Road trip through India's Golden Triangle

After spending 4 days at the Art of Living Ashram outside of Bangalore, India (will write another entry about this later), I was thoroughly relaxed and ready for the fast paced tour that CJ and Shira had planned for the bridal party through Golden Triangle. We began in Delhi, the capital city of India. I met up with the group at a market called Delhi Haat and met Shira's other friends who would be traveling with us - (Dom and Rachel from Chicago, Pam and Philippe from Florida, and Kane from Minnesota - my roommate and virtual look alike for the trip. Grace, also from NY also met up with us in Jaipur). This turned out to be a really fun and entertaining group to travel with and I was totally impressed with how well the chemistry worked with all of us. Kane and I received much taunting for our similar appearance and wardrobe. I thought, OK, we have the same sunglasses, whatever. But when we kept turning up for dinner in the same color scheme I started to think, yes this is weird.

Standing outside Delhi Haat, CJ our groom and grandmaster tour leader called our driver who then shows up in a 24 seat tour bus which would be our chariot for the next 4 days. From day one in India, driving felt like a near death experience every 30 seconds, and the tour bus was no exception. Our driver was highly skilled and had the confidence to smoothly pass an elephant, another truck, and and auto rickshaw on a two lane road with a large freight truck barrelling towards us just a 100 meters (or less) ahead.

Tuesday morning (Feb. 19th) we were off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and on the way saw two smaller sights - the tomb of Akbar and the Baby Taj. The grounds at the Tomb of Akbar were full of monkeys and what looked like antelope. Once in Agra, we drove to the riverbank behind the Taj Mahal for a sunset viewing. This sight was unreal, but we were surrounded by very poor children begging for money, which I found quite heartbreaking. With over 1.2 Billion people, the poverty here is immense, hanging in the air with the heavy smoke from burning garbage and dung patties burned for cooking and heating fuel. Wednesday morning we were on the road at 5 AM to see the Taj at sunrise. On the way there, the bussed stopped to pick up our official tour guide "V" who seemed to come running out of nowhere. This man seemed to have limitless knowledge of India and her history. He gave us presentations on the bus about every sight and many places we drove through and had an answer to nearly every question we threw at him. If he did not have an answer, V would look it up and get back to us later that day. I felt really lucky to have this resource on our trip. While standing at the outer Taj gates awaiting entry in the dark, smokey air, we heard the morning Muslim prayers broadcast from a loudspeaker nearby. At the same time, dogs on the block began howling along with the chanting prayers, which was pretty entertaining for us foreigner but a couple of locals began to chase away the dogs, a sign that it was less than entertaining for them.

As you may imagine the Taj Mahal was spectacular. We watched the structure become slowly illuminated as the sun rose lighting the eastern side. The Taj appeared to move closer to us as the sun rose. I took dozens pf photos along with the rest of the group, edging for the best space and backdrop against a group of older British tourists who acted like they still owned the place. Saying goodbye to the most beautiful tomb in history, and elaborate triubute to the kings late wife, we sped off to Jaipur. An all day drive with many history lessons along the way, passing through dozens of small towns - many of the structures had just three walls with the front room in plain view from the bus. I was not expecting to see into the daily routines of rural Indian people right from our bus window. Nearly all the women were wearing beautifully bright silk saris that painted intense colors along the countryside.

Entering the town of Jaipur, we passed at least 6 or 7 Hindu weddings - in most the groom rode on a white horse with a huge entourage of people carrying actual chandeliers (like the ones hanging in a house or hotel) powered by a generator in the back of the parade. The celebrations looked like the gathering of entire communities, and just built more anticipation for the impending Boordoloi/Szego wedding about to take place that weekend. Rajistani weddings are though quite different than Asaamese weddings - for example our groom CJ arrived in a white Honda rather than a white horse (more to come in the wedding blog). Once in Jaipur, we were fortunate to have dinner at a former palace converted into a hotel and were treated by friends of the groom. Our delicious tandoori meal was served outdoors, fireside, where we enjoyed performances by Rajistani dancers and and a fire-eater! I actually found the fire-eating a bit disturbing since the guy had put some kind of fuel in his mouth to create the blaze and then was nearly choking afterwards trying to wash the stuff out. After dinner we retreated to one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever stayed in. This former palace was built 300-400 years ago and had recently been converted but with much of the original features retained. The place was actually a bit spooky late at night and one could tell that it was rich in history. The next morning when I looked outside the window, I saw a gentleman walking around the grounds with a rifle, shooting up into the sky (no idea why) and monkeys hanging out on the building next door. That morning we ventured out to a very old mountain top palace just outside of town where we climbed up on elephants to ride to the top of the mountain. I know, this sounds really colonial, but wait to you see the photos, we look pretty funny. The poor elephants though didn't seem very happy. Unfortunately, I don't remember much of the history of this place, but you'll see the photos in a week or so. Overall, Jaipur was my favorite town we visited in India. Its more mellow than Delhi and way less polluted than Agra. Surrounded by mountains, the dry landscape reminded me of Israel.

Friday morning, we raced off on our final Indian road trip heading to the Delhi airport where we would fly to Guwahati in the state of Asaam for the wedding weekend. In a few days, or when I get back to New York, I'll send another update on the wedding, the ashram, and adaman dive safari.