India - Dec/Jan 2010

Delhi - Humayun's Tomb

For our first trip to India (yes, we plan to go back as we barely scratched the surface of this country), we visited the state of Rajasthan, touring the cities of Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, and Jodhpur -- otherwise known as the Golden Triangle.  And, golden it is!  The magnificent palaces and forts are full of history and beautiful colors, the food was surprisingly good (people told us that we wouldn't like it since it is not the same as Indian food in the US) and the culture was fascinating.

Accommodations:

Chateau Singh - Delhi - While in Delhi, we stayed at Simran's (a friend of ours from business school) parent's house where we got the royal treatment - they were such gracious hosts!  They live in a high rise apartment building in the suburbs of Delhi.  Simran and Rakesh were also there visiting for the holidays with their daughter Ria so it was nice to see them and to tour with them a bit.

Sheraton - Agra - What you would expect from a Sheraton - it was clean, nice and convenient to the Taj Mahal.


Oberoi Rajvillas

Oberoi Rajvillas - Jaipur - The treat of our trip!  We chose this place since we would be there for New Year's Eve.  It is a beautiful hotel that looks like a palace, with terracotta domes, lush grounds and individual villas for rooms.  The service there was exceptional - even the people caring for the grounds would stop what they were doing to greet you as you walked by.

Hotel Udai Kothi - Udaipur - The room was fairly basic but the hotel was very clean, the staff were nice and there is a nice rooftop pool (which we did not use) where meals are served.

Pal Haveli - Jodhpur - This was our least favorite place.  The hotel is a heritage site with a museum of local artifacts; however, the building was rustic and run down.  The staff were not as nice and welcoming as the other places and the internet in the lobby never worked.  It is convenient to most of the attractions and the rooftop restaurant offers great views of the city.  The website says it was recently renovated so they may have spruced it up since we were there.

Activities:

Due to weather, our flight to Chicago was significantly delayed and thus we missed our connecting flight to Delhi.  We had to say overnight in Chicago (by the airport) and caught the flight to Delhi the following day - the one saving grace is that we were upgraded to business class which made the very long flight to Delhi quite comfortable.

Delhi:
We arrived late in the evening and were greeted at the airport by Rakesh who picked us up to drive us to Simran's parent's apartment.  We were so thankful to have someone pick us up as it was a zoo and given our jet lag, it would have taken us forever to figure out how to get out of the airport.  Once at the Singh's house, Simran's mother welcomed us with a big smile and then kindly pointed us to the bathroom so that we could shower and freshen up - she has an aversion to filth which I find interesting since she lives in India!  She had prepared a wonderful Indian dinner for us - at this point, it was probably breakfast time for us in the States but we didn't care - the food was very tasty.  After dinner and catching up with them, we tried to get some sleep.

Bahai Temple

In the morning, after eating a yummy breakfast prepared by Simran's mother, we ventured out into the city with Rakesh and Simran.  They had hired a driver to take us around the city and to drive us to two of the cities on our itinerary.  Driving in Delhi is quite a treat to the nerves and senses!  Dodging other cars whose drivers do not have a sense of lanes and probably have never heard of a blinker, we weaved our way along wide roads, seeing the occasional cow standing in the middle of the road or camel pulling a cart of people and/or harvested food/hay.  Our sites for the day included Qutb Minar, the Bahai Temple (otherwise known as the Lotus Temple) and Humayun's Tomb.  In the late afternoon, we returned to the Singh's home to freshen up and say our goodbyes as we drove that evening to Agra with the hired driver.

Red Fort

At the end of our trip, we returned to Delhi and stayed another night at Simran's parents house.  We spent our last day in Delhi packing in all of the main sights: the Red Fort, Jama Masjid (the largest and best-known mosque in India), Raj Ghat (the beautiful memorial to Mahatma Gandhi), India Gate (the national monument to India), the President's House and the Parliament buildings, the National Museum (not many of the displays were in English), Indira Ghandi Museum (a must-see, truly fascinating) and the Lakshmi Narayan Temple (a beautiful, colorful temple).  Once again, the Singhs were gracious hosts - they took us out to dinner, offered great accommodations and made sure we got back to the airport safely and on time to catch our flight home.

Agra:
We arrived late in the evening and so we checked into our hotel (Sheraton) and went straight to bed - the jet lag had finally caught up with us.

We woke up early, grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and checked out.  We then drove to the magical Taj Mahal where we spent a few hours gazing upon it's beauty and walking around the grounds.  When you first walk through the main gate and see it for the first time, it truly does take your breath away.  Neither of us are religious but this place certainly had a spiritual effect.  It was quite overcast that day so our photos did not come out crisp; however, it did add to the mystique.  We later learned that Salman Rushdie had visited the site later that same day.

Taj Mahal

Our next step was Fatehpur Sikri, a fortified city with a red sand-stone palace and mosque about 40km outside of Agra.  As we entered the main gate, Keith was provided with a 'skirt' to cover his legs and we had to remove our shoes (as is the case with most sites in India).  After walking around the grounds, our driver then took us to Jaipur.  What should have taken about 3 hours ended up taking 7 hours - the road to Jaipur was blocked by protesters so we had to take small village roads most of the way.  The driver certainly earned his pay that day, winding through local villages trying to figure out which way to go!

Jaipur:
We arrived at the Oberoi in the evening and after the long drive from Agra, we were excited to get out of the car and check into this luxurious hotel.  We were welcomed with a champagne drink while we completed the paperwork.  We were then whisked to our private villa which had a tented ceiling decorated with colorful stitching, really nice furniture and a huge bathroom.  We chose the Indian buffet for dinner at one of the restaurants at the hotel (which was quite yummy) and then retreated to the comfortable king sized bed in our room.

Amber Palace

After eating a continental breakfast in the hotel, the driver picked us up for a day of touring where we saw the Amber Palace (the ancient capital of Jaipur state) and the Jaigarh Fort, both of which are about 12km outside of town.  The palace is quite beautiful - it is well preserved with colorful painted ceilings and walls and offers great views of the valley.  There is an option to ride on an elephant up the hill into the palace which we did not do.  The fort is rather large and in tact; however, there is not much to see here so we walked around part of the grounds and saw an old cannon.  Being 'exhausted' from the sight seeing, we returned to the hotel for a relaxing massage.  Later that evening was the New Year's Eve gala at the hotel - the dinner was very tasty and they had a live band with a dance floor.  Right after midnight, they escorted the guests to the small temple on the grounds where we were 'blessed' by a Hindhu priest by placing a bindi (red mark) on our foreheads and a string bracelet around our wrists.

City Palace

The following day we toured the major sites of the city, including Hawa Mahal (a beautiful, pink-sandstone facade to one of the buildings in the City Palace), the City Palace, Jantar Mantar (a quirky and interesting observatory built in 1728 with various instruments meant to measure the sun, time and zodiac cycles) and the Johari Bazaar (the local market).  Similar to the day before, we returned to the hotel in the afternoon for another relaxing massage.  I was feeling a bit under the weather (not sure if it was Delhi belly as they call it or the wine from the night before) so we decided to be lazy for dinner and ordered room service.

Udaipur:
We got an early morning flight to Udaipur and a brush with fame.  While sitting at the airport in Jodhpur waiting to board, I noticed a tall, skinny rocker looking dude sitting with a short female with brown hair.  I told Keith that I thought it was Russell Brand and Katy Perry.  So, I did the ever stealth, casual walk-by to check them out closer and sure enough it was them!  And, to our surprise, they also flew on our plane.  Later, we found out that they got engaged a couple of days prior - had we known, we could have sold our photos of them to the tabloid mags.

After we landed, we were greeted by a driver from our hotel who promptly whisked us away so that we could check in.  In the afternoon, we toured around the city, seeing the City Palace (which has great views of the Lake Palace Hotel, a famous, lush hotel in the middle of lake) and the Jagdish Temple (where we saw a really old, guru who looked like he was either meditating or stoned).  We also took a boat ride on Lake Pichola which stops at Jagmandir Island (a palace which can be rented for events) - along the ride we saw women washing their clothes in the lake.  Later that evening, we had dinner at the rooftop of our hotel with a nice view of the city.

Udaipur City Palace

Ranakpur Temple

Following breakfast at the hotel, we headed outside of the city (about 90km north) to see the Kumbalgarh Fort and the Ranakpur Temple.  The fort was built in the 15th century and is a massive complex of palaces and temples perched on top of an 1100 meter mountain.  It is quite impressive and one could easily spend hours here.  Equally amazing is the temple which is one of India's largest and most important Jain temples.  Built in a remote valley, the temple is all marble with 1444 unique pillars and intricate carvings throughout.  It is easy to see why people find a temple like this to be a spiritual place to visit.  For dinner, we ate at another rooftop hotel in town.

Chittorgarh Fort

The following day, we drove about 100km outside of the city to see the Chittorgarh Fort, known to be one of the greatest in Rajasthan.  This fort is quite massive with many of the sights requiring a car to drive between.  Within the walls are palaces and temples, so of which are in ruins.  When we returned to Udaipur, we walked to the City Palace to have a drink at sunset at the aptly named Sunset Terrace.  For dinner, we ate at the rooftop restaurant at our hotel once again.

Jodhpur:
We flew to Jodhpur from Udaipur.  Upon our arrival, we checked into our hotel (Pal Haveli) and then walked around the main square where we bought some spices in the market.  This was quite an interesting experience -- we were invited to sit on a bench in this tiny store that proclaimed to be the 'best' or 'leading' or 'world acclaimed' spice store - later, we found out a few other stores that had the same self-proclamation.  While drinking tea, we smelled and tasted so many spices that I began to think they were all the same.  We settled upon some traditional spices - cumin, coriander, garam masala and the bonus purchase of saffron (it was so much cheaper than the States).  Much to our dismay, we had to later throw away one of the spices at the airport when we flew back to Delhi because apparently, that type of spice is often used to smuggle in other items.  Being in a foreign country, we did not argue!  That evening, we had dinner at the rooftop restaurant at our hotel which had great views of the main square and of the fort that is perched on the hilltop behind our hotel.



Meherangarh Fort

The following day, we visited the Meherangarh Fort.  The fort has a great audio tour that you can take and from the top, there is a great view of the valley below and the houses of Jodhpur that are all painted blue (we were told that they do this to repel insects but traditionally it signified the home of a Brahman) - thus why they call it the Blue City.  Later that day, we had dinner on the Mehran Terrace at the fort.  It was a very romantic setting but the food was nothing special.

Our last day in Jodhpur was spent seeing the Jaswant Thada, a white marble memorial to Maharajah Jaswant Singh II, which is perched a top a hill about a mile from the Fort.  We also visited the immense Umaid Bhawan Palace which serves as part private residence to the current Maharajah and part hotel.  For dinner, we ate at the Palace.

Restaurants:
Jaipur:
Oberoi Rajvillas - All of our meals here were excellent and you can't beat the decor/ambiance.

Udaipur:
Udai Kothi - Rooftop restaurant at our hotel with great views; food was tasty.
Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel - Rooftop restaurant; food was also good.

Jodhpur:
Pal Haveli - Rooftop restaurant at our hotel with good views; food was also good.
Mehran Terrace at the Meherangarh Fort - Romantic setting; food was nothing special.
Umaid Bhawan Palace - Ornate restaurant; food was very good.

For more photos of this trip: