In Awe of India: Jaipur and Agra

Sorry this post is a doozy, but this weekend's independent travel to two thirds of the infamous golden triangle left me with just too much to say. Be patient, and enjoy :)

Wednesday
6:00pm- Leave Hyderabad
11:30- Arrive in Jaipur, a famous historic and beautiful city in Rajastan, North India. Spend night in adorable, quaint little hotel where we slept 8 girls in 4 beds in the colorfully decorated "family room"for the equivalent of $4 per person per night.

Thursday
7:30- Wake up for WESTERN breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel.
9:00- City Palace. First site of the weekend. University of Hyderabad student IDs earn us a student discount and exempt us from the foreigner tax-- SO COOL! Actually, happened all day. Cool every time.
10:30- Jantar Mantar Observatory. Looks like a beautiful sculpture garden, but each structure is still functioning to do some astrological stuff I don't understand and tell time more accurately than my watch.
12:00- Get lost on the way to Hawa Mahal and meet some really cool vendors who speak Spanish. Shop and have great conversation in a mixture of English, Spanish, and Hindi.
1:00- Hawa Mahal. Gorgeous structure built for royal women to sit and observe the city below. Breath taking building with even more breathtaking views.
2:00- Lunch at a hole in the wall (more life roof) restaurant with DELICIOUS North Indian food-- garlic naan loaded with butter, flavorful creamy curries, much more rich and less spicy to our diet in the South.
3:00- Shopping in the notorious Jaipur Bazars. Made some friends. Made some enemies. Walked away with really decent prices on an absurd amount of gifts, including "tie and die" scarfs unique to Jaipur.
5:00- Order drinks in a cafe just to get some AC. Try to find a public garden that ended up being really rundown and sketchy park. Then, failed attempt to see a Hindi movie. So, went to the mall and settled for a coconut oil head massages and pedicures. Not bad.
9:00- Dinner back on the rooftop of our hotel. More delicious North Indian food followed by much needed showers and planning for the next day.

Friday
8:00- Mango Lassi (yogurt drink) back up on the roof before bidding our adorable hotel goodbye.
9:00- Group splits. My half heads to a family business that makes and sells Jaipur blue pottery. SO GORGEOUS. More gifts, more Hindi practice.
11:30- Can't find this ayurveda store, so instead get fresh fruit juice, some AC, and a little rest from our ever-growing luggage.
12:00- Lunch at a nice restaurant that was a bit pricer, but had really cool decor and more tasty eats.
1:15- Get picked up by our arranged taxi service and head to the Amber fort, about 20 mins outside of Jaipur. On the way, stopped to take pictures of camels, elephants, and the Jal Mahal, the "floating palace" that is half underwater now because of monsoon season.
2:30- Amber Fort, the most beautiful and confusing structure to ever wander. Went up dark spiraling staircases, through bat-ridden tunnels, onto amazing balconies, into ancient ancient bathrooms, and up to the very top to see the city and mountains in the distance. Oh, and a rainbow. Just pure bliss. The fort also had an incredible art museum that we hit up on the way out.
5:00- Back to our cabs to go to the train station-- Jaipur to Agra.
10:00- Arrive in Agra, greeted by our tour guide for the next two days, Raja. He agrees to race us to McDonalds and convinces them to give us McVeg patties and paneer wraps even though they close in 30 seconds. We like him so much already.
11:00- Arrive in our way less cute but equally affordable hotel. No AC, no hot water, no bedding, yes walking distance from Taj Mahal.

Saturday
5:30- Up before the sun to see the Taj bright and early.
6:30- Get through security with Suzanne's pocket knife but not my gum. Immediately take lots of photos before it gets too crowded. Raja gives us the whole shpeel and then lets us wander on our own for a bit. Lots of photos, but not one of them capture the building's unbelievable brilliance.
9:00- Traditional Indian breakfast and tea at a street-side food stand. Nom nom fried everything.
10:00- Off to Amber Fort. Partially still utilized by the military, wholly beautiful and strategically designed. Raja was full of fun facts about all of our never ending questions of how, why, when the monument was built. Plus he provided truly genuine anecdotes on Islam on the ground in India today.
12:00- Marble store where artists demonstrated how marble is shaped and inlaid into other marble. Learning about the art form made us all wonder how the miraculous detail on the Taj was completed in only 22 years.
1:00- Went to another marble store, which was a little more low key and affordable. Obviously purchased more gifts.
2:00- Lunch at Raja's inlaw's house in a village 30 mins outside of Agra. Such a colorful home, full of generous people and authentic food. We were fed until we nearly burst, and then sat in the shade digesting, reflecting on the morning, and being entertained by Raja's three year old.
4:30- Back to the city, back to the sites! Baby Taj, much smaller structure but really amazing marble detailing. Also, went to a secret spot with an great view of the Taj Mahal reflecting of the Gange river. At this point, most of our camera batteries were losing it.
6:30- Shopped around a bazaar with the little energy we had left.
8:00- Light dinner at the hotel. Suz and Leah quality time in our double. Showers, Indian cosmo, and some henna practice before bed.

Sunday
5:00- Another bright and early morning! Off to the rail station. Bid Raja farewell after he patiently waited for our delayed train. Then, a peaceful morning ride back to Jaipur.
12:00- Arrive in Jaipur. Find the cabs Raja and arranged for us. Go to lunch at a fancy restaurant that was definitely some fishy commission deal. Almost went the whole weekend without falling for a tourist trap, so close!
3:00- To the airport. Wait around. Fly to Mumbai, then to Hyderabad.
10:30- Finally home after a long day of travel. Durga's delicious idlis waiting of us upstairs... oh, and 97 emails.

Things more important than itinerary:

This weekend brought so much great Hindi practice! In Hyderabad, Telugu is most people's mother tongue, and they only know Hindi because it is the official language (which some resent). When I speak in Hindi in Hyd, people really don't expect it, so they think that they can't understand my English. Other times, they realize what I'm trying to do, but are annoyed because they know it would be a lot easier to communicate in English. But in the North, everyone LOVED speaking in Hindi with us! It is their mother tongue and they are flattered to meet the rare foreigner that is actually trying to really learn the language despite the prevalence of English. I had a lot of interactions with vendors in predominantly Hindi, and it resulted in a more amiable dynamic and much better prices. And, when I told people hassling me to "bug off" in Hindi, they actually respected the request. I had a lot of fun with language and learned so much... I am determined to start forcing Hindi on more people here now, just for the practice.
The title of this blog has never been more appropriate than this weekend. SUCH AWE. All of the monuments we saw truly left me speechless. The Taj Mahal is unlike anything I have seen in my life, and I hope to never forget it. But whats most amazing is that it is one of about a dozen equally incredible sites of the weekend. Having Raja explain the history behind the tourist attractions made me appreciate the sites in Agra that much more. For example, the pillars of Arabic marble inlay going up the Taj Mahal gradually get thicker as they go up so that when you see it in the distance, you perceive the stripe of scripture to be perfectly straight. Amazing! I kept thinking about how, until this semester, I hadn't known that most of these places even existed! So, there must be so much beauty out there in the world! I cannot even fathom it all, so overwhelming. Just, utter awe.
Jaipur and Agra are big tourist attractions, unlike Hyderabad. It was very interesting to be around so many other foreigners. I obviously found myself relating to them, but I also kind of related to the Indians who stare at foreigners and wonder "Who are these people and why are they here and what are they doing and what language are they speaking and why are they wearing thaaat?" It was shocking to me how many tourists seemed very ignorant of Indian culture, which made me realize just how acculturated I have become in the last two months. I also realized that Americans don't travel abroad enough.
You know when you go out to dinner with 8+ people and the bill comes and there's all sorts of confusion over how to pay for each meal separately and split tax and tip and break large bills and pay partially in credit card? Well imagine that commotion, but all weekend long and for every single transaction (food, hotels, transport, tour guides, etc). Oh, and with the added component of haggling. I hate how much we thought about and talked about money. I know that at some level money makes the world go round, but I feel like there are so many other things that wasted energy should have gone towards this weekend. I guess, there is no getting around it unless you travel in all inclusive packages or have more straight forward transactions alone or in pairs. So, I am learning things about myself, and I don't think I like having to coordinate with this many people while traveling. Also, because I did much of the preliminary planning, the group ended up turning to me a lot for the next move and I stepped up to the plate, but I don't want to have to be in that constantly vigilant role again. Low key, cheap travel from now on!
After this weekend, I feel like I have a much better grasp on India as a whole. Specifically, I learned about the differences between the North and the South in terms of climate, geology, population, fashion, cuisine, language, and every aspect of culture. Compared to Hyderabad, people in Rajastan are friendlier, food is fattier, sun is hotter, traffic is safer, and clothes are slightly less conservative. On Sunday night, when our taxi finally pulled onto Mumbai Road back in Hyd, everything seemed so familiar and manageable and comfortable. Its amazing, but it really did feel like coming home.

Finally, what you have all been waiting for. Believe it or not, this is just the tip of my iceberg of photos from this trip! (You can click to see them larger.)