Blog Interlude - some random pictures

I wanted to post some random pictures not really in the "plot" of our other days but truly notable either in their "India-ness" or their pretti-ness or strange-ness.

Our youthful boat rower (I feel a bit guilty as I fear we supported child labor, though I have to say he got a serious payday from us). Lauren very very admirably - tried to, in a Teach For America (TM) way try to convince him to stay in school because then he could "do whatever he wanted to do." Kopp (and NYC Development Team) would be proud.



Lauren absolutely destroying her first ice cream sundae since leaving New York (hopefully you can tell by now that this is Michael (alone) posting hahahaha). Not clear if Lauren has ever been happier. I was not allowed to touch it.



Here is Lauren being taught how to put on her later-discovered to be nylon "silk" sari by Grandmother Dewan:



Another close call in the ongoing Lauren vs. Bulls of India battle:



Monkey eating a banana in Agra street:



What looks like the most delicious, most fresh fried chicken possible (the live chicken coops are about 5 feet away) in the Old City (Delhi). I am planning on eating this on my last day.



There was a monkey and two goats blocking our path from our guesthouse...



...so I picked up a stick and the Animals understood who was boss (no joke!).



Brother and sister:



Relishing India like the Colonial British (these are moments where we would laugh and remark in our faux British accents how civilised (note the "s") India is)



In our rush not to miss our flight in Chennai, Lauren and I saw Qutb Minar - an important, though seemingly minor - Muslim site in Delhi. This picture was taken in minute six of 10 that we spent there (Japanese tourist style...picture picture picture, go to next site).



More from the streets of Varanasi:

Days 11-12 - Agra and the Taj Mahal

(We are back loyal (hopefully) readers!)

This post will be about our trip from Delhi (after our flight from Varanasi) to Agra, by chauffeured car, to the greatest building in India (and Asia? the World?). Be ready to be dazzled as this post will cover quite possibly my favorite photo from all of my travels.

We arrived and was greeted by Kuldeep, a tall Sikh driver arranged by Saurabh's family, who took us to his gloriously Air Conditioned car (refer back to Udaipur trip) and drove us to Agra, about 200 km away. Our driver (and me in turban):



We arrived close to midnight at our hotel - which I got through points at The Mughal, a 5-star Luxury Collection Starwood hotel. To maximize our trip, we decided to wake up at 500 am to see the Taj at sunrise and made the necessary arrangements with our driver Kuldeep.

Of course, Kuldeep did not speak any English...and the Five Star hotel proved not to have 5-star translating skills in relaying my instructions to him.

Any way, with a lot of hand gesturing, me being a ticked off and telling our driver to hustle out of bed at 6am, we ended up getting to the Taj Mahal and seeing it relatively alone. (more on our driver to come). And the Taj was Awesome. Truly an unbelievable building. Built of translucent marble, it practically glows in the sun or moon light. The buildings decorations are not painted on, but rather in-laid precious and semi-precious stone - onyx, lapis lazuli, iranian jade, cornelian - all translucent such that if you shine a light on these stones, they do glow. Unfortunately, the pictures hardly do it justice.

See:













For some reason, all the guide books suggest that we spend the entire day at the Taj - but for the life of me I cannot figure for what possible reason. The building is a tomb, and there isn't much else - as great as it is. So we went back to the hotel and slept.

Agra the town - not so great. Probably the most aggressively touristed place in Asia - with the accompanying hassles. At one point, this "guide" got into our car, telling the driver (who couldn't speak or understand any English) that we had hired him in Hindi and then telling us in English that he was our drivers friend. About 5 minutes later I kicked him out. Later he came and tried to demand money from our driver. Kuldeep proved to be our hero and told him to get lost.

Then comes my most unbelievable, favorite picture ever. In the late afternoon, we decided we'd check out the Taj from behind (the same view since the Taj is perfectly symmetrical). This is me in a kurta, in front of the holy River Yamura, next to the Taj Mahal - the greatest symbol of love in the world . . . . playing cricket!!

Seriously- how cool is this!!!



Maybe its just me...but I loved it.

Next we go to the wedding.

Days 9-10 Varanasi

The next stop on our illogically back-and-forth, whirlwind trip through north India was Varanasi, an ancient city on the Ganges River, a few hundred miles east of Delhi. We decided to go here because of how foreign it seemed to us - and yet how normal it was for the Hindu religion (also because of the Lonely Planet suggestion). Varanasi is considered to be India's most holy Hindu city. Hindus believe that this is the most auspicious place to die, so much so that people will move here and wait to die, and be cremated along the banks at one of the many funeral pyres on the river.

We woke up early (530am) and took an hour long boat ride to see the Hindu pilgrims bathing in the Ganges and see the funeral ceremonies.






We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the burning funeral pyres, but did see how the bodies were prepared and the burning rituals.

Although in some ways my favorite/most memorable city, Varanasi also proved to be absolutely, disgustingly filthy. The cremations had nothing to do with it. The absolute lack of any basic sanitation services, the animals (water buffalo, monkeys, dogs, etc.) running free, and what seemed to be a general disregard for hygiene... Maybe they are just waiting for the monsoons to wash it out.

The city also proved to be our most hassle-laden as well. We encountered more touts here than anywhere else and were constantly hounded by aggressive beggars and auto-rickshaw drivers. Lauren's favorite move was the kids singing "hello money hello money" as they walked behind us. People would, before we could say no, do something pretty meaningless and clearly fake for us (including a priest who said something and then put this red mark on our head; or an old woman who "prayed for our families") and then demand money. Too bad, because it made us question everyone's motives...

Day 8 - Delhi

Today, we set out to create our plans for the next five days. All we knew was that we needed to be back in Delhi on the 31st to catch our flight to Chennai. Other than that, we had a vague idea that we wanted to see Varanasi (a very important Hindu site) and Khajuraho (famous for its temples' suggestive sculptures (which Saurabh's dad claims was an ancient social policy decision to boost the Indian population)). So we said goodbye to Saurabh's family in the morning and set out to buy train tickets.

Of course, we arrived at the train station 14 minutes after the ticket office for foreign tourists closed. We had several options, all of which Saurabh and his family were willing to do. 1) rent a car; 2) book online; 3) use a travel agent. All we needed to do was create an itinerary. Instead, we chose to do nothing and enjoy Delhi.

We spent the day in Delhi, shopping and eating. First, we went to Karol Barg market, where we really wanted to purchase jewelery and gifts for our friends and family at home. So far, though, I think it has been hard to find inexpensive items that are good quality. Things seem to be either expensive or the same junk we see everywhere. (We are still looking, though!) I bought some shoes for myself (If you like these and want a pair, just send your size to me! They cost $8.)



We went to a popular Delhi sweet shop, Bikanervala, for dhokla -- the store was packed! Everything we had was delicious. We definitely recommend this spot if you are in Delhi (there are a few locations around the city)



We then moved on to Old Delhi, the old part of the city. This is the area surrounding Jama Masjid (which we visited on Day 2). We walked through a largely-Muslim market. There really were not very many tourists here, the area was packed with people shopping and enjoying Sunday evening.







One of the really neat things that we saw was this guy making chai -- he would make literally ten cups in a sort of one-man assembly line in just a few seconds. We wish we had captured this on video for you, but hopefully this picture sort of illustrates how quickly he moved.



Finally, we made it to our ultimate destination -- Karim's. This restaurant had been recommended to us by several people, and it still exceeded our wildest expectations. We plan to return to it each time we are in Delhi during the trip. The Butter Chicken dish, as well as the Chicken Burra, were incredible. You can see from the pics that the restaurant is actually several rooms that open onto a courtyard. This is because Karim's has grown from occupying one of these storefronts to occupying all of them...and now also to other locations throughout Delhi. We definitely think this is a must-see item if you are in Delhi (it is in our Lonely Planet, so you can check there for details.)







Since we had whittled away our afternoon touristing, after dinner, we had no choice to return sheepishly to Saurabh's home for an extra night of hospitality and late night travel planning.

Day 7 - Delhi

We woke up from our sleeper train ride at 6am and headed to my friend's house in Pitampura, a suburb of Delhi. My friend Saurabh was a colleague of mine at McKinsey and is in India until he goes to Harvard Business School in the fall. We could not thank him and his family enough for allowing two grubby, tired, half-sick travelers to spend a weekend at their home.

After enjoying Saurabh's mother's great food - we rested and then went to this strange modern temple in Delhi. Similar to a giant Epcot hindu temple, complete with IMAX movie, light show, musical fountain and indoor boat ride. It was free, and a beautiful site, and Saurabh believes that it is a way for this sect of Hinduism to gain converts, by attracting Delhi residents to this family-oriented theme park, while telling them the tenets of their religion. While we were walking - one young convert asked me if I had any vices (tobacco, liquor, etc.). In retrospect I should have said yes, to see what happened.

We had dinner with Saurabh and his family at the Yellow Brick Road restaurant at the Taj Hotel, where Saurabh's parents were celebrating their anniversary.

Saurabh later took us to this popular night eating spot, where they had Kulfi - an Indian tapioca/rice-based ice-cream like desert (also with mango noodles)

Day 6 - Jaipur

After our 8 hour hot journey through the Rajasthani desert landscape only five days after leaving New York we woke up refreshed and ready to go for a FULL day of sightseeing and touristing around Jaipur - part of the India tourist "Golden Triangle" (along with Delhi and the Taj Mahal)

Unfortunately, we only made it halfway up the stairs of the first sight, the Amber Fort before we turned back and headed back to the hotel, because Lauren had come down with "Delhi Belly".

We did get this picture - which was probably good enough.



So, we made the day a lounging and recovery day at the hotel, enjoying the pool, the A/C, the Cable TV (re-runs of Friends, Seinfeld, Scrubs and Arrested Development) and the restaurant.



By evening, we felt strong enough to briefly see some of Jaipur before eating dinner. We explored the markets...







While we were walking through the markets, a bull decided Lauren was in its way and attacked her left arm with its horns. We think that my bright, red, flowing kurta - like a bullfighter's cape - angered it to move! Here's the bruise - five days later:



After this we saw a huge, seemingly-religious ceremony (maybe a wedding, but we could not confirm this) with hundreds of people...



Here we found an interesting business combination (many small merchants sell "mobile recharges" -- you pay to plug your phone in at their store):



I really want to drink this sugar cane juice, it seems to be a really popular product (but, according to our friend Saurabh, is illegal because there is truly no way to make it sanitary)...



Finally, we ate a quick dinner and headed to the train station for our overnight train to Delhi

Day 5 - Udaipur to Jaipur

Today we embarked on our journey from Udaipur to Jaipur, about 300 km (190 miles) away. We hired the same taxi driver who took us two days earlier from the airport into town - who charged us 4500 rupees (or US$112). It was a mere 8 hour desert journey in a non-air conditioned car. For some reason, Lauren remembers it being a hot drive.



Not clear what she is referring to.

Then we slept for a long time. Next time, we will take a flight.

Day 4 - Udaipur

Today we woke up and went to the City Palace, built by and for the Maharaja (King) of Udaipur. We hired a guide and toured the Palace during the morning, before it got too hot. The palace was mostly empty - few tourists at this time of year - and virtually no non-Indians. The few tourists around were Indian families during their school vacations.

The Palace is located along the banks of lake Pichola, with great views of the Lake Palace hotel, which appears to float on the lake.



The _Real_ highlight of the day, however, was our 2.5 hour lesson at The Spice Box, a spice store / tourist cooking class kitchen, where we got a personal lesson from a trained Indian chef for about 900 rupees (US$12.50) total (for both). We cooked...

1) Masala Chai (Indian tea with milk, ginger, and cardamom




2) Kadai Paneer (delicious curry of green peppers and paneer). (Side note: here is where we learned that when Indian curries are cooked in Indian homes, there is much less sauce and much more "stuff" (e.g., vegetables, meats) whereas in restaurants, you have mostly sauce (too cut costs)). So the Indian food we eat in the US has like 90:10 sauce to stuff - should actually be like 50:50...see:





3) Malai Kofta (cream based cococut curry with fried potato balls stuffed with cashews)



4) Chapatti (also known as rotis - simple wheat bread)



Our full meal and teacher:



After this we walked about town...



...and then went to dinner along the lake.






A great day.