My Two Weeks

mdchachi · Mar 5th, 2004, 01:12

As way of introduction & goodbye (probably won't be around here much now that the trip is over), I will be posting my story of Feb 2004 in the coming days. Feel free to comment.

Day 1 - midnight arrival in Delhi.
Airport scene not the madhouse I had feared but was glad to have the hotel waiting for me with signboard. Due to the various scam reports I had read, was a little overly cautious in quizzing the hotel manager (why would they send a "hotel manager" to pick us up??) who met us at the airport even though he had a plastic board with the hotel's name on it. "First cow" sighting on the way from the airport and first experience with Indian traffic. Was more bemused than scared though we did see the results of a recent accident between two vehicles. Arrived to Bajaj Hotel in Karol Bagh to glasses of fanta orange and flower necklaces. Watched racy Indian videos on late night tv. Not explicit but very sexy. The country is not as conservative & innocent as those complaining on the forums about foreign women walking around in short sleeves and capri pants would have you believe.

Day 2 - A day in Delhi.
Figured out that those electric water heater things in the bathroom don't provide unlimited water. Fortunately they heat up quickly. Had a nice breakfast in the hotel. The hotel offered a car/driver for a half-day for an outrageous price (900 INR) so we said screw that and walked out to face Delhi by ourselves. Was planning to walk to Connaught Place but an auto-rickshaw arrived almost immediately to offer us a ride. The rate seemed reasonable (first-customer-of-the-day-rate of 20 INR). Arranged enroute to take us to see India Gate on the way for total fee of 50 INR. Encountered first beggar gesturing for food plus monkey-show & postcard-selling touts near India Gate. Ignored them all and jumped back in the rickshaw after taking my picture. Driver was personable and didn't seem to have any ulterior motives. Asked all the now-familiar questions. First time to India? Where are you from? How long have you been here? Where are you going? But on the way towards CP, started talking about taking us to some tourist center (ITC) for a "free map" and to help us with our trip. I said no thanks and as we neared Jantar Mantar, asked to be let out there.

Entered Jantar Mantar and soon encountered a "free" student guide. He told me I needed to pay a camera fee but I could pay him. I thought maybe he was right and headed back to the ticket window to pay but then he told me not to worry about it. I told him clearly I wouldn't pay for his services but let him guide us for "free" and half-listened, half-ignored him while we walked around. Eventually his spiel was done and I gave him 10 rupees. He was a little disappointed but I said, hey, I told you I wasn't going to pay, you're lucky to get anything and we were left alone to take pictures at our leisure. Made our way out of Jantar Mantar and headed towards CP. A Sikh rickshaw driver tried to pick us up and warned us that Connaught Place was closed. I said, yeah, right whatever -- I know that scam. Though it actually turned out that most of the shops in CP *were* closed since it was a Sunday. Didn't really matter, though, we weren't there to go shopping, we were just making our way to the rail office to pick up our tickets. But it was during this walk that I got my Delhi baptism as one after another of "kind, helpful" persons asked us what we were up to and offered us free maps at an ITC tourist center. I had a nice, detailed map of Delhi with me but unfortunately it was difficult to consult because the minute I pulled it out, I would be accosted by more "helpful" people. I tried various answers to their questions and determined that admitting that we were heading to Agra & Jaipur -- the tourist track -- would only get them to try to help us plan our trip. If I lied and said I had been there a week and was heading back tomorrow, they would try to "help" us shop for souvenirs. Telling the truth about going to fetch our pre-booked train tickets actually worked out well because they seemed to know that the tickets were pre-paid and there was nothing they could do to "help." (So even if you are going to purchase tickets, I recommend telling them you are going to pick up pre-paid, internet-booked tickets.) Also I found that not mentioning Agra and telling them I was heading to Kerala for a wedding was a good answer since that was far outside their sphere of influence and dealings. Although hard at first to ignore my social conditioning, it also worked well just to ignore them. Or simply say "no thanks" in answer to all of their queries, questions and invitations and keep walking past.

Eventually we made it to the IRCTC to pick up our tickets. It wasn't immediately obvious where "Room 17" was but as we wandered into the main ticket purchasing area, we spotted the numbered rooms on the rear side. Here it became obvious why train tickets purchased this way can only be picked up at this one rail station in India. Although the tickets themselves had been printed by computer, the pickup & delivery mechanism was maintained in a hand-written ledger. I watched as the attendant licked his dirty finger to page through the grimy book in this small, dirty office. Well, the system seemed to work and soon we had our tickets in hand.

Walked across the street into Main Bazaar. Didn't feel like we could walk through leisurely; if we walked too slow or, God forbid, show an interest in something, were immediately subjected to sales pitches. My wife overpaid for a Salwar Kameez. Original asking price was 350 and she asked for and got 300. At least 100 too much I'm betting. Oh, well, no lunch for her, then. :) Encountered many more "friendly" people and many of the tactics I had read about, for example somebody accusing me of not being friendly because I was ignoring their overtures. Stopped for lunch at Diamond Cafe. It was good food and a good deal at 145 INR but somewhat hard to enjoy when you're feeling like you're playing Russian roulette every time you consume something.

By this time the cows here and there were not so remarkable and almost part of the natural scenery. Saw somebody's foot print in a big pile of cow crap and I thought "poor sucker." Not five minutes later, as I'm looking everywhere except at the ground, I step right smack in the middle of a big fresh and juicy cow patty! Very glad not to be wearing sandals. All I could do is laugh at myself and move on. Cow dung is not the problem you might imagine though because since the stuff has value as fuel, there is not a whole lot of it on the streets. There is, however, plenty of garbage left on the streets. So much so that it is easy to imagine that garbage is not disposed of at all except to throw it on the street. I suspect this is not the case, though, there would be far too much in a city of this size not to move some of it elsewhere. Flies were not as plentiful as you would imagine, though.

Reached the end of the bazaar area. Some older guy who had been to the U.S. many times to sell goods to Bloomingdales (or so he said) "helped" us get an auto-rickshaw to Red Fort. The rickshaw driver immediately changed plans on us and said he'd take us to a tourist office where we could catch a bus to Red Fort for much cheaper and didn't seem ready to follow through on the initial agreement of a ride to Red Fort. I said f* that and we got out. I tipped his rickshaw over on its side and told him where he could go. (Ok, this last sentence isn't quite true.) We crossed the busy street and headed the way we wanted to go. This area was more "normal" with people going about their daily business -- many mechanics here with rickshaw engine parts scattered about. Nobody bothered us except to perhaps stare at us as we walked on by. Had a nice walk but time was wasting and I kept my eye out for an auto rickshaw. Finally we consented to riding on a cycle rickshaw with a persistent driver who couldn't speak English. Made a deal for a ride to Red Fort for 20 INR from Paharganj area. Quite a deal. I was afraid it would be slow but this guy kicked ass. At one point we went up a slope over an overpass above the railway station and he was passing all other cycle rickshaws, practically keeping up with traffic. Very "interesting" to be sharing the road with large trucks, busses and auto-rickshaws. I didn't feel particularly unsafe but I was probably just naive. After a very quick ride through Old Delhi we were in front of Red Fort in almost no time at all. I gave him the 30 INR he had originally asked for and he seemed truly grateful. Walked around the flea market on the other side of the street for a short while before heading into the fort. Spotted our first monkeys. Didn't know any better at the time so vastly overpaid for a Pepsi at 40 INR. Tasted good, though. Since we only had one day to do Delhi, we didn't dally in the fort (and anyway there wasn't all that much to see there). Outside we grabbed an auto rickshaw to Raj Ghat.

Walked around the top of Raj Ghat (Gandhi's cremation site) then went to go inside. We wanted to walk through to the other side so rather than give our shoes to the shoe people we pulled out plastic bags and started putting our shoes in there to carry them through. The shoe caretakeres immediately objected. We should have ignored them and kept going but I was afraid that I would be treading on some real cultural taboos. But I was pissed off so I held my spouses shoes while she went in to look. I couldn't understand the Hindi but an Indian lady who had been going in seemed to try to intervene on our behalf and tell the shoe caretakers off. But they were adamant and she gave up. I pretended not to realize what was going on. My wife eventually came out and we put on our shoes and left. I didn't bother going in since I could see it fine from above and my wife was the one who wanted to go in the first place. By the way, plenty of people were walking up without shoes on in the first place so if anybody else wants to try this, I recommend putting your shoes in your daypack before you reach the entrance area, out of sight of the greedy shoe caretakers.

Outside of Raj Ghat we ignored the "outrageous" prices of 60-70 INR quoted to take us to Humayun's Tomb and started walking down the road. That turned out to be a mistake because it was a busy road and most rickshaws on it already had customers. The few we did talk to flat out refused to go there (even though it's close to Nizamudin and they should be able to easily find fares in that area) or gave us equally high prices. Just as we were worrying about wasting all this time trying to save 50 cents, we came on a bus stop. A bus pulled up. I poked my head in and asked if it was heading to Humayun's Tomb. The driver didn't seem to understand but one of the passengers said yes, and we jumped on. At first it wasn't apparent how to pay until we realized that the guy sitting near the back who seemed to be helping us was really the guy collecting money. So we ended up getting to exactly where we wanted to go for only 10 INR, what luck. And we got to ride a local bus besides. The bus was kind of like how you might imagine a prison transport bus would be (at least the ones you see in the movies). Old, dirty with drab colors. On the back of each seat was the stenciled message that said something like "Look under your seat. If you find a bomb, you will get a reward." It really didn't engender any confidence in riding the public bus system in me but it did add to the sense of danger and adventure. Soon enough we found ourselves deposited in front of Humayun's Tomb.

Humayun's Tomb was a pretty neat place and well worth it despite the discriminatory ticket prices for foreigners (~ $4.50). I wished we could take some more time there on the peaceful and scenic grounds but the sun was low in the sky and we still wanted to see Qutb Minar. So we spent only 30 minutes or so there before heading to the parking lot to look for transportation. We made a deal with an auto-rickshaw driver and headed for Qutb Minar in a race to beat sunset. Unfortunately this autorickshaw was a real beater and every other motorized vehicle on the road was passing it. But we did make it to Qutb Minar before sunset and paid the foreigner entrance fee before heading inside. We were glad we had made it. The 72m sandstone tower was photogenic in the light of sunset. The small iron bar/tower not so impressive except when you begin to consider that it was cast by humans over 1000 years ago.

Although I told the driver not to wait, he was there waiting for us so we boarded his slow rickshaw again in order to stop at Dilli Haat on the way back. I let him take us to 3 or 4 different shops on the way but by the time we entered the last one I made him promise that that it would indeed be the last one. We didn't buy anything. Yes, painstakingly handmade table covers looked beautiful but I'd rather have a cheaper machine-made product. Especially when I know damned well that almost none of the $100+ they were asking for this stuff actually makes it to the worker who made it. Eventually we got to Dilli Haat -- an upscale bazaar. We told our driver we were going to eat so he didn't bother to wait. Dilli Haat required a small entrance fee to get in which left all the riffraff outside. So it was a nice (low hassle) place to walk around and shop even though the prices were probably more expensive than in the street. We didn't buy anything here either but we had dinner. There were many outdoor restaurants, each representing different states of India. We settled upon Rajasthan which seemed to be doing a fairly brisk business. Finally the day was over and we got a ride back to Karol Bagh. We ended up spending far less on transportation than the 900 INR car/driver offered to us by the hotel and despite being India newbies, I think we had managed fairly well.

LuAnnandJawahar · Mar 5th, 2004, 03:55

Rs 900 for a car and driver all day in Delhi is a hell of a deal. Your experiences sound fun but you seem so concerned with not encountering people who were going to take you to the cleaners you might have enjoyed yourself even more if you had just chucked out the $20 for a car and chauffeur.

A car and driver in my home country would be about US$50 per hour with a four hour minimum.

Your suggestions about using the word "pre-paid" are right on. Tell your cabbie that picks you up at the airport that you have already PAID FOR your hotel. If you are on the way to the reservation office at the station to make your own plans tell people that you are going their to make a small change in the tickets you already have in hand. When they ask what your travel plans are, tell them you are flying out to Mumbai that evening, or as you mention, that you are headed in Kerala and they will loose interest. That line would only work in Delhi obviously. (Don't say you are going North--they've got that all wrapped up.)

Connaught Place is dead on Sundays. The rickshaw driver was right to tell you that. Touts never take a day off however!

timmy · Mar 5th, 2004, 08:51

Nice story

Quote:

Originally posted by mdchachi
Encountered many more "friendly" people and many of the tactics I had read about, for example somebody accusing me of not being friendly because I was ignoring their overtures.

Same thing happened to me... I was told "you are a very suspicious man", to which I replied "Yes. Yes I am."

Besides, is there really such a thing as a free map?

Quote:

There is, however, plenty of garbage left on the streets. So much so that it is easy to imagine that garbage is not disposed of at all except to throw it on the street. I suspect this is not the case, though, there would be far too much in a city of this size not to move some of it elsewhere.

They come along and scrape up the rubbish in Main Bazar in the mornings and dump it into a cart, but yes, they do just throw their rubbish into the streets, knowing that it'll eventually get swept up.

mdchachi · Mar 5th, 2004, 11:20

The 900 was for just four hours I think, not a full day. You had quoted me 500 so I knew they were way out of line. For 12 hours we ended up spending less than 500 on transportation.

Having a car and a driver would have been "easier" but then I never would have had the cycle rickshaw ride. Or the bus ride with the bomb messages on the seats. Or the fun of making our own way through the city. So besides saving money, the way we did it made it more of an adventure and I'm glad we didn't hire a car & driver.

mdchachi · Mar 5th, 2004, 11:30

Day 3 - Delhi to Agra
We had heard what sounded like fireworks overnight. Wedding parties perhaps? Otherwise the hotel was pretty quiet besides the pigeons messing around near the bathroom window and the occasional dog fights. We took a walk around Karol Bagh after breakfast. After escaping the "helpful" drivers near the hotel, most people paid us no mind as we walked around the block. We checked out of Bajaj and refused their "generous" offer for a ride from Karol Bagh to the rail station for 300 INR. We easily found a rickshaw for 20 INR and were on our way. It was Monday and much busier than it had been the previous day. On the busy road with subway construction near Connaught Place, the driver pulled over and his "brother" explained that they didn't have enough gas and we would have to find another rickshaw. Huh? So we pulled out our luggage and they hailed a rickshaw over for us. Didn't get quite as good a deal but settled on 25 INR for the shorter distance. Of course we didn't have to pay for the first, partial ride. The new driver told us the train we would be boarding, where we were from and where we were headed. A spy?? No, he had been one of the myriad of people we had encountered the previous day. Apparently he had talked to us right after we had picked up our rail tickets. I had answered his various questions about ourselves and now here he was repeating this information back to us. Strange coincidence.

We worked our way into the New Delhi rail station, ignoring offers to help with our bags and asked somebody sitting in an office which platform to catch for the Kerala Express (which, for whatever reason was far from Kerala and would be taking us to Agra). It wasn't necessary to produce a ticket to get on the platform so we waited in what we guessed to be relatively near the spot where AC2 & AC3 passengers would board, judging by the attire & look of other passengers. We had over 30 minutes to kill and spent it standing since it was too dirty to sit down. We watched chain/lock sellers walking up and down the platform. We ignored a beggar woman who finally left us alone after it became obvious to her that we would not be giving her anything. Finally our train came. The carriage markings were not correct and even other passengers weren't sure which carriage to get on. We picked one and I double-checked with an Indian passenger but later found it to be one carriage over. So we moved just before the train got underway. Sharing the four-seat compartment was an Indian couple who gave us a respectful distance and paid us little mind. The attendant ignored us and took other passengers orders for food. We manage to score some "tomato soup" (tasted kind of like Tobasco soup but it was good) and tea. 4 or 5 ruppees for tiny cups. We eventually ordered a "veg meal" from the attendant but it never appeared and the three-hour trip to Agra was spent napping or writing in our journals (as well as watching out the window).

We reached Agra around 2pm and when we disboarded, more of those wonderfully "helpful fellows" helped us get our bearings and steared us outside the station. We ignored them as well as the "guides" outside the Uttar Pradesh tourist office and looked at the tour schedule information they had and talked to the workers in the office, in case we decided to use the government run tours the next day. We made our way out the station to the pre-paid taxi stand. The prices seemed more expensive than I expected and then I noticed there was another pre-paid stand. That one turned out to be the prepaid autorickshaw stand. That's what I wanted. We got a four-hour ("4, 5, 6 hours OK") rickshaw for 165 INR. Checked the number of the rickshaw against the voucher and got on. Another guy jumped on with the driver. I guess we could have refused to allow him on but there didn't seem to be any harm in it and we were off. The "guide" or whatever he was, was friendly enough. He produced a book of comments from other tourists in various languages. The comments were generally complimentary. Of course I'm sure he doesn't ask pissed off customers to sign his book. Most were several years old. Only a couple recent ones. He said he had been back in Rajasthan for a while.

Although we thought air quality in Delhi to be exceedingly poor, Agra was even worse. I imagined every minute spent here would reduce my life expectancy by minutes or hours, if not days. My throat was starting to bother me. I may have picked up a cold virus or perhaps it was the air, or perhaps both. Aside from that, the sights on the streets were interesting and varied. Beeping horns. Ox-pulled carts. Cows, goats, pigs. And people, plenty of people. Felt a little conspicuous pulling up to the Holiday Inn in our downscale mode of transportation but no big deal. We checked in, cleaned up and had a quick bite to eat while our drivers waited for us.

We came out less than an hour before sunset and asked to be taken for a sunset view of the Taj Mahal. We were taken through town -- various sights and sounds assaulting our senses -- eventually went over a narrow bridge over the river. It was faster to walk the bridge than drive it because it was too narrow for two-way vehicular traffic but eventually we made it across. Along the river we could see large cauldrons and fires burning -- apparently for the purpose of washing laundry in the polluted waters. The other side of the bridge was much more rural and we started seeing some nice views of the Taj. We were taken to the end of the road and we walked the rest of the way through a field to the river, taking pictures of the Taj in the evening light. Various kids accosted us. "Hello Pen." "Hello Chocolate." "Hello Money." They didn't look to be particularly destitute but I'm sure if I was a kid living there, I'd be doing the same thing. Why not? We ignored them but they still hung around since there were only a couple of other tourists there and they had nothing better to do. On the way back to the rickshaw was offered some Taj Mahal postcards, 10 for 70 INR. I didn't know the going rate but ended up buying two packs for 70. About 8 cents a postcard. Probably still higher than the going rate but a good deal from my standpoint.

We headed back to town. As we didn't have anything better to do, we consented to be shown a demonstration of the marble craftsmanship of the Taj. I knew it would be a store. And, indeed it was. But we were given a demonstration of the marble inlay work and we ended up buying an $80 plate as our primary India Souvenir. Of course our guide was pleased since he would get a couple of bucks out of the deal. We were ready to be taken back to the hotel and refused any more stops. At the hotel the driver convinced us to use his services the next day and claimed that he would have a faster rickshaw that would be perfect for driving to Fatehpur Sikri. I was a little skeptical but agreed. We had a relatively expensive tea and dessert in the Holiday Inn restaurant before heading up to our room. I forgot the name of the dessert but if you've ever had Indian sweets you can probably guess what it tasted like -- almost all Indian sweets taste nearly alike. At least that's been my experience.

DianeN. · Mar 5th, 2004, 12:57

Thanks for posting about your trip. I hope you finish letting us know about your whole two weeks before I leave on my trip....in just 4 days!

Alan D · Mar 5th, 2004, 16:06

mdchachi

For a "newbie wallah" I think you are doing pretty well so far and enjoying India without letting minor frustrations get to you.

Obviously a lot of the information you have picked up from this site has been useful and that's what makes it worthwhile for all the people who contribute here.

I'm looking forward, like others, to your subsequent posts.

The problem is, this thread will eventually sink under the continual flow of new postings. It might be a good idea to also post it in the travel articles section on the home page.

As for your not being around here much in the future, from the tone of your articles, I think you will be looking in on indiamike when you start planning your next trip to India.

mdchachi · Mar 5th, 2004, 22:42

Diane, I'll try to get the rest posted asap. Though it's really just the first few days that may be useful.

Alan, I'll post the finished product as an article though actually the forums are good because of the search. I didn't realize most of the articles were there until just the other day.

As for another trip to India, it's possible. But not likely for a while. It's too far and there are too many other places we want to go.

Day 4 - Agra & Fatehpur Sikri
We got up at 5am in order to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise. Our driver was waiting for us at 6am as planned, except instead of the auto rickshaw he had an old Ambassador. And instead of our guide from the previous day, he had a different guy with him. I was a little suspicious but he claimed he couldn't get the rickshaw but we could use the car for the same price. And, anyway, it would be better to drive to Fatehpur Sikri by car. At least we finally got to ride in a famed Ambassador. So we were off in the dark, in the cool, still-very-polluted air to the Taj Mahal. It was farther than I thought. Took about 20 minutes to get to the west entrance. The guards were very thorough and made me take my pocket knife and bag of cookies to the cloak room. We ignored all offers to guide us and headed inside. Seeing the Taj at sunrise like this turned out to be an excellent plan. The Taj was very photogenic at this time, the crowds were few and the touts & professional hasslers outside hadn't yet set up shop outside the entrance. So we spent the next 90 minutes or so taking in the Taj. Definitely an impressive, beautiful sight. Saw some monkeys running around the edges and a peacock perched in a tree. Up at the Taj, you could either leave your shoes on a rack or use the shoe covers being rented out. We went with the shoe covers and were glad we did since the back side of the Taj was still covered in dew and wet. This way our feet kept nice and dry. The river and sunset vantage point we had used the night before were completely obscured by fog. Heading back outside the west gate, most shops were still closed but one guy walked with us speaking to us in Japanese and offering Japanese food -- okonomiyaki and the like. No, thanks. Again, the hordes we had read about were nowhere in sight and I highly recommend a sunrise visit to the Taj. Our driver & guide were waiting where they were supposed to be. I think they had some ideas about where we should eat breakfast but agreed to our request to go back to our hotel. Breakfast was included and, anyway, we needed to check out.

After breakfast we checked out and carried our luggage to the car, putting it into the dirty trunk. I hoped we would still have our luggage at the end of the day. The inside of the car was dirty and grimy as well but how could it be otherwise, driving in the filthy air of this town every day? I had planned to go to Fatehpur Sikri next but our guide had other ideas and I acquiesced to his plan which was to see Agra Fort next. Agra Fort was a lot nicer than the Red Fort in Delhi. It would have been nice to stay there a little longer but I wanted to get to Fatehpur Sikri and back in plenty of time to catch our 7pm train. Though we had no special interest, we were taken for a hand-made carpet-making "demonstration," followed by offers to buy these special goods. It was somewhat interesting but overall a waste of time. Then we were taken to see some "special gems" of India. So we spent time in a jewelry shop. It was actually interesting talking to the proprietor because he had lived in Australia and was only back to take care of his mother. He wasn't into hard selling of his wares. But still another wasted 20 minutes. We stopped for gas where I was hit up for 200 ruppees and told that the fee would be 700 for the day -- based on the rate quoted to me for a car the previous day, not the 500 quoted for the rickshaw as I had thought. Oh, well, not much I could do at this point with our luggage sitting in the trunk and no obvious recourse. And, of course, $5 is nothing to get too upset about. Bought water & pepsi at the gas stand and was quoted normal non-inflated prices. Refreshing to see that not everybody is out to screw the tourists. Our "guide" left us and said he would see us later and we headed off to Fatehpur Sikri.

The road to Fatehpur Sikri was in generally good condition, straight and nice and wide. Definitely was better to have the car and I was glad we didn't attempt it in a rickshaw. Along the road were people walking and carrying small decorated semi-circular objects on their shoulders. Maybe about 70cm long. I asked the driver around them and apparently they were carrying water back from the Ganges River for their family and friends. A pilgrimage, basically. Our driver was Muslim and didn't put any special stock in the water himself.

At Fatehpur Sikri, we ignored offers from guides and explored the complex on our own. It was an interesting set of ruins and I can see why people recommend staying the night here instead of Agra. For one thing the air was much more breathable. Next door, we checked out the mosque which was free. There was a shoe caretaker but a "free guide" latched himself onto us and told us we could carry our shoes which we did. He claimed he didn't want money and I said I wouldn't pay him. He did have some interesting things to say but I was ever wary of the catch. Near the end, he tried to take us to the corner to see their crafts. I said I wasn't interested but offered to give him 20 ruppees anyway. He surprised me by refusing but said he wouldn't mind something like a pen as a souvenir. But he didn't seem very interested in the crappy pen I pulled out of my pocket. Then he said, how about a coin from your country or a dollar? I didn't have any coins and almost pulled out a dollar until I remembered its value and said I didn't have any. So I tried again to give him 20 ruppees -- after all he had saved us from the shoe caretakers -- but he refused and we left. So I really don't understand what he was after. Perhaps we should have looked at his craft items but we really don't get into that kind of stuff. On the steps of the mosque I was offered a little travel-size wooden backgammon set for 10 INR. It seemed like a decent price but I didn't need it. We avoided the other sellers -- people selling drums or handmade toys, a boy leading a blind man towards us to ask for money -- and made it back to our car and driver. Had lunch at nearby Share-e-Punjab, a place mentioned in Lonely Planet. Food was good. Again I hoped it was hygenic.

We drove back to the foul atmosphere Agra and picked up our guide who explained that he had had a doctors appointment due to chest pains or something. A sympathy ploy? I don't know. I asked if we had time to see the Baby Taj and was told no. So they then proceeded to take us to more shops. A textile shop. An everything-from-carpets-to-jewelry shop. A "Kashmiri crafts" shop. And a very expensive souvenir department store which had everything from sari to marble tables. The only thing we bought was 3 meters of fabric. I think my wife paid 300 INR, about half the original asking price. The last place was the kind of place where buses would stop. That same backgammon set that the guy had tried to sell me at Fatehpur Sikri for 10 INR had a price tag of 570 INR! Holy crap. Marble plates similar to the one we bought were also way more expensive so we felt good about our previous night's purchase. Basically, to our "guide" we represented a lottery ticket. The more we shopped the more he might get something out of it. Even we didn't buy anything, he would get some kind of credit for getting us into the store. And sometimes he had hit the jackpot he said (not his exact words) and somebody had purchased an $8000 carpet. At 1 or 2% of the sale, that would land him a small fortune. Finally we had had enough and I preferred that we get to the station early rather than be dragged through any more stores. We parted amicably at the Agra Fort station. The guide, being more aggressive than the driver, asked about a tip and I said, hey, we went to all the stores you wanted to go plus paid the extra 200 you sprung on us. So no tip.

I suppose if I had to do it again, I might try to research better what I wanted to do and exact greater control over our Agra itinerary and insisted on less shopping. I'm sure I probably could have fit the Baby Taj in there. Or spent a little time hanging out in town. But getting dragged to stores is part of the Agra experience, right? Overall things worked out pretty well. At least the guys were honest and our luggage remained with us.

Oh, one thing I wanted to mention. A lot of the monuments charge a 25 camera fee. On more than one occasion, we only had 30 ruppees and were told that they didn't have change and to get the 5 rupees on the way out. I thought it was a scam and wasn't going to bother asking for the 5 rupees. But my wife persuaded me to go back and ask and each time the change was forthcoming. So I think it is a scam -- they know many tourists won't bother coming back for their 5 rupees -- but they will at least give you the change later if you ask for it. In general you should take every chance you can to break your 500 and 100 rupee bills so that you have a plentiful supply of 5, 10 and 20 rupee bills. When we first arrived I had changed $300. I had asked for small denominations and ended up with a big wad of 100 INR bills. It was a large stack of about 130 bills but they fit nicely in my waist wallet under my shirt.

Our night train to Jaipur was scheduled for 19:30 but we had almost an hour to kill. Found the printout of seat assignments and was relieved to see that we had been assigned berths although unfortunately not over each other. We had been waitlisted (WL4/WL5). Walked on to the platform with our luggage and looked around. There were first-class waiting rooms -- one for males one for females -- next to each other. The one for males was more crowded. The one for females had a family in it, including an elderly male. So we entered and sat on some seats in the corner. It was an exceedingly grimy room but still better than the platform where there were no seats. Had tea from a tea vendor who was walking through. It came in little small plastic cups. Or should I say, we had tea-flavored sugar? Though far too sweet for everyday drinking, our tired bodies soaked up the heavily sweetened tea. All the tea we had from these train/station vendors was very hot so didn't have any worries of picking up any illness.

There were announcements in Hindi and English and we learned that our train was delayed. Half-hour at first then the announced delay increased a little bit each time. Went outside the station and bought a pepsi and some chips. This guy didn't try to cheat me and charged the correct prices. 5 for the small bag of chips and 15 for the Pepsi. A few more people had entered the waiting room. Some women and kids and a couple of Korean girls. The elderly guy had left, perhaps he was next door in the male waiting room. At one point a guy came in and swept up the garbage from the room. I was somewhat impressed that they were at least making an effort to keep things clean. Later, I realized that everything he had swept up, he had simply swept down on the railroad tracks. Plastic cups and all. Perhaps this system of throwing garbage into the environment might have worked in the past but with the advent of plastics, I think they really need to rethink this strategy. Walked around on the platform while another train came in. Could see somebody was using the toilet, as brown, semi-liquid waste dribbled onto the tracks. Gross.

Later, back in the waiting room, an older lady came in. She saw me and started chewing me out in Hindi and gesturing for me to leave. I wasn't sure if she was crazy or had a right to throw me out. I assumed the former and just ignored her, avoided making eye contact like she was a monkey or something. I guess she was the official waiting room lady since she seemed to have a checklist or something. So I thought about leaving but the lady sitting on the other side of me, defended me in Hindi and told her to bug off. Eventually she gave up and left the room.

Finally, our train was due to arrive. It still arrived later than they said it would but only about 75 minutes later than scheduled. For India that's pretty good. And even for Amtrak in the U.S. that would be an everyday, normal delay. It wasn't clear where the AC2 car was. No markings that I could discern. I started getting a little concerned since I knew the train would only be there a few minutes and asked a porter where AC2 was. He glanced at my ticket and immediately stopped what he was doing with his Indian customers and hurried us to the front of the train. Probably he expected to be tipped handsomely by the rich/dumb foreigners. I gave him 5 rupees and we boarded the train. Probably not what he was hoping but he didn't carry our luggage and it was fair for 60 seconds work, I thought.

The AC2 car was identical to the one we rode into Agra, except most of the curtains were drawn. Although it didn't compare to my other night-train experience -- the super-luxurious Cassiopeia from Tokyo to Sapporo which has a private bathroom in each compartment -- it was far cheaper and a very good value (I think it was less than $30 for the two of us). Certainly more comfortable than coach class in an airplane. We located our berths. Both were side upper berths, two apart from each other. We each had a medium-sized backpack and smaller daypack-sized items and found that we could fit the lugguage with us on the berth. A tight fit but that seemed the safest thing to do. I asked the attendant for pillows and blankets and he delivered them shortly. We both made up our beds as best we could and went to sleep.

mdchachi · Mar 6th, 2004, 04:57

Day 5 - Jaipur

Although it was before 10 pm, I soon fell asleep on the train and except for some sort of odd dreams and half-waking moments, knew nothing until the train attendant woke me up around 3:30am or so. We arrived at Jaipur around 3:50am, pretty close to our scheduled arrival time. The train must have made up some time.

Still a bit sleepy we soon found ourselves on the platform and made out way to the exit in the dark night. Based on Mr. Singh's advice from Jas Vilas our goal was the nearby Rajput Sheraton where we planned to spend some time in the coffee shop. It wasn't quite as close or obvious where to go as we thought and after asking a few people, finally accepted a cycle rickshaw ride the rest of the way for 5 rupees. We walked into the fancy hotel lounge looking rather grubby I'm sure. I asked if they had a 24-hour coffee shop and they took us to the restaurant on the first floor. Though "extremely" expensive, we ordered a bite to eat and some tea & cappuccino. (I think the total bill was around 500). We took advantage of the wonderfully clean bathroom and started feeling somewhat awake and refreshed. We had a few hours to kill before we could stop by Jas Vilas at 7am to drop off our luggage. Over the two hours I got 4 or 5 cappuccino refills. So the price of 85 INR for the capuccino didn't seem so bad anymore.

Our waiter, Mahesh, was quite personable and offered to show us around Jaipur later if we wanted to. He had recently received his guides license he said but didn't give us a strong sales pitch. I told him I was playing with the idea of going to the fort to view the sunrise. It doesn't look that far on the map but he explained that it is a windy 10km road to get up there and suggested we try viewing the sunrise at the water palace. So shortly before sunrise, that's what we set out to do. I decided to try his guiding services and made plans to call him later, around 10:30. He seemed like a nice guy and he seemed of higher caliber than the sharks you find on the street.

We put our luggage on our backs, refused the taxi offered by the doorman and walked out in search of a rickshaw. The first guy we found was just sitting around and gave us a price of 120 or something like that. He went down to 100 but really didn't seem like he wanted our business that much so we left him behind and walked back towards the station. There we found a guy who seemed more anxious to get some work and agreed on a rate of 70 to take us to the water palace and then to the hotel. Every time we made a deal for a ride, we double-checked that it included both of us so they wouldn't try to pull any fare-doubling tricks on us. This guy was taller than average and kind of hunched over the wheel. Had a turban on his head. Yes, we were in Rajasthan.

It was already getting light while we made our way through the city and I worried I had waited too long and would miss sunrise. Had a nice early morning tour of the city which was, indeed, pink. Or, rather, more like a sandstone color. Compared to Agra, the air was clean and very refreshing. We went through the walled city and headed behind it towards the hills. I had thought we would head into the hills so I could get a view over the city but we ended up at a lake with an old palace in the middle of it. Not quite what I had had in mind but it turned out to be decent place to watch the sunrise. I noted the rickshaws plate number on the offchance that our luggage might be taken and headed across the street to take some picutures. The road here was wide and fairly untrafficked. Up the road came some painted elephants, maybe on their way to work at Amer Fort. A few locals were out for a morning walk.

We headed back into the city which was now showing greater signs of activity. Pigs rooting around in garbage at the side of the road. Cows here and there. Goats. Plenty of dogs getting ready for a day of lazing around. No cats though. (Somewhat surprisingly didn't spot very many cats in India.) Cow patties were laid out to dry at the sides of the road. The camels on the road along with the elephants we had seen earlier added to a feeling of the exotic. They seemed to use horns a little less in this city. Usually when needed rather than pure gratuitous beeping like seemed to be common in Delhi and Agra. All these things, along with the refreshing air, combined to make this city the most appealing so far.

All this time I had been amazed as to how the pigs, dogs, goats and cows seemed to live in the midst of all the traffic. I noticed that none of them made any sudden moves; they were all just hanging out, basically. Either all were very smart not to jump into traffic or maybe it was just due to natural selection. But on this ride, we passed a young pig in its death throes after having been hit by a vehicle. So it does happen.

We made it to JasVilas around 7:30 and I paid the driver the 70 plus a 10 rupee tip. I met the proprietor, Mr Mahendra Singh. As luck would have it, he had had a no-show the previous night and gave us a room immediately. We felt immensely rejuvenated after nice hot showers and relaxed a little bit while we had breakfast outside, in front of our room which was on the front side of the house. The atmosphere felt kind of like Arizona -- dry, sunny. Mr. Singh gave me a map and a nice orientation regarding the city, what to do and how to get around. To my slight surprise, he didn't try to "sell" us any services like a car & driver (instead he recommended using the radio taxi system).

I called Mahesh just after 11, a little later than I had promised. He said he was still available and could come to our location in about 45 minutes. Guess I should have called him earlier but no matter, we had two complete days in Jaipur and had time for a little slower pace. He came with a rickshaw that he said he had hired for 250 INR for the afternoon. It sounded a little expensive to me but, still it was only about $5.

First he took us to the Wind Palace. He hadn't expected to go in but I said we wanted to see the inside so we went inside to check out the view. He was a little antsy because of the late start we had so we didn't stay for longer than necessary and were soon back on the rickshaw heading for Amer Fort. We took the road past the spot at the water palace where we had seen the sunrise and then on to Amer Fort. Had some good conversion but I don't recall much of what was said. We didn't bother with the expensive elephant ride which would have been 400 INR and took the path up to the fort that the locals take. It was actually an easy walk, much easier than I expected. Steep but not very long.

The fort was quite impressive with its narrow passageways and mirrored walls. Mahesh did a credible guiding job but it was clear he wasn't all that experienced. We didn't mind; he hadn't been in the game long enough to try spend our day shopping and it was nice having the personable guy around. Besides the Sheraton job, he was also a music teacher he said. Had some very tasty oranges at what seemed a very reasonable price of 5 rupees each even without bargaining.

We wanted to see Jaigarh and Nahargarh Forts as well so we hurried back down to the parking lot because, apparently, Mahesh had only contracted our driver for four hours. Not that we couldn't have given him an extra buck for more time. So we drove up to Jaigarh and ran into the privately held fort to check out its main sight which is the world's largest cannon. It was big but still not particularly impressive. Had some good views on Amer Fort and the Water Palace down below. The place as a whole was picturesque though. Plenty of photo opportunities of the sandstone ruins.

We headed up the road to Nahargarh Fort. Since time was running out on our ride, I suggested we part ways at Nahargarh. That way we could have a more leisurely time at the fort and walk down the steep path to the city below. And Mahesh could go home and get some sleep. After all, he had worked the night shift and then spent the day with us. Mahesh gratefully accepted the idea since he lived on the side of the mountain opposite to the old city. We hadn't settled on a price for Mahesh's services -- "I'm just learning so I couldn't say". Earlier he had told me that professional guides get 150 INR and that's what I gave him. He seemed pleased with it. It's still hard for me to understand that labor is worth so little in India. Consider that it costs me $4 or $5 for admission into each historical monument or $2 for a meal. Yet I can hire a guy to hang out with me for less than $1 an hour. And he's happy with it. Something doesn't seem quite right. Obviously the solution here is to hire these people to hand-weave carpets and sell them for a few thousand bucks each. <Lame attempt at humor here>.

Nahargarh was actually pretty cool. It was basically a decrepit old mansion overlooking the city. It was neat because it was built kind of like a grid with square passageways, open courtyarts and multiple levels. It was all open to the air and there were monkeys hanging out in some of the rooms. With the levels and turns into other corridors and rooms, it was very much like a video game. Take pictures of monkeys without pissing them off, avoid getting killed by monkeys, get to the other side. Apparently there's one room for rent and one could stay at this place. That would be wild. Maybe a little scary, though. We made it to the roof and enjoyed the view. From up here, we could see that outside of the center, the "pink city" actually contains a lot of blue. So maybe we were getting a little taste of the blue city of Jodhpur which we would not be visiting on this trip. A friendly Indian guy who had spent some time in Japan started talking to my wife and he took a picture with us and talked about his experiences in Japan. We had a bite to eat in the restaurant/cafe before heading down the steep road leading to the city below via steep switchbacks.

We wanted to get down before the sun completely set. We enjoyed the waning light on the way down. The sounds of the city below drifted up. Car horns. Music. It was a peaceful scene and perhaps one of the best moments on the trip. A handful of others were making their way down or up the path as well. Near the bottom were more people. People on rooftops waving. Kids -- "Hello. Hello." "Hello chewing gum." Much as it would have been nice to give these kids something, I didn't have that much to give and, anyway, I didn't want to make them even more rabid for future travelers. At the bottom we just kept walking figuring we could get a rickshaw when we got tired. Once we got past the cluster of cycle rickshaws at the end of the path, most people paid us little mind. We weren't in a tourist area -- it was an area of small stores. Building materials. Cheap plastic toys. Salt. Spices. Mostly the kind of stuff we wouldn't be buying so people didn't call out to us.

Eventually we came to a busy street. We had crossed various busy streets before and I'll mention now, they are all like the old video game Frogger where you control a frog crossing a busy street without getting squished. Perhaps you're not familiar with it but you might be familiar with the Seinfeld Frogger episode. And, if not, you'll still understand what I mean the next time you have to cross a busy street in India. Just think "Frogger."

We weren't actually sure where we were but it didn't really matter. We shopped a bit and eventually found ourselves in a sari shop. My wife wanted one for the wedding and since we were afraid we wouldn't have time to make one in Kerala she ended up purchasing one in this shop. They spread out dozens of sari as she made up her mind on what she wanted. We got a "silk" sari with tailored blouse and underskirt for 900. We didn't do the silk flame test so I'm not sure if they were taking us for a ride or not. They took measurements and promised to have it ready by 6pm the next day.

From there we walked to the city gate and I attempted to determine which one it was since that would give me a better idea of how much I should bargain for for a ride back to JasVilas. I think we got quotes of 30 or 40 INR for the ride back but I decided to hold off. I didn't think we needed to go that far and we could probably get a cycle rickshaw for cheaper. (Yes I know we're only talking about differences of 50 cents or less and it seems silly now as I write.) I pulled out the map again and a guy who had been "hanging out" nearby came up and asked where we were going. I said we wanted to get to Collectorate Circle and he said "I'll take you." I said "How much?" And he said "free". Free?! Then he pulled out a moped (scooter) and it seems kind of dumb now but we got on. He seemed like a friendly guy but on the ride he told he me worked in the diamond cutting business. He was driving in more and more almost-deserted neighborhoods that I didn't recognize and I'm starting to think, "Uh oh." I thought maybe he would take us to some gem showroom in some desolate neighborhood where we'd be subjected to high pressure sales pitches or perhaps worse. After all Jaipur is home of the infamous gem scam. At this point I didn't want to say exactly where we were staying so I asked him to drop us off at the Ashok Hotel on Collectorate Circle and hoped fervently he would actually take us there.

And... that's what he did. He dropped us off and I said, hey, I can pay you and proceeded to give him 20 rupees. Then he said, "but gas is expensive..." or something like that clearly hoping for a bigger payout. And I started to say that we could have got the same ride for about 30 and he seemed to suddenly remember that he had offered us the ride for free in the first place. And no, he didn't want any money. But I said, no, I appreciate the ride and gave him the 20 and we parted amicably. A strange episode that ended nicely but certainly not the smartest thing I've ever done.

It was about a 10 minute walk to JasVilas from there. Next door it looked like they were having a wedding celebration or something. Under other circumstances I might have tried to watch a little from the outside but it had been a long day without a full night's sleep. So we had soon taken our showers and went to bed with the celebration next door all but forgotten.

flamingo2004 · Mar 6th, 2004, 17:05

Quote:

Take pictures of monkeys without pissing them off, avoid getting killed by monkeys, get to the other side.

We had crossed various busy streets before and I'll mention now, they are all like the old video game Frogger where you control a frog crossing a busy street without getting squished.

I just love the videogame references

And I can see you have the same very nice impression of Jasvilas as we have. Lovely place and lovely people.

mdchachi · Mar 9th, 2004, 18:48

Day 6 - Another day in Jaipur

I was glad we had decided to spend two days in Jaipur. We liked the town more than both Delhi and Agra. Plenty of things to see, bazaars to walk and relatively clean air. And a little more "exotic" with its desert air, turban-clad men and the occasional camel and elephant walking through town.

My throat was still sore but seemed to be on the mend. However I had a raspy voice and a mild case of laryngitis. Before the trip, I had been worried about my stomach and hadn't thought that I might catch a cold.

After some consultation with Mahendra of JasVilas on where to go, we set off to drop off some photos for developing and to check out a silver shop. We hailed a cycle rickshaw and set off for the photo shop. I thought the rickshaw driver was taking the wrong road off of Collectorate Circle and when I raised an alarm, he consulted with a guy on the street and then took some back streets until we found ourselves on a road that took us in front of JasVilas again! So we turned him around and proceeded back to the circle where he took the original road. He had been right all along. Oops. He seemed satisfied with the 5 rupee tip I gave him to make up for my mistake despite the fact that he ended up having to peddle almost twice as far. Dropped off the photos and proceeded to walk back towards the circle.

Although we had intended to catch a ride, we found the walk to the silver shop went quickly. On the way a guy was crouching and urinating publically. Unlike most of the time we had seen this, though, he was facing the street and in full view. Why? It didn't like he was trying to shock, just satisfying the urge. It's hard not to think of this behavior as animalistic.

I didn't mention earlier that there are public urinals (more like walls than urinals) scattered about Delhi. All of them are flecked with red residue. Perhaps many Indians are afflicted with some kind of disease causing blood in their urine? Saw the same thing at Nahargarh Fort where certain stairwalls in the interior had been used similarly. (Just kidding here, I know what the red residue is from.)

So anyway we located Silver Mines, the silver store recommended by Mr. Singh. It was a refreshing no pressure environment and a fixed price of 12 rupees per gram of 65% silver jewelry and 25 rupees per gram of 92% silver. A bit more expensive, we were told, due to recently increased prices of silver. But still relatively cheap for us and we bought $40 worth of silver jewelry for gifts. I learned later that one of Mr. Singh's frequent customers goes there to purchase silver and sell it in her own country, earning enough to fund her trips back to India.

From there, we walked, heading generally in the direction of the old city. When it was apparent that I wasn't really sure where we were and still had a ways to go, we hired an autorickshaw to take us into the city. When dealing with a rickshaw it is funny because immediately all other drivers in the vicinity will stop and try get in on the deal. However they don't really seem intent on getting into a bidding war but, rather, seem to want to make sure we pay the going rate. Or perhaps to be there in case the deal falls through with original driver.

Anyway, we got a ride to Jantar Mantar which is in the middle of the city. Jantar Mantar is the 300-year-old observatory filled with astronomical instruments. Similar to the one in Delhi but with more instruments and in better condition. In one section of the "park" is a set of yantras (instruments), one for each of the zodiac used, I guess, for locating the appropriate star. We took pictures on Aries and Gemini, our respective signs. Climbed up a few of the instruments and took in the view. I suppose it might have been useful to accept a guide at some of the places but when everybody on the street is out to milk rupees out of me, I just retreat and go into avoidance mode.

Afterwards, we headed outside and around the corner to the City Palace. Mr. Singh had recommended taking a guide there but nobody offered us their services so we just wandered around and used the guidebook. It's a good one-stop attraction since it contains architecturally interesting buildings as well as two museums featuring royal clothing and the other royal possessions and artworks. And there is even a restaurant and a shopping arcade. Plus the largest silver objects in the world. The famous silver urns shown in all the guidebooks.

We had a nice lunch at the city palace restaurant before venturing out. Bought some $1 t-shirts and $3 skirts in a tiny shop just outside. Hopefully the stuff will last a few washings. I spotted a radio taxi waiting so I asked the driver if he could call one for us. I wanted to try the radio taxi service which offers the ease of metered fares and no haggling but he said we would have to wait 20 minutes so I once again started bargaining with rickshaw drivers in the vicinity; we wanted to go to Galta, the sun temple. We ended up choosing the second driver we talked to; it looked like he paid off the first guy with 10 or 20 rupees because he had spotted us first and should have been his customer. We agreed to a pretty expensive ride of maybe 80 or 100 INR because the guidebook said the place was 12km or so but it really wasn't that far at all. (I don't know where the guidebook was measuring from, though.) We found ourselves deposited on a dirt road, in front of us was a narrow road leading up a hill via switchbacks.

Dirty barefoot kids ran up to us. These were less affluent than the ones that had been asking for candy and pens. They didn't say anything and just motioned to their mouths. "Hungry." I don't think they were malnourished but they were certainly close to poverty level. Heartless bastards that we are, we just ignored them and headed up the road, cameras at the ready. Besides the kids, there were cows, dogs, goats and monkeys. A whole menagarie hanging around on this road. The kids didn't persist after we started climbing up and we were left to watch the wild life. The black-faced monkeys paid us little mind though when I pointed my camera at one from about six feet away and clicked the shutter, he bared his teeth in a menacing manner and I hastily backed off. I recalled Mahesh's -- our guide from the previous day -- warning. The black-faced ones are stupid, he said, it's the red-faced ones that are crafty. Most of the red-faced ones paid us little mind as well but further up the path one of them started sidling towards my wife in a devious manner. Recalling that I had read somewhere that the Indians use rocks to ward off monkeys, I reached down and picked up a rock. As soon as the monkey saw that, he beat a hasty retreat. After that we discovered that just carrying rocks so that the monkeys could see that we were carrying them was enough for them to keep their distance.

Not more than fifteen minutes later, we were in front of the small Sun Temple. A guy popped out -- temple keeper I presume -- and asked us to take off our shoes which we did. We walked up near the altar and then around the back to check out the hazy afternoon view over Jaipur. I'm not sure if we were supposed to donate something for watching our shoes but the guy had disappeared with some indian visitors so we grabbed our shoes and left. Actually the thing that had attracted me to Galta were some pictures I had seen of monkeys in an abandoned palace and now I could see that that place was a 20 or 30 minute hike away. It looked like a nice pleasant hike but we didn't have the time to go that far so we headed back down the same way we had come. Also hanging about in the little town -- if that's what it was -- were some sadhu. These are the so-called Holy Men or ascetics who have retreated from society to wander & meditate or whatever. I don't know much about them and what they might be up to. Similar to the monkeys, I avoided eye contact and gave them a wide berth (but didn't pick up any rocks, haha).

Our rickshaw was waiting for us and we had him drop us off at the circle near Hawa Mahal (Wind Palace) so we could walk along the bazaars with the eventual goal being to pick up the sari we purchased the previous day. Most of the shops along the street next to the city palace here were not tourist oriented and were selling everything from kitchen utensils to tea to shoes. So we enjoyed the sights and the walk as relatively few people paid us any mind.

When we reached the sari shop, we had to wait a few minutes for them to produce the sari. At the time I remember thinking it had been foolish to pay for the whole thing in full the day before but they did produce it. My wife tried the tailored blouse on over here t-shirt and it was obvious that it was way too small and not due to the bulk of the t-shirt. Fortunately it was tailored such that there are folded pleats which can be opened up and restitched to widen the blouse. At first they tried to just open up the hem without restitching, pack it up and leave it at that, leaving an ugly seam albeit under the arm. But when it was apparent that we wouldn't accept it, they went to get it "fixed." In the end it was hemmed with uneven, poor stitching but it was better than before and usable. So we accepted it.

While all this was going on, I was running out of time to pick up my developed photos so I left my wife there and grabbed a cycle rickshaw. Although the guy didn't speak English, I made it very clear where I was going and what I was wanted to pay -- 20 INR for round-trip to Collectorate Circle. At first he said something like "as you like", like the fare was up to me but I held up a 20 INR bill and pantomined with the map. He accepted and we were off. This guy was fast and good and I was there in no time, much like the guy we had had in Delhi. I picked up my photos and hopped on for the ride back. For some reason, maybe he forgot where he had picked me up or wasn't clear what I wanted, he made a left outside the city gate. So I pulled out the receipt from the sari shop to show him where to go. He couldn't read Hindi (or whatever language it was written in) and grabbed somebody off the street to read it for him. Then he turned around and got back to the place where I had originally found him. I gave him the 20 plus a 5 rupee tip and headed inside without looking back. But then, while in the sari shop, he appeared and asking for more money using the proprietor as a translator. I had made it very clear about what deal we had made -- I had pantomined in the map that I would be going two ways and he had seemed clear about it at the time. So I said the same thing and he left. But when we left the shop, he was still there asking for money. He finally gave up when we refused again and walked past him into the crowd. I do question whether or not I did the right thing by not giving him more. But considering how clear I had made the deal -- as clear as you can when not speaking the same language -- and in comparison to the much longer distance 20 INR ride we had had in Delhi I believe he got the going rate. Probably he had been hoping for a bigger payout from the "rich" foreigner. Perhaps I should have been more generous. It's hard to get ones mind around that fact that an extra 10 or 20 cents can actually make a difference in somebody's life.

By this time it was dark and shops were closing. We started heading for the closest gate to the south, walking past tailor shops filled with bolts of fabric as they closed up. We were looking for Niros, the restaurant listed in the Lonely Planet. We knew it shouldn't be all that far so I shook my head at the inquiring looks from passing rickshaws. The street we were on, outside and parallel to the city walls was dark with little action. Not quite foreboding but clearly not the right street. We cut over south a couple of blocks and found the street we were looking for. Lots of hotels and banks here. As we searched for the place, what came into view but the Golden Arches with a big movie theater next to it. There was no discussion, we knew where we were going. Now, before you accuse us of selling out, we were planning to visit an Indian McDonalds on this trip anyway. So it worked out nicely indeed.

The food was a little expensive by Indian standards and it was clear that it was an "upscale" kind of place frequented by middle-class Indians, those that could afford to spend a few dollars on fast food. As I fingered my camera while looking at the menu, I was warned that we couldn't take pictures at the counter area so we got down to the business of deciding what to order. I tried the veg burger with cheese and my wife had a chicken sandwich of some sort. The veg burger had a generic tasting fried patty -- could have been fish for all I could tell -- and wasn't bad at all. There was also a separate counter for dessert so we splurged on a 20 cent ice cream cone. While we were eating I struck up a conversation with the guy next to me who said he was living in Bangkok but back home for a short while. Let me guess, you're in the jewelry business? I was right and he was a little surprised that I had him pegged. But that's what Jaipur is famous for so it was just a matter of using the odds to make my guess. He told me the going rate for silver was 11 rupees/gram but I don't know how that relates to the jewelry we purchased earlier. I had thought about stopping at a jewelry store to compare prices but we had been too busy doing other things. The guy pointed to a cute young girl in a black Rajasthani-style (I think) dress at a table facing us. He said she was a new bride and I correctly surmised she was muslim since her hair was covered. I don't know how he knew she was a young bride but she realized that we were talking about her and demurely blushed and looked away. She didn't look over 16. What a different world she is in from mine. I hoped she would have a good life. I was wondering if the friendly guy would invite us to go shopping but he didn't seem to have any hidden agendas and he left, bidding me adieu.

It had been another full day and we had an early morning flight to catch so we grabbed a rickshaw and headed back to JasVilas, our home away from home. I chatted with Mr. Singh for a few minutes and settled the bill. He kindly arranged for a taxi to pick us up early in the morning for the ride to the airport.

mdchachi · Mar 11th, 2004, 04:03

Day 7 - Jaipur to Kerala

We anxiously awaited our radio taxi which was scheduled to arrive at 5:30am for a ride to the airport. I ended up calling twice to see what was going on and, finally, it arrived. I gave the driver a minimal tip since he had showed up over 30 minutes late. But no matter, we made it to the Jaipur airport with time to spare. We got into the Jet Airways line and checked in only to be told that our plane was delayed due to fog in Delhi and that we would not make our connection in Mumbai. So we would be given a hotel in Mumbai and would have to fly out the next day. I glumly accepted our fate. I recalled all the warnings not to rely on sticking to a plan in India. But we had paid full fare, why couldn't they put us on another airline out of Mumbai? I got back into line to ask this question. The ticket agent searched his computer and told me there were no flights to Kochi from Mumbai later than the one I had been scheduled to take. So we settled down to wait. But as we were waiting we could see the announcements for an Air India flight scheduled to leave within the hour from Jaipur to Mumbai. I didn't have much hope but my wife urged me to ask about getting onto that flight. So I went up to talk to the same agent. He saw me back in his line and when I got up to the counter, he anticipated my question and made it seem like his idea. "Maybe we can get you onto this currently-boarding Air India flight to Mumbai." He took our boarding passes back, reworked our paperwork and got our luggage pulled back. Signed and stamped our tickets and sent us to the Air India line. Finally we made it to the front of the queue (actually it wasn't that long, it just seemed like it) and I passed my tickets for Jet Airways to the Air India agent. He looked at the endorsements, took our luggage and gave us boarding passes. So we narrowly escaped a wasted day and hours of extra transit time. Yes!

We arrived in Mumbai late morning, picked up our luggage and I wheeled it up to the departure area to check into the Jet Airways flight only to find out that they are located at a separate terminal. There was no signage to indicate this but we asked various people and determined that it was a walkable distance away, 100m or so. At the other terminal we successfully checked in for the Jet Airlines flight only to find out that it was also delayed. (So perhaps we might have been able to take the original flight and have made the connection after all.) We were told we could go to the Delayed Passengers Lounge upstairs. The terminal was pretty old and grungry and undergoing construction but the restaurant upstairs was actually quite nice. Clean and new. So clean and new, in fact, that Indian people were regularly taking pictures in the corridor leading to it. To the right of the main restaurant was the Delayed Passengers Lounge where there were complimentary samosa, veg sandwiches, non-veg sandwiches, coffee and tea available. The delay was only about an hour and we were on our way soon enough.

Domestic air travel was pretty much the same as that in the U.S. with two primary differences. One is that you must tag all carry-on items with an airline luggage tag. During the security check before boarding, the tags would be stamped with an illegible smudge and this tag would be checked by a guard before entering the boarding area (or the plane). If you were missing a smudge, you would be sent back to get the stamp. The other difference is that in some, but not all instances, we would have to identify our checked luggage before boarding the plane. In India the security personnel were generally amenable to hand-checking my film. I had some ASA 800. Even for the slower films, the U.S. Transportation Authority recommends getting hand-screening if the film gets scanned five or more times. I take this to mean that any amount of scanning is degrading to the film and attempted to avoid it whenever possible and was generally successful (except in the Maldives).

Flying into Kochi we could see the tropical-looking trees and lush-looking countryside. Far different from Rajasthan. We walked out into humid and tropical heat. The Kochi airport was small and I located the pre-paid taxi desk easily. I requested my destination -- Thevera Waterfront -- and was told to pay 410 INR. It seemed awfully expensive but we didn't have much choice. (If I had to do it again, I would have tried to get picked up by the hotel.) The taxi was a white Ambassador (but they are all white aren't they?). This one was much nicer than the filthy one in Agra and had nice plush seats. Even the ceiling was upholstered with the same material. Fancy.

The Indian guy that was next to me on the plane -- he lived in Saudia Arabia and was coming home for a quick visit while on business -- had told me that the road in to town from the airport was in very poor condition. Ironically, it was probably the best road we had been on in India. No potholes and nice and wide. Of course that didn't stop the driver from straddling lanes and driving in the traditional manner of playing chicken with oncoming trucks. But there was much less use of the horn down here. Less need since the streets were less crowded. It was a long ride so perhaps worth the 410 rupees (though it still seems expensive). It seemed like a totally different country down there. It almost seemed "normal."

There were proper store fronts. Nobody obviously homeless or destitute. Almost no garbage on the streets. Or animals. The few cows I saw were out in fields and not in the city. The tropical foliage and environment reminded me of the Philippines. Also there were many churches and references to christianity on passing trucks.

Eventually we made it to the Riviera Suites which is located in Thevera, the south end of Ernakulum in Kochi. We were here to attend a friend's wedding and chose this hotel because this was where the reception would be and where most other guests would be staying. It was not a typical hotel, though, more like vacation condos. Each unit had a sitting room and kitchen and some had 2, 3 or 4 bedrooms each with its own bathroom.

After dropping off our luggage we headed out to see the town and find some dinner. Fortunately the front desk had a map of the area and they gave some advice on where we could go to find food. So we headed to Broadway. This was an area with many shops. The shops were actually stores in the sense that I am used to. No small narrow booths or people setting up their goods on the street as in the northern cities we had been to. We went around the block where there were hotels and restaurants and started looking for a place to eat. There was a busy fast-food type place with a long menu. When we asked if they had fish curry they pointed us upstairs. So we headed upstairs and found ourselves in a relatively fancy restaurant with worn velvet upholstered chairs, fabric napkins and muted lighting. We were a bit nervous about the fact that no other customers were in there but we decided to stay and ended up having a nice meal with fish and other curries. Other customers started coming in later, after the shops had closed so we felt even better about the place.

We went back around the block to Broadway street and caught a rickshaw back to the Riviera Suites. This guy didn't know where the Riviera Suites was but he knew its section of town, "Thevera," and I had a map. At one point we passed a big billboard with the Riviera Suites on it and I pointed to it and said, "There!" He stopped and asked a passerby about it and, since he didn't speak English, tried to raise the rate on us with the guy as intermediary. He gave us some bullshit about how it was farther than he thought. I said, hey, this is what we paid to come out here earlier so no way. (That was actually a little white lie because we had paid 70 earlier and I had arranged the ride with this guy for 60.) He gave up and took us to the hotel. I almost didn't tip him for the stunt he pulled but I think I gave him an extra 5 rupees.

The elevators were only three years old but they were amazingly slow. They did however have a "helpful" temperature display showing us that the temperature in the elevator was 30 degrees (86F). Not really something I cared to know. Fortunately the air conditioning in the apartment was sufficient and we soon called it a night.

mdchachi · Mar 18th, 2004, 22:38

Days 8 & 9 - Wedding in Kochi

Saturday morning I was able to get in touch with Wendy, my friend, the bride-to-be and the main reason we were in India. She was staying in the hotel a few floors above us in their nicest suite. I learned that due to her fiance's uncle's death a few days before, the big "sweet-pinching ceremony" scheduled for this evening was cancelled. But the wedding itself was supposed to go on as scheduled. We met up with Wendy for breakfast in the hotel restaurant and shortly after set out in a caravan of four Ambassador taxis to go clothes shopping. Many of the girls were going to get saris made. The guys were also looking to go traditional since it was what Wendy wanted. (Even though I suspected most of the Indian guys wouldn't be dressed traditionally.) We went to a big fixed-price clothing store in Ernakulum (downtown Kochi). We split up with the girls going to the sari floor and us guys to the mens floor. We walked around aimlessly not really sure what we wanted. We looked at dothi which can only be described as a man-skirt; similar to sari, it was a long strip of fabric just wrapped around one's body. Mundu seemed to be a similar invention but with the wrapping going through the legs to make it look like loose trousers. We soon gravitated to the section with traditional shirts (pullover with embroidered necklines, long down to the thigh) which I believe are called kurta. Some of them came with loose bottoms, kind of like sweat pants except made out of cotton. Similar to the bazaars in the street, the staff pulled out shirt after shirt unfolding them from their packages. There was going to be a lot of refolding to do later! We didn't want to make any final decisions without any input from the girls so I headed up stairs to see what was going on. By that time most of the girls had selected fabric for their sari. My wife was bummed because the selection was much better here and because she had overpaid about 200 rs ($4.50) for hers. The girls got measured for their tops, selected their under skirts and eventually we went back to the guys floor.

Sean and Troy both went with cool shirts and a dothi (skirt!) for the bottom. I, on the other hand, went the cheapest route I could find which was a white linen "kurta pajama" for 350 INR. Yeah maybe if I got

Mar 5th, 2004, 01:12	#1
mdchachi newbie-wallah Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: MI - USA Posts: 150	My Two Weeks As way of introduction & goodbye (probably won't be around here much now that the trip is over), I will be posting my story of Feb 2004 in the coming days. Feel free to comment. Day 1 - midnight arrival in Delhi. Airport scene not the madhouse I had feared but was glad to have the hotel waiting for me with signboard. Due to the various scam reports I had read, was a little overly cautious in quizzing the hotel manager (why would they send a "hotel manager" to pick us up??) who met us at the airport even though he had a plastic board with the hotel's name on it. "First cow" sighting on the way from the airport and first experience with Indian traffic. Was more bemused than scared though we did see the results of a recent accident between two vehicles. Arrived to Bajaj Hotel in Karol Bagh to glasses of fanta orange and flower necklaces. Watched racy Indian videos on late night tv. Not explicit but very sexy. The country is not as conservative & innocent as those complaining on the forums about foreign women walking around in short sleeves and capri pants would have you believe. Day 2 - A day in Delhi. Figured out that those electric water heater things in the bathroom don't provide unlimited water. Fortunately they heat up quickly. Had a nice breakfast in the hotel. The hotel offered a car/driver for a half-day for an outrageous price (900 INR) so we said screw that and walked out to face Delhi by ourselves. Was planning to walk to Connaught Place but an auto-rickshaw arrived almost immediately to offer us a ride. The rate seemed reasonable (first-customer-of-the-day-rate of 20 INR). Arranged enroute to take us to see India Gate on the way for total fee of 50 INR. Encountered first beggar gesturing for food plus monkey-show & postcard-selling touts near India Gate. Ignored them all and jumped back in the rickshaw after taking my picture. Driver was personable and didn't seem to have any ulterior motives. Asked all the now-familiar questions. First time to India? Where are you from? How long have you been here? Where are you going? But on the way towards CP, started talking about taking us to some tourist center (ITC) for a "free map" and to help us with our trip. I said no thanks and as we neared Jantar Mantar, asked to be let out there. Entered Jantar Mantar and soon encountered a "free" student guide. He told me I needed to pay a camera fee but I could pay him. I thought maybe he was right and headed back to the ticket window to pay but then he told me not to worry about it. I told him clearly I wouldn't pay for his services but let him guide us for "free" and half-listened, half-ignored him while we walked around. Eventually his spiel was done and I gave him 10 rupees. He was a little disappointed but I said, hey, I told you I wasn't going to pay, you're lucky to get anything and we were left alone to take pictures at our leisure. Made our way out of Jantar Mantar and headed towards CP. A Sikh rickshaw driver tried to pick us up and warned us that Connaught Place was closed. I said, yeah, right whatever -- I know that scam. Though it actually turned out that most of the shops in CP were closed since it was a Sunday. Didn't really matter, though, we weren't there to go shopping, we were just making our way to the rail office to pick up our tickets. But it was during this walk that I got my Delhi baptism as one after another of "kind, helpful" persons asked us what we were up to and offered us free maps at an ITC tourist center. I had a nice, detailed map of Delhi with me but unfortunately it was difficult to consult because the minute I pulled it out, I would be accosted by more "helpful" people. I tried various answers to their questions and determined that admitting that we were heading to Agra & Jaipur -- the tourist track -- would only get them to try to help us plan our trip. If I lied and said I had been there a week and was heading back tomorrow, they would try to "help" us shop for souvenirs. Telling the truth about going to fetch our pre-booked train tickets actually worked out well because they seemed to know that the tickets were pre-paid and there was nothing they could do to "help." (So even if you are going to purchase tickets, I recommend telling them you are going to pick up pre-paid, internet-booked tickets.) Also I found that not mentioning Agra and telling them I was heading to Kerala for a wedding was a good answer since that was far outside their sphere of influence and dealings. Although hard at first to ignore my social conditioning, it also worked well just to ignore them. Or simply say "no thanks" in answer to all of their queries, questions and invitations and keep walking past. Eventually we made it to the IRCTC to pick up our tickets. It wasn't immediately obvious where "Room 17" was but as we wandered into the main ticket purchasing area, we spotted the numbered rooms on the rear side. Here it became obvious why train tickets purchased this way can only be picked up at this one rail station in India. Although the tickets themselves had been printed by computer, the pickup & delivery mechanism was maintained in a hand-written ledger. I watched as the attendant licked his dirty finger to page through the grimy book in this small, dirty office. Well, the system seemed to work and soon we had our tickets in hand. Walked across the street into Main Bazaar. Didn't feel like we could walk through leisurely; if we walked too slow or, God forbid, show an interest in something, were immediately subjected to sales pitches. My wife overpaid for a Salwar Kameez. Original asking price was 350 and she asked for and got 300. At least 100 too much I'm betting. Oh, well, no lunch for her, then. :) Encountered many more "friendly" people and many of the tactics I had read about, for example somebody accusing me of not being friendly because I was ignoring their overtures. Stopped for lunch at Diamond Cafe. It was good food and a good deal at 145 INR but somewhat hard to enjoy when you're feeling like you're playing Russian roulette every time you consume something. By this time the cows here and there were not so remarkable and almost part of the natural scenery. Saw somebody's foot print in a big pile of cow crap and I thought "poor sucker." Not five minutes later, as I'm looking everywhere except at the ground, I step right smack in the middle of a big fresh and juicy cow patty! Very glad not to be wearing sandals. All I could do is laugh at myself and move on. Cow dung is not the problem you might imagine though because since the stuff has value as fuel, there is not a whole lot of it on the streets. There is, however, plenty of garbage left on the streets. So much so that it is easy to imagine that garbage is not disposed of at all except to throw it on the street. I suspect this is not the case, though, there would be far too much in a city of this size not to move some of it elsewhere. Flies were not as plentiful as you would imagine, though. Reached the end of the bazaar area. Some older guy who had been to the U.S. many times to sell goods to Bloomingdales (or so he said) "helped" us get an auto-rickshaw to Red Fort. The rickshaw driver immediately changed plans on us and said he'd take us to a tourist office where we could catch a bus to Red Fort for much cheaper and didn't seem ready to follow through on the initial agreement of a ride to Red Fort. I said f* that and we got out. I tipped his rickshaw over on its side and told him where he could go. (Ok, this last sentence isn't quite true.) We crossed the busy street and headed the way we wanted to go. This area was more "normal" with people going about their daily business -- many mechanics here with rickshaw engine parts scattered about. Nobody bothered us except to perhaps stare at us as we walked on by. Had a nice walk but time was wasting and I kept my eye out for an auto rickshaw. Finally we consented to riding on a cycle rickshaw with a persistent driver who couldn't speak English. Made a deal for a ride to Red Fort for 20 INR from Paharganj area. Quite a deal. I was afraid it would be slow but this guy kicked ass. At one point we went up a slope over an overpass above the railway station and he was passing all other cycle rickshaws, practically keeping up with traffic. Very "interesting" to be sharing the road with large trucks, busses and auto-rickshaws. I didn't feel particularly unsafe but I was probably just naive. After a very quick ride through Old Delhi we were in front of Red Fort in almost no time at all. I gave him the 30 INR he had originally asked for and he seemed truly grateful. Walked around the flea market on the other side of the street for a short while before heading into the fort. Spotted our first monkeys. Didn't know any better at the time so vastly overpaid for a Pepsi at 40 INR. Tasted good, though. Since we only had one day to do Delhi, we didn't dally in the fort (and anyway there wasn't all that much to see there). Outside we grabbed an auto rickshaw to Raj Ghat. Walked around the top of Raj Ghat (Gandhi's cremation site) then went to go inside. We wanted to walk through to the other side so rather than give our shoes to the shoe people we pulled out plastic bags and started putting our shoes in there to carry them through. The shoe caretakeres immediately objected. We should have ignored them and kept going but I was afraid that I would be treading on some real cultural taboos. But I was pissed off so I held my spouses shoes while she went in to look. I couldn't understand the Hindi but an Indian lady who had been going in seemed to try to intervene on our behalf and tell the shoe caretakers off. But they were adamant and she gave up. I pretended not to realize what was going on. My wife eventually came out and we put on our shoes and left. I didn't bother going in since I could see it fine from above and my wife was the one who wanted to go in the first place. By the way, plenty of people were walking up without shoes on in the first place so if anybody else wants to try this, I recommend putting your shoes in your daypack before you reach the entrance area, out of sight of the greedy shoe caretakers. Outside of Raj Ghat we ignored the "outrageous" prices of 60-70 INR quoted to take us to Humayun's Tomb and started walking down the road. That turned out to be a mistake because it was a busy road and most rickshaws on it already had customers. The few we did talk to flat out refused to go there (even though it's close to Nizamudin and they should be able to easily find fares in that area) or gave us equally high prices. Just as we were worrying about wasting all this time trying to save 50 cents, we came on a bus stop. A bus pulled up. I poked my head in and asked if it was heading to Humayun's Tomb. The driver didn't seem to understand but one of the passengers said yes, and we jumped on. At first it wasn't apparent how to pay until we realized that the guy sitting near the back who seemed to be helping us was really the guy collecting money. So we ended up getting to exactly where we wanted to go for only 10 INR, what luck. And we got to ride a local bus besides. The bus was kind of like how you might imagine a prison transport bus would be (at least the ones you see in the movies). Old, dirty with drab colors. On the back of each seat was the stenciled message that said something like "Look under your seat. If you find a bomb, you will get a reward." It really didn't engender any confidence in riding the public bus system in me but it did add to the sense of danger and adventure. Soon enough we found ourselves deposited in front of Humayun's Tomb. Humayun's Tomb was a pretty neat place and well worth it despite the discriminatory ticket prices for foreigners (~ $4.50). I wished we could take some more time there on the peaceful and scenic grounds but the sun was low in the sky and we still wanted to see Qutb Minar. So we spent only 30 minutes or so there before heading to the parking lot to look for transportation. We made a deal with an auto-rickshaw driver and headed for Qutb Minar in a race to beat sunset. Unfortunately this autorickshaw was a real beater and every other motorized vehicle on the road was passing it. But we did make it to Qutb Minar before sunset and paid the foreigner entrance fee before heading inside. We were glad we had made it. The 72m sandstone tower was photogenic in the light of sunset. The small iron bar/tower not so impressive except when you begin to consider that it was cast by humans over 1000 years ago. Although I told the driver not to wait, he was there waiting for us so we boarded his slow rickshaw again in order to stop at Dilli Haat on the way back. I let him take us to 3 or 4 different shops on the way but by the time we entered the last one I made him promise that that it would indeed be the last one. We didn't buy anything. Yes, painstakingly handmade table covers looked beautiful but I'd rather have a cheaper machine-made product. Especially when I know damned well that almost none of the $100+ they were asking for this stuff actually makes it to the worker who made it. Eventually we got to Dilli Haat -- an upscale bazaar. We told our driver we were going to eat so he didn't bother to wait. Dilli Haat required a small entrance fee to get in which left all the riffraff outside. So it was a nice (low hassle) place to walk around and shop even though the prices were probably more expensive than in the street. We didn't buy anything here either but we had dinner. There were many outdoor restaurants, each representing different states of India. We settled upon Rajasthan which seemed to be doing a fairly brisk business. Finally the day was over and we got a ride back to Karol Bagh. We ended up spending far less on transportation than the 900 INR car/driver offered to us by the hotel and despite being India newbies, I think we had managed fairly well. Last edited by mdchachi : Dec 21st, 2004 at 01:08. Reason: small typo

Mar 5th, 2004, 03:55	#2
LuAnnandJawahar Maha Guru Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Delhi/U.S. Posts: 664	typical Delhi Rs 900 for a car and driver all day in Delhi is a hell of a deal. Your experiences sound fun but you seem so concerned with not encountering people who were going to take you to the cleaners you might have enjoyed yourself even more if you had just chucked out the $20 for a car and chauffeur. A car and driver in my home country would be about US$50 per hour with a four hour minimum. Your suggestions about using the word "pre-paid" are right on. Tell your cabbie that picks you up at the airport that you have already PAID FOR your hotel. If you are on the way to the reservation office at the station to make your own plans tell people that you are going their to make a small change in the tickets you already have in hand. When they ask what your travel plans are, tell them you are flying out to Mumbai that evening, or as you mention, that you are headed in Kerala and they will loose interest. That line would only work in Delhi obviously. (Don't say you are going North--they've got that all wrapped up.) Connaught Place is dead on Sundays. The rickshaw driver was right to tell you that. Touts never take a day off however! __________________ Reject violence.

Mar 5th, 2004, 11:30	#5
mdchachi newbie-wallah Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: MI - USA Posts: 150	Day 3 Day 3 - Delhi to Agra We had heard what sounded like fireworks overnight. Wedding parties perhaps? Otherwise the hotel was pretty quiet besides the pigeons messing around near the bathroom window and the occasional dog fights. We took a walk around Karol Bagh after breakfast. After escaping the "helpful" drivers near the hotel, most people paid us no mind as we walked around the block. We checked out of Bajaj and refused their "generous" offer for a ride from Karol Bagh to the rail station for 300 INR. We easily found a rickshaw for 20 INR and were on our way. It was Monday and much busier than it had been the previous day. On the busy road with subway construction near Connaught Place, the driver pulled over and his "brother" explained that they didn't have enough gas and we would have to find another rickshaw. Huh? So we pulled out our luggage and they hailed a rickshaw over for us. Didn't get quite as good a deal but settled on 25 INR for the shorter distance. Of course we didn't have to pay for the first, partial ride. The new driver told us the train we would be boarding, where we were from and where we were headed. A spy?? No, he had been one of the myriad of people we had encountered the previous day. Apparently he had talked to us right after we had picked up our rail tickets. I had answered his various questions about ourselves and now here he was repeating this information back to us. Strange coincidence. We worked our way into the New Delhi rail station, ignoring offers to help with our bags and asked somebody sitting in an office which platform to catch for the Kerala Express (which, for whatever reason was far from Kerala and would be taking us to Agra). It wasn't necessary to produce a ticket to get on the platform so we waited in what we guessed to be relatively near the spot where AC2 & AC3 passengers would board, judging by the attire & look of other passengers. We had over 30 minutes to kill and spent it standing since it was too dirty to sit down. We watched chain/lock sellers walking up and down the platform. We ignored a beggar woman who finally left us alone after it became obvious to her that we would not be giving her anything. Finally our train came. The carriage markings were not correct and even other passengers weren't sure which carriage to get on. We picked one and I double-checked with an Indian passenger but later found it to be one carriage over. So we moved just before the train got underway. Sharing the four-seat compartment was an Indian couple who gave us a respectful distance and paid us little mind. The attendant ignored us and took other passengers orders for food. We manage to score some "tomato soup" (tasted kind of like Tobasco soup but it was good) and tea. 4 or 5 ruppees for tiny cups. We eventually ordered a "veg meal" from the attendant but it never appeared and the three-hour trip to Agra was spent napping or writing in our journals (as well as watching out the window). We reached Agra around 2pm and when we disboarded, more of those wonderfully "helpful fellows" helped us get our bearings and steared us outside the station. We ignored them as well as the "guides" outside the Uttar Pradesh tourist office and looked at the tour schedule information they had and talked to the workers in the office, in case we decided to use the government run tours the next day. We made our way out the station to the pre-paid taxi stand. The prices seemed more expensive than I expected and then I noticed there was another pre-paid stand. That one turned out to be the prepaid autorickshaw stand. That's what I wanted. We got a four-hour ("4, 5, 6 hours OK") rickshaw for 165 INR. Checked the number of the rickshaw against the voucher and got on. Another guy jumped on with the driver. I guess we could have refused to allow him on but there didn't seem to be any harm in it and we were off. The "guide" or whatever he was, was friendly enough. He produced a book of comments from other tourists in various languages. The comments were generally complimentary. Of course I'm sure he doesn't ask pissed off customers to sign his book. Most were several years old. Only a couple recent ones. He said he had been back in Rajasthan for a while. Although we thought air quality in Delhi to be exceedingly poor, Agra was even worse. I imagined every minute spent here would reduce my life expectancy by minutes or hours, if not days. My throat was starting to bother me. I may have picked up a cold virus or perhaps it was the air, or perhaps both. Aside from that, the sights on the streets were interesting and varied. Beeping horns. Ox-pulled carts. Cows, goats, pigs. And people, plenty of people. Felt a little conspicuous pulling up to the Holiday Inn in our downscale mode of transportation but no big deal. We checked in, cleaned up and had a quick bite to eat while our drivers waited for us. We came out less than an hour before sunset and asked to be taken for a sunset view of the Taj Mahal. We were taken through town -- various sights and sounds assaulting our senses -- eventually went over a narrow bridge over the river. It was faster to walk the bridge than drive it because it was too narrow for two-way vehicular traffic but eventually we made it across. Along the river we could see large cauldrons and fires burning -- apparently for the purpose of washing laundry in the polluted waters. The other side of the bridge was much more rural and we started seeing some nice views of the Taj. We were taken to the end of the road and we walked the rest of the way through a field to the river, taking pictures of the Taj in the evening light. Various kids accosted us. "Hello Pen." "Hello Chocolate." "Hello Money." They didn't look to be particularly destitute but I'm sure if I was a kid living there, I'd be doing the same thing. Why not? We ignored them but they still hung around since there were only a couple of other tourists there and they had nothing better to do. On the way back to the rickshaw was offered some Taj Mahal postcards, 10 for 70 INR. I didn't know the going rate but ended up buying two packs for 70. About 8 cents a postcard. Probably still higher than the going rate but a good deal from my standpoint. We headed back to town. As we didn't have anything better to do, we consented to be shown a demonstration of the marble craftsmanship of the Taj. I knew it would be a store. And, indeed it was. But we were given a demonstration of the marble inlay work and we ended up buying an $80 plate as our primary India Souvenir. Of course our guide was pleased since he would get a couple of bucks out of the deal. We were ready to be taken back to the hotel and refused any more stops. At the hotel the driver convinced us to use his services the next day and claimed that he would have a faster rickshaw that would be perfect for driving to Fatehpur Sikri. I was a little skeptical but agreed. We had a relatively expensive tea and dessert in the Holiday Inn restaurant before heading up to our room. I forgot the name of the dessert but if you've ever had Indian sweets you can probably guess what it tasted like -- almost all Indian sweets taste nearly alike. At least that's been my experience.

Mar 5th, 2004, 22:42	#8
mdchachi newbie-wallah Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: MI - USA Posts: 150	Diane, I'll try to get the rest posted asap. Though it's really just the first few days that may be useful. Alan, I'll post the finished product as an article though actually the forums are good because of the search. I didn't realize most of the articles were there until just the other day. As for another trip to India, it's possible. But not likely for a while. It's too far and there are too many other places we want to go. Day 4 - Agra & Fatehpur Sikri We got up at 5am in order to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise. Our driver was waiting for us at 6am as planned, except instead of the auto rickshaw he had an old Ambassador. And instead of our guide from the previous day, he had a different guy with him. I was a little suspicious but he claimed he couldn't get the rickshaw but we could use the car for the same price. And, anyway, it would be better to drive to Fatehpur Sikri by car. At least we finally got to ride in a famed Ambassador. So we were off in the dark, in the cool, still-very-polluted air to the Taj Mahal. It was farther than I thought. Took about 20 minutes to get to the west entrance. The guards were very thorough and made me take my pocket knife and bag of cookies to the cloak room. We ignored all offers to guide us and headed inside. Seeing the Taj at sunrise like this turned out to be an excellent plan. The Taj was very photogenic at this time, the crowds were few and the touts & professional hasslers outside hadn't yet set up shop outside the entrance. So we spent the next 90 minutes or so taking in the Taj. Definitely an impressive, beautiful sight. Saw some monkeys running around the edges and a peacock perched in a tree. Up at the Taj, you could either leave your shoes on a rack or use the shoe covers being rented out. We went with the shoe covers and were glad we did since the back side of the Taj was still covered in dew and wet. This way our feet kept nice and dry. The river and sunset vantage point we had used the night before were completely obscured by fog. Heading back outside the west gate, most shops were still closed but one guy walked with us speaking to us in Japanese and offering Japanese food -- okonomiyaki and the like. No, thanks. Again, the hordes we had read about were nowhere in sight and I highly recommend a sunrise visit to the Taj. Our driver & guide were waiting where they were supposed to be. I think they had some ideas about where we should eat breakfast but agreed to our request to go back to our hotel. Breakfast was included and, anyway, we needed to check out. After breakfast we checked out and carried our luggage to the car, putting it into the dirty trunk. I hoped we would still have our luggage at the end of the day. The inside of the car was dirty and grimy as well but how could it be otherwise, driving in the filthy air of this town every day? I had planned to go to Fatehpur Sikri next but our guide had other ideas and I acquiesced to his plan which was to see Agra Fort next. Agra Fort was a lot nicer than the Red Fort in Delhi. It would have been nice to stay there a little longer but I wanted to get to Fatehpur Sikri and back in plenty of time to catch our 7pm train. Though we had no special interest, we were taken for a hand-made carpet-making "demonstration," followed by offers to buy these special goods. It was somewhat interesting but overall a waste of time. Then we were taken to see some "special gems" of India. So we spent time in a jewelry shop. It was actually interesting talking to the proprietor because he had lived in Australia and was only back to take care of his mother. He wasn't into hard selling of his wares. But still another wasted 20 minutes. We stopped for gas where I was hit up for 200 ruppees and told that the fee would be 700 for the day -- based on the rate quoted to me for a car the previous day, not the 500 quoted for the rickshaw as I had thought. Oh, well, not much I could do at this point with our luggage sitting in the trunk and no obvious recourse. And, of course, $5 is nothing to get too upset about. Bought water & pepsi at the gas stand and was quoted normal non-inflated prices. Refreshing to see that not everybody is out to screw the tourists. Our "guide" left us and said he would see us later and we headed off to Fatehpur Sikri. The road to Fatehpur Sikri was in generally good condition, straight and nice and wide. Definitely was better to have the car and I was glad we didn't attempt it in a rickshaw. Along the road were people walking and carrying small decorated semi-circular objects on their shoulders. Maybe about 70cm long. I asked the driver around them and apparently they were carrying water back from the Ganges River for their family and friends. A pilgrimage, basically. Our driver was Muslim and didn't put any special stock in the water himself. At Fatehpur Sikri, we ignored offers from guides and explored the complex on our own. It was an interesting set of ruins and I can see why people recommend staying the night here instead of Agra. For one thing the air was much more breathable. Next door, we checked out the mosque which was free. There was a shoe caretaker but a "free guide" latched himself onto us and told us we could carry our shoes which we did. He claimed he didn't want money and I said I wouldn't pay him. He did have some interesting things to say but I was ever wary of the catch. Near the end, he tried to take us to the corner to see their crafts. I said I wasn't interested but offered to give him 20 ruppees anyway. He surprised me by refusing but said he wouldn't mind something like a pen as a souvenir. But he didn't seem very interested in the crappy pen I pulled out of my pocket. Then he said, how about a coin from your country or a dollar? I didn't have any coins and almost pulled out a dollar until I remembered its value and said I didn't have any. So I tried again to give him 20 ruppees -- after all he had saved us from the shoe caretakers -- but he refused and we left. So I really don't understand what he was after. Perhaps we should have looked at his craft items but we really don't get into that kind of stuff. On the steps of the mosque I was offered a little travel-size wooden backgammon set for 10 INR. It seemed like a decent price but I didn't need it. We avoided the other sellers -- people selling drums or handmade toys, a boy leading a blind man towards us to ask for money -- and made it back to our car and driver. Had lunch at nearby Share-e-Punjab, a place mentioned in Lonely Planet. Food was good. Again I hoped it was hygenic. We drove back to the foul atmosphere Agra and picked up our guide who explained that he had had a doctors appointment due to chest pains or something. A sympathy ploy? I don't know. I asked if we had time to see the Baby Taj and was told no. So they then proceeded to take us to more shops. A textile shop. An everything-from-carpets-to-jewelry shop. A "Kashmiri crafts" shop. And a very expensive souvenir department store which had everything from sari to marble tables. The only thing we bought was 3 meters of fabric. I think my wife paid 300 INR, about half the original asking price. The last place was the kind of place where buses would stop. That same backgammon set that the guy had tried to sell me at Fatehpur Sikri for 10 INR had a price tag of 570 INR! Holy crap. Marble plates similar to the one we bought were also way more expensive so we felt good about our previous night's purchase. Basically, to our "guide" we represented a lottery ticket. The more we shopped the more he might get something out of it. Even we didn't buy anything, he would get some kind of credit for getting us into the store. And sometimes he had hit the jackpot he said (not his exact words) and somebody had purchased an $8000 carpet. At 1 or 2% of the sale, that would land him a small fortune. Finally we had had enough and I preferred that we get to the station early rather than be dragged through any more stores. We parted amicably at the Agra Fort station. The guide, being more aggressive than the driver, asked about a tip and I said, hey, we went to all the stores you wanted to go plus paid the extra 200 you sprung on us. So no tip. I suppose if I had to do it again, I might try to research better what I wanted to do and exact greater control over our Agra itinerary and insisted on less shopping. I'm sure I probably could have fit the Baby Taj in there. Or spent a little time hanging out in town. But getting dragged to stores is part of the Agra experience, right? Overall things worked out pretty well. At least the guys were honest and our luggage remained with us. Oh, one thing I wanted to mention. A lot of the monuments charge a 25 camera fee. On more than one occasion, we only had 30 ruppees and were told that they didn't have change and to get the 5 rupees on the way out. I thought it was a scam and wasn't going to bother asking for the 5 rupees. But my wife persuaded me to go back and ask and each time the change was forthcoming. So I think it is a scam -- they know many tourists won't bother coming back for their 5 rupees -- but they will at least give you the change later if you ask for it. In general you should take every chance you can to break your 500 and 100 rupee bills so that you have a plentiful supply of 5, 10 and 20 rupee bills. When we first arrived I had changed $300. I had asked for small denominations and ended up with a big wad of 100 INR bills. It was a large stack of about 130 bills but they fit nicely in my waist wallet under my shirt. Our night train to Jaipur was scheduled for 19:30 but we had almost an hour to kill. Found the printout of seat assignments and was relieved to see that we had been assigned berths although unfortunately not over each other. We had been waitlisted (WL4/WL5). Walked on to the platform with our luggage and looked around. There were first-class waiting rooms -- one for males one for females -- next to each other. The one for males was more crowded. The one for females had a family in it, including an elderly male. So we entered and sat on some seats in the corner. It was an exceedingly grimy room but still better than the platform where there were no seats. Had tea from a tea vendor who was walking through. It came in little small plastic cups. Or should I say, we had tea-flavored sugar? Though far too sweet for everyday drinking, our tired bodies soaked up the heavily sweetened tea. All the tea we had from these train/station vendors was very hot so didn't have any worries of picking up any illness. There were announcements in Hindi and English and we learned that our train was delayed. Half-hour at first then the announced delay increased a little bit each time. Went outside the station and bought a pepsi and some chips. This guy didn't try to cheat me and charged the correct prices. 5 for the small bag of chips and 15 for the Pepsi. A few more people had entered the waiting room. Some women and kids and a couple of Korean girls. The elderly guy had left, perhaps he was next door in the male waiting room. At one point a guy came in and swept up the garbage from the room. I was somewhat impressed that they were at least making an effort to keep things clean. Later, I realized that everything he had swept up, he had simply swept down on the railroad tracks. Plastic cups and all. Perhaps this system of throwing garbage into the environment might have worked in the past but with the advent of plastics, I think they really need to rethink this strategy. Walked around on the platform while another train came in. Could see somebody was using the toilet, as brown, semi-liquid waste dribbled onto the tracks. Gross. Later, back in the waiting room, an older lady came in. She saw me and started chewing me out in Hindi and gesturing for me to leave. I wasn't sure if she was crazy or had a right to throw me out. I assumed the former and just ignored her, avoided making eye contact like she was a monkey or something. I guess she was the official waiting room lady since she seemed to have a checklist or something. So I thought about leaving but the lady sitting on the other side of me, defended me in Hindi and told her to bug off. Eventually she gave up and left the room. Finally, our train was due to arrive. It still arrived later than they said it would but only about 75 minutes later than scheduled. For India that's pretty good. And even for Amtrak in the U.S. that would be an everyday, normal delay. It wasn't clear where the AC2 car was. No markings that I could discern. I started getting a little concerned since I knew the train would only be there a few minutes and asked a porter where AC2 was. He glanced at my ticket and immediately stopped what he was doing with his Indian customers and hurried us to the front of the train. Probably he expected to be tipped handsomely by the rich/dumb foreigners. I gave him 5 rupees and we boarded the train. Probably not what he was hoping but he didn't carry our luggage and it was fair for 60 seconds work, I thought. The AC2 car was identical to the one we rode into Agra, except most of the curtains were drawn. Although it didn't compare to my other night-train experience -- the super-luxurious Cassiopeia from Tokyo to Sapporo which has a private bathroom in each compartment -- it was far cheaper and a very good value (I think it was less than $30 for the two of us). Certainly more comfortable than coach class in an airplane. We located our berths. Both were side upper berths, two apart from each other. We each had a medium-sized backpack and smaller daypack-sized items and found that we could fit the lugguage with us on the berth. A tight fit but that seemed the safest thing to do. I asked the attendant for pillows and blankets and he delivered them shortly. We both made up our beds as best we could and went to sleep. Last edited by mdchachi : Mar 18th, 2004 at 05:04.

Mar 6th, 2004, 04:57	#9
mdchachi newbie-wallah Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: MI - USA Posts: 150	Day 5 - Jaipur Although it was before 10 pm, I soon fell asleep on the train and except for some sort of odd dreams and half-waking moments, knew nothing until the train attendant woke me up around 3:30am or so. We arrived at Jaipur around 3:50am, pretty close to our scheduled arrival time. The train must have made up some time. Still a bit sleepy we soon found ourselves on the platform and made out way to the exit in the dark night. Based on Mr. Singh's advice from Jas Vilas our goal was the nearby Rajput Sheraton where we planned to spend some time in the coffee shop. It wasn't quite as close or obvious where to go as we thought and after asking a few people, finally accepted a cycle rickshaw ride the rest of the way for 5 rupees. We walked into the fancy hotel lounge looking rather grubby I'm sure. I asked if they had a 24-hour coffee shop and they took us to the restaurant on the first floor. Though "extremely" expensive, we ordered a bite to eat and some tea & cappuccino. (I think the total bill was around 500). We took advantage of the wonderfully clean bathroom and started feeling somewhat awake and refreshed. We had a few hours to kill before we could stop by Jas Vilas at 7am to drop off our luggage. Over the two hours I got 4 or 5 cappuccino refills. So the price of 85 INR for the capuccino didn't seem so bad anymore. Our waiter, Mahesh, was quite personable and offered to show us around Jaipur later if we wanted to. He had recently received his guides license he said but didn't give us a strong sales pitch. I told him I was playing with the idea of going to the fort to view the sunrise. It doesn't look that far on the map but he explained that it is a windy 10km road to get up there and suggested we try viewing the sunrise at the water palace. So shortly before sunrise, that's what we set out to do. I decided to try his guiding services and made plans to call him later, around 10:30. He seemed like a nice guy and he seemed of higher caliber than the sharks you find on the street. We put our luggage on our backs, refused the taxi offered by the doorman and walked out in search of a rickshaw. The first guy we found was just sitting around and gave us a price of 120 or something like that. He went down to 100 but really didn't seem like he wanted our business that much so we left him behind and walked back towards the station. There we found a guy who seemed more anxious to get some work and agreed on a rate of 70 to take us to the water palace and then to the hotel. Every time we made a deal for a ride, we double-checked that it included both of us so they wouldn't try to pull any fare-doubling tricks on us. This guy was taller than average and kind of hunched over the wheel. Had a turban on his head. Yes, we were in Rajasthan. It was already getting light while we made our way through the city and I worried I had waited too long and would miss sunrise. Had a nice early morning tour of the city which was, indeed, pink. Or, rather, more like a sandstone color. Compared to Agra, the air was clean and very refreshing. We went through the walled city and headed behind it towards the hills. I had thought we would head into the hills so I could get a view over the city but we ended up at a lake with an old palace in the middle of it. Not quite what I had had in mind but it turned out to be decent place to watch the sunrise. I noted the rickshaws plate number on the offchance that our luggage might be taken and headed across the street to take some picutures. The road here was wide and fairly untrafficked. Up the road came some painted elephants, maybe on their way to work at Amer Fort. A few locals were out for a morning walk. We headed back into the city which was now showing greater signs of activity. Pigs rooting around in garbage at the side of the road. Cows here and there. Goats. Plenty of dogs getting ready for a day of lazing around. No cats though. (Somewhat surprisingly didn't spot very many cats in India.) Cow patties were laid out to dry at the sides of the road. The camels on the road along with the elephants we had seen earlier added to a feeling of the exotic. They seemed to use horns a little less in this city. Usually when needed rather than pure gratuitous beeping like seemed to be common in Delhi and Agra. All these things, along with the refreshing air, combined to make this city the most appealing so far. All this time I had been amazed as to how the pigs, dogs, goats and cows seemed to live in the midst of all the traffic. I noticed that none of them made any sudden moves; they were all just hanging out, basically. Either all were very smart not to jump into traffic or maybe it was just due to natural selection. But on this ride, we passed a young pig in its death throes after having been hit by a vehicle. So it does happen. We made it to JasVilas around 7:30 and I paid the driver the 70 plus a 10 rupee tip. I met the proprietor, Mr Mahendra Singh. As luck would have it, he had had a no-show the previous night and gave us a room immediately. We felt immensely rejuvenated after nice hot showers and relaxed a little bit while we had breakfast outside, in front of our room which was on the front side of the house. The atmosphere felt kind of like Arizona -- dry, sunny. Mr. Singh gave me a map and a nice orientation regarding the city, what to do and how to get around. To my slight surprise, he didn't try to "sell" us any services like a car & driver (instead he recommended using the radio taxi system). I called Mahesh just after 11, a little later than I had promised. He said he was still available and could come to our location in about 45 minutes. Guess I should have called him earlier but no matter, we had two complete days in Jaipur and had time for a little slower pace. He came with a rickshaw that he said he had hired for 250 INR for the afternoon. It sounded a little expensive to me but, still it was only about $5. First he took us to the Wind Palace. He hadn't expected to go in but I said we wanted to see the inside so we went inside to check out the view. He was a little antsy because of the late start we had so we didn't stay for longer than necessary and were soon back on the rickshaw heading for Amer Fort. We took the road past the spot at the water palace where we had seen the sunrise and then on to Amer Fort. Had some good conversion but I don't recall much of what was said. We didn't bother with the expensive elephant ride which would have been 400 INR and took the path up to the fort that the locals take. It was actually an easy walk, much easier than I expected. Steep but not very long. The fort was quite impressive with its narrow passageways and mirrored walls. Mahesh did a credible guiding job but it was clear he wasn't all that experienced. We didn't mind; he hadn't been in the game long enough to try spend our day shopping and it was nice having the personable guy around. Besides the Sheraton job, he was also a music teacher he said. Had some very tasty oranges at what seemed a very reasonable price of 5 rupees each even without bargaining. We wanted to see Jaigarh and Nahargarh Forts as well so we hurried back down to the parking lot because, apparently, Mahesh had only contracted our driver for four hours. Not that we couldn't have given him an extra buck for more time. So we drove up to Jaigarh and ran into the privately held fort to check out its main sight which is the world's largest cannon. It was big but still not particularly impressive. Had some good views on Amer Fort and the Water Palace down below. The place as a whole was picturesque though. Plenty of photo opportunities of the sandstone ruins. We headed up the road to Nahargarh Fort. Since time was running out on our ride, I suggested we part ways at Nahargarh. That way we could have a more leisurely time at the fort and walk down the steep path to the city below. And Mahesh could go home and get some sleep. After all, he had worked the night shift and then spent the day with us. Mahesh gratefully accepted the idea since he lived on the side of the mountain opposite to the old city. We hadn't settled on a price for Mahesh's services -- "I'm just learning so I couldn't say". Earlier he had told me that professional guides get 150 INR and that's what I gave him. He seemed pleased with it. It's still hard for me to understand that labor is worth so little in India. Consider that it costs me $4 or $5 for admission into each historical monument or $2 for a meal. Yet I can hire a guy to hang out with me for less than $1 an hour. And he's happy with it. Something doesn't seem quite right. Obviously the solution here is to hire these people to hand-weave carpets and sell them for a few thousand bucks each. <Lame attempt at humor here>. Nahargarh was actually pretty cool. It was basically a decrepit old mansion overlooking the city. It was neat because it was built kind of like a grid with square passageways, open courtyarts and multiple levels. It was all open to the air and there were monkeys hanging out in some of the rooms. With the levels and turns into other corridors and rooms, it was very much like a video game. Take pictures of monkeys without pissing them off, avoid getting killed by monkeys, get to the other side. Apparently there's one room for rent and one could stay at this place. That would be wild. Maybe a little scary, though. We made it to the roof and enjoyed the view. From up here, we could see that outside of the center, the "pink city" actually contains a lot of blue. So maybe we were getting a little taste of the blue city of Jodhpur which we would not be visiting on this trip. A friendly Indian guy who had spent some time in Japan started talking to my wife and he took a picture with us and talked about his experiences in Japan. We had a bite to eat in the restaurant/cafe before heading down the steep road leading to the city below via steep switchbacks. We wanted to get down before the sun completely set. We enjoyed the waning light on the way down. The sounds of the city below drifted up. Car horns. Music. It was a peaceful scene and perhaps one of the best moments on the trip. A handful of others were making their way down or up the path as well. Near the bottom were more people. People on rooftops waving. Kids -- "Hello. Hello." "Hello chewing gum." Much as it would have been nice to give these kids something, I didn't have that much to give and, anyway, I didn't want to make them even more rabid for future travelers. At the bottom we just kept walking figuring we could get a rickshaw when we got tired. Once we got past the cluster of cycle rickshaws at the end of the path, most people paid us little mind. We weren't in a tourist area -- it was an area of small stores. Building materials. Cheap plastic toys. Salt. Spices. Mostly the kind of stuff we wouldn't be buying so people didn't call out to us. Eventually we came to a busy street. We had crossed various busy streets before and I'll mention now, they are all like the old video game Frogger where you control a frog crossing a busy street without getting squished. Perhaps you're not familiar with it but you might be familiar with the Seinfeld Frogger episode. And, if not, you'll still understand what I mean the next time you have to cross a busy street in India. Just think "Frogger." We weren't actually sure where we were but it didn't really matter. We shopped a bit and eventually found ourselves in a sari shop. My wife wanted one for the wedding and since we were afraid we wouldn't have time to make one in Kerala she ended up purchasing one in this shop. They spread out dozens of sari as she made up her mind on what she wanted. We got a "silk" sari with tailored blouse and underskirt for 900. We didn't do the silk flame test so I'm not sure if they were taking us for a ride or not. They took measurements and promised to have it ready by 6pm the next day. From there we walked to the city gate and I attempted to determine which one it was since that would give me a better idea of how much I should bargain for for a ride back to JasVilas. I think we got quotes of 30 or 40 INR for the ride back but I decided to hold off. I didn't think we needed to go that far and we could probably get a cycle rickshaw for cheaper. (Yes I know we're only talking about differences of 50 cents or less and it seems silly now as I write.) I pulled out the map again and a guy who had been "hanging out" nearby came up and asked where we were going. I said we wanted to get to Collectorate Circle and he said "I'll take you." I said "How much?" And he said "free". Free?! Then he pulled out a moped (scooter) and it seems kind of dumb now but we got on. He seemed like a friendly guy but on the ride he told he me worked in the diamond cutting business. He was driving in more and more almost-deserted neighborhoods that I didn't recognize and I'm starting to think, "Uh oh." I thought maybe he would take us to some gem showroom in some desolate neighborhood where we'd be subjected to high pressure sales pitches or perhaps worse. After all Jaipur is home of the infamous gem scam. At this point I didn't want to say exactly where we were staying so I asked him to drop us off at the Ashok Hotel on Collectorate Circle and hoped fervently he would actually take us there. And... that's what he did. He dropped us off and I said, hey, I can pay you and proceeded to give him 20 rupees. Then he said, "but gas is expensive..." or something like that clearly hoping for a bigger payout. And I started to say that we could have got the same ride for about 30 and he seemed to suddenly remember that he had offered us the ride for free in the first place. And no, he didn't want any money. But I said, no, I appreciate the ride and gave him the 20 and we parted amicably. A strange episode that ended nicely but certainly not the smartest thing I've ever done. It was about a 10 minute walk to JasVilas from there. Next door it looked like they were having a wedding celebration or something. Under other circumstances I might have tried to watch a little from the outside but it had been a long day without a full night's sleep. So we had soon taken our showers and went to bed with the celebration next door all but forgotten. Last edited by mdchachi : Apr 15th, 2004 at 01:39.

Mar 5th, 2004, 11:20	#4
mdchachi newbie-wallah Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: MI - USA Posts: 150	The 900 was for just four hours I think, not a full day. You had quoted me 500 so I knew they were way out of line. For 12 hours we ended up spending less than 500 on transportation. Having a car and a driver would have been "easier" but then I never would have had the cycle rickshaw ride. Or the bus ride with the bomb messages on the seats. Or the fun of making our own way through the city. So besides saving money, the way we did it made it more of an adventure and I'm glad we didn't hire a car & driver.

Mar 5th, 2004, 12:57	#6
DianeN. Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Japan Posts: 255	Thanks for posting about your trip. I hope you finish letting us know about your whole two weeks before I leave on my trip....in just 4 days!

Mar 5th, 2004, 16:06	#7
Alan D Maha Guru Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Southampton UK Posts: 1,866	mdchachi For a "newbie wallah" I think you are doing pretty well so far and enjoying India without letting minor frustrations get to you. Obviously a lot of the information you have picked up from this site has been useful and that's what makes it worthwhile for all the people who contribute here. I'm looking forward, like others, to your subsequent posts. The problem is, this thread will eventually sink under the continual flow of new postings. It might be a good idea to also post it in the travel articles section on the home page. As for your not being around here much in the future, from the tone of your articles, I think you will be looking in on indiamike when you start planning your next trip to India.

Mar 9th, 2004, 18:48	#11
mdchachi newbie-wallah Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: MI - USA Posts: 150	Day 6 - Another day in Jaipur I was glad we had decided to spend two days in Jaipur. We liked the town more than both Delhi and Agra. Plenty of things to see, bazaars to walk and relatively clean air. And a little more "exotic" with its desert air, turban-clad men and the occasional camel and elephant walking through town. My throat was still sore but seemed to be on the mend. However I had a raspy voice and a mild case of laryngitis. Before the trip, I had been worried about my stomach and hadn't thought that I might catch a cold. After some consultation with Mahendra of JasVilas on where to go, we set off to drop off some photos for developing and to check out a silver shop. We hailed a cycle rickshaw and set off for the photo shop. I thought the rickshaw driver was taking the wrong road off of Collectorate Circle and when I raised an alarm, he consulted with a guy on the street and then took some back streets until we found ourselves on a road that took us in front of JasVilas again! So we turned him around and proceeded back to the circle where he took the original road. He had been right all along. Oops. He seemed satisfied with the 5 rupee tip I gave him to make up for my mistake despite the fact that he ended up having to peddle almost twice as far. Dropped off the photos and proceeded to walk back towards the circle. Although we had intended to catch a ride, we found the walk to the silver shop went quickly. On the way a guy was crouching and urinating publically. Unlike most of the time we had seen this, though, he was facing the street and in full view. Why? It didn't like he was trying to shock, just satisfying the urge. It's hard not to think of this behavior as animalistic. I didn't mention earlier that there are public urinals (more like walls than urinals) scattered about Delhi. All of them are flecked with red residue. Perhaps many Indians are afflicted with some kind of disease causing blood in their urine? Saw the same thing at Nahargarh Fort where certain stairwalls in the interior had been used similarly. (Just kidding here, I know what the red residue is from.) So anyway we located Silver Mines, the silver store recommended by Mr. Singh. It was a refreshing no pressure environment and a fixed price of 12 rupees per gram of 65% silver jewelry and 25 rupees per gram of 92% silver. A bit more expensive, we were told, due to recently increased prices of silver. But still relatively cheap for us and we bought $40 worth of silver jewelry for gifts. I learned later that one of Mr. Singh's frequent customers goes there to purchase silver and sell it in her own country, earning enough to fund her trips back to India. From there, we walked, heading generally in the direction of the old city. When it was apparent that I wasn't really sure where we were and still had a ways to go, we hired an autorickshaw to take us into the city. When dealing with a rickshaw it is funny because immediately all other drivers in the vicinity will stop and try get in on the deal. However they don't really seem intent on getting into a bidding war but, rather, seem to want to make sure we pay the going rate. Or perhaps to be there in case the deal falls through with original driver. Anyway, we got a ride to Jantar Mantar which is in the middle of the city. Jantar Mantar is the 300-year-old observatory filled with astronomical instruments. Similar to the one in Delhi but with more instruments and in better condition. In one section of the "park" is a set of yantras (instruments), one for each of the zodiac used, I guess, for locating the appropriate star. We took pictures on Aries and Gemini, our respective signs. Climbed up a few of the instruments and took in the view. I suppose it might have been useful to accept a guide at some of the places but when everybody on the street is out to milk rupees out of me, I just retreat and go into avoidance mode. Afterwards, we headed outside and around the corner to the City Palace. Mr. Singh had recommended taking a guide there but nobody offered us their services so we just wandered around and used the guidebook. It's a good one-stop attraction since it contains architecturally interesting buildings as well as two museums featuring royal clothing and the other royal possessions and artworks. And there is even a restaurant and a shopping arcade. Plus the largest silver objects in the world. The famous silver urns shown in all the guidebooks. We had a nice lunch at the city palace restaurant before venturing out. Bought some $1 t-shirts and $3 skirts in a tiny shop just outside. Hopefully the stuff will last a few washings. I spotted a radio taxi waiting so I asked the driver if he could call one for us. I wanted to try the radio taxi service which offers the ease of metered fares and no haggling but he said we would have to wait 20 minutes so I once again started bargaining with rickshaw drivers in the vicinity; we wanted to go to Galta, the sun temple. We ended up choosing the second driver we talked to; it looked like he paid off the first guy with 10 or 20 rupees because he had spotted us first and should have been his customer. We agreed to a pretty expensive ride of maybe 80 or 100 INR because the guidebook said the place was 12km or so but it really wasn't that far at all. (I don't know where the guidebook was measuring from, though.) We found ourselves deposited on a dirt road, in front of us was a narrow road leading up a hill via switchbacks. Dirty barefoot kids ran up to us. These were less affluent than the ones that had been asking for candy and pens. They didn't say anything and just motioned to their mouths. "Hungry." I don't think they were malnourished but they were certainly close to poverty level. Heartless bastards that we are, we just ignored them and headed up the road, cameras at the ready. Besides the kids, there were cows, dogs, goats and monkeys. A whole menagarie hanging around on this road. The kids didn't persist after we started climbing up and we were left to watch the wild life. The black-faced monkeys paid us little mind though when I pointed my camera at one from about six feet away and clicked the shutter, he bared his teeth in a menacing manner and I hastily backed off. I recalled Mahesh's -- our guide from the previous day -- warning. The black-faced ones are stupid, he said, it's the red-faced ones that are crafty. Most of the red-faced ones paid us little mind as well but further up the path one of them started sidling towards my wife in a devious manner. Recalling that I had read somewhere that the Indians use rocks to ward off monkeys, I reached down and picked up a rock. As soon as the monkey saw that, he beat a hasty retreat. After that we discovered that just carrying rocks so that the monkeys could see that we were carrying them was enough for them to keep their distance. Not more than fifteen minutes later, we were in front of the small Sun Temple. A guy popped out -- temple keeper I presume -- and asked us to take off our shoes which we did. We walked up near the altar and then around the back to check out the hazy afternoon view over Jaipur. I'm not sure if we were supposed to donate something for watching our shoes but the guy had disappeared with some indian visitors so we grabbed our shoes and left. Actually the thing that had attracted me to Galta were some pictures I had seen of monkeys in an abandoned palace and now I could see that that place was a 20 or 30 minute hike away. It looked like a nice pleasant hike but we didn't have the time to go that far so we headed back down the same way we had come. Also hanging about in the little town -- if that's what it was -- were some sadhu. These are the so-called Holy Men or ascetics who have retreated from society to wander & meditate or whatever. I don't know much about them and what they might be up to. Similar to the monkeys, I avoided eye contact and gave them a wide berth (but didn't pick up any rocks, haha). Our rickshaw was waiting for us and we had him drop us off at the circle near Hawa Mahal (Wind Palace) so we could walk along the bazaars with the eventual goal being to pick up the sari we purchased the previous day. Most of the shops along the street next to the city palace here were not tourist oriented and were selling everything from kitchen utensils to tea to shoes. So we enjoyed the sights and the walk as relatively few people paid us any mind. When we reached the sari shop, we had to wait a few minutes for them to produce the sari. At the time I remember thinking it had been foolish to pay for the whole thing in full the day before but they did produce it. My wife tried the tailored blouse on over here t-shirt and it was obvious that it was way too small and not due to the bulk of the t-shirt. Fortunately it was tailored such that there are folded pleats which can be opened up and restitched to widen the blouse. At first they tried to just open up the hem without restitching, pack it up and leave it at that, leaving an ugly seam albeit under the arm. But when it was apparent that we wouldn't accept it, they went to get it "fixed." In the end it was hemmed with uneven, poor stitching but it was better than before and usable. So we accepted it. While all this was going on, I was running out of time to pick up my developed photos so I left my wife there and grabbed a cycle rickshaw. Although the guy didn't speak English, I made it very clear where I was going and what I was wanted to pay -- 20 INR for round-trip to Collectorate Circle. At first he said something like "as you like", like the fare was up to me but I held up a 20 INR bill and pantomined with the map. He accepted and we were off. This guy was fast and good and I was there in no time, much like the guy we had had in Delhi. I picked up my photos and hopped on for the ride back. For some reason, maybe he forgot where he had picked me up or wasn't clear what I wanted, he made a left outside the city gate. So I pulled out the receipt from the sari shop to show him where to go. He couldn't read Hindi (or whatever language it was written in) and grabbed somebody off the street to read it for him. Then he turned around and got back to the place where I had originally found him. I gave him the 20 plus a 5 rupee tip and headed inside without looking back. But then, while in the sari shop, he appeared and asking for more money using the proprietor as a translator. I had made it very clear about what deal we had made -- I had pantomined in the map that I would be going two ways and he had seemed clear about it at the time. So I said the same thing and he left. But when we left the shop, he was still there asking for money. He finally gave up when we refused again and walked past him into the crowd. I do question whether or not I did the right thing by not giving him more. But considering how clear I had made the deal -- as clear as you can when not speaking the same language -- and in comparison to the much longer distance 20 INR ride we had had in Delhi I believe he got the going rate. Probably he had been hoping for a bigger payout from the "rich" foreigner. Perhaps I should have been more generous. It's hard to get ones mind around that fact that an extra 10 or 20 cents can actually make a difference in somebody's life. By this time it was dark and shops were closing. We started heading for the closest gate to the south, walking past tailor shops filled with bolts of fabric as they closed up. We were looking for Niros, the restaurant listed in the Lonely Planet. We knew it shouldn't be all that far so I shook my head at the inquiring looks from passing rickshaws. The street we were on, outside and parallel to the city walls was dark with little action. Not quite foreboding but clearly not the right street. We cut over south a couple of blocks and found the street we were looking for. Lots of hotels and banks here. As we searched for the place, what came into view but the Golden Arches with a big movie theater next to it. There was no discussion, we knew where we were going. Now, before you accuse us of selling out, we were planning to visit an Indian McDonalds on this trip anyway. So it worked out nicely indeed. The food was a little expensive by Indian standards and it was clear that it was an "upscale" kind of place frequented by middle-class Indians, those that could afford to spend a few dollars on fast food. As I fingered my camera while looking at the menu, I was warned that we couldn't take pictures at the counter area so we got down to the business of deciding what to order. I tried the veg burger with cheese and my wife had a chicken sandwich of some sort. The veg burger had a generic tasting fried patty -- could have been fish for all I could tell -- and wasn't bad at all. There was also a separate counter for dessert so we splurged on a 20 cent ice cream cone. While we were eating I struck up a conversation with the guy next to me who said he was living in Bangkok but back home for a short while. Let me guess, you're in the jewelry business? I was right and he was a little surprised that I had him pegged. But that's what Jaipur is famous for so it was just a matter of using the odds to make my guess. He told me the going rate for silver was 11 rupees/gram but I don't know how that relates to the jewelry we purchased earlier. I had thought about stopping at a jewelry store to compare prices but we had been too busy doing other things. The guy pointed to a cute young girl in a black Rajasthani-style (I think) dress at a table facing us. He said she was a new bride and I correctly surmised she was muslim since her hair was covered. I don't know how he knew she was a young bride but she realized that we were talking about her and demurely blushed and looked away. She didn't look over 16. What a different world she is in from mine. I hoped she would have a good life. I was wondering if the friendly guy would invite us to go shopping but he didn't seem to have any hidden agendas and he left, bidding me adieu. It had been another full day and we had an early morning flight to catch so we grabbed a rickshaw and headed back to JasVilas, our home away from home. I chatted with Mr. Singh for a few minutes and settled the bill. He kindly arranged for a taxi to pick us up early in the morning for the ride to the airport. Last edited by mdchachi : Apr 15th, 2004 at 01:40.

Mar 11th, 2004, 04:03	#12
mdchachi newbie-wallah Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: MI - USA Posts: 150	Day 7 - Jaipur to Kerala We anxiously awaited our radio taxi which was scheduled to arrive at 5:30am for a ride to the airport. I ended up calling twice to see what was going on and, finally, it arrived. I gave the driver a minimal tip since he had showed up over 30 minutes late. But no matter, we made it to the Jaipur airport with time to spare. We got into the Jet Airways line and checked in only to be told that our plane was delayed due to fog in Delhi and that we would not make our connection in Mumbai. So we would be given a hotel in Mumbai and would have to fly out the next day. I glumly accepted our fate. I recalled all the warnings not to rely on sticking to a plan in India. But we had paid full fare, why couldn't they put us on another airline out of Mumbai? I got back into line to ask this question. The ticket agent searched his computer and told me there were no flights to Kochi from Mumbai later than the one I had been scheduled to take. So we settled down to wait. But as we were waiting we could see the announcements for an Air India flight scheduled to leave within the hour from Jaipur to Mumbai. I didn't have much hope but my wife urged me to ask about getting onto that flight. So I went up to talk to the same agent. He saw me back in his line and when I got up to the counter, he anticipated my question and made it seem like his idea. "Maybe we can get you onto this currently-boarding Air India flight to Mumbai." He took our boarding passes back, reworked our paperwork and got our luggage pulled back. Signed and stamped our tickets and sent us to the Air India line. Finally we made it to the front of the queue (actually it wasn't that long, it just seemed like it) and I passed my tickets for Jet Airways to the Air India agent. He looked at the endorsements, took our luggage and gave us boarding passes. So we narrowly escaped a wasted day and hours of extra transit time. Yes! We arrived in Mumbai late morning, picked up our luggage and I wheeled it up to the departure area to check into the Jet Airways flight only to find out that they are located at a separate terminal. There was no signage to indicate this but we asked various people and determined that it was a walkable distance away, 100m or so. At the other terminal we successfully checked in for the Jet Airlines flight only to find out that it was also delayed. (So perhaps we might have been able to take the original flight and have made the connection after all.) We were told we could go to the Delayed Passengers Lounge upstairs. The terminal was pretty old and grungry and undergoing construction but the restaurant upstairs was actually quite nice. Clean and new. So clean and new, in fact, that Indian people were regularly taking pictures in the corridor leading to it. To the right of the main restaurant was the Delayed Passengers Lounge where there were complimentary samosa, veg sandwiches, non-veg sandwiches, coffee and tea available. The delay was only about an hour and we were on our way soon enough. Domestic air travel was pretty much the same as that in the U.S. with two primary differences. One is that you must tag all carry-on items with an airline luggage tag. During the security check before boarding, the tags would be stamped with an illegible smudge and this tag would be checked by a guard before entering the boarding area (or the plane). If you were missing a smudge, you would be sent back to get the stamp. The other difference is that in some, but not all instances, we would have to identify our checked luggage before boarding the plane. In India the security personnel were generally amenable to hand-checking my film. I had some ASA 800. Even for the slower films, the U.S. Transportation Authority recommends getting hand-screening if the film gets scanned five or more times. I take this to mean that any amount of scanning is degrading to the film and attempted to avoid it whenever possible and was generally successful (except in the Maldives). Flying into Kochi we could see the tropical-looking trees and lush-looking countryside. Far different from Rajasthan. We walked out into humid and tropical heat. The Kochi airport was small and I located the pre-paid taxi desk easily. I requested my destination -- Thevera Waterfront -- and was told to pay 410 INR. It seemed awfully expensive but we didn't have much choice. (If I had to do it again, I would have tried to get picked up by the hotel.) The taxi was a white Ambassador (but they are all white aren't they?). This one was much nicer than the filthy one in Agra and had nice plush seats. Even the ceiling was upholstered with the same material. Fancy. The Indian guy that was next to me on the plane -- he lived in Saudia Arabia and was coming home for a quick visit while on business -- had told me that the road in to town from the airport was in very poor condition. Ironically, it was probably the best road we had been on in India. No potholes and nice and wide. Of course that didn't stop the driver from straddling lanes and driving in the traditional manner of playing chicken with oncoming trucks. But there was much less use of the horn down here. Less need since the streets were less crowded. It was a long ride so perhaps worth the 410 rupees (though it still seems expensive). It seemed like a totally different country down there. It almost seemed "normal." There were proper store fronts. Nobody obviously homeless or destitute. Almost no garbage on the streets. Or animals. The few cows I saw were out in fields and not in the city. The tropical foliage and environment reminded me of the Philippines. Also there were many churches and references to christianity on passing trucks. Eventually we made it to the Riviera Suites which is located in Thevera, the south end of Ernakulum in Kochi. We were here to attend a friend's wedding and chose this hotel because this was where the reception would be and where most other guests would be staying. It was not a typical hotel, though, more like vacation condos. Each unit had a sitting room and kitchen and some had 2, 3 or 4 bedrooms each with its own bathroom. After dropping off our luggage we headed out to see the town and find some dinner. Fortunately the front desk had a map of the area and they gave some advice on where we could go to find food. So we headed to Broadway. This was an area with many shops. The shops were actually stores in the sense that I am used to. No small narrow booths or people setting up their goods on the street as in the northern cities we had been to. We went around the block where there were hotels and restaurants and started looking for a place to eat. There was a busy fast-food type place with a long menu. When we asked if they had fish curry they pointed us upstairs. So we headed upstairs and found ourselves in a relatively fancy restaurant with worn velvet upholstered chairs, fabric napkins and muted lighting. We were a bit nervous about the fact that no other customers were in there but we decided to stay and ended up having a nice meal with fish and other curries. Other customers started coming in later, after the shops had closed so we felt even better about the place. We went back around the block to Broadway street and caught a rickshaw back to the Riviera Suites. This guy didn't know where the Riviera Suites was but he knew its section of town, "Thevera," and I had a map. At one point we passed a big billboard with the Riviera Suites on it and I pointed to it and said, "There!" He stopped and asked a passerby about it and, since he didn't speak English, tried to raise the rate on us with the guy as intermediary. He gave us some bullshit about how it was farther than he thought. I said, hey, this is what we paid to come out here earlier so no way. (That was actually a little white lie because we had paid 70 earlier and I had arranged the ride with this guy for 60.) He gave up and took us to the hotel. I almost didn't tip him for the stunt he pulled but I think I gave him an extra 5 rupees. The elevators were only three years old but they were amazingly slow. They did however have a "helpful" temperature display showing us that the temperature in the elevator was 30 degrees (86F). Not really something I cared to know. Fortunately the air conditioning in the apartment was sufficient and we soon called it a night.

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