Wedding Season in Jaipur

Jaipur is a wonderful city, home to the Amber Fort and many other attractions. However, I think we will always remember Jaipur as our introduction to wedding season.  Did you know there was such a thing? 

The Amber Fort, built in 1592.

Watching elephants climb up the hill, and into the fort was quite amazing.

A guard led us, by ourselves, through a labyrinth of dark halls and stairways to the very top of the fort.  We were the only people up there.

The view looking down on the fort intrigued me.

We are staying at the Jai Mahal Palace.  It is a 267 year old former home of maharajahs and the prime minister of Jaipur. It is now a hotel, but it retains its beauty with 18 acres of beautifully landscaped Mughal gardens.

I can't believe I only took one photo  of the hotel.  This is a photo of  a pre wedding party.   They are waiting for the groom to arrive on a white horse.

Because the hotel is so beautiful, it is a perfect spot for weddings.  We were here for 3 nights and there were two weddings and a sit down dinner for 350. The first night we heard drumming and excited voices.  We assumed that it was the hotel dance show that is performed every night.  Boy were we surprised to find the commotion was a full blown wedding on the lawn, around the corner from our room.  Unfortunately we missed the groom arriving on his white horse, and the bride being carried in a sedan chair by 8 young men.  By the time we went down on the lawn to see what the activity was, the ceremony was happening.  As we stood on the side lines watching, waiters brought us a beverage and wouldn't take "no" for an answer.

After the serious portion of the wedding was over, the guests began to go through the buffet line and the music cranked up.  It was fun at first but the techno music got louder and louder as the dancers moved to the dance floor.

We never thought we'd sleep, but precisely at 10 p.m. the music stopped.

In the morning the gorgeous decorations were gone and you never knew a wedding had taken place.

Last night, right in front of our window a dinner for 350 international bigwigs took place.  We watched the set up, and worried about the decibel levels. We were amazed at the beauty of the decorations, the army of wait staff, and we enjoyed listening to the band warm up. It was a lovely event, complete with dancing girls.  It was easy to go to bed listening to the traditional Indian music.

Tables set for 350 bigwigs.

Wait staff getting their orders.  I think there were as many waiters as guests. That's the hotel in the background.

The band.

An army of waiters in their pink turbans.

The chefs are ready.

Tonight is our last night in Jaipur and another wedding is unfolding under our bedroom window.  This time I have the presence of mind to check it out and take photos.  We will probably miss most of the activity since we will be dining at the home of a Rajasthani family until 9:30.  Here's what this modest wedding for 100 guests looks like so far. As I write this, the brass band has already started.  It's going to be a lively night.

The buffet line with a waiter, prepared for the guests.

Modest center piece at each table.

Decoration on the walkways.

The guests will watch the ceremony from these couches.

Setting up the floral decor.  This will all be gone in the morning.

Last minute prep at the buffet line.

There were 4 of these big drums.  

Drummers having a pre wedding meeting.

Each wedding is unique.  The second wedding  started with a traditional brass band.  It was in full swing as we were driving out for our dinner engagement.  We saw the groom on his white horse, and just as we were leaving the hotel grounds there was an elephant!!! On top was a beautiful bride in her red sari.  Our guide, Naveen, explained that the bride was probably an American, as no Indian bride would ever ride in on an elephant.  That is definitely not part of the culture.  But it was a thrill for us.

I am happy to report that we got home from our dinner at 9:30 and the dance music was over by 10:30 so I got a good night's sleep.  I understand, though, that the party moved indoors to a banquet hall and the raucous party continued long into the night.

Whirlwind Tour of Delhi

Today is our second day in Delhi.  We met our guide Suresh at 9:00 am and began our whirlwind tour.

We're on Capitol Hill, surrounded by government buildings.

India Gate commemorates the 90,000 Indian soldiers killed in WWI and the Afgan Wars fighting alongside the British.

We had a breathtaking bicycle rickshaw ride through Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi.  These alleys were originally the silver trading lanes on the Silk Road.  Mughal emperors once shopped here.  It's a little different now days.

We were on a rickshaw just like this one.  I felt sorry for the driver, having to haul 2 well fed Americans through the alleys.

We visited Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in Delhi, built in 1656. Cameras weren't allowed inside so you can't see how attractive I was in my full length flowered polyester robe covering me from neck to toes. Note: Jews are not allowed entry.

Lodi Gardens is the Central Park of Delhi, only it's bigger.  It's filled with ancient tombs.  It's the place where the wealthy come to jog in the morning, and young couples come to get some privacy among the trees and hedges.

This is one of many tombs in Lodi Gardens

The Lotus Temple, designed by the architect for the Sydney Opera House is magnificent.  It's a Bahai temple.

Our final, and my favorite stop of the day, was Qutab Minar.  This is a Mughal mosque built from recycled stones from the Hindu temple that was originally on this site back in 1199.

 

Notice the intricate carvings.  Mughal architecture doesn't normally have carvings this elaborate.

The minaret is 239 feet high. It is the highest brick minaret in the world - built in 1199.

Note the lady in yellow lounging among the ruins.

We were lucky enough to be leaving Qutab Minar just at the sun was going down.

What a day! Suresh was an excellent tour guide, and we happily went back to our hotel to enjoy a few beers and bask in the memories of the wonders that we saw today.

Shimla

Prior to 1815, the area where current day Shimla is, was mainly cedar forests with a few small hamlets.  It probably looked like this.

Then the British figured out that this area was much cooler in climate than Calcutta where the Raj ruled.  In 1864 they declared Shimla the summer capitol of British India.  They spent 4 years building the viceregal lodge and the village turned into a city.

Viceregal Lodge. It is now the Indian Institute.

The city of Shimla.  Christ Church is at the top, still standing proud. Population 171,817.

There are several lively markets.

We stayed in a lovely hotel, built at the same time as the Viceregal Lodge.  We had a room with a view, and a monkey on the balcony.

And, we had a relaxing lounge to share a beer at the end of the day.

None of this, of course, is the real India.  But it's the India the Raj created.  Shimla was a great place for us to recover from our journey here and to start our tour of India.

Currency Crisis

Monday Night

Taylor and I arrived in Delhi late on Monday night.  First stop at the airport after passing Immigration was an ATM. Taylor likes to pay cash when possible, so he withdrew 10,000 rupees ($150).  Indian ATM's give out cash in 500 rupee notes so we had a thick wad. 

Tuesday

 We had about five hours sleep in Delhi and then caught an early train to Shimla, arriving late on Tuesday night. 

While we had a good night's sleep after our arduous adventures on the toy train,  Indian Prime Minister Modi announced currency reform. He declared 500 and 1,000 rupee notes were "worthless paper."

Wednesday  

Banks and ATMs were closed Wednesday.  People will be able to exchange up to 4,000 rupees at a time of 500 rupee notes on Thursday and Friday.   After that, our cash will be truly worthless.  

Thursday and Friday

Several times on Thursday and Friday, we tried with the help of our guide to  find a bank to do the exchange, but of course the lines were horrendous! In addition to going to banks in Shimla, we tried a bank in the small town of Mashobra.

Should Taylor jump into line at the bank in Mashobra?

 Do we give up sightseeing to spend a day in line or take our chances that we'll make the exchange later?  We decided to take our chances and continued sightseeing.  On Friday we still were looking at long lines, or banks that were out of their stock of the new reform notes. Only 40% of ATM machines had cash.  When we returned to our hotel Friday night we thought we would just have to bite the bullet and lose our remaining 4000 rupees (this is about $60.00).  $60 isn't that big a deal, but we had no other local currency to pay guides, drivers, etc. Our guide and drivers had nicely but reluctantly agreed to accept US $20 bills from us, given the situation (Taylor never travels without a stock of $20 bills for emergencies when we travel). 

At 5:00 on Friday, knowing we were flying to Delhi on Saturday,  we decided to walk up the road that goes past our hotel to see if we could find a bank still that still had legal currency.  By great luck, our guide was still outside our hotel chatting it up with another guide.  He very nicely insisted on going with us on our search.  Shortly before bank closing at six, he led us to a State Bank of India branch.  Despite the lines, some kind soul led us to the special desk for tourists set up in a corner of the busy bank.  No line, and we were out of the bank with legal cash before six!  Keep in mind, we now had about $60 worth of legal cash.  We figured this was enough to pay the guide and driver on Saturday, and the driver to take us to the hotel in Delhi.  We still weren't out of the woods because we had no other local cash.

 The newspapers are full of horror stories:  patients refused admission to hospitals because they were trying to pay with 500 rupee notes, workers from Nepal stranded in rural areas unable to get home because they had been paid in 500 rupee notes, and many more.  It is a mess! Our problems are nothing compared to the general population.

Saturday

We drove from Shimla to Chandigarh.  It was the car version of the tortuous toy train ride but it only took 4 hours.  At the airport in Chandigarh we tried to get cash but the ATM queues were way too long.

Back at the Delhi airport we checked out each ATM.  The queues were much more orderly than in the smaller towns, but long nonetheless.

We skipped this line

Good news, bad news.  Our guide didn't show up to collect us when we came out into the airport waiting area.  So...............Taylor joined an ATM queue and I scrambled through my belongings looking for an emergency number to call.  While I was undergoing a little panic, Taylor got to the head of the line and withdrew the maximum 2000 rupees ($30). It's hard to believe we're excited about such a small amount of cash.  In the meantime the guide showed up.

Here we are:  safely in our room at the Taj Palace Hotel in Delhi with $30 in our pockets.  Life is good.

Arrival hall at Delhi Airport.

The Himalayan Queen, an unexpected journey

Now that we're here, in beautiful Shimla, with a good night's sleep under our belts, we are already reminiscing about the journey to get here.  We spent 20 hours on airplanes getting to Delhi, from Portland.  Then after about 5 hours in a hotel room before we got on a train headed for Shimla.

The train trip from Delhi to Kalka took 4 hours. We had "Executive Class" tickets.  Everyone on the train had an individual seat with a tray, and an attendant constantly brought us food and tea. The other passengers were a mix of Indian and western people. It was a fairly boring trip.

Executive Class train car to Kalka.  Notice the big ass suitcases above the lady in blue.

When we arrived in Kalka we had to run to catch the Himalayan Queen to Shimla. The Himalayan Queen is a toy train, which is a narrow gauge train built during the time of the Raj, to get the 'government' (i.e., the Brits) from the winter capital of Delhi to the summer capital at Shimla. On this train our tickets were "Chair Car."  There were no chairs.  Instead there were small bench seats that seated two small people, and there were about 30 of us crammed in to fewer seats. The train took 7 and a half hours to take us 60 miles to final  elevation of 6, 811 feet.  

The Himalyan Queen. This is our Chair Car.

Most of the passengers were vacationing Indians, so the car was filled with a festive air. Here are the highlights of the cast of characters:

• British couple with big ass suitcases.  It became apparent to us later that night at dinner that when you have a big ass suitcase, you can have dinner in elegant evening clothes, as opposed to our wrinkled, frumpy travel togs.
• Indian mom and daughter taking a celebratory trip to Shimla to note the daughter's recent master's degree in physics.  We learned that the daughter is a single child, which is unusual in India, since cryptic methods are often used in India to ensure live borns are predominantly male.
• Family of 7 Indians who booked 4 seats for the trip.  This was a problem for us because they had assumed they could have our seats. Fortunately our guide Vikrant did the arguing that freed our purchased seats for us.  During the course of the journey this family continuously overflowed their 4 alloted seats.
• Indian gentleman who was enjoying sitting in the open doorway as the train traveled up and around tortuous curves.  It turns out he didn't have a ticket at all and disappeared when the conductor arrived to collect tickets.
• Family of Indians enjoying their takeout meals during the trip up the mountain, and without a thought throwing all garbage out the windows of the train: plastic trays, lids, foil wrappers, water bottles, etc.  Taylor spent part of the trip standing behind Jamar, and noted that folks had to walk past the garbage bin to get to the open window to throw the trash through.
• Mr Eat and Pick, who ate his rice and sauce with the fingers of his right hand, while occasionally reaching up to pick his nose with his left.  Interestingly, he also had a cloth napkin in his lap, and he wore designer eyeglasses.
• Family of 3 who got on the train at a later stop and had to displace 3 of the family of 7 who were again in the wrong seats.  The family of 3 had a great time taking photos.  Mom and dad took turns hanging out the open door to get shots of each other.  Then mom made snacks.  This involved pouring cereal onto a plate, then adding chopped shallots that she peeled, leaving the peels on the floor.  I don't know why she didn't use the window.
• A young Sikh man who spent the first half of the journey taking selfies.  Most of which involved hanging out the door. There are so many creative ways to use a selfie stick.
• An adorable baby girl who had multiple changes of cute outfits throughout the day.
• The train conductor who mysteriously arrived at one of our unexplained stops in the wilderness.  Because there is no connecting passageway between train cars, the train would stop and he would walk along the tracks to go to the next train car to collect tickets.  He was very nattily dressed in blue suit and took his job seriously.  His presence also got everyone into their proper seats  or off the train at least until he moved on to the next car.

When we weren't totally absorbed people watching, we remembered to look out the windows to see the beautiful views.

We climbed through the Himalayan Shivalik Hills foothills to reach Shimla.

Between Kalka and Shimla we traveled 60 miles and made a 2131 foot elevation gain.  It was a very twisty, scenic trip.

We didn't know exactly what to expect when we decided to come to India. So far both the people and the physical beauty has captured us.  If only we can manage to keep our minds open to the experiences ahead.