. He did give us some good info. We learned that the four minarets around the Taj Mahal lean slightly outward, so if they happen to fall, they will fall outward, instead of into, the Taj. The entire mausoleum is made of marble, and holds the tomb of both Shah Jahan, and his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

The Taj Mahal

We also learned that Shah Jahan started to build another exact structure directly across the river. His plan was that the Taj Mahal would be the mausoleum for his favorite wifey, and he would have the same mausoleum across the river and the two would be joined by a bridge. Unfortunately, the Shah spent all the money on the first Taj, and when it was completed, his son threw him in jail, stopped construction on the new site and later buried his father with his wife. You can still see the foundation across the river. How amazing would that have been???

Wow… The Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal is one of those places that actually exceeded my expectations. Everyone has seen the pictures, but we just stood there in awe. Even though the sun was already up, we were there long enough to see the different colors that reflect off the Taj Mahal as the sun rises higher. As we walked around, I started getting nervous. We had planned on a meeting place and time with Annette, but there were so many people, I didn’t know if we would actually find her. Around the appointed time, I went to wait for Annette. Javier was wandering around and after a short time, walked up saying, “I found Annette!” 

We found Annetchka!!!

We were very happy to see her, but I think she was happier to see us. After all she had been through in the past 24 hours, she needed to see a familiar face. I was just thankful that she made it in one piece. Single white female traveling alone in the wee hours of the morning in India doesn’t leave one with much confidence. Together, we walked around and took more pictures. Javier left us alone, I think our nonstop chatter was already becoming too much for him. And it was only the beginning!!

We found Gurdee, had lunch, and went to the Agra Fort. We actually just walked around the fort and didn’t go in. None of us had the energy nor desire to actually walk inside. 

Gurdeep showing us the highway.

On the way back to Delhi, we stopped for tea (of course), Annette was able to marinate in Gurdee’s Punjabi music, and we stopped on the side of the road to take pictures. Gurdee wanted to take pictures with all of us, especially Annette. I think he even put it as his profile picture for a while to make his ex-girlfriend jealous. HAHA! 

As it turned out, Annette wasn’t staying at the hotel we thought, so we had to detour to the ghetto to pick up her stuff before we went to the Holiday Inn. Can I just say, the Holiday Inn was nice. And I don’t mean nice for a budget hotel, I mean nice- clean, modern, comfortable, gym, pool, cool bar, and great food. And good thing too, because there wasn’t anything around other than other hotels. 

The Lotus Temple

We attempted to go sightseeing one day and only made it to our first stop, the Lotus Temple. The driver was stuck on taking us to some market where they would give him a kickback, which included school supplies for his kids, or something like that. We were willing to do him the favor, but then it started to get more complicated. It wasn’t as simple as go in, walk around and leave, so we said sorry, but no. We asked him to take us to another site, I cannot even remember where now, but he didn’t understand and took us somewhere completely different and on the other side of the city. It had been raining all day, and wasn’t letting up, so instead of sitting in traffic to walk around in the rain, we told him to take us back, and swore we would never leave the Holiday Inn again. 🙂

Bye Jaipur

WARNING! This next portion gets personal! 🙂

We were only there for two days, and on the night before we were set to leave to Nepal, Javier became sick. At first we thought it was Delhi-belly, and I thought…how is this possible??? We’ve been in India for almost a month and have had ZERO stomach issues and the night before we leave, we have a problem! As the night progressed, he also had a fever, chills, and body-aches along with the other stuff (explosive diarrhea), so we figured it was something else. We ended the night at the bar, where we tried, and sort of succeeded, to redeem our “free drink” coupon. Javier called it an early night, while Annette and I visited for a while longer. 

Bye Agra… THE TAJ MAHAL

The following morning was departure day. Javier was feeling a little bit better and we were excited to be going to Nepal. While we were getting ready to go to breakfast, my stomach was feeling a little questionable. I sent the other two down to breakfast, while I waited to see what my insides were going to do. As it turns out, I had the same thing as Javier. I met the others for breakfast, but while I was eating, I started to feel like I had the flu. I went back upstairs to lie down. I only got up a couple times to deal with my own explosive diarrhea. At one point, I took a short nap, and when I woke up, I felt horrible. I couldn’t move. I took all of the necessary medications and prayed I would feel better. Javier was still feeling pretty bad, but I could not move. He ended up packing all of my stuff along with his own. I didn’t know if I would make the ride to the airport, the flight, anything. When it was time to go, I stood up and felt better. The medicines had kicked in. We made it to the airport without incident and boarded our plane. As soon as they shut the door of the plane, I started feeling worse. The pressure in the cabin was killing me. Thank God the flight was short because I was hunched over the entire time. Every time I tried to sit up straight, I felt like I would vomit. They brought around lunch and just the smell made me nauseous. Javier insisted I eat something, but all I could do was a little bit of rice. India was having an outbreak of Swine Flu while we were there, and I knew they would have thermo scans at the airport. I wanted to make sure I didn’t have a fever, so I ate the rice while I took some Tylenol. I don’t know if it made any difference, or if my logic was correct, but when we walked off the plane, they definitely had the thermo scanner pointing right at us as we walked down the hallway. I didn’t get stopped, had to make a beeline for the bathroom, and was so exhausted, I almost laid on the ground at the Kathmandu airport. More on Nepal and Annette’s own explosive diarrhea coming soon! 🙂

To see more pictures of The Indian Golden Triangle, click HERE.