January 10th
Monday in India is like Sunday in Italy - tons of things are closed. For us this meant a complete change in our plans. We all pile into the cars and myself and the 5 others in my car lucked out by picking the driver with the best music - now what I mean by best is the top hits in India - we wanted to hear this one song and the only clue we had was "Sheila" turns out that was all we needed for our driver to know what song we wanted to hear. The problem - he had about 500 songs probably on a jump-stick with noway of knowing where the song was on it. Instead we settled for the #2 song at the time and proceeded to listen to it about 5 times - when we pulled up to our first stop Qutab Minar, the other's were green with envy (Needless to say I now know the name of the Sheila song, but am more a fan of the other song - sentimental reasoning maybe??) Qutab Minar is the world's tallest brick minaret with a height of 72.5 meters - with the bright sun of the day and the haze of dirt and dust that just looms in the air (still black snot in Delhi - I guess anywhere in India this is a given), shooting the top of the Minaret was near impossible. A fascinating site still - and of course people there thought we were a fascinating sight as well and thus we got our pictures taken - still getting used to that. For lunch we hit up Lohdi Gardens Restaurant - very nice - kind of the place the embassy workers go. So instead of Indian, my table (4 of us total) each got pasta - it twas delicious. What I learned from the day was:
1. Monkeys are the number one stray animal in Delhi (not as many cows as Lucknow - was starting to miss the big fellas)
2. Driving is a lot more under control (there are functioning stoplights in the country!), but long waits in traffic - still an inevitable
3. Toilet Paper - still a hot commodity - thank you Jessica for providing me with "to-go tissues from Target"
4. 2 weeks in India and I still wanted Indian for dinner (room service Indian food - yes please)
5. Beggars are in full force in Metropolitan areas (I felt bad for some kids who came up to us begging, but then felt even worse when they followed us and kept tugging so gave in and bought bananas - little did we know they would be nicknamed the banana kids because I didn't forget about them and nor did they forget about me and the others I was with...)
off to a new day
January 11th -
Today equals busy day. We went to Lal Qila aka Red Fort for those of us (including myself) who hack up the pronunciation of everything Hindi. Red Fort (yes it is red) is a 17th century fort complex constructed by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the walled city of Old Delhi and it is a Unesco World Heritage Site. Getting there was an adventure, but getting back to the car was an even bigger adventure. Auto-Rickshaws or Tuk Tuks as they are known in other parts of the world are one of the primary forms of transportation in India and naturally they have a toy to resemble it. So instead of the man on the street trying to sell a Hot Wheels to ya its an Auto-Rickshaw (Green and Yellow to match the ones of Delhi). Well what happens when a blob of foreigners walk together - we get swarmed from all directions from men and children trying to sell us things - and let me tell you some of the oddest items for sale were sighted in Delhi - a fake mustache, a toy pipe and the auto-rickshaw. These sellers really want to make a sell and will go to all lengths (literally) to do so. The distance from the Red Fort to our car - a good 7-10 blocks, coming out of Red Fort one of the girls was prompted to buy one of the "Indian Hot Wheels" and at a cost of 250 Rupees ($5/6) she was saying no way. But "NO" is not an answer the street sellers like to hear and so the seller proceeded to follow us a couple of blocks - lowered the cost to 200 and then 150 and when she still didn't want it we thought we lost him, until he came up again out of nowhere with the bargain of 100 Rupees - still not good enough and at this point I too was part of the process telling him he wanted to much - more fuel to the fire. So we continued to walk - at quite a brisk pace I should add and just when we were to the parking lot we were at the man said - "ok madame 50 Rupees" - response "SOLD" so she got herself the street toy for a little over a buck - gotta love bargaining in India in all forms.
The other sights of the day which were just as grand, but way too much to go into detail over were:
1. Raj Ghat - The memorial to Mahatma Gandhi - the spot where he was cremated back in 1948 (I bought his autobiography for less than $4 and saw a snake charmer outside the shop as well - snakes are not my thing)
2. The Jama Masjid (The World Reflecting Mosque)
3. And this beautiful Temple - can't remember the name but will get back to you on it
4. A clothing shop where two girls found shirts that they could wear to the Taj - they got them altered in ten minutes and the shirts were only about $10 a piece - America needs to get some of these shops - they are awesome - talk about on the spot service.
5. and of course it ended with our second run-in with the banana kids - man are they persistent
busy day - but a great day
January 12th
Taj Day - What a Day?!? (I think that sums up everyday saying that no two days in India were the same - new sights, smells (not all good), and discoveries.
The Taj was great - there is a reason that it is considered one of the 7 Wonders of the World - I recommend going - what is a trip to India without seeing the Taj?? - Incomplete. Words won't be able to give it the adoration it deserves. I think it was one of the warmer days that we had while in India - kind of the type of temperatures I was expecting from the entire trip - but anything was better than the brutal cold I knew was back at home waiting for me. I'm starting to fall habit to lists so I think I'll just sum up the day via a list again (sorry for those who hate lists - but fact about me...lists dominate my life)
1. Bus Ride to Agra to see the Taj was about 4 hours so half asleep on the bus the last thing I expected was a monkey to jump at my window so my apologies to my fellow riders who were off in dreamland when I startled everyone with a curdling cry (by the way it was a HUGE monkey - pictures to prove it)
2. The Taj is a tourist trap - everything from overpriced goods to people doing the typical "tourist" pictures (the most foreigners I saw the entire time in India)
3. Feet - yep that was the overpowering smell of the inside of the Taj
4. The Taj would be an even bigger tourist destination if the Black Taj were built - you should go check out the story, it is quite fascinating (it was suppose to be built to act as a shadow across the river from the White Taj.
5. When I said the banana kids were persistent I meant persistent like detectives - they were waiting for us when we got off the bus at our hotel (and let me say we were nowhere near our hotel the previous two times we ran into them so I have no idea how they found us - they wanted their bananas - I can't blame them, I love bananas)
January 13th
Last Day in Delhi means go go goooo. The day started with the Lotus Temple which is a Baha'i Temple - House of Worship in the Shape of a Lotus Flower - crazy cool architecture. After this the group split into three with different groups deciding to do different things. I was in a group with 4 others and we decided to go to Humayun's Tomb. It was quite fascinating - it is considered to be the precedent of the Taj so it was great to be able to see both and compare and contrast them. Then it was lunch where we ran into 4 American women who were in India adopting children - they told us their story and of us American bureaucracy is at work in India too via the USA embassy which meant that their paperwork was held up in the system and that they had to cancel and rebook their plane tickets home - stressful. The day ended with shopping - yes finally some time to shop. We went to Palika Park which is an underground bazaar and no description could ever encapsulate the atmosphere down there. Hot, loud, crowded - wait that kinda just sounds like India on a regular day...hmmm. I saw a jewelry store and was in the market for some loose semi-precious stones so asked the guy if he had any, and sure enough he did - the boys went next door to look at wallets and the other girls agreed to meet me back at the jewelry store in 15 minutes - 15 minutes came and went and I had bought the stones and was waiting - the store owner makes the joke that I think they forgot about you and I said probably and he said no worry we can page them over the intercom in five minutes if they don't show - well thankfully they did and they took me to the scarf shop that they found. Sitting in the scarf shop (by myself again) with the girls going next door, I hear my name and "yall" on the intercom - the boys were paging us - but under the stress forgot the other two names - we all met up finally and no one got lost, but you gotta love how technology still connects us all. After the underground shopping we checked out the above ground shopping - and this is when it all started to go down hill. I started feeling kinda weak, but we weren't meeting our driver till 8 and others still had shopping to do so I didn't want to rush, so trudged on. Once we got back to the hotel I finished packing and tried to rest in my bed, I slowly felt myself going from cold to hot and knew that I wasn't 100%. Waiting at the gate for the plane I felt dreadful with shakes and shivers - boarding the plane the flight attendant even asked if I was ok and he told me I was shivering and I told him no and he said find us if you need medicine - well if you get queasy easily stop reading - this is your disclaimer...
My last few minutes in India were painful - and embarrassing - quite embarrassing. Somehow I was seated nowhere near the rest of the group, the sick one was all alone. Sitting in the seat I knew that I was gonna have to throw up, it was just a matter of time - and then that stupid little light indicating that all passengers must be seated came on - I mean talk about worst timing ever. And then it stayed on for about 10 minutes and the plane didn't budge - not even an inch. All the while I am shivering and yet sweating and freaking out - I see the barf bag and am like if it comes down to it you will be my saving grace. As we are taxing I get hit with the most nauseating flash and all I know is I am "THAT" person on the plane who is throwing up when there are no other sounds being made - me gagging - yep that's what people got to hear as the plane was taking off - and while they are probably thinking, oh man we have one of "THOSE" people on our plane I am praying that the bag doesn't break before I can throw it out - humiliation at its finest. I guess throwing up on a plane is bound to happen to someone who has traveled as much as me, but the timing of it all - completely awful. I was looking at an 8 hr. 30 min. flight to Zurich, a 6 hour layover, a 10 hr. flight to Chicago and a 3 hour car ride home - it was already a long trip and I just made it excruciatingly long by falling ill. No music, reading, eating, or movie watching for me - I was too preoccupied with throwing up in the bathroom, trying to keep liquids and medicine down and sleeping. Thankfully the first flight was the worst of it and from there on I just felt extremely weak and exhausted - was in the state where you can pass out anywhere. Somehow I survived and landed back on US Soil in one piece - and was gonna live to tell my tales of India that weren't covered in the blog - or elaborate on the ones that were only briefly touched on.
Hope you enjoyed my time in India
next out of US trip is the Caribbean in March - but hopefully a few roadtrips will ensure in-between now and then!
Namaste.
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