Mussoorie

Our next stop of our India journey was Mussoorie. As I mentioned in the last post, the ride getting here was interesting but ended up being relaxing once we got settled in. Mussoorie is another hillstation and is similar to Shimla, but is also much smaller. It’s also been a lot foggier so we haven’t been able to see the surrounding hill scenery very well.

Mussoorie is set up where there is one main road, named Mall Road, lined with shops and restaurants. It’s not quite as nice as Shimla though because it seems to be less “planned” with odd buildings, a bit more garbage and more cars, cows and dogs on the road. Mussoorie is also interesting because it seems to be a popular honeymoon spot and also has a sizeable Tibetan population. We think it has a significant Tibetan population because there’s a percentage of people here who look Tibetan and there is also a lot of Tibetan food, mostly momos, sold here.
 

Our favorite part in Mussoorie is a cute coffee shop named Chick Chocolate that reminds us of coffee shops at home with interesting lighting, artsy furniture and various pictures and art pieces on the walls. It also usually has good wifi which is a plus. Stephanie and I have spent a large amount of time at this place either reading, checking a few internet things or writing/blogging. Oh, their coffees are also good which reminds us of home as well.

Chick Chocolate

 

The main attraction here is a place named Gun Hill. It requires a hanging cable car to get to the top and is supposed to be a good view point of the Himalayas. Because it’s so foggy here though there was no chance of us seeing the mountains, only the surrounding hills. We were also greeted by a cheesey carnival setup when we got to the top of Gun Hill which was both surprising and not at the same time. Indians would put a cheesey carnival at the top of a tourist attraction. Nonetheless, it was still a nice place to relax and drink some chai.

The view from Gun Hill

 

 

 

New Mussoorie Friends

While we were relaxing outside our hotel and drinking a beer we met guy named Abhay from Dehradun (only about 1.5 hours away) who is also staying at the same small hotel. Abhay is 22 and is in school working on his Master’s in Chinese. We found this quite interesting because this is the first time we’ve met an Indian studying Chinese. He said he’s chosen to study Chinese because of the growing relations with China as both India and China develop as powers in the world. We also met his girlfriend, Vishali, who is a mass communications student two years younger than us.

This was Abhay and Vishali’s first time hanging out with Americans and they seemed to be very excited about this. We had great conversation with them and they were even nice enough to have dinner with us. They know the Mussoorie area quite well because they come here about once a month as a break from school in Dehradun. They took us to a restaurant that had a few tasty chicken dishes and we followed the meal with a coffee. Although the coffee was more like a really sweet cappuccino, it was still nice to have while it was cold outside.

We then continued back to our hotel, but then stopped on the way to try a paan. Paan is a snack that has mint and other seasonings wrapped in a green leaf. Stephanie and I both didn’t really like it and either that or the chicken got me sick in the middle of the night, but it’s okay because I felt fine the next morning. Abhay and Vishali were also very kind in that they let us hang out in their room for a little bit to hang out and watch TV. Then soon enough, we went to bed. Another unexpected day!

We spent one more night with Abhay and Vishali and this time talked a bit more about India and its history. We learned more about Indira Ghandi, who was a great (but corrupt) leader, and heard more about her assassination story which was quite interesting. We also learned more about the conflicts between Hindus and Muslims here, as well as the Sikh population in Kashmir. Because we love learning about this sort of stuff, and especially hearing it from a local Indian’s perspective, we really enjoyed this conversation.

The Heart and the Mind

Ever since we’ve gotten here it has seemed like every long conversation that we have with an Indian involves them mentioning the heart and the mind. I’ve found this quite interesting because decisions and feelings at home are rarely related to inner physical feelings. For example, friends or family at home may give general advice by saying, “do the right thing” or “be a good person” etc. However here, advice will be given a bit differently such as, “make sure it feels right in your heart and then your mind” or “have a clear mind” etc. I’m probably not explaining this very well, but I’ve just noticed a slightly different approach here when it comes to decision-making or advice.

This “head and the mind” approach does not apply to everyone in India because as we’ve experienced, many people here also lead with the greed rather than a pure heart and mind. But of course this also happens at home. I would even argue that many more people at home than here place material things ahead of their own inner ethics and values.

Since I’ve noticed it so often here, I am led to believe that this way of thinking must be laced in the culture here and consistently taught as people grow up. Maybe it’s because religion has a much heavier influence here as compared to home. I think it may also be because at home, people are taught to be very logical and rely on outside data or experiences while inner “gut feelings” are not encouraged often.

I would definitely say that I am a type of person that feels more comfortable relying on outside data or experiences when making decisions rather than making decisions purely based on what feels good in my heart. Since being in India though, I have felt a slight shift in this way of thinking. We’ll see how this continues and how I feel at the end of this trip though!

Various Thoughts/Comments

·         Mussoorie is also cold, maybe as cold as Shimla, but we’re too stubborn to buy sweaters or jackets because it’s going to be hot in the next two Indian places we’re going to and we don’t want to carry the jackets through those areas.

·         The hotel we’re staying at has hot showers and it’s awesome

·         I miss plain vegetables

·         I’m really looking forward to our two-week ashram stay in Rishikesh which will begin tomorrow. I’m sure it’ll be both challenging and rewarding. We’re going to have to wake up early though (something like 5:00 or 5:30) so that’ll be challenging.

 

Caroline’s Song of the Day

12-Sept Be. by Common

13-Sept Boys and Girls by Alabama Shakes

14-Sept The World At Large by Modest Mouse

15-Sept Anywhere I Go by Slightly Stoopid

Shimla: A Beautiful Hillstation

I’m happy to announce that everything has been great in Shimla and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. Especially after the troubles we faced in Jaipur in Agra, it feels great to become calm again and to also travel on our own without an organized tour company. Shimla has also been great because we met a new friend who basically made our experience and a description of him is shown later in this blog post.

 

The Train Experience

Stephanie and I took our first train ride of the trip to get up to Shimla and boy, was it an experience. We first traveled from Delhi to Kalka and got to the train station by 5:00 am for our 5:35 train. We had tickets for second class meaning that we were prepared to share a three-seater bench for the first 6 hour train ride. This was fine and dandy for the first twenty minutes, but then the next stop had a ton of people join the train so each bench had four people on it and others were packed standing. I wanted to get a picture of the crowdedness, but I also didn’t want to look weird taking the picture. It was nuts though. And very hot as you can imagine.

Imagine this picture but with 30 more people in it and this is what our train ride was like.

 

Another interesting part of the first train ride was seeing all of the slum areas line the railway tracks. It was one of those things that Stephanie and I couldn’t take our eyes off because we both had our concerns for the conditions of these dwellings. Tons of garbage, lots of open defecation, tents as homes and such was the common sight. It was also just as people were waking up so it was interesting to see people’s morning routine. Overall, this was a very impactful sight for us and will probably stay with us for a long time.

Once we got to Kalka, we waited for one hour to take the “toy car” train. Our tickets said we were in “AC chair class” but we again got stuck with small benches that were hard, uncomfortable and cramped. Even though the seating all the way up to Shimla was uncomfortable, we did not complain because that would not help anything. By the end of it though my ass felt like it was on fire and it’s funny that me learning how to say “my ass is fire” in Hebrew while I was in China was actually applicable to this situation. Who would’ve thought?

Toy Train

Inside our cabin

The ride took about five hours in total and was scenic as we slowly climbed the hills. It was also quite foggy and rainy that day so often we just saw a lot of fog.

One of the views from Steph's window

 

Shimla: Day One

Once we arrived in Shimla we did not have a place booked to stay, but were hoping to go to the YMCA because Lonely Planet recommended this location. We weren’t quite sure how to get there and luckily an Aussie man helped us out. We ended up talking to this man, Noel, about various things such as my Engineering for Developing Communities class, the Dalai Lama, and the famous church in Shimla. This conversation was a bit difficult however because we were at basically a 15-20% incline the whole way. Noel also told us about where he was staying and it happened to be cheaper than the YMCA so we decided to take a room that was 600 Rs ($10) per night.

We then relaxed, ate and enjoyed the beautiful city. Shimla is a hill town and also use to be a big hub when the British were here. For this reason, there is a great amount of English architecture and influence. We were also told that when the British were here, they would rule the British land in southern Asia from Calcutta (a city in the east) during the winter months and would pack up everything during the summer months and rule from Shimla where it is much cooler.

A gorgeous sunset just after we arrived

Another picture from where our hotel was

You can kind of see the influence of the English architecture and whatnot here 

 

Shimla: Day Two

We slept until noon on this day because we basically didn’t have any sleep the day before. While the beds were not comfortable and the room was quite cold (maybe 60 degrees) we were still satisfied. Once we got up, we decided to eat at a cute restaurant where we could also people watch in a certain area.

It’s difficult to describe how Shimla is set up but overall it is very organized and calm (an Indian city calm? Who would’ve known!) Much of the area, including a lookout point and a long road with a bunch of shops (known as the Mall), does not allow cars so this is what makes it so calm. They’ve even banned plastic bags here, have trash cans consistently throughout the area, have advertisements about pollution and even banned smoking here. Since this town was so eco-friendly, we joked as it being the Portland of India. Overall, the combination of the orderliness in the streets as well as the breath-taking views of the hills I think has dropped our heart rates since being in Shimla and it’s been wonderful.

An open area where cars aren't allowed

Proof that we were actually in Shimla and didn't just take all these pictures from the internet or something

After we ate, our only plan for the day was to roam and explore. During our journey we met a new friend from England named Martin. Martin turned out to be a fascinating guy and I have a section about him later.

We continued to walk with Martin and follow him to a museum he planned to go to. He also showed us a few lookout points of the city that looked great. Once we got to the museum however we found out that it was closed so that was a bummer. It was a tiny place though so I don’t think we were missing too much. We then parted ways, but made plans to meet for dinner at a certain restaurant he goes to.

We returned to the hotel, blogged/journaled and then met Martin for dinner. We ended up talking for almost four hours about many of his travels and he gave us some helpful tips for when we go to Varanasi. We also had a pretty good meal with boiled vegetables, a slice of sort of a dense biscuit, and some lamb. That was my first meat in India and it was pretty good, but I’m still not running out of my way to eat meat. It’s also handy because eating vegetarian is cheaper and generally safer to eat.

 

Shimla: Day Three

Our only goal of the day was to book bus tickets to go to our next location, Mussoorie. After having a cheap and good breakfast, we successfully booked our tickets that cost us $8 for an 8 hour bus ride. The rest of the day entailed walking around kind of aimlessly. The highlight of the day was spending some time watching monkeys climb around in one area which was great. The monkeys go where ever they want here including: power lines, cars, motorcycles, houses, and swiftly jump from place to place.

Some of our monkey friends

Later, we met Martin again for dinner and it was another 4+ hour night of great conversation. I surprisingly had butter chicken and that was also quite tasty. We also thought this would be our last time seeing Martin because we had a night bus on Thursday and he had an afternoon exam, but then we decided to meet for lunch the following day.

Shimla: Day Four  

We had three goals for our last day in Shimla. First, was to see a little book shop that Martin recommended. Second, was to see the inside of the big church which is a major landmark of the town. And third, to get to our bus on time. Unfortunately we were only successful with two of these three goals but we’re okay with it.

The first plan of the day was to go to Shimla’s Christ Church before we met with Martin for lunch at noon. This church was of course built by the English back in the day when they ruled India. I found this experience to be interesting for a few different reasons. First, we had to take off our shoes before we entered the sanctuary which I’ve never had to do before in a church. Maybe this tradition had carried from Hindu practices at the temple because it is customary to take off your shoes before entering a temple. Anyway, when I entered the church it oddly felt a bit homey. I think this is because I grew up with the church and it almost use to be a second home for me when I was younger. I felt comfortable walking through the sanctuary as well as seeing the organ, the pulpit and such. This differs from the multiple temple and mosques I’ve been to where I’m quite unfamiliar with the traditions. It also had stained glass with pictures of Jesus and various angels which reminded me of my grandma’s church as well. 

What still bothered me though was how all of the figures in the stained glass appear as white/European figures. This is something that bothers me about Christian artwork because it is obvious that Jesus nor any of his disciples, were white but rather Middle Eastern. Despite this, the Europeans chose to depict these religious figures having white skin. Oh, and the little gift shop in the back was a bit weird.

Because we met Martin lunch and had another five hour conversation, we did not have enough time to visit the book store Martin had recommended so we had failed in this goal for the day. We were okay with it though because we continued to hear more about Martin’s fascinating travels and we also discussed other things. It was also surprising because although he had an exam at 2:00 it was apparently fine for him to show up at 5:00.

We then had to say our goodbyes to Martin in the pouring rain so he could take his exam and we could get ready to leave. We had a tasty dinner and made it to the old bus station in time so we could take a transfer bus to the new bus station where we would catch our bus to Derahdun. The first bus ride was a bit cramped but luckily only cost 7 Rs. each and only took about 15 minutes or so.

Our ride to Dehradun felt luxurious compared to the train ride up to Shimla because we had our own assigned seats that reclined comfortably. I surprisingly got more sleep than I expected and soon enough we made it to Dehradun. We then had to take an auto to go to a different bus station that cost 120 Rs. and then got a bus to Mussoorie which cost 56 Rs (~$1) each for the two hour bus ride. Lastly, we made it to our hotel which again only costs us $10/night and even has hot water! Yay!

 

Our Friend, Martin

Martin is 38ish year-old British man who has traveled to (we think) about sixty different countries throughout his life. He is a fascinating guy and is currently taking a two-month course in Shimla relating to cyber security of some sort. This is his fifth time in India and he has also backpacked from Egypt to South Africa for six-months in 2009; he did a two or three month backpacking trip throughout Europe that included Istanbul, and various other places; and he’s even backpacked the US by beginning in New York, going to Georgia and then over to Las Vegas and maybe California.

His stories are absolutely fascinating and some of our favorite traveling stories he’s told us are about the time he came into India by flying to Pakistan and crossing the border; or about the time he traveled through Sudan which was nearly impossible to get through; or lastly, about the time he was in the Outback of Australia where the crazy Aussies played a trick on the tourists by making them excited to see koalas in a tree when really they were fake koalas that had I <3 Australia shirts on them.

We’ve also talked about all sorts of other things and potentially our most interesting conversation was about Scotland. This began by him telling us that Scotland will vote on September 18^th whether they want to separate from the United Kingdom or not. This was news to me and Stephanie had apparently just learned about it earlier in the day.

He told us a great amount about the history between England and Scotland and also about the Scottish culture in general in how they are very proud and tough people. He also said how if they do choose to break away from the UK, it’ll be the saddest day in his life because he seemed to love Scotland and its beauty. However, if Scotland does choose to break off, they’ll apparently have a difficult time doing so because they’ll have to create their own currency and they have no chance of joining the European Union because Spain will veto them joining the union. Spain will veto because if Scotland breaks from the UK yet is still able to join the EU, then Cataluña will be more motivated to separate from Spain and try to join the EU…but that’s a whole different story.

Another interesting discussion was about what he is currently learning about – cyber security. He talked about the general methods used to break passwords and also how hackers can access information in general. He stressed the importance of having a different password for everything, to avoid using family or pet names, and to use lowercase/uppercase as well as numbers in every password because it makes them much more difficult to crack. I’ve heard this many times before, but the way he talked about it seemed to stress the importance even more. So go out there people, and make sure you have good but different passwords out there!

Overall, we have another person to add to our friend crush list because Martin is a delightful guy and is also inspiring with his range in interests as well as all of the traveling he has done. He has definitely encouraged us to keep traveling and has also made our travel to-do list much longer. Without a doubt, he made our short experience in Shimla very special and we are very glad to have accidentally run into him when we were roaming around on our first full day in Shimla. It would be a pleasure to meet up again one of these days, but we’ll see!

 

Various Thoughts/Comments

·         Shimla is quite cold and probably equates to late September/early October weather in Michigan. It again reminds me how I do not like the cold and I am certainly looking forward to missing a lot of the winter when I go to Nicaragua in January

·         We bought a flight from Kathmandu to Delhi on November 14 to make our travels home easier. Although it’ll mean a 12-hour layover in the airport, it gives us peace-of-mind that we’ll have an easy way out of India/Nepal

·         My dad’s only request for a gift was to get him colorful dice for (I think) the backgammon set he’s been making. I partially succeeded in this mission and bought a pair of brown wooden dice and a pair of baby blue dice. They are actually originally both key chains and this is fine for the wooden dice because they keychain part can be unscrewed. The baby blue dice won’t be functional though because after I bought them, I realized that the keychain part can't be unscrewed and the dots on the dice are sticker jewel things which makes them a weird shape and thus unfair. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts and hopefully he will still like them

·         After our experience with a few British people I can confidently speak with a British accent for fun. Before this trip I’ve always been uncomfortable speaking in accents but now I surprisingly do. This definitely wasn’t a skill I expected to gain while being here but it’s fun to have. One of these days, Steph and I are going to pretend to be British the whole day and say we’re from London just because.

Caroline’s Song of the Day

8-Sept Digital Lion by James Blake

9-Sept Everything by Michael Buble

10-Sept I Ain’t the Same (iTunes Session) by Alabama Shakes

11-Sept What am I To You? By Norah Jones

Attitude is Everything

This is the longest post yet so please plan accordingly. Because it’s kind of long, I’ve bolded the key sentences that highlights the main points of the post so my lazy friends have a higher chance of reading this thing. Set aside some time during your day, grab a cup of chai to drink, and then you can read about our time in Jaipur, Agra and Delhi; as well as a section about how to drive in India. I also have a section with a few random thoughts at the end.

While traveling in India for an extended period of time, I would say it is almost guaranteed that you will feel like you have hit a wall at some point during the trip. While in Jaipur and Agra, we hit our wall and felt quite challenged by the Indian culture. What we have learned most from these past few days however is that our attitude is very important and it is imperative to not let these difficulties get to us.

 

Three Nights in Jaipur

The first day of our three-day Jaipur visit was decent where we had cheap and good food and later visited a textile and carpet store/”warehouse”. We weren’t necessarily looking forward to this visit because we knew it would consist of more, “yes…it’s very nice….no, we’re not going to buy it…no, we don’t want to pay to ship it home…we don’t want to carry it for the next 11 weeks…yes, it is very nice but no, we are not going to buy it.” Chacha did tell us that we could get Indian outfits made for us here though so we were looking forward to this aspect of the visit.

After much conversation, we eventually put in our orders for our clothes. Stephanie got two full Indian outfits with the shirt, pants and shawl and Caroline got one shirt and pants set as well as another shirt.

Our second day in Jaipur was the typical sight-seeing day. We were luckily able to get the foreigner student ticket price because I still had my MSU ID with me and it only cost 200 Rs each for us to see up to five sites. Even though we tried to tell Chacha that we only wanted to see two sights that day, we ended up seeing five in total.

The first site we didn’t want to go to but I think we’re glad we walked through it. The name of it was Albert Hall and it was a museum that even had a few Egyptian, Turkish and English art pieces and artifacts. I mostly liked it because the name reminded me of my Grandpa.

Outside of Albert Hall

Proof that the place was named Albert Hall

 

We did want to go to the second site which is named Janta Mantar. It was a place where astronomers use to measure various constellations and such in the sky and it was cool to see all of the massive instruments. We didn’t quite understand how they were all used and probably should have hired a guide to understand it all, but we were too cheap to do that. This was probably my favorite site of the day. Even though the palace was adjacent to this site we were luckily able to convince Chacha that we didn’t want to go to this site, mostly because it cost 300 Rs to get in and we were tired of visiting sites.

The largest instrument of the lot

Most of the instruments

The sign says to not climb on the instruments

We think this tracked the movements of various stars

A sun dial

 

The next stop was a jewelry and precious stone “warehouse” which just meant that they made all the stuff in the back area and had a fancy showroom for us to see all of their work. While the prices really weren’t that bad, we didn’t want to spend any more money. Especially after dropping more money than we expected with our clothes the night before. So we yet again played the “yes…very nice…no, I’m not going to buy it” game.

Over $40,000 on my hand

 

Next we drove just outside the city to see the fort. We enjoyed the location of the fort because it was surrounded by hills and it did look nice on the inside, of course, but it was littered with touts (obnoxious people trying to make you buy crap or pay for a guide, etc.) at the entrance area. This is where our frustration really began to heighten. We were getting tired of getting stared at more, having more people try to take their pictures with us, and people trying to scam us into buying crap just because we’re foreigners.

The surrounding wall of the fort over the surrounding ridge

Details within the fort

 

The last stop of the day was a place we don’t even know the name of and we didn’t want to go there anyway. Chacha brought us there without us really being able to say no. We had to pay 30 Rs to get in and it was more of the same stuff we’ve already seen. When we left though, Stephanie got henna on her hand at a little stand outside the sight and it was cool to watch.

Stephanie with her henna

 

After a long day, we finally had lunch at the same cheap and tasty place as the day before, rested, and returned to the shop where we ordered our clothes. We tried on our clothes to make sure they fit correctly and then one of the workers insisted that I try on some of the jumpsuits that they make. I only wanted to try them on just for fun to see how they would look and then fortunately or unfortunately, one of them spoke to me. It fit me just right and it was as obnoxious as some of the other outfits I wear at home so I decided to get it even though it was more than I wanted to spend. Look out America, I’m bringing the jumpsuit back!

We continued to have more conversation at the shop, saw the sunset from the roof and then we were shown more shawls even though we told them that we have already seen plenty of shawls. We were having a good time though so it was okay.

The following day grew to be frustrating throughout the day. In the morning, we messaged the travel agency who we booked the Rajasthan tour with and asked them to look at train tickets for us to go from Delhi to Shimla on Monday. They told us it would cost 2500 Rs for two tickets which was about 2.5 times the price we knew it should be. This made us quite frustrated because we originally trusted this company and were annoyed that they were trying to rip us off that much.

This move also confirmed a growing suspicion we had about the Bridge the World travel company. Throughout the trip, we asked other people who had also booked a tour through the same company, how much they paid for the trip and also how they heard about the company and we were able to develop some conclusions. We found out that they adjusted the prices between different groups and that they also used very good touts who would befriend people in the touristy area, have tea, maybe take them to one particular restaurant, and then go to the tourist office. This was a bummer to hear because we thought we really did have good conversation with our friend Pirota on the first day, but it seems like it was all just a ploy. Especially because Pirota kept messaging us and calling us throughout the trip as if he was a separate surveillance camera for the company. We can’t say that Pirota is 100% a tout (a person who tries to rip off foreigners with their own hotel, transportation, etc business) but everything seems to line up that he is.

Anyway, the only thing else we really did that day was see a Bollywood movie, Raja Nartwala. It was at a big theater in a mall and supposedly one of the best in India. To us, it was a movie theater just like home. We planned on taking Chacha but we also invited one of the guys from where we got our outfits made. Everything was fine and dandy but the guy from the shop kept up the game of trying to tell us riddles and jokes and it got tiring. Then we were surprised that he had us pay for his movie ticket and he insisted on sitting between us and his “two girlfriends.” He was especially leaning towards me and talking to me a lot and I was obviously growing tired of it. He kept bothering me with questions or other comments while the movie was playing and when he asked if I had a boyfriend I got really short. He proceeded to ask if I was a shy person and I shot back, “no, I just don’t like it when people talk during the movies and when people like you get too close.” Then he sat back in his chair and it was fine. It was another realization that all of the nice conversation we had was maybe another shot for him to try to get with a foreigner which is ridiculous. We then continued to drive back to the hotel, hear more jokes and riddles from the shop guy and then made it back to our hotel.

One Night in Agra

On the way to Agra, we stopped at the Hanuman Temple which worships Hanuman, the monkey god. Given that it worships the monkey god, it’s seemingly a requirement for the temple to have a bunch of monkeys running around and that’s exactly what it had. We enjoyed seeing the whole area, which was set in the valley of two big rock formations.

One part of the Hanuman Temple

Lots of monkeys around

And they love their bananas!

 

We then left for Agra and about two hours into the trip, we exited the state of Rajasthan and into the neighboring state. When crossing the state border, the driver has to stop to pay a tax so this is what Chacha did. He then came back to show us how he only had a little bit of money, maybe 300 Rs, to get him back to Delhi. He proceeded to ask for his tip a day in advance and while it did seem weird that he was doing it, we had trust him until this point so we decided to give the tip once we got to Agra.

Soon after we arrived in Agra, Chacha took us to a samosa (kind of like a mix between an eggroll and a dumpling) stand which was in a weird location but he insisted that they were the best samosas in Agra. As we sat in the car to eat the samosas we were amazed by how good they really were. I expected to hate it because I really didn’t like them last year, but this year proved to be different.

Later, we went to the ATM and then paid Chacha his tip of 4000 Rs for the 17-day trip. We gave him this amount based on a recommendation from our Scottish couple friends. He then gave a disappointed look and said that it wasn’t a good amount which we were surprised by. We then left to do more research on how much to give a driver as a tip and we read that 200-300 Rs per day should be fine. We also asked a friend from home to ask her dad, who’s originally from India, what we should do. We decided to give 2000 Rs more the next day so that it was around 300 Rs per day, but we were still pissed about the scenario. He shouldn’t have asked us for the money the day before and we felt like fools who fell for his trick, and especially shouldn’t have told us that the tip wasn’t enough.

The day ended on a better note though when we met two pairs of German travelers on the roof of our hotel. We drank a beer while watching another beautiful sunset which also had the Taj Mahal in sight from afar.

The following day was the big day; the last day of our tour and also the day we got to see the Taj Mahal. The only reason I was looking forward to seeing the Taj Mahal again was to see Stephanie’s reaction as she turned the corner and see the full view of the Taj Mahal. This is really the best part of the experience and everything else is just a game of trying to get a picture that isn’t interrupted by a person stepping in front of you. Overall, the Taj Mahal experience was just as I expected. Take some pictures, be impressed by the crazy amount of detail of the large thing, then go back.

It was my sister's 19 11/12 birthday on September 6 so I had to wish her a happy birthday. It's sort of an inside joke we have of wishing each other a fraction birthday each month

A few things about the Taj is that it was made by a guy who’s third wife died while giving birth to their 14^th child. This guy was so heartbroken that he decided the Taj Mahal had to be built as a tomb site for his wife. The big piece of marble and its surroundings then took something like 16 years (I could look for the exact amount in my book but it’s buried away in my stuff right now). The guy had artists ranging from Iran to other Southeast Asian countries to construct the monstrosity in a way that is perfectly symmetrical. Someone even told me last year that the guy demanded that each artist get their hands chopped off after they finish their work with the Taj to ensure no replica would ever be built. I could be wrong about that though and haven’t had the chance to see if it’s true. But later his son overthrew him while the Taj was being constructed and sent him to the prison in the Agra fort which could be seen from the Taj Mahal maybe 1 km away. When he eventually died he was also placed in the Taj next to his wife. How romantic.

We were looking forward to our drive home because we just wanted to be done with the tour. Chacha ripped us and made us pay for the toll for the highway when he shouldn’t have but we didn’t care. It was the equivalent of $6 and we just wanted to get back. Once we got back to Delhi, Chacha got stopped by the police who fined him 500 Rs because something was wrong with his license plate. He then blamed us because we asked him to drop us off at a different spot than we originally planned but we didn’t buy it of course. He then dropped us off where we asked and I then asked for the USB drive that we paid 500 Rs with a lot of Indian music on it. He was seemingly surprised that we asked for it and asked if he could have it as a gift. We couldn’t believe it at that point and we said that we wanted it because we paid for it and also because we had already gave him the extra 2000 Rs from the day before. It was believable and not at the same time and we were ready to just leave. It’s unfortunate how we left on bad terms with Chacha but we it’s not our fault so we have to move past it.

Two Nights in Delhi

We do feel a little bad because we did lie to the owner of the tour company, Rishi, but it was because we were tired of dealing with their schemes. Throughout the trip we had planned to stay with Rishi’s parents when we got back to Delhi from our tour. This was at the time when we thought they were a great company that wasn’t a scam. Like I said before, during the last few days of the trip, we realized the lies that were given to us and did not want to be affiliated with this company any more. So we told them that we changed our plans and would be staying with the Srivastavas for two nights. We didn’t actually ask to stay with the Srivastavas because we didn’t want to spring that on them with such short notice. So instead, we booked a cheap hotel in Delhi that ended up working out fine. We felt much calmer when we arrived to the hotel, paid our $10/night price, and relaxed.

Even though Rishi kept insisting on having him pay for our train tickets we didn’t want to deal with him ripping us off any more. Instead, the goal for Saturday was to book our train tickets to Shimla ourselves. We were on our way to the train station when we ran into a different friend we met last time we were in Delhi and he actually helped us book the tickets easily and for a reasonable price that was a much cheaper price than Rishi. It all worked out in the end and we had a relaxing two days in Delhi.

Our time in Delhi concluded with a revisit with the Srivastavas. We sat at their home for a while to talk about various things, eat some snacks and then we went to a southern Indian restaurant which was quite good. That was Stephanie’s first time having southern food and she really liked it. We also had a great desert which we hope to have again one of these days. The Srivastavas were also so sweet because they gave us a few snacks for our train ride up to Shimla. These proved to be very helpful for the train ride up…but I’ll talk more about the crazy train ride in my next post!

Our Lesson from This Experience

***Friends who are only reading the bold sections, I think this is the most important part of the blog and I would bold the whole section, but that would be obnoxious. So please read this whole section…thank you J

While we do not regret booking the tour through Rajasthan we do wish it ended on better terms. I think this is because we got to see many beautiful areas of Rajasthan even though it wasn’t on our itinerary when we arrived in India.

We also don’t regret this experience because we learned a lot about the importance of patience and calmness during uncomfortable times. There was nothing we could do that would change Rishi trying to rip us off with the train tickets or Chacha trying to manipulate the amount we tipped him. There is also nothing we can do about the touts who will constantly try to make us buy crap and we sure as hell can’t stop the amount of people staring at us as they walk by. A few years ago, we may have been the type of people who would want to yell back at these people to feel some sort of justice but we know that we cannot change their behavior and there is no reason to take this personally. While we did express our frustrations to each other in the hotel room, we were glad that we did not completely ruin our experience nor have the trip leave us with bitter feelings. India is still a beautiful country with an incredible amount of diversity and we cannot let the people with bad intentions ruin our experience or outlook on life in general.

So with this, one of the key lessons we’ve learned so far is regarding patience and understanding. I think this will carry with us throughout the trip and also back at home. It also feels refreshing to recognize the importance of having a patient and understanding attitude at all times and how it can really make all other things in life more pure and lovely (there’s a different way I want to phrase “pure and lovely” but I can’t figure it out right now)

 

So that was a long explanation of our Agra, Jaipur and Delhi experience but thanks for reading through it. We’re in Shimla right now and it’s absolutely beautiful so that post will I’m sure be a lot more light-hearted and enjoyable to read.

 

How To: Drive in India

Given that we finished a 17-day driving tour through Rajasthan, we have a bit of experience of being on the road in India. No, we did not drive at all during the trip (and would never want to) but the following steps are as if we were drivers in India.

1.       Maybe buckle your seatbelt. There probably aren’t seatbelts available for your passengers though

2.       Find your place on the road and battle your way between the other vehicles and animals. Know the following about each thing on the road:

a.       Trucks and busses generally have a priority but because they are so sluggish, they can easily be passed – just make sure there aren’t any opposing cars coming in the other lane. Also be sure to honk as you approach the truck to make sure they know that you’re about to pass them.

b.      Other cars are fair game. Honk as you pass them or honk at them if they moved in a way that was inconvenient to you.

c.       Bikes (motorcycles) are smaller and more maneuverable so they can adjust to how you are driving. Be sure to honk if you passed them or also if you’re pissed at them. There’s also no reason to be worried about passing a bike that has up to four people on it. They probably drive like that every day and are experienced driving as such.

d.      Cycles (bicycles) are on the edge of the road anyway but they will deal with the traffic as they see it. Unfortunately (or fortunately) they don’t have loud horns so they can’t honk at people to move out of the way.

e.      Camel or horse carts move slowly down the road and carry large carts of goods. There’s no use honking at them, yet people will still honk, because the camel can’t easily adjust its trajectory.

f.        Other carts pushed by people, usually full of fruit that are sold during the day, need to be a bit aggressive on busy roads but they still are towards the bottom of the hierarchy. There’s plenty of opportunity to honk at these people because pretty much any move they make will affect your path.

g.       People will cross the road or walk along the side and only need to be honked at for them to move because they know that if they don’t move, you’ll hit them.

h.      Dogs, goats, donkeys, etc. are dumb animals and need to be watched out for to avoid hitting them. They’re dumb though and won’t always move if you honk at them – especially the goats.

i.         Cows are holy. The cow can lay in the middle of a congested street and it will not be a problem. If there is a herd of cattle, you can honk at them and they will generally move out of the way because they are smarter than dogs and goats (according to Chacha). Never ever ever hit the cow or else you will be doomed for life with bad karma (I’m assuming).

3.       If a speed bump is ahead, carefully calculate how much you have to decelerate depending on the height and width of the speed bump. India is littered with speed bumps so you always have to keep an eye out for them. If you don’t notice them, you’ll send your passengers flying in the air. I really didn’t like the speed bumps throughout the trip but yet again, there was nothing I could do to change them so I had to get over it.

4.       If you are crossing through a hilly area that requires turns that don’t give you a good view, honk to let the opposing traffic know that you are coming around the corner

5.       There is no real speed limit. There’s a slim chance there will be police around to monitor the speed of vehicles so you may as well go as fast as you want. If you get pulled over, you can just bribe the policeman anyway so it’s no big deal. Just don’t go too fast in case an animal shoots out into the road or if you come across a speed bump

6.       If it’s down pouring rain and you can barely see, there’s no reason to stop. Just put on your hazard lights and pray to a few of the 330 million gods that nothing will get hit.

7.       If it’s been three hours, stop for some chai, feel refreshed.

8.       Honk some more, pretend that it will get you to the place you want to go faster.

9.       Arrive to your destination.

Various Thoughts/Comments

·         I love my hot showers at home and those are rare to come by here. The temperature of the water is similar to the temperature of a pool though so I have to convince myself that it’s not that bad because it’s just like being in a pool. So far it’s helped me not get grumpy while showering. It also helps justify me not showering everyday which I wouldn’t do anyway because again, I’m not here to impress anyone and if Stephanie thinks I smell bad she can suck it up.

·         The bathrooms in the hotels also rarely have shower curtain so water will get everywhere. The good thing about this however is that all the walls and floor are made of a hard surface which makes it acoustically pleasing for listening to music – I just have to make sure my phone is in a place that won’t get hit by the water

·         We’re excited that we have a confirmation from my friends at an NGO in Nepal to be with them for two weeks. We will go out to the eastern edge of Nepal from October 12-26 and see how the Namsaling Community Development Center (NCDC) NGO works. I’ve also contacted my Nepali friends as to when we’ll be in Nepal and I’m so excited to visit them and introduce them to Stephanie!

Caroline’s Song of the Day

2-Sept Hey Mama by Kanye West

3-Sept Lets Groove by Earth Wind & Fire

4-Sept What Is This Feeling? from the soundtrack from Wicked

5-Sept Something from the Across the Universe Soundtrack

6-Sept Something Good Can Work by Two Door Cinema Club

7-Sept Way I Know by Grouplove