Day 11, to Delhi again and flying home

We drove about 6 hours from Jaipur to Delhi.  The traffic was typical of what we saw all over India. “Rahm” (Ramphagat) was our driver, and he was great.  He stopped when he saw monkeys on the road and he even bought a few bananas for us to throw to the monkeys. He’s funny—he sits on his lap belt, and only puts his shoulder belt on when he has to.  On the way, he had his shoulder belt off when he saw the police.  He put it on, but the police whistled at him and knocked on the window.  Rahm ignored him and kept driving!

The Qutub Minar

We were starving, and rather than go to another activity, we insisted on eating lunch. They seem to use forks up north.

After that, we drove to the Bah’ai Lotus Temple.  Unfortunately, it was closed, so we were consigned to take photos outside the fence.  However, there was a nearby Hindu temple that was open.  We walked up to it, removed our shoes, washed our hands and feet, and went inside.  It was very loud, with music and chanting.  Many were sitting on carpets in front of statues of Hindu gods, and we sat for a few minutes.  Others walked past the gods in worship.  What an interesting experience!

Our plane left Delhi at about 11:30pm for a 15 hour flight to New Jersey. After going through Customs, we hopped another 6 ½ hour flight to San Francisco, then on to Salt Lake City.  By the time we made it home, it had been about 50 hours since sleeping in a bed, and we were all pretty tired.

Eating in the airport.

Catching some rest on the plane

We had an amazing almost indescribable experience.  On today's to-do list (our first day back), was "go back to India."  Not today, but definitely another day.  We can hardly wait!

Day 10, Jaipur

When we arrived in Jaipur at perhaps 8pm, we were all starving. We drove to our “hotel” which was really sort of a very quaint bed and breakfast.  In the middle was a courtyard, covered with a net but open to the air otherwise.  Surrounding the courtyard were beautiful columns with covered coves, at the back of which stood intricately decorated wooden doors to our two rooms.  Inside each room were two beautiful wood framed beds and ornate furnishings. 

As I mentioned, we were starving.  Benson ordered food, and it was ready in a few mintues.  It tasted heavenly, with complicated tastes of spices in the dishes of lentils, okra and paneer tikka. 

You may have seen "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."  Dumb movie, in my opinion, but it was set in Jaipur, and the footage felt exactly like what we experienced--right down to the side-to-side head bobble of the locals.  

After a decent night’s rest, we arose fairly early and we were off to Amber Fort.  Our guide, Bikay, had a very thick accent, but he knew everything about the places we visited that day.  In fact, he apparently trained most of the other tour guides.  We started by getting in the queue for the elephant rides up to the Fort.  The Fort sits majestically on the side of a mountain, overlooking a manmade lake.

The Fort itself was really quite amazing and beautiful.  The walls were painted with gemstone dust, and the colors remain vibrant after 400 years.  The main rooms were decorated with gems and mirrors on the walls and ceiling.  Absolutely beautiful.

On our way back from there, we got an insider’s opportunity—to feed and pet a baby elephant. The girls loved this!  He had the most beautiful brown eyes!

Later, we visited the Jaipur City Palace and Observatory.  I was fascinated by the gigantic sun dials and astronomical “instruments” which were constructed in the 1700s.  The City Palace is actually where the royal Singh family (the line of the kings of Jaipur) still lives, but some of it has been opened to the public to tour.

Everywhere we went (especially the Fort) there were hawkers and vendors shoving things in our faces.  We also saw many beggars and several very crippled people.

It was remarkable how many domestic tourists wanted to take pictures ("take a click?") of us…well, of Lydia. On this particular day, Lydia decided to take a break, so her sisters and Mom filled in as understudies.

Mercifully (as we were all pretty exhausted after all of that touring) we returned to the hotel for about an hour of rest.  

We were then off to dinner.  Benson took us to the outskirts of town to visit sort of a carnival. He spoke Hindi, or there's no way we could have navigated the scene. We saw folk dancers, a boy balancing bowls on his head while walking across a high rope, a boy balancing on his upper lip with toys on top, while using other sticks to maneuver the toy or shoot plates off the other sticks, etc.  Charity, Brianna and I had our palms read.  Elizabeth played a carnival game with a bow and arrow, trying to shoot a heart.

We ate at a buffet.  The ambiance was really fun—native music playing, people cooking over fires, lamps lighting the scene.  It was fairly warm, most people were domestic Indian tourists.

We returned to the hotel after 10 pm, again exhausted--but, oh my! What a fun day!

Day 9, Taj Mahal and Agra Fort

I wish we had more time at the hotel.  We were exhausted.  After about 8 hours rest, we had a beautiful buffet, then we were off to see the Taj Mahal.

Our guide was a Taj-Mahal-Guide rock star named Nitin.  We had met him the night before and when I told him I was from Idaho, he asked about Boise, and I said I lived about two hours east of there.  He asked if I knew about the new Twin Falls Temple.  You have to imagine, I’m talking to an Indian tour guide born and raised in Agra, India.  I was astounded.  Turns out that the recently released Twin Falls Temple President (Nelson) was a past mission president in India, and Nitin knew him well.  I’m telling you it’s a small world. 

As Nitin took us through the security point on the way to the Taj Mahal, I mentioned that Benson had told me he had taken Arnold Schwarzenegger on a tour.  He said, yes he had, but that he had also taken a few of "your Twelve Apostles" as well—Elders Anderson, Oaks, and Holland.  He mentioned that Elder Holland was very inspiring.  I mentioned that Elder Oaks was very nice.  He said, “It’s not just Elder Oaks.  There’s something about you Mormons.  You are all very, very nice people.”

As we entered the gate to the courtyard, I almost got emotional, as strange as that sounds.  We could just see the beautiful Taj Mahal peeking over and through the gates, and it was so beautiful, and I couldn’t believe I was actually here looking at it….  More photos from the iPad to come.

We took a tour of Agra Fort with Nitin.  Here is the moat

The delivery guy!

Agra, as I mentioned appears to be a very poor, dirty, run down place.  In some places the road was dirt and very uneven.  There were many, many water buffaloes.  We found out that most of the milk consumed there actually comes from them.

On the way to Jaipur, Benson asked if anyone needed to go to the bathroom.  Someone did, so we stopped at a restaurant by the side of the road.  Benson suggested the rest of us get out to stretch our legs.  Our driver took his lunch and tea.  We were just standing beside the van waiting for Ram, when all of a sudden, several police vehicles raced into the parking lot, and probably 15 or 16 military guards with machine guns streamed out.  We wondered what on earth was happening.  Then out of a plain car followed a jolly looking man dressed in a pink turban and white robes, with a curly mustache.  He immediately walked over to Lydia (of course) and he took both of his hands and touched her cheeks and smiled.  He then did the same to Elizabeth. We figured he must be important.  Well, sure enough, Benson started talking to one of the guards and discovered that this man was the head of anti-terrorism for all of India!  Someone suggested we go in a take a photo, and he seemed more than happy to do so.  “Come” he said, and we took a family photo, then one with just him and the two younger girls. I think we were more excited than Elizabeth and Lydia.

We talked with one armed guard who was extremely friendly.  He stood there, smiling, telling us about his United Nations tour to Haiti and how he loved visiting America—Miami, New York, etc—all with his machine gun hanging around his neck and resting in his hands.  I gave him a handshake as we parted.