India - A summary

India is like no other country. It is a place of fine balances – between great and ghastly, fabulous and filthy, inspiring and infuriating, cheap and cheating. We have met fascinating people (including some new friends for home) and fought with aggravating others (including one who was arrested). And it is always amazing how those balances can shift in point-five.

We often say that India is a place where everything is negotiable (price, time, space, ethics...), and often wonder why. It is place full of very proud (and sexually repressed) people, which means you can get as many answers to a question as people of whom you ask it. (It also means the onus is on you to move your vehicle out of the way when I drive into your lane honking like a mad-man.) We have tried to immerse ourselves in Indian life (e.g., local busses, post office, and markets), and honestly have no idea how they do it.

Finally, while Westerners are always treated with an air of godliness in Asia, it is often done with a subtle feeling of spite here. Foreigners pay more: tuk-tuks, food, and an average ten times as much to visit sites. Foreigners are hassled way more too: “Excuse me ma’am, hello, excuse me friend... (hi)... where are you from?... (Canada)... Oh Canada! Great country... (thanks)... Yes sir, you look in my shop...(no thanks)... very good prices... (it’s okay, thanks)... why not, I not make any sales today... (sorry, no)... promise come back later?... (no)...why not later?” Being a foreigner takes real getting used to here, and we are glad that we did India in the order we did (easiest to hardest), so that we built up a tolerance.

And yet, in the end, perhaps the oddest balance we manage is the overwhelming excitement to leave India with one of knowing we will miss it terribly. It has changed us in ways we are unsure of, brought us closer together, and humbled us just a little bit.

Now, off to Malaysia.

P.S. Agra photos coming in next few days.

Jaipur (2 of 2)

The first three photos are of Jaigarh, which was the "war-time fort" (Amber was the "peace-time fort"). It is situated much higher on the mountain, and feels much more like a fortress than the palace feel of Amber. This is mostly for Hallett, but the cannon is the largest in the world (range of over 30km, takes 100 kg of gunpowder to fire and four elephants to aim)! The other two pictures are taken within the old city - one of the madness that is traffic, and the other of Hawa Mahal ("Palace of the Winds"). The majority of the old city is made up of bazaars, but we don't have many good photos here.

The Taj Mahal

Well I feel I must dedicate a few words to the Taj! What an utterly spectacular site it was as we entered the main gate. We have already seen it from afar while eating on a rooftop restaurant or at our hotel, but up close was a whole new story.
As you pass through the main gate and witness it in front of you - you are utterly at a loss for words. This glowing white marble masterpiece -I actually burst into tears - you can't help it! Even Matt got a *little* emotional (I know this may truly shock some of you but it's no lie!!!) When meeting travelers in passing, everyone says you truly can't describe how the Taj is - and you can't. The scale of it is so massive, yet the fine details all over it is just so intricate and magical. The amount of work and time put into it is amazing!!! And to think that this Mogul emperor created this out of sheer love for his second wife, who died giving birth to her 14th child! We read that he was so devastated by the loss of her that his hair went grey overnight! Although I feel I would deserve a fabulous tomb if I gave birth to 14 children!!!! Hi there!!
I will never forget just sitting there with Matt, after we had gone through it, and just staring at it for more then an hour. You just don't want to leave!
Alas, leave we must! Today is our last day in India - a taxi is picking us up at 2pm to take us to Delhi airport and then we are off to Langkawi for some much needed beach time!! Oh brother - I hope I still fit into my bikini after all the garlic butter nann bread and rich creamy curries. Perhaps I shall fast on fruit and vodka sodas....mmmmmmmm.
Well I hope all of you are well and I continue to miss you all very much! You have all been so great with emails and you don't know what a wonderful site it is to open my inbox and hear all of your stories from home. Thank you a thousand times over!
Lots of love
xxoo
Vee

Jaipur (1 of 2)

Here are a bunch of photos from Amber (pronunced Amer) fort, which is just outside Jaipur. We actually did three forts this day (Amber, Jaigarh, and Nahargarh) which you should be able to see in the first panorama. They're pretty cool forts. I took a photo of the lattice work (or jhali), to show that while you can out of it from the inside, you can`t see in from the outside.

Pushkar

So, on a whim (and some advice from friends), we stopped in Pushkar for two days. The first photo is of the ghats (so many pigeons!) where Vee and I met the now infamous Brahmans. Pushkar is semi-famous (at least among foreigners) for shopping of all kinds (photo #2). There are also tonnes of temples (#3), camels (#4), and mountains (#5). That about sums it up.

Last city in India - Agra!

We are finally at our last destination - the city where we will see the Taj Mahal! We have already seen it from lunch at one of the hotel restaurant rooftops, but we can not wait to get up close and personal!
Matt and I are both finding it so hard to believe we will soon be done here! It has certainly had its ups and downs, but there have been way more ups and it has truly been such an awe inspiring experience.
Matt is at a bit of a low point right now as it's his belly's turn for a little rumbling, but he is doing a bit better and is pushing through like a champ. It does suck being ill when you are so far away from home.
Jaipur brought mixed feelings from both of us. I loved it but Matt was not as much of a fan. We had heard a few bad things from fellow travelers, how badly polluted and pushy it was. But I found it exactly as I imagined India to be. It was so old, with many many vendors selling lovely spices and clothes and jewelry. The forts were amazing and there was such a sense of history here.
One fun experience was visiting the post office as I had some souvenirs to mail back, a pair of jeans and two books. My pack is heavy enough thank you. Well they literally take swabs of white material and sew your package together!! It's like they create a little pillow case for all your goodies then stitch it all in!!!! You then fill out a paper of the To: address and then they sew it again to the package. Last but not least you write it all in black magic marker on the front! What an experience - it took over an hour but it was just so fascinating!!!!!
It's the little things here that are truly wild and wonderful - but I have to say although I hate Canada Post , they do seem a smidge more modern.
Well as always we miss you all and hope you are well. Many, many hugs.
Vee
xxoo

Jodhpur (2 of 2)

Mehrangarh (the main fort of Jodhpur and, arguably, the only reason to go there) is a pretty impressive fort. The picture of the entire fort is taken from a couple kms away. The only thing to really note in these snaps is the picture of the hands - they are the handprints of the last wives to perform sati (jumping on the pyre of your dead husband) in Jodhpur - which occurred in 1843. Ah, the gold ol' days...

Jodhpur (1 of 2)

Sorry - these photos are a couple days out of date. Jodhpur is known as the "blue city" (one of four colour-named cities in Rajasthan) - which the first two photos surely demonstrate is apropos. Blue used to signify the house of a Brahman, but apparently now everyone does it. They were both taken from Mehrangarh (the main fort featured in the next post).

The other three photos are at Jaswant Thada, a memorial about a click from the fort.

Tipping Point - with a side of Tuberculosis

Matt and I always talk about our `tipping point`for each city; the moment when we are just so over it and are ready to move on. Some cities bring us faster to that point, others not at all! And some places we have our best time when we go past this point and really force ourselves to experience it just that much more.
I have almost reached my tipping point for India in general- and my tuberculosis has not helped! Ok - I may have a slight flare for the dramatics. What I have is a cough that started shortly after we left Delhi. A lot of people get it from the pollution - what is funny though is that all the foreigners we meet who are smokers don`t suffer at all from it! Ah well, it`s much better having this than tummy problems.
Pushkar has been a wild city - for there are rules here! No meat, no eggs, no booze, no skimpy dressing and no affection!!! You can`t snuggle with your significant other at all or even hold hands! I can live with all of it, but not one beer or vodka soda? Why???
I have also developed a lot of disdain for the Brahman priests here who swindled Matt and I out of 10 bucks - which is not a lot of $ but a lot in India. And they scoffed at that saying most people give hundreds of dollars!!! We were somehow sucked into being given a flower that we should throw into the holy lake, from which point we were then seperated from each other and given a blessing. That translated into wanting 200 rupees (5 bucks) for the health of each family member. We were then dabbed on the forehead with powder and rice and hounded until we gave $. I burst into tears b/c I was having a minor melt down moment and scratched my blessing off immediately (not in front of the priest though, that would be somewhat rude). India does wear you down a bit I must say, but then you have a peaceful, magical moment that makes up for all of it.
So we leave tomorrow for Jaipur and are currently hotel-less - apparently an email confirmation does not mean an "actual confirmation". So we are currently looking for a new place. Shanti, shanti.
Missing you all!
xxoo
Vee

Two forts and a temple

"Garh" means fort (or so I've deduced), and Chittorgarh and Kumbulgarh are two of Asia's largest - in fact I think the former *actually* is the largest. We're talking nearly 30 sq. km.! You either don't see the whole thing, or are forced to drive around it.
The first two photos just give the tiniest sense of what's available at Chittorgarh, while the next three panoramas show Kumbulgarh (our preference), which is in the middle of the mountains between Udaipur and Jodhpur.

The final three photos are of Ranakpur - an AMAZING temple. 1444 unique and intricately carved columns hold up the building. I've done my best to capture it on film, but I'm not sure I've done it justice. Sad thing is, we apparently missed some that may have been nicer!

Rural India

We've now taken a couple trips into the rural parts of India (as well as two buses today). It is more arid than I had expected, and actually feels quite 3rd-world-ish. Nonetheless, their are moments that really take your breath away. Here are a couple photos to give you an impression of what I mean.

Final Udaipur photos

So, here are the last photos of Udaipur we'll post. The first panorama is again from our Hotel at dusk. One of my favourite photos ever. The next two are from a walk about a park-laden mountain/large hill up to "Sunset point" (one of perhaps 4 in the city). The other two photos are of Vee trekking to a gazebo on the top of said mountain/large hill and an elephant on the road. No surprisese there...

Leaving Jodhpur...

Hi All!
Well time is flying and we are soon leaving again for our next destination! We have been in Jodhpur for two days now and leave tomorrow morning for Pushkar.
I must say that the drive to Jodhpur was one of the most amazing we have ever taken! It was roughly 9 hours, but we stopped at a massive fort and then a Jain temple on the way. Matt will put up some pics tonight!
We went through crazy mountains then arid deserts! We saw so many different people, vegetation and ways of life, and even encountered a pack of wild camels!! That is something I will NEVER ever forget - simply stunning!
Matt and I still have moments where we look at each other in sheer astonishment of the fact that we are in India. It still is hard to believe at times.
Tomorrow we will be taking our first bus ride when we head to Pushkar. It's four hours and it supposedly has AC, so this should be interesting!
Oh and one super cute side note...along with the fact that there are tons of wild dogs here, there are also many puppies! I am in puppy heaven and often take the time to pat and play with them. Of course that is followed with a dousing of hand sanitizer, but SO worth it!!!!
Missing you all and hope you are all well back home!
xxoo
Vee

One more day in Udaipur...

Well tomorrow is our last full day in Udaipur. It has been simply magical. Today Matt and I hiked up another mountain to another fantastic viewing point of the entire city. It took our breath away. It's at these moments where I am truly in awe about being here...I am so grateful.
We have really kind of nestled in to a little routine here. We get up every morning and go to Edelweiss, our little European Bistro for breakfast, a big one! We usually have 4 chais to drink, an omelett, a multigrain roll with jam and butter and Matt usually has an apple strudle at the end - piglet! It keeps us going for all of our treking, until later in the afternoon where we head to our roof top for beers and a cheese masala parantha. For all you carb lovers out there, you would die over this. Almost like naan bread stuffed with spices, cheese, tomato and onion. YUM! India is a carb lovers dream!!
We then usually head for a late dinner, but last night just had a vegetarian dinner at our hotel b/c we were too exhausted to move. We went on a day trip to a HUGE fort called Chittogarh, which stands on a 28 square km site - the biggest in all of Asia- will post pics soon.
So the day after tomorrow we head to Jodhpur, the blue city, for some sighteeing then we are off to Pushkar, a small pilgrimage town where there are supposedly many hippy westerners and great shopping!
We are slowly becoming more and more comfortable to the wild sites, sounds and smells of India. But I am certain there is more shock value to come!
Missing you all terribly!
Love Vee,
xxoo

Photos (3 of 3): Out and About

The final set of snaps for Udaipur (at least for now). Vee is in front of cenotaphs - apparently Ahar has over 360. The beautiful white building is the aforementioned Lake Palace hotel. The remaining photos are at sunset at the Monsoon palace. That was an awesome 5km hike up a mountain (and a 5km hike back down in the dark after the sun set).

(As an aside - I find loading photos on blogspot incredibly frustrating. It`s not a program for presentation...)

Photos (2 of 3): The Culture

Here are some more snaps of Udaipur. The panorama is the upper courtyard of the City Palace (which is an amazing place!) The dancers were part of a traditional Rajasthani dance show we attended with our two new Canadian friends Walid and Elina (with whom we spent three awesome days). They're shown with us at dinner with Kunal, an Udaipur friend. The shot of the two of us is on our hotel rooftop - a very regular place to go for beers and food.