Rajasthan and last day in Mumbai, August 12-15.
August 12.
We left early in the morning, a bit begrudgingly because Agra was by far our best experience in India up to that point. The guide, the hotel, the city itself far surpassed our expectations. But we had an itinerary to keep, so we headed off on the national highway towards Jaipur, a cultural and historical capital in Rajasthan, a few hundred miles to the southeast. It seemed that the city of Agra itself was never-ending, and a few people kept asking when we'd end up on the highway. My best friend's husband pointed out that we were on a highway. It was just a national highway, and since the Agra-Jaipur road isn't as touristy as New Delhi-Agra, it wasn't a fancy Western-style highway like the one we'd been on on our way to Agra. It was basically like driving through back roads, with no lane dividers, so you'd get experiences like this:
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| Yeah... |
A few hours later, after my best friend announcing that we'd be stopping at a "surprise" location, we pulled over into this little town, in a very non-descript area.
It turned out to be this absolutely stunning stepwell, Chand Baori, which was built between 800 and 900 AD (or CE). This place is actually quite famous, as besides being a stepwell which is an interesting concept to Westerners, as it's a place built to hold water in the dry regions where it still rains for a few months out of the year, is architecturally fascinating. This one in particular is so crazy symmetrical and it has such an otherworldly quality to it that films like The Dark Knight Rises have been filmed here.
It's so hard to just not stare at the intricacy of the engineering.
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| Absolutely mesmerizing. |
It's not in use anymore, at least not as a well, but it's open to the public.
It's also right next to the ruins of a Hindu temple that was destroyed by the Muslims when they entered into Rajasthan. The shrine itself has been rebuilt, but many of the sculptures are lying in ruins outside, making for some very interesting photographic scenes.
After Chand Baori/Harshat Mata Temple, we got back on the bus and finished our drive to Jaipur, where we visited the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of Winds, and met up with our guide.
True to what we'd seen in India, hoping that the guy in New Delhi was the exception, it's really quite hard to find anyone decent to speak Spanish. I'm going to reiterate that we do understand that India does not have a history of Spanish influence, as this is a country that was colonized by English speakers and English really is the lingua franca in a country that consists of hundreds of ethnic groups, recognizing up to 200 languages spoken within its borders and that has hundreds more that are unrecognized. English is the language used to unite people from Jammu and Kashmir all the way down to Tamil Nadu and Kerala because it's the only language that isn't regional, so to speak. But northern India, the Golden Triangle (which is what we did) in particular, is extremely popular with Spanish speakers, Spaniards in particular, and I definitely heard more Spanish being spoken by visitors than I heard English. And the Spanish was Castilian. We heard Spaniards everywhere, and it wasn't just because we were mostly Spaniards in our group, it's that there were legitimately Spaniards everywhere.
And in Jaipur where the street merchants are sharp and can speak enough Spanish to know how to lower their prices when haggling, it's quite weird that the merchants could communicate better than the guides we had. So we dropped him after the Hawa Mahal. For me it's not really worth complaining about, except that it is quite disappointing when someone is specifically hired for their language skills in a particular language and ends up being completely unable to speak that language.
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| Inside the courtyard at the Hawa Mahal, where the harem lived. It's called the Palace of Winds because there are so many teeny tiny windows facing the outside in order to keep prying eyes away from the harem and it created drafts, which in the stuffy desert, is never a bad thing. Indian engineers knew what they were doing. |
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| View of Jaipur from the Hawa Mahal |
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| Looking across the street. Jaipur is called the "Pink City" because of the color of the sandstone. |
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| Right outside the Hawa Mahal we found these monkeys. |
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| Ganesha Gate, heading towards the City Palace. |
Here and in Agra was where we saw most of our "cows in the middle of the street". Cows being sacred in Hinduism, they're free to just do whatever they want with everyone needing to move around them.
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| "Cow don't give a f**k" |
We headed to our hotel, a cute place where we were able to relax. It was a bit rustic, but definitely comfortable.
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| And it had legit frangipani trees. |
Itinerary for the day:
August 13.
Today we mainly focused on the Amber (or Amer) Fort, which is to the north of the city, in another town. There are two ways of getting up: walking or elephant. I know there is a lot of controversy about riding elephants due to their treatment, and my best friend insisted it was reputable due to a. Indian, especially Hindu, culture dictates special treatment to animals and b. the rides stopped at 11 am before it got too hot. I thought it would be a unique experience, so I paid for the elephant ride.
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| Outside view of the Hawa Mahal on the way to the Amer Fort |
The Amer Fort itself is gorgeous. The construction dates are a bit shady, as there were multiple forts housed at this location for centuries, and some of the inner areas have been around since the 11th century, though most don't survive. The main complex is from approximately the 16th and 17th centuries.
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| Ganesha Pol, or Ganesha Gate, with the Remover of Obstacles to bless your entrance. |
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| Elephant capitals |
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| Outpost on one of the hills opposite the fort. This system of walls and outposts reminds one, even if he's never been, of the Great Wall of China. |
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| Detail of the ceiling of the Sheesh Mahal, or Palace of Mirrors. |
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| Hills featuring more of the wall and outposts. |
After braving the many merchants selling their wares and haggling in enough Spanish that it was eerie, we walked down through the town to get to our lunch spot, after which we took a tour of a complex of workshops where people made and sold handmade rugs and pashminas, getting a demonstration of how handprinting works and how pashmina rugs are made. Ended up buying a scarf, which was really my main purchase of the trip, besides the sari and kurti set I'd bought in Agra.
After that, we walked all the way back to the bus, and due to a traffic jam, it was a good 2-mile walk. Absolutely insane.
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| We actually passed the Jal Mahal, or Floating Temple |
We then called an audible, and instead of going to the Prince Albert Museum near our hotel, we went to the Monkey Temple right outside Jaipur, on the other side of the mountain. It's a temple dedicated to the monkey god Hanuman, and yes, there really are monkeys everywhere.
Towards the back of the temple we found a path up to another temple, about 2 km up. This was the sun temple, and it overlooked just about the entire city of Jaipur, more than making the trek worthwhile.
Hindu temples actually do rather creep me out, but it doesn't stop me going and appreciating another culture and belief system. I think it's far more important to stretch our comfort zones and be willing to understand and appreciate what other people go through and how they view the world.
August 14.
Our last day in Jaipur, and my second-to-last day in India, involved another Hindu temple, this time built by a major Indian conglomerate, the Birla Mandir. Similar to Akshardham, it's a recent construction, while still maintaining the traditional and symbolic methods of construction. It's a lot like building a Gothic Cathedral in the exact same way it was done back in the 13th and 14th centuries, and there's definitely a value to that I feel that Western civilization and culture doesn't appreciate. Granted there's a religious significance to the way Hindus do it and Christianity doesn't have these restrictions or traditions, but I think it'd be wonderful if someone did this, as our only reference in Christendom to something similar is the Sagrada Família, as I mentioned before.
Anyway, after that we headed towards the City Palace complex with Jantar Mantar, which along with the Amer Fort, is one of Jaipur's UNESCO-designated complexes.
It's an open-air observatory built in the 18th century by king Sawai Jai Singh II, ancestor of the current Maharaja (yes, this is still a title). It boasts the largest sundial in the world, and allows for astronomical tracking. It helps if it's a sunny day, but it was the rainy season while we were there and only saw the sun for a few minutes, but they were worth it to examine solar time, as you're informed while entering of the "conversion rate" between solar time and the time Indians have their clocks set to.
We then headed off to the City Palace, the current home of the Maharaja, a 19-year-old kid who hobnobs with European royalty. He holds no actual power these days, but the title is still around.
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| The top flag means the king is in residence. |
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| This was probably my favorite part of the palace. Each gate represents a season. |
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| It's called the Pritam Niwas, and the decorations are absolutely stunning. |
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| Each level represents a period in the history of India. From the bottom: Hinduism, Islam, and Victorian England. |
August 15.
Our last day in India had as waking up early to catch our flight out of Jaipur to head to Mumbai. The rest of the group was staying at a hotel in Borivali, and because my flight left at four the next morning, my stuff was dropped off at my best friend's in-laws' place nearby as they would be taking me to the airport that night. So I got to miss out on the drama played out as the hotel that was booked leaked, was moldy, and not properly cleaned. It wasn't in a touristy area and it was the only decent hotel in the area. We were all tired anyway from such a long trip, and tensions were high and patience wearing thin. There were still things that needed to be picked up and purchased, so we made it a last-minute shopping day after we stopped for lunch at the nearby Domino's. My gastrointestinal issues were still not fixed, so I went for the safest bet I could think of, cheese pizza, and did not regret it. No spice, and despite being Indian-style Domino's, the experience was exactly what I needed. Not going to lie, as much as I absolutely love Indian food, and I still do, my body started rebelling and needing something a bit more "Western".
After that, we went on what almost seemed like a wild goose chase around Borivali East on Indian Independence Day, which was also the same day of the Hindu celebration of Krishna, complete with human towers (similar to Catalan castellers). Also complete with torrential downpours, being India in August. Not quite as bad as the day we went to Jama Masjid, but pretty close.
I picked up some more clothes, some snacks to bring back to my mom, and my best friend's in-laws were lovely enough to pick up some Indian spices and tea for me to bring back for my mom as well. For being people I only knew because my best friend married their son and brother, I was amazed at their hospitality and welcome. It was an incredibly humbling experience because I don't know many people who go out of their way (or so it felt) for people who are merely "friends" of someone who's married into the family. Maybe it's my struggle with depression and anxiety that made me feel that way, but it's certainly not something I want to take for granted, especially since by the end of the day everyone else was complaining. Complaining about the food, complaining about the heat, the humidity, the country itself. It literally brought my best friend to tears.
I want to think that I wasn't like that, that I was able to truly appreciate India for what it was than how I thought it should be. I didn't want to be one of those Westerners who sees India in one of two ways: an "enlightening experience" that diminishes the very negative qualities of a religion that literally teaches that some people are not worth your time, energy or contact; or that it's a "backward" country in need of "Western enlightenment" and culture. Both are severely detrimental to being able to appreciate India as a hodgepodge of people, cultures and languages, that has survived for millenia and that has brought such innovations as math and astronomy into the world, bringing Europe itself out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, with the help of China. It doesn't help to see it as backward, or even as "enlightened" and somehow better. It should be seen for what it is, a country of complexities and juxtapositions, of a country finding its way in the world as a potential superpower. For as much as I was shocked and complaining about the traffic in India, at the end of the day, they have figured out how to make their system work; there is a method to the madness. And that right there tells us we're not talking about "subhumans" or even "superhumans". Human ingenuity is not to be underestimated.
And I'm dying to go back.
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