India 2

So this last post about India is a little late...okay well a good amount of time has passed since we left Delhi but we have been very busy since. Regardless this last post about India will cover some interesting topics.

The first topic is our trip to Jaipur which is located in the state of Rajasthan. It is a very colorful city with many shops and artisans that line the streets for many miles, or km (since we are abroad). The one thing I didnt like about Jaipur, and Agra for that matter is how dirty both cities are. They both make Delhi seem like a very very clean city in comparison. There is trash everywhere along with more visible poverty and many times we saw people defacating in the middle of the sidewalks...we're not in Delhi anymore folks. But outside of this Jaipur was a delight to see. The city of Rajasthan still has a ruler, and we got a chance to see his palace which was very impressive. Next to the City Palace was our favorite sight of the Jaipur trip. The Observatory called Jantar Mantar was a very interesting place to see because it was something different...different from the many many forts we saw. It was built by the Maharaja Jai Singh II between 1727 and 1734. Inside the Jantar Mantar was a collection of different instruments used to tell the latitude and longitude of Jaipur, predicting eclipses and even telling the time. There was a small sundial that tells the time accurately to about 20 seconds. The larger sundial (which is the largest in the world) tells time accurately to about 2 seconds. Think about that! Your watch is accurate to 1 second and this was created in the 1700's and is accurate to about 2 seconds. Amazing!

The rest of the sightseeing in Jaipur was filled with more forts...one of which was built in the middle of a lake. Very cool to see. We eventually made our way back to Delhi where we reunited with my family and told them about our great experiences. The day before we left, which was a Thursday, we met up with an Australian journalist posted in Delhi who is good friends with my uncle. He took us out to a couple of bars and we chatted about sports, life, and politics. We went to a restaurant called Panjabi by Nature located in Vasant Vihar (about 10 min. away from my aunts house). We enjoyed a good night there until the restaurant staff tried to overcharge us (almost double) for our night of drinking. I think they thought they could get away with it b/c we were foreigners and drunk but being Americans (especially from NJ) we dont take crap from anyone. We argued our bill, calmy and politely to start with but that soon escalated to us yelling and cursing a little. We argued and argued but they wouldnt lower the price so we paid but our friend Mike told them that he was going to write a nasty article about them and tell all his expat and journalist friends to avoid Panjabi by Nature. So if you are ever in Delhi do not, I repeat DO NOT go to Panjabi by Nature! Other than that blemish the night was a lot of fun and we enjoyed hanging out with Mike.

The day of our departure was pretty uneventful. Lots of packing and repacking to make sure our suitcases made the weight restrictions. Our flight was at 1 am on Friday morning so we got to the airport around 1030. Alka and Seema bua dropped us off and after we said our goodbyes we headed in and waited to board our flight to Bangkok.

Two countries down and one to go....Next stop Bangkok!

Delhi

Egypt was an unbelievable time but we had to move onto our second stop, which is New Delhi, India. We arrived in Delhi at 5:30 am on Wednesday morning after two quick flights and one not so quick 5-hour stop in Bahrain. My two aunts Alka and Seema were waitng to receive us from outside the airport after we spent about an hour in line for immigration. During this hour for immigration, we were under close infared camera security to monitor the presence of swine flu. Forms needed to be filled out stating where we were coming from, have we ever been to America (not us, ever) and did we have any swine flu like symptoms. What are swine flue symptoms…no one on this trip was oinking or smelled like bacon so I think we are clean. The precautions seemed a bit much including the camera but I think the people who took it overboard were the Asian tourists. Every single Asian tourist we saw in immigration had those white Michael Jackson masks on their faces. Like that would really prevent a deadly disease from entering your body. Oh, I have a piece of cloth covering so now I’m immune to anything the world can throw at me. Not a chance guys, not a chance.

After dealing with the mess at immigration and meeting up with the aunts, we drove through the streets of Delhi towards Vasant Kunj, where my aunt Seema lives and where we would make our home base. Surprisingly Delhi seemed less chaotic than Cairo in terms of traffic and was also a lot cleaner than I had expected. This may be because the Commonwealth Games will be held in Delhi next year so the city is trying to beautify and clean up. In my opinion, they are doing a decent job at cleaning but still have a long ways to go. Some areas of Delhi the traffic gets really bad because of construction of new metro lines for the games. Places with three lanes on each side of the road now bottleneck into one lane each and the traffic can get unbearable in these areas.

We unpacked and settled ourselves in Seema Bua’s (bua means father’s sister) house. One of the things I told my friends about India is that every middle class family has servants that work for them. This means someone to drive, to cook, and to clean…or people to do a combination of these tasks. After getting situated we waited for Seema Bua’s cook to come and make us breakfast. My uncle Murali suggested dhosas, which can be likened to crepes but are much tastier and served with cocunut chutney (sauce) and some sambar, which is a sort of curry. This is a typical south Indian breakfast and we happily ate our fair share. I ate more than my friends did because they made the mistake of filling up on airplane food on the flight from Bahrain to Delhi. I did not make such mistake and happily kept tucking away dhosa after dhosa. Simply delecious. After a filling and satisfying breakfast we relaxed in Seema bua’s house; we checked our emails and facebooks accounts and I called my parents to tell them of our arrival. Colin and Chris ended up sleeping for a couple of hours while I chit-chatted with my aunt and caught up.

Lunchtime rolled around and we went to the Hauz Khas neighborhood of Delhi to eat lunch with my grandparents. We had a table full of dal (lentils), aloo (potatoes), okra, and beans. The food was excellent but the company was even better. I hadnt seen my grandparents since last year in March so it was nice to spend some time with them. Chris and Colin really took a liking to my grandfather who kept them entertained with many stories of his life and things he has seen. They were really enamered by his life stories and experiences and would be for the rest of the time we spent in India.

After Wednesday, we started our half-day tours of New and Old Delhi. Our first tour took us to Jama Masjid (Masjid is Hindi for mosque) which is the eighth largest mosque in the world in terms of capacity. It can hold up to 25,000 people and we chose to see this on Thursday because Friday is a prayer day and it would be very hard to navigate our way through 25,000 people in the middle of prayer. The mosque would not allow us to bring in cameras but it was very beautiful. Emperor Shah Jahan who also built the Taj Mahal completed Jama Masjid in 1656. The mosque itself is located in a very interesting part of Old Delhi called Chandni Chowk. This is one of the oldest markets in Delhi and is something Colin, Chris and I have never seen before. We took a rickshaw ride (bicycle pulling a carriage) through the very narrow streets of the market (very very narrow) where it was hard for people to pass us while we were riding the rickshaw.

Here is a list of the places we saw on our tour. Most of them are forts and basically the same thing one after the other.

1. Jama Masjid – Mosque

2. Chandni Chowl- crowded ally filled with many shops

3. Red Fort- Giant fort built by Shah Jahan. Completed in 1648

4. The Baha'i lotus temple. The Baha'i faith believes in all religions and allows them to pray here

5. The Birla house where Gandhi spent the last his last 144 days and was also assassinated

6 Humayan’s Tomb- Mosloleuem .which looks a lot like the Taj Mahal. Built for Mughal emperor Humayan

7 Qutb Minar- largest minaret in the world.

We also spent some time at the Delhi Gymkhana Club which is a very very very exclusive (im talking it up more because I have membership there) country club in Delhi. It has everything from tennis and racquetball courts, to a swimming pool, bar area, restaurant and cottages to stay in. Everyone goes to this club and we always run into someone we know there. I took Colin and Chris and we had drinks with my aunt and uncle at the bar and just chatted. The club is usually the jumping off point for activities later on in the night. After we drank we drove to a neighborhood outdoor restaurant for some momos (dumplings). Great drunk food to quell ones hunger.

I think the guys really enjoyed our first few days in this amazing city. I did as well and I have been thinking about possibly living here in the future for a couple of years. But that would be well down the line (wife and kids). Its too big of a city for me to live alone in.