Dedication...

I am not in love with auto-rickshaw rides in the dark of early morning, inhaling exhaust, blasting horns every two seconds, dodging trucks, cars, and an amazing number of people up at 5:30am. But we hire one back to the Jaipur train station yet again for one more rail station experience, lacking sleep and now fighting colds. Our 6:15 train will take us to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. At least this time it's a shorter ride, in an "AC chair car". Air-conditioned, decent seats, and a speedy trip. Farewell Jaipur!

The Agra hotel is so much nicer, and if the fact that it caters to tourists makes it so, fine with me. We'll see the Taj Mahal in the early light tomorrow, so today we drive out of town to the abandoned "town" of Fatehpur Sikri, our first UNESCO World Heritage Site. We are blown away at the intensity of the carvings, detail and quality of the red sandstone buildings and ornamentation. So many dedicated people are required to make such wonders, and there is so much to see! Is there commitment like that in our world today? 
 
Perhaps. Turns out that our road to Fatehpur Sikri is also the route for a local pilgrimage. We passed thousands upon thousands of people walking for three days, on the highway. Rest stops, food and music greet them every couple hundred of meters. Despite the arduous walk before them, everyone seemed pretty happy and celebratory. I'll think of this the next time I think I'm parking "far" away from my destination in the U.S. and have to walk a few hundred feet.

(Click this image for a video from the car...)
The Jama Masjid mosque complex is part of the town. Deepak wisely takes out outside of the complex so we can re-enter properly, through the Buland Darwaza gate. Perched at the top of a huge staircase, it makes for quite an entrance!

Within the mosque grounds is the Tomb of Sheikh Salim Chishti, carved entirely out of marble. Simply amazing.

Our dinner in Agra, home of the the Taj Mahal, the most famous symbol of India around the world - is at Pizza Hut, which has become quite popular with India's middle class for its "international dining experience". Time for a break from Indian food. Guess who in our group made the request?

Forts!

Enough of the city. Deepak scored a driver for the day and we set out to see the amazing forts surrounding Jaipur.

First stop was Jaigarh Fort, about twenty minutes outside of town up on top of a huge hill. Besides hosting the world's largest cannon (test-fired only once before permanent retirement-???), the fort offers amazing views of the city, the even more spectacular Amber Fort (our next destination), and endless passages, courtyards and chambers. All are manned by highly trained personnel, whom I believe must do a lot of sitting, waiting for tourists and visitors to come.
  
 
An hour or so there then back down the road to the Amber Fort. Read Wikipedia if you're curious; we just walked around, got lost, took pictures and tried to take it all in.

 
We loved seeing all the groups of ladies I can only assume are local visitors from around Rajasthan. Seeing them in their brilliantly colored saris in such incredible settings, I liked to imagine that I was getting glimpses into the past, seeing these places as they were centuries ago....
 

Jaipur: Amazing sights, comical nights

We staggered back to the Jaipur train station as we left it - deep in the middle of the night, practically stepping over thousands of people sleeping everywhere - on the platform, the sidewalks, and grounds surrounding the station. Most of them are/were villagers waiting for their train, but whatever they were doing there, experiencing an Indian train station at night when you're exhausted, sick and dreaming of a real bed is not an experience I wish to repeat much more if we can avoid it.

A 5am tuk-tuk ride got us to the nearby hotel, recommended through local connections. Unbeknownst to us, or themselves for that matter, the fabled CM Regency hotel (link provided for amusement) is actually an amateur training center for how to provide bad service and sleepless nights to their "guests". I don't wish to record the memories for posterity, but get me telling stories over beers sometime and it'll be good for some laughs.

So what did we see and do? Jaipur is the site of one of five astronomical observatories built in  India during the 18th century. We began our day visiting the Jantar Mantar, which is basically an astronomer's amusement park. (General note: to avoid my mutilating the history, check Google or Wikipedia for historical background). It was pretty cool...


A stop for tea at a local chai-wallah on the street (there is no chai other than Indian chai, period), then we headed to the Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds).

Once again, an amazing display of stone carving and endless stone screen jalies. The building is primarily a wall of screens, shielding the courtyards below. It also provides a great vista of the city, mountains and our destination from that morning.

Gradually we walked and tuk-tuked back to the hotel, with Lori fighting a cold and mine on the way...

Birthday at the Fort

Happy Birthday Deepak! Day two in Jaisalmer, time to see the main attraction (Day 1 coming soon). Before heading to Jaisalmer Fort, we stopped by Gadisar Lake.

Along with our first taste of the architecture typical to the "Golden City", we saw the local lake residents (catfish) gathering at the shore for a feeding of bread. Would "lake pigeons" be accurate here?

Then on to the fort,  with a Jain temple to see inside too... And finally to see the Havelis, homes of wealthy merchants with unbelievably intricate carved jalies (stone screens) in yellow sandstone. We topped it all off with a birthday meal for Deepak before heading to the train station for yet another overnight train back to Jaipur.

Sands of Jaisalmer

After arriving in the afternoon in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, we were greeted by taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers offering not only a ride to our hotel but "desert excursions" complete with tea, a camel ride in the dunes, dinner and a Rajasthani music and dance show....how could we resist! Deepak expertly haggled to get us a good deal and we were off to the hotel to freshen up before our intimate desert experience with two camels and 600 other camel-crazed tourists. (A side note: Deepak performed all manner of haggling throughout the trip. In fact, almost every shopkeeper along the way thought he was our tour guide. They would say in Hindi, "Bring them in here!")

On the drive to the camel caravan, we stopped at a Jain temple. Typical Jain temples are decorated with delicate carvings upon which light dances with shadow. Lovely!

Our camel ride was a hoot! You mount them while they're sitting down, so it's something else to have them stand up and sit down while being in the saddle. WOAH, Nelly! We were giggling and enjoying the hot desert air and sand blowing over us. Here's a little low-res movie of Deepak and his camel in action...

We made some 'friends' while chilling in the dunes. A local musician followed us for quite some time and played the morchang (a mouth harp) without us asking. After throwing a decent amount of rupees his way, he pestered us saying we needed to give him a bigger tip...While he was asking for more money, a lonely goat decided our group looked too fun to avoid so he came over, sat right beside us and chewed his cud. We even tickled his hooves! I am including this photo because, darn, I've never seen a more sultry goat portrait!

We left the dunes and our animal friends behind to enjoy a typical Rajasthani dinner under the stars, lounging on blankets and pillows.  The live music and dance performances were nice.  We actually had the opportunity to shake it to the beat at the behest of the performers and, apparently, I'm a natural.  Deepak was able to chat with the other people sitting around us...they were all locals out for a good time.  Later, the ladies in the group got up the nerve to ask Deepak if they could take a picture with me - I was as exotic to them as they were to me.

Planes, Trains and Auto-rickshaws

We began our northern trip with a transportation medley. At 6am an auto-rickshaw took us from Deepak's place to the bus stop. Then a painfully slow ride to the airport, onto a Spicejet flight to Jaipur by way of Mumbai (our plane was called Dill; Lori was hoping we'd be on Coriander but alas...). From the window we could see the slums surrounding the airport of India's most populous city.

We'd begin our adventure in the far western city of Jaisalmer, but the overnight sleeper train from Jaipur didn't leave until midnight (or so we thought), so we spent a few hours in the central "walled city" area. We roamed the bustling chaotic streets, ignored endless calls for us to come into shops, met our first child beggars (more on that later) and finally escaped the heat and dust by catching a Bollywood movie, the blockbuster My Name is Khan. To ensure we'd used almost every possible form of transportation in one day, we caught a cycle-rickshaw to the theatre. Then on to the train station at 11pm, where we could finally rest on the sleeper train, right? No! It was almost two hours late, leaving at close to 2am. We rented a "deluxe" waiting room at the station, as sleeping on the platform with hundreds of others beneath speakers blaring endless announcements did not look terribly relaxing. Finally the train came, which had last been cleaned back in 1982 (and built in '52, it seemed). But we were on our way!

Getting around

Two days in this country, and I’m realizing that India will not fit inside a blog. Nor will it be able to be crammed fully into our cameras, our eyes, our lungs, noses, or minds...
Today (Monday - this is a time-delayed blogcast) we drove with Deepak and Rashmi to their office, walked a few blocks to get coffee (Bangalore is known for coffee stands - India is not just for tea drinkers), walked around the ‘hood, went to a crafts market, walked back, then drove to a shop, then drove back again.
Walking and driving - back home these two activities would often be the means towards some other experience. In Bangalore, simply surviving these activities feels like the ultimate experience! Check back with me in ten weeks, but I'm not sure if anything will be able to top the incredible dance between endless cars, trucks, buses, mopeds, motorcylces, carts, pedestrians, and yes, cows, on the streets. The stripes on the pavement are basically meaningless, with your honking horn instead being the only form of traffic management.
I have been told I can sit in the back seat of the car so as to not have to watch. But this is better than any action movie, and a hundred times more nail-biting...