Jaipur and Taj Mahal

Curry. Karma. Yoga. Ayurveda. Words that come from India and which I love to use. I love curry. I believe in karma. I do not know better exercise for the body than yoga. And I recognize medicine that believes in herbs and the harmony of soul and body. However, after hearing as a Ayurvedic doctor advised his Indian pregnant patient to eat white chocolate, if she wished to have a white baby, I know that not every Ayurveda is healthy and not every Indian is a yogi…

An unplanned seven-day hole in the schedule. It would be a sin not to use it and not to go anywhere. But where and with whom? Yet some of my 6,000 flying colleagues once created a Facebook page called “Travel mate.” I’m posting to the group: “16-21 February. Anybody for Beyrut, Petra, Marrakesh or Zanzibar? ‘ The Middle East is not the best time of year, so we eventually decide for one of the 7 modern wonders of the world – the Taj Mahal. India is a country where a woman feels safer in a male company, so I should use one that is at hand. The truth is, if it was not the wonder of the world (and I want to see all of them once), India might not have been on our bucket list. While I lived in Slovakia, I considered this country very spiritual. Yet Slovaks go to India to meditate, practice yoga, grow spiritually. However, when you start working in the Middle East, in a city that has three times more Indians than native Arabs, you will change your mind about India. However, we decide that nowhere else we will be able to figure out why these Indians are as they are, if not in their motherland. So is India spiritual and inspirational, or dirty and chaotic? It’s both! Maybe somewhere up in the Himalayan Ashrams, or among wandering monks or humble people from poor villages, maybe there is a spirituality and an endless well of living wisdom, but what I see right now is mess and chaos. The rich cultural heritage that is lost among the trash… Well, our little gypsy adventure can begin! 🙂

Day 1

A typical flight full of Indians

Our flight departure to the capital, New Delhi, is scheduled after midnight, but we find our flight overbooked (as usually) and most likely we wouldn’t get the seat (staff is always in the last place), so we change airline at the last minute. With luck, two last seats are found for us in Jetairways! The aircraft is shaking in turbulence for almost three hours, but flight attendants are still serving food and drinks. There is chaos onboard, passengers are crossing each other: “Give me water! Give me whiskey! I need sprite! ”One typical flight to India. No manners at all. It’s good to know that also other airlines struggle with Indians passengers as us.

Crazy trip to Jaipur

We arrive to New Delhi in the morning and the driver who Bill has booked is waiting for us at the airport. Everyone advises that a rented car with a driver is a must in India. It doesn’t cost much, but it saves your mental and physical health. Later I get it why. Our chauffeur is a sympathetic old man without front teeth who smokes one by one as a Turk and then coughs like a tuber. On the other hand, he is a proficient driver, has excellent English and a clean ironed shirt. Our first goal is to get to know the historic city of Jaipur. But there are three more hours to drive to Jaipur, so we both pass our trust to the driver’s hands and pass out after our terrible flight. We wake up just right in front of Jaipur’s gates, as the car turn from the highway to way worse roads. Every now and then, a horn honks and our car is shaking as if we were driving on a field. I throw a facial mask off my face and look out the window and… Cultural shock! Everywhere mess, crumbled shacks, scooters parked straight in the open living rooms, barefoot children on the street, stray dogs, and a cow in the middle of the road grazing on the cracked road! A particularly interesting sight is when we stop at the traffic lights. In front of us is a huge truck, a rickshaw behind us, a donkey cart and a motorbike on the left (with a family of four with a baby) and an elephant on the right! On the road in India you can simply be run over by anything, even an elephant, which is quite a common kind of transportation. Especially be careful not to knock your cow down. It is a sacred animal in India for which you would pay a lot.

Colorful Jaipur

We stay at a hotel that has been bluffing with stars and pictures of the rooms. And nothing works here, neither the air-condition, nor the wifi, nor the machine for cards. “What works here!?” Bill asks the receptionist angrily. “ATM around the corner!” answers the receptionist, who needs money for a rented room. In the end we get cleaner apartment, but the street noise is still terrible. We want to rest a little more after the exhausting road trip, but every now and then we can hear the horn honking. In the afternoon, together with our driver, we go to explore the very old, busy and dusty city of Jaipur. We admire the Maharajah’s palace, which once could be really majestic, then pass by the impressive building of the pink sandstone Hawa Mahal known as the Wind Palace, and stop at the waterfront Jal Mahal, which looks fantastic if you crop the surroundings. Actually, the whole country of India is surprisingly very photogenic. All the colors, the bustle and the insane palette of colors in the sky. Just somehow in the photos everything looks better than in reality. In fact, cultural gems are surrounded by garbage, unfinished structures, crumbled buildings, and mess. But these are not seen on popular travel-blogger photos.

A perfect dinner

On the way back to the hotel, we stop at the handmade silk and cashmere fabrics factory. Colors and patterns are insane here and I can’t resist buying two traditional cashmere pashminas for my mom and sister. Well, the Indians can do something well! In the evening, we say goodbye to our driver, change to a clean dress and look for a good place for dinner. The crazy traffic and the hustle and bustle of the streets don’t stop even after sunset goes down. Bill is raising his hand with the cell phone to the sky, walking back and forth and trying to catch some free wifi around other hotels, bistros and guest houses. After a successful connection, he finds some local place at Tripadvisor with a very good rating. We slowly move from the old and busy city to its newer, quieter, cleaner and apparently more pleasing part. No more rickshaws, bikes and cows, but there are parked cars of better brands in front of the buildings. The houses have new facades and there is peace in the streets. Up on the roof of one inconspicuous hotel stands our restaurant. Candles are everywhere and colored lanterns shine. There are many tourists from the West and there is a pleasant atmosphere. In the rich menu, however, you won’t find any meat, it is pure vegetarian cuisine. Bill will have to become a vegetarian for tonight. But they make it great! We enjoy the most sweet masala tea with spices and milk. Later, an elderly woman in a sari with a friendly face speaks to us. With great English she asks us where we come from and how we like India. Then she presents herself as the hotel owner. She calls her son to bring us another cup of tea and tells us something about life in India. Total pleasant experience at the end of the day. 😉

Day 2

Goodbye Jaipur

The next day in India, we start with not the best breakfast and another argument with the receptionist. A driver is waiting for us outside the hotel. We have no idea where he spent the night, whether he slept in the car, or in one of those cheaper and repulsive hotels in the area, but he has a wide smile on his face and a clean ironed shirt again. A trip to Agra is waiting for us, but before we have to stop at Amer Fort, which stands above Jaipur. It is surrounded by a dusty wavy path going up the hill around the crumbled huts, from which the darker toothless cheeks grin at us. Dark hairy pigs and stray dogs graze on the scattered trash. From time to time some cow walk in our way. When we park in the parking lot, we barely get out of the car, when the young Indian hang on us. He pulls out a whistle and a small cobra pokes his head out of the wicker basket on the ground. I suppose we can stroke it. Of course, not for free. No, thank you very much, I wouldn’t stroke it even for free, and even if you wanted to pay me. From the ruins of the castle is a beautiful view, but the whole building would look much more majestic if it was better cared for. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of tourists everywhere. More interesting and photogenic, I personally find the second fortress over Jaipur – Nahargarh Fort (maybe you know from Instagram), but maybe just because I only saw it in photos and not live. Our driver did not take us there and I did not know at that time that this jewel was in Jaipur. This is when I leave the planning of sightseeing on guys!

Towards to Agra

From Amer Fort we are heading straight to Agra, to a town where the famous Taj Mahal is located. I expect more representative and cleaner surroundings, because of the amount of money from thousands of tourists who travel here every day. Well, if I learned something in India, it’s better not to expect or expect the worst. Through the windows of the car we have a more shabby look than in Jaipur. I guess the driver warned us, but we should have listened to him more. Except for the Taj Mahal and about two 6-star luxury resorts, which, due to their prices, are really out of the way, there is probably nothing to admire. This time we are not surprised that the hotel we chose through booking.com does not quite match our expectations, but at least there is a wifi which works. We take a walk to find some nice restaurant for dinner. We don’t find anything nice in the main pedestrian zone in front of the Taj Mahal gates, so we boldly turn into one of the side streets. Big mistake. A small, dirty kids run at us. At first they just shout at us, then they start pulling our clothes. I’m getting scared. We speed up the step and as soon as we get out to the main street, the kids are scattered. We have no choice than to try one simple restaurant we find nearby. I know there is no need to ask for level of spiciness in India because food is spicy anyway, but this time we want to be sure. It doesn’t look very clean here and all the bacterias need to be burned if we don’t want to spend the last day in the toilet.

Day 3

Taj Mahal

In the morning we get up very early to catch the Taj Mahal as soon as the gates are opened, still at sunrise while avoiding the rush of tourists. It seems, however, that all the tourists have received instructions similar to ours, because the people in front of the gates queue in endless lines. First we have to go through security controls, women and men separately. I can imagine how challenging it will be to find Bill in the crowds after all the checks. Thanks god, he’s is so tall!

The Legend of Love

When, in 1629, an Indian mogul lost his beloved wife and wise political counselor at the birth of their eleventh child, he was said to have turned gray from grief. He grieved for her for two years and made a promise to build her an extraordinary monument worthy of her. And he seemed to had done it. The Taj Mahal is basically an extraordinary building for the tomb. It is said that over 20,000 labors worked on it, over 1,000 elephants were used, and 28 different kinds of gems were planted in white marble. Thanks to sophisticated details, the building has become one of the modern wonders of the world and one of the most visited sights ever. It consists of a main building surrounded by four minarets, a mosque in the west facing Mecca and a guest house in the east. You can still admire the detailed work on the walls of the mausoleum, but the fountains no longer have water, and the gardens around them seem rather dilapidated. If you are looking for a beautiful photo, rather buy a postcard or rely on Photoshop because it is almost impossible to capture a building without the heads of other tourists.

Good luck, my friends!

After the colorful experiences in India, I can no longer wait for a hot shower and a clean bed at home. After admiring the Taj Mahal, I buy embroidered slippers which look like they belong to Shahrazad and we are already in the car on the way to New Delhi to the airport. When we see a car driving in the opposite direction on the highway (!), Bill can’t help himself but asks: “Are there any rules on the road at all?” “But of course,” our driver laughs: “Good brake, good horn and good luck!”: D

So, if anyone is going to India, good luck, my friends! 🙂

P.S. Surely India has to offer much more than just what I’ve seen, because India is a huge and very colorful country… but maybe next time, when I regain my courage. 🙂

P.S.2: Even the worst experiences become the best stories over time.

P.S.3: New Delhi is, for example, a relatively clean civilized city, similar to ours. Unlike ours, however, it is very dangerous, with high crime rates. It’s not just about your wallets, but often about life! People are afraid and nobody will help you in a trouble. Therefore, do not trust any individual and avoid dark alleys. Better pay for a personal driver or 1st class section of public transportation!