The Golden Triangle

Our driver’s name is Parveen. His english is passable and he seems nice enough. We leave Delhi at 0900hrs and even though Jaipur is only 250km away, it will take the better part of the day to get there. The roads are decent (much better than the one to Varanasi) but they are packed with traffic and of course cows. There are also 4 or 5 toll booths along this stretch of highway. I’m looking forward to Jaipur, the Lonely Planet makes it sound like a little gem of a city. As we get closer to the city we see more and more camels, elephants, wild pigs, and peacocks. Parveen suggests a hotel for us (we know about the commission but at this point don’t really care anymore) and say ok. We get to this place and the guy is excited to see us and takes us to a room. He opens the door and its a massive fancy suite- for only 3500rps. Ugh. We are looking for something under 1000...he takes us to another room, smaller but still nice. Its 1600. We say no but thanks and try to leave. The negotiations begin. I don’t negotiate- that is Steves area. He gets him down to 1200 which we still think is too high so we leave. Its outside of town anyway. We give Parveen another chance. This time we go to a smaller less fancy place and get a room for 500. Its near the old city which is also known as the Pink City. A prince way back in the day painted the city pink (considered a welcoming color in Hinduism) and the tradition has been carried on. According to the Lonely Planet the city is beautiful and the pink glows at sunset, colorful sari’s blow in the breeze...etc. I am so excited! We freshen up and head out for the pink city. We’ve been sitting in the car all day so we decide to walk. Tuk tuk’s and rickshaws pester us and follow us. The streets are typical of what we’ve come to know in India, full of garbage, stink, animal excrement, and street food. Its a long walk to the gates of the Pink City. I’m not sure if they actually are the gates because they don’t look entirely pink to me. More of a rusty light red. Ok, I think, thats ok, lets go in, its evening and the city will be warm and glowing. We enter the gates, instantly the streets are smaller and more packed, we dodge traffic and people. Its so crowded we can’t walk together. There is mud and garbage everywhere and among that people are selling fruit and junk. So between all the people and chaos, we focus on not getting ran over- the side walks behind the vendors are used as the garbage dump and packs of dogs are lurking there. The buildings are in shambles and the rusty red color isn’t what I had envisioned. Its a horrible smelly hole and for the first time in our travels I am disappointed in Lonely Planet. I am entirely disappointed in this so called “pink city”. We push through the crowds and traffic for a few minutes, I turn to Steve and say “I’m ready to go.” He has been so patient with this and he gladly gets us a tuk tuk and we make our way back to the hotel. There is a performance with dancers, musicians, and a magician at our hotel that night. Its interesting and we enjoy it. The magician is really entertaining and Steve likes his homemade top hat complete with skull and crossbones.
Parveen picks us up to take us to more sites in Jaipur. We tell him we walked into the pink city and he says “oh how was it? nice isn’t it?” Steve says “yup it was nice” and I am just thinking to myself how not nice it was but Steve says we shouldn’t complain about India to Indian people. He has a point and I hold back about how it needs a paint job and a good cleaning. The monsoon rain is pouring and the streets flood. People walk around barefoot and carry on about their business. We go to the Amber Fort which is up on a hill just outside of Jaipur. It is a massive place!! Huge courtyards and all sorts of passages and walkways. The views from the fort are impressive and we have a nice time exploring- and of course dodging the cameras of men. We enter one room and there is a distinct strong sour smell. I look down a well and it is full of bats!! I try to take some photos but the noise or flash or my presence bothers them and a few fly around- we run away. We’ve been warned about the rabies in India! There are elephants carrying tourists up the hill to the fort. They enter the courtyard to off load the passengers. We stand next to them as they pass- they are really amazing creatures! Their size is unreal! Their feet are so neat! Then the driver beats them over the head with a stick. Elephants are intelligent animals and I am worried they are beat like this.
I am looking forward to visiting the Hawa Mahal. There is a photo of it in Lonely Planet and it looks fantastic! When we get to it, I am surprised. It is on a very busy street surrounded by dilapidated buildings. Parveen advises us not to go inside as “its full of garbage”. I had imagined it to be standing alone in grandeur! It is still an interesting structure- I jump out to take some photos and have yet to take one before a man is directing me to some building to get a better view. I kindly decline but like most people here he chooses not to listen and joins me on the side of the street trying to convince me to go. While this is happening a woman is holding her baby at Steve’s window and asking for money. We visit the city Palace and by then end of the day we are exhausted.

We leave for Agra in the morning. I am super stoked to finally see the Taj Mahal! Its down pouring for most of the drive but we still stop at a famous fort/mosque. We get soaked and our umbrella from France is falling apart. The fort was widespread like the last one with many passages. We enter one building and smell that distinct bat smell and leave. We wander around and I begin to feel unwell. A young girl latches on to us as we walk back to the car. She says to Steve “your umbrella broken sir, its a gift for me?” then she points out piles of cow poo for us along the path. We are soaked and back on the road. Being on the road means passing more toll booths. We laugh at one when we see one man collecting the toll, one counting the change, and one marking down the number of cars! Three men working in one booth! We have noticed this in other places too. We go in a purse shop, one man to open the door, one to follow you around, one at the cash register, and one cleaning the bags- twice as many people working there as necessary! At least they are “working”...another example: We see 5-6 police men around one radar gun with only one car. Hmmmm...
We get to Agra, its crowded and polluted like every other city we’ve seen. The last bit of highway was rugged and rough. I am really feeling unwell and my anti-nausea bracelets don’t seem to be helping. We get to the hotel and I lay down. I am contemplating which end to go over the toilet! Soon enough I am chundering while sitting on the can. I’m crying and moaning and basically in agony. I am all cramped up and absolutely miserable. Steve, my fabulous nurse, is rustling around in the room. He comes into the bathroom with a headlamp. A headlamp???!! What the heck? A cool cloth or a gravol might be nice, but a headlamp? I groaned “what is that for?” He answered “I thought you want to see what your doing” at the moment I just shooed him away and cried some more...but now, I see how well he listened! My last vomiting session was in Nepal behind a tea house in the pitch black and I asked for some water and a headlamp. However, the light was on in the bathroom and I could see just fine! Hahahha! He is so funny. Once again Steve tucks me into bed and cleans out the bucket I used. We had arranged an Agra tour with a friend of Brandi’s, but after a couple more hours of misery we decided we should cancel. That sucked, I was looking forward to meeting an Indian woman (I’ve had enough of the men) and was planning a little shopping with her. I have only bought 2 pillow cases and some chai tea the whole time! In the end it was a good choice as I am up most of the night with stomach pain and frequent bathroom trips.
We do see the Taj. We take a nice little tuk tuk through the garbage strewn streets and are at the gates. Foreigners pay 750rps each whereas locals pay something like 50. We walk along a nice path towards a giant gate. Through the gate is the Taj- and its absolutely amazing! It looks like a painting and is stunning! I have time to enjoy this for a moment and take one photo before I hear a “click”- I look to my left and a man has his cellphone camera at my head. This time I am soooo mad! I am tired and cranky and now I am mad too. Ugh. Steve says “let me see that, let me see” and points at the phone. The guy is all smiles and proudly shows Steve the picture. Steve is mad too and says “you like my wife? you take her picture? thats 50rps” Apparently the guy didn’t speak english...or decided to appear that way. I scowl at him and his group of friends and say “why do you do that? Your a bunch of pigs!” Maybe they understood that or they could tell I was mad because they all looked uncomfortable. We walked around the Taj for an hour or so. The detail in the building is wonderful and from every side it looks the same. I’m happy we went and saw this!
After a shower and some toast I am feeling a little better. We visit Agra’s Red Fort and are then on the highway back to Delhi. Its a long drive (not for distance but for time) with 4 more toll booths. We have Parveen drop up off right at the airport even though our flight is seven hours away. We are done with India and have no desire to see anything more. Parveen has been ok, but I’m tired of listening to him complain about how poor he is. Its not a place we have really enjoyed, but at the same time nothing really horrible happened. I don’t like how I feel in India. Not trusting anyone and being stared at and being ripped off...makes me dislike them and put them all in one bucket of badness. I know there are good people there, but I didn’t meet them. When I build up this wall of distrust I feel like a bad person. I don’t want people near me, don’t talk to me, just get away. I feel like now, the sites in Egypt were worth the hassle, but I can’t say that about India. I think I need more time to reflect on all this...I’ll do that on the beach! Thailand here we come!