The ladies chillin at the Imperial while waiting for our room to be made up….

Henny went to Amy, and speaking in part for Karin, but I think more for herself, said she wanted to stay somewhere nice for this, our last night of traveling. She put out a very luxurious budget that had Raj scratching his head in confusion. Raj was even more confused when we finally settled on our hotel for the night: The Imperial. Well, with a name like that….

Let’s just say that the cost for the two rooms for one night was at least as much as the per-person cost for the rest of the trip.

Most of our morning was actually spent trying to figure out where we were going to stay. Then, once we had decided where we were staying, another good chunk of time was spent oohing and aahing over the hotel itself.

Pretty cool and somewhat random temple in Delhi. We weren’t sure if Henny would be able to actually keep quiet while she was in there since she likes to ask so many questions….

On our agenda for the day after settling in was India Gate (in the daytime), Humayun’s Tomb (which has some architectural features later incorporated into the design of the Taj Mahal), and the Lotus Temple (an impressive, very modern looking temple that welcomes all faiths to come and worship in silence).

After all of that, we went back to Connaught Place—well actually, to a little underground shopping place—to do some shopping for this-and-that, the most successful store of which happened to be a jewelry store from which all the ladies ended up getting something (nothing for me, of course….).

But I think we were all looking forward to going back to our own little palace and trying out some of the dinner options from our five-star-hotel-restaurant.

I opted for a bacon cheeseburger, and I think I made the best choice of everyone there….

Head on over to the Delhi photo-gallery to see more pictures from the temple, as well as some good examples of appropriate things to do when staying at the Imperial….

OK. I know it is a horribly blurry photo, but we were zooming by when I tried to quickly roll down the window and take this picture. This is a shot of India Gate lit up at night on Republic Day. We went and visited India Gate the following day, but the lights were only up for that night.

We first checked in to our hotel, which, while very nice in terms of cleanliness and modern-ness and whatever-else-ness, was really inconveniently located far away from central Delhi. Essentially, it was a business/conference hotel—located close to the airport and catering to those types of customers. But what can be done, right?

The decoration on the brick minaret is pretty cool, as is the feeling you experience standing near the bottom and looking up. I still need to figure out how to take better perspective shots of tall structures….

Today is Republic Day—very big deal here, especially in Delhi. Unfortunately, what that also means for us is that almost everything is closed, at least until five in the evening or so, when maybe some of the stores would re-open. We send Raj to figure out what we will do with our time so we don’t waste our day, and in the meantime, we have showers and go and get some lunch at the hotel’s restaurant.

Raj comes and joins us about halfway through our meal. There’s at least one place we can see today: Qutb Minar—quickly rechristened “Q-tip Minar.” So, after lunch, off we go. Although the site is quite in ruins, it’s still really beautiful. Our timing was also convenient, because the silhouettes created by the ruined structures as the sun was setting were really picturesque.

When we had had enough, we went back and found Raj who then took us on a drive around the city a bit. We went by India gate, which was lit up like the Indian flag in celebration of Republic Day, then we went to Connaught Place to do some people watching.

When you have a chance, go to feel the love at India Gate or clean your ears out with the giant Q-tip Minar.

View from Nahargarh Fort overlooking smoggy Jaipur….

The first place we went today was all the way up a meandering road up into the mountains. From there, we could get some beautiful views of the city—that is if the city weren’t obscured by the pollution below. Raj tried to point out where our hotel was—and I nodded confirmation though I couldn’t really tell buildings apart too much when covered in the haze of grey.

Monkeys posing at the fort…. Raj went and got them some potato chips and they seemed very excited by that….

Following that, we got to go and see the largest wheeled cannon. Apparently, it was fired only once. The fuse needed to be long enough to give people nearby enough time to submerge their heads in a trough of water to protect their ears from the sound of the explosion, and the force of the explosion created cracks in some of the houses at the foot of the hill upon which this fort was located. Were it to be used, it would require four elephants just to change the direction….

“Well why did they build it if they weren’t going to use it?”

Hmmmm….

Following our fort experience, we headed back into the city to visit the City Palace (which I honestly don’t know why we didn’t visit yesterday—it’s right next to the observatory!). After paying some pretty ridiculous foreigners entrance fees, we went in and got to see some exhibits of some pretty great textiles and weapons, as well as a pretty cool exhibit of period art.

We then walked by the Hawa Mahal, and deciding that we were cultured out, so we picked up Axle and went shopping. We spent a lot of time at a shoe store, getting some of those funny Rajasthani shoes where the tip curls up and where you can get them covered in glitter and jewels. I bought a pair, but they hurt my feet like crazy. The salesman swore that they would stretch, but I think that my feet are far too big for them to stretch that much….

We also went back to the big store we went to yesterday so that Axle could see what it was all about. She was unsuccessful finding anything to spend her money on there, but we went next door and she found two cool statues to lug around: one of Hanuman, and one of Vishnu’s incarnation as a boar….

When we were done shopping, we decided to go feed ourselves some more, and stomachs full and bodies tired, we went back home to rest before our last long drive to Delhi.

For your viewing pleasure, there is an overview album of photos in Jaipur (with lots of sub-albums…).

We also wanted to ride a camel while we were in this part of India, but unfortunately, did’nt have any good opportunities….

We start off our adventures for the day by going to the Amber Fort. To get to the fort, we get to ride some elephants—two people per elephant. So, we have Axle and I on one elephant, Henny and the guide on another, and Amy and Karin on the third. It’s a pretty bumpy ride to the top—seems strange for royalty to pick such an uncomfortable ride, although I guess their platform would be laden with cushions and so on, right?

The fort itself gives us yet another chance to awe at the architectural and engineering skills—things like cooling rooms using systematically placed aqueducts and so on…. This fort seems to be the place to go if you feel like writing “So-and-so loves So-and-so” graffiti….

After we are done here, we head to the famous astronomical observatory—the place with the giant sundials and other instruments to use for horoscopes and so on. Again, a pretty impressive engineering feat.

Markers on one of the sundials…. We didn’t climb the biggest sundial there; it looked a bit intimidating. But it was pretty impressive to find out about the level of accuracy with which these instruments could measure time and so on….

Axle was feeling too sick to join us in the observatory, so she had to sit that one out. We decided it might be best if she rested for the rest of the day too, so we dropped her off at the hotel and headed out to get some lunch.

After lunch, we had to do the compulsory “Here. This is my uncle’s shop” tour-guide led shopping trip and then we dropped the guide off. After that, Raj took us to a big government store that actually had some very cool stuff, and Karin ended up buying Amy a very cool rug/wall-hanging made out of old rugs….

While there was still a little bit of daylight left, we went to a very interesting new temple—the Birla temple—and Raj and I got to confuse Henny by explaining the stories that she could see in all the paintings and carvings all around.

Before we went back to the hotel, we stopped to see if we could pick up something warm for Amy and Axle to wear. Then we went back, picked up Axle, and went to find ourselves some dinner before calling it a night.

There are several galleries of fun stuff….

Just as Ajanta and Ellora was the “must see” for Axle, the Taj Mahal was the “must see” for Karin. So, after pulling in some two hours late and being greeted by our short, very tidy and courteous Sikh driver—Mr. Lucky—getting some breakfast, and checking in to our hotel, we wasted no time going out to see what Agra had in store for us.

As with yesterday, I had to take some time away from the vacation to go to school, so I skipped out on the Agra Fort. I knew I had lots of forts coming my way in Jaipur, so I didn’t feel like I was missing out on too much….

Amy kept them all away for as long as she could, giving me enough time to finish both my individual assignment and my group assignment, so I was prepared to accompany them on their visit to the Taj Mahal. Besides, everyone told us that the early afternoon was the best time to go in terms of lighting conditions….

For such a large imposing structure, a visit to the Taj Mahal is usually over pretty quickly unless you laze around in the big plazas and watch people or unless you analyze every detail on the structure….

It’s a pretty spectacular structure in person, but I still think that Henny’s opinion is the most impressive thing from that day: “If he didn’t make his wife have so many children, then he might not have felt so guilty when she died in childbirth. He should have given her these nice things when she was alive instead of making her have all those children.”

After the Taj Mahal, we went to a marble inlay factory to see how all the impressive inlay work was traditionally done. Axle found herself a very nice marble Lakshmi, and Karin found a mother-of-pearl inlaid picture of the Taj Mahal….

Check out the rest of the pictures too….

Although I really wanted to go to Ajanta, I had to do some homework. It turns out that my timing was off somewhere along the line and I thought I had a few more days to work on one of my assignments and it wasn’t until looking over my calendar to see what else was coming up did I realize that my assignment was actually due very soon.

I pretty much spent the day in the hotel, ordering cup after cup of coffee (well, actually, I usually just ordered two cups at a time…) and doing my work. It as a bit of an adventure in power supply since there were both scheduled and unscheduled power outages, so I found myself having to do a bit of manual writing instead of typing…. Oh, the horror!!! (At least I now know that my penmanship hasn’t gotten as bad as I thought it would have….)

During my one of my breaks, I went to confirm our train tickets for the evening so that when everyone else came back in the early afternoon, we’d be good to go.

When everyone got back, I got to get a little idea of what it was like from the photos that Amy and Axle took—at some point I’ll get Amy’s renditions of Henny’s reactions too, since I’m sure there were some good insights from her…. (Here are some of the photos.)

Our second train ride

Our train—the Karnatika Express—came a little late. It was one of those super-long-distance trains, and we were traveling second-class air-conditioned this time…. Both of those were new to me. So far, most of my train rides have involved me getting on and off at the originating and terminating stations. Jalgaon, being a small station, would only be a five minute stop for this train, and Agra, though a major destination, was not the final destination for this train, so the situation would be similar for us when we would get there (supposedly) at six the following morning. So, we did our part and got to the station early and confused ourselves each time a train pulled up to the station.

Second-class A/C isn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. It is almost the same as third A/C, with the exception that there are curtains in each section so there is a little bit more privacy. But honestly, the curtains are totally cumbersome, especially when you are trying to board and disembark a train quickly with a lot of luggage. Also, the train just seemed very dirty to me, but that may be because we were getting on halfway through what is probably a minimum 40-hour train.

Our boarding was very hectic. We weren’t all sitting in one place, which adds to confusion for everyone, especially trying to figure out who is going to sleep where. Plus, no one had really had a good lunch, so I think they were a bit tired too. Henny was depressed, we found out later, because the trains reminded her of the trains during the war….

Once we were all on board, we waited around a bit for some people to come by with some dinner. Amy and I hung around for a while on the top bunk and looked over everyone else trying to acclimate to their first overnight train experience.

Suddenly there’s a shriek from Karin, and in a flash, she’s standing on her seat. In another two seconds, she’s scrambled to the top-bunk across from us. A rat had apparently decided that it would be fun to start climbing up Karin’s leg….

The Indian spectators looked on as if this were just a matter of routine. Axle seems pretty amused by it—I guess the cats bring in enough living and dead animals that this didn’t really shock her. Henny’s reaction?

“I would take that rat by its tail and swing it around my head and throw it against the window….”

Not sure if I believe her, but the fact that it was accompanied by a demonstration of her swinging her hands above her head was pretty classic….

This day was both spectacular and—for the lack of a more eloquent phrase—spectacularly-shitty….

What made it spectacular? Well, the caves are pretty impressive. Imagine a mountain out of which dozens of caves have been carved. Some of the structures carved out were even three stories high. Imagine also that in one stretch of caves you can see some amazing sculpting representing Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religions, and even for a non-religious person like myself, it was pretty impressive.

We hired a guide for the main structure, and for the most part, he was OK. He truly did over-simplify things though, although in retrospect, maybe that was good for Henny and Karin.

This cave had an amazing natural reverbation when you hummed. Good for chanting, I guess….

Here are two memorable oversimplifications:

Many people think Hinduism is confusing because they think there are too many gods. But in reality there is only one god. The three main forms of this god are Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Brahma is the germinator, Vishnu is the organizer, and Shiva is the discipliner. Germinator. Organizer. Discipliner. G-O-D. What does that spell?

Can you remember what Veda means? No. OK. I will help you. Reverse the syllables of Veda, and what do you get? Da ve. Veda is da ve of life. See, it is simple, really.

I know it’s bad, but stop cringing….

I think the Amar Chitra Katha comics tell the story much better (and if I get a chance to scan in the comic, I’ll be sure to post it…).

So, what made the day shitty? Stuff….

Anwyay. Of course, with such cool stuff, I had to take a lot of photos….