Amritsar

Got back from Amritsar tonight. Check out the pics. We have much to tell about the weekend, but we're going to get some sleep for now. We did go inside the temple, if you are wondering, but did not take pictures inside because there was ongoing Sikh worship and we did not want to be rude. Also, the pictures of the crowds and people marching was at the daily border closing ceremony at the India-Pakistan border, which was brimming with nationalist bravado on both sides.

"Challe Jao!" ...and the difficulties of being a Gora

Have you ever been to a shopping center and been asked 6 consecutive times if you want to buy a cheap mini chess set or a wooden snake? If you have, you probably got rid of the person by telling them to "get outta here" or that "you don't want it". Well in India, us Goras (white people) are prime targets for these types of aggressive street hawkers. Weeks one through about three were rather frustrating, as the fact that we didn't know Hindi meant that not only the hawkers could not understand us, but they knew that we were newbies, rookie tourists. Happily we have since learned how to solve this problem...

'Challe jao!' (spoken like cha-le jow) = 'Go away!'
and
'Nahi chaiye' (spoken like na-hi cha-ee-yeh) = 'I don't want it'

We've been quick to make use of these phrases, let me tell you. As soon as anyone approaches us trying to sell a smelly whip or a cheap drum, "Nahi chaiye, challe jao!". Works like a charm. We even get smiles and compliments from our former tormentors ("Hey, nice hindi") as they head off to find the next gora.

Learning Hindi has also really helped our negotiation skills, as the locals do not want to waste their time haggling with you once you have proven that you are a veteran. Courtney is especially good at this, even using all English. She came close to making one of the beaded purse salesmen cry while on a shopping trip with the Taj wives, at least that is the account I heard. I believe it too, if she only wants to pay 200 rupees ($4.55 US) for a purse, she's only going to pay 200 rupees for a purse. You do have to make concessions now and then, as there is always give and take... ultimately if we want something, we'll buy it.

Where my haggling skills shine is whenever we take a taxi or autorickshaw... which is the only way to get anywhere. Being a gora causes us to get jacked on taxi and auto rates, so I get pretty worked up. For example, we know it should cost about 40 rupees to get from the Priya to our hotel via auto. So when an auto driver tries to fool the gora into paying 80 rupees, I laugh at him, then turn to the next driver waiting to take my money. That is basically the strongest case we have going for us, the fact that they want our money. Here's a typical auto negotiation outside of Priya:

Driver 1: You need auto?
Me: Yea, Taj Palace... how much? (or 'Kitna' which means 'how much')
Driver 1: 80 rupees.
Me: Ha! 30 rupees.
Driver 1: No, no... 70 rupees.
Me: C'mon, I know what this costs... 30 rupees.
(Enter Driver 2)
Driver 2: Where you need to go?
Me: Taj Palace, how much?
Driver 2: 50 rupees.
Me: No, still too much.
Driver 1: Ok, ok... 40 rupees.
Me: Fantastic, let's go. (or 'Challo' which means 'let's go')

Bah! As frustrating as this gets, its still probably about 300% cheaper than any cab in the U.S., so I suppose it's silly to complain. That, and it's also kind of fun. :D

You can also add to the gora complaint list the fact we can basically count on having our picture taken at every major tourist area we go to. For some reason locals think that certain goras (other white tourists are sometimes left alone while we are bombarded with requests) are celebrities or someone special. You heard a little about this from Courtney's description of our trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal. All we wanted to do was enjoy sitting in the grass and soak in the wonder that is the Taj Mahal, but not so much with photo requests every 4 minutes. I have yet to try out our Hindi on the camera-happy Indians, but I also don't want to be too rude... there is a difference between asking for a picture and harrassing me to buy a safari hat. I have a suspicion that they could care less about me, and that they really just want a picture of Courtney. Who can blame them? ...she is a hottie! : ) Anyway, that's just a sampling of the silliness we experience by being the minority, most is not really a big deal and most is kind of fun. I can tell you one thing for sure, when we are ready to buy another car, I'm sending Courtney in to do the negotiating!

Jaipur and Ranthambore

Hi everyone!
As Dan commented a couple of days ago, we were in Rajasthan again this past weekend. This time we visited the city of Jaipur and Ranthambore National Park. Jaipur was not as appealing to us as Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, we also didn't do as much sight seeing in Jaipur. We did manage to get to Jantar Mantar(third picture) which is a medieval astronomical observatory built by Maharaja Jai Singh between 1728 and 1734. This was really interesting. It was a complex which held 18 instruments used for telling time, predicting the strength of the monsoon, and figuring the position and movement of the stars and planets. If you check out the pictures you can also see that this was a great place to romp around. Lots of stairs leading up to nowhere where you could catch great views of the surrounding city. From there we wandered around the huge bazaar that lined the main street of the old city. As Jodhpur was the blue city, Jaipur is the pink city, although the buildings are more of an orange color. Pink is the traditional color of hospitality in Rajasthan and it also absorbs the heat of the sun. Jaipur is also known for its jewels! So of course I went shopping :) I have accumulated more jewelry here in India than I have had in my entire life. It is rather hard to resist the beauty and the prices! We also saw the outside of the Hawa Mahal (second picture). This is a small palace built so that the women of the court could watch the bustle of the streets below while not being seen. Apparently the biggest attraction is the outside, so we skipped actually going inside. The outside is amazing though! It is a 5 story tall wall with tons of windows. Very elaborate and very beautiful.
On Sunday we went to the monkey temple. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. As Dan already commented on, we got to feed monkeys! They were so funny, so much like little furry people. Besides the monkeys at the monkey temple though, there were lots of locals coming to the swimming hole located in the temple complex. To get here we had to hike up over a rocky outcrop/small mountain and down into a small valley. It was beautiful, but we were followed by many young local boys trying their best to communicate with us. Cute at first, but it gets to a point where we just want to be left alone! Lots of hand shaking, lots of asking for us to take pictures, just lots of interest in general in the white people, and we were the only ones in the whole place. Oh well, monkeys are fantastic!
On Saturday we went to Ranthambore which was the definitely the highlight of the trip. It was amazing! We were driven through the park in a 12 person roof-less, jeep-like vehicle called a canter. The seats are located high up off the ground so that you feel safe if you were lucky enough to see a tiger. There are also 20 person canters and small jeeps called gypseys that hold 4 people. These you have to book at least 2 months in advance, but they go the exact same places as the canters they are just more intimate. The park only lets a total of 35 vehicles per day and a total of 17 at a time. They provide a morning safari, from 6 am-9 and an evening safari, from 3-6. Needless to say we chose the evening safari :) We did leave for the park at 6 am though, it was a 4 hour drive from Jaipur. The scenery as well as the wildlife was amazing. SOOO many animals. Tons of deer. Ranthambore houses two species, one spotted smaller deer, and one bigger, hairier deer(first picture). It is also the home of wild boar, crocodiles, peacocks, monkeys, sloth bears, and tons of birds. Of course its most famous inhabitant is the tiger, which unfortunately we did not get to see. But as Dan said it is very unlikely to see one, especially with only one safari into the park. We also didn't see a sloth bear, but we saw lots of peacocks, monkeys, birds, deer, boar, and we even saw a the lumpy outline of a croc swimming in one of the watering holes. The park also houses lots of banyon trees which are amazing, willow type, viney trees. We have tons of pics of them so check them out.
Well I think that is about all for now! Hope everyone is doing well back in the states. Talk to you soon.
-Courtney

Monkeys!

....are sooo funny. We fed them some peanuts at the Monkey Temple in Jaipur. They were also at Ranthambore National Tiger Reserve, jumping around and shaking the trees so that twigs and debris fell on us... silly monkeys. It was a fun weekend, Court got some sparkly things and we went on our first little safari. Seeing peacocks, monkeys, antelope and boar in their natural habitat was amazing. We did not see a tiger, but that was to be expected. There are only 26 tigers in the park, and the area where visitors are allowed to go only covers about 40%. Basically we had about a 5% chance of seeing a tiger in the three hours we were in the park, based on what the other tourists were telling us (they had gone on 4 trips into the park and had not seen one yet). Jaipur was interesting although not as exciting as Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. Except for the monkeys! They were hilarious, and experience them taking food from your hand was really fun. Seems like such a simple joy I know, but it was great. We have some pics and a couple videos of them romping around and play fighting, soon to be posted. I have some interesting ideas for commentary that I'll make some time for later this week.

Details!

Hello all! This past weekend we ventured to Rajasthan and found ourselves in the desert. As Dan mentioned we traveled by overnight train and it was really quite amazing to fall asleep in a city like Delhi and then wake up in a completely different desert atmosphere. Let me start off by saying that this trip was amazing! The more we see of India, the more we grow to love it! So we arrived in Jodhpur early Thursday morning where we immediately hopped into a car that took us to our hotel in Jaisalmer. Traveling from Jodhpur was a four hour trek through the barren Thar Desert. All of a sudden Jaisalmer's towering fort (first picture) begins to rise up from the nothingness that surrounds it like a mirage. The town of Jaisalmer was built around the fort, but even today the fort houses people and markets. Our hotel was even located within the fort. This is one of the very few places in India where it is possible to stay inside the fort. An interesting side note, Jaisalmer is only about 80 km east of the Pakistan border. Our hotel was small and quaint and from our window at the edge of the fort we had an amazing view of the town below, the vast expanse of the desert beyond the town, and a picture perfect view of the sunset (although we enjoyed this scene from the roof of our hotel which was set up with tables and chairs). Within the fort there were many extremely narrow paths, wide enough for pedestrians, motorcycles, and of course cows! Along these "streets" there were many little shops and vendors selling the usual trinkets, jewelry, and textiles. It was really fun to wander through the maze of the fort. Also within the fort there were some really amazing Jain temples (second picture). The temples were so beautiful. Built from carved sandstone and how intricate and detailed the carvings were! You can kind of get the idea by looking at our pictures, but these structures were so unique and so magnificent. Being in Jaisalmer, you have to experience life within the fort as well as life in the surrounding desert. So we went on a village safari and camel trek. A guide drove us and a couple from France, also staying at our hotel, in a jeep about 75 km outside of the city into the desert. Here we stopped at a couple of villages to get a feel for life in a tiny village in the middle of the desert. This was an interesting experience and as the pictures show, quite a different way of life than anything I have even seen before. After this we headed off to a village where we hopped on some camels and rode them around the desert for a while. (third picture) It was so much fun! Camels are great. They make noises that sound a whole lot like Chewbacca. We had a great time with this and it ended in sunset (well as much as we could see through the clouds) a dinner prepared over a campfire for us by locals with Kingfisher (India's beer of choice) and lots of dung beetles! There were tons of these rather large beetles that had no fear and came right up to you. We spent a lot of time throwing or flicking them away from us, but it did not hinder the good times we had in the desert. We then headed back to the hotel, we had the option of staying the night in the desert, but we had to wake up early and head out to Jodhpur the next day. Jodhpur was also quite amazing. The Meherangarh fort in Jodhpur (fourth picture) is one of the, if not the best, preserved fort in India. We toured that on Saturday and it was awesome! The old part of Jodhpur, or the part right around the fort is so interesting because all of the buildings are blue. It was really quite an amazing scene, especially looking down on it from the fort. Our guidebook says that the blue color comes from indigo that was added to a limewash they used to protect against termites. Check out the pics! The hotel we stayed at in Jodhpur was a beautiful garden retreat with flowers, trees, birds, chipmunks, lizards, and toads everywhere. It was so peaceful and so relaxing, we loved it there. Also in Jodhpur we saw a beautiful marble memorial built in memory of one of the maharajas and we saw the current maharaja's (who we met at the polo match in Delhi) palace. The palace usually costs a minimum of 350 rupees to enter and tour, but half of the palace was taken over by Taj hotels. So Dan told one of the guys at the entrance that we were staying at the Taj hotel in Delhi and were interested in staying at this Taj when we come back to Jodhpur. So we got the tour for free! We get something called Taj points at our hotel. For every 100 rupees spent we earn a taj point and we can use these points to pay for food or to stay in other Taj hotels around India. So when we have a lot of Taj points we will definitely be using some to stay at the maharaja's palace! Overall we had a fantastic time in Rajasthan. There are of course more details to share, but already this is so long. Please Please Please check out the pictures by clicking on the link in Dan's previous post. You guys have to see this stuff!!!!! Please Please Please also comment and send e-mails, we want to hear from you all! Talk to you soon.
-Courtney

Rajasthan's Jodhpur and Jaisalmer

Hi all, we returned from our trip to Rajasthan early (7:00 am) this morning via overnight train from Jodhpur. We had our most interesting experiences so far and we promise to add some description to the pictures and blog as soon as we've had some rest.

I found out that Hewitt CEO will be visiting the Gurgaon office tomorrow and the next day, I'm not sure of his specific intent. Also, the Prime Minister of Afghanistan is staying at the hotel for a few days... needless to say, security has been tight - from police roadblocks during his transport to metal detectors in the lobby (we didn't have to walk through them though).

For anyone who takes a look at the whole album, I'm curious as to what your estimate might be of how much (in American dollars) the pictured hotel with the jungle/garden courtyard and lagoon-style pool cost per night (not the palace pictured at the end, that's where the Maharaja of Jodhpur lives as well as being another Taj hotel - with Taj points we hope to be able to stay there sometime).

Relax is the word of the weekend

Sorry for the lack of content as of late, but we needed to rest a little bit this weekend. With two straight weekends of travelling ahead for us, we decided to take it easy. I've added some content to my google web page, nothing too exciting, but do check out the calendars that I've posted (go to the India section via the link on the left). Just so you know what we are up to we'll keep that up to date with our planned activities for the coming months. We hope to talk to/hear from you soon!