India: Delhi and Jaipur

Delhi

We arrived in Delhi from Kathmandu on the evening of January 5th. It was immediately apparent that we had left Nepal and had entered quite a different country. First of all the Kathmandu airport is chaos compared to the relative serendity of the modern Delhi airport. Dealing with customs was the second big hint. The customs guy saw the two of us and asked if we were brother and sister? no, married? no, boyfriend/girlfriend? yes, and then broke out into a huge grin and then started asking why we weren't married etc. etc. Is she mad at you? It was pretty funny, especially since it was our very first interaction in India.

We were picked up at the airport by a friend of Kierstens through Neverblue named Vivek. I had never met Vivek before so I didn't quite know what to expect. Kiersten had told me he had been one of her most friendly clients. Vivek and his friend Deepak turned out to be super nice and the most gracious hosts we have ever had anywhere. They showed us all around Delhi, took us to eat amazing Indian food, and gave us great tips about travelling around India. Vivek has a super comfortable apartment in a buisness suburb just outside of Delhi and it was really nice to sleep in a comfortable bed again. Unfortunately, I left our camera sitting on his coffee table when we left for Jaipur with 90% of  my Delhi pictures on it, hence the lack of pictures below.

In our five days in Delhi we went to see the chaos of Chandni Chowk, the ancient Red Fort, Ashoka pillar, India Gate, Connaught Place, Humayum's Tomb (looks kind of like the Taj), lotus temple, as well as a few other places but I forget their names.  I will post more pictures as soon as I get the camera back. We bought another cheap one in Jaipur because we couldn't bear travelling for month without having a camera.

L-R Vivek, Deepak, and Kiersten

I forget the name of this place but it was old and impressive (I gotta start using my notebook for place names)

Jaipur
After exploring Delhi we caught a train to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. It was small compared to Delhi: only 4.5 million people. It was also our first time in India that we were alone without Vivek and Deepak to show us around. On our first day we thought we would just walk around in the old city a bit. The old area of town looked fairly easy to get to from our hotel but the streets of Jaipur proved difficult to navigate and we got lost. Jaipur is also super conjested and there are no traffic rules, so after nearly being killed crossing the road and super lost we decided to hop in a rickshaw.  The rickshaw driver was nice enough and we paid what we thought was a ok price to rent the rickshaw for four hours. He took us around showed us various sights around town and we were able to get a feel for the general layout of the place. 


We also learned a valuable lesson about rickshaw drivers: when they say they want to take you to "wholesale" textile factories where "you can see how the famous textiles are made," in reality they are taking you to a shop where they get comission. However, once you get used to dealing with them they're no problem and can be super friendly. You just have to be wise to their sneaky little tricks and know how much you should be paying to get from point a to point b.

Jaipur and Tiger Fort from Iswari Minar Swarge Sal (an ancient tower in the middle of the city with great views)

Royal Gaitore

Cenotaph inside Royal Gaitore

Jal Mahal (built from red sandstone)

Trash pigs about to fight. These pigs love trash!

Inside tiger fort

On our second day we headed to the nearby town of Amber to check out the Amber Fort. Driving through Jaipur on the way to fort was hilarious. On the road with us were (among other things) cars, rickshaws, bicycles, horses, camels, elephants, cows, pigs, and monkeys. The Amber Fort was by far the most impressive structure in the vicinity of Jaipur. The whole thing was open to the public and we spent a couple hours just wondering through its many rooms and hallways.

Amber Fort

Elephants near the Amber Fort

After the fort, our rickshaw driver tried to take us to a textile factory but we were wise to his ways. Instead we got him to take us the Sun Temple (also known as the monkey temple). The temple itself wasn't that exciting but there was a good view and it was really fun to watch all the monkeys. They seemed a lot more chilled out and docile than the ones we had seen in Nepal.

Finally we made our way to Jantar Manter and the City Palace. City Palace wasn't that exciting, basically just a big museum, but Jantar Manter was really cool. It's basically a giant collection of astrological instruments from the 16th century. Included among the instruments is the world's largest sundial which told the exact time.

World's biggest sundial, the time is shown by the shade

We spent our last day in Jaipur walking around and exploring the streets of the old city. The old city is surrounded by a wall with a few huge gates to let in traffic. Within the old city, different blocks are dedicated to shops that specialize in various trades. One block of marble carvers, one block of suit makers etc.
 

One of the gates to the old city

A marble carving shop (all done by hand)

Carvers sanding down the finished product

Much like Kathmandu, kite-flying is hugely popular in India. The day after we left there was a kite festival in Jaipur where the number of kites in the air apparently blocks out the sky. Because of the festival the many kite shops were doing brisk buisness. I even bought ten kites and some string (cost just over a dollar) to try it out for myself. 

Kite shop

People can transport anything by bicycle

Unfortunately my day was interupted by the sudden smashing of my toe into a sharp elevated brick as we were walking accross an alleyway. Blood quickly ensued and I had to catch a rickshaw back to the hotel to patch myself up.

Hawa Mahal

One of the best things about India is the food. We get excited for every meal (especially Kiersten who loves to photograph food) and have been trying as many different things as we can.

Yummm

Traffic was a little nuts

Weirdest sighting in Jaipur was probably the bat infested group of palm trees in one of the parks

Donate some money and this holy cow will listen to your troubles