I Love My India

The final leg of our India trip: After hanging out with the tigers, we were back on the road for a three hour ride to Jaipur. Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, is known as "The Pink City" for its dusty rose colored buildings. To visit the main city sights, we entered the gates of the old city. It's striking to see how the modern traffic with buses, trucks, and taxis (plus the zig zagging motorbikes) all squeeze through the old gates. Inside the gates, in addition to the seemingly endless shopping heaven, are more palaces and attractions than we could see in one afternoon. I really wanted to do more shopping here (and in India in general), but I found the endless bargaining exhausting. Even just walking down the street, we'd hear the price on an item reduce to 80 percent of the original asking price just from walking away. I completely understand this is part of the market place culture, but it was well beyond the effort I wanted to spend for a table cloth or shirt or wood carving.

In town, we visited the City Palace, a sprawling complex built in the mid 18th century, which continues to house Jaipur's royal family. We did not tour the family's residence (a $$$$ attraction), but instead toured the older section of the palace which has been converted into a museum. The highlight for all was the most amazing collection of historic weapons. Our guide's natural gift for story telling and enthusiasm for the weaponry on display intrigued us all. Tyler especially liked the "hidden weapons" -- is it a hair clip or a knife? If it a sword or a pistol? It is a shield or a bow? The weapons were housed in the old queen's quarters in which the muraled walls and mirrored ceilings were equally as impressive!

Too sunny at the sun dial!

We were running fairly late in the evening, but we did get to slip into the Jantar Mantar just before closing. Built around 1720, Jaipur's Jantar ("instruments") Mantar ("calculating") houses one of the world's oldest, largest, and best preserved observatories. The grounds are home to crazy large sun dials - the larger of the two is still accurate within 2 seconds! A fascinating amount of astrological instruments complement the sundials. I'm not actually sure what most of the other instruments measure (our guide was moving fast...), but there was at least one device to tell the Earth's location around the sun and the celestial orbit. Again, not sure what that is, but it all seemed pretty amazing.

Right on time.

Outdoor seating area at the Jaipur hotel

The Khandela Haveli, our hotel in Jaipur, was fantastic! (http://www.khandelahaveli.com/) A Haveli is a small palace (home to a ruling elite family). As Jaipur was the regional capital, there are many havelis in town and a number of them have been converted into boutique hotels. In addition to the delightful rooms, courtyard, and common spaces, we ate several meals at the Haveli. At our first lunch, we asked the chef for classic Rajasthani food. The curries were delicious -- and very different from what we'd eaten elsewhere. Rajasthani curries are thick with spices (not hot spices, but just lots of flavors), with more chunky veggies and little sauce. For dinner, the chef -- delighted that we were into the local dishes -- made up a couple other samplings. The food here was the best of our trip. I'm actually getting hungry writing this. Our hotel also had a local father and son team visit to perform a Kathputli (a Rajanstani puppet show) following dinner. The kids totally enjoyed the show and somehow we ended up coming home with three puppets. The father selling us the puppets assured us they were great quality with faces made from mango root wood. To prove the wood's quality, he grabbed the puppet we were thinking of buying and beat it repetitively on the ground. Good sales technique. I think it actually has a chance to survive the wrath of Tyler.

Boys that sold me a some paintings and chilled with the kids while we killed some time.

A highlight of the Jaipur area is Amber Fort. The Fort was built over a long period with some medieval structures but with much of the palace erected in the 16th century. The capital was moved from Amber to Jaipur in 1727, after which the Amber structures remained as the royal family's vacation home until around 1940. Our guide at Amber Fort said that the capital was moved from Amber to Jaipur for several reasons, but one reason was likely the king's love for astronomy. Amber's setting in the rolling hills blocks the sun's rays in the morning and evening, so he needed flatter ground for his Janter Manter.  With a location up a large hill, we opted to take an elephant ride up. At the top we joined up with an excellent guide, who has been giving Fort tours for 30 years. Sadly, he told us that his son was killed by an elephant 10 years ago. Following his son's death (one of several that year), the Jaipur government shut down the elephants. They brought in a veterinarian and elephant expert who, reviewing the herd, developed a set of strict regulations around the rides (e.g., no more than 2 people, no more than two rides in the summer, all rides must end by 11:00 am, fixed pricing). It's sad to think of people killed due to tourists wanting a lift to the Fort. But I was relieved to hear our guide reflect on the massive improvements to the animals' care and also for the people who train and care for the elephants. Throughout our India visit we picked up guides at nearly all our stops. These individuals absolutely enhanced our understanding and appreciation of the structures and provided interesting detail and stories. If you travel India, don't hesitate to pick up guides inside the historic sites. Just take a minute to arrange a fee upfront, so that you are not caught haggling as you try to leave. Jaipur had guide prices listed as 200 rupee for a one hour tour. No prices were listed elsewhere, but we tended to pay about 300 to 400 rupee.

Kids at a truck stop somewhere in Rajasthan

After Amber Fort, the ride from Jaipur to Delhi ended up being incredibly long -- nearly 7 hours -- because earlier in the day a truck had taken out a bridge on the highway, so we ended up diverting through the back countryside.

Now, I gotta be honest. We didn't love Delhi. It was melt your face off hot (about 115 degrees Fahrenheit), so the temples all seemed a bit lackluster through our sweat-stung eyes. We also stayed in the downtown market area. The area seemed bustling, if you were in the mood to explore. But on the backend of our trip, I was most looking for a nice hotel with a bar and pool... and bar. This would have been a cool neighborhood to introduce a visitor to India, but on day 10, it just felt exhausting. The hotel, while upscale for the area, was a wreck. Our first room on a lower floor had a ceiling tile fall in on Brian (basically a A/C was falling down) right after we'd settled into the room. The hotel staff moved us, but the only other room was on the top floor and it was HOT.

On our Delhi sightseeing day, we ended up scrapping many of the major sites -- they just were not fun in 115 degree heat -- and we spent the day at the National Museum, which was impressive. The museum was fun for our technology-hungry kids since our foreigner tickets included audio guides. We finished off the day at the Mahatma Gandhi house, the home in which Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life and the site of his assassination in 1948. Believe it or not, we even cancelled our final late afternoon market visit due to my bargaining fatigue and the oppressive heat. We instead asked for an earlier drop at the airport. But as my energy was feeling way low, our driver, Ashok, blasted his "farewell India" sound track on the car stereo. The final song he played, "I Love My India," totally rocked us out along the airport road. And while I was ready to get back home to KL and our cool 90 degree weather, the pulsing music made me completely agree -- I love my India!

Our chariot amid the trucks