Rajasthan

From Agra we made our way towards Rajasthan with our private driver, Babu. Babu was the nicest man, in his mid-50s, did not speak much English, but was very sweet and friendly. We spent a lot of time in the car over the next few weeks - traveling from city to city takes several hours as public transportation is slow and infrequent. Plus it was a nice perk having a private, air conditioned car waiting for us whenever we stopped off to do some sightseeing or shopping. On our Rajasthan tour we would make stops at Jaipur, Pushkar, Jodhpur, Ranakpur, and Udaipur before circling back to Delhi.
We stayed in Jaipur for 3 nights, as it is a rather large city with a lot of sights to see. The hotel was the nicest we've stayed at in a long time - it was very new and beautifully decorated with bright, traditional Indian fabrics and paintings. We loved how everything in India is so bold and colorful, from clothes to jewelry to wall coverings to temple sculptures. The colors radiate happiness and give a positive vibe. We saw tons of sights in Jaipur - Fatehpur Sikri, Amber Fort, Karnak Garden, City Palace, Jantar Mantar, Hawa Mahal, Albert Hall, Nahargarh Fort, Birla Mandir, and Jaigarh Fort. It's probably not much to read the names of all of these temples and forts without any pictures, but they are all truly beautiful inside and out. There are statues and paintings covering the walls, and bright flowers everywhere as offerings. We will try to get some pictures up as soon as we can, but in the meantime Google a few of them and check them out... We also added another mode of transport to our list by climbing on the back on an elephant for a quick ride down a road.

Pushkar had more of a small town feeling to it than Jaipur, the town is centered around a lake where everyone gathers to watch the sunset and relax. Pushkar is also where the annual Camel Fair is located but unfortunately we were a few weeks early and did not get to see it. Sarah and I share a love of camels and were a bit disappointed that we missed the camel beauty contest, but at least we did get to see tons of camels alongside of the road chilling with the sacred cows. The markets in Pushkar were exactly what we had been looking for - small mom-and-pop owned shops lining the sides of the streets that offered a wide array of clothes, jewelry, and trinkets at very cheap prices. Sarah is the master bargainer and worked her skills to get us some dirt cheap earrings and bracelets, I'm talking less than US $1 for a set of 10 bangle bracelets. By the time we left India we were both covered in bright colored jewelry, scarves, and clothes.

We next headed to Jodhpur which is another semi-large city with more sights than Pushkar. Jodhpur is called "The Blue City" because many of the houses are painted sky blue. From Mehrangarh Fort you can overlook the entire city and see lines of blue houses, very pretty. We became friendly with one of the guys whose family owned the hotel we were staying at and he promised to take us to get some really good, really spicy Indian food at a friend's restaurant. Sarah and I both love spicy food but were slightly disappointed at the spice level we'd encountered thus far - at every restaurant we would tell the waiters to make our food VERY spicy but most of them raised their eyebrows in disbelief that 2 Western girls were requesting very spicy food so we are convinced that they toned it down. The food was always delicious, but not as spicy as we hoped so we were excited that our friend would be able to tell his friends at the restaurant that we were serious about spice. We order our standard dishes - chana masala, dal makhani, stuffed tomatoes, and mixed vegetables - and this time we finally got the desired spice level, our tongues burned in delight. In Jodhpur, Babu took us to a textile studio where we bought some beautiful handmade duvet covers and pillow cases. We told ourselves that we were done shopping but could not turn down the amazing prices and knew that we would think of our journey every time we use them in the future.

After Jodhpur we switched gears again and headed out of the city into the wilderness to stay a night in Ranakpur. We stayed at an awesome little lakeside lodge that was surrounded by green mountains and was just so peaceful and serene. In the afternoon we relaxed by the lake and read (we have both become hopelessly addicted to the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer). At night all we could hear was the sound of crickets as opposed to the constant honking of tuk-tuks, it was a very pleasant change. The main sight in Ranakpur is a temple that most tourists skip over...big mistake, it was our favorite temple on the entire tour, and we saw a lot of temples. The inside of the temple was open so there were trees and plants growing inside, and birds flying around and making nests at the tops of the columns. It had a wilderness-type feel to it and was so quiet compared to many of the temples we had seen in the big cities. In our opinion, it was definitely worth the long drive to Ranakpur to see it.

Our last stop was Udaipur. The wife of the Ambassador of Finland was staying at the hotel and she asked the owner if he could arrange a show of traditional dancing and food for her and her guests so we were graciously invited to join them. The owner of the hotel arranged for several musicians and dancers to come and he set up the roof top balcony with candles, flowers, and cushions for us to sit on and watch the show. We drank some wine, ate some great Indian food cooked by the hotel owner's wife, and watched the dancers perform. The Finnish people were having the time of their lives and went crazy when the dancers pulled us all up off of our cushions to dance with them, it was a fun night that we will never forget. During the day we visited the City Palace, Jagdish Temple, Pichola Lake, and Ghangharu Ghat. The Palace was massive and had incredible views of the entire city. All of the palaces and forts are situated at the highest point in each city so they can look over everything. Our last stop was Siglp Village where we were able to see how families from all different parts of Rajasthan live and how their customs are part of their lives. We saw everything from traditional huts to small temples to schools, all of which were so different from region to region.

What impressed us most about India is the vast differences between each city and town that we visited. While we were only in a relatively small region of the country, every city had its own unique feel and culture. We both wanted to spend time in the South but were happy that we decided to focus on the North to really get a feel for each city instead of running around too much to see more. India is a country that is so culturally rich and beautiful, being in all the temples was especially touching and special. It was an unforgettable experience.

Taj

We traveled to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal as well as many other impressive sights that seem to get lost in the shuffle because they are in the same city as a Wonder of the World. We arrived to our hotel and after dealing with a lizard (s) debacle we were ready for the much anticipated Agra. We decided to see some of the less impressive things in Agra first, saving the best for the next day. We checked out the Baby Taj, the Red Fort, the Itmad and some local Indian goods - jewelry, rugs, amazing stone work (both Mary and I sent something home for our respective parental units). If you are furnishing a house or have some cash to spend come to India and buy some of the most amazing pieces with flawless craftsmanship for a fraction of what you would pay in the States.

Later in the day we had one of our best experiences in India when we were invited to our tour guide's house to have his sisters put henna on us - we jumped at the chance. Mary and I have been waiting to be covered in henna - arms, hands, legs and feet. We went to pick up his sisters and they had their little cousins with them. Everyone was so excited to have us come to their home, and we were just as excited. Besides just getting tattooed with henna we had an amazing experience just being in the family home talking to all the girls. The young cousins, 5 and 8, both were learning to speak English in school and were eager to practice with us. I asked them to get me their English books from school and read something to me. The girls were so eager to share and learn - asking us questions about our lives in the States, our families, our homes, our education. Before we knew it we had an audience in the room watching - a group of about 10 people, neighbors, cousins, and aunts. The two hours flew by and before we knew it we had to go. As we left the house we noticed all the neighbors looking out their windows at us, as we waved they all waved back. We continued to wave until our car disappeared onto the busy street. The experience is one I will always cherish as it really gave me a better insight into the lives of the people in Agra as well as their perceptions and curiosity about us.

The next day we got to the Taj Mahal at dawn (recommended). Since it was early there were considerable less people which enabled us to get some pretty bitchin pictures. The Taj Mahal is as impressive as you would expect. Amazing. All the detail that went into the work, the unique stone engravings etched with bright red flowers or the calligraphy seen along the exterior walls. The white domed marble and columns are a perfect white color with a green lawn guiding you to the structure. This mausoleum was built under Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife. Her tomb is located inside the structure. It took about 22 years to build with 20,000 people working on it. The Taj is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture. I could have sat and starred at the Taj all day just taking in its beauty.

Orchha and Kajuraho

We hopped a train from New Delhi to Orchha, about 4 hours away. Orchha is a very small village and this was a drastic and welcome change to the overwhelming ciaos of Delhi. Don't worry, cows wander and rule the dirt streets here too. The town has some beautiful structures that we spent the day visiting- Orchha Palace (it seems the king was quite a fan of the DP (dance parties) as his court yard was set up to be a dance floor and there were tons of engravings of dancing all over the walls, my kind of guy) and the Lakshmi Temple which is also quite beautiful. We went to a local temple that night to watch Hindi prayers and offer flowers of sacrifice to the Hindi Gods. I find the temples in India so full of life, every person was singing the prayers with such joy while they are dressed in their brightly colored garmets. Just beautiful.

The next day we drove to Khajuraho to see the famous temples. They have the largest group of medieval Hindi and Jain Temples that are famous for their erotic sculpture. There are several spiral-like temples that are completely covered with external complex carvings. We had a great tour guide that spoke very good English and he told us all about the carvings and what the different things symbolized (ex. a scorpion symbolizes desire). Some of the carvings showed everyday life of the common people in India at that time- musicians, potters, or farmers. Additionally, many of the carvings showed kama sutra positions and the typical idealized goddess of that day. Honestly, it was very interesting to learn about what all the different carvings meant- now get your head out of the gutter...

Excerpts from New Delhi

Along our journey, we have been reading a lot of books to pass the time on long bus/train rides. A friend passed along to us Adventures of a Continental Drifter, the journal of Elliott Hester who also traveled around the world. As we read it we related to so many of his stories but we were both belly laughing when we read his entry about New Delhi - it was our experience to a T, and we feel inclined to share some of his excerpts (we made some slight modifications so you get the full effect):

"With more than a billion inhabitants speaking eighteen major languages and a thousand minor languages and dialects, India, the birthplace of Hinduism, is as fascinating as it is complex. Consider the fact that 83 percent of the population is Hindu and that, even today, most Hindu marriages are arranged. Or that the social structure is built upon a complex caste system that in many ways predetermines a person's destiny. Or that the population increases every year by a staggering 18 million souls - 1 million shy of the population of Australia. But during our first morning in Delhi, as Hindu prayer music blasted from the temple across the street from our three-star hotel, the thing that captured our imagination was not language or population statistics or even another ear-piercing sitar riff from the temple loudspeaker. We were mesmerized, instead, by urban cows.

"Looking through the dusty third floor window of our room at the Hotel Grand Goodwin, we saw three weary cows ambling down the dusty street. The sluggish mini-herd blocked the flow of motorbikes and sputtering cars, creating a traffic jam that somehow failed to evoke even a single case of road rage. Imagine what would happen if three cows blocked traffic on Second Avenue in Manhattan. Cows are sacred here.

"The dusty, partially paved streets are paved with hostels that provide basic accommodation for as little as five dollars. Sandwiched between the hostels are an array of tumbledown enterprises: old wooden shops, mobile food vendors, shoeshine stands, rickety convenience stores. At regular intervals along the street, we saw crowded STD offices. Delhi must be flooded with patients suffering from sexually transmitted diseases. Or so we deduced after seeing so many STD offices. But we soon learned that STD stands for Subscribers Trunk Dialing. The 'patients' were actually patrons making long-distance telephone calls.

"Our driver turned onto a major thoroughfare and was promptly overwhelmed by traffic. Vehicles came at us from a dozen different directions. Horns screeched, breaks squealed, engines revved and spewed big black exhaust clouds into the sky. Like a rugby player slamming into the scrum, our driver wedged our car into the swarm of vehicles. He manipulated the gear shift with his left hand, inching into an open space, moving past a bicycle-rickshaw driver who possessed niether the quickness nor the dexterity to commandeer a good angle. We pushed past wobbling ox-driven carts that could have rolled off the set of Braveheart. We moved past massive trucks that belched clouds of exhaust. Emblazoned across the side of several trucks were the words PLEASE HONK! Everyone did. We bobbed through a sea of rickshaws, past thrill-seeking pedestrians darting through the narrow gaps between vehicles. The honking horns laid a soundtrack to this vicious traffic game. Cows were off-limits, of course. But there was no limit to the number of people who might be killed.

"The midafternoon temperature hovered around 95 degrees. Heat and auto exhaust combined to brew an oily broth that splashed onto our skin. Every few minutes the driver would hawk up a big gob of spit and let it fly (but as we would learn in a few weeks time, nothing compared to the lugees the Chinese would hawk up). Sound effects were as important to our driver as the size and trajectory of the globule being spat. As we inched through traffic, he made deep, resonating, gurgling sounds that were always followed by a thoroughly decisive hawk.

"After one particularly impressive discharge, we found ourselves behind a big black cow that moved through the street in slow motion. Vehicles skirted around the revered animal as if an invisible force field protected it. But no matter how hard our driver tried, he could not navigate around the cow. Automobiles and rickshaws had us hemmed in on both sides and from the rear. We sputtered along, a few respectful inches behind the blessed bovine, waiting for an opportunity to pass. We sat there sweating, our bare thighs sticking to the vinyl seat that had been split by a billion butts.

"Suddenly, the car angled left and stopped. From this precarious position, the cow's enormous posterior was mere inches from our faces. That's when unthinkable happened. The creature stopped in its tracks. Its tail rose high in the air. Nature took its course. It was like watching childbirth without the blood on the child."

We really could not have said it better ourselves. Thank God for the plate of glass separating us and the cow's posterior. But we are still to this day haunted by that image that will never leave my memory. Thank you Elliott Hester for that brilliant excerpt.

But seriously moving onto India, thanks to Sarah's friend, Amit, we set up a wonderful 18 day tour of Rajasthan. We started in New Delhi and our first stop was Laxrni Naravin, a beautiful temple with bold and colorful designs and decorations covering the walls. We loved how bright and lively the temples were inside, and all the women dressed in bright saris that were just gorgeous. We also visited the India Arc and drove all through the city. Amit was generous enough to invite us to lunch at his house and we had our first authentic Indian meal which was delicious. We also met his wife and 2 week old daughter, Myra, who was beautiful. It was really special for us to spend time with Amit and his family in his home and we spoke about the other cities we'd be seeing along the tour. We were very excited to get started on our India excursion...

Jordan

Well we finally made it out of the Amman airport to check out the city for a few days and to see Petra. After the 8 day tour in Egypt we were pretty exhausted and needed a day to relax so we laid low in the hostel on our first day in Amman. Mind you we have not had seen much TV (besides the Olympics which were awesome, of course) so we were pretty excited to see that our hostel had a big TV and DVD player in the common room. We relaxed and watched The Bourne Identity but were even more excited when we discovered the 2 best TV stations in the world: Dubai 1 and mbc action (both owned by UAE networks, would you expect anything less from the UAE?). They played the greatest selection of the most random shows: Alias, Miami Vice, Viper (why didn't this show win an Emmy? it was so gloriously horrible), 3rd Rock From the Sun, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lost...and their commercial breaks were about 10 seconds long, it was spectacular. Like I said, we needed a day to veg out on the couch and it was so nice to be able to recharge our batteries while watching some quality TV.

Moving onto the city, Amman is really cool and the people were SO friendly. We went to some local markets near the hostel and made friends with the shop owners who recognized us every time we walked in. We also hiked up to the Citadel for some awesome birds-eye views of the city (Sarah is a sucker for a birds-eye view). The city is definitely up-and-coming, lots of big buildings being constructed and very clean and organized. It was nice to have a day to just wander around and see everything, but we were most excited for our 2 day trip to Petra...
We decided to hire a driver to take us from Amman to Petra instead of taking a bus because we would be able to stop at a bunch of other sight-seeing places along the way. He picked us up early in the morning and we headed South on King's Highway. The drive was incredible, there were views of beautiful canyons and valleys the entire way down and the sky was crystal clear. We first stopped at Mt. Nebo where we saw the Brazen Serpent sculpture. It is where Moses saw God first gave him a view of the promised land for the Jews and where he is said to be buried. It was amazing to stand on top of the mountain and be able to see all the way to Jerusalem. We also stopped at Madaba, Wadi Hidan Canyon, Kerak Castle, Dana Reserve, and Ash Shubak Castle, all of which were amazing. At Kerak Castle we spoke with a girl from Petra who was about our age - she approached us as we were exploring just to say hello and ask where we were from. She was so excited that we were visiting her home country and she wished us safe travels, it was truly a warm welcome and a great example of the hospitality of everyone we encountered in Jordan.

After a full day of driving and sight-seeing we arrived in Petra. The owner of our hostel was really nice and told us that we were lucky to arrive when we did because we would be able to see "Petra by Night" which only happens once or twice a week. We obviously signed up to go and headed towards the entrance once it became dark. We walked down the 800 meter entrance path that was only lit by small candle lanterns so we could not see very far ahead of us. All we could really see was the massive rock walls to our sides and the thousands of brillant stars above us. Even though we could not see much we both had goosebumps because of the anticipation and the amazing atmosphere surrounding us. All of a sudden there it was, the Al-Khazneh (the Treasury, the main sight) surrounded by 1500 candle lanterns. It was breath-taking. A flutist came out and played a song while we all sat around the Treasury under the stars, I cannot describe how amazing it was to be there...words really cannot capture how we felt.
After the evening show we could hardly wait to see it during the day. We awoke very early to the sounds of prayers coming from every mosque in the city, as it was the last day of Ramadan and all of the Muslims were praying and celebrating with their families. We headed for Petra early to try to beat some of the crowds and were lucky enough to hop onto a 2 hour tour that would teach us the history behind Petra, but would also give us plenty of free time to explore on our own. We rode horses down As-Siq, the 800 meter path that we had walked down the night before, and were told by the tour guide that all of the rocks were formed naturally by water and sand. He pointed out some rock formations in the shapes of camels and elephants, and also showed us an alter that was used for marriage. When we made it to the end of As-Siq to the Treasury that we had seen the night before we were once again speechless at its beauty. Seeing it in the daylight was simply amazing, it was so huge and in excellent condition for being carved into the rock in the 1st century BC. Among the carvings was a calendar and an urn to represent the tombs of the dead who are buried at Petra. And the Treasury is just the beginning of Petra - there are so many more carvings and temples, we walked around for about 6 hours and still felt like we could have spent another whole day to really see and explore everything from the Street of the Facades & the Theatres, Urn and Palace Tomb, Colonnaded Street, the High Point of Sacrifice, and the Monastery. We hiked for about 30 minutes up a mountain to get to the Monastery that overlooked all of Petra, the views were so picturesque. We found ourselves just sitting in silence on top of the hill taking in all of the sights, neither of us could really believe how sacred it is and how immense the carvings are. Sarah and I both agree that Petra is the most amazing thing (so far) that we have ever seen...
We both could have sat on top of the hills overlooking Petra for hours but alas we had to head back to Amman to catch our flight to Delhi the next morning. On the way back our driver suggested that we stop off at the Dead Sea to see the sunset and of course there was no way we could turn that down. We stopped off at a beautiful beach and could not resist swimming in the Dead Sea and it was awesome - the water was bathtub warm, probably 80 degrees, and SO salty that we floated right to the top without even treading any water. We floated in the water, looking at Jerusalem in the horizon, and watched the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life...it was definitely one of those moments where Sarah and I looked at each other and said "we are so lucky".
I daresay that this was the best day of the trip and I will never forget it. We loved Jordan, it is not necessarily one of those places that is talked about as a tourist attraction very often but it was incredible and we just wish that we had more time there to see even more. Our advice to you is GO TO JORDAN!

Scorching in Luxor

We arrived in Luxor early in the morning after a freezing night of partial sleep on the felucca boat. We jumped right into the sightseeing, stopping at the Edfu Temple which was covered with awesome inscriptions on the walls along with several examples of the Egyptian alphabet. The next temple was Kom-Ombo Temple which also had amazing inscriptions (sorry, a little fuzzy on the details due to lack of sleep and birthday celebrations). Then it was off to our hotel in Luxor for a nap and dinner.

The next day was a BIG day, a very hot day, and our last full day all together in Egypt. The day started at 5am where we went for a hotair balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings during sunrise. It was our first time in a hotair balloon and it was incredible just floating over the famous Valley of the Kings while the sun was coming up over Egypt. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience. We added another mode of transportation to our list and grabbed donkeys to take us on the one hour ride into the Valley of the Kings. Not to brag, but my donkey (aka. the batmobile) was the leader of the donkey pack. It was SO hot that day in Luxor, around 104 F, so we were all very appreciative when we got back into our air conditioned bus. At the Valley of the Kings we went into three of the tombs, all of them had tons of inscriptions and paintings- a lot of the original paint coloring is still intact which is insane when you think about it. The sheer size of the tombs gives insight on how powerful the rulers were at that time. The Valley contains over 60 tombs and chambers and was the main burial ground for major royal figures of the Egyptian New Kingdom. To think that King Tutankhamen is the only tomb that has ever been discovered fully intact, just imagine what else is below the surface in Egypt? They estimate that only 25% of the Egyptian treasures have even been discovered... We ended the day with a group dinner- getting our last fill of Egyptian food, some of it I will miss and some I hope to never see again. Then next day we flew to Cairo for a day before we embarked on Jordan.

Birthday - Nile Style

I spent my birthday floating in a felucca boat on the Nile River in Egypt.

It is safe to say that my 26th year will be one that will always stand out as a fabulous one in my mind. Appropriately, my 26th birthday was a day that I will always remember. In Aswan we caught our felucca boat and took it up the Nile to Luxor. Clearly Mary and I pimped our ride by busting out the iPod speakers, cards, dice, and beers for the day boat trip. It was a picture perfect day: sunny, clear water, great company, rocking tunes, and oh yeah, we were in Egypt. In addition, our felucca boat was appropriately named Bob Marley. Our boat was paddled by people from the local Nubian village who were awesome guys that obviously loved Bob Marley too. We had a motor boat following us which was complete with a kitchen (the Nubians cooked us lunch, dinner and breakfast) and bathroom. In the late afternoon we stopped on a little island for the night where we played some football, hung out, played cards and grabbed some dinner from the Nubians. Later that night we built a campfire and had a little kumbaya session where we learned some Arabic campfire songs- think people singing slight variations of some "ahh-o ahaha-o" song with drums. That night I was surprised by a cake and several versions of the Happy Birthday song, the Arabic way. After we stuffed our faces with cake, the group started in on some serious card games activities accompanied by some even better jams. The late night party crew consisted of Becky, Matt, Jason, and the two of us. We invented this awesome card game called spit-head which consists of a card being stuck to your head and guessing if your card is higher or lower then everyone else's. (Go ahead and steal the spit-head card game- I know you want to.) While Adel claimed he was going to sleep with one eye open, the Nubians came to join the party and we ended up staying awake late into the night talking to them about their life living in a small village and how different it was from our lives. When we took a moment and looked up into the crystal clear sky we saw hundreds of shooting stars. We spent some time just enjoying that. It was truly a memorable experience spending my birthday with people from all over the world, living such different lives, on a felucca boat in Egypt, just drinking and playing cards. Maybe you had to be there to understand how special the day was for all of us - needless to say it was wonderful. I owe a big thanks to Mairs, it would not have been nearly as great without you.