A Summer Adventure

We are now safely back in Bellevue, Wa, reflecting on our 3.5 week adventure.  While it wasn't an easy trip, it certainly was eye-opening. Thankfully, the adventure brought Ilana and me together.  I was impressed with her toughness when it came to hiking/walking, her energy, and her ability to make decisions together.
Hindsight is 20/20.  If I were to plan the whole trip over, I would have spent 2 weeks in Nepal, gone to Pokara and trekked, and gone to Varanasi, Jaisalmer and Agra in the remaining 1.5 weeks.
India was a bit rough.  We saw too many forts in Rajastan.  I can't even keep them straight in my mind.  And really the highlights of India were in those three towns.  Delhi sucks and I would avoid it like the plague.  But without hindsight, I'd say we did pretty well.  We saw a ton, we met great people., and we had epic moments-- cremations in Varanasi, riding camels in the desert, and the sunrise at the Taj Mahal.  We did India!
In a way, it changed me.  I think I should stop eating mammals and I'm so vividly aware of how we are destroying our planet.  The pollution in India is everywhere.  Too many people, too many cars, too much noise, too much garbage, suffering and starvation.


Top India/Nepal experiences:
King Curd yoghurt in Bhaktapur
Hiking to and around Nagarkot
Momo and Samosas and Thai broccoli in Kathmandu
Riding on a camel in the desert of Jaisalmer
The giant forts with all the ornate stone work.
The nest-like bed and all you can you eat buffet in Jodhpur's Indana hotel
The Taj Mahal
Meeting a fellow travelers along the way: Aitor, Connor, Chilean girls, Ben, etc.
Varanasi sunrises, sunsets, religious fervor, cremations, ritual bathing, and evening ceremonies
Our temple tour in old Delhi with our  rickshaw bicycle tour guide
Sharing the adventure with Ilana
Shopping in Kathmandu


Worst of India/Nepal:
The mob outside our hotel in Jaipur
Walking in the streets, battling with the heat, crowds, beggers, smells, vendors, drivers etc.

Getting sick and not being able to eat street food, spicy food, and most Indian food
Being harassed, hassled, and taken advantage of to the point of being defensive and paranoid
Feces, mud and garbage everywhere
The heat, a palpable enemy that causes headaches after two hours
The stench of urine everywhere

The Majestic Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal, with its grand symmetry, exudes a calming sense of beauty. The night before, we arrived in Agra by train and decided to visit the famous Agra Fort, home to kings, at sunset. That night, I got my head shaved and we visited a travel agent after dinner to book our return to Delhi the next day. We decided to do Agra in one day, allowing us 2 nights in Delhi before our return journey.
For our Taj visit, we woke at 5 AM and left the hotel by 5:30 AM. That way we were able to get there for the beautiful colors of sunrise and the cooler temperatures.
Our hired guide turned out to be an illegal guide, so he handed us off to another guide. After 15 minutes with him we realized that we didn't understand a word he was saying. So we dismissed him. Luckily we saw some folks from our hotel with a guide and asked if we could join their group. Their guide was adequate and appreciated the extra money we contributed.
There was hardly anyone there in the morning and we were able to shoot pictures unobstructed by tourists. The reflection in the pools was lovely and the mammoth size of the structure is easily masked by its graceful symmetry. The only exception to its symmetry is the placement of the king's coffin to one side of his queen, who is in the center. The inside of the mausoleum wasn't impressive, but the fact that the Taj is the same from all sides was really cool.
We both enjoyed taking pictures and meeting travelers and taking pictures of them.
That afternoon we boarded a bus and headed to the steaming rank of Delhi.

Getting Fortified in Jaipur

Of all of the forts that we have seen in Rajasthani, the Amber fort towers above them all.
After a delightful buffet breakfast in our hotel, we tried  to arrange transportation for the day. Ola did not have any cars available and neither did Uber. Turns out that there are an extra 1.6 million people in town this weekend for some big government testing.  We ended up renting a cab for the full day. It wasn't cheap but it took the guess-work and waiting out of the equation.
We were led around the Amber Fort by a guide whose ancestors were the former priests to the King in the fort. All the locals wai'ed his as he passed. He also had an odd tic of repeating every sentence twice. The Amber Fort was beautiful and interesting. Temples with silver doors and coral sculptures,  Old palace, new palace, summer palace, Winter Palace, hall of mirrors, 12 wives in stables with secret passageways from the kings room, air cooling systems, bats, ramps, steam bath system, etc.
 In the evening, we battled the crowds to walk to a nearby restaurant. The people, noise, smells, and traffic  were so dense that it was a scary experience. The police were shoving people along to get some kind of movement in the crowd.
My digestive tract is the traffic in Jaipur – congested, stop and go, barely moving, smelly; but not nearly as loud.

Pure Udaipur

It took a six hour bus ride to get there. When we reached our hotel we discovered that the word deluxe did not have the intended meaning.  Ilana thought that they rent out the rooms by the hour. It was a long, smelly, sleepless night. In the morning, we couldn't find anyone to serve us a breakfast buffet that we had paid for. When we were finally brought tea, it was in dirty mugs.  But this tale has a happy ending. Down the street we discovered a German bakery, had a delicious breakfast, and then the owner offered us an incredible room with the lake views for a great price. Our second night in a Udaipur was much better than the first.

We  did the perfunctory visit to the city Palace and the perfunctory boat cruise on the lake through the haze. My favorite part of Udaipur was the delicious food served on the rooftop restaurants with a view of the lake and the lake palace below.

It's Good to be the Maharaja

Yesterday in the 110° temperature, Ilana and I toured the giant fort Mehreghar, built into a mountain above the blue city of Jodhpur. It was so hot that my eyeballs were melting. All I remember from the tour was a few brief anecdotes. When the king died the queen would, as she walked toward his burning pyre, she would mark the walls with a vermilion handprint, then give away all her gold and silver baubles, and then climb up on his burning pyre and sacrifice herself without any signs of pain.  The entrance to the fort, which has never fallen, is at a right angle turn with spikes about 10 feet up. This was so that a charging elephant wouldn't be able to gain speed as it tried to ram into the gate.  There was also the story of when a recent maharajah became a king at the age of four. In the ceremony each visiting guest made a gift to the new king. He then gave each gift to the following person, passing the gifts down from person to person. With this gesture he became reknown for his generosity and kindness toward the people.
This morning I ate for two hours straight at our all you can eat buffet. It was not easy to eat for two hours straight, but like a good distance runner, I paced myself and push through to the end.
We have a five hour bus ride to Udaipur this afternoon.
I heard a great quote from a wise fellow traveler. It went something like this: in India never trust a fart is just a fart.