006 The Asian Squat

It’s the day before the New Year! How ridiculous is this? I can’t believe we’ve been in India for almost a week. The day started with us assembling at the hotel lobby at around 3 in the morning, luggage in tow, to head to the airport. Gross. The hotel was nice enough to prepare breakfast for us knowing we wouldn’t have a chance to eat much later, and so we ate sandwiches, bananas and rolls on the bus.

Omnomnom.

A lot of our group chose not to eat though; apparently Choki Dhani’s dinner was not kind to them last night. We finally arrived at the airport only to encounter a little bit of drama. From what I gathered, because our flight from Jaipur to Bangalore was a domestic flight, it was supposed to be subject to the domestic flight luggage weight limit, which is not a lot. Most of us still had a vast majority of the luggage we had taken on the international flight from the States to India, so naturally, pretty much everyone’s luggage was overweight. Essentially, the airlines wanted us to pay for all the extra weight. Drs. Anand and Ellstrand were not pleased because apparently that had never happened before, but I think they ended up footing the bill for the lot of us. Eep. 

We practiced Asian squats while waiting for the matter to be resolved…I still don't understand why people struggle with the concept! Must be from the lack of squatty-potties in the States. 

Seth trying to master the Asian Squat.

Eventually, we all got checked in and hung out around the gate for our boarding time to arrive. Ariel, Aaron, Jarred, Kaleah and I had a journal party while waiting, we're dorks. 

We finally boarded the plane and arrived in Bangalore soon enough, and everyone was starving. I bought a chicken burger from Café Coffee Day (a class favorite!) and a bottle of water. The food wasn’t incredible, but it was edible and so I was satisfied…until I found out others had found a Subway outside and ate turkey sandwiches. 

Our bus came and picked us up, and before departing, Varun and Dr. Anand spoke with our bus drivers about getting alcohol for our New Year’s celebration. It was perfect.

Bangalore is INCREDIBLE. The weather and scenery are perfect, and remind me so much of Malaysia. There seems to be some semblance of adherence to traffic laws, and people don’t honk as much. It’s pretty safe to say that first impression-wise, Bangalore has beaten Delhi quite soundly. Architecturally, Bangalore seems to be a lot more modern than Delhi. There are little suburbs off to the side of the cities, and there are countless Western brands that many of us recognized, which was pretty cool. I saw a Bata shoe store and a poster about the dangers of dengue fever.

Oh no! Dengue!

Movies in India >>>> Movies in the States

After purchasing the alcohol somewhere in the city, the group headed off to Kabini River Lodge, which we were all incredibly excited about. Along the way, we stopped at a McDonald’s, and it was so much fun. I love visiting McDonald’s restaurants in other countries - it's always an adventure.

A welcome sight.

As expected, in order to cater to local customs, where a majority of the Indian population doesn’t eat beef, most of the menu items that we were used were replaced with chicken-based or vegetarian options.

Pro-tip: Paneer Salsa Wrap is LEGIT.

The restaurant was out of sandwiches when we got there though, so our options were even more limited. I stuck to the safe option of chicken nuggets, but ordered some of the local dipping sauces to try. It went okay.

Eventually, we arrived at Kabini, and got settled into our rooms. There are eight or nine rooms in a row to a building, considered a “bungalow”, and I absolutely love this set up. Our row has most of the undergrads, so it's going to be awesome. Real talk. The rooms are big enough, and the bathrooms are clean, so really we have nothing to complain about. 

We assembled for a movie screening near the front office, not really knowing what to expect. The movie turned out to be a short documentary about Nagarahole, the protected jungle I believe we’re currently residing in. All of us were exhausted though, and kept nodding off throughout the movie. Pretty sure I was out way before the halfway point. We gathered at the resort’s cafeteria and had dinner after the movie. The food was really, really good – another great mix of Indian and Western fare. 

Ketchup-chili fries are where it's at.

2011 CAKEEEE!!!

We soon returned to our rooms with plans to hang out around midnight for the countdown. Definitely fell asleep while waiting, but I managed to catch the countdown and spend a few more hours enjoying the New Year with some newfound friends in a beautiful country. :)

005 I'm on an Elephant

Woke up sometime around the crack of dawn this morning to get ready to head to the Amer Fort, and we were lucky enough to grab some breakfast at the hotel before leaving. Once we got there, after disembarking from the bus, we got in line to ride elephants up to the actual fort.

The path up to the Amer Fort.

Some of the line...

...more of the line.

While we were in line, we saw a lot of hawkers selling their wares, especially to tourist-y looking people, much like our group. Hah. Most of the hawkers were turned down or ignored completely, which left us wondering how much money they could earn realistically, which we assumed had to be pretty low. Our assumptions were proven wrong quickly enough when we found out Alex and Thomas had gotten themselves hats from said hawkers for 200 rupees (US$4) a piece. Wut. Jarred and I were convinced that we could have gotten a better price, and before I knew it, we were bargaining with the exact same hat seller, with me posing as Jarred’s wife. I felt like a baller. Trufax. We got him down to 100 rupees for the same hat, and Jarred had a good time rubbing it in Alex and Thomas’s faces. And now I have a hat. 

In any case, the elephant ride up the hill was legit. Arjun, our guide, had told us to prepare a tip for our elephant guide once we had gotten up the hill, but right before climbing up our elephant, Jarred and I noticed a sign that instructed us to NOT pay the guides tips. Sketch. 

Wut.

Hill climb.

By the time we finally reached the top of the hill, our guide started asking us for tips. I understand that it’s the culture here, but it can be so frustrating because it almost always spoils the end of an enjoyable experience. Meh.

In any case, the general consensus was that the Amer Fort put the Agra Fort to shame. The architecture and intricacy of the designs and paintings and structures were phenomenal. 

Imagine this. Times a million.

The group finally found a way to let us kids have enough roaming time while making sure we returned to group meeting points punctually, which was super exciting. Before, Arjun would give us these super long spiels about certain monuments and then give us 20-30 minutes of time to walk around and that almost always ended with us getting lost and/or being late. Now, Arjun takes us to points of interest around the monuments, gives us shorter spiels (and holds our attention for longer periods of time) and then gives us 5-10 minutes to walk around and take pictures, which keeps us focused and works a lot better. 

And allows us to locate the royal bathroom. For Alex.

Before leaving the Amer Fort, we took some pictures with some snake charmers and that was pretty cool. 

Boom. Tourist stereotype now complete.

We took the jeep down this time, and made sure to take plenty of pictures. 

Actual jeep.

After the Amer Fort, the group headed to a nearby market for precious gems. I learned today that Jaipur is home to some of the most beautiful and decently priced precious stones in the world. Ballin'. We had the opportunity to meet with the owner of Meenu Sharma, just one of the many jewelers in the neighborhood. Truly, unless you knew just where to go, you’d never find these wonderful holes in the wall. 

Precious gems live here.

There was a full-blown jewelry polisher and store tucked away in this quiet little neighborhood. 

Quiet little neighborhood with bamfs, apparently.

In more ways than one, I’m glad that American-level commercialism has yet to rob India of her quaintness and quietness. After going on a brief tour of jewelry polishing activities, we soon went to the store, and of course, had a jolly good time picking out stones and trying jewelry on. 

Stone polishing process.

I helped Alana pick out a sapphire for her dad, and then helped Seth pick out his engagement ring (!!!), which was absolutely gorgeous. 

Puurrrrtttyyy.

I promised myself I wouldn’t buy anything here, but I haven’t earned this trip's moniker, “the shopper” without merit, and naturally, I bought three pairs of earrings – one for my mom, one for my sister and one for myself. Eventually, our professors scooted all of us out of the store (I’m sure they made a ridiculous amount of money today), and we headed for lunch. Lunch was delicious, as expected, and we soon departed for Jantar Mantar after. 

Proof of awesomeness.

We weren’t given much idea about what to expect about the monument except that it had something to do with astrology and the like, so needless to say, we were all intrigued. Once we got there, we enlisted the help of a local guide who talked us through most of the structures that were there. 

Time predictor thingy. I don't even know. 

There were sun dials and instruments and objects that could be used to predict the emergence of constellations, or predict lunar and solar eclipses…the only way I could do that TODAY would be by using Google, and there were Indians who managed to figure it out hundreds of years ago. It was pretty incredible. 

Time machine.

One less tasteful experience that happened in Jantar Mantar - Ariel and Alana were creepily followed around by a pack of Indian men. They didn’t do much except take weird pictures and videos of the girls…the boys stepped in to protect them of course, which was very sweet. I guess being white or of fairer complexion in India can be a double-edged sword. 

In any case, we eventually made it back to the hotel and very soon after left for Choki Dhani. Again, Varun and Dr. Anand stayed back, which in retrospect was an incredible idea. 

Note to self: Start trusting the two Indians on the trip.

Choki Dhani was LITERALLY one of the most ridiculous experiences of my life. I literally, cannot stop smiling and giggling just thinking about it. The ENTIRE time, I felt like the experience was akin to tripping on acid. Choki Dhani is almost like the Indian version of Silver Dollar City. There are a lot of booths and exhibitions and other areas where “park” employees dress and act like ancient Indians did, apparently. Dinner was, to say the least, another interesting experience. We had to take our shoes off, walk in the mud, sit on the ground and eat with plates and bowls made of leaves and drink from “flower pots” as Senad called them. 

Yeah.

About ten minutes in, we were convinced that we were on an episode of Punk’d or Candid Camera. I became the official taste-tester for my side of the table and made sure everything was edible. Yeah. We move on. 

So, after dinner, we go to take in some of the performances that are going on all over the place, and before we know it, Pree, Alana and Honey are dancing while Kevin has strapped on a horse/cow suit and has started bopping along to the music. It was ridiculous. 

Idk.

The last straw was when we bypassed this man-made pond structure with fake plants and animals, and there was an audio track of dinosaur roars playing on loop in the back. I just about died. Choki Dhani is a MUST-VISIT for all first time visitors to India. May they be as traumatized as we were.

004 Namaste from the Taj

We left for the Taj Mahal from Mansingh Palace at around 6:30 this morning, meaning I’ve been up since 5:30am. Sick. I feel that this whole waking up at an ungodly hour thing might become a trend throughout this trip...let’s hope not. In any case, we rode the bus to the Taj visitors center and after getting our tickets and bottles of water in individualized bags (oh yeah), we rode an electric mini-bus to the monument itself. Let me take a minute to point out just how incredible a job I think India’s Ministry of Tourism is doing. First – individualized paper bags with bottles of water and maps? You’d be hard pressed to that find that kind of thought and consideration in the States.

Wut.

Also, we had to ride electric mini-buses to the Taj as a method of preserving the integrity of its structure and surfaces. The Indian government has actually banned any vehicles that use gas within a square mile (maybe more!) of the Taj so that the pollutants don’t damage the white marble the building is made of. In the States, people play intramural sports on the foundation of the Washington Memorial. It’s ridiculous. It makes me feel like Americans are just so careless about the preservation of monuments/buildings that we should deem important. Meh. 

Electric mini-buses.

Anyway, we eventually got to what I suppose can be called the outer gate of the Taj and were a little skeptical as to whether the Taj would actually be behind the gates or not…apparently, this architecture is done on purpose to build something of an element of surprise, which is pretty ingenious. We took plenty of pictures (not going to be fun to upload three weeks from now!), and listened as Arjun explained the history of the Taj as well as some other interesting facts about the time it was built. We learned that both the outer gate as well as the Taj itself was built utilizing different styles of architecture, a melting pot of ideas really, and it made a lot of sense – much of India is built the same way. 

On the way to the Taj!

The Taj was behind this structure. WHO KNEW.

In any case, eventually, we excitedly entered the gate toward the Taj, and of course, it was breathtaking.

Ta-daaaahhhh!

Unfortunately, it was a little foggy this morning, but the weather soon cleared up nicely, and the group had a wonderful time taking pictures, strolling the grounds and enjoying a little piece of history. I won’t go on about how beautiful the Taj is, but you can bet your bottom dollar that it was phenomenal.

Breathtaking.

Eventually, the class got together to take a group picture with the Taj in the background, and of course, we had to enlist a “professional photographer” to help us take it. And of course, like a boss, he asked if any of us wanted solo pictures with the Taj after the group picture, knowing we’d be tourist-y and agree shamelessly. And of course I agreed. So anyway, he tells me the pictures are 100 rupees each, and proceeds to take three pictures of me. And all this while, I’m thinking sweet – I’ll have three pictures to choose from and I’ll pick the best one and it’ll be dandy – which shouldn’t have been a big deal, seeing as he had a digital camera. But when I went to talk to him about choosing pictures, he told me that all of them were nice and then he ran away. We met up with him later as we were heading out and I learned that no, I could not in fact choose the pictures I wanted as he had printed all three and so yes, I had to 400 rupees for my pictures (including the group picture which is the only picture I wanted in the first place).  So. I blew $8 on PICTURES that I took on my camera ANYWAY, like a tourist. Ugh. Sick. I'M SUCH A TOURIST. 

Pffbbbhhtttt.

Purtttyyy.

Precious stone inlay.

After finishing up at the Taj (and losing Thomas somewhere along the way), we headed back to the hotel for breakfast. 

Camwhoring while waiting for Thomas to return. But of course.

We didn’t have too much time to enjoy breakfast unfortunately, but it was nice to eat some familiar food! We had to check out of the hotel this morning, so more hurried packing took place, naturally. I need to learn to not turn my room into a tornado every day so repacking isn’t such a hassle. Kaleah and I somehow managed to get downstairs with our luggage in time, and after handing it off to be loaded onto the bus, we departed for the Agra Fort. 

It’s worth mentioning that after you see the Taj Mahal, almost any monument following it is nowhere near is cool. That being said, the Agra Fort was still pretty awesome. The monument itself is mostly made of red sandstone and it was an interesting contrast set against the pure white marble we experienced earlier this morning at the Taj. 

We spent a little more time at the Agra Fort sightseeing, taking pictures and listening the interesting history and stories Arjun shared with us. Again, the architecture was remarkably intricate and detailed and just fun to look at. I took plenty of pictures of the designs at the Fort – who knows, I could use them for some of my graphic work later on. 

Side note – I think the level of skill and more importantly, creativity, displayed at these monuments has been phenomenal. 

Baby monkey!

We headed towards Fatehpur Sikri after the fort, and were treated to more incredible architecture. I still can’t fathom how there are so many beautiful pieces of historical architecture located so near to each other. 

Each level was for a different wife of the Emperor. Boss.

I have no idea what these are.

Me, Seth, Mary

In between the visit to the Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri, the group headed to a local “pharmacy” in Agra city. Dr. Anand and Dr. Ellstrand needed to purchase some medicine, for what I shall call, a preemptive strike. I use the term pharmacy very loosely here. First - there appears to be plenty of pharmacies located everywhere in India. I’m quite sure the regulations and licensing laws here are nowhere near as strict as they are back home. 

Alex was having some problems.

Also – I have no idea if the people providing the medication have any formal training at all, or if they just learned the tricks of the trade through apprenticeship. I suppose that would make sense seeing as a India is so steeped in its relationships and culture. 

Christine: "lol look at the fat man wearing the shirt that says jeans"

Another thing – there are no prescriptions needed to purchase medicine at these pharmacies. I’m not sure how much of it is over-the-counter drugs, but still. In any case, the group went down to check the pharmacy out and basically cause a ruckus. Pretty hard not to when you’re a group of 20 Americans in the middle of the city of Agra. 

Mmm. Drugs. Omnomnomnom.

Medicine isn't all you can buy at pharmacies in India.

Right after, we went to purchase some pumpkin candies, which apparently are a local delicacy. I tried some, and can’t say I’m too big of a fan, but I bought a box to take home anyway. 

Ehhhh.

So, one thing I definitely noticed in Agra – and I mean this in the nicest possible way – the city is so underdeveloped. Unless you already knew the Taj, considered one of the wonders of the world, was there, you simply wouldn’t know the Taj was there. This situation is almost the exact opposite of the United States. The second we find anything even remotely sellable, we commercialize like there’s no tomorrow. There were no fancy hotels, no legions of tourists, no Starbucks stores, nothing! Heck – even most of the roads remained undeveloped.

I completely understand the concept of “don’t fix what ain’t broke”, but I still feel like some level of commercialization could help the city financially, maybe help raise a percentage of its population out of poverty. That being said, I also adored Agra for being such a quiet little town, if such a concept exists here in India. There weren’t a billion tourists you had to fight with to see world-class monuments, and not seeing Starbucks or a Ritz was pretty refreshing. I spoke to Dr. Ellstrand about the on the bus, and he offered that this might be a result of Indians’ love of their tradition and of their culture. Why bring in foreign or Western forces and influences, when the system they have works perfectly for them? 

After Fatehpur Sikri, we boarded the bus for Jaipur. At this point, my memory fails me miserably as I slept essentially the whole way there. I do recall hearing news that the highway we needed to utilize was blocked as a result of some protests, and so we had to take an alternative road through some villages. I was awake for some of that, and was excited to see that countless villagers had come out to wave at our bus! Little kids chased after our buses and parents would poke their heads out of their homes to see what the ruckus was about. It was awesome! 

'Sup.

I later learned that our bus driver was basically incredible as he maneuvered through some pretty ridiculous roads to get us to our destination safely. We arrived at the Mansingh Hotel in Jaipur a while ago, and Kaleah and I are settling into our rooms. We’re pretty stoked that we have another night of hot running water tonight.