India: Goodbye – Hello

We arrived in Delhi at 2 a.m. with just enough time to get 5 hours of sleep before our next departing train to Jaipur, at breakneck pace… Six hours later we reached our destination only to find that it is a huge, sprawling city. For whatever reason we were under the impression that Jaipur was an ancient fortified lil pink village. Instead it is modern and crowded and appropriately deemed the shopping mecca of Rajasthan. We hit the ground running and found both of our wedding outfits here along with a wedding gift for Rikul & Shweta (apparently it is custom to buy only the bride a gift such as earrings or beautiful cloth to make a sari or Punjabi dress). Between the heat, the pollution, and the constant nagging from tuk-tuk drivers we did find ourselves often taking refuge in our awesome guesthouse called Karni Niwas. Tucked away, off the main shopping road, in the new part of town this little slice of heaven made everything bearable. We had a huge rooftop room, surrounded by breezy windows, complete with gigantic bathroom and a fantastic view of the city… we even had TV that showed endless reruns of ‘Friends’ and ‘2 1/2 Men’ and got to watch E! News and catch up on all the latest Oscar news!

The highlight of our stay in Jaipur was a tour of the ancient sites, guided by a tuk-tuk driver we met on our arrival to the city. Raj was the best. He and his lifelong friend showed us around for hours, taking us to the Sun (Monkey) Temple, the Floating Palace, the City Palace, and the beautiful city museum. We had great conversations about Indian, American and Islamic politics, as well as Indian/Muslim traditions. Finding a tuk-tuk driver with good English and a great attitude is definitely the best way to tour a city. Tour highlights included me unsuccessfully trying to smuggle a little baby piglet, that could barely walk and squeak, saw two bulls fighting, blocking our hill path, but managed to sneak past and were given good luck bracelets and our first bindis. Thanks to Raj and his pal, the evening was a complete success!

As we were starting to pack our bags to head to Udaipur, Drew unfortunately fell sick… again. We barely made it to the train station before he started vomiting and then the poor guy spent the entire night in the crammed train bathroom hovering/squatting over the hole in the floor, being tossed around against the walls, barely able to hold himself up from exhaustion. Staying positive, it still offered him some lovely moments alone to watch the early morning light hit the deserts of Rajasthan.

We reached Udaipur at 7 a.m., immediately found our hotel pickup, and finally made it to safe ground… or at least a stationary, western toilet. Drew spent the next two days in bed trying to recover while I made many frantic emails to Dr. Aparna asking for advice. Thankfully we brought the entire ‘John Adams’ series on our laptop to get through the day as well as countless amounts of episodes of ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’, which never cease to make Drew smile. Our guesthouse, Panorama Guesthouse, is situated on Hanaman Ghat in the quieter part of town and is spectacular. A sweet rooftop restaurant, wi-fi, and a cheap corner room made for a great stay, even with all the illness going around.

When Drew finally conjured up some energy we went to a beautiful little restaurant along the lake for what was probably the best dinner we’ve had in all of India (well, minus the paneer tikka butter masala we had in Darjeeling!). The following day we walked around Udaipur, which is a beautiful city that sits on a great big lake with not one but two floating palaces. Udaipur’s big claim to fame is it was briefly featured in the James Bond film ‘Octopussy’. Every evening at 7 p.m. almost every guesthouse and restaurant in town shows the movie. I imagine most of the locals have the entire thing memorized by now. Udaipur was exactly what we were hoping to find when we came to India. Huge white buildings built with that beautiful Indian architecture of large domes and swirling window and doorframes set against a crystal clear blue sky… So romantic. This place sort of reminds me of what parts of the Mediterranean look like with all the whites, beautiful blues, and greens. In the evening we went to a cultural event at one of the museums where we saw different dances from the various regions of Rajasthan. Women danced with pots of fire on their heads, marionette dolls glittered as they danced across the floor, one woman even balanced ten pots of water on her head to represent the deserts of Rajasthan and the women who have to walk for miles to get water and then carry as much back home as she could. It was a really fun and interesting evening until I got sick…

I didn’t even make it back to the guesthouse before vomiting all over myself. The funny part is, I had spent the last two to three days holed up in our guesthouse taking care of Drew!! We have found it extremely hard to stay healthy here for whatever reason. I spent the next two days in bed, watching more ‘John Adams’ trying to shake whatever was beating me down, or trying desperately to exit. As I sit here and type I’m still feeling nauseous, but we must keep moving. Tonight we catch a sleeper train back to Delhi for our friend Rikul’s wedding. 48 more hours until the ceremony begins… I just hope I’m in better shape then than I am right now. After that, we take a day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and then come Monday we are on a flight to Cairo, Egypt to gaze at the Great Pyramids of Giza and do some killer scuba diving!

Cut to 1 week later: Getting back to Delhi was very comforting; as we knew where we were going, the costs for transport, and some good spots for food. We spent the day preparing for the wedding. Blair went to the all woman (very rare) run beauty salon to get her hair done and I arranged for a taxi, and then we departed. The drive through Delhi was a delight. The city really is beautiful, with gardens everywhere and lush lawns centering on all of the roundabouts. The city is under serious construction in prep for the 2010 Common Wealth Games. It took us awhile to make it to the suburbs where the wedding was taking place, our driver must have stopped 30 times for directions, but we finally made it… and we were the first to arrive. We stood around for a bit, but were lucky that the bride’s sister-in-law (who just moved back to India from NYC) found us and brought us back to her family’s house (3 blocks away) to wait and enjoy refreshments. It was very nice to sit, relax and meet the family. The house was enormous with four stories and sixteen bedrooms. We can only imagine it houses the entire extended family.

Soon it was time to return to the community center and await Rikul’s arrival… It was at this point that I realized that none of the men were wearing traditional dress; Blair fit in perfectly and beautifully, but it would become obvious (all other men wearing dress pants and business shirts) that I over shot on this outfit. So the ceremony begins and to be honest it was a bit confusing… but if you like Vegas light shows and the groom as the star then it’s right up your alley. A quarter mile away Rikul sat on a carriage made of fancy disco lights drawn by two white horses. The carriage followed behind a crazy marching band and tons of locals dancing in the street, fireworks and rose pedal canons exploding everywhere. Depending on the wedding, this journey can take ten minutes or it can take two hours. Rikul’s only lasted about thirty minutes and then it was time for him to greet Shweta’s (the bride) sisters at the door of the community center for another tradition. This time Rikul and his brothers had to offer money to the sister’s so he may “enter,” as they playfully kept asking for more. From there Rikul walks into the community center where he sits on stage and waits for his bride to enter. Once she is on stage they exchange big, beautiful necklaces made out of flowers, more rose peddle canons explode, and the ceremony is over… well, at least that part of it is. For the next couple of hours the couple sits on stage while guests go up and offer them gifts and take photos with them. The entire time this event is going on there’s a courtyard off to the side with garden seating that has loads of food and drink, a dance floor, and even a moon bounce for the kids to play on. In western cultures you have the ceremony first and then the reception but here it seems the reception happens simultaneously. I imagine because the ceremony is so long, it keeps everyone happy if they can get up and move around a bit. Unfortunately we had to depart around midnight while Rikul and Shweta were still busy taking pictures with guests. After the photo session there is a whole other ceremony called something like “Fire and Agony” that was explained to us but again was confusing. We said ‘Adieu’ and called it a night heading back to Delhi and prepared to hop our train at 7:30 a.m. the following morning to Agra.

A five-hour train ride and a one-hour bus ride later and we landed in Fatehpur Sikri, a small town an hour outside of Agra. We chose to stay here to try and escape the city life for a night or two thinking it would be peaceful and quiet, unfortunately, we were wrong. You live and you learn, right? It seems as if it is almost impossible to escape the flies, the touts, certain sewage smells, and the car horns here in India. We made the most of it and tried to relax, knowing that our last few days in India were a head of us. We took a day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal as our last tourist excursion, and we were incredibly happy we did. The Taj is simply gorgeous. The sprawling gardens that surround it, the symmetry, the fountains and the mosques are all perfect. The hand carved flowers and the inlaid precious stones are breathtaking. Seeing it in person is a must! It was a wonderful escape inside of those walls and away from the crowded, cramped streets. A few times we were asked by teenage boys to have our pictures taken with them, and while I always agreed, Blair would escape, and as soon as she did, they would lower their heads and scurry away. What’s the Indian word for ‘chopped liver’ again?

We have confirmed our flight to Cairo tomorrow and are packing our bags and gearing up to get on the bus to head back to Agra to wait for our train back to Delhi. We get into Delhi around 10 p.m. and leave for the airport at 3 a.m. One month in India has certainly been a robust and challenging experience; one you must simply experience for yourself. It’s a complicated place that sucks you in with beauty, and can kick you in the gut when you’re least expecting it.

See all of our photos of India!!!!

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