The Golden Triange - a lopsided version

After my jaunt to Hyderabad and a successful foray into the Punjab for the parents, we reunited and headed for the mother of all Indian tourist attractions, the Taj Mahal.  We wrassled a bit with a flat tire on the way, but were soon headed for Agra to see Akbar's tomb at Sikandra, Agra Fort, and the Taj.  As always, I loved Sikandra with it's rosy palate of red sandstone with marble inlays.  I know it's sacrilege, but I prefer it to the Taj's pearly whites any day.  Besides being beautiful, it's far less crowded and more peaceful with its lovely deer park and faintly crumbling gateways.

Agra fort was a pleasant surprise, more imposing than its Delhi cousin and in far better shape.  It was a beautiful day to wander through the sandstone halls, explore Shah Jahan's marble prison, and gaze upon the Taj from afar.  We did the whole fort in less than an hour, but it was still wonderful to see.

And now, on to the Taj.... It is beautiful, of course. And crowded. And, like most things in India, subjects you to a bit of sensory overload.  First warm sandstone and then cool marble beneath your feet.  Tracing the lilies etched in relieve around the mausoleum. Seeking seams in the seamless piedra dura, and marveling at the love and what must have been obsession, that inspired the building.  Finally, watching birds wheel in the fading light above white minarets, and the sinking sun turning dust motes rosy over the Yamuna.

We had a lovely dinner and headed on to Gwalior.  It makes for a long day, but I've come to believe that Agra doesn't merit an overnight.  Our hotel in Gwalior was lovely - Usha Kiran Palace.  Part of the ruling family's estate, it still sits next to the ancestral family home and the Scindia Palace museum.  We had a good sleep in and a lovely breakfast buffet the next morning before rambling about the museum for a few hours and checking out Gwalior Fort in all it's blue-tiled loveliness.  The Usha Kiran treated us well.  Rooms were palacial and the spa was wonderful.  Mom and Dad and I all had massages, which were great, and then we followed it up with a belated birthday dinner for me at the hotel.  The staff were so sweet - they whipped up an impromptu birthday cake and sang to me.  Just lovely - the Taj experience is not to be beaten in the hotel world.

The following day, we headed for Jaipur, by way of Fatepur Sikri.  Although the abandoned city is beautiful, it has the most persistent hawkers and touts of anywhere I've been in India.  Dad and Paul each succumbed to the wares available, but on the whole I think they enjoyed themselves.  After a four-hour drive to Jaipur, we had a nice dinner at Niro's and checked in to the Narain Niwas Palace, which I love.  In the morning, we headed for Amer to see the palace.  This is the first time that I've been there early enough to catch the elephants - apparently, they're not allowed to do more than a handful of trips each day, so once all the laps are done, there are no more elephants to be had.  The elephants carry you from the courtyard at the bottom of the hill, up to the palace gates - I've never had a more regal ride, and I think Mom, Dad, Paul and Mary loved it.  So worth going early.  After Amer, we had to go to the obligatory rug shop with our "free" guide.  Paul and Mary got a very nice rug, which should have made his day, but I have the strong sense he felt he had still lost out on some commission in the long haul.  Devindar and I dropped the 'rents at City Palace and went fabric shopping for Mom, as well as buying my long-sought Ganesh t-shirt.  Then, it was back in the car to head to Delhi, so that Mom and Dad could catch their flight out that night.  

It's amazing how quickly two weeks can go.  It was a tremendous amount of planning, but so great to have my family here.  I wish Mom had liked it better, but I think she was only so open to India from the beginning, and getting sick didn't improve things much.  Dad seemed to really like playing shutterbug and geeking out on the history - I really need to take him to Europe.  He would go nuts over Italy, in particular.  Paul and Mary, the veteran travelers among us, seemed to have had a great time.  And I was supremely grateful to have them along to referee the three musketeers.

It's all in a cave - Ellora & Ajanta

So, post saving problems, here's my complete re-write of this post.  You'll forgive me if I'm not as enthused about it the second time around....

We arrived in Aurangabad on Monday evening and headed for our hotel, Lemon Tree.  I was pretty jazzed that I'd found a place that was within Paul's $60/night budget and seemed like it would be nice.  When we got there, I was even more pleasantly surprised.  The hotel was brand new and had just opened a few months before.  We had big, lovely rooms, complete with all of the amenities, a great restaurant, and very friendly staff.  They even left a towel elephant, complete with flower decorations, on my bed each morning.

After a good night's sleep, we rallied fairly early for the 3 hour drive to Ajanta to see the cave temples.  Once we'd passed the tourist village crucible and made it through the bus line, all was good.  We clambered up a long set of stairs and into the valley where the caves are carved from the cliff walls.  Paul rode in in style, maharaja style, that is - on the backs of some very determined chair porters.  Many co-workers had told me that the Ajanta caves were beyond repair and no longer worth seeing, but that is definitely not the case.  Given how old they are, an amazing amount of the original paint is still extant.  In any case, it was well worth it to see the grandeur of the stone chamers and to feel the polished stone of the sanctuaries beneath your feet.  We puttered around the caves for a few hours and headed back to Aurangabad for a thali dinner.  Mom, Dad and Mary weren't too sure about it; Paul claimed he liked it.  In either case, their reactions made me realize how much my palate has changed over the past year.  

On our second and final day in Aurangabad, which was my birthday, we headed outside of town to Ellora, home to Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples.  The temples range from very roughly hewn alcoves of rock, to triple-layered temples carved deep into the rock face - just amazing.  There was a Buddhist tour group chanting in one of the caves as we passed through; I caught a bit of it on video:

After Ellora, we went exploring in the Mughal fort nearby.  The battlements are some of the most elaborate that I've seen, comprising multiple gates, bridges and a moat.  The grounds aren't in very good repair, but it's still possible to see how impressive the fort must once have been, with it's towering minaret and layers of defenses.  

Finally, just before leaving, we headed to the 'mini Taj,' or Bibi Ka Maqbara.  Built for Aurangzeb's wife at her death, it's a 2/3 scale model of the actual Taj Mahal.  There were several big school groups there and we were quickly rivaling the mini Taj for their attention.  I've never been in so many school pictures in a single day!  Tuckered out by our stardom and cave-hopping, we headed for the airport to catch the evening flight out - Mom, Dad, Paul and Mary back to Delhi and Amritsar; me to Hyderabad for a conference.  Phase one of the Parental Invasion - completed!

And so it begins...In the backwaters of Alleppey

Paul and Mary, Mom and Dad,  arrived in India on January 30th and 31st, respectively.  After much planning and plotting on my part, we were about to embark on what I fondly referred to as the "parental invasion."

Since Paul and Mary are fairly seasoned third world travelers, I didn't pull any punches on getting them acclimated to India post-haste.  For their first day, and while we were waiting for Mom and Dad to arrive from San Fancisco, Devindar took them into Old Delhi, to see Lal Quila and the Jama Masjid.  He also innovated on my program a bit and took them to see Akshardham, a Hindu temple in North Delhi that even I haven't made my way to yet.  Paul and Mary arrived back at the guest house tuckered out, but already madly in love with India - just the way we wanted it. 

That night, I did another 1am airport run with Devindar and picked up Mom and Dad from the airport.  After a few hours of sleep, I sent them back out on the town with Devindar, this time to see Humayun's Tomb and Qutub Minar, and to make a run to Aggarwal Lassiwalla - yum!  For dinner that night, most of my team met us for dinner at Pind Balluchi and we introduced the 'Rents to punjabi cuisine.  It was so much fun to have my two worlds converge a bit.  I've some to love all of the personalities on my team; they are unfailingly supportive, generous and interested in you as a person.  Mom, Dad, Paul and Mary fit right in and had a blast.

On Saturday morning, we rallied fairly early to head for Cochin, Kerala. Despite the best of intentions, our flight was delayed (of course) and we arrived in Fort Cochin pretty late in the day, with not much time to sightsee.  While I think we short-changed it a bit, I still feel as though we got a taste of Fort Cochin and Keralan culture.  We attended a kathakali dance performance and had a lovely dinner in Fort Cochin, before heading home to put the jet-lagged crew to bed.

Sunday saw the dawn of a lovely day - bright and sunny.  We drove out to Kumarakom to meet our houseboat and were on board by midday.  It was fun to finally meet Kence, from EcoTours Kerala - he's quite the character and many Googlers have had their negotiating adventures with him.  But, the man runs a good houseboat.  The crew took great care of us and made amazing meals throughout our overnight cruise.  

I think a cruise through the backwaters is a cure for all ills.  There is nothing to do but lean back and watch the water lilies and rice paddies flow by.  Life around you all seems idyllic, though I'm sure it's not completely so.  I found myself thinking how great it would be to buy a bungalow by the canal and forget about the outside world for a while - a la Gaugin in the South Pacific.  A girl can dream, right?

Paul and Mary were in their element and loving every minute.  I think Dad too, was pretty swept away by the place.  We listened to good music, ate the wonderful food and generally let the world go by.  Mom, unfortunately, was nursing Delhi belly in silence, so it took me a while to get her properly medicated and cheerful.  But, a boat cruise was probably about the best place we could have been, with nothing to do but relax and hang out.

We returned to Fort Cochin midday on Monday, had a nice lunch and headed out on a flight to Aurangabad and the next leg of our trip - the caves at Ellora and Ajanta.

Brahmin Blue and Golden Lace

A few weeks ago, I planned a trip to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, along with four friends from work - Jen, Carla, Jon, and Sherry.  It was a little crazy planning this junket, along with Mom, Dad, Paul & Mary's trip the upcoming week, but it was well worth it.  I have been meaning to get to these two last bastions of Rajasthan, and just hadn't gotten around to making the journey.

We set off on Friday evening - Sleeper Class from Delhi to Jodhpur.  I was freaked out that the train ride wouldn't be comfortable, since Sleeper Class is the least expensive ticket you can get for an overnight berth.  Even though the rest of the group had been in India less than a month, they rolled with it, and it all worked out just fine in the end.  Our biggest challenge was sleeping through the stereophonic snoring from the husband and wife pair who were our berth-mates.  Add to the list of Sleeper Class essentials - earplugs and a beanie.

Jodhpur is a quiet little town, just busy enough to be considered bustling, but not so big and chaotic that it exhausts you in the first five minutes.  It's known as the Blue City, for the homes in the old quarter which are painted a frosty, cornflower blue, known as "brahmin blue" for the high-caste intellectual families that used to occupy that part of the city.  The skyline is dominated by Mehranghar Fort, which boasts the only audio tour I've seen in India.  We also visited the Jaswant Thada, which was the family cenotaph of the maharaja.  Most Hindus consider these cremation sites both sacred and dirty, but they are unrelentingly beautiful.  The white marble, with arching blue sky and puffy white clouds overhead, makes quite the vista. On the way into the fort, there are red sati marks, handprints of the maharaja's widows as they left the palace for the last time to throw themselves on their husband's funeral pyre.  I cannot imagine the amount of commitment and devotion that would have enabled women to do that.  It makes me angry and deeply respectful at the same time.

We toured the local sites in Jodhpur and had a great stay at Pal Haveli, before saddling up for the 5 hour drive to Jaisalmer on Sunday.  Our objective was to arrive in time to catch a camel ride and see the sunset over the Sam desert, which, thanks to our driver Mr. Singh, we did.  We saddled up on five camels with a set of really unlikely names, ranging from Michael Jackson (mine) to Bubbles.  Just at the fringes of the desert, the dunes we clambered over were not extensive, but they were beautiful.  There were quite a few Indian tourists clumped together on the highest dunes to watch the sun settle into a dull orange glow below the horizon, which always makes me feel better; it's far worse when we arrive somewhere that's crawling with Americans or European - not because they're so horrible, but because it always makes me feel like I suffer from a stunning lack of originality.  In any case, we celebrated the sunset with a camel race back to camp, which brings new meaning to the phrase "slap-happy" but was really fun, regardless.

Back in Jaisalmer, we had a nice dinner at our hotel, Nachana Haveli, and were treated to a Rajasthani puppet show by a man with a 6 meter moustache, which he kept wrapped around his ears, believe it or not...cool or creepy - you be the judge.    We hit the hay early, tired out from lots of drive time and our camel-safari shenanigans.  The haveli was lovely - nicely restored with quaint, stone-block rooms and canopied beds, and a lovely fountain in the courtyard.  Sometimes hertiage hotels are a mixed blessing, but this one was pretty much all blessings and a great place to stay outside of the fort area.

On Monday, we got up as early as we could (nine-ish) and headed to Jaisalmer Fort and to see some of  the famous havelis in town.  After unrelenting red sandstone in Delhi, Agra and much of Rajasthan, Jaisalmer presents a complete shift in palette.  The lovely rich red is replaced with a crystalline golden stone that makes the whole place look as though it were someone's sandcastle.  The buildings and temples within the fort walls are some of the most intricately carved work that I've seen in India.  We were fortunate to have a local Brahmin man as our guide and, being a resident of the fort himself, he gave us a great overview of the various cultures and religions that are still housed within the walls.  After exploring the fort, we allowed ourselves to be lured by his sales pitch and went with him to his shop to buy some authentic Rajasthani patchwork.  I'm sure we taken, somewhat, but I don't think we got taken too badly.  And, it was a fun experience in any case.  It's amazing to see modern businesses housed within these buildings that are hundreds of years old.  

We topped off our visit to Jaisalmer with a stop at the only government-approved bhang shop.  Carla's friend from Hyderabad asked her to pick up four "liquor-filled" cookies -- imagine her surprise when I told her that the cookies were herbal in nature!  But, with the cookies and an authorization certificate in hand, we were soon on our way back to Jodhpur to grab dinner and catch our train back to Delhi.  By this time, we were sure that we were Sleeper Class pros.  Besides, how could we do much worse than the stereophonic snoring from the outward bound journey?  Oh ho ho... but you should never underestimate India's ability to top itself.  Our train ride back went fine and everyone made it, and everone even slept.  However, we were serenaded by the most robust chorus of snoreers that I can only call it a cacphony.  They were in our compartment, to either side and down the car from us.   A great lesson in mind over matter and a really funny way to end a great trip to Jaisalmer and Jodhpur.  My one regret is that we didn't get to see the Jain temples that are just off the driving route between Jaisalmer and Jodhpur.  It was on the program, but got lost somewhere between the mad dash to the camels and the mad dash back to the train.  Oh well - I have to leave some of the low hanging fruit, or what will I see the next time I come back?

The Wedding Wrap

Marriage season has begun, and let's just say that I am going to have to get a lot better at wrapping a sari.  Veni, one of the girls on my team, and her fiancee, Suhel tied the knot last Sunday, to much fanfare, photo-taking, and bell-ringing.  Theirs was the first in a pretty busy wedding season for my team.  We have no less than four couples getting married this month and next.  My Indian-couture-related stress has skyrocketed, but it is so much fun to be included in these family events.  I am honored, truly.

My maiden sari voyage was ruled a qualified success by the ladies.  I apparently need to work on my pleats some an the tightness of the wrap, but not too bad for a foreigner on a first outing.  In typical Mackh fashion, I was running horribly late, and so only had time for 2 false starts before I had to pin it all up and just go with it.  Sari's are surprisingly comfortable and warm.  I have a lot of work to do before I make it look as elegant as it should, but I'm motivated to try, for sure.

Veni was a beautiful bride in a traditional lehenga and Punjabi wedding trim.  We stayed through the first few hours of ceremonies and dinner, but the actual formalities did not occur until the wee hours of the morning.  This type of wedding is more a marathon than a sprint, and not for the faint-hearted.   Veni and Suhel seemed to take it all in stride, which I'm sure bodes well for the future.  It was an honor to be included - "Shadee mubharak ho!"