So we got on the train at night, we opted for AC 2-tier for the 33 hour train trip which ended up being a really good choice. I went with Shera, Tomas and Joey, three kids on my program. Shera and Joey are both from Boston and Tomas is from UW Madison with me, so it won't be that hard to keep in touch after this trip, either. Somehow the 33 hours passed pretty quickly, we slept through a lot of it. We finally made it to Jaipur, Rajasthan on the 25th and immediately set out to find a cheap hotel. Let me just say, hardly any of this would have been possible without the Lonely Planet book that we all covet. We found a few options in there and chose this adorable little family-run hotel for Rps 1000/night, or about $20, for a double, and we only needed one night. After we settled in we set out for the Old City. Jaipur is called the Pink City. All the old buildings here were painted a light, salmonish pink. We got to see the City Palace, Jantar Mantar, which was an observatory with giant sun dials and such (there are pics), Hawa Mahal, which was a palace-esque structure built for the ladies of the time to people watch, since most of the time they weren't allowed out of the palace, and lastly we saw the Amber Fort. Amber Fort was easily the coolest fort I've seen in India. You'll have to see the pictures, even though they really can't capture how beautiful it really is. We also ate at this restaurant that rotates while you eat, it finishes 360 degrees in 45 minutes and is really high up so you get a great view of the city. The second night we spent there was technically our Thanksgiving (it was the 26th for us but still the 25th for you guys), so we did what we could. We hit up an awesome kebab place and had all the chicken tikka and butter chicken we could eat. It was a great alternative turkey day.
The night of the 26th we took a bus over to Agra. This began the miserable part of our trip. The bus was super cold, the north actually does get cold in the winter time if you aren't prepared for it. We got off the bus at 630 instead of 530 because the bus got a flat tire, and this kind of "ruined our plan" in our minds because we missed sunrise already. But, as soon as we told the rickshawallahs that we wanted to go straight to the Taj, they said it was closed...they had to be kidding, right? The Taj doesn't close. Oh wait, I mean, it is a muslim structure, oh crap, it's Friday. Closed. Shera went to get her wallet. Stolen. Joey checked his bag. Ipod and camera and headphones gone. They were the two sitting in the aisle seats, Tomas and I got off alright. So now we're in Agra, with the Taj closed and pissed off about our stuff getting stolen, and we realize we're actually going to have to stay the night in that god forsaken city so we could see the Taj the next day. Agra is not a nice place. It has smog comparable to Delhi, even though it's much smaller, the food is crappy, it's not walkable, and the stuff to do around there other than the Taj is really not that cool. We did it anyway. What kept our hopes up was that from the rooftop of our hotel you could see the Taj, and it looked AWESOME. We made it through that day, actually enjoyed ourselves the second half. We got up at 5:30 am the next morning and got straight over to the Taj. The Taj charges Indian citizens 20 rupees to get in and foreigners 750 rupees. It's crap, but it never stops any foreigners from actually going in. This place was heavily guarded, they actually thoroughly search you before you can go in (most places "search" you, but it's really just a joke performance). Once you get through security though, you turn through the archway and catch your first glimpse and it just knocks the wind out of you. Seeing it immediately dwarfed the size of every other structure I've ever seen or will see. Since we were so early, there weren't nearly as many people. The smog, though, was ridiculous, and from the far platform you can barely see it in the background. I took like 50 pictures of the whole thing over and over again because each time I seemed to look at it through new eyes and just wanted to catch it. If you ever get a chance, definitely see it, it's worth it.
We took off out of Agra pretty quickly after we were done at the Taj, we all hated that city so much we wanted out as soon as possible. So on to Delhi, where we were going to stay with my host brother, Bharat. He lives in South Delhi in a cute little flat. Let me tell you though, Delhi was even colder than Agra and Jaipur, and I really wish I'd brought socks. We got there on a Saturday night, went out to dinner at this place called Gunpowder that had south indian dishes that were absolutely delicious. We went out drinking afterward and met up with a bunch of Bharat's friends and stuff. It ended up being a really fun night. The next day we pretty much relaxed the whole day, which was exactly what we needed at this halfway point of our trip. We got a big American breakfast of bagels, eggs, bacon and coffee then went over to Lodi park, found a spot on the grass and took a long nap. We went back to his flat for a bit, met up with his friends again and went to the university near by to hang out with some other people. Although we couldn't contribute much to the conversation out of ignorance, the guys that we were hanging out with in the dorms were having really good conversations about Indian politics and corruption and the unspoken system of the way things work around here. We headed home early, though, because the next morning we were gonna be up early and doing the Delhi sight seeing thing. First we went to the Red Fort, which, for some reason, was closed on Mondays. How did we get so unlucky twice? We moved on to the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, then Humayan's tomb and the Tibet House museum. Sorry I'm not adding more about each place we saw, but not only would that take forever but they're also starting to blur together a bit we saw so many things. The next morning we hit up Qtub Minar, the Lotus Temple and Red Fort. I thought the Red Fort would be a lot cooler, so many people swear by it, but it's really just a city inside walls. The Amber Fort in Jaipur was a lot better in my opinion. After the Red Fort it was just a matter of getting to our separate train stations. Shera and Tomas were going back to Hyderabad and Joey and I were moving on to Varanasi. We took the new Delhi metro which is the subway they built in preparations for the Commonwealth Games in 2010. This subway was awesome. It was so smooth you didn't even need to hang on to anything when you were in it, it ran every 2 minutes, and was quick and simple to use. We were all super impressed and ended up using it for most of our travels throughout Dehli.
Joey and I hopped on our Varanasi train, which ended up being the coldest train ride of my life. All I had was my indian cotton pants, a sweatshirt and a sheet. Freezing cold. But we made it in the end, found a hotel, and explored. At this point we were both pretty burned out on sight seeing, and even though it's a shame we didn't get to see any temples in the City of Temples, I'm sure that neither of us would have enjoyed it had we gone. The first day we went up to Saranath, which is a little town about 10 km from Varanasi where Buddha gave his first teachings. There was an awesome museum there for only rps 2 and a nice park that had a buddhist temple, a small zoo and a banyan tree where Buddha was said to have given his teachings. It was an enjoyable little town. The next day we were up at the break of dawn on a boat ride down the Ganges. We lit little prayer lamps, saw a bit of the morning pooja at the main pooja ghat and glimpsed the cremation ghat. It was nice over sunrise, the river turned some really cool colors. Afterwards we wandered around the city, aiming for Benaras Hindi University to meander through but managed to get lost and wandered anyway. The next day we wandered in the opposite direction, down to the main ghats. We stumbled upon the cremation ghat again, realized our mistake and turned to walk away when a man from the ghat grabbed us and welcomed us in as long as we didn't take any photos. He handed us over to a guy who spoke significantly better English and then guided us around the ghat. He worked at the ghat and told us about how everything there works. He talked about his family and caste and explained that they are considered unstable by the community and are in charge only of cremations, if he were to go into the city in search for a job, he said, nobody would hire him. He also explained about who is allowed to be cremated. For instance, young children, pregnant women and accident victims aren't allowed to be cremated because in order for them to die under such conditions they must have done something awful and cremation is considered final liberation, so since they did something so awful they had to die for it they aren't yet deserving of the final liberation. He also explained traditions associated with the cremation, such as the eldest son shaving his head upon his father's death, the men not being allowed to cry at the cremation, and absolutely no women allowed down by the ghat because sattva is illegal, or when the widow jumps on the funeral pyre. So I was literally the only woman on the grounds, yet nobody seemed to mind. Obviously, because everyone there was caught up in their own affairs. It was a very solemn tour but very interesting and helpful. There were cops heavily guarding the alleyways leading to the ghats, which is pretty scary since they carry these huge guns, but good news when you're lost within the alleys and need help getting out. The rest of the time we mostly wandered, hung out by the ghats, ate our final meals (the food in Varanasi was some of the best we'd had and was the cheapest, too!), and caught our train.
This should be "The End", right? C'mon you guys, nothing is ever that simple in India. On our way back I got a text from our program leader saying there's major unrest within the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. Telangana has been trying to break off and become independent for a while, and I guess they decided to start their movement while we were on our way back. So, at our "layover" in Bhopal (another terrible city, but not as bad as Mangalore), we found an internet cafe and got in touch with Madhuri. Luckily our train from Bhopal to Hyderabad wasn't cancelled, it did end up running about 3 hours late though. When we finally made it to Hyderabad (51 hours later from Varanasi), it was like when the CM died. Everything was closed. It felt like we were taking a rickshaw home at like 2 in the morning, but it was only 7 at night. The thing is, when the city shuts down, everything only "pretend closes". They'll shut their gates and put up their closed signs but if you call and ask they'll tell you they're open. They sneak customers through the gates and serve food, sell clothes, just like any other day. It's still pretty eerie though.
So now I head off to Kerala until the 12th. I'll be relaxing on the beaches, doing an elephant safari and a little sight seeing. Then I've got a week back here in Hyd and back to America on the 19th. Ahhhhhhhh it's going so fasttttt.
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