Thursday, June 20, 2013

The Trip of a Lifetime!

My sincerest apologies to all of my adoring readers who have gone so long without an update, but I have a very good reason.  Emily and I just got back from an excursion to Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi!

We flew out of Nagpur on Sunday morning, but that day was mostly for travel and catching up on some much needed sleep.  However, we were able to pay a visit to Saint Dominic's Roman Catholic Church in Delhi and meet some of the friars there!  They were incredibly welcoming and kept trying to give us tons of snacks and candies, one of which Emily and I fell in love with and we are still searching for back in Nagpur (the headquarters for Haldiram's, the country's biggest snack food company, is actually in Nagpur. Who knew?)

On Monday, we departed very early in the morning for Jaipur.  Jaipur is the capital of the desert state of Rajasthan in India, and is also famous for being the hottest place in India.

(Guess who didn't have sunscreen because of the liquid rule on planes? We eventually found some, but I got a lot of weird looks from shopkeepers because many Indian people have never used or heard of sunscreen!)

Anyway, Jaipur is also known as the "Pink City", mainly because many of the buildings are colored pink.  Also, many of the kings of India lived at Jaipur from the 1700s onward (as well as many British royals and dignitaries visiting) and pink is considered the color of royalty.

Our tour guide, Raj, was absolutely wonderful and knew so much about the city!  While in Jaipur, we visited the observatory, the City Palace, and Amber Fort.  However, we saw many other sights from afar and were able to take pictures.

Jaipur Observatory

City Palace...with Emily...

One of the gates of the Pink City

View from the Amber Fort

Emily and I in the Mirror Palace, Amber Fort


The highlight of the day was by far the elephant ride!  We had hoped to ride an elephant, as we heard that it was a big tourist attraction in Jaipur (not to mention that it's Emily's dream).  However, upon our arrival, we found out that the rides close at 11:00 am due to the heat and not wanting to overwork the elephants (we arrived at about 11:30...it figures).  Luckily for us, though, Raj pulled a few strings and we were able to ride elephants through the streets of Jaipur!

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos with me because my camera died right before our ride started, but you can check out Emily's Blog for a picture, as well as some other great photos!

On Tuesday, we departed very early again for our drive to Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal! I seriously don't even have any words for how gorgeous it was.  It didn't even look real; it looked like something out of a movie, or as if someone had just painted this gorgeous structure against the sky.  And there is so much detail and backstory involved as well!  It took 22 years to construct (1631-1653 if my math is right, which it never is), and was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz, who died in 1630.  At the north gate, there are 11 domes on each side (adding up to 22), and 53 fountains in the pool leading up to the Taj.  The four towers built around the Taj, interestingly enough, are built leaning at a 5 degree angle away from the main building.  Our tour guide, Sonu, explained to us that this decision was made because just in case the towers should fall, they would fall away from the building.

Interestingly enough, the Taj Mahal is a Muslim work of architecture and not a Hindu one (though India is famous for being an almost completely Hindu country).  There are mosques built on either side of the Taj, and they are gorgeous works of art in themselves and would probably be appreciated more if they weren't being dwarfed by one of the seven wonders of the world...

I counted on my camera, and the total number of photos taken with the Taj in them (I counted all pictures that involve some part of the building, even if it is just a wall or a carving) is...62. 62 pictures. I'm a little embarrassed by that. Anyway, here are some highlights:

Wait...this is not real life... 

Jumping Photo: a tourist obligation

One of the mosques on either side of the Taj




After some lunch, we also toured the Agra Fort, which was a beautiful sight to see and also had a great view of the city and (of course) the Taj in the distance.  Only 25% of the Fort was open to the public, and even less will be available soon enough, because the Indian army actually still uses it for training and their new sessions start in a few weeks! Many of these forts, though they are called "forts", were actually the homes of royalty.  They just had really high walls and the best secret service ever.

Agra Fort

Our last stop that day, on the way back to Delhi, was the Krishna temple at Mathura.  It is said to be the birthplace of the Lord Krishna of the Hindu religion (I would say he's their Jesus figure, but upon further touring and learning about Hindu gods, just about everybody's a Jesus figure).  Photographs weren't allowed here because it was a distinctly holy place, so I don't have any pics, unfortunately.  It was also another place (among many, I'd come to find) where we were not allowed to wear shoes.  One interesting fact about the temple is that they have musicians constantly chanting the Hare Krishna mantra 24 HOURS A DAY. They never stop! (I'm assuming they take shifts). I think they could just play "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison on repeat and save themselves a lot of trouble, but it is tradition.

We arrived back in Delhi late that night and spent Wednesday seeing the sights of India's capital.  We soon came to find that Delhi (or New Delhi or whatever you want to call it), is very much like the Washington, D.C. of India.  Our first sight was the Indira Gandhi museum (no relation to the Mahatma, as I eventually found out), and it was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip! Indira Gandhi was the third Prime Minister of India after the country gained home rule from British imperialism, and is considered one of India's greatest leaders.  Her father was India's first Prime Minister and was a contemporary of Gandhi, and she was a close friend of his as well.  The house where she lived with her son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren was transformed into the museum after she was assassinated in 1984.  Emily and I actually saw the sight where she was killed, which was just on a path in her back yard.  We came to find that the Nehrus (Indira's family name) were kind of like the Kennedys of India: very politically involved and all with very tragic stories.

Newspaper Clippings from the Indira Gandhi museum


Next, we saw the Qutab Minar, the tallest minaret in India (though still 5 meters shorter than the Taj Mahal) and its surrounding ruins.  This ancient Muslim architectural feat was finished in the early 1200's and was absolutely breathtaking.




Qutab Minar




Afterwards, we saw the Lotus Temple, which is a fairly new construction but is still very popular.  It is a Baha'i House of Worship, stemming from a belief system that welcomes all faiths and all people.  We got to sit inside and meditate/pray for a bit, and saw that there is no iconography and no indication of any on faith inside the temple.  This was another spot where we were not allowed to wear shoes, which was a serious struggle on the sun-baked sandstone outside...ouch...

Lotus Temple


We also saw the Ashkardam Temple, which is one of the most stunning Hindu temples on the planet.  This was another "no-shoes, no-photo" spot, but I highly recommend that my readers look it up, because the detail and architecture of the temple is absolutely out-of-this-world.


The last big spot of the day was the Raj Ghat, also known as the cremation site of Mahatma Gandhi.  This was to me as elephant riding was to Emily.  I am a huge admirer of Gandhi and I was so excited to see his memorial.  As was Gandhi's existence, the site was very simple, but it was beautiful and well-kept and had many inspirational quotes by both the Mahatma himself and other thinkers that he admired carved into the walls.  There are many surrounding parks at this spot as well, including a memorial to Rajiv Gandhi, Indira's son and the Fourth Prime Minister of India, who was assassinated in 1989. (I told you, they're ACTUALLY the Kennedys.)

Raj Ghat...I was waaaay too excited for this


Now that this post has gotten way out of hand, I'll just close by saying that I loved our excursion.  It was the perfect getaway and a chance to see some of the greatest sights in India.  We're both happy to be back at the center, and we have lots of pictures (and way too many souvenirs) by which we can remember our awesome trip.

More updates coming soon from Nagpur!





  

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