Jaipur

My train departed from Delhi at 6AM Saturday morning. Executive class, round trip $40 for food, AC, and a pretty comfortable seat on the 300km (190 mi) journey. Think economy on the plane, but with more leg room. The trip took about 5 hours, including about 20 min stop outside for no apparent reason. People running around the train with walkie-talkies.

I arrived in Jaipur at 11 and was picked up by my driver for the weekend, Ramchander. Ram drove for Bill Clinton the two times he visited Jaipur (once as President, once as a tourist). Ram was super nice and a great guide around the city.

I spent Saturday shopping and bargaining my way through Jaipur, the pink city. The shopkeepers double the price of whatever you're asking about. My strategy was to say 'no no, that's too much'. They say 'very good price madame, but I'll take off 5% for you'. I ask for 50% the asking price, they say no way, I say no way and start toward the door, and they are happy to oblige my price.


I spent the night at Samode Palace. This is a real former palace. Easily the nicest place I've ever stayed. The room they upgraded me to was bigger than my apartment. The bathroom alone was bigger than my bedroom.

When I looked up from the balcony of my room, I saw something I didn't expect to see: stars. No pollution of any kind blocking my view. I found a huge terrace to sit by myself and stare at the sky for a while.





I wandered around on Sunday morning, then headed back to Jaipur for sightseeing. We drove through some rural villages...



Then I stopped at Ahmer Fort


In Jaipur it was the observatory at Jantar Matar


And, the beautiful facade of Hawa Mahal


And some lassi (yogurt smoothie) and fresh juice for lunch. Tasty. It was hot, humid and sunny wandering around on Sunday.

With that, it was back to Delhi on the train. Goodbye Rajasthan, your countryside is beautiful.


More photos here

Back in Delhi

I've been lucky enough to make my second trip to India in a year. I'm in Delhi for 2 weeks providing training to our team here. It feels, looks, smells, and sounds the same as last year, though noticeably work has been done on the Metro, and the monsoon really kicked in here yesterday. I haven't done any sight-seeing yet, but I'm collecting some 'huh?' stuff I need to share.

From the back page of a (complete waste of ink and paper) tourism magazine in the hotel:


I'm guessing they had a quote from Voltaire* in last month's article.

*Thanks Google

Adventures in Delhi

Adventure 1: Walk to Lotus Temple from hotel
A walk in a city should be pretty easy, no? Especially when the walk is about a mile. Yeah, that's not so in Delhi. Co-worker S and I decided to walk to Lotus Temple from the hotel, just as a break from being driven around everywhere (yeah, a hard life). The walk started by asking the security guard at the gate of the hotel which way Lotus Temple was. When he just stared at us, a 'helpful' rickshaw driver pointed the direction and said it was very very far, why don't you take my rickshaw? No thanks, walking today. The temple is less than a mile away.

Except that mile turns into 2 when trying to actually walk there. Lotus Temple is the neat looking thing on the map

It was a hour-long walking journey where the sidewalks disappear and reappear covered in who-knows-what, crossing streets where pedestrian crossings just don't exist, walking on an overpass, dodging cars and rickshaws and bikes and motorcycles, seeing Ecto-Cooler water underneath a bridge. And it was fun! I'm just glad I don't have to do it every day.

The end result of the walk was awesome. Lotus Temple was built in the late 1980s for people of the Bahá'í faith. It's made of concrete, but you would never guess it. It looks amazing and is peaceful and serene inside.

Lotus Temple

Adventure 2: Auto Rickshaw

We were tired of walking in the 90+ deg. heat, so we took an auto rickshaw to our next destination, Connaught Place. Auto rickshaws are everywhere in Delhi, small and sneaky in traffic. No doors and no seatbelts, but they can't go super fast so it's ok. You just have to trust the drivers here. They know what they're doing.

The pervasive auto rickshaw. Don't be fooled by the lack of traffic, we happened to find one of very few empty streets in Delhi, and it was wonderful

Connaught Place was a total disappointment. It's basically like the mall shops around Times Square. But dirtier. And, it's listed as one of THE places to see in Delhi. All was not lost though, we had an excellent Indian veg lunch there. Mmm coconut rice.


Adventure 3: To Market!
We asked our auto ricksaw driver dynamic duo to take us to Dilli Haat, an outdoor market. Along the way we stopped in some ritzy shop (very nice, very popular say the rickshaw guys). Mhmm. After laughing out of the store at the prices, we went to Delhi Haat, which is not an outdoor market. It's a shop. They must make a killing on tourists. Yep, I bought stuff there too. So, real Dilli Haat next weekend.

One of my favorite things in Delhi is what's written on the back of trucks and buses

STOP
Please Honk
Use Dipper at Night

Everything that's aggressive driving in the US is normal driving to Indians. Constant honking, flashing lights at night, weaving in and out of traffic, 10 cars going through a red light. One of my favorite traffic signs? Lane Driving Sane Driving.

The view from the auto rickshaw

Adventure 4: Sunday Brunch
Apparently THE thing to do for Delhi's elite is to go to Sunday brunch. With unlimited champagne. So we went. Easily the most ridiculous, extravagant thing I've ever done (that list keeps growing while I'm here, btw). We drank our champagne and watched a bunch of expat kids running around the lawn unsupervised while their parents drank their champagne in the AC. Yeah. Today felt like college again: wake up late, go to brunch, take a nap, avoid the (home)work you should have done all weekend. Except I drank half a bottle of champagne with my brunch, took a rickshaw to and from expensive hotels instead of walking through the commons in my PJs, and napped in a 5* hotel.

If you find this all completely absurd, don't worry. I do too.

India...on business

I'm in India for work. So, most of my day is spent at work. Our driver picks us up at 8:30, we work and eat lunch at the office, and leave between 6-7. By the time I leave, it's dark and, unfortunately, can't do any sightseeing. Might be better for us if Indians used daylight saving time (but…they don't). Indians also eat dinner late. The restaurants in the hotel don't open back up for dinner until 8PM. That means I've been using the gym at the hotel (I know!), cleaning up, and then going to dinner with my co-worker. That's what the work week is like. But, on the weekends I've been here so far, (this and last week), I have gotten some sightseeing done.

Last Sunday I went to Qutb Minar. It's a mosque site. The tall tower is actually Qutb Minar, the rest of the buildings each have their own names. The detail in the sandstone is absolutely gorgeous. I love looking at old architecture, and I think I've said this before, but they don't make beautiful, handmade buildings anymore, and they're certainly not meant to stand the test of time.


After that, we went to Humayun's Tomb. His wife had the tomb commissioned for him after he passed away. He's not the only person entombed there, but that was the original intention. Amazing building, again with the spectacular detail. This is said to be the architectural pre-cursor to the Taj Mahal, which was next on my list to see.



The Taj is absolutely beautiful. We went just after sunrise, when the light is best (and the heat isn't so bad). I was not terribly familiar with the story before I got here (thanks Wikipedia!), but I am now. Beautiful love story, beautiful building. Did I say it was beautiful? If it wasn't so dang hot I would have stared at it all day. I'm going to admit it: prior to learning about it, I thought it was a cool looking big building, painted white on the domes. Um, yeah, embarrassed to find out it's made of white marble with amazing inlayed detail.


After the Taj we went to Agra Fort, which is where the emperor and his court lived during the Mongol rule of India. So cool! It's one of those really awesome palaces that has a moat and a drawbridge and ridiculous rooms and so much extravagance.


I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to see all of this. Many of my Indian colleagues have not been to see the Taj Mahal. Pictures in the album on the right!

Indian Food

Prior to coming to India, I had eaten Indian food about a dozen times. I didn't really know what anything was, but it tasted pretty good. What I enjoyed the most were buffets, so I could sample a bunch of stuff. Again, didn't know (or remember) what it was, but it was tasty.

So, what have I learned so far? Not much! Maybe by the time I leave I'll associate Indian name with ingredients and spices. And, I can't take credit for the images below; they came from a Google Images search.

I fell in love with naan before I left for India. I know it's kind of silly (equivalent US thing would be I LOVE ROLLS, THEY ARE SO GOOD!), but it's a comfort to know that if I don't like the main dish, I can munch on naan. It's a flat bread, like a yummy, buttery tortilla. I think this is the only traditional food Molly would eat in India.


But, so far, I haven't disliked a main dish. They serve chicken and lamb/mutton as meats, and loads of vegetables for...you guessed it, veg meals. They also make paneer, which is my favorite thing in the entire world: cheese! It has a ricotta-like consistency, and is usually fried up with spices or a spicy vegetable gravy.


Today I had some fantastic sweets called Gulab Juman. They're very popular in India. It's basically a deep fried ball of dough in a sugar syrup. It tastes like a juicy donut hole.


So, I've been eating mainly in the hotel. The restaurants are considered safe for Westerners. Lunch comes from a menu, Indian and Middle Eastern. There are a few American chains in Delhi, but I absolutely refuse to eat from them. So, as yet, I'm not sick of curry, I haven't been sick from curry, and I've been eating well.

India Basics

I left from Newark on Saturday morning at 8AM EDT, connected in London at 10PM BST, and landed in Delhi at 10:30 IST. That was 14.5 hrs flying time, but I was on Virgin Atlantic, which is a pretty awesome airline.

So, here are some basic stats on my stay and on India. I'll elaborate as time progresses.

• Purpose of my visit? Training and leading a team with a co-worker, J, to do the job we've been doing for the past 6 months so we can do cooler stuff :)
• Arrived on Sun Aug 24th, leaving Sat Sept 20th
• Staying in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, which is a 5* hotel in New Delhi.
  
• J and I share a driver. J will be leaving in 2 weeks. Another coworker, S, will be arriving next week, and will also be staying a month. S is working on a different project

The biggest questions I have gotten from people involve the preparation for my trip, and what precautions I have to take, etc. So, I'll give the spiel:

• Shots: Hepatitis A, Typhoid Fever, Updated Tetanus/Diptheria, no less than 2 weeks before leaving.
  
• Drugs: Recommended to take malaria preventative if you travel outside urban areas. I opted not to take these, because there are 2 drugs that you can take. The side effects of one are upset stomach and vivid dreams, the other may cause daytime psychosis (hallucinations and that sort of thing). I chose to buy some bug spray and take my chances with malaria, which is treatable (with the same drugs as above).
• Visa: You have to get a visa to enter the country for any reason. I have a 1-year business visa.
• Water: I'm sure you've heard 'don't drink the water in Mexico'. Same in India, probably all of Asia, a lot of South America, Africa, and the Middle East. The water treatment is not as good as it is in the US and Europe, so there are lots of tiny creepy-crawlies hanging out in the water. The natives' bodies are used to them. Foreigners' bodies are not. So, I drink bottled water. I brush my teeth with bottled water. I can't have ice in my drink. I can't eat fruit or salad that's been rinsed in tap water ('closed' fruit, like bananas and melons are ok). Thankfully for the huge environmentalist part of me, the bottled water is just treated water from India (one of them comes from right over river in NOIDA), and it's not fancy schmancy water from France or something.
• Food: I can eat whatever I want, as long as it's properly cooked. Street vendors are out of the question, though, unless I want to spend a day or 2 in the bathroom. And let me specify 'whatever I want'. No beef (cows are sacred to Hindus), very little Western food. Yes, there are chains here (McDs, Pizza Hut, Domino's), but I don't eat at them in the US. Why would I do it in Delhi?
  
• Traffic: Crazy. People, bikes, scooters, cars, trucks, buses, rickshaws and yes, cows, all share the same road. Horns are used liberally, usually in place of turn signals. Painted lines for lanes? Psh, those aren't really followed. I've seen zero stop signs, a few stop lights (where the beggars come out with their wares), and zero signs of accidents taking place. It may be crazy, but they all know what they're doing, and I don't feel like I'm going to die while the driver is doing his thing.
• Weather: Hazy, HOT and humid. Highs in the mid-upper 90s every day. And this isn't the hottest part of the year; April-May is! It is monsoon season though, so there are a couple heavy showers a day. I'm in the AC all day at work, AC at the hotel at night, so I'm doing just fine. Another note: the smog is terrible. I'll be very surprised if I see blue sky while I'm here.
  
• Electricity: Since the infrastructure isn't the greatest, the power goes out for about 30s about 4 times a day. Computers still work in the office, but it's weird if the lights go out in a restaurant. You just look around, wait till they come back on, and carry on.
• Safety: People are out to rip you off. That's just the culture. Bargaining/bribing is critical to getting anything done. Thankfully the hotel is not like that. And for personal safety, I would never go anywhere but the most touristy of places by myself here. Some people speak English fairly well, but not well enough that I feel safe. I'm glad I have my co-workers as travel buddies.
  

I'm sure there are more things that I've forgotten, but I thought I'd get this out of the way. If you have any questions, please post a comment, I'd love to answer anything you want to know about India (but were afraid to ask)!