Whirlwind tour of Rajasthan

The Indian state of Rajasthan is supposed to be this romantic, splendid place in India. This is the state where you'll still see the excellent Rajasthani mustaches, beautifully colored saris and scarves on the women, and romantic palaces in the desert. So, off we went, from Delhi, in a hired car (with driver for way too much money) for an 8-day tour. Here are the details.

Day 1 (13.Dec.06) - Our driver took us around Delhi, which we didn't have time to see earlier, having just arrived late on the 11th and having spent all day on the 12th setting up the trip. He took us around to some excellent places, including Raj Ghat, where M. Gandhi, his daughter I. Gandhi, and her son were all cremated. There is now a big park there with memorials to all of them. Across the street (which was so huge it took us literally 10 minutes to cross!) is the Mahatma's museum, which was both excellent and free! Inside they had The Man's glasses, staff, clothes, pictures, and a history of his life, as well as artistic paintings and drawings. The whole museum was very well done. In the last room of the museum, they have the clothes Gandhi was wearing when he was shot, as well as the bullets they took from his body and the urns they used to carry his ashes to the various parts of India after his cremation.

We also went to the largest mosque in India, Jama Masjid, where they let you climb one of the huge towers to get expansive views of Old and New Delhi, if it weren't so smoggy outside! The place was simply gorgeous, the views stunning, nevertheless, and since we went early in the morning, we basically had the place to ourselves.

Finally, we saw the ruins of Qtab Minar, a combination mosque, school, and victory tower for a Moghul conqueror who established the city of Delhi in the late 1100's. Then we set off for the city of Agra, which houses the Taj Mahal.

Day 2 - We got up early to visit the Taj before the sun rises, and after a huge hassle with security and "government" lockers (everything in India is a scam... some people, including Justine and a German guy we keep meeting in India, got to carry their backpacks in, but mine was confiscated and I was forced to put it in a locker, which I refused to pay for), we parted ways with a huge sum of money and walked into the courtyard facing the Taj. I know everyone says this, but you really can't believe how huge and gorgeous it is. But really, I couldn't help but think, "what a waste of money... think of all the good things that could have been done instead of building a tomb for yourself and your wife." Of course, everyone knows that the classical story of the Taj is that one of the Moghul rulers as a testament to his love for his favorite wife. Most people don't know that there's also a Mosque built on one side of the tomb (which is easily over 7 stories tall) and an identical structure used for public gatherings on the other side. Most people also don't know that the marble mausoleum (complete with amazing semi-precious-stone inlay work of jade, onyx, etc. from around the world) was completed many many years after her death. Plus, the whole grounds are designed to look like the Koranic description of Paradise (ie, heaven). Most people also probably don't know that the guy who built the place had a huge head and the perfect symmetry of the place, the gorgeous grounds, and the use of waterways to re-create Paradise means that the Shah (who is ALSO buried at the center of the Taj) probably had another idea about what the Taj's meaning really is. Draw your own conclusions... Our guide book also says that the traditional story of how the Shah was inconsolable after his wife's death is totally bogus. Instead, the guy died during a drug-and-alcohol-induced orgy. So, there you go.

After spending about 3 hours at the Taj, we left with our driver (who needs serious night-driving help and glasses, to boot), we went to the ghost city of Fathapur Sikri. One of the Moghul emperors decided to move the capital city from Agra to F.S. during his reign, but when the water situation there didn't pan out, the whole complex had to be abandoned. The two major areas that remain are the palace grounds and the mosque. Both are spectacular. The palace grounds consist of several palaces, one built for each of the emperor's three "official" wives: one Hindu, one Buddhist, and one Christian. Each structure is different and reflects the wife's particular religion. For example, the Christian wife's palace consists of 5 rooms laid out in the shape of a cross. There is some stunning art and architecture in this place, including the secret meeting hall, where a huge building, whose center is supported by a single giant column of red sandstone (actually, everything in F.S. is made from red sandstone, making it's near-uniform color scheme a feast for the eyes) had a place for the king to sit while his 9 ministers could address him from platforms around the walls 10 feet up.

In the mosque area, there's an excellent marble tomb for a famous Muslim cleric. The walls of the tomb are these huge (5 ft. by 5 ft.) marble slabs carved in the most fine, intricate designs that you couldn't believe. The marble is so thin in some places that you can see right through it. Just think of the artisan who was working on these things... one slip up and the whole thing is trash.

After F.S., we drove to the small town of Bharatpur, where there's a bird sanctuary.

Day 3 - We got up early to visit the bird sanctuary, Keoladeo, which was pretty cool, and we rented some really crummy bikes to ride through the place. Unfortunately, Rajasthan is in the midst of a 10-years long drought, so the lake that's supposed to be in the middle of the park was mostly dried up! That's okay, because we still saw tons of cool birds, including kingfishers, spotted owls, and a huge black-necked crane. After lunch, we drove to Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan, and went up to Nahagar fort to watch the sunset over the Pink City. Although it was quite hazy from the hilltop retreat, the sunset was still beautiful. The fort was nothing to crow about, except for the views.

Day 4 - Spent the day touring Jaipur's famous sights within the confines of the Pink City, the ancient walled city, which was painted a uniform color in the 1800's to welcome a British king. Everyone we had met in India said "oh, Jaipur, it's great! You'll love it!" But of course, we have a different idea. First of all, the city isn't pink. It's brick-red or orange. Secondly, the city is a major hassle. Now, you have to understand that everywhere you go in India, "touts" are trying to get your money. People yell and scream at you, throw their goods in front of your face, and demand that you come into their stores or buy whatever cheap crap they have. This is a given, and something you have to learn to deal with if you're going to have a decent time in India. In Jaipur, it was absolutely the worst. There was no sense of friendliness to the city, it was all shove, shout, glare, etc. At least in Varanasi and Kolkata we had a good time looking around, touring, and shopping. I can speak for both of us that Jaipur is the worst Indian city we've visited. Not only was it the most hassle-filled city, it was also super expensive to eat and sleep there (compared to the other cities we've seen), and the sights weren't even that good. The city palace was quite boring and the museums inside were terrible (that is, they had some nice things in them, but the layout was awful and descriptions of textiles, art, artifacts, etc. were non-existent in Hindi or English). The only semi-redeeming sight in Jaipur was the observatory, which was built in the early 1700's. It contains 18 instruments, including a gigantic sundial which has 2-second resolution and a device that allows you to follow stars, zodiac signs, and predict the strength of monsoons!

Day 5- We were supposed to go to Ranthambore National Park, where people are almost guaranteed sightings of Bengali tigers, but it was closed due to a strike. Instead, we went to Sariska Tiger Reserve, where they haven't had any tigers since 2005 thanks to a corrupt warden who devised a scheme to poison the tigers and sell off their carcases (according to our guide book). Although it was quite expensive to get in, we were anxious to spot some wild-life and hired a jeep, a driver, and a guide to drive us through the giant park looking for crocs, leopards, deer, birds, etc. We saw signs of a leopard, including a female Sambar (a huge deer) making alarm calls and stamping her feet to protect her fawn, but never actually saw one. We did get to see a huge croc, though, and many species of bird and of course, tons of monkeys. But overall, I wouldn't recommend coming here because the layout of the park is crappy, the guides and drivers let people stop to feed the animals, and it's too expensive. Our guide was silent for almost the entire time, never once offering information about the habits of the animals or pointing out any of the marked features that are in the map provided by the booking counter. It was a pretty lousy experience, even though the terrain was nice.

Originally, this was supposed to be an 8-day trip, but since Ranthambore was closed (we were going to spend two days there, skip Sariska, and go to the desert town of Pushkar), we decied to head back to Delhi early, since there was so much there we didn't get to see before.

Day 6 - In the morning, we returned to Sariska to walk through part of the park, but since you're required to have a guide, we had to hire the same lousy guide as yesterday. We walked along a mostly-dry river bed for an hour, spotting no wildlife except the "jungle crow" and a song bird or two. Finally, as we approached a watering hole, several monkeys were searching for food and we saw two kinds of kingfishers and a great eagle. It was a nice spot to stop, but as our time was up, we only got to watch for about 15 minutes before heading back. After the long drive back to Delhi, we found a really crummy guest house which charges too much to stay there (10 bucks for what is one of the two worst rooms we've seen in India... and we've stayed in some real $hi*-holes) and went to sleep. Oh yeah, we also had a really expensive dinner at a place called Ruby Tuesday's (I think this chain exists in the States, but I was really desperate to have something other than Indian food, which actually hasn't been as tasty as we had hoped for... more on that later) which served me a frozen pizza that they microwaved and a 7-dollar Heinekin. Worst money we've spent on this whole trip!

And now here it is, the 19th of December, and it's hot here in Delhi (thou. at night it gets quite cold). I don't know why everyone says "get out of Delhi as fast as you can." Justine and I both find the city quite charming and the least hassle of any Indian city we've been to. People are calm and relaxed here, the facilities are great, and the sights are some of the best we've seen in India (besides Varnasi and the Taj). It's a great town, but to tell the truth, I can't wait to get out of India (we fly to Singapore tomorrow night to celebrate Christmas with my Grandma and my Uncle's family!). I haven't had the experiences here I expected and I've been let down many times and in many places. China was really difficult to travel in, but being there was so rewarding to us. For all the complaining we did on this blog a while back, I had such a good time there that I will surely go back to China before too long. I can not say the same thing about India. India, too, is difficult to travel in. Things are far apart, transportation is difficult (unless you pay huge sums of money to hire a private car, but since we were short-changed by our hospitalization, there was no way we could have seen half of the sights we did in Raj. in even 10 days), and things are mostly really filthy when you're travelling on a budget. These things we can put up with, as we did in China and Nepal, but the experiences I have had here do not even come close to the ones I had in China and Nepal. If I came back to India, I'd like to see Delhi again, because I've liked it here, but I would not visit any of the places I've seen in the last month.

Now, maybe I'm not being fair to India. Maybe we were just in a bad frame of mind, since we did start things off badly in Kolkata. Perhaps we were not mentally prepared. Maybe we're hitting the 4-month lull (Dec. 16 marked 4 months since we left SF). Maybe if we came back again, re-freshed, we'd have a totally different experience. But the fact is, we've been looking forward to leaving for SG for several days now, and I don't think I'd chose to come back to India any time soon.

-Mike.

PS - Pics to follow soon of India and Nepal when I get to Singapore. Stay tuned!