Meeting Family and New Friends in the Pink City

me, Johanna, Bernie

I am sitting down to write this on Sunday, January 15. I have been so busy the last few days touring around that I have only had time to make a few notes and was too tired to actually write a blog at the end of the day. I finally spent a day relaxing around my hotel in Jaipur and am finally catching up with some of my blogging.

11 January 2012

On 11 January (Wednesday last week), I flew from New Delhi to Jaipur, a city of about 3 million people. I didn’t think that there was airport security more intense than what I have experienced in the US, but I was wrong. Every carry-on bag (including purses) has to have a stamped tag on it after going through the bag x-ray machine. Every person gets a manual pat down after going through the metal detector as well. When boarding the plane, each bag was checked at two different points to make sure that they had the stamped tag before I was allowed to board the plane. Again, not sure if this should make me more or less nervous. The last time I was at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi was the middle of the night. It is actually quite a nice airport with tons of shops, restaurants, comfortable lounge seating with outlets everywhere to charge your devices. My favorite was a yoga sculpture depicting the poses of a sun salutation. The flight was short - only 27 minutes - and we landed in Jaipur, took a bus to the terminal where I got a prepaid cab to my hotel. The city seemed to have more wide avenues and green space than Delhi although the traffic was just as horrendous. It took about an hour and a half to make the 15km drive to the hotel due to traffic and some street closures due to strikes that were taking place in the city. I arrived at my hotel - Anuraag Villa - in the Bani Park neighborhood of Jaipur and only a few blocks away from the Hotel Golden Manor where my sister was staying. The hotel was every bit as nice as the Lonely Planet promised it would be and I sat down for dinner in the hotel restaurant waiting for my sister to get in touch with me so I could visit her. In the dining area there were two girls that appeared to be my age and I started up a conversation with them. Bernie (from Australia) and Johanna (from Germany) had also just arrived in Jaipur that day from Pune where they had been working at an NGO called the Hope Project. Over our Indian meals, we got to know each other better and discussed plans to tour the city. When my sister got a hold of me, I was well-fed and content with my travels to Jaipur. I walked over to her hotel and we were able to spend a few hours talking and catching up on our travels. She had been attending a conference in Jaipur and was scheduled to be at that conference for the duration of her stay. I was disappointed that we would not get to tour Jaipur together but glad that I had made some new friends in my hotel to travel around with. Before going to bed that night, I found my new friends and told them I would be joining them the next day for touring.

Jantar Mantar

12 January 2012

Thursday morning I got up and met my new friends for breakfast at the hotel. We arranged for a ride to drop us off in the Old City of Jaipur. The Old City is also called the Pink City because the entire old city is painted pink. It was first painted pink in 1876 on the order of the Maharaja Ram Singh to welcome the British Prince of Wales as pink is the color of hospitality (thank you Lonely Planet for the history lessons!). Jaipur was the first planned city in northern India and was surrounded by a strong wall for defense. The city is divided into rectangular sections with each section housing a bazaar specifically selling one type of item (clothing, jewelry, etc.). The bazaars were not yet open as we made our way toward the entrance gate of the Pink City which was actually somewhat of a blessing. Although the bazaars are a colorful experience, they tend to get very crowded quickly and sellers can be quite aggressive especially with obvious foreigners in trying to get you to their shops to sell you things. Between the sellers and the rickshaw drivers trying to get you to hire them out for the day to tour, you don’t get a lot of time (if any) to really take in the sights uninterrupted. I was very thankful that I didn’t have to tour the city alone as the hassling is worse when you are by yourself and is very tiring to always be the one to fend people off - at least with three of us, we could take turns shoeing people away.

City Palace

Only the Maharaja and his family are allowed to enter through the main gate called the Tripolia Gate. Everyone else has to enter through the nearby stable gate. We walked into the city and made our way towards the tall Iswari Minar Swarga Sal. We climbed up the minaret for a fantastic view of the city and the forts surrounding it. The guide that attached himself to us was very adamant about taking pictures of each of us individually and as a group from every viewing angle. We finally had to tell him that we did not need any more pictures. After our unwanted guided tour of the minaret (it’s difficult to get rid of guides that attach themselves to you without asking), we made our way to Jantar Mantar which was an observatory built in the first half of the 18th century at the request of the city’s namesake, Maharaja Jai Singh. A total of five observatories were built at the request of Jai Singh but Jantar Mantar is the largest and best preserved. It is filled with strange looking devices that are used to measure various factors related to astronomy. After leaving Jantar Mantar, we made our way to the City Palace where the maharajas and their families have lived since the creation of the city in the 1700s. The architecture was stunning and colorful, painted pink like the rest of the city. From here we walked to the Hawa Mahal otherwise known as the Palace of the Winds. This was built for the ladies of the court to be able to sit and watch the people of the city. The building is studded with small windows that you can imagine these beautifully dressed women of the court sitting and watching the lives of the people of the city.

Hawa Mahal

Exhausted from the day’s excursion and all of the hassling of people trying to sell you things, we decided it was time for lunch and maybe to do a bit of shopping. There is tons of stuff within the bazaars for shopping, but it’s difficult to know how much things should cost as being obvious foreigners, we were particularly susceptible to getting ripped off. You also don’t get to have the fun of browsing while shopping at the bazaars. You walk in and the shop worker will start pulling out things for you to look at. They don’t always listen to what you say you are looking for and it can be really difficult to know what you like and don’t like without looking for yourself. In a very short amount of time, the counters are strewn with clothing and scarves to be put away when we decide that we don’t really like anything that we see and leave the store. We were all in the mood for a more conventional western-style shopping experience and turned to the Lonely Planet for assistance. We found a shop called Anokhi that had a cafe inside and was known for its ethical business practices and its use of organic cotton. The clothing is all made at a factor just outside Jaipur. We took a rickshaw to the store and actually got the driver to use the meter although he tried to claim that we owed him twice the amount posted on the meter. Thankfully a group of guys nearby saw that the driver was trying to rip us off and chewed him out. We were relieved to get inside the shop and sit down at a restaurant called Little Italy. It was quiet and calm and we enjoyed being away from the hustle and bustle of the Old City. After having a delicious lunch, we went to Anokhi. The store reminded me of Anthropologie back home except for it was a lot cheaper! The clothing was very nicely displayed and no one bothered you while you were looking around except to occasionally ask if you needed any help. The store was filled with all kinds of Indian clothing and scarves and housewares in all colors, patterns, and styles. I had to cut myself off after finding one colorful green outfit, a pair of loose trousers, and two tops that I think will be useful for the hospital/clinic in Bangalore. After leaving Anokhi, full and satisfied with the change of pace of the day we walked towards a shoe store also mentioned in the Lonely Planet called Mojari. The store is known for selling hand sewn, hand embroidered Rajasthani shoes for about 750 rupees a pair ($12.50). I did not plan on buying any shoes until I tried some on and felt like they were exactly made for my feet. Johanna also bought a pair. After leaving, we then headed towards a jewelry store for Bernie. Unfortunately the jewelry store was only open from 6-10pm in the evening and as it was only 430 and we were tired, we decided to head back to the hotel.

Tiger Fort

Back at the hotel, all three of us needed to try to book some train tickets. I was planning to go to Agra with my sister and her class on Saturday and then take the train back to Jaipur Sunday morning. Bernie and Johanna had to book a train to Agra and then from Agra to Delhi. Unfortunately because we were looking so late for tickets, I was unable to get a ticket from Agra to Jaipur on Sunday morning and instead was put on a short waitlist for a Saturday night train ticket. Bernie and Johanna were having similar difficulties and ended up booking a train to Agra for Friday afternoon and to Delhi in Saturday evening. 

I met up with Sarah again in the evening and enjoyed sharing about each other’s days. Her class had been at the conference all morning and then did a bit of sightseeing in the afternoon to the Amber Fort and City Palace. The following day their class was heading to a village as part of the conference so I decided to spend the day completing my sightseeing tour of Jaipur with Bernie and Johanna before they had to take the train to Agra.

Tiger Fort

13 January 2012

Friday morning I got up a bit earlier so that we could start our sightseeing right away since Bernie and Johanna had to leave that evening for Agra. Our composite tickets we bought the day before allowed us free entrance to the Tiger Fort (Nahargarh) and the Amber Fort both of which were a little ways outside the city. They had looked impressive from our view of them from the Iswari Minar and we were excited to get a closer look. We had hired an autorickshaw driver for the day to take us to the forts and back. The roads were quiet at 9am in the morning and it was a very pleasant drive up the massive hills surrounding the city up to the forts. On our way, we first passed the Water Palace (Jal Mahal) - a summer home for the maharaja built in the middle of a lake (Man Sagar). The water level varies based on the season and so the palace has become flooded in many areas and is not open for the public to visit at this time. Also on our drive up into the hills, we passed by a variety of wildlife including hoards of peacocks, wild boars, and monkeys. We arrived at the Tiger Fort and it seemed we had the place all to ourselves. Should have checked the opening times because we arrived at 930am and the Fort did not open until 10am. Thankfully we were able to wander around the outskirts of the fort and get some fantastic views of the city below and the Amber Fort a little ways away. The fort was originally built to increase the defense of the city and was modified by a later maharaja (Ram Singh) in the mid 1800s into a palace (Madhavendra Bhawan) to house his 9 wives, each with her own apartment within the palace. The maharaja had an apartment to himself within the palace and created a maze of passageways to link his apartment to those of each of his wives so he could pass between apartments without the other wives knowing where he was going or coming from.

Tiger Fort

After leaving the Tiger Fort, we made our way to the Jaigarh Fort located on the hill above the Amber Fort. We hadn’t planned on going to this fort, but our driver took us there (this is not atypical as I have more often than I would like have found myself at a place I did not ask to go). Thankfully we also already had a ticket for this  Fort which was included with our admission to the City Palace. The Fort is impressive and allows a stunning view of the Amber Fort below. It also houses the largest wheeled cannon in the world (built in 1720, weighs 50 tons, 6m long barrel). 

From here we made our way down to the Amber Fort which is really more of a palace that has secret passageways up to the Jaigarh Fort if the city was ever under attack. On our way up to the fort we saw colorfully dressed elephants carrying passengers up to the Amber Fort. Although seeing an elephant that close is impressive, I hope to see a wild one sometime over the course of the next 6 months in India and Uganda. One recommendation I have for anyone doing a Fort tour in Jaipur, go to the Amber Fort first. By the time we arrived there and started to look around, we were so tired from wandering the forts and being hassled by people wanting to sell us their goods or be our tour guide and just in general fort-ed out that we didn’t have the energy to really see the Amber Fort to its potential. On top of that, we were hungry as we had left the hotel by about 830am and it was now after noon. We shared an audio guide and even though we had a map, we got lost within the fort and were unable to find some of the numbers for the guided tour. Though the fort was the most interesting we had seen thus far with a great audio tour guide, we left after we found our way back to the entrance and decided to go for lunch.

Jaigarh Fort

Again the Lonely Planet came to our rescue and we had lunch at the Peacock Rooftop Restaurant. It was nice to sit for a while and have a good meal with friends. After eating, we returned to the hotel and Bernie and Johanna left for the train station. Bernie and I would be overlapping for one day in Delhi and exchanged emails in hopes of being able to meet up for a bit of sightseeing there.

Jaigarh Fort

After being gone for a week already, I was running out of underwear. Unfortunately laundromats are not ubiquitous (if they even exist) in this area and so I spent some quality time handwashing my clothes. This may be the way I am doing laundry for the next 6 months... Namaste.

Amber Fort

Amber Fort

Amber Fort

A Successful Day

asked to take a photo - it's like I'm a celebrity :)

I have finally gotten into a more normal sleep/wake cycle. I went to bed around 10:30pm last night and didn’t wake up until nearly 6am. That is actually perfect for when I start my clinical rotations. Gives me a little time in the morning to check email etc. before getting ready to head off to the hospital. 

Today was my first really great day. I finally feel like my mind and body have adjusted to India and the overwhelmingness that is Delhi. I feel most accomplished because I did all of it on my own - the day planning, figuring out how to get from place to place. It is a good feeling. I will be ready to really explore Delhi on Delhi Round 2 when I return next week after my visit to Jaipur. This morning after getting ready I headed to Crush on Beans Cafe - the cafe I discovered yesterday that has free WiFi as long as you make an order of at least 100 rupees (about $2). There are many places where you can get a meal for less than $1 but for breakfast and WiFi, I’ll splurge! I was able to do my emailing as well as post my blog before heading out for the day. 

India Gate

I walked to the metro station (Ramakrishna Ashram Marg) and took it to Khan Market. It was a beautiful day outside and I enjoyed the walk from the metro stop to the India Gate. The India Gate bears a striking resemblance to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris although it is a bit smaller. The Gate was erected as a memorial for the 90,000 Indian Army soldiers who died in WWI. There is also a smaller memorial below the arch that commemorates those soldiers who died in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.

I left the India Gate and made my way to the National Gallery of Modern Art. At most of the sights and museums, a different price is charged if you are Indian vs. foreign. According to my guidebook, at this Gallery, Indians pay 10 rupees to enter, foreigners 150 rupees (about $3). I had my student ID with me and got a student rate for the museum - 10 rupees (about $0.20). Pretty good for an art museum. I was really impressed by the collection within the museum. No photography was allowed inside so I am unable to show any of the fine examples of Indian art that was on display mostly from the Company Period (when India was a British colony) to now. It was a beautiful museum and I enjoyed wandering through the collection and getting a sense of Indian culture and history through its art. 

After leaving the National Gallery of Modern Art, I started walking towards the Gandhi Smriti museum (free admission!). On my way to the museum, several autorickshaws stopped to ask if I needed a ride. It was a beautiful day for walking and so I declined. One particularly friendly driver started in on some small talk. He asked me where I was headed and I told him the museum. He insisted that he was headed that direction anyway to meet his friend and would be more than happy to drop me off without payment. I finally relented and even though he did not expect a payment, I paid him anyway. The museum is the home where Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life and is also the site where we was assassinated on 30 January 1948. You could easily spend a day at this museum. Inside the house are numerous displays providing a biography of Gandhi’s life and the struggle of India for its independence from Britain. The museum also shows a documentary on Gandhi’s life and has an interactional multimedia exhibit. Gandhi’s room where he stayed is left as it was while he stayed in that house and all his possessions are in a display case outside his room including his walking stick and glasses. Concrete footsteps lead from his room to the site where he was assassinated marking his final walk on earth. There is also a touching memorial at the spot where he was assassinated. Out of respect, you are required to remove your shoes at this memorial. As I followed the path by his footsteps, I was behind an Indian family. Two of the girls stopped and asked me if they could take a picture with me. As an extremely pale, blond-haired, blue-eyed person, I stand out. This was the second time I had my picture taken by local people - the other time was in Haridwar although that picture was taken without my permission. It doesn’t bother me but it is really strange being so out of the ordinary that people want to take your picture. 

Gandhi Smriti museum

I left the museum and walked to the nearest metro station. I was quite hungry at this point since I had not stopped for lunch and although I planned to head back to the Crush on Beans Cafe, I wanted to have Indian food for dinner and not the Americana food from the cafe. I exited the metro at Rajiv Chowk in Connaught Place and stopped at a restaurant called Embassy that was recommended in Lonely Planet. It was a lovely restaurant and was midrange in terms of pricing but I figured I could treat myself since I have not eaten out all that much. Plus as a successful day in Delhi sightseeing, I felt that it deserved a small celebration. I asked the waiter for his recommendation and ended up ordering Mutton Samosa. It was this delicious combination of minced meat mixed with spices baked inside a scrumptious flaky crust with sides of ketchup or mint sauce for dressing. I ate this with a glass of wine and a 1L bottle of water then followed my dinner with a cup of chai tea. I had all of this for about $12. Inside the restaurant, there were several flatscreen TVs. I am rather fascinated by the Bollywood scene. Indian television appears to have all the same types of channels that we do in the USA including an Indian version of MTV that actually seems to play mostly music videos. The Bollywood clothing is a combination of traditional Indian and a very skimpy hybrid of Indian and Western. The more I see of India, the more fascinated I become with its culture.

Satisfied with my meal, I walked back to the metro station. Rajiv Chowk at 6pm is a complete crazy house. I have never seen a metro so crowded. The other thing is that you have to be really aggressive because people cut in line and shove their way onto the metro. Each train that leaves is literally packed to the max with people. Somewhere between 8-10 trains passed before I was finally shoved into one. Thankfully they run every 1-2 minutes so I didn’t wait all that long, but it was a mad house to get to my stop which happened to be the one after Rajiv Chowk. I exited the metro and headed back to Crush on Beans where in order to use the WiFi I ordered a brownie sundae for dessert. After finishing up my emails, I walked back to my hotel for my last night at Hotel Pahwa International before heading to Jaipur. Namaste.

dinner at Embassy - mutton samosa

At the Foothills of the Himalayas

view of the Ganges River in Haridwar

Made it sleeping until about 4am this morning after going to bed at 9:30 last night. <sigh> At least it means that I am doing an excellent job keeping up on my blog writing (although keeping up with posting them is a different matter altogether :-/ ) I realized last night that I get free 3G on my Kindle in over 100 countries - India included :) It is super slow and tedious to check email and reply to email on it, but at least it means I have a connection to home always at my disposal! I’m not quite sure how I got along so well before the internet. I have found that I am fine without a phone (although I may get one once I arrive in Bangalore for convenience) but I do not like being without internet. 

I was concerned the morning my driver was supposed to pick me up from my hotel for the trip to Rishikesh that he was not going to show up. I had agreed to be picked up at 7am but my driver did not show up until 7:30. I was glad when he did show up because I really did not want to have to deal with a mess of getting my money back. I am done with tourist offices unless I am going with another person. Although I have found people to be very nice, when they are trying to sell you something, they are really quite pushy in a somewhat passive-aggressive way. I can deal with outright aggressive selling (this is what I encountered most in Haiti) but the passive style has really thrown me and I definitely need to work on making myself more aggressive in response. 

kids playing cricket on the side of the road

A brief side note on a road trip in India...I would never want to be the driver. I have never been so nervous in a car in my life. It wasn’t that I had a bad driver - it’s that all the drivers are bad drivers. There “rules” of the road are basically nonexistent. You drive on the left side of the road, but you don’t have to stay there if you are going to weave around other cars, even if cars are coming at you from the other direction. Just blare your horn and don’t slow down so that the other cars will move. I am not sure how I didn’t see accidents during the many hours it took to get to Rishikesh and back. Part of the road was a toll road and was 4 lanes which was scary enough but tame and mild in comparison to the long stretch of two-lane that took up at least 1/3 of the distance. And the problem isn’t just that cars are weaving in and out around each other blaring their horns to signal their coming, the cars also share the roads with autorickshaws (glorified golf carts), large trucks, buses, motorcycles and mopeds, farm vehicles often loaded down with stuff (mostly sugarcane), bicyclists, and best of all...cow-led carts. Yes, even cows are allowed on National Highway 58. At times I would just close my eyes certain that a head-on collision was coming and pray that I wouldn’t die. Thankfully, nothing like that happened and we made it there and back safe and sound without even the tiniest fender-bender. 

Ganges River in Haridwar

It took a long time to get to Haridwar - the first stop of my pre-planned trip. First getting out of Delhi was slow going. We stopped at a roadside stand for chai tea and for my driver to take a smoke break. While on the road I discovered that my driver’s English is not very good which was extremely frustrating. We can communicate about some necessary things but casual conversation is out. I tried a couple of times before completely giving up. The scenery was mostly farmland for what looked like sugarcane. And nearly every place there was bare ground, kids were playing cricket. For breakfast, we stopped at a roadside place which I would not have chosen but I am somewhat at the mercy of my driver because I cannot get him to understand when I ask to do something or go somewhere. The “restaurant” was an outdoor kitchen and tables set up under a sort of pavilion.  The server did not speak any English and I did not really know what anything was on the menu. So I picked blindly and thankfully got something well cooked. The best I can describe it is a stuffed flat bread. It was quite good. I did not know how to eat it properly and was making a fool of myself before my driver and the server explained to me in gestures that you tear the flat bread and dip it into this mix of chilies and spices. The chilies were hot but the whole meal was quite tasty. The main frustration is that I had been told my breakfast would be included in the price and I ended up paying for not only my breakfast, but my driver’s as well. At least it only cost 125 rupees (about $2.50) so not really worth making a fuss about. There have been a few situations where my driver has made me pay for things that I am pretty sure I am not supposed to have to pay for but due to the language barrier, it is impossible to discuss this. The extra money I have spent is nominal so not worth an argument. But I was supposed to have all of my sight-seeing paid for and I ended up paying for my shoe check at one of the temples (5 rupees) and for a auto-rickshaw ride back up the mountain to my hotel (30 rupees) which I would have been fine walking but I don’t think my driver enjoys walking so much and it had started to drizzle outside. The amount of money is nominal and not worth worrying about, but it is the principle of the whole thing that really bothers me. I guess these experiences early on are definitely helping me shed some of my “Minnesota nice” when dealing with people trying to sell things.

Ganges in Haridwar

The destination of my trip is stunning and although some of my experiences have been frustrating in terms of the logistics, it has not taken away from me enjoying the beauty of my surroundings. Haridwar and Rishikesh are in the state of Uttarakhand which borders Tibet and Nepal and lies at the foothills of the Himalayas and where the Ganges RIver flows out from the mountains. The two cities are considered Holy Cities for the Hindus and all of the food in these cities is vegetarian. In Haridwar, the Ganges leaves the mountains to enter the plans and it is this site, Har-ki-Pairi, that is a holy place for Hindus to visit. Along the river there are people wading in to receive some of the river’s spiritual power. All around there are beggars, most of them with a range of bodily disfigurements. It is quite sad to see this concentration of people with such obvious medical ailments. The town of Haridwar is filled with several colorful markets. Above the city in the mountains is the Mansa Devi temple. Normally you can reach this temple by taking a lift up to the top, but the lift was closed for maintenance. Instead, we walked up a long set of stairs to the top of the hill/small mountain to reach the temple. There were vendors all along the set of stairs wanting to sell a variety of offerings for the temple as well as water for the hike. The stairs were also lined with monkeys. The monkeys are probably attracted by the visitors and the prospect of food. It was great exercise and the view of the valley below was spectacular. In the temple, I was accosted by people trying to give me blessings in return for donations and one man gave me a flower and a small banana. I had no intention of eating the banana and thought I would leave it for the monkeys. The problem was solved for me while admiring the view from a lookout point near the temple when a bold monkey ran up to me and snatched the banana from my hand. It surprised me and when I realized what had happened, I couldn’t help but laugh. 

monkey who stole my banana

I had been hoping to stay in Haridwar or at least to return for the daily evening ceremony of Ganga Aarti but my driver did not understand when I was asking him about this. We got in the car and started to drive towards Rishikesh. Along the way we stopped at a shop selling all varieties of gems important to the Hindu faith. Like the scarf shop the day before, I am sure I was brought here because my guide or the tourist office gets some sort of commission for bringing customers there. I bought a small necklace for about $12 and to the disappointment of the shop owner ended my spending there. Rishikesh is a starting point for many who are headed into the Himalayas. It is also the yoga center in India with several schools and ashrams devoted to teaching the practice of all forms of yoga. Once we arrived in Rishikesh, we stopped at the hotel to check in. My room is pleasant and clean with a view of the mountains from the window. Thankfully my driver knew that I had already paid for this through the tourist office and I was reassured when he informed me that he would be covering the charges of the room. After settling in and washing the Hindu paint off my face that I acquired from the hike up to the Mansa Devi temple, my guide and I headed into the town. There is a massive footbridge that spans the Ganges River which we crossed to the other side of the town. The view from the bridge is incredible with the mountains and the river lined with ashrams and yoga schools. The city is also dotted with Hindu temples with gods and goddesses to pray to, ring the bells, and provide a donation. The town is also filled with a large bazaar for shopping with a range of Indian, Tibetan, and Nepali wares. While walking through the town, I saw the highest concentration of non-Indian people that I have yet seen while in India. If it weren’t for the fact that I had my guide with me the whole time, I think I would have found some people to hang out with for the evening. I had hoped to watch the evening worship at the river as the ceremony is also supposed to be quite a site to see but my driver again did not understand me when I asked about this. I could hear the singing and chanting from my hotel and had to settle for that. I also would have liked to stop at one of the many cafes for dinner, but again because my guide was with me, I was pretty sure he would expect me to pay for his dinner as well which I find quite frustrating. As a result, I fell asleep early and did not have dinner. I am looking forward to getting to Jaipur to see my sister on Wednesday so that I can eat more regular meals and have some good company! 

I slept well although my room is quite drafty and I was especially cold after being able to take a hot shower. Unfortunately because I was cold, I laid in bed and wound up falling asleep around 8pm which means I was wide awake at 4am this morning. It is raining hard outside which does not bode well for any shopping or sight seeing today. Perhaps it will clear up by the time I head out this morning. I am supposed to meet my driver at 9am. I would like for it to clear up and to go for another walk around the town and stop at shops I find interesting to browse and also to stop at one of the internet cafes with WiFi that I saw on the walk around town last night.

Ganges River & Himalayas - Rishikesh

Well, it did clear up but when I walked down to the hotel lobby to meet my driver and got in the car, he informed me that we were going back to Delhi. No sight-seeing for me. After all of my failed attempts at any sort of conversation yesterday, it wasn’t worth it to try to explain what I had been hoping to do. Oh well. At least now I have the confidence that I can arrange my own (safe) travels in India and don’t need the assistance of a tour office. Also, I am more determined then ever to find some friends once I get to Bangalore to travel around with...at least every once in a while! The return trip was just as frightening as the trip up but we made it back to Delhi safely although the traffic was horrendous and the total trip took 7.5 hours. Again we stopped for breakfast at a roadside stand and I wound up paying for my driver’s meal. Yes, I am officially done with personally chauffeured tours.

bridge over Ganges in Rishikesh

One good thing about the long drive and the fact that my driver and I could not really engage in small talk (this made the fact that he didn’t have a radio in the car worse) is that I did a bit of reading about Bangalore and also about Delhi. I discovered that there are two (reliable) internet cafes in the neighborhood of my hotel and also was able to locate my hotel and the cafes on the map. Once my driver dropped me off, I unloaded my stuff into my hotel room and headed for the internet cafe. I didn’t make it to the one I had intended to, but instead stopped at a restaurant/coffee shop with WiFi. The WiFi is free if you order food, so for the first time this trip I actually ate three meals and was able to check my email and post a couple of the blogs that I had written. I also booked my accommodation for after I return from visiting my sister in Jaipur. I will be staying at a different hotel that has free WiFi. Within an hour of booking, the hotel sent me a welcome email and offered airport pick-up. They also have 24-hour hot water! Winter temperatures in Delhi are not warm enough for a cold shower to feel good at all and I have found myself colder in India than I think I ever was in Stockholm. 

One final comment - at both of the hotels I have stayed at so far in India, there has been a bucket and a smaller container in each shower. These collect the water from the shower and I think are supposed to be used for subsequent washing. 

So, plan for tomorrow is to head to the internet cafe in the morning to send some emails and post this blog then off to a few museums - the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Ghandi Smriti. Wednesday I am off to Jaipur to meet up with my favorite sister! Namaste.

Two Sides of Delhi and the Absence of the Middle Class

Lodi Garden, New Delhi

After waking up at 3:30am this morning feeling too awake for that time of night and then falling back asleep before waking up completely ready to start the day at 4:30am, I am determined not to take a nap at all today like I did yesterday. I need to force myself to stay awake during the day no matter how tired I am to try and switch over to the India time zone. 

Tomb in Lodi Garden

As I sit down to write this, it is 8pm and I have succeeded in not taking a nap today as well as in trying Indian cuisine! I also got a chance to use my new point and shoot camera I got for Christmas to replace the unfortunate toilet camera. It was an eventful day for me and I have now discovered for myself that there are two sides to India (or at least to Delhi): yes, you can get things very cheaply here but there is also a high-end lifestyle as well. I discovered this while out shopping. I think there is an assumption that because I am a foreigner (more specifically, a westerner), that I have money. Certainly not the case. I found some shop owners willing to listen to me when I said “no” to things that were out of my price range and others that did not. More on shopping later... Delhi itself is a very interesting city. I saw much more of it today and I can’t quite figure out how best to describe it. I’ll start from the beginning. I spent a few hours this morning reading since I was awake at an obscenely early hour. Once I determined it was a respectable morning hour, I got up and got ready to head out. I walked to the metro station and took it one stop to Rajiv Chowk which is at the center of Connaught Place. My plan was to head to the official India Tourist office to get a better map (mine fails to show many of the streets and also doesn’t name them). I walked out of one of the several exits of the metro unsure if I had exited at the appropriate gate. When I walked out, I found myself in the middle of a deserted torn up road. Looking clearly unsure of what to do, a man asked me where I was going and offered to point me in the right direction. The India tourist office was unfortunately on the road that was being completely reconstructed. With help, I did make it there and was immediately offered chai tea as I discussed my plans (or more accurately, lack thereof) with one of the tourist workers. The office was a lot smaller than I thought it would be (I foolishly had something in mind more like the tourist offices in Scandinavia).  Although all I had planned to get from the office was a better map of Delhi, I left with a map, a personal guide for the day to take me on a tour of Delhi, and a completely planned two day/one night trip to Rishikesh - a town at the base of the Himalayas and the start of the Ganges River. I am sure I could have planned the trip myself for much cheaper than the price I paid for it, but at least I don’t have to worry about anything and it is all inclusive (including guided tours of Rishikesh and the surrounding area) except for a couple of meals. Plus, it actually turned out to be around the same cost as one of my weekend excursions while I was in Sweden. 

Parliament House

After my second cup of chai tea, one of the other workers took me to a shop that is apparently known for it’s textiles. This was an example of a high-end shopping place in Delhi and a place where the shop owner was not listening when I repeatedly told him that I was a student and could not afford the hand-detailed 100% pashmina wool scarf. I ended up caving and buying a nice pashmina scarf (although not the hand-detailed one) and was feeling quite concerned that I had been taken advantage of until I did price comparisons at a couple of local bazaars. Turns out that 100% pashmina is expensive, even in India. I have learned my lesson that I need to be more forceful and aggressive in my “no” and I think by the time I leave India, I will be much better at that and at haggling prices - two things that are difficult for a girl from the midwest of Scandinavian decent who just spent 10 weeks in Sweden where “forceful and aggressive” don’t seem to exist. After that successful&failure of a shopping trip, we headed back to the tourist office where I met my driver for the day. It was really nice to have a personal guide although I would have liked to have had the opportunity to meet people on a larger tour. I enjoyed my experience today, but I think after I return from Rishikesh, I will join a (cheaper) group tour to see more of the sights of Delhi. 

Lodi Garden

My personal tour today focused on sights in New Delhi. In a really old city has been rebuilt and expanded several times with a population of around 13 million, it is all but impossible to see all the sights in one day. We started out with a drive around the Parliament House and the President’s home. All of the government buildings are in one area and I was immediately impressed by their size and elegance. They were built during the time of the British colonization and are surrounded by lush green gardens. I took some quick pictures from the car because you are not supposed to take pictures of any government buildings/structures in India. After the Parliament House, we drove by the India Gate which is a memorial to the 90,000 soldiers that died fighting in WWI. We then made our way to the Lodi Garden. I was not expecting what I saw when I went walking through the garden. The garden houses tombs from the 15th century of Sayiid and Lodi rulers that are remarkably well preserved. It also is an incredibly lush garden and green space. The air was cool and seemed fresher than in many of the other areas of Delhi that I had been to. I got a brief history lesson at one of the tombs sites from a local guy trying to earn some rupees off of tourists. As I was walking around, a fellow walker greeted me (change from Sweden where strangers never greet you) and asked where I was from. When I said the USA, his response was "That's one of my favorite countries!" I couldn't help but feel slightly proud. From the gardens, we made our way to the Indira Ghandi Memorial Museum. I didn’t go into the museum (although admission is free) because I wanted more to get a sense of Delhi on my day’s excursion. It looks like a fascinating museum and I will definitely need to come here before I leave Delhi. Thankfully I have one full day after I return from Rishikesh in Delhi plus another two full days after I get back from Jaipur before I head off to Bangalore. We left the museum and made our way to a nearby bazaar which was located inside a large building and sold everything from textiles, to rugs, to trinkets, to jewelry, and more. There are several salespeople offering tea and wanting to be of assistance for my shopping. I’m guessing they work for commission. I learned here that you pay for the quality that you get. The bazaar “pashmina” was not the same as the high-end “pashmina” and even as a novice in textiles, I could tell a significant difference in the quality. I felt a little better about my splurge earlier that morning. 

Lodi Garden

When I finished browsing at the bazaar, my driver suggested stopping for lunch. I requested something with good Indian food that was relatively cheap. My driver had the perfect place. I asked my server what he thought the best dish was at the restaurant. He first asked me what I wanted in terms of spiciness. Knowing that I probably was not ready to handle the Indian idea of “hot,” I settled for mild-moderate. He suggested the butter chicken. On this menu, you could choose between a full, half, and quarter order. I had no idea what this meant in terms of portions so I ordered a half. Another lesson learned - always order the smallest size possible when buying a meal for one. The half order was huge and in addition to the butter chicken, I had a plate of rice and garlic nan. I maybe ate about half of my food before I was too full to finish. It was delicious and I am proud to have had my first real Indian food in India. 

Lotus Temple

Next stop was the Lotus Temple (Bahai House of Worship). It is a new (built in the 1980s) temple built for followers of the Bahai faith and is in the shape of a lotus flower. All are welcome to meditate and pray in the interior. The Bahai faith centers on peace and the building itself emulates that. It is a beautiful large marble structure with clear blue pools of water surrounding it. Like all holy places in India, you are required to remove your shoes before entering the temple. They have “shoe checks” where you drop your shoes off and are given a number which after your visit you turn back in to retrieve your shoes. It was kind of fun to be walking around barefoot in the temple. Right before I left the temple, I walked into the bathroom thinking it would be a good place for a pit stop. HA! I have to say that one really good thing about surgical rotations is that they teach you to hold it for long, long periods of time. Not sure that is quite healthy, but on occasion it comes in really handy. The toilets were of the more typical Indian style - a hole in the ground. That didn’t bother me so much as the fact that the method of cleaning yourself is not through toilet paper, but with a jug of water and your left hand. There also was not soap at the sinks. No, thank you. I will use those if I am absolutely desperate but I really hope not to find myself desperate on any point on this trip. I also am carrying around a small amount of toilet paper and hand sanitizer with me to make sure if I do find myself needing to use those toilets, I won’t have to use my hand to wipe. 

Lotus Temple

Delhi is full of bazaars and after leaving the Lotus Temple, we headed to another one nearby. This bazaar was a fixed price bazaar and seems to benefit from the hordes of tourists that visit the Lotus Temple. When I walked in, a woman employee immediately attached herself to me as my “personal shopper” for the bazaar. She was delightful and actually listened to me when I said I was a student and didn’t want to spend a lot of money. We walked around to the different sections of the bazaar where she served me a chai tea and showed me the various qualities of products with the prices. If there was something I liked, she would ask what quality level I wanted and then would pull out a multitude of colors in that quality level for me to choose from. She didn’t try to pressure me much and I found the shopping experience to be a lot of fun. It was here that I found that the price I paid for my authentic pashmina was a fair one. I guess that will be my one expensive authentic India gift for myself. 

My driver was going to take me Humayun’s Tomb for our last stop of the tour but unfortunately the road to the Tomb was so backed up with traffic that we were unable to get there. That is definitely on my list of places to visit on one of my three full days I have left in Delhi. Instead, we went to a very new Hindu temple - the Swaminarayan Akshardham. The temple was built in 2005 and is massive and over the top ornamental. The grounds are overwhelmingly huge (100 acres of land). To enter the temple, I was required to go through an extensive security check. The only personal items allowed into the temple were my passport, money, and jewelry. I went through a metal detector followed by a wand search then a pat down more invasive then any I have had in any airport in the US. Thankfully there are separate sections for women and men for this search. I’m not sure whether to feel comforted by the security measures or alarmed by them. The Delhi metro has a similar security system although the pat down is not quite as invasive. You are required to go through a metal detector, a wand search, and a pat down and place your bags through the security x-ray. The temple itself is built entirely of pink stone and marble without any use of steel. It is the most ornamental architectural work of art I have seen so far in my travels. The building is comprised of thousands of detailed sculptures of Hindu gods, elephants, and other symbols of the Hindu faith. Like the Bahai Temple, I had to remove my shoes before entering. Inside the temple was a huge gold plated statue of the yogi Bhagwan Swaminarayan for whom the temple was erected. He was a child yogi starting at the age of 11 and is an example of Indian culture and the Hindu faith. The exhibits at the temple provide a detailed historical background but due to time constraints, I limited myself to just wandering the grounds and the temple and being impressed by their richness. 

Akshardham

The visit to this temple was a perfect example of the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty that I have found in Delhi. The temple is rich, lavish, ornamental, and a complete example of Indian luxury and wealth. This is in contrast to the neighborhood of my hotel with its dingy crowded streets and run down buildings. The neighborhood of my hotel is also a contrast to the lush green spaces of nearby New Delhi with it’s wide tree-lined avenues and gardens and parks. Delhi is a city that has been rebuilt and and added to throughout its history and this is apparent when traveling through the city. There are areas of the city that provide me with a picture from Haiti - rubbish and crumbled remains of buildings that once stood at the site, homes made from scrap materials very reminiscent to the slums of Haiti and the tent cities, and homelessness. Then there are areas of Delhi that are clean and green with brand-new modern skyscrapers displaying the names of international and local corporations. The 11th annual international car exposition is in Delhi this upcoming week bringing in more examples of wealth to contrast the poverty that exists in the city. The best I can describe it is a city of juxtaposition and extremes - wealth or poverty. The middle class does not seem to exist to any large extent in Delhi. Next up, my trip to Rishikesh and the northern mountainous region of India. Namaste.

First Impressions

"pay what you want" coffee :)

Although I am quite tired as I still try to adjust to the major time change, I tried to be observant and take in as much as possible of Delhi as I was out and about today. In some respects, Delhi reminds me a lot of Haiti - it is noisy, dusty, crowded. It seems to me that this is what Port-au-Prince would look like if the government of Haiti was stable for a while and able to actually build up it’s capital city. You can’t see very far down any street due to the constant haze that seems to hang over the city. The roads are pretty well maintained but are completely crowded with people, cars, carts pulled behind animals, autorickshaws, cycle-rickshaws, motorbikes, and bicycles. Plus the sellers on the sidewalk seem to encroach on street space as well. I think there are sidewalks on the major roads but it can be hard to tell as not infrequently motor vehicles will drive onto them blaring the horns to try and pass some traffic.  It’s definitely not a walking friendly place like the Scandinavian countries. You can walk, just be wary of the constant stream of traffic around you and the blaring horns may be directed at you. In addition, walking around on the streets you inhale a massive amount of hazy air pollution. I hate to think of the black carbon spots that are forming in my lungs as I breathe this in for the next few months. I may need to return home for a short while just to get a little fresh air before continuing on to Kampala, Uganda. 

In terms of transportation, it is quite cheap but also quite variable in price. I read in a travel guide and have found that advice to be good to agree on a price before getting into any autorickshaw/cycle-rickshaw. I didn’t do that once today and the price difference was 80 rupees (which still is very cheap - about 50 rupees is equivalent to $1). Still, I stand out clearly as a foreigner which I think makes me a target for being charged unfairly high prices compared to the going rate. Delhi has a new metro system that was built in 2002 which is very nice and also very cheap. My ride to the coffee shop today was only 20 rupees (less than $0.50). The metro is clean, efficient, has information in both Hindi and English, air-conditioned, and best of all has designated sections for women only (marked on the train track boarding area with a pink sign saying “Women Only”). Men can actually be charged a fine for riding in the ladies only sections of the train.

Speaking of women, I definitely feel that I am a minority on the streets in terms of my gender as well. There are far more men walking around then women. I read about this in advance and was expecting it so I dressed up in some pretty shape-less clothing and a baggy jacket, put on my dark sunglasses and hit the road with a fairly serious expression on my face. I wasn’t bothered too much and actually for the most part found people to be very friendly and helpful. I was clearly confused when boarding the metro for the first time which direction I was supposed to be heading since the metro map in the Lonely Planet book is in different colors than the actual colors of the metro lines. A very nice gentleman helped me figure it out and I made it to my destination.

Speaking of the coffee shop - it was in a really cool area with neat shops bordering a park. I am looking forward to returning to the area and maybe do a little bit of browsing/shopping. There were a ton of kids out playing games with each other and many of them (noticing how much I stood out) would run up and walk beside me, say “Hi!” and wave. It was pretty darn cute. 

Unfortunately not all the kids come from a good living situation as there are many poor, homeless, and/or begging children on the streets of Delhi as well. I had read that you are not supposed to give money or gifts to begging children, and that is even harder to do than it sounds. There seems to be some sort of set of rules for whom to give money too and who not to. Apparently, it’s considered okay to give money to beggars who are obviously handicapped but it is discouraged to give handouts to children. I’m not quite sure why - I’ll have to do some more reading and see if I can figure it out. 

Hotel Pahwa International

Despite the streets being somewhat drab in their dust-cover, they are still vibrant. There are hotels on some streets that are literally every other building with tall light-up neon signs. I’m sure the quality varies considerably as does the price, but you would not lack for a place to stay here in Delhi. My hotel is fairly clean. The sheets aren’t exactly white but I think that may be more due to the fact that they are probably older and have been exposed to a lot of dust over the years as well as experienced a vigorous beating in their washing. I brought my own sheets that I decided to sleep in just in case. The hotel floor and bathroom is clean and it looks like they try to keep the place updated. My door has a bolted key lock plus two other bolts that can only be opened from the inside. I feel quite safe. Now the big question is whether or not I’ll be brave enough to try the hotel room service food for dinner. I’m still debating that one at this point. I may wait to try new foods until tomorrow. Good thing I brought along a bunch of Luna bars!

I digress. So, back to my last point about the color. Many of the women dress in fabulous arrays of colors. Their outfits look pretty comfortable as well and I think I could really get into the Indian fashion. Sure, there is a fair share of western clothing, but many women wear these colorful loose pants with a long colorful shirt over them and a scarf/wrap. They also wear several jeweled bracelets on their wrists and many of them have a decorative nose ring as well. I’ll forgo this nose ring, but the colorful pants and shirt - count me in! 

Alright, enough for the time being. I’m going to attempt to take a Hop On Hop Off bus tour of the city tomorrow and will hopefully start taking some pictures to post on the blog. It may take a while for me to actually post them though since I have a feeling the internet connection will mean that it will take forever to load photos. I’ll do my best! Until next time, namaste!