Namaste from India

 
After a grueling 17+ hour journey I touch down in New Delhi on Sunday, May 1st.

It's around 9:00 at night here and my friend and I deliriously manage to collect our bags and head outside for what was supposed to be a hotel pick up. After 45 minutes we decide he is not coming and hail a cab. Hotel Eurostar is decidedly less clean and 'business-traveler friendly' than advertised but we're only here one night and the air-conditioned room and shower are just what we need.

Day 1: New Delhi - > Jaipur

Delhi Cantt Station

We wake up early the next morning for our first Indian train experience. Fortunately, I booked our train out of the less-popular Delhi Cantt station so it is more manageable to find our way around. We grab a sad breakfast of cashew cookies and curry-flavored chips (all packaged foods to avoid illness) and wait for the train. When it arrives there is, of course, no signage as to where our cabin is, how to board, etc. Nervous, we just hop on the train at the first cart - big mistake! We had entered the luggage carriage, or, the carriage where lower-fare ticket holders ride. There is no order and people hang from the ceilings, cover the floor and generally prevent our movement while simultaneously giving us dirty looks that say "you do not belong here".  We somehow manage to traverse about seven carts like this and eventually get to our AC 2 cart (2nd tier sleeper cars with AC). This seems like heaven comparatively. We bounce along on our 5-6 hour train ride and I venture to order some food on the train. It's quite good but I wonder if I made a fatal error judgement by ordering it.

We arrive at the Jaipur station around 1:30pm. After being hassled by rickshaw drivers we come across one who speaks English quite well. His name is 'Jimmy' and while I'm quite sure our ride will end in a sales pitch for some tour, we don't care at this point and just want to get to our hotel.

The ride does, indeed, end in a sales pitch and a sale. He has agreed to come pick us up this afternoon and give us a mini-tour for 400 rupees (less than $10). This seems fair so we both head inside the Umaid Mahal (a heritage hotel), cleanup and grab some lunch.

Flowers from Jimmy

We meet 'Jimmy' outside around 3:00 pm. He shows us a beautifully mosaiced temple of mirrors, the lake front and then takes us (of course) to a friend of his' fabric store. While I am generally opposed to being 'sold' things,  I decide buying a Salwar Kameez will be useful and is something I had wanted anyway. I get it specially made and they promise delivery by tomorrow evening. My friend picks up a bedding set, embroidered blanket and pashmina. We also get to see the fabrics being made, so while it was definitely a commissioned sale for Jimmy, I guess it all worked out.

Day 2: Jaipur

City Palace, Jaipur

After a brief discussion, Jimmy agrees to pick us up tomorrow morning for a full day of site-seeing. We hit up the City Palace, the eery ancient astrological park Jantar Mantar and the Amber Fort just outside of town. I LOVE the Amber Fort. When we pull up to it I feel like I'm in some period piece film that takes place in the Middle East. After a bit of a hike up to the actual fort, my friend gets sick. The heat has become too much and she insists I proceed through the fort without her. I make a quick round before meeting her outside. We rush back to the hotel, unfortunately, stopping along the way when she gets sick. I hope this is not an indicator of the entire trip to come! Yikes!

We decide to break for the afternoon and Jimmy says he will pick us up in the early evening. When that time rolls around, my friend is still  not feeling well so I head out alone. I hit up the Monkey Temple (literally littered with the critters) and then fall victim to another of Jimmy's sales pitches. He takes me to a jeweler friend despite my protestations and leaves me there. Great. At least the store owner quickly realizes I'm not interested and leaves me be. They call Jimmy to come pick me up.

Frustrated with him I ask to be taken home. Relentless he tries to sell an early morning tour of Jaipur the next day but I say no and tell him to pick us up at 2:00pm for our flight to Udaipur.

Amber Fort, Jaipur

Day 3: Jaipur - > Udaipur

The next morning my travel companion and I decide an Ayurvedic massage is in order. We head down the street to a location recommended by Lonely Planet. It was certainly an experience as we were drenched in gallons of oils. I won't say I would do it again, but at least I had that experience.

We spend our remaining hours in Jaipur at the hotel restaurant eating some bland Chicken Byriani and playing cards with large Kingfisher beers by our side.

Jimmy picks us up and drops us off at the surprisingly modern and clean Jaipur airport. We each grab a soda and wait to board Kingfisher airlines (yes, the beer company has an airline).

After a brief 40 minute flight we touch down in what will become my favorite Indian city: Udaipur.

The friendly hotel driver greets us and takes us the 30-minute drive to the city. He stops along the way to explain some sites and give us a chocolate candy. We're staying at the Jaiwana Haveli. It is lake-front and has a roof-top restaurant. The service here is amazing! Our room has great views and the food here is actually good!

We spend the day resting, strolling the narrow European-esque streets and enjoying dinner on the roof. There we meet a friendly Canadian flight attendant on a 5-week vacation in India. After chatting for a while we all agree to do some site-seeing together in the morning. She also gives me the most amazing travel tip: apparently you can use internet and Skype on your iPhone if there is wi-fi for free! You just have to disable some of the phone capabilities!  I will definitely have to try this out.

Day 4: Udaipur

We meet our new friend in the morning during breakfast. Our first order of business is a stop at the City Palace of Udaipur. We will learn that most of the major sites in the city are within walking distance from our hotel. Fabulous! The City Palace is quite large and the three of us spend a good couple of hours maneuvering its lavish rooms filled with paintings, mirrors and brilliant colors.

After we've had our fill of the palace and our new celebrity status (we are CONSTANTLY asked for pictures), we wander down the hill for our hour-long boat tour of Lake Pichola - including the Jag Mandir Palace. On our way to the boat the path directs us through a park where every tree is literally infested with large fruit bats. While I enjoy the site I make sure to avoid hanging out below them for too long.

The boat ride ends up being amazing! The breeze on the open air boat cools the 105 degree temperature substantially. We circle the Taj Lake Palace (which refused to allow my friends and I onto the island for lunch- snobs!) and then land at Jag Mandir Palace which appears to float in the middle of the lake.

Jag Mandir Palace

By the time our boat tour ends we are all a bit tired from the heat and so agree to meet in the hotel lobby a couple of hours later to share a cab to the Monsoon Palace, perched high atop a mountain that overlooks Lake Pichola.

Thankfully, we get our kind driver again. He takes us the 40-minute ride up the mountain where the three of us marvel at the abandoned Palace, which has since been inhabited by bats, the 360 view of Udaipur and its lakes and the large family of monkeys that chased our car down the hill.

On our way back to the hotel our driver takes us through a detour around the second large lake in Udaipur, past a festive Indian wedding occurring smack dab in the middle of the street and finally to a large gated garden where, again, the three of us become the stars of the locals photographs and cell phone videos.

That night the three of us enjoy a nice dinner on our rooftop restaurant before joining a new American friend for drinks at HIS hotel's rooftop restaurant. I'm liking this theme!  

Day 5: Udaipur -> Jodhpur

Caroline and I get up early the next morning in order to grab breakfast and a quick visit to the Jagdish Temple down the road. We then rush back to the hotel to grab our cab to the airport for what was supposed to be a 40-minute flight to Jodphur. But, alas, things don't always work out as they are supposed to.

When we get to the airport we are informed that our flight is cancelled. Air India, whom I will never fly again, had been experiencing strikes for three days but never considered letting its passengers know that all flights were cancelled. The manager casually dismisses us and tells us to take a 4-hour cab ride to Jodhpur. We reluctantly concede. Too bad that 4-hour ride would turn into one of the biggest nightmares of the trip.

What should have taken 4 hours took 7.5, three stops for our driver to pray, use the restroom, 12 stops to ask for directions (he didn't know where we were going) and a complete exposure of all our drivers deepest secrets ranging from his three mistresses from all over the world, to his wife, etc.

Kingfisher: Extremely necessary after our journey

When we arrive at the Jodhpur city limits our driver gives up his task of getting us to the hotel and hands us over to a rickshaw driver who finally gets us there. By this time my friend and I are so exhausted we rush into the hotel, demand Kingfishers and directions to the hotel restaurant.

Day 6: Jodhpur

Mehrangarh Fort in the daytime

For our day in Jodhpur we hire a rickshaw driver to guide us around the blue city. He takes us to Umaid Bhawan Palace, the Mandore Gardens and an attempt to enter the Mehrangarh Fort for panoramic views of the famed blue buildings of the city. However, we were informed that the Fort was closed until 7:00pm that night for, get this, filming of the new BATMAN movie! What!? How cool is that? We decide to return later that night since the heat is getting to us anyway.

After resting for a bit, we stroll the markets nearby our hotel, see the clock tower and enjoy some lunch. At 6:30pm we meet our driver and he takes us up the hill to Mehrangarh Fort. We hope that, since we're a bit early, we may be able to sneak a peek of Christian Bale but alas, he stood us up.

The Fort at night!

The fort is amazing and, in fact, I think I prefer it in the cool of the early evening. My friend and I maneuver the beautifully intricate rooms and shop the museum shop. It's easy to see why Hollywood producers would choose to shoot such a big-budget movie here: it's beautiful.

After dinner we call it an early night since we've agreed to meet our rickshaw driver at 4:00am for a ride to the train station.  

Day 7: Jodhpur -> Jaisalmer

Just chillin' in the Thar Desert

It's a rough morning as my friend and I try and stay alert for our train ride. Luckily, we've learned a bit since our first trip and are better about finding our cart.

The 6-hour journey gets us into Jaisalmer in the heat of the day; a heat that hovers around 111 degrees. Yikes! Luckily, with the heat comes lower price and we are able to snag an AC cab ride to our hotel for a little more than 1 dollar. Nice.

Our hotel is really nice and new, if not slightly empty. We quickly befriend the owner who asks us for design advice on everything from rattan patio furniture to the direction his new pool should face. Luckily he agrees to take us that night on a camel ride in the Thar Desert!!! I am SO thrilled! I thought that the heat would preclude us from such an activity but he assures us the early evening is much cooler.

We spend the rest of the time until our adventure resting, using the internet and befriending the young waiter at the hotel restaurant.

When 5:30pm arrives we are on our way in the hotel owners brand new Toyota Fortuner out the dunes. On our way he stops to explain some sites to us while he takes a smoke break. It's easy to see how close we are to the Pakistani boarder (less than 50km!) as everything is just desert all around.

After passing some nomadic huts, goats and camels we arrive at our camel trek starting point. I am happy to see that it is literally just my friend and I and two camel drivers. There are no tourists around and I feel that we might get a more authentic experience. Our hotel owner agrees to pick us up from the dunes since he wants to try out his new car, four-wheeler style.

The ride is amazing and one of my favorite parts of the trip. We jog out into what seems like the end of the world to watch the sun fall behind the desert floor.


After our ride home the hotel manager agrees to drop us off the next morning at the Jaisalmer Fort, free of charge. Yes!

Day 8: Jaislamer

Jaislamer Fort

The Jaisalmer Fort is quite the site; resembling a giant sandcastle rising up from the dry earth. It is basically a compound for what has now become an eclectic mix of ancient temples and palaces and decidedly less ancient hostels and restaurants.  We take a guided tour of the main fort area and museum but don't last all that long as I have started to get sick.  After about 2 hours we make our way to the streets directly outside the fort to look for some souvenirs before the heat gets to us and we grab a rickshaw home.

Because of the heat, the summer months in Jaisalmer are not very tourist friendly. In fact, the Jaisalmer airport closes for six months out of the year because they figure who would really want to visit a desert in the middle of summer (well, crazy American MBA students, obviously). So, while we had originally hoped for a flight into New Delhi to meet our IFS group we had to settle for a 17-hour overnight train.

After resting up in the afternoon and grabbing our last dinner my friend and I get dropped off at the train station for our long journey. This time we splurged for an AC Tier 1 cart. In our cart we meet a girl who had been traveling in Nepal for two months and was getting ready to meet her boyfriend in Instanbul to bike ride to England. Yikes!

I try and stay up and converse for as long as I can but I've gotten quite ill at this point and decided to crawl up to my nook of a bed, drug myself with Tylenol PM and pass out.

Day 9: Jaisalmer to New Delhi

This is what an AC Tier 1 cart looks like

The journey ends up taking 20 hours and by the time we stop at the New Delhi station my friend and I can't wait to get our of our mouse-inhabited train cart and to the Taj Hotel and see our group.

Day 10: New Delhi

We grab a rickshaw and direct him to the Taj Hotel. He tells us he knows where it is, but we soon learn that he does not. After some direction-asking we finally pull up to the lavish, 5-star hotel, in a rickshaw, filthy, exhausted, starving and with clothes ripped and stained from our train journey.

We all but run to the front door. Unfortunately, as soon as I step up to the reception desk I start to get light-headed and know that I will faint if I don't get a seat soon. I frantically scan the lobby and find and find a chair where I collapse, visibly scaring the hotel staff. They must have thought we were the craziest pair of travelers yet!

Concerned, they grab me some water and juice. I realize I haven't eaten anything but a few cookies on the train in a full 24 hours.

After checking in I stumble to my room, rid myself of bags and head to the restaurant where all I want is the most boring item on the menu. Unfortunately, that is a chicken sandwich costing me $20. Yikes! I can tell the IFS portion of the trip will be notably more expensive that the first part.

After food and a rest I join some classmates at the hotel lounge and wait for the rest of our group to arrive and officially begin our International Field Study in India!