Taj Trip

I took advantage of the Diwali holiday and several days off work to see the Taj Mahal. We went through a tour agency from Delhi who set up our hotels, a driver for 4 days, a car, an itinerary, and local tour guides in each city. Par for the course, not everything went as planned or as expected, but we just adapted to it day by day.

The first hotel in Delhi was horrible, more of the kind of place you stay when you are backpacking through Europe, except based on the price we were paying, we thought this place would have been decent. Oh well, the next morning we were up early and off to Jaipur anyhow. Even though we spent a lot of time on the road throughout the trip, the roads were smooth, the minivan was comfortable, and it was nice to see a different side of India. In the rural areas and towns, the same type of poverty you see in the cities is more palpable, I think because there is less cramped juxtaposition between cars, pollution, random animals in the road, sewage, and beggars. I have no idea if life in these villages is actually any better for its inhabitants compared to life in cities life Mumbai, but some of the same sights somehow didn’t seem to bother me as much.

The drive to Jaipur took about 4 hours, and on the way we spotted several camel carts. I can’t imagine that it’s the most efficient way to transport sticks and such, but hey, there they were along the highway. We starting the afternoon visiting the Amber Fort, and we opted to ride elephants up to the top of the fort instead of walking. It was a pretty cool first tour experience. And our hotel in Jaipur was much nicer than the first place, which made all of us happy. Although the “Monkey Menace” sign on the balcony doors cautioning you to double lock it was a bit odd! We did in fact see a monkey in the courtyard the next morning, so I suppose there is a valid reason for the signs.

In Jaipur we also went to an outdoor observatory that had massive sundials and other measurement equipment. It was much more interesting than the Palace we went to afterwards. In the evening, we wandering through the streets, saying Happy Diwali to people when then looked at us oddly, either because a: we weren’t Indian, or (most likely) b: because Sean was wearing this ridiculous turban-type hat he bought earlier that day. The comical value of that hat throughout the trip was well worth the few hundred rupees for it ($5 USD).

The next day we spent another 4-5 hours on the road going to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. I can’t believe that at one point during my stay here I was actually considering NOT going to the Taj Mahal. I don’t know about it being a wonder of the world, but it was impressive. Because the white marble is being ruined by acid rain and other environmental pollution, you can’t drive automobiles within a 4 square km area of the Taj. So from the car park, you can opt for a battery-operated autorickshaw, or… a camel cart! We definitely took the camel option, and everyone was enjoying it until Sean decided he wanted to ride the camel itself. He soon realized that riding camels is not at all comfortable, poor guy.

We took the requisite photos in front of the Taj and the long fountain pool, and, at the suggestion of our tour guide, took a few silly shots playing with the depth perception. These photos are probably why Westerners shouldn’t travel J although I can’t blame it on being American, seeing as how we had a multinational group all participating. You can’t wear your shoes in the Taj either, so they provide you with elastic hospital booties to shuffle around in.

The inlay work of semi-precious stones on the Taj is also impressive, especially once we learned how the work is actually done. Very painstaking, and (if you are a tourist wanting to buy tables, coasters, boxes with the same type of work) very expensive.

The next day we traveled another 4 hours or so back to Delhi. Having unsuccessfully tried to change our hotel and/or get reimbursed for the advance payment on the place we were supposed to stay our last night (the same hotel we started out with), we used hotel points to stay in the ITC Maurya Sheraton in Delhi. It was amazing. We even had our own butler! We all just needed some time to relax, so the afternoon, evening, and most of the next day were spent enjoying the hotel amenities. We finally ventured out around 3pm on our last day to do some Delhi sightseeing.

Unenthused about the Parliament building, the President’s house, and other governmental sights, we went to the Lotus Temple, a modern looking building that resembles a closed Lotus flower. It’s a temple for the Ba’hai faith, and even though the inside wasn’t that interesting, we were glad we went. Next, we visited a Krishna temple, Iskcon, which was really interesting. It was during afternoon prayers, and the gods/idols are much more colorful and lit up than anything you see in Christian churches. Done with tourism, we headed back to the ITC Sheraton to relax and shop until our late evening flight.

Even though most of our guides were making up lots of the “facts”, and were just trying to con us into buying expensive things from stores owned by their cousins, and even though our driver changed almost daily and didn’t seem to know our itinerary, and despite the nasty first hotel, in retrospect, it was a really good trip! : ) We had an adventure, as always, and we ticked the box on seeing the Taj.