Delhi Trip

Hey all,

As promised this is a description of the trip that Tracy, Elaine, and I took to Delhi this past weekend. Summary: AMAZING!!!

Our flight from Bangalore left around noon, so we got up fairly early in the morning. We were all disappointed by the flight out because it was cloudy the *entire* way. I had been hoping to actually get to see Bangalore and India from the sky :-P. We got through the airport without any complications, and had a *much* better taxi experience than coming into Bangalore (though it took the guy forever to find Anu's family's house, and then he tried to charge up extra [Anu's brother Sachit took care of that though ^_^]). Anu's family is *amazingly* nice and took incredibly good care of us the entire time we were there (I'm taking mental notes every time I experience India hospitality. It is the best I've ever seen and I hope to mimic it myself). Though we had never met them before and Anu wasn't even there for most of the time we stayed with them, they were incredibly friendly and hospitable. We were always *bursting* from the most delicious Indian food I have had here (which *really* is saying something), and never felt weird or awkward.

When we first got there we all sat in the living room and chatted with the whole family for a while, while they served us 'lunch' (lots and lots of snacks that filled us to bursting at ~5PM). The family is Anu's mom and dad, plus her older sister Poojan and younger brother Sachit. They also had Anu's 5 year old cousin staying with them while we were there. His name is Divanchu (I probably spelled that wrong), and he is *incredibly* cute and *incredibly*...spirited... He had the tendency to go around pointing at things and claiming them as his. At one point Poojan was trying to leave to drive somewhere and ended up taking her parents car instead of hers because Divanchu had taken the keys and wouldn't give them back (he wanted to drive the pink car!). At one point he claimed an entire blender assembly as his (he loves to cook) and pretended to make us juice from rags that he would very carefully put in the blender (he had the process all worked out). The most amusing thing he did was after we got back from Agra and were sitting around the living room. I was sitting down and leaning forward so my head was only a little above his level. He walked up to me and started feeling my goatee with his hand and just sort of staring at me. He must have spent 30seconds to a minute feeling my goatee, rubbing my cheek, and feeling my goatee again. Then he said something in Hindi and everyone (who spoke Hindi) started laughing. Apparently he had told me to shave it off because it hurts! He apparently also tells Sachit to shave ^_^. CUTE!

Ok, so after 'lunch' Poojan took the Elaine, Tracy, Sachit, and I out in her car. We drove around Delhi a bit (the traffic and infrastructure is much better here. Everything is much farther apart, but it still takes about as long to get to things as in the much smaller Bangalore). This trip took us to two places: Jun Path (said "Pat" with emphasis on the t) and India Gate. Jun Path is a fairly large and dense, really cool market. We wandered about and bought some cool stuff, saving a lot of money in the process because Poojan is an *incredible* bargainer. Elaine & Tracy both got some Indian hangy things and skirts, and Elaine bought a novelty pipe from a hawker (I've seen hundreds of this identical pipe. Its a very popular item). I found some really neat kurtas for myself ^_^. Once we finished in Jun Path, we took the scenic route to India gate, going through Cannard Circle which is a really really nice shopping area (the most expensive in Delhi) with a nice park called Central Park in the middle. India Gate reminds me of the Arc de Triumph if it was set down in the middle of the park in front of the Eiffel Tower. Its very nice, and it also has a forever-burning flame to commemorate fallen soldiers. While we were there Tracy, Elaine, and I all got henna (me on my upper arms, them on hands + an arm) which looked *really* cool. Unfortunately the stuff wasn't very good quality so it didn't leave very much of an impression. Once we got back we had an *amazing* dinner and then greatfully went to sleep...

...but not for too long because we woke up at 4:30AM to catch our train to Agra! Anu's parents got up at that time to drive us to the station (*so* nice!) where we met Tracy's friend Rebecca (who is going to be at Mudd next year) and hopped aboard the 2 hour express train to Agra. We arrived and got to our hotel by way of a prepaid auto (4 people in it ^_^) without much hassle except the driver trying to get hired as a guide. I cannot do justice to our day, so I won't really try (see my pictures for more justice). The Taj Mahal is *amazing* and I cannot believe I was there. It was like something from a fairytale. We first saw it from the roof of our hotel and I was just blown away... We also went to Agra Fort which was similarly amazing and had a very cool view of the Taj. After a long (and hot & humid. Both Delhi and Agra are *very* hot and humid) day of touring, we just collapsed in our hotel room for the late afternoon and had dinner on the roof of our hotel, with a view of the Taj and all the kites that kids on rooftops were flying as the sun set. It was awesome.

We woke up at 4:30AM again to catch another 6AM train back to Delhi (unfortunately not express, so it took 4 hours to get back) and we took a cab back to Anu's house. We were all fairly exhausted, but sat down and chatted for a while and then were served *delicious* pourri for breakfast!!! (at noon). After breakfast we ''took our rest' which basically meant we just sat about the house and enjoyed delicious relaxation for a few hours. At one point Anu's mom even made Tracy lie down because she didn't seem like she was comfortable/relaxed enough ^_^. We also found out that Sunday was "Friendship Day", which is like Mothers Day or Valentines Day, but instead you celebrate your friends! It is a really cool idea, and we ended up going out to a bar at about 4:30 with Poojan and a bunch of her friends. It was really cool hanging out with them, and I got to chat with one of them about the differences between the US and India (chatting about arranged marriages, how households change after marriage, parties, jobs, etc.). It was also fun drinking and dancing in the middle of the afternoon ^_^.

After hanging out at the bar we came back to the house, relaxed for a while longer and had some food to eat, then Tracy, Elaine, and I went to Akshardham Temple. I don't quite understand the story behind the temple. I think that the 5th incarnation of some very wise Hindu man caused it to be built, and it is a modern temple built with ancient techniques and in ancient styles. The entire main temple was built without using steel at all. Imagine a truly beautiful ancient church or temple that you have seen, then think about what that place would be like if you could have seen it in its prime, just after it had been constructed. That is what Akshardham is like. It actually felt like a far classier and religiously themed Disney Land. It was filled to the brim with visitors, and you had to go through a bunch of security and leave all electronic devices like cameras and cell phones before you could get in. I don't even know how to start describing the intricacy. The main temple has something like 1000 elephants carved into its base, all of which appear almost alive because they are so well crafted. You can walk around the main part, looking at these elephants, and reading about the stories and wise sayings that they depict. Even their eyes seem to have expression!

The main temple itself was breathtaking. The stonework was at a level of detail that I have never seen, and it all was incredibly beautiful. It was like the intracacy of the Tibetan Buddhist temples that I have seen, except all done in marble! It was also very peaceful and reverent inside, encouraged by the fact that you weren't supposed to talk.

After the main temple we went to see the musical fountain they had there. I've heard of these before, always hearing that they weren't too impressive, but this one was promoted as the best in India and *boy* was it spectacular. There must have been three or four thousand people in the crowd around the fountains, and even before the music, lights, and water started it was really cool. The fountains are in this slight depression, that is down a few very large steps from the level of the rest of the temple. Everything is done in beautiful redstone, and there is a massive gold statue illuminated by a spotlight and backed by an enormous redstone building at one end of this area. All three of us agreed that it felt very mystical and surreal. I felt like I was in one of the crazy settings from an Indiana Jones movie ^_^. Dorky as that may sound, it is probably the best way to describe how I felt. Then the show started. The light and water show runs along with music, and the music was a beautiful Indian piece. It sounded like a subtle blend of western classical music and traditional Indian ^_^. Then the light and water show was fantastic. I can't even really describe it, but the fountain and lights perfectly captured and enhanced the feeling of the music, and all of this went along perfectly with the surreal feeling of this place. My favorite thing the fountain did was a sort of peacock-tail type of effect, where water was blown out in a mist in a fan shape, and illuminated by lights in such a way that it seemed to ripple and undulate in the air. It looked like something that I would have thought would be impossible to create outside of a computer animation. All in all: incredible.

After the musical fountain we got out of Akshardham as fast as we could. Basically all of those thousands of other watchers of the fountain were also leaving, and we wanted to get our stuff out of the coat check before things got too bad. I did get stuck in a long line at the coat check, but for some reason one of the guys that worked there and had a shorter line came over and pulled me into his line and I got my stuff quickly. I was really confused and initially distrustful of this because I didn't want to lose my spot in line for no reason, but he was just being really cool, and didn't even want money for it, which is a nice change ^_^. As we were walking back to our taxi it started raining, and a *massive* downpour started just as we got into the taxi (just in time!). It was *incredible* to watch the rain come down like that. It soaked anyone who was out in it in seconds, and there was water *covering* the roads. It is really hard to describe well, but basically it rained *hard*.

On the cab drive back we drove by the "Lotus Temple" which is a really cool meditation area (that was unfortunately closed that late) that looks like a massive lotus flower. We were at least able to see it. We also stopped on the way back to buy some friendship bracelets that were being sold because it was friendship day ^_^.

And Anu arrived just a little while after we got back!!! It was really cool to see another Mudder there, and it was neat seeing Anu with her whole family. We all sat and chatted for a while and had nice appetizers and a delicious dinner and then got some well deserved sleep!

We woke up decently early in the morning so that we could go with Anu, Sachit, Poojan, and Divianchu to a Sikh Temple that was in Delhi. It is one of the most important temples to Sikhs, and it was really cool. We had some sort of holy food, some holy water, and saw an artificial lake full of holy water off to the side of the temple. One cool thing about this temple is it is the only place in Delhi that has a sweetwater spring, and I think that is what the holy water was.

While we were coming back to Anu's house from the temple I got a series of text messages informing me that our flight was being delayed. We got back to the house and had our last (and of course, delicious) meal with Anu's family. I was really sad to say goodbye. The weekend we had there was really amazing, and it was all because of their kindness and generosity ^_^.

We took a cab from their house, and because of the delays we tried to go to a cool place called Delhi Haat (a big market with food and shops from all of Indias different states!!! It sounds so cool and I really am sad not to have seen it), but didn't think we would be able to make it and had our cab change course to the airport in mid drive. We got there far faster than we expected (which was somewhat upsetting because it would have been nice to go to Delhi Haat) and got through security and everything just fine (even carrying all our toiletries on the flight with us this time instead of checking a bag for them). The only problem was that I had a pair of small scissors in my toiletries bag that they found and made me throw away (sad because they had served me well, but I have now replaced them with an even nicer pair, and they were only 12Rs. originally anyway). It was nice that the airport had a small ice cream/sandwhich stall and and a water purifier, but it was not so nice that our flight was (in total) delayed by 3 hours and we were all dead tired (myself less so than Elaine and Tracy, so basically fell asleep every time they sat down ^_^).

We made it back to Bangalore without too many problems, though we again missed the view in the plane, this time because of closed windows and it getting dark because of the huge delay. When we got back to Bangalore we celebrated our weekend by going out to dinner at Ebony, then came back home and *dropped* off into sleep.


Wow, that was a long post, but it was a long and fantastic weekend ^_^.

Cheers,
Jason