Golden Triangle

(( Ugh... power outage lost what I just wrote... this one might be half-ass... ))



I'm in Jaiper now. I've been to Bangalore, Delhi, and Agra since the last blog. It's been a little while... not that long though, just moving quick.

Bangalore was interesting, it was like a little bit of Europe in India. Or an Indian version of Europe. Or a third world Paris, if you could imagine such a thing. There was a nice botanical garden in the middle of town that offered some escape from the honking traffic, we strolled through here, people watched, and visited the "government aquarium" that is housed in the middle of the park. After paying the entrance fee we learned the "government aquarium" was merely a few small fish tanks arranged in a semi-circle with labels taped to the tops: "Guppy" and "Gold Fish" were some of the exotic fish featured here.


On to Delhi: Delhi was... very much a capital city. It had a bit of a DC feel to it in parts - the newer parts. Old Delhi looked more like sections of Bombay, crumbling buildings, tiny shops, and lots of cooking on the street. Oh and cows. Everywhere. Ya know Paris and dog poo, well in Delhi you have to look out for cow poo; and it comes in puddle size. In Delhi we saw some old ruins and temples,and shops that our rick driver thought would be of interest to us. However, I wasn't born yesterday, and was keen to these rick tricks thanks to my experience in Bangkok... but.. our rick driver was really nice so we appeased him and went to three shops where he received three coupons, each for a full tank of gas. And some commission from Nigel's rug purchase.

We drove from Delhi to Agra, about 4 hours southwest past sprawling farms and small villages. We stopped twice: once at a rest stop that a clown flagged us in to, and then again at a huge white marble temple that popped up out of no where. This place was a little different,they didn't lay claim to any one religion, prayed to their grand master guru, and preached vegetarianism. But the real eyebrow raising thing about this place was the small basement temple that was lined with neon track lighting - you can check out the pic on facebook.

Once in Agra we found a small budget hotel with a great rooftop restaurant with a view of the Taj Mahal. We wondered around the small streets of the Taj Ganj area that night and came across a wedding parade that consisted of the groom and his nephew both adorned in sparkly textiles, both atop a horse who was just as sparkly.
And both looking really bored as they rode through the streets escorted by a brass band and small boys carrying bright lanterns bigger than them. The next morning we planned our day while having breakfast on our roof facing the taj. We learned that most everything in Agra has to do with the Taj - we hired a rick to take us around for the day, he took us to see the "baby taj" (built 35 years before and with better craftsmenship says the driver), the view of the taj from across the river, a shop that sold mini taj's, a marble factory where mosiac inlay was done just as it was done on the Taj, and then finally after all that anticipation we saw her for sunset. As the sun goes down, the Taj Mahal changes from bright white to pink to orange to a hazy shade of grayish blue. It's really quite spectacular; it's kind of so perfect that my pictures look as though I'm standing in front of a green screen and I've inserted the Taj digitally.

The next afternoon we boarded the bus to Jaiper - a short six hour ride past more farms and villages, and what felt like miles of brick-making plants - a weird contrast between the green landscape and the brick smokestacks. Yesterday we walked through the old city, all of the buildings are done in red sandstone which gives Jaiper its nickname of The Pink City. For sunset we went to the monkey temple a few miles outside of the city. It's a series of old temples built into the mountains where hundreds of monkeys live. I bought some peanuts and made some friends. It's so creepy seeing the monkeys up close in their natural habitat - they don't feel like animals, more like little people the way they move and behave; the way they took the peanut from my hand, and then grabbed the entire bag when they were impatient with me. At sunset every day two men come down in their car and toss out bananas, before I could even see the car the monkeys knew it was time. Hundreds gathered at the bottom of the road and waited for supper. It was amazing to watch them peel and eat the bananas, there was a clear hierarchy of who ate more. The blog does not do it justice, it was one of the coolest things ever. I swear.

Anyway, taking it easy today, might go see a bollywood movie tonight. Then we go to pushkar in the morning.