The Taj Mahal

By the time we arrived in Agra, I’d had my fill of forts and palaces. It’s kind of like seeing churches in Europe, after a while it just becomes one indecipherable blur or steeples and altars. So, the prospect of waking up before the crack of dawn to catch the Taj Mahal bathed in the morning sun was not particularly enticing for me.

In fact, I balked at the idea when Jen first proposed it as we arrived in Agra the evening prior. Instead, I was intent on sleeping in, then making a very quick sweep through the Taj Mahal just to say I’d been there after which I’d retreat back to the hotel for, likely, more sleep. But, after a bit more rational consideration I eventually recanted, deciding that I couldn’t very well come all this way and not take advantage of the opportunity to see one of the world’s greatest monuments in its best light, literally.

So, at 6:00am, I found myself, with Jen & John, in front of the massive gate that marks the eastern entrance to the Taj Mahal. It’s actually a pretty sizeable complex featuring multiple immense entrance gates on three sides, a large manicured courtyard, and a small complex of outer residences.

Flanking each side of the Taj Mahal‘s main focal point is an impressive royal residence and an equally impressive mosque, both built in similar style looking almost like mirror images of each other. As we walked toward the entrance to the Taj Mahal, our guide began to explain the legend behind it which I managed to listen to despite my sleep deprivation.

From Agra (Taj Mah...

Shah Jahal was a powerful sultan, grandson of Akbar the Great, who had four wives as was custom at the time. But, it was his first that he loved by far the most. They’d met when Shah Jahal wandered into a local market at the age of twenty and asked an attractive young nineteen-year-old woman the price of one of her pieces for sale. Both instantly smitten with each other, she flirtingly replied that it cost 20,000 gold coins, an obviously exorbitant price for the item.

Shah Jahal instantly paid her with 20,000 gold coins beginning a quick, but powerful courtship that found them married shortly thereafter. She bore him fourteen children in twenty years, but died suddenly after the birth of the fourteenth child. Upon receiving word or her death, Shah Jahal, away in Persia at the time, raced home thousands of miles to mourn and bury his wife.

Devastated at losing his beloved wife, Shah Jahal decided to honor her by building a great monument for which she would be forever remembered by anyone who came upon it. He evidently designed the complex himself with his wife’s massive burial chamber as the centerpiece, built in glistening white marble while the rest of the complex was built in a regal red-washed stone.

The burial chamber, the best known image of the Taj Mahal, is decorated with intricate bas relief carvings, magnificent arches, and laden with numerous optical illusions to enhance it‘s grandeur (i.e. four turrets that bend slightly outward…or so it seems). After Shah Jahal’s own death, his body was laid to rest next to his first wife’s and both now lay entombed in the floor below the building.

Waking up at a ridiculously early hour instantly paid off as we walked through the imposing gate to catch our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal. The benefit of seeing the Taj Mahal as the sun begins to wake is that the sun plays tricks with the Taj’s façade of white marble. As the first rays began to peek over the horizon and through the surrounding trees, the Taj’s exterior took on a light brown color like coffee with a good dose of cream.

As the sun continued it’s march into the lightening sky, the walls ran through almost every shade of white, first emerging as a creamy beige then an almost white-yellow before sun’s full power blasted off the walls showing their true vibrant pure white color. Enhancing the vision was the dew still evaporating from the gardens, as well as the river that flows to the back of the Taj, giving it a mystic quality that I’ve found to be a regular trademark of many of the world’s best landmarks (i.e. Machu Picchu).

Yet, I think the true testament of the Taj Mahal’s ability to capture the world’s imagination for centuries is that each person’s experience is truly unique. As best as I can try to explain the Taj Mahal using my most inspired employment of the English language, it doesn’t hold a candle to actually being there and seeing it for yourself.











The Taj Mahal proved a fitting finale to my stay in India. Although it did little to help crystallize a lasting, singular opinion about the country. But at least I left with an image of India’s best floating in my head.

Ultimately, I continue to think that my view of India will constantly shift between admiration of it’s stunning and varied natural beauty as well as its friendly and hospitable populace countered by frustration at it‘s devastating poverty, pervasive inequalities and vexing inefficiency. Somewhere in that mix lies the true picture of a complex country dealing with complex issues as it seeks to cement it‘s place in the modern world.

But, I remind myself that India is still a young nation, it’s only been self-ruled for the last 60 years, and much of what frustrated me is likely just part of it’s growing pains as any young nation seems to have as it finds itself. So, instead I’ll do my best to concentrate on the powerful images of India’s remarkable landscapes and people that, as always, hold the best promise for a bright future.

I’m don't know if I'll be inclined to return to India any time soon, which should not be taken as a slight on the country. It's partly because it is such a draining experience which I’m not sure I’ll be quite prepared to undertake for at least another few years and because there’s still so much more of the world to see. Although somehow, I sense it will continue to have a pull on me.

I think it could be interesting to return in another decade or so to see how, or if, the country has progressed and how that heady mix of sometimes seemingly incompatible elements has transformed not only India, but my ever-changing opinion of it.


AGRA (TAJ MAHAL) PHOTO ALBUM (click photo):

Agra (Taj Mahal) '07

Organized Chaos

Having made our way to the far western edges of Rajasthan - and India - we left Jaisalmer to head for the final J on our tour, Jaipur, some 500km the opposite direction on the far eastern edge of the state. The journey itself had the makings of a potentially nightmarish adventure as we opted to do it via a thirteen-hour overnight train ride. Having been a bit shocked by the condition of the trains we saw at the train station in Mumbai, we were prepared for a night of much less than desirable conditions devoid of sleep or comfort.

But, despite bathrooms that left a lot to be desired, our berth in the 2nd class sleeper car managed to provide a mostly comfortable and pretty tolerable environment where we were able to relax and even manage a few hours sleep during the long journey.




I initially found Jaipur, Rajasthan's capital city, to be deceivingly quiet, organized and fairly modern. The streets near our hotel were wide, well built, with traffic running in a near organized fashion, even managing to obey the numerous traffic signals with regularity. There were nice sidewalks, big parks and even a stretch of high-quality stores offering the latest western and India trends in fashion.

From Jaipur '07

Then we entered the walls of the old quarter, which was the original settlement of the capital city. It’s actually a well laid out old city with an organized grid of wide streets, market areas grouped by type of goods being offered (i.e. all spice merchants are in one place), and a perimeter wall with fixed entrances keeping traffic - then mostly of the foot and horse variety - flowing in orderly fashion. But, presently it provided the now-familiar scenes of organized chaos with jam packed markets, overcrowded sidewalks and streets that were a sea of rolling steel and exhaust.




At this point, however, I was starting to notice that the phrase ’organized chaos’ was starting to be a more fitting description that I first understood. Despite the abundant inefficiencies which even many Indians will acknowledge, the normal goings on of daily life operate in a semi-organized way that works for those who use it on a daily basis.

But, for most foreigners, it just makes our head spin because we not immersed in it on a regularly, where the intricacies that make it work become apparent and necessary to keep things moving. Although a couple hundred honking horns later, it seemed to return quickly to the migraine-inducing, sheer chaos that I’d begun to know and loathe so well.



From inside the walls of the old quarter, it was easy to see where Jaipur receives it’s ‘pink city’ nickname as the walls of every building, perimeter wall and entry gate are covered in a reddish-pink hue, actually a little more red than pink.

Evidently the walls are made of the same golden sandstone as found in Jaisalmer, but for the impending visit of Britain’s Prince Albert in the late 1800s, the citizenry painted them in their now familiar pink hue which is a color associated with traditional Indian hospitality. It takes the notion of rolling out the red carpet a bit literally.







Our tour of India’s trio of color-themed cities now complete, we prepared to move on again via car to our next stop, Agra, which would be my last in India. Jen & John will continue for another month or so exploring other parts of India. As we pulled out of Jaipur, I realized that our whirlwind tour did little to settle the ongoing debate in my head as to whether I was really enjoying India or not.

More often than not, I still struggled to see the beauty and charms of India without that image being colored by the garbage, inefficiencies, inequalities, and, more than anything, poverty that abounded at every stop. I tried in the last week to see the proverbial forest in spite of the trees, but a tree of negativity would inevitably pop up to remind me of the many issues that abound in India which continued to perplex me and color my view of the country.

I was beginning to come to one conclusion, however, which is that this portion of my trip was no vacation. Unlike most of the other stops on my global tour which combined relaxation with sight-seeing and a bit of cultural immersion, India demanded my full attention providing little time for rest or relaxation.

Far from a place to head for a leisurely holiday trip, India instead seemed to require that I pay attention and absorb everything first hand for the duration of my visit. But, because India intrudes so heavily on my personal space, it made sorting through all the various images, conversations and experiences extremely difficult in my effort to form a singular opinion.

In fact, I was beginning to be convinced that a singular opinion of India may not be possible. There are so many contradictions in India that once you form one opinion, something new comes along to punch a hole in it. However, I was now certain that, whether I love it or loathe it in the end, my stay in India would definitely be among the most memorable on my entire trip. It would also be one of the toughest to forget no matter how often I felt the urge to do just that.




JAIPUR PHOTO ALBUM (click photo):

Jaipur '07

The Golden City

After our brief stay in Jodhpur, the following morning we woke early to meet our driver who would take us 200 or so kilometers (about 120 miles) west to the remote city outpost of Jaisalmer. Hiring a driver is fairly common practice in India and it’s a relatively inexpensive proposition with the added incentive of being able to control your own travel.

Given the other transportation options (overcrowded buses, consistently late running trains), we were happy to shell out the modest amount of money it cost to be driven around. It can still make for a hair raising journey, however, as driving in India is anything but a mundane experience, even in the more remote sections of road passing through the dusty Thar Desert in far western India.

Luckily, we made it safely to Jaisalmer a few hours later after passing through the area of desert where India startled the world a decade ago when it announced its nuclear capabilities by unleashing three of its newfound bombs under the desert floor we’d just traversed.

When we arrived in Jaisalmer, just 50 miles or so from the Pakistan border, we were reminded of the tensions that remain between the two countries. Just outside the city center is a sizeable Indian air force base that launches regular fighter jet sorties throughout the day and evening along the sensitive border that splits the constantly bickering countries.

Jaisalmer, outside of being a strategic military post, is almost more of a remote desert outpost than it is a city. It’s an oasis in the midst of an arid desert that, despite the prevalence of internet cafes, seems hardly impacted by progress and modernity. You’ll as soon see a camel, cow or donkey wandering through the streets as you will a car or motorbike. It’s kind of like walking into a bit of living history.

From Jaisalmer '07

The namesake fort for which Jaisalmer is best known likewise provides its own glimpse of living history. The fort is made out of golden-hued sandstone giving it the ’golden city’ moniker. The fort looks regal and imposing from its perch atop a mound of its very building blocks, sandstone, as though it was pulled out of an Indiana Jones movie.




Jaisalmer Fort is one of the few that still allows people to live inside it with over 3,000 inhabitants. Walking through the very narrow streets of the fort, you get a sense of what life must’ve been like inside this or any other fort/palace when they were the epicenter of the very civilizations they served to protect. But, that glimpse of history gets old quickly after the umpteenth tout hits you up to buy their postcards, clothing or foodstuffs from the small abodes that have now been turned into one big tourist trap inside the fortress’ ramparts.





As we were in the desert, Jaisalmer also provided one of the best opportunities for me to ride my first, and possibly only, camel. About twenty miles west of the city is a small set of sand dunes that’s a popular place from which to catch the sun setting over the open desert. When you first arrive, however, it’s almost impossible to see the dunes through the sea of touts trying to get you to ride their camels out to the nearby dunes.

A camel is not remotely necessary to get the few hundred yards out to the dunes, but it seemed like as good a place as any to give riding one a shot. Actually it was Jen, not one of the touts, that won me over by convincing me to ride tandem with her. It ultimately made for a short, but interesting experience mostly because I was never quite convinced that the irritable nature of our camel wouldn’t send it sprinting off and us tumbling down to the desert floor.

But, despite a few snorts, our camel managed to trod along safely over the ridges of the dunes, dropping us of at one of the few unoccupied dunes. There we sat for about an hour to take in a nice sunset in one of the most remote places I’ve ever managed to view one.

In an odd way, it made me understand the attraction of Jaisalmer to the people who live there; way out in the middle of the desert, just shy of a tension-filled border, and little else but desert for hundreds of miles. Perhaps it was that last part - little else for hundreds of miles, with fantastic sunsets on display nightly.






JAISALMER PHOTO ALBUM (click photo):

Jaisalmer '07

The Three J's

You have to be careful as you try to make your way around the state of Rajasthan. One minor slip of the tongue and you could find yourself an hour from the Pakistan border when you meant to be hundreds of miles east closer to Rajasthan’s opposite border just outside Delhi.

We discovered that significance as we tried to make transport and hotel reservations to move on from scenic Udaipur. The issue that arises is that, outside of Udaipur, all the main cities in Rajasthan begin with the same letter of the alphabet - the letter ‘J’. To compound the issue, they all sound a bit similar, all feature forts and palaces as their main attractions, and are all tough to pronounce on their own let alone as a group.

Enter the ‘Three Js’, as they’re known to visitors, of Jodhpur (joe‘d-purr), Jaisalmer (j'eye-sal-murr) and Jaipur (j'eye-purr). Outside of the other main tourist route known as the ‘Golden Triangle’ - which includes Delhi, Agra (Taj Mahal) and Jaipur (it’s on both routes) - the ‘Three Js’ is one of the most popular tourist routes in all of India.

The three similarly nomenclatured cities are evenly spaced out on a horizontal line splitting down the middle of the flat, arid desert landscape of Rajasthan. Jaisalmer stands to the far west with Jaipur to the far east,and Jodhpur about halfway between both and a tad bit south.

Pronunciations and locations fairly well figured out, after some practice, we managed to get our hotels and transportation details squared away on the right dates for the right cities which was rather important as we were about to embark on a whirlwind tour of this area of India. In eight days we would cover four cities (Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh would be the fourth and final stop) and over 600 miles via plane, train, car and camel.

Driving us to undertake such a speedy schedule, aside from my fixed departure date from India, was the promise of quintessential India with authentic Indian towns, age-old forts and palaces and kilometer after kilometer of scorching desert where temperatures often top out at 120F. OK, maybe the last one wasn’t as much a draw as it was a necessity to traverse en route to each city.

Helping us keep straight where we might find ourselves day to day was the convenient color coding of each city. Jodhpur, our first stop, is known as the ’blue city’, while Jaisalmer, next on the agenda, is the ’golden city’, and Jaipur is designated the ‘pink city’. Each of those names refers to the color of the walls of homes, forts or palaces for which the particular city has become well known over the years.

We started off swiftly out of the gate with a quick forty-five minute flight from Udaipur to Jodhpur. As we arrived in the evening, our stay would be particularly short, leaving us just the next day to explore Jodhpur’s impressive Meheranghar Fort and Umaid Bhawan Palace. I, of course, hindered our start the next morning as I remain averse to rising early in the morning.

But, we started out late morning still with ample time to cover those main attractions. Meheranghar Fort, as one might expect, sits on a high bluff overlooking the city. It takes chugging tuk-tuk ride up a long, winding road to get there, but your rewarded with spectacular views of the city almost upon arrival.

From Jodhpur '07

The walk into the fort is via a series of winding approaches done so purposely so as to thwart the use of elephants used to attack the fortress by opposing armies. The right angles at which the entrance roads twist and turn would force the charging enemy elephants to lose all momentum thus almost ensuring that the barricaded fort entry doors could resist a rival army’s advance.

Inside the fort, sans accompaniment of a pachyderm, we found a tightly packed palace that uses almost as much vertical space as horizontal - an atypical feature from other forts/palaces we’d found thus far. The entry fee comes with a free audio tour, that while seeming dorky initially, turned out to be one of the most informative ways to view the palace. Inside are a museum-like collection of displays of weaponry, paintings, palanquins - the seats kings/queens would sit on as they were carried through the streets - and other exhibits, as well as the standard tour of royal receiving rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms.






From high atop the palace balconies, the collection of buildings that give Jodhpur it’s color-themed nickname stuck out from the city below. A substantial section of the city’s homes surrounding the fort/palace are painted in a blueish tint that‘s used to keep homes naturally cool as well as, supposedly, repel insects and bugs.

The actual color is actually a little more on the purple side as it’s indigo, for the soothing effects mentioned above, that was added to the normal whitewash that usually covered homes a few centuries ago. Whatever good the chosen color does for the home dwellers, it nonetheless makes for a cool look and a great picture.



Our second, and final, main stop in Jodhpur was to the Umaid Bhawan Palace. This stop was on the itinerary maybe more due to recent events than for historical reasons. The lack of historical importance is due to the relative youth of the palace itself which was the last palace built in India, completed in 1944. It’s a beautiful design, but has no other historical significance and has since been turned into a hotel.

That’s where the current events lure comes into play. It’s the place where Elizabeth Hurley was married just a few days before we arrived in Jodhpur. Unfortunately, due to her evidently all-encompassing wedding, as well as one planned for the next day by a wealthy Indian couple, the hotel was closed to the public. Thus, we were left, begrudgingly, only to wander through the ho-hum attached museum and were only able to admire the palace’s exterior beauty.



While our visit to the Umaid Bhawan Palace was disappointing, our stay in the blue city was not. Though our stay in Jodhpur was relatively short, the Meheranghar Fort made it worth the stop and whet our appetite to see what the other J's had in store for us.


JODHPUR PHOTO ALBUM (click photo):

Jodhpur '07

Lakefront Property

If you’re going to be bold enough to build yourself a palace in the middle of a lake, you’d better make sure it ends up being damned impressive so as to be able to withstand the scrutiny and attention it will inevitably receive from it’s hard to ignore location. Indeed that’s what Jagat Singh, the mid-1600s Rajput maharana (king) at the time, accomplished rather spectacularly with Jag Niwas - better known today as the Lake Palace. While the impressive palace is definitely a remarkable man-made spectacle, it’s almost upstaged, however, by the incredible natural landscape of scrub-covered desert mountains and scenic lakes that surround it. All this serves to make Udaipur (ooh-die-purr) one of the most picturesque places in all of India.

From Udaipur '07

The city of Udaipur lies deep in the southern section of the state of Rajasthan which encompasses a massive, desert landmass about the size of Texas covering most of the northwestern quarter of India. It’s an area still proudly entrenched in rich traditions stemming from its fascinatingly complex history that’s full of epic struggles between Rajput kings, Muslim sultans and Moghul princes. As proof of Udaipur’s role in the area’s varied history, the city boasts no less than four palaces and a handful of temples all mostly within a stone’s throw of each other.

The city, and it’s assorted palaces and temples, lies between a low lying gap between the surrounding Aravalli mountains. It was built alongside three laterally aligned lakes, each connected by short canals, that run along the city’s western edge. Lake Pichola, home to the Lake Palace (and a second, less impressive lake palace called Jag Mandir), is the centerpiece of the trio of waterways. The city’s original settlement, now the old quarter, snuggles up against the eastern shore of Lake Pichola with views from either the city or the lake providing equally memorable views.

I tended to favor the views from the city over those from the lake for the simple, but important, reason that they also provided the best vantage point from which to take in the some excellent sun sets. Luckily, our hotel actually provided one of the best spots from which to take in the scene of the sun setting over the western mountains with Lake Pichola and the Lake Palace in the foreground. In our three nights in Udaipur, that sight never got old.




Partly due to it’s unique position for sun set viewing, our hotel turned out to be a bit of an attraction in itself. It inhabits what’s called a haveli which is essentially the former estate of a wealthy merchant built around the same time as the various maharana palaces. Many havelis are built like mini-palaces and our hotel was no exception. Rooms featured marble floors, arched doorways, and stained glass windows. A central courtyard served as the structure’s centerpiece while a network of zigzagging staircases provided a sometimes Mario Brothers like escapade to get from one floor or section to another. The best feature, of course, was the top floor restaurant with it’s open air, lake facing views from a series of cozy bay window nooks where we often sat absorbing the magnificent views while slowing picking through our meal so as to extend our viewing pleasure as long as possible despite the tasty cuisine.



Despite it’s ideal vantage point, our hotel remained eclipsed by one other, the Lake Palace itself. The palace has long been converted into a five-star hotel which is touted around Udaipur for having been the setting for one of the scenes in mid-1980s James Bond film Octopussy. Unfortunately, the palace’s privatization means that most tourists and locals are left only to admire from afar as there are no tours allowed of the property. But, you can get around that if you are willing to shell out a little money either as a paying guest - for about $500 a night to start- or by making a reservation for lunch or dinner at one of the hotel’s two restaurants which is a little less draining on the savings account.

We did just that, indulging in a first class dinner at the hotel one evening, preceded by a fairly informative boat tour around the lake. To get to the hotel, you arrive at a check in desk city-side then take a gondola-like boat across the lake to the hotel/palace. There, you’re given the royal treatment with welcome drinks of the non-alcoholic variety, a flowered lei and multiple rounds of ‘welcome’ and ‘hello’ by the hotel staff. The hotel grounds definitely live up to their five-star status although not so much so that you’d be disappointed if you only got to see the palace from the city instead of from the inside. Before dinner, and after our lake tour, we were treated to a captivating performance of traditional Indian dance in the hotel’s courtyard before sitting down to a sumptuous dinner that, despite being authentically Indian, managed to agree with my stomach a bit better than anything else so far.








During the daylight hours we managed to pull ourselves away from the mesmerizing lake and palace views to explore a bit more of Udaipur. The city is home to some 800,000 inhabitants although its low, sprawling layout feels more like around a less imposing 100,000. The centerpiece (figuratively, not literally) of the city is the suitably named City Palace. It’s a towering structure that sits on the shores of Lake Pichola directly across from the Lake Palace. It’s interior is a dizzying collection of narrow passageways, royal rooms, and courtyards built largely using marble and granite with stained glass adorning most windows. It also provides excellent views of the surrounding city and mountainside.









The city itself has an old world feel to it, at least the portion we managed to explore in our short stay in Udaipur. Most of our forays into the city were restricted to the old quarter simply by virtue of our hotel being located there. But, it also seemed to be the most interesting area, connected by narrow, winding streets that barely fit one car - or a cow and two motorbikes….or three cows and two people…or a cow, a motorbike and a tuk-tuk….you get the picture. Merchant storefronts line the narrow streets which, although they’ve long since converted from selling local goods to hawking tourist trinkets, still provide a sense of what the city might have felt like centuries earlier. The area is teeming with life as locals go about their daily business socializing, pumping water from urban wells, purchasing supplies for their own families, or even trying to entice a foreigner to just stop in for a look at what they‘ve got on offer.






But during our stay, I found it difficult to tear myself away from the views of the Udaipur’s lakes and mountains, not to mention the sunsets. While the backwaters and mountains of Kerala were equally amazing, it was partly because I found that type of tropical landscape so unexpected for India. But, I think I kept coming back to the mesmerizing landscapes surrounding Udaipur because I knew this was authentic India and I was finally beginning to like what I saw.

UDAIPUR PHOTO ALBUM (click photo):

Udaipur '07