Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to Chicago Musician.
[00:00:05] It's been a hot minute since my last episode for those of you keeping score at home, and especially long since my last cadenza, the Summer of '23. Take a listen, for those of you who haven't, that's about eight or 9 billion of you. But since then, I took a kind of bucket list trip, and I didn't even know I had a bucket or a list.
[00:00:34] So I went to India, and it really is a bucket list destination, even though I don't really keep a bucket list. I guess I do have a list of places I hope to visit someday. But as far as bucket lists go, the Taj Mahal is probably on a lot of peoples', and rightfully so. I swear, if I'd just flown to India and gone to the Taj Mahal and went home again, it would have been worth it. It's that spectacular, it's that beautiful. It's one of the seven wonders of the world!
[00:01:12] But no, this was not a spontaneous happening where I just one day went to India. It took a lot of planning.
[00:01:21] So I was just writing down what I did for the, what? I keep saying 'the 15 days' I was there. And then I looked at the calendar, and it was really more like 17. Parts of 17 days. But we did a lot. So who's we? Let's back up a little bit here. The impetus for going to India at this particular time is that I have a cousin, Joan, who teaches in Delhi at one of the foreign schools there.
[00:01:54] I won't name names other than me, Joan, and my travel companion Gisele, my cousin. We're all born in the same year, and we've done some traveling before. Joan used to teach in Beijing, and Gisele and I went there in 2007, the pre Olympic year of China. And China has changed immensely since then. This is close to the last year for Joan teaching in Delhi, and so Giselle and I are like, 'we better go!' So with some planning, we did. Ironically, my cousin Joan wasn't there.
[00:02:38] She had to, the way it worked out, had to come back to Minnesota prematurely for a medical procedure. (All as well). But it was a little weird in the planning once we realized we were going to travel in India with Joan, but without Joan. So Gisele and I talked, and we both had plane tickets that we weren't going to be able to change. So we're like, 'well, we're going!'
[00:03:09] But Joan not being there didn't mean we didn't have some advantages. And this is one of my points: India is fascinating. It's fantastic. It's amazing. Everyone should go. However, it's not exactly ready for prime time yet. It's pretty difficult to get around, especially if you're a rookie in travel. But even if you're not, there's some real challenges as far as transportation.
[00:03:40] So that led to the first "advantage", which was Gisele and I were able to stay anyhow in Joan's apartment.
[00:03:53] And at these foreign schools, they are very nice, university type settings, teaching the kids of the ambassador or the CEO of Coca Cola India or whoever. Like that. It's all in English, all quite privileged kids. But the staff there has to live somewhere. And in this particular instance, Joan's apartment happens to be on another embassy's ground. I'm not going to say where it is, so no one gets in trouble, even though we were officially approved, pre-approved to be guests there. And then that changed and we jumped through hoops and, it was a little bit nerve wracking, but worked out just fine. So Gisele and I were able to stay at Joan's apartment in Delhi. What an advantage! We just went there, dropped our luggage, each took a bedroom and unpacked. And then when we did our excursions across India, we could just pack up a smaller bag for the three or four days we were going to be gone. And then we would return eventually to Joan's apartment. That, my friends, is called, I don't know. . . convenience? privilege? advantage? However you term it, it was a really stress-reducing way to travel for that long a period. Anyhow, another great advantage we had was access to a driver now in Delhi. Delhi is a ginormous city, one of the largest cities in the world, and it's challenging to get around. They have a pretty good metro system (that I eventually took when I was there), but where Joan lives is in the diplomatic enclave, the part where all the embassies are in Delhi. And it's kind of a world apart. It's insulated from the madness of the rest of the huge city, with wide boulevards and beautiful gardens. All the embassies are walled and gated and private and safe, and it's just way quieter than the rest of the city. The problem is, it's quite isolated and not close to grocery stores or restaurants and things like that, so a driver is often required. It's also quite a hike to the nearest subway station, even if you take a tuk-tuk. (More on those later.)
[00:06:22] But most people use a driver, and the driver that was recommended to us by most of the teachers was a man I'll call 'Mr. Sam'. Not his real name, but just for privacy sake. And he turned out to be a real gem of a person and a driver. And again, what an advantage to have someone you trust and who knows the system and knows the country, etc., etc. So remember that part about planning I was talking about earlier? Well, it's no accident that we ended up having Mr. Sam already hired to take us on the Golden Triangle tour. This is what many people only do when they go to India. They go to Delhi, drive south, or take the train, like 4 hours to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. See that, then drive 5 hours west to Jaipur, the Pink City, and then back to Delhi. That's the "Golden Triangle". And it's often all that people see of India, and it's fantastic. And we did it. But the reason we had Mr. Sam is because Joan realized the reason we were going to India at the time we went, end of March into April, was that was the teacher's break week.
[00:07:43] So we were going when Joan would be free for a week. And once it became clear that Joan wouldn't be there with us, she said, 'You better WhatsApp Mr. Sam and get him booked for this week, because he tends to get booked up when all the teachers are off and they want to use him or not'. So, probably in January, I WhatsApp-ed Mr. Sam, and I said, 'Here's when we're going to be there. Here's what we'd like to do. Are you available?' And he said, 'Oh, sir. Yes, sir. Welcome to India. I look forward to it.' And that was our informal contract. And he was magic. We had access to him throughout the trip, and I'll talk more about him later.
[00:08:23] Another advantage that I had. . . I sort of started planning this last fall, maybe in September, and I started looking at airfares and whatnot. And the only direct flight, the only one from Chicago to Delhi is on Air India.
[00:08:42] And I'm thinking, that sounds, I don't know, dubious? Questionable or unknown? So I checked it out, and, you know, airfares were pretty expensive, especially for a non-stop flight of that length. It's 14 1/2 hours one the way, 15 coming back. And, you know, it was in the $2,400 range. And then I saw, oh, "Internet special for business class". And I'm like, right, yeah, I can't afford six or $7,000 in airfare, but let me check it out, blah blah. . . Anyhow, I stumbled upon business class for $3,400 nonstop, Chicago to Delhi on dates I wanted. And I'm like, all right, sign me up! And, yeah, business class, baby!! Totally worth it!! I'll tell you a little bit about that at the end of the story as well.
So this is a lot of the planning that went into preparing for India. Now, I will say that I also do a lot of research and read up and Google and YouTube prospective places I want to go to. And so I am pretty experienced at traveling and make some pretty good choices. But, man, the Internet, I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's so cool. I booked everything on booking.com or another site called agoda. And with pictures and reviews and maps, you get a pretty good idea of your choices and your price range. And, you know, for the most part, India is still quite affordable, especially in the hotel world and food.
[00:10:33] So I booked that. I booked internal flights on Indigo airline, all from this side of the pond. I even booked my tickets to the Taj Mahal before I left. So let's just say I do my homework. BUT India is different. It's, well. . . let's get to it. What is India? How is India?
[00:10:59] I'm still really decompressing from the experience.
[00:11:05] What I tell people, my Reader's Digest review is: "India is a lot of, a lot of a lot on top of a lot and a lot". I mean, it's a lot! There's a lot of people.
[00:11:17] There's a lot of poverty. There's a lot of beauty. There's so much color. There's so much, so much.
[00:11:24] It's just in your face 24/7 and pretty intense and exciting and exhausting and hot and I loved it. It's challenging and fulfilling and just everything you expect and more. So let's get to the nuts and bolts of it. I'll try to keep it brief, but, man, I was just writing down what Gisele and I did each day, and it took me an hour to write that down. I'm going to be more succinct than that, I hope, in reliving the trip. But let's launch into the adventure.
I'm just going to sort of take you through each day as quickly as I can to give you some flavor of the different places and different experiences we had over our. . . what is it? 17 days? So after arriving off my 'business class' flight, I was relaxed and ready to go. Gisele flew separately from Florida to Newark and then to Delhi, so she was already at the apartment in the embassy grounds when I got there. Mr. Sam had already picked her up and she had a chance to get acclimated and meet the housekeeper and the gardener and, you know, again, all the perks 'one has'.
[00:12:53] I flew on the 28 March overnight and arrived in Delhi on Friday the 29th, about two in the afternoon. And Mr. Sam picked me up and drove me back, got into the embassy grounds and got settled a little bit. And that first evening, Gisele and I wanted to sort of see where were we. So we went out on a walk. Again, it's late March. It's already hot in Delhi. I was expecting it to be warmer. It had been 30 something in Chicago when I left, but I wasn't really ready for 98 degrees every day, which is what it was.
[00:13:38] And I didn't die, so obviously I made it through. But it was hot! So that first evening we went for a walk. I'd looked at maps and I wanted to understand, how big was Delhi? How far am I from places?
[00:13:51] Can I walk to that metro station?
[00:13:56] How does this work? And just feeling the place, which is why I love to travel. So we went out for an evening stroll.
[00:14:04] I'd seen there was Nehru Park, or Nehru Gardens a little ways from us on the map. So we started walking and it became apparent pretty early on that it was much farther than I thought, probably a good mile away.
[00:14:23] But in the diplomatic area, it's lovely. There's gardens, there's avenues and flags, and it's pretty placid, surprisingly. You're like, ah, India's not so bad. So we managed to walk our way across several busy thoroughfares without crosswalks, but lived and got to Nehru gardens. And the gardens were fully planted and in bloom and just, you know me, photographer's heaven, full of color. And it was, you know, a kind of steamy evening. The air is filthy, so the sunset is kind of super orange. And really, if you've ever seen 'A Passage to India' or any sort of moody movie about India, it was that: it was sultry, it was sort of dangerous. The sounds of the birds in the trees, very exotic and different and thrilling. And, you know, we had jet lag. We didn't know what the hell we were doing, but it was really beautiful. And we strolled around those gardens and crossed the street and ended up in some rose garden that we couldn't get out of. So we had to go back the way we entered and then ended up in another garden, African Peace Garden or something. Anyhow, it was a great way to start our visit.
[00:15:52] And after our longer than expected walk, the topper. . . talk about 'advantages'. . . we'd been invited by several of the teachers to come to the opening of the pool. The embassy pool was opening for the season that evening. So we got back to Joan's and wandered down to the pool. And there we were with people of every ethnic and cultural background other than American, which was delightful, we sat poolside and had a beverage and pizza (not bad pizza) and salad by this nearly Olympic sized swimming pool with palm trees lit up in beautiful colors. And I swear to you, peacocks flying above us in the trees.They're very loud. There's no mistaking that.
[00:16:42] It was a beautiful, magical way to start an adventure in India. So that was our first day.
[00:16:59] So that first Saturday, Gisele and I had that to ourselves. Sort of our 'get over jet lag, get used to India' day. But you know me, I'm not going to sit there and just relax for a day. I wanted to see Delhi. And so out we went. And, boy, did we get smacked in the face with "real" Delhi. We'd figured out, or been told, that the best way to get to the closest metro station was by taking a tuk tuk. And these tuk tuks are little three wheel vehicles, and it's pretty cheap. You bargain with the guys, and we probably overpaid, but we came to the price of paying 100 rupees each to take us probably a five to seven minute ride to the nearest metro station.
[00:17:55] Lok Kalyan Marg. That was our station. I know that sounded Norwegian, but that's how the Norwegians say it. And, you know, it probably should have cost us rs50 each, but we're, you know, easy targets and very white, which is another interesting thing. Gisele and I did a lot of selfies with Indians whose jaw dropped when they saw us white people. I was surprised that we were so exotic. I mean, literally, schoolchildren would stop in their tracks and stare at us. We were that. . . obvious? I don't know what it was, but we took a lot of selfies and eventually had to nip that in the bud and take fewer. But. . .
[00:18:40] So the first day, I wanted to go to the Red Fort. So we wandered down the street and found a tuk tuk and agreed to our price and squeezed into these tiny little vehicles and rode on the lovely boulevards to the metro station. The metro was really nice, pretty new.
[00:19:01] You had to go through security. And of course, Gisele, we learned, would always have to go through a separate women's only line for security reasons and to be searched by a woman if necessary.
[00:19:16] And we were on our way to see the Red Fort, Delhi, in the northern part of Delhi in what would be known as Old Delhi. New Delhi is what the British built with all their boulevards and fancy buildings when they ran the place. But Old Delhi, a little bit farther north, is where the Red Fort is, in an area called Chandni Chowk, which is a shopping/marketplace area. So we get on the lovely subway and figure out our path. I think we have to change lines somewhere and get on the purple line and head up to a different stop. We got there and get out and start heading, I don't know where. You know, we can't really read most of the signs in Hindi. And some guy, some vendor at a food stall said, 'Hey, other way for Red Fort.' And so we turned around and went the other way. And then immediately you've got people saying, 'hey, do you need a guide?' 'Do you want to take a tuk tuk?' 'You want a rickshaw?' 'How about, want to buy this?' 'Want to buy that?' And there's zillions of people suddenly. So I'm like, 'hey, looks like we made it to "real" Delhi.'
[00:20:30] There's a lot of garbage around. There's people peeing against the wall. It's sort of like real life all of a sudden. And it took us a while to figure out that we had to go to the (air quotes) "subway", which is not the metro. The subway is actually the path that you go underneath the busy road to cross it. Most Indians don't bother. They just walk out in traffic with, you know. . . traffic is insane in India. I'll get to that in a little bit. But we finally made it to the Red Fort, which is a huge, huge complex of pavilions of carved white marble and red gates, and there's a bazaar and gardens and just. . . It's a huge place. Overwhelming, beautiful. So much to see!
[00:21:20] There happened to be a lot of school kids there that day with dropping jaws at the 'white people' and some teenagers came and interviewed, asked if they could interview Gisele and I about over tourism, of all things. Kind of funny and ironic. Anyhow, lovely day there. And then when we got out of there, (we spent like three or 4 hours in there because it's a large place, lots to see and drank a lot of water,)we come out, and the guy who was sort of hounding us on the way in, sort of shepherded us in, is still there waiting, 3 or 4 hours later. 'Do you need a rickshaw? I can take you to the spice market. Can you do the thing?' And we're, you know, no, no, no, no. And then I sort of looked at him and I said, how much? And he said, like, rs400. I'm like, total for both of us? Yes. Which. Well, okay, so rs400 is like, let's see, 800 is $10. So, like, $5. By then, we were tired. And I'm like, okay, let's at least sit down and ride. So I'm glad we did. Chandni Chowk is where all the Indians, all of them, I think, that day were there. The entire country!! It seemed that crowded. It's where they shop, and there's a street for electronics. There's one for wedding garb. There's one for food. There's one for spices. It's a chaotic but somehow organized stretch. And anyhow, we rode in this sort of bicycle rickshaw through the traffic, and I don't think we ran over anybody, but I wouldn't swear.
[00:22:59] All the way down to the spice market, where we get off and we have to walk. And we're in this chaotic area where there's all these booths selling piles and piles of pepper and, you know, whatever, all the spices of India are. And go through some magic walkway where there's guys hoisting these huge bags of something on their heads and walking through the crowd, and we start coughing because the pepper goes right to the back of your throat and just. . . well, you can't breathe. Pepper among all the spices. And somehow our guide, bicycle rider/guide, is taking us through this back stairway, and we go up in sort of the back workings of the spice market and see all these guys bagging the stuff up and sorting and doing that and taking pictures of the back view. And then we walk up a couple more flights for another view of something, and then a couple more flights of them. I mean, I swear it was like, ten or twelve flights. Unbeknownst to us, by the time we made it to the rooftop, where you get view of the next door mosque, which I didn't even know was there. And then suddenly you look over, and there's this huge mosque. Lovely. And then the road down to your left is just chaotic, like horse carts and motorcycles and tuk tuks and guys on foot and cars, and just every chaotic scene you've ever seen of India was there in a three block radius.
[00:24:31] That was our 'Introduction to India 101' and quite a ride. The guide took us into some of the side street markets that were so crowded, we eventually had to turn around and sort of give up and back out. But there's an organized chaos to the place.
[00:24:53] But I felt like we'd really arrived in India that day. We had a great experience, and that evening, we made it back to our lovely embassy. And what would be finer than a dip in the pool? Oh, yes. Spoiled little Americans. It was lovely. But we had an early night because the next morning we started the Golden Triangle. At 06:00 a.m. Mister Sam met us at the gate of the embassy, and we had our luggage for four days, and we took off to do the Golden Triangle. So the first part of that, I guess, is technically Delhi. So we'd seen some of Delhi, and it's about a four hour drive, I would guess, if you went continuously, to Agra. A lot of it, you can't go that fast because you're on these beautiful freeways.
[00:25:47] And by freeways, I don't mean "free." I mean they're nice highways with cars, lots of motorcycles, horse carts, people walking, pedestrians in the middle of. . . one of the first things Mister Sam ever said to me when he picked me up from the airport and the traffic wasn't that crazy, but I thought it was crazy. He said, 'Oh, sir. Yes, sir. In India, everything is possible.'
[00:26:16] And I thought, what a mantra for our entire trip. But especially for Indian traffic: everything is possible! At any point someone walks out in front of you. There's a motorcycle, there's a truck, there's a cow. It's chaos. And they're constantly on the horn, beeping. And there's sort of a language to it, I figured out eventually. But in the over two weeks I was there and I never saw an accident. Because, I guess, because in India, everything is possible. They're expecting everything and anything because it happens all the time. Oh, there's a horse. Oh, there's a cow. Sacred cow. Can't hit that. There's pedestrians in the middle of the (I'm doing air quotes) "freeway." And then you get to construction zones where the whole freeway, you know, pulls off onto what we would call a service road. Well, there they were, like two foot deep potholes and worse. Like, there are no roads in America as bad as these little service roads that you'd have to be on for about a quarter of a mile. But everyone had to be on it. Truck, horse, cart, motorcycles, us and wild. And then after that, you get back on the superhighway.
[00:27:38] Anyhow, traveling and speed. . . relative distance isn't necessarily time over there. I know that's very deep. But it took us a while to get to Agra. But it was fascinating. My first view of rural-ish India and just real Indians and India. It was. . . Yeah, it was fun. I took a lot of video just to try and get the flavor of it. Oh, by the way, for those of you who are more visually inclined, make sure you check out my sksyphotos page on smugmug.com, where there's a billion photos already of India. If you just want to look at the India Highlights, you'll get a flavor for this trip. On the other hand, if you are more visually inclined, (I'm not sure why you're listening to a podcast about music,) but anyhow, look on bestshawnstengel.com and click on the Shawn's Photos link and it'll get you there. Anyhow, back to the road.
[00:28:44] So we're heading to Agra. And Mr. Sam had asked us before we went if we wanted to see Akbar's Tomb and the Baby Taj before we went to the Taj Mahal, because the goal that evening is to get to the Taj Mahal by late afternoon. And I already have my tickets! And I have tickets for the next day, too, because if I'm going to the Taj Mahal once in my life, I'm going to see it twice!! Which we did. So we're traveling to Agra. The adventure has begun. And we stop at Akbar's Tomb.
[00:29:20] Stunning! Just a part of the beginning of the stunning architecture and forts and castles and tombs all over India that are just unbelievable. And basically, we're there by ourselves.
[00:29:35] I mean, we're a little bit early in the day, but Gisele and I enter, and there's us and ten other people from India in beautiful saris and wonderful clothing. But we've got the place to ourself. We go through the main gate, which isn't even the tomb. And then you walk six football fields across the Mughal gardens to get to the tomb.
[00:29:59] Interesting. We even took some selfies there. It happened to be Easter. It was Easter Sunday when we went to Agra, and I had packed some rabbit ears for us to take a photo or two with. That was clever. But of course, a couple of the native Indians were delighted by our antics and wanted to take a selfie or two with us. So our selfie career began in Agra. Anyhow, Akbar's tomb. . . Fantastic. And then we got closer into Agra, probably 20 more kilometers, and went to the Baby Taj. I can't remember the real name of it anymore, but both of these places were designed by the guy who eventually built the Taj Mahal. And you can see the progression of these pavilions and how they're refining it and making it grander and grander. What finally ended up being the Taj Mahal came out of these. A beautiful place again, the Baby Taj, with the Mughal gardens, which are basically four equal square gardens with flowers and what used to be water canals, and most of them aren't functioning anymore.
[00:31:10] And the tomb sits in the middle of these, exact middle of these four equa-squared? whatever, equal quadrants of the garden. That's a classic Mughal garden.
[00:31:23] Yes, I know that. I've been to India. Thank you so much. Anyhow. Lovely place. Hot as blazes. So drank a lot of water. But then it was time to go to our hotel, get checked in. I had booked a cute little place called the Orchid Retreat, kind of a modest little family run place, but ended up being very charming and very close to the Taj Mahal. So got a little rested, a little cleaned up and relaxed, and then we headed off to the Taj Mahal.
[00:31:56] And, man, yes, it was busy. Yes, it's kind of overrun, but not really. It's a huge place, and it's everything you've ever seen in the photos and more. It's just breathtaking.
[00:32:16] It's hard to think of how to even describe it beyond what you've seen in the pictures. To me, it was sort of like seeing the colosseum in Rome. It's so iconic, you can't actually believe you're seeing it, and yet you're seeing it there in front of you. It was a beautiful evening. Lots of people, lots of beautiful colored saris and just blue water and white building. Magical. And eventually, we took our photos and plowed our way up closer and got up top. You have to pay extra. Interesting pricing in India: so foreigners always pay more. Like, the Taj Mahal was probably rs20, you know, $0.12 or something to get in for native indians. But for foreigners, it was, I think, 1500 rupees or something. It cost about $15 each time we went. So, yeah. Every place in India, there's a foreigner price and an Indian price, and they're not even close. So sometimes when I felt bad about 'white privilege', (which I did, often, there's a lot of that that still exists in India) I also sort of thought, well, we pay for it. We pay like quadruple, at least, what they pay to get into these places. So anyhow, that was my sidebar, anyhow. The Taj Mahal: fantastic!
[00:33:46] Interesting. When you go inside, you can't take pictures, and it's not the greatest inside ever, but it's more ornate. There's more of the pietra dura, the inlaid stone. That's one of my observations. The Taj Mahal seems white, right? But when you're up close to it, there's all this islamic writing over the arches and beautiful inlaid color stonework all over the thing. It's very colorful, and you just don't see that from afar. Inside, it's a little bit more muted light, and you can see it more, but you're not allowed to take pictures. And there are all these guards with referee whistles, like, deafening in this echoey tomb, the magical tomb full of referee whistles. And the guys would literally grab the person's camera and erase the photo then and there. They weren't having any of it. So that was a little bit distressing, actually. And I didn't spend a lot of time inside because it was really loud, but the rest of the experience was amazing. And then we left.
[00:34:56] That evening, we went to a place (everyone knows a guy who knows a guy), so we went to a marble place where they do the inlaid stonework. And I bought a little bit more than I should have, but I had my eye on it before we went. Then we had a nice dinner. The next morning, we got up at the butt crack of dawn and went back to the Taj Mahal. And they had told us the east gate, where we were closest to, would be overwhelmed with bus tours in the morning. So we should go to the west gate.
[00:35:26] So Mr. Sam came and picked us up and drove us to the far side of the Taj Mahal, and we went there again in the morning. It was almost misty. In the wintertime over there in January and February, sometimes you can't even see it, there's so much fog. But it was just morning light and totally worth it. I'll say this. If you can go to India, if you can do the long flight, and you just go to the Taj Mahal and then go home, it's worth it.
[00:36:02] It's worth it. It's so magical and so beautiful and so symmetrical and so everything. Like all of India, it's a lot of, a lot of, a lot of, a lot. And in the Taj Mahal case, it's a lot of wonderful.
[00:36:17] So after our morning at the Taj, we set out towards the third part of the triangle, which is Jaipur, the Pink City. It's about 5 hours west of Agra, 5 hours driving, whatever that means, distance wise. But in between there, Agra and Jaipur, there's a place called Fatehpur Sikri, which was built by the guy who, I think, who built the Taj Mahal, to be the capital of his domain. And they built this place up on a mountain, and it's huge and wonderful. And then they found out the water was kind of salty and brackish, and they moved back to Agra. That's my history. Anyhow, we went there, went on a tour with a kind of a funny young guide who was from a company where Mr. Sam knew a guy who knew a guy. So we said, we probably should have a guide here. We don't know much about it. Young guy. We were talking to him later on. He's probably late twenties, early thirties. He was waiting for his mother to find a bride for him.
[00:37:28] No bones about it, just that was his life. Pretty small village there in rural India anyhow. The Fatehpur Sikri. Fantastic. Beautiful carved.
[00:37:42] Red sandstone mostly. And also what they call the largest gate in the world, Bulan Darwaza.
[00:37:53] I guess it is the arch on the outside. Inside, I'm going, this doesn't look that big. And then we go onto the other side. The entrance from the outside is pretty gargantuan and impressive. So that was our little stop on the way to Jaipur. So after that, we got on the road again and noticed a lot of people. . .
[00:38:19] (This was actually on the way to Fatehpur Sikri)
[00:38:22] Once we turned off the freeway onto the local roads, there were thousands of regular Indian people walking. And I'm like, where are they going? I mean, just walking long, long distances, like 40, 50 kilometer distances. And he (Mr. Sam) goes, 'oh, it's the pilgrims. There's some sort of festival or something that they're heading to.' And in India, most people walk. In flip flops or worse, barefoot old people, young people.
[00:38:57] It was otherworldly to me. It was so hot and hard to imagine the distances we were driving that they would be walking that day or for most of that day. Very interesting. Anyhow, back on the road to Jaipur. We get there in the early evening, and I had seen on Instagram a place called Patrika Gate, one of the newer gates in the old part of the Pink City, that I think had recently been repainted or something. And now it's this Instagram star where everyone goes and takes their wedding pictures and blah, blah, blah. So we went there in the sort of late evening. It was turning dark, and it really was worth it. It was beautifully lit
[00:39:45] and very Instagram worthy. And, you know, we claimed our time and elbowed our way in and got our pics and got out. And a beautiful (very dark) park around it. We enjoyed some chai, our first 'street food'. We didn't really dare eat most of the street food, but Mr. Sam had offered to have chai with us, so we ventured. . . with the boiled water.
[00:40:12] Tea was delicious and nice bonding experience for us.
[00:40:19] So we've arrived in Jaipur.
[00:40:22] So from the gate to our hotel was a kind of wild, chaotic traffic. About 45 minutes. Part of Jaipur is like being in downtown Orlando. It's glass towers and movie theaters. But the old part of the city, the Pink City, where all of it's painted pink from some British royal visiting in the 1800s or early 1900s.
[00:40:51] The old part of the city is a small part of a really pretty huge city. But our hotel was closer to that, and we had to make a few wrong turns and wind our way back to this cute little, kind of family run hotel. This one had a pool and an outside restaurant and was a real oasis in the middle of a big storm of a city.
[00:41:20] So got there and had a lovely, relaxing evening.
[00:41:25] And then the next day, what do you do in Jaipur as one does? You go to the Amber Fort! It's spelled like amber, and some people say amber, but I think it's supposed to be Ammer Fort. Thank you. History lesson.
[00:41:41] The huge fort overlooking Jaipur. And this is where we first saw elephants. It's up on a hill, so a lot of tourists ride elephants up to the gate. We did not. We were driven up to the top. And I'm not sure I'm into animal riding. You could also ride camels some other places, and we didn't do that either. Anyhow. . . the elephants, many of them, have their trunks painted all colorful. You know, it was exotic and magical and definitely photo worthy. And the fort itself is full of unbelievable halls and meeting areas. The Sheesh Mahal is this room that's full of mirrors. It's cut glass and mirrors in the ceiling and in the walls that apparently, in the candle light, just one candle could light up the whole room. Places like that, you can look it up on YouTube. And see these beautiful long hallways of repeating arches that are part of what I associate with the visual of India.
[00:42:56] Spend a couple hours there again with a sort of interesting young guide. I think we paid him like rs400, which is like $6, $5. Worth it. Except when we ducked out a back gate and got into a jeep and went down to his cousin's fabric printing shop 'just for a look'. "You don't have to buy anything, just for a look." They sell you pretty hard. We got out of there pretty quickly, but that's India! Then we came back into the city itself to go to the Hawa Mahal. Hawa Mahal (which is the cover photo on my guidebook of India) it's this lovely pink building with all these multitude of small little windows. It's apparently the back of this palace. And the windows were so the women of the time, who weren't allowed to be out in everyday culture, could peek out the windows and see what was going on out in the real world. And also there's a bunch of screens. It's also cooling, so the air could flow through this series of windows and screens and whatever. (I guess that's why it's also known as The Palace of Wind.) It's pretty cool. It is, again, sort of an Instagram star now. And once we got inside, it was a zoo inside. There are a lot of stairways that aren't wide enough for one that were two way traffic. That was interesting, trying to negotiate in 96 degrees fahrenheit, but well worth it. And a cool experience.
[00:44:37] And also that day, we went to a place called Jantar Mantar, which is an outdoor astronomical garden where all these instruments. . . sundials, but like, five stories tall. An outdoor park, but full of geometry and all these working instruments that tracked, for example, the stages of the zodiac or that can tell the time or tell you what day and month it is. Fascinating, but a little too hot to be out in the burning sun right then. So I got a little overheated.
[00:45:18] Oh, that was even after we went to the City Palace. The City Palace is one of the highlights of Jaipur.
[00:45:26] It's a series again of pavilions or buildings and gates that are just. . . well, each one has its own magic. We actually got kind of lucky. They were setting up when we got there to do some sort of filming. There was these mesh screens set up to filter the sun in certain areas, but we still had access to all of it. Fortunately, we got in to see everything we wanted to see. But on the way out, they were about to start filming and really pretty vigilant about 'No Photos!'
[00:46:03] We couldn't even take pictures of the people taking pictures of the. . . I don't know what. Maybe they were famous Bollywood stars, but I wouldn't know. I wouldn't recognize them if I saw them, so. . . But the City Palace: another must-do at in Jaipur.
[00:46:20] And of course, that sounds like a lot for one day, but we're not done. No! Fie!!
[00:46:26] There's time left. So we head back out to the edge of town and head up into the hills again with Mr. Sam driving us on this sort of windy road, which, oh, I forgot, we start seeing all these peacocks, because peacocks live there. That's their natural habitat, these rocky, very arid, dry, lightly brushed sort of forest areas. But we could see several of them off in the distance, moving. And then I saw one in full tail bloom. And I'm said "Stop the car!" It was really out in the middle of nowhere, so it wasn't really a traffic problem. So I'm trying to, you know, walk off into the woods and get a better picture of the peacock. And they were all sort of heading away from me. So I headed back to the car, but I saw some across the other side of the road. So I headed off for more 'peacock adventure'. I saw a male with his tail fully opened doing the love dance. But of course, he had his back to me, so I really didn't see the colors until he folded his tail back in and turned to the side. And then I saw the brilliant turquoise and green.
[00:47:45] But, you know, peacocks in nature! I guess they got to live somewhere. Just like tigers and elephants.
[00:47:55] Anyhow, finally, the road takes us up to the Nahargarh Fort, one of the three forts around Jaipur: Amber Fort, Nahargarh Fort and the Jaigarh Fort.
[00:48:11] This one sits up top, and we were going up there to see the sunset. Apparently, it has a beautiful view of the sunset. We have a ways to walk to get over to where one views the sunset, and it's kind of a weird place.
[00:48:26] It was more of almost like an amusement park version of an indian fort. There were a wax museum and a few restaurants. And it wasn't very busy.
[00:48:43] A little odd. so, you head down this path and they try to lead you to this one that's 'for the sunset view'. But actually, 'the sunset view' is a restaurant where you can sign up and have dinner and pay for drinks. But if you go to the left, you just go out to the edge and you can just watch the sunset for free. So fortunately, we chose the left and got out there to where the view was. There were a few people perched there waiting for the sunset, but not a whole lot.
[00:49:14] But you had this great view over Jaipur, which is, aside from being 'The Pink City', is really large and sprawling place. In fact, this vista sort of looked off the other side of the mountain, and it just seemed to go on and on forever. I was really surprised how huge it was. You can also see from up there the Dal Mahal, another famous landmark in Jaipur. It's a fort that was built in the middle of a man made lake. And two of the floors sit above the water level, but apparently three of the floors are below water level? Don't quite understand it. Apparently there's some dispute about who owns it these days, so you can't go out there at the moment and see it. But we drove by that several times during our time in Jaipur. But there was a cool view of it from up on the mountaintop. And of course, the sunset with India's dusty, polluted skies was really sultry and interesting. And a few photos were taken. But that was not even the end of our day.
[00:50:29] I'd heard that the Albert Hall Museum. I think it's the Government Center Museum now or something. They're getting rid of most of the English Ra names like the Prince William or Princess Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai and stuff like that. Anyhow, I'd heard that it was a beautiful building, architecturally. I knew it was already closed, but asked if we could drive there and see it, lit up? Well, weirdly, it was all lit up in a deep kind of royal blue.
[00:51:01] And there were again, all the Instagrammers out front taking their engagement photos or whatever. But it was a nice evening closer. This really fantastical British/Mughal-style museum. I wish we'd had time to go in and see the museum, but we didn't. This time! So that was finally the end of our full day in Jaipur.
[00:51:36] Remember how I said India is a lot of, a lot of, a lot of a lot? Well, it is a lot. And I've realized this is not going to be a one-episode cadenza. We're on day three of the trip for corn sake! So I'll keep going, get us through the Golden Triangle in this episode, and those who are still interested can come back and indulge in the rest of the trip. So we're still in Jaipur. . .
[00:52:08] Next morning we get up and we drive out to the third fort, the Jaigarh Fort, which is basically even higher up the mountain than Amber Fort. You actually can look down on Amber when you get to the far edge.
[00:52:27] Gisele and I again sort of had the fort to ourselves. It was nearly deserted. And this is not a fort with a lot of pavilions and decorative carving and stuff. It's pretty much just a fortress meant to protect the other fort, I guess. There's not much that's decorative there anymore. But it is known for having the world's largest cannon.
[00:52:51] Thank you.
[00:52:53] So that is, what is it called? The Javan Cannon? Or something like that. And it really is quite huge, but it's about the only thing there to see. Of note, it has some spectacular views. Again, you can look down towards the lake and see the Dal Mahal down there, floating. Seems like it's floating. And then when you get to the far end of the wall, you can look almost straight down on Amber Fort. That's kind of a cool look. If you squint, you can see the elephant rides up the front and whatnot. So we spent an hour or two there just sort of enjoying the view. I mean, one simply must see three forts when one is in Jaipur, right?
[00:53:41] So when we were done there, Mr. Sam had asked us earlier if we would be interested in going to see this blue pottery store or center. Jaipur is famous apparently for its blue pottery. I'd read this somewhere before I went there, so I was curious to see what exactly that was. So we drove over not far from the Dal Mahal (the floating palace in the water), and got to this showroom slash pottery place and met the very interesting owner and his two sons who showed us around and let us just look around. And I knew I wanted to buy some gifts there and probably a cool vase for myself but I didn't know what I was going to get. It was full of a lot of beautiful product, you know, from tchotchkes up to high end, very expensive artwork, plates and vases and whatnot. But we had a really great time with the owner. His sons were nice. And I bought enough, apparently, that it warranted some photos together. And "will you please post on Instagram about us?" And, "oh, and by the way, why don't you get on the motorcycle with my youngest son and go around the corner to the shop where they make this and where my wife does miniature painting?!" And I'm like, okay. So suddenly I'm on a motorcycle in Jaipur, heading who-knows-where through a fruit market, I remember, and get there, only to find out that Gisele and Mr. Sam have found out where I'm going and have followed me in the car. So we're all there. We get to go up into the pottery factory where they're doing various stages of, you know, painting or putting on the design before they're fired on the plates and stuff. We see there's a guy, sitting on the floor in the hallway, painting plates. I thought this was very interesting. India, modern day India in a nutshell: sitting in the hallway with his variety of paints and brushes, painting this intricate design on a number of plates, and every now and again, he would whip out his iPad and check the pattern to make sure he was doing it right. So 'ancient art' next to iPad made me laugh. (I'll try to include that as one of the photos in my link.)
[00:56:26] Had a great time there. (And some chai tea with Mr. Sam and the sons.) I guess they said it was their grandfather who did the miniature painting.
[00:56:35] Another thing they're noted for, art wise in Rajasthan (which is the state Jaipur is in. Rajasthan). Miniature paintings. I was fascinated. They take old postcards and old official documents on very old paper and then paint elephants or dancers or birds or peacocks, fittingly. And, you know, picked up a few of those, too. Just to help the Indian economy! That's the kind of art lover I am. It was a fun experience.
[00:57:08] So we had a little lunch. Where did we have lunch? Doesn't matter. That's the day we're gonna head back towards Delhi, but we won't get there. We're staying overnight at another kind of exotic, magical place called Neemrana Fort Palace. Neemrana Fort Palace, I read, (I'm not sure it's true, but I'll spread the rumor). In India, 'fort' usually means palace, so this place was redundant. But Neemrana Fort Palace. . . it's this now a hotel that's really built on the side of a mountain, And you really have to hike to your room. When I made the reservations, they're said 'be prepared for some strenuous walking.' Well, the porters have to hump your luggage up to your room because it is ramps and stairs and more stairs and then more ramps. And we were in the cheap kind of lower rooms! It was still kind of difficult for them, actually, for us, too. We didn't even have luggage, and we were huffing and puffing by the time we got to our rooms. But it's beautiful, all these terraces, and you can walk and get lost. There's pools and restaurants and rooms and towers and sitting areas and outdoor restaurants and overlooking the. . . I don't know if the village is called Neemrana? or whatever. We got there in sort of middle afternoon, and then as the sun's going down, lights. There's lights around everything, like it's the Indian version of Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. It takes on this whole other feeling of lights and magic and dusk. It was a really beautiful overnight stay with a fantastic buffet restaurant where we got to try a whole bunch of different Indian foods. One of the things about India, if you don't know indian food that well, you're like, I don't know what to order. What am I going to have? Usually the choice is vegetarian or not, but aside from that, it's curry something. So these buffets for both breakfast and that evening meal, we tried all kinds of, you know, eggplant this and curry that, and it was quite the spread.
[00:59:58] But the place was fun. And I think we were just after the high season. April is already getting really hot in this part of India, so it wasn't full full. And the next morning at the highest pool that I'd sort of stumbled by the evening before, we had it to ourselves, just carved into the rock. And this beautiful, not huge pool, but like, beautiful chaise lounges and no one else there was what I call magical empty. That was a treat. Cousin Joan had suggested this place as an addition to our Golden Triangle journey, and it was really well received by both Gisele and I. It was really relaxing after the hubbub of Jaipur for several days. So we stayed overnight there, had a lovely brunch on the terrace with very few other people, and then headed back to Delhi.
[01:01:01] It's several hours back to Delhi again on the state highway, which is really nice most of the way. I was fascinated on this journey that we went by a lot of wheat fields. It was time already in April to be harvesting the wheat, but it was being done by hand.
[01:01:28] I mean, it looked like back breaking work, just stacking up this stock and that stock. And I asked Mr. Sam if this was, you know, who had these jobs. He goes, 'Well, sir, yes, in India, we have no shortage of labor. There's a lot of people. There's a person for every job.' These just looked so back breaking and it was so hot and dusty, but beautiful the way they cleared each field. And actually, Mr. Sam said he had done some of that in his younger life. He was from Punjab originally and had lived pretty modestly on a farm and had done some gathering of wheat himself. And he said, yes, it is back backbreaking work. And didn't take a lot of imagination to see that. So the ride anywhere you're going in India is just, well, there's always something to see. There's these weird chimneys. Suddenly you'd be in this neighborhood with basically empty fields, but all these red chimneys with smoke coming out. And then you realize you're in the red brick making area of India, and they're firing all the red clay things. They're formed into bricks in these chimneys. And I'm sure it's a lot of pollution and a lot of why Delhi is so delicious to breathe in these days.
[01:03:00] But again, sort of exotic looking. If you've seen a movie or two about India, you'll recognize the shape of those. And so that evening we got back to the beautiful embassy compound where the air conditioning worked from, I believe, 08:00 a.m. to 09:00 p.m. And then it didn't work at night, which led to some not the greatest sleep but hard to complain. The price: free! Wonderful. So Gisele and I can't waste our time in India. So we decided to, once we rested a little bit and ate some of the food, the housewoman, house helper, what's her name? Monica. Anyhow, she would bake us food and made us lasagna and pizza. We'd come home and there's all this food prepared for us. Again, talk about privilege.
[01:04:01] But after we had a little bit of dinner, we decided it was too early to turn in. So we got another tuk tuk. They're almost like golf carts, but with a front row driver and then two people in the back, although not necessarily limited to two. If you're truly Indian, the maximum capacity is between four and twelve.
[01:04:29] I saw some that I can't even explain the number of bodies somehow in that small, small contraption.
[01:04:37] But we took our tuk tuk over to the metro, to the Loch Kalyan Marg stop. Joan had suggested that we might want to peek our heads into the Imperial Hotel which is about as Deco British Raj as you can imagine. And a lot of history has gone down in the place, too. I had read about Gandhi and Nehru and Jindal and Patel and all these guys meeting there discussing the partition of India and whatnot. So we decided to stick our heads in there and maybe have a cocktail or something. And talk about white privilege, it was pretty gated and you have to go through metal detectors to go down the driveway. But schlubby, Gisele and I (she's not schlubby, but I am!) we're just tourists with backpacks or a man bag. No one batted an eye that we walked into this high class place and just strolled right in. They welcomed us and we walked around and looked at the priceless art hanging on the walls, and down the hallway here and out to the exotic pool there. And no one, I suppose they checked us out, but no one said, what are you doing here? And in fact, when I asked the concierge woman 'hadn't they signed the partition agreement here?' or something, she said, 'oh, yes. Would you like to see the table?' So she took us to this beautiful, long cafe on one side of the hotel that was all turquoise and white columns. Quite grand in and of itself. And there was one table, about in the middle of the room, that was white marble. The rest of it looked sort of cafe-like. Nice cafe! But this was the original table where Gandhi and Nehru and all the bigwigs sat and hammered out the partitioning of India, amongst other things. And there were people sitting at it! You can, if you get there and it's free, you can sit at that table and have your chai or your lunch. And I thought that was odd and kind of cool. So it was interesting to see that historic place, anyhow. So we didn't actually end up staying there and having a drink. But we really enjoyed our little peek into the high life. Or what used to be the high life for the British.
[01:07:20] And then made our way back to our house at the embassy.
[01:07:26] It was a pretty full day. It was a wonderful trip. The Golden Triangle. For many people. That, as I said, is their complete trip to India. And it's pretty fantastic.
[01:07:40] And we did a lot, as you can tell, because I'm still talking.
[01:07:45] There's a lot to see. And if you have the energy and the wherewithal, you can cram a lot into a day and not even scratch the surface in some ways. So I felt like we scratched the surface, at least, and had a fantastic time around the Golden Triangle.
[01:08:02] So I'm gonna call it an episode there and gather my wits. And hopefully next time, without all the introduction blurb and stuff,I can get you through the rest of the trip. There's still a whole bunch of different places to go that are very different from where we've been so far on this little tour of India. So I hope you come back and check out the next part of my Cadenzas about India, coming soon.
[01:08:31] In any case, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Shawn Stengel. And this is Chicago Musician.
