Wednesday, May 21, 2008

More Photos of the Taj Mahal







Day 4


We had a great driver on the trip to Agra, who played us music throughout the day, and Sherry and the driver kept each other entertained really well. Sherry also created a new Hindi word “chaakaa”, which apparently means “hole” or something like it. First we went to Fatahpur Sikri, which was a beautiful old city made of stone buildings. We had a fight with the annoying guide we didn’t want, and stormed off until the security guard came to get us. We walked around the buildings which housed Akbar’s wives and his treasury, and then headed to the main mosque which contained the tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti, the two most notable things were the enormous amount of people that “worked there”, and the intricate marble screens where women tied red strings in order to pray for children and fertility. Sherry was offered one to tie, which she quickly and respectfully declined. We then headed back to the car, chatting with some locals on the way. We hit the road to Agra, and stopped to get lunch at a delicious restaurant with South Indian thalis before heading to the Taj Mahal. Getting into the Taj Mahal was feat in itself, with a 15 minute walk through vendors to the gate, where we discovered half of India was also there to see the Taj. After paying 18 US Dollars at the entrance, we received tickets, bottled water, and socks, then ventured into the female line where we were frisked and went through a miraculous wooden “metal detector”. The initial courtyard does not have a view of the Taj Mahal, until we went through a large archway where we impressed by the distant memorable sight of the tomb of Mumtaz Begum and Shah Jahan. The white marble structure is larger and more magnificent than any picture or video can accurately describe. The sight evoked the sense of enduring love that we all hope one day to receive. The close up experience of the Taj Mahal is intense due to the size of it and the intense heat radiating from the white marble. It was so hot that average Indians were taking naps in the shade inside of the tomb, which was dark and somewhat cool. In the midst of the commotion from all the people we admired the marble screens with gemstone inlays, and near perfect symmetry. But at the same time we felt an intense sadness because of the loneliness felt by Shah Jahan.






Day 3

We took it easy, went to CafĂ© Coffee Day for some intense sweet Nescafe-ish drinks, then headed to the Hanuman temple for the first temple venture. We ditched our shoes and went through the temple gate, into the main chamber with Hanuman, the monkey god who is holy for saving the god Rama’s wife from the evil demon Ravana. We did the circle of the temple and looked at the various idols of deities, as well as the large Shiva linga being washed with holy water. We then left the temple and got henna painted our our hands (mendhi) and feet (except Sherry). Chilaryji got to bargain in Hindi for the first time, and we got badgered for a while by a few beggars while we waited for the henna to dry to we could head to lunch. In spite of it being morning, the plaza was still crowded and had a lot of vendors out there. Sherry was particularly popular with local kids and beggars, they can tell she’s “surprisingly loaded” and a big softie. We left the increasing heat to go eat masala dosas in the yummy South Indian restaurant near our hotel, then went to our first Bollywood movie in India, where we first discovered that Krys’ calculator was a weapon of some kind. We saw “Bhootnath”, a movie about a little kid who befriends a ghost…. And who knows what else. It had a couple fun songs and dances, but sadly no romance. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, ate in the restaurant downstairs, and then some of us went to have a cocktail in the hotel bar, where we discovered alcohol has three sin taxes on it… needless to say that was the last cocktail we’ve had. We crashed early to get ready for the Agra trip in the morning. Sherry had earlier proved herself an expert travel planner and negotiator when she found a private car to Agra for much less than the expensive car the hotel wanted to book for us.

Day 2














In spite of the heat, we headed to the Lotus temple, built for the B’hai faith in Delhi. We tried to visit the visitor’s center before we were turned away and told to visit the temple first. We walked the 500 yards to the temple, where we removed our shoes and hopped across the hot stone floor. We went into the temple interior, which was much simpler given the complex design of the exterior, and where you could pray to any God. After paying our homage to whomever we chose, we exited admiring the pooling system surrounding the temple and forming the lotus. However the ground was so hot we quickly retrieved our shoes and went to the visitor’s center where we watched a movie with excessive detail about the temple construction. Rapidly losing attention, we loaded back into the car and hung the white flag because we were not getting out of that car again. We had our driver take us down Rajpath, seeing the Parliament, the Ministry of Defense, and Presidential Palace, as well as India Gate. Our driver tried to take us to DilliHaat to go shopping, and wasn’t too pleased when we refused to get out of the car. He did finally let us go home to Hotel Alka, where we all crashed out for a little bit before heading out to dinner at a posh sizzler restaurant where we ordered about five times the amount of food we could actually eat. Which, according to Sherry, was good but waaaay too spicey. Becky also noticed the Mafioso out front. On the way home we got some yummy ice cream and chai at the South Indian restaurant by our hotel.

Back To Day 1

After a difficult night’s rest, we emerge from Hotel Alka to take a driving tour of very hot Delhi… the tour of death (dum dum dum). First we went by the historic Jama Masjid mosque in Old Delhi. We reluctantly trusted a gentleman to watch our shoes while we entered a mosque for the first time. We climbed a huge flight of steps to enter mosque courtyard. The building can hold 25,000 people, but instead we saw thousands of pigeons and a few people seeking refuge in the shade. After burning our feet on the hot stones we decided it was time to allow the Muslims to enjoy the mosque and headed to the next stop, Humayan’s Tomb. We climbed a huge flight of stairs (again) and baked in the intense heat while pretending not to notice the bats right over our heads in the tomb stairwell. Next on the tour was the RajGhat, where Gandhi was cremated after his assassination. His cremation platform was a large slab of onyx, now decorated with oil lamps and marigolds, as well as the words “hare ram”, Gandhi’s last words of praise meaning “oh God”. Next we went to lunch, which was kindly chosen by our driver as one of the probably most expensive restaurants in Delhi, but which also had the coldest water in Delhi according to Sherry. The waiter wasn’t a fan of us sharing our dishes, but we enjoyed the expensive food and the air-conditioned facilities. After lunch we headed to the Q’tab Minnar, the first Islamic constructions in India which marked the beginning of Mughal reign. We were impressed with the enormous size of the pillar but were unimpressed with the metal minaret in the courtyard. We posed for a large amount of photos with locals and enjoyed wandering around the ancient remains.




Day 1

All of us met up in Newark (Sherry almost flew to Bombay on her own after sitting at the wrong gate) and boarded our 14 hour flight to Delhi. Once we arrived in Delhi, we thought Krys was on the flight behind us, then realized the flight was full of Tibetan monks and probably came from Asia. We grabbed our luggage and managed to get a couple cabs to our hotel in Connaught Place.


The flight was long but Sherry did find time to make friends on the way to India.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Technical Difficulties 5-19-08

Hello Everybody,

Due to some technical difficulties, I won't be able to upload my pictures until Tuesday or Wednesday. By then we will be in Dehradun, India and hopefully the internet connection will be strong enough for me to upload pictures. We have seen a lot these pass few days, from Ghandi's Memorial to the Taj Mahal. So, don't forget to comeback in a couple of days and check out the pictures.
Be Blessed!