Incredible India

After the bumpiest flight of my life, we landed in the capital(Delhi) of incredible India.

India, green and lush, felt calmer, more peaceful-making. Though some scenes were chaotic and filled with need, there was so much natural and quiet beauty. Everywhere there seemed to be a continuous soundtrack of bird songs.

Arrival.
When you fly Emirates, regardless of the length of flight they serve a meal and a coffee service. As soon as we are in the air, they bring out the complimentary wine or beer, too, which was surprising the first time since it's just minutes after take-off from dry Kuwait.

So, after a well serviced (my favorite airline is still Turkish Air) and bumpy flight, we disembarked and were met by a guide with a sign and leis. We were picked up by our rental vehicle and driver for the week. Traffic was light as we made our way to the hotel due to Good Friday. In each city a "company man" met us. We also had a different tour guide, a specialist for the local sights, in each city.

DAY ONE: 

Our first morning in India, it raining steadily. I gazed at the pools of water sprinkled all over the manicured hotel grounds as I drank sweet lassi(Indian yogurt drink) and fresh watermelon juice from the hotel's extensive juice bar and ate wonderful waffles.

We visited the Red fort, took a bicycle rickshaw ride through a popular narrow-allied shopping area in Old Delhi to India’s largest mosque. We had to wear these flattering jewels (*note the matching bed slippers). 

We also went up the minaret to get a great view of the city. We visited the cremation sight of Gandhi and Deborah got her nose pierced. I briefly considered it as well. We also visited one of the world's tallest minarets built in 1193 (though our guide told us at the time it was the tallest) and the ruins of a mosque built from Hindu temples that had been destroyed.



DAY TWO was Easter so I researched and found a place for us to worship. Our driver agreed we could leave later than planned. 

On our way out of town, we drove by the India Gate.

This is actually at the Taj, but same-same.

We mainly traveled this day, to Agra. Agra is considered a small Indian city with just a little over 2 million residents. Yeah, that is the total population of Nebraska. It is also the home of the famous Taj Mahal. The 4 hour drive, for the most part, looked like Nebraska's I-80. Close to Agra we stopped to tour one location, but our local guide did not show up. Our driver didn't speak English fluently nor did he know all the details about these places so we ventured out alone. This resulted in an increased appreciation for our guides because we were bombarded by picture requests. They wanted their(Indians on holiday) pictures taken with us. No one asked us for money and everyone was friendly, but they wanted a picture. We were probably in 6 photos. We contemplated asking for money to have our pictures taken but, in the end, we decided against it. LOL. We learned to avoid eye contact; were aware of our surroundings through our peripheral alone.

DAY THREE: We declined the sunrise tour and met our guide at 9:30 in the lobby to go to the Taj Mahal. My favorite view is the most typical, but up close it's amazing, too. 

The inlay work especially struck me. The region is still known for this type of work.  It is un-stain-able white marble with inlays of lapis lazuli, mother of pearl, jasper, etc. There were even inlays in the trendy chevron pattern. 

Our guide knew all the best picture places.

At another Red Palace next to the Taj Mahal.

Love the arches.

Later, we secretly met up with our driver to go shopping in a cheaper location than our guide wanted to take us to. Lol. It still seemed pricey, but... it was awesome. We also got to practice are bargaining skills. We got to see how inlay marble work is done and we bought these from the young, humble artisan. The elephant looks like the inlay work done on the Taj Mahal. 

The inlay work has supposedly stayed in the same families, and the secret to the glue has been passed down to the men in the family (only), since the women will later marry into other families. 

Mary, after bargaining for some colorful clothing of her own.

We got a demonstration of how to make rugs, too. A typical single knotted 5 by 7 rug is a 6 month, full time process and sold for around 450 USD. Double knotted, finer rugs of a smaller scale, also take nearly 6 months and are sold for about 200. 

DAY FOUR: Also mainly a travel day. 6 hours from Agra to Jaipur. We did stop at the extravagant ruins of a palace. The entire place was made of carved red sand stone. 

Jaipur is also considered a small city at 3.5 million people. Like Delhi, it is clean and modern. Jaipur is called the pink city because all the buildings in the old town are painted pink.

DAY FIVE: Here we did a drive by of a few places but the highlight was an elephant ride up to a palace with great views, and getting henna tattoos at another pretty palace.

DAY SIX: On the drive back to the airport, we stopped at a jewelry store. We were shown raw jewels and learned how they make them worthy of selling. Initially I didn't want to buy anything but after tea and a demonstration (which I took photos of), I felt a little pressure. My companions bought enough that I really could have said no, but I ended up buying a silver cross pendant with a blue sapphire. Apparently there are 6 or so colors of sapphires. I haven't bought any adornments in the shape of a cross before. I felt it was often more fashion than faith for many, but it seemed right to do it now. Where I'm living, no one wears a cross simply for fashion. I also liked the idea of buying it in India. The sapphire comes from Kashmir (in the north of India) and Jaipur is renown for silver. After our extensive jewelry shopping, we loaded back into the car for a 6 hours drive to the airport.

Lodging.
All of our hotels were all awesome and unique. They all had great service. One had a repeating Alan Jackson CD playing from the 90's. One made this towel monkey. 

They all kept us amply supplied with free bottles of water- a happy surprise. 

India was, and is, one of my favorite countries. One of the reasons it's a favorite is because it is so colorful. Flowers, cars, buildings even people are decorated in bold, bright colors, though women's smiles and clothing were my favorite color splashes. 

Incredible India.

Snip, snap, snout. That tales told out.