The last three days of our trip were hectic to say the least. We were picked up at the Jaipur train station by our driver and a rep from the local tour company. I wasn't incredibly excited about the idea of having a guide in India, especially in such a touristy place as what's known as the "golden triangle," but the second I stepped out of the train station I became very grateful for the decision we'd made. The rep that met us at the station spoke little to no English, but even that was comforting while being harassed by hords of rickshaw drivers trying to take us to their friend's hotel. If I thought Ahmedabad was overwhelming... We quickly
made our way to the interesting hotel we'd reserved through the company, cleaned up fast and got out the door for the day's tour. We stopped at a little bakery to get some interesting potato samosa things for breakfast and moved onto the Amber Fort in the nearby city of Amber. Beautiful fort, HUGE crowds of people, and even a chance to ride elephants (not me, but Megan and Hillary did). After the fort we were hurried off to a gem refinery and a carpet and textile mill (where I did a bit of christmas shopping... okay actually all of it) which were obviously providing the tour company commission for taking their guests there. We did get to see them actually making rugs, which was pretty sweet. Then it was off to a ridiculously overpriced lunch which we didn't want to eat (the cheaper and dirtier, the better), and it was off to City Palace. The highlight I think was seeing the clothes of a 2m tall, 600 lb. deceased Maharaja. And they say Americans are fat. Wow. Dinner we took at a cute little rooftop restaurant offering a buffet called the Jaipur Inn. This hotel actually catered more to our type of traveller, and the food was great. I think I might have rather stayed at this place than our dodgy hotel, but whatever. We enjoyed our dinner for what it was.
The next day we woke up bright and early to take complete advantage of the complimentary buffet breakfast. We gorged ourselves, European hostel traveling style so as not to worry about lunch. On the way to Agra, we stopped in Fatehpur Sikri, a "ghost town" of 200,000 people. We were accosted in the parking lot just inside the gates before we took a walk down the road to the beautiful Jama Masjid, complete with setup for the Eid festival that was at its end (and the reason we went to India in the first place - Eid break). Apparently the town used to be the seat of power in Rajasthan at one point, but I imagine economic depression has well set in there now.We hopped back in the car to make our way to Agra, which was only another 1.5 hours (we had already traveled 5 hours since 8am). Upon arrival we quickly checked into our hotel (Hotel Kant - still under construction which was interesting...) and set off for the Taj Mahal. World Wonder
#2... check. Only pictures can describe it which I have in my Picasa albums. We were there just at sunset, too, which is one of two times that are best to see the Taj. And the place was teeming with people. There must have been at least 3,000 people at the time we were there. Our guide said there were millions upon millions of visitors per year. Not surprising I guess. The place is said to be the most magnificent monument to love ever made. After the Taj we were taken to a Marble factory (Agra is known for its marble) a la Jaipur's textile and gem factories. We had already spent way to much money, and the trip back would have been a bit difficult with slabs of marble in our bags. That night we ate dinner at another roof-top restaurant (notice a pattern?) called the Shanti Lodge right at the foot of the Taj Mahal area. The power went out as we were waiting for our driver, who at this point had gotten lost every single time we tried to get anywhere. That spiced up the night a bit, but fortunately the restaurants had generators to at least light up the streets.The next day we made our way to Delhi. We woke up to a measly breakfast and got in the car by 8:30 and didn't get out of it again until 4pm. No bathroom breaks, no stops for food. Good thing we had an assortment of trailmix (courtesy of Megan and Hillary) and dates (courtesy of Greg) to tide us over for the day. Part of the p
roblem were the roads. Half of the time we spent trying to navigate completely unpaved roads that weren't big enough to fit two cars across and negotiating road space with big hauling trucks. Most of these roads were lined with small clusters of mud and thatch roof huts around areas of water. If I thought the poverty in the city was bad... wow. I guess they at least had a roof over their heads. By the time we actually got to Delhi we were near exhaustion. It took us no less than an 1.5 hours to find the hotel, stopping for directions at least a dozen times (but again, not for food or bathrooms). We did finally make it, and the hotel staff was quite nice in offering us some chai. We felt rejuvenated enough to wander the surrounding streets for places to eat, discovering quite a large retail area just one alley-way over. We did a little last minute shopping, including finding Chai Masala spices at a spice store so that I could make it when I got back to Doha. We ate at a little South Indian place right across the street which served up some awesome dosa. We retired early, mostly because we were a bit reluctant to stay out after dark for our own safety, and talked a good bit of the night before getting to sleep.The next morning we woke up at 3:45am to catch a taxi/van to one of the worst airports in the world. We didn't know it at the time, but Greg kindly looked up the list when we got back and Delhi International was definitely in the top 5 next to London Heathrow. There was no food, just coffee and duty free, so we ate chocolate for breakfast. We had a long layover in Bahrain, and boy was I happy to see Doha when we got back.
A few things that will be lasting images for me: View from the top of Matheran, the little beggar girl outside the restaurant in Mumbai, cows and much more in the street, Taj Mahal, the beggar crawling on all 4's in the middle of the street from what could only be some sort of bone disorder, being stuck in Ahmedabad, getting to see the Ghat in Udaipur, early morning sunrise pretty much every single place.
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