We are now in Jaipur, our third city in India. We parted ways with Aarti's relatives in Delhi and had our first alone experience in Agra, but it was very quick. Now we are in Jaipur for about 4 days, so it's nice. We have time to figure out where things are and how to get places (we even used a bus instead of autorickshaw!). Our "neighborhood" has internet, ice cream, snacks, water, and it's near the bus. So great.
3/30 (Delhi)
-started off the morning with sweet treats and watching indian music videos. interesting thing: there are some videos that are just guys dancing. striked me as weird. i don't think i've ever seen an american music video without ladies in it. and this is sort of like regular life here. after india won the semi final of cricket against pakistan there was a big party of guys out in the middle of a street, blocking the entire road. even a firetruck joined in on the action. and yeah, it was a party of just guys. don't know, just thought it was interesting.
-we were in a mall and there was a big screen and literally 1000+ people watching from all floors of the mall and on the floor. wherever there was a tv, no matter how small, there were people gathered around it watching the match. cricket is huge here!
-met up with Talsma! had delicious ice cream sundae and watched the india/pakistan match. walked around afterward and saw the street party and kids setting off firecrackers. met his sister and her husband who just moved to delhi. had an adventurous time getting home. haha. don't worry when you read this mom: we headed home around midnight by autorickshaw but the driver wasn't totally sure of where the address of aarti's relatives was. so we stopped and asked so many people, getting pointed more in the right direction each time. finally made it there but then the door was closed and they weren't answering their phones (the relatives) or hearing us knocking on the door (didn't want to knock too loud and wake everyone). contemplated heading back to talsma's sister's place, but all my stuff was at the relatives and we had a train to catch early the next morning. finally rang the bell a few times and they woke up to let me in. first mini adventure of the trip, ha.
-amusing note of the day. aarti and i saw this white guy running on the side of the road and it looked so out of place! white people in general tend to stand out here, but someone running for exercise was very strange to see, haha. never thought it was strange before until now.
-one more thing: drove by a movie set! lots of people gathered to see and there were some crazy fancy cars. didn't see any action though.
3/31 (delhi/agra)
-left delhi early in the morning and caught our train to agra
-took a nap in the hostel and then headed out for food and taj mahal tickets. found our way to the tourist place and got both things, and also free bottled water and a ride to the taj! food was about 1.5USD, so nice.
-the taj mahal has crazy security. no food, no phones (although ours got through since i keep it in my glasses case and they just assumed there were glasses in there. we keep it there because we get lots of spamming text messages and if you accidentally press 'ok' it'll charge you and send you recipes or something, ha. very weird. so my glasses case is hard and keeps us from accidentally pushing ok)
-the taj mahal was seriously amazing. apparently now it's the first wonder of the world. totally lives up to the hype. we took a ton of pictures and there were so many people there! i had my first experiences with people asking for my picture because i'm white. mostly it's kids who come up to me, but also a married couple with a baby, haha. so i got pictures with them as well! we hung out at the back of the taj for a while in the shade and talked to this family there. funny moment- the lady we were talking to points to this white kid and says 'he looks like harry potter', and really, he kind of did.
-used the internet instead of going to agra fort (weren't that excited about the lightshow or having to haggle with the rickshaw people to get there and back) and failed at uploading pictures. i just have too many and the internet is too slow. will try uploading them in stages.
-arranged with a rickshaw driver to meet us outside our hostel at 4am the next morning for our train ride to jaipur.
4/1 (agra/jaipur)
-our alarm didn't go off and so we ended up sleeping til 4:30am, when we should have been AT the train station. threw our stuff together real real fast and ran outside. luckily the autorickshaw guy was still there after 45 minutes of waiting. sped us to the train station and we asked so many people while running around with all our bags (i had mine + aarti's so we could run up and down the stairs quick enough) until we found the right train and car. made it just in time. don't know how we did it.
-got to our hostel and booked all four nights. they have jurassic park in their little hostel 'library' (books travelers leave behind i think). then showered. so nice. we hadn't showered for like 4 days. don't worry guys, am hobo-ing it up as expected.
-met up with some guys from couchsurfing and had lunch at a cool place. then they dropped us off near the gates to the main part of the city. we wandered around the markets, checked out the hawa mahal (wind palace) with amazing views of jaipur from the top (didn't realize there were hills/mountains around it!), and i helped this guy on the street write a love letter to his girlfriend, haha.don't worry mom, we just sat in the post office (filled with people and not a sketchy place!). he dictated and i transcribed. he can speak and read english pretty well but said he had trouble with writing. he told us about some less-touristy shopping places as a thank you for our help.
-afterward we tried to get to jantar mantar (an observatory), but were too late. it was already closed. oh well.
-went home and realized we were hungry but too tired to head back out on the bus to the street we'd heard had lots of food. went nearby to this starbucks-like place and got sandwiches. made friends with the guy working there who told us about a good restaurant we should try.
4/2 (jaipur)
-got a call last night from the couchsurfing guy saying he'd paid for a fancy hotel for a friend but that that friend couldn't stay the whole time and so there was a room there for us if we wanted it. checked it out on line and decided it was a little too far away from the main stuff and said thanks, but no thanks.
-went to amber fort. highly recommend this place if you come to jaipur. amazing! be warned you must do some serious stair climbing, but the views from the top are awesome. and the place itself was so nice. just a huge fort on a hillside.
-met a girl there who was traveling alone from calcutta. we joined forces and went with her and her driver to some shopping areas where i bought some gifts, then to the jal mahal (water palace), city palace where i got some mendhi (henna), and then to a mall. had our first indian mcdonalds experience. i had a mcaloo tikka :-P and ice cream. also tried indian ice cream today. very good!
-her driver dropped us off at our place after taking her to the airport and we got to take home some homemade sweets from her mom! we made friends with this israeli couple staying at our hostel, then got ready to go out with the couchsurfing people to watch the finals for cricket.
-we watched the finals in this "club" (not really a club in the american sense of the word) where we had good food and there were so many people and big screen tvs. we finally learned the rules and watched india come from behind to have a seriously spectacular win. everyone was very excited. fireworks and cheerleaders afterward. then headed home.
Having a wonderful time in Jaipur and enjoying all the friends we've been randomly making.All part of the adventure. I think tomorrow we start taking our malaria medicine (sadly mine are large pills, which I hate, gah) since the day after that we venture off for Mt. Abu, a hill station with a lake and hiking. Should be nice. Then Mumbai where we will either stay with people that Talsma stayed with there or book a hostel. Then Goa, which promises beaches, more heat, hippies, and many things to do. Then Mumbai again for like a day before we fly on to Singapore! Can't believe we are already about a third of our way through India.And 15 days through our ~70 day Asian Adventure. It goes fast!
Ok, you'll probably get the next update from Mt. Abu.
Love you all!!!
3/30 (Delhi)
-started off the morning with sweet treats and watching indian music videos. interesting thing: there are some videos that are just guys dancing. striked me as weird. i don't think i've ever seen an american music video without ladies in it. and this is sort of like regular life here. after india won the semi final of cricket against pakistan there was a big party of guys out in the middle of a street, blocking the entire road. even a firetruck joined in on the action. and yeah, it was a party of just guys. don't know, just thought it was interesting.
-we were in a mall and there was a big screen and literally 1000+ people watching from all floors of the mall and on the floor. wherever there was a tv, no matter how small, there were people gathered around it watching the match. cricket is huge here!
-met up with Talsma! had delicious ice cream sundae and watched the india/pakistan match. walked around afterward and saw the street party and kids setting off firecrackers. met his sister and her husband who just moved to delhi. had an adventurous time getting home. haha. don't worry when you read this mom: we headed home around midnight by autorickshaw but the driver wasn't totally sure of where the address of aarti's relatives was. so we stopped and asked so many people, getting pointed more in the right direction each time. finally made it there but then the door was closed and they weren't answering their phones (the relatives) or hearing us knocking on the door (didn't want to knock too loud and wake everyone). contemplated heading back to talsma's sister's place, but all my stuff was at the relatives and we had a train to catch early the next morning. finally rang the bell a few times and they woke up to let me in. first mini adventure of the trip, ha.
-amusing note of the day. aarti and i saw this white guy running on the side of the road and it looked so out of place! white people in general tend to stand out here, but someone running for exercise was very strange to see, haha. never thought it was strange before until now.
-one more thing: drove by a movie set! lots of people gathered to see and there were some crazy fancy cars. didn't see any action though.
3/31 (delhi/agra)
-left delhi early in the morning and caught our train to agra
-took a nap in the hostel and then headed out for food and taj mahal tickets. found our way to the tourist place and got both things, and also free bottled water and a ride to the taj! food was about 1.5USD, so nice.
-the taj mahal has crazy security. no food, no phones (although ours got through since i keep it in my glasses case and they just assumed there were glasses in there. we keep it there because we get lots of spamming text messages and if you accidentally press 'ok' it'll charge you and send you recipes or something, ha. very weird. so my glasses case is hard and keeps us from accidentally pushing ok)
-the taj mahal was seriously amazing. apparently now it's the first wonder of the world. totally lives up to the hype. we took a ton of pictures and there were so many people there! i had my first experiences with people asking for my picture because i'm white. mostly it's kids who come up to me, but also a married couple with a baby, haha. so i got pictures with them as well! we hung out at the back of the taj for a while in the shade and talked to this family there. funny moment- the lady we were talking to points to this white kid and says 'he looks like harry potter', and really, he kind of did.
-used the internet instead of going to agra fort (weren't that excited about the lightshow or having to haggle with the rickshaw people to get there and back) and failed at uploading pictures. i just have too many and the internet is too slow. will try uploading them in stages.
-arranged with a rickshaw driver to meet us outside our hostel at 4am the next morning for our train ride to jaipur.
4/1 (agra/jaipur)
-our alarm didn't go off and so we ended up sleeping til 4:30am, when we should have been AT the train station. threw our stuff together real real fast and ran outside. luckily the autorickshaw guy was still there after 45 minutes of waiting. sped us to the train station and we asked so many people while running around with all our bags (i had mine + aarti's so we could run up and down the stairs quick enough) until we found the right train and car. made it just in time. don't know how we did it.
-got to our hostel and booked all four nights. they have jurassic park in their little hostel 'library' (books travelers leave behind i think). then showered. so nice. we hadn't showered for like 4 days. don't worry guys, am hobo-ing it up as expected.
-met up with some guys from couchsurfing and had lunch at a cool place. then they dropped us off near the gates to the main part of the city. we wandered around the markets, checked out the hawa mahal (wind palace) with amazing views of jaipur from the top (didn't realize there were hills/mountains around it!), and i helped this guy on the street write a love letter to his girlfriend, haha.don't worry mom, we just sat in the post office (filled with people and not a sketchy place!). he dictated and i transcribed. he can speak and read english pretty well but said he had trouble with writing. he told us about some less-touristy shopping places as a thank you for our help.
-afterward we tried to get to jantar mantar (an observatory), but were too late. it was already closed. oh well.
-went home and realized we were hungry but too tired to head back out on the bus to the street we'd heard had lots of food. went nearby to this starbucks-like place and got sandwiches. made friends with the guy working there who told us about a good restaurant we should try.
4/2 (jaipur)
-got a call last night from the couchsurfing guy saying he'd paid for a fancy hotel for a friend but that that friend couldn't stay the whole time and so there was a room there for us if we wanted it. checked it out on line and decided it was a little too far away from the main stuff and said thanks, but no thanks.
-went to amber fort. highly recommend this place if you come to jaipur. amazing! be warned you must do some serious stair climbing, but the views from the top are awesome. and the place itself was so nice. just a huge fort on a hillside.
-met a girl there who was traveling alone from calcutta. we joined forces and went with her and her driver to some shopping areas where i bought some gifts, then to the jal mahal (water palace), city palace where i got some mendhi (henna), and then to a mall. had our first indian mcdonalds experience. i had a mcaloo tikka :-P and ice cream. also tried indian ice cream today. very good!
-her driver dropped us off at our place after taking her to the airport and we got to take home some homemade sweets from her mom! we made friends with this israeli couple staying at our hostel, then got ready to go out with the couchsurfing people to watch the finals for cricket.
-we watched the finals in this "club" (not really a club in the american sense of the word) where we had good food and there were so many people and big screen tvs. we finally learned the rules and watched india come from behind to have a seriously spectacular win. everyone was very excited. fireworks and cheerleaders afterward. then headed home.
Having a wonderful time in Jaipur and enjoying all the friends we've been randomly making.All part of the adventure. I think tomorrow we start taking our malaria medicine (sadly mine are large pills, which I hate, gah) since the day after that we venture off for Mt. Abu, a hill station with a lake and hiking. Should be nice. Then Mumbai where we will either stay with people that Talsma stayed with there or book a hostel. Then Goa, which promises beaches, more heat, hippies, and many things to do. Then Mumbai again for like a day before we fly on to Singapore! Can't believe we are already about a third of our way through India.And 15 days through our ~70 day Asian Adventure. It goes fast!
Ok, you'll probably get the next update from Mt. Abu.
Love you all!!!
nice! sneaky sneaky with the cell phone case. and feel like a celebrity??? hahaha
ReplyDeleteEnjoy India while you can! Start getting used to spicy food if you want to go to Padang...
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