Bouncing and Shopping

Kerri and I completed 26 hours of travel by Jeep and train this afternoon, and then jumped right into a long shopping spree. We left Darjeeling yesterday morning in a Jeep with 11 adults and two children -- one of them carsick. Kerri felt it was the worst ride of her life, but due to very heavy rains the night before, we could finally see four snow-capped Himalayan peaks -- so I was transfixed. But she's probably right, it wasn't the world's most comfortable ride! We arrived in New Jalpaiguri (sights: none. internet access: broken. inhabitants: all very pushy rickshaw drivers. Apparently.) in time for our 1:15 train. We thought we would arrive in Delhi in a mere 17 hours, at 6 AM -- but the train got in at 11:45!!!!!! This seriously cramped our style.

For the rest of the day today, we ran all over Delhi, buying saris, bangles, sandals, inexpensive jewelry, and bindis. Or at least trying to. Shopping in the developing world takes time, both for bargaining (all the while feeling that, no matter how low the price, you're being had) and for scanning the vast panoply of merchandise secreted away in small bins and attics all over the marketplace. Andy, who is in Bangkok, was kind enough to give us a list of good shopping locations, so we were definitely in the right places. But the sheer size of it! Wow. We could have shopped for a week. (Please don't get excited about souvenirs -- we found remarkably few things that were on our list, and we're having a tad of buyers' remorse over what we DID find. Luckily, I have two more countries to shop through before I see my friends and loved ones! Kerri is not so lucky...)

We had intended to have one last, grand dinner before leaving for the airport, but Kerri somehow hurt her foot in our last two hours of shopping, so she's resting in the hotel. I plan to bring up some delicious street food (mmmm, grilled chicken and chapati) to the room and that will have to do as a final feast. I'll write you from Florence tomorrow!

Weather Woes

We are still in stunning Darjeeling, our last real day in India (tomorrow we will travel all day and night; Thursday we will shop all day; Friday we depart at 2:35 AM). The main draw of a trip to Darjeeling is the tea and the view of the mountains. We are fully immersed in the tea culture now - we had tea at a fancy hotel ( On Kerri's camera, we have photos as Lord and Lady of the Manor. She got the role of Lady. Hmf.), we bought tea for our lucky family members, and I hiked up and down the sides of the mountain to inspect tea leaves (lovely photos of that, here).

However, the mountains are absent. It seems that the monsoon is a full two weeks early this year. The building clouds we witnessed yesterday on the drive in will take up residence here for THREE MONTHS STRAIGHT! So I am 6 miles from Mount Everest (even closer to other Himalayan mountains) and I CAN’T SEE IT!!!!!! This is frustrating in the extreme. If you’ve ever taken off in an airplane and made your ascent through puffy, cumulous clouds, you’ve seen as much of the Himalayas as Kerri and I have. Argh. I can’t BELIEVE this. The entire time I’ve been here, all the Indians who have inquired about our itinerary have tut, tutted their way through the list of destinations in the plains - but when I mention Darjeeling, they suddenly smile and say, "Yes, yes, this is the perfect time to go!" Liars. Not this year!

I am making do with the splendid beauty of the green tea-covered hills whenever the clouds part, and reminding myself that, just yesterday, I thought it was new and exciting to be fully ensconced in clouds. Guess I’ll have to return here sometime!

Walking in Clouds

Today Kerri and I find ourselves in Darjeeling, a ‘hill station’ established by the British in the 1800s as a way to escape the incredible summer heat of the plains. As we rode up the mountain in a small, bouncing Jeep with 8 other people, the stunning views reminded me of Germany, or a drive to Fianarantsoa, a plateau town in Madagascar, or even a trip through the Smoky Mountains. You could see the clouds sifting up through the mountain range from the valleys below, and the sun on the tops of the clouds made it seem like lakes stretched out to the horizon, floating in mid-air. It was beautiful. At first, this trip was accompanied by evocative Indian movie themes (orchestra and all), but then the driver put in a CD of 1994 club hits - oh, well! The ride may have reminded me of many mountainous places, but Darjeeling smacks of Britain. It is cold, clammy and cloudy here, just like London or Edinburgh in mid-summer. I understand why those Raj-era citizens picked this place - it must have reminded them of home! After hot showers, we are off to drink high tea, look at tea plantations, buy tea, and otherwise accomplish tea-related activities. It’s lovely, and we are ever so happy to have a reason to shiver.

The rest of our time in Kolkata was uneventful. We saw the Victoria Monument and other British buildings (now that REALLY reminds you of London) in an area called BBD Bagh. I saw the Indian Museum, the oldest collection in the country, with a phenomenal collection of small bronze work. It really is amazing, the verisimilitude of figures in the 4 - 10th centuries here, when Europeans were busy making stony-faced saints. Thankfully, the bronzes were really worth seeing - it was an ordeal to enter, as they force you to check even your handbag. So I wandered the museum carrying my laptop, passports and a wad of cash. Graceless, perhaps - and I know I offended the head of security - but too bad! I am not about to have my laptop filched or, just as bad, damaged by someone storing a heavy bag on top of it.

On Saturday evening, Kerri didn’t feel so hot, so we stayed in and watched American re-runs of Gray’s Anatomy. (Shout out to Courtney, we missed you!) But not before I had a chance to explore New Market, the busy area around our hotel. It was like an Indian version of Times Square! So busy, so many lights, so many people! I really enjoyed wandering around, checking out a ridiculous variety of merchandise, and sampling tasty food. (Pen light, anyone? Ball bearings? Dance costumes for small children? Clothes, underwear, shoes, lightbulbs? Really, you could probably have bought a car there if you tried.) So, here’s a photo of Victoria Monument, a photo of me in front of our favorite snack place (Hot Kati Rolls! Perfect! And yes, I really do look that bad here!) and I promise beautiful shots of the Himalayas tomorrow.

Chillin' in Delhi

Yesterday Kerri and I made the trip back from Agra on a much slower train. We were the hit of the third class -- everyone craned their heads out of their bunks to get a better look at the two American girls playing Crazy Eights. You would think we were Bollywood celebrities. After 20 minutes or so, our mediocre card playing and inept shuffling bored everyone but one man and three little children, so we spent the rest of the ride fairly unobserved. I mention this because it is a consistent theme of my time in India -- everywhere we go, people stare. It was worse when I was alone, because people were incredulous that I would be travelling without my father or at least a group of other young people. But it continues even now. Kerri hates all the staring -- I'm slowly getting used to it and simply pretend that I am a movie star. It's probably the only time in my life that I will ever be such a head-turner!

The brazen stares bothered Kerri yesterday, but the blazing temperatures bothered her more. We spent a rather slow afternoon and then met up with our friend Andy for dinner. Andy is the best restaurant guide anyone could want -- we had dinner at a chic little restaurant with red glass chandeliers and those chunky, austere dark wood tables that are so popular in New York now. The paneer or fresh cheese curry was delicious, and Kerri really enjoyed her chicken biryani, a dish akin to fried rice, Indian style. Andy dared me to eat a chili and I survived -- but barely! Kerri went to bed after dinner and Andy and I continued to doctor our sodas with some gin I keep in a water bottle in my bag (there are many bars, but not every restaurant serves alcohol. You know my motto -- be prepared!). We were talking about India and the developing world in general -- Andy doesn't think he wants to live here, and is looking for an international post after his MBA. I have to say that I wouldn't want to live here either, mainly because I get the sense that I would always be an outsider. As they say of my new hometown, I suppose -- nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there!

Drumroll, please...

Today we saw it. The famous, magnificent Taj Mahal. After a brutally early wake-up call, we took the train to Agra this morning (kerri’s first train ride!) past small towns, fields of sugar cane, and small grass-thatch huts. (Kerri adds: and cows. Of course.) As soon as we dropped our bags, we headed out to see it. Built by Shah Jahan in the early 1600s for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, the Taj is a marvel of tromp l’oiel, in the sense that the architect carefully planned the building sites, angle of the minarets at the corners, and the approach to the Taj to make it seem far larger than it really is. As you enter the walls around the monument, you arrive in a courtyard surrounded by carved red sandstone walls and a red sand-stone gateway with pietra dura motifs at the top. Pietra dura is the inlaid stone technique that decorates the Taj Mahal – precious stones are inlaid into marble to make the floral and calligraphic designs. This technique hails from Florence by way of Iran, but Shah Jahan used it to great effect here. As you climb the steps of the sandstone gateway, the first view of the Taj Mahal is framed by the vaulted arches. It was just stunning. As Kerri pointed out, it was like walking into a postcard or onto the Discovery channel – you’ve seen the image so many times, it is very familiar – and yet, here you are, in the flesh! Okay, the water ways weren’t filled and the river was very low, both due to the heat, but it still looked postcard perfect to us!

The only down side to the Taj is that Kerri and I were a major tourist attraction ourselves. At least 15 families asked to take photos of us, and a few families had their children sneak up to us so that they could quickly grab a picture. This perplexed me , but drove Kerri insane. It is strange – here we are, in front of a stunning monument, and the tourists want to take pictures of two average American girls? Weird.

So here are some lovely photos. We’re off to see the Fort this afternoon and then to dine in view of the Taj – yay! So happy!

Delhi with Friends

Today was great and also successful, in the sense that Kerri didn’t melt in the heat and jetlag (bravo!) and we managed to book our train tickets (no mean feat here). I picked Kerri up last night (only a tiny back-pack and a messenger bag – rock on!) and then spent 1.5 hours trying to get back to the hotel, since the driver would not follow my directions and preferred to ask random groups of strangers – even after talking to our hotel owner. But all is well that ends well. Today, we spent the day touring monuments – an astronomical observatory built in the 1700s to measure the diameter of the sun and the local time, a few tombs, and the Qutb Minar, a very high tower built by a king so that his daughter could pray in view of the holy Yamuna River, located about 20 kilometers away from their palace. We had intended to meet my friend Andy, who I met on the plane from Milan, at the astronomical observatory, but the government closed many roads in Delhi due to the rioting and so it took him an extra 1.5 hours to reach the monument. We thought he went back to bed and left – but luckily, all was well by the afternoon and the three of us visited the Qutb Minar, a delicious restaurant, and the Lodi Gardens. At night, the spotlit ruins of a small tomb glow amid the trees and the air is cool. Too bad there were four very friendly and potentially rabid dogs to consider – Andy and Kerri laughed, but I would rather travel another 8 hours by local bus in the scorching heat than tango with a stray dog in Delhi!

Kerri has added a lot of fun to the trip, being the brilliant funny person that she is, jet-lag or no. Today, she introduced some fine and useful phrases to our trip lexicon:

Delhi Belly – the consequence of indulging in the delicious and not-so-hygienic snacks available in this city
“Without Charmin’, bathroom breaks are less than charming!” as a reminder for me to pack the travel-size toilet paper she brought.
And finally, “ONE LINK ROAD!!!!” – a phrase of warning, encouragement and information to be shouted at taxi drivers when trying to navigate our way to the lovely but quite hidden apartment that serves as our hotel.