Delhi

For our last night in India we stayed in a really fancy hotel to make up for all the cheap crappy ones along the way. We were both beyond exhausted and ready to go back to China. The last day we went to Humayan's Tomb, another World Heritage Site. It was amazing but we were both hitting the too tired to enjoy it point. We also went to India Gate, which isn't really terribly impressive.

In the evening we met a friend of Danny’s who works in Beijing that was in Delhi visiting his family for Chinese New Year. They cooked an amazing traditional Indian meal for us. I always think it is fun to talk to someone who actually lives in the places we visit and get their insights into the trip. They pointed out the two days we spent in Delhi were the worst air quality the city had seen in 10 years. I thought it was quite a relief because it made us really question how people could survive if it was that bad every day.

Overall, I'm glad we went and we learned a lot but that trip really kicked our butts and left us not wanting to travel again for quite a while. I never went anywhere so filthy and impoverished. We were constantly hassled for money or scammed out of it (not that it was enough money to make much difference.) Even at legit places like world heritage sights the guys at ticket booths tried to short change us. We are reasonably good travelers and rarely get taken in by scams but there were times when it wasn't even worth arguing and we overpaid by a dollar or two just to get out of unpleasant situations. I was sort of prepared for it but things were worse than I imagined. I also felt really stupid for not knowing beforehand that almost everything historic we saw was a Muslim sight and there were very few Hindu sights to see. My favorite part of the trip was definitely the food, which I love and was wonderful as a vegetarian. Unfortunately, the food didn't love me back and I kept getting really bad heartburn and ended the trip with a minor stomach bug. People there were also really surprised and confused that a foreigner would only want vegetarian foods but at least it was available. I think we may finally be traveled out.

Mt. Abu

Mt. Abu was really only on our list of places to go because a friend from India said it was her favorite place she had traveled to in the whole country. Mainly it is a resort town where upper middle class Indians go on vacation. The wasn’t a ton to do there aside from walk around the lake and check out the mountain views. There was a “religion museum with a laser show.” Displays were poorly done but really comical. There is a temple there that is supposed to be the main reason for going but we didn’t end up getting to go because of our poor timing. We stayed in a converted palace that used to belong to some member of the Indian royal family. The building and grounds were pretty but the room itself had very little décor and was sort of desolate. I’m pretty sure our room used to be servant’s quarters or something. It was still pretty relaxing to be in a town where nobody hassled us.

 

Udaipur

Udaipur is a really pretty town with a backpacker vibe to it. The city's claim to fame is being featured in the movie Octopussy, which I've still never seen. Every night lots of restaurants that cater to tourists have screenings of it. Half the time they don't actually play it unless someone requests it though. Visiting Udaiper was much less stressful than traveling around the "Golden Triangle." I think by this point in the trip we both were kind of sick of traveling and less ambitious about seeing sights which had all blurred together in our heads by then. We saw the City Palace and a few other things but mostly took it easy. At night we saw a puppet show which is the entertainment Udaipur is well known for. It was actually pretty cool and it had dancing and a woman balancing pots on her head in addition to puppets. 

 

Jaisalmer

The next day was mostly a driving day as we headed to Jaisalmer, 6 hours away. Our driver took us to yet another shop where he or his company gets kickbacks for taking tourists. They all give little demos about how the products are made. Some of them, like the marble shop’s demo appeal to the art teacher in me but mostly they just feel like you are watching your own personal infomercial and everything they are selling costs way more than anywhere that locals shop. We did end up buying some textiles at one place anyway. It is still much cheaper than in the states and the quality was decent but it is frustrating feeling like you are constantly being ripped off. Our driver always seems to tell us we shouldn’t buy anything without his approval and that anything we buy on our own is too expensive. Half the time it is cheaper to go with his suggestions and half the time he takes us to tourist traps that are way more expensive than elsewhere. Anyway, I was mostly ok with him until the little incident where he offered Danny cold medicine that turned out to be opium. I was really upset. Anyone who knows Danny and me knows we aren’t the type of people who would try that stuff. In the hotel room, after I googled the effects of eating opium and found that it wasn’t quite as scary as I thought, we decided to chalk it up to a cultural experience – as suggested by our friend Erica via facebook. It actually isn’t even illegal in India and it didn’t seem to have much impact on Danny other than making him feel more relaxed which did actually stop him from coughing so much. I’m pretty sure next time we’ll just opt for lots of fluids and bed rest though.

Since I was feeling less than thrilled with our driver I really wanted to just go around on our own the next day in Jaisalmer. We booked a full day camel safari – which our driver said was way overpriced at about $50 a person including all meals. It was really pretty. We went really far out in the countryside by this tiny village that was only about 50 kilometers from Pakistan. The village was small and undeveloped but they said about 500 people lived there. Someone said 80% of the population of India lives in tiny villages. The camel drivers met us and the two guys from Argentina who went with us in the village. We walked along the desert and stopped along the way to where they made lunch and we all rested. It was pretty unspoiled land with sand dunes and lots of tame animals like sheep and camels wondering around. The camel I rode was kind of gross, he kept making weird gurgling noises and sticking out his tongue. The drivers said it was because he was in heat and wanted to find some female camels… lovely. They also made lots of really bad jokes relating to going off to fight the Pakistanis and how crazy desert life is… (not very). It was a really beautiful place. The guys who went with us slept out under the stars but we headed back to the hotel after dinner at around 9 pm. It is really nice to get out of the cities and watch a sunset.

Jodhpur

Leaving the “Golden Triangle” was quite a relief. In Delhi and Agra in particular we were constantly hassled everywhere we went. Jaipur was slightly less intense. Jodhpur was much better. If we told a salesperson in Jodhpur we don’t want anything they don’t follow us for a full two blocks telling us to buy it. Not to say we were totally left alone, but it was more peaceful.

Our hotel was in a historic building with beautiful architectural details. It was near the clocktower, down an old road that wasn’t accessible by car. Instead we had to get a tuk tuk from the main road. It was also our first hotel in India with a real shower in the bathroom. Most places just have a showerhead on the wall in the middle of the bathroom. They all run out of hot water on occasions, some only have hot water for an hour or two in the morning. From the hotel’s rooftop restaurant we had a view of the whole city. 

The city itself is small but really beautiful with lots of historic architecture. It is called the blue city because a lot of houses are painted blue. Our driver told us only the Brahmin caste (the highest caste that all the priests belong to) painted their houses blue. It is the sort of place where it is fun to just sort of wander along the busy narrow streets and get lost. At that point we’d seen so many historic sights that they all blurred together so we didn’t bother with a ton of sightseeing. We walked to the clock tower because it was near our hotel. Our driver took us to the Mehrangarh Fort in the afternoon but it is such a small city we would have been better off just taking a tuk tuk rather than walking to the main street to meet him. We tried to go to Jaswant Thada temple but got there too late in the day so we only got to see it from the outside.

He did take us to try this milkshake like drink (I think it was called mawa ladoo) that was really yummy.  Since I eat Indian food a lot it was one of the few new foods I tried during my time in India.

In the evening we met my co-workers Kristina and Nicola who were also traveling around India for Chinese New Year. It was fun getting a chance to chat with them and compare notes on our trips. We went to another really nice rooftop restaurant called Indique.