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!

Pools and Take-Out Containers

After an incredibly packed and expensive sight-seeing day yesterday, we have fully appreciated all that Agra has to offer. Here is a shot of Kerri at the “Baby Taj,” an early monument to a financial advisor (valued staff even then) that predates the beautiful pietra dura work at the Taj Mahal itself. So today, we did a tiny bit of sight-seeing this morning and spent the rest of the day at a pool. It was “lovely,” as the British women cooed, cooling off after a long day of bus travel. Pool visits may not be exciting to read about, but they are definitely a haven of calm, quiet and anonymity. When I spent a lot of time overseas in Africa on three to six week assignments, I spent every Sunday at the pool for a little mini-trip to America (and a schmooze with our donors).

The one fun thing I have to share today is my amazement at Indian fast-food serving ware. They serve street food in these little bowls made from banana plants. You can see one, with my sweet lentil dessert in it, here. The other serving ware that is very popular are rough cast clay cups. They’re not even as finished as terracotta pots at home, and people drink tea, a yogurt drink called lassi, or a thicker yogurt out of them. These are also single use. Now here is an excellent example of local know-how merging with international concepts – fast food in perfectly biodegradable containers. Amazing.

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.

Planes, trains and local buses.

It was a long, hot day, and then some. I left Khajuraho yesterday at 3 (really, if you haven’t googled it yet, do – or visit the UNESCO World Heritage website). It took 6 hours to go 165km on the local bus. Two hours of that involved a two-year-old sitting in my lap, because there was nowhere else to sit. 70 people or more crowded onto this bus built for 35! It was wild! You haven’t really lived until you’ve driven down a one-car-width road with 70 people in a bus while facing on-coming traffic and slowing just enough for passengers to jump on, right from the fields. Just amazing. Glad I did it, even if it was a little uncomfortable. They stopped for almost half an hour at the major towns, and if you left your seat, you might not get it back – so we all sat and baked in this little tin oven in the 47C heat, hoping the bus would start soon and a cool breeze would wind its way through the millimeters of space not taken up by passengers. After the bus ride, I put my grimy little self on a train to New Delhi. A sweet woman in the bunk below me managed to procure us clean sheets so that we wouldn’t have to use the ones left by the passengers preceding us (whew! Although, no one on earth was dirtier than me at that moment, so perhaps I shouldn’t have cared.) Once in Delhi, I went on a goose chase to find our hotel, finally arriving after an hour in an autorickshaw, brandishing a not-so-skillfully drawn map. They kindly let me shower, and I headed off to the Red Fort, built by Shah Jahan in the 1600s and home to the Mughal emporers until the British took over in the mid-1800s. It’s really lovely – check out the photos (a view through the arches in the throne court -- they were coated in white and gold for Shah Jahan -- and a second view. There are about 15 buildings though, here's just a sample!) A nice girl named Pooja, who was in Delhi to take her admission exams for the Masters program in Biochemistry, joined me for a tour about the fort while her father watched the bags. We had a nice time, and I was greatly relieved to notice that she also found it unbearably hot to wander in the sun from palace to bath to palace. Two fun facts – one of the small palaces was built for the women, and had a stunning lotus-shaped fountain inside. Waterways run through all the buildings and many of the gardens – this place would be amazing if the government could find a way to turn them on now! Second fun fact – the bath house had hot and cold running water AND a rose-water mist room to perfume the lovely ladies. Nice! Pretty chic for the 1600s, when European courts were still picking lice out of their padded hairstyles.

In the afternoon, I just wandered to a few sites, but most notably, I took the subway. Stunningly clean and air-conditioned, it is truly a marvel of modern Delhi – and a stark contrast with my usual mode of transport, the noisy auto-rickshaw, cramming its way down the streets and dodging horse-drawn carriages, cows and goats, cars, buses, and regular rickshaws. I love the subway! (Many of you may know that, after suffering the NYC subways for a year, I regularly offer to eat off the floor of the DC subway system. This is even cleaner than the DC system – spotless.)

As I write this, I’m off to Church (more great signs, I hope!) and to meet my friend Andy for dinner. Then – Kerri! Yay!

Traveling Alone

Okay, I will admit that in the past I have been a total travel snob, and when people say they do not like to travel alone, I usually sniff, "Oh, I prefer it!" But pride always manages to catch up with you and trip you when you least expect it. I am very happy that Kerri is coming tomorrow. This trip has completely revised my view on independent travel. Now, I still think that travelling alone can be great -- but only when you speak some of the local language, know the culture, and are going to places where it's easy to catch up with other tourists for dinner or a trip. Traveling alone in a developing country in the off season is expensive, confusing and at times lonely. In the past, my solo travels in Africa and Asia were always backed up by a purpose for being there and a network of local and international coworkers to give me advice and laugh with me over my travel foibles. This time, I'm just a young woman adrift on the great and ancient sea of Indian culture. SO! Consider me a changed and more humble traveller. I am very excited that Kerri arrives tomorrow -- not only because it will be fun to have a companion, but because she is my smart, funny, beautiful little sister and we will have quite the adventure together!

Customs

This morning, I saw more of the temples. Lovely! Despite the 43+ heat! (That's more than 110. ouch). But this afternoon, Rakesh was hung over, so he sent his friend Rajesh to take me on a tour to some waterfalls. But I have managed to anger Rajesh at least three times -- for explaining that Americans do not hold hands or let people rest their heads in their laps unless they are a couple; for insisting that we return to town before dark (bad roads + trucks + cows = accidents); and now, for being tired and wanting to go home and not eat at his sister's house. Just call me the ugly American I guess. Sigh. I'm trying to be a good traveler -- but I'm not going to abandon my culture overnight. (And I haven't seen Indian boys and girls holding hands, either.)