Beautiful Mahals of India’s Golden Triangle

While the goal of India was to slow down and relax a bit so we’d be ready to take on our Nepal adventure, a little cold decided to take hold. I think it had started affecting me the last day or so in Pune, manifesting in a bit of anxiety. It’s not easy to relax amidst all the honking, sometimes chaotic driving, and often stressful situation of getting an Uber or taxi from the airport. You are constantly bombarded with people offering you their taxis and tuktuks, and as someone from Minnesota it takes so much more energy to say no that many times! Uffda!

Taking it Easy in Udaipur

Throughout Asia there was always one thing that would get looked at from my bag in security, especially in Japan, and that was my metal crochet hook I use to make doilies. It’s the one craft I brought that I like to do on planes (and fits easier than a sewing machine in my suitcase) but for some reason in Pune they didn’t like it! It was quite frustrating since other places in India had no issues. I still haven’t managed to get to a craft shop to replace it yet, but I should be able to next week.

When we left Pune we had a very quick connection in Mumbai but we managed to make it and landed in Udaipur, which is a pretty small airport. We tried using Uber but the drivers kept calling and trying to negotiate a price off the app that was almost 150% more, and while I was getting calls there was a man that really kept working on trying to get us to use his taxi. Finally frustrated at getting 3 cancellations and the same requests from different Uber drivers we agreed on his price and went to the prepay taxi at the airport. We were right in the old city so he couldn’t get us right next to the hotel (although he could have gone closer) and we had to walk 1km with our bags. This was the only non-chain we ended up booking in India but it was really cool and had an awesome view of the palace from the restaurant on the rooftop where we ate dinner and breakfast. The food wasn’t too bad at all either.

We rested the rest of first day as I was a bit stressed out from everything (not yet realizing it was pre-sickness fatigue setting in). The next day we walked to the palace which wasn’t too far away and walked through what they have turned into a museum with exhibits of clothing, weapons, and other history of the city.

I really enjoyed the stained glass and ornate mosaics on the walls such as the peacock. They had some beautiful views of the lake and the city when on the upper floors as well.

It was very busy and there were lines to get through some of the narrow hallways or staircases. Definitely way too many people in there at once and I was ready for the quiet solitude of our hotel. I do wish I would have felt better, it looked like there were a bunch of cool shops in the winding streets by the hotel but sometimes you just need to rest. We only had 2 nights in Udaipur and had to head back to the airport to get to Jaipur the following day.

Cooking up a Storm in Jaipur

To get to Jaipur we got to take my first (although not last) commercial prop plane! It was so small and we all entered through the back door as they put our bags in compartments by the front door.

The Uber was more normal again in Jaipur and we got some dinner after getting to the hotel since our flight was delayed a bit. The next day we walked to a nearby ATM to get some cash and took an Uber to a nearby apartment for another cooking class! This is one of my absolute highlights of India, the family was so great to meet and work with and the food was delicious!

It was a husband and wife who started the company and since the birth of their daughter they have a family friend that helps run the class. They started out by talking about the spices and how they buy it and often grind themselves using mortar and pestle. The menu was samosas and masala chai, two of our favorite Indian foods. We were joined by a woman traveling solo from northern Italy and we had both tried to make samosas and chai before but maybe not 100% successfully.

The family had done some of the prep work with cooking the potatoes but we got to help make the dough by hand and mix and grind some spices. Mixing up the filling was easy but the rolling and filling took real skill that I still need to develop farther. We all took turns rolling and filling the samosas while flipping those in the fryer until they were all done. One thing they each kept saying was that samosas made at a street vendor you could maybe have one due to the oil being used all day, restaurants maybe two, but at home its easier to eat 3-4+ because it is done fresh.

The wife came and showed us how to make the chutneys, a mint cilantro and a spicy yogurt. Then the family friend showed us how to make the chai and explained that the spices used varies from season to season and family to family. They said that the husband, wife, and friends families all had different recipes, such as the friends is the only one that uses cinnamon and that was the one we made (which is good because I love cinnamon!).

Somehow we both forgot to take pictures of the spread of food, we must have been hungry. This chai was as good or better than the one we had on the fort in Pune and I am SO excited to try and make it! We spent time eating and chatting together about India and both of our travel plans and started talking about Indian weddings. The family friend said he had about 5000 people at his wedding!! It’s customary to invite your home village or caste plus coworkers, friends, and family. The couple was nice enough to offer a friend to give us a Tuktuk ride back to our hotel for free and we relaxed the rest of the afternoon.

The following morning we had scheduled a Tuktuk tour of the main sites of the city, the main guide was ill, so he had a friend drive us but he didn’t really guide us much. We started with the Palace of the Winds, or Hawa Mahal. I think the front is the most impressive part but it had some nice views of the city from the upper floors, and we got there right when it opened so once we finally got a ticket it wasn’t too busy.

Our next stop was Jantar Mantar, which is home to the worlds largest sundial (accurate to 2 seconds) and 18 other astronomical instruments to tell time or season. I really loved the sundials, they were all so different and its fascinating to learn about how people did every day things without technology.

Across the street was the city palace. There were several spots we were not allowed to take pictures, such as the textile museum and the actual palace rooms. There were a few well decorated gates but nothing else is sticking out to my memory so I will let pictures speak for themselves.

Next was a quick stop at the water palace (Jal Mahal) on our way to the Amber fort that was a good 20 minute drive away.

It was getting towards midday and quite hot, and I was not feeling the greatest so I don’t have much to say on details, so here are some more pictures.

We cut the tour short and asked him to bring us back to our hotel since I really wanted to get out of the heat. We got some food and more water and relaxed in the AC before we had to get up early the next morning.

Discovering (Not-So) Hidden Gems in Agra

Just before we came here Agra airport had stopped several routes because they couldn’t get the staff to fly them so we decided to take the train. Our train was early in the morning and between checkout taking longer than expected and traffic we were running a bit late at the train station. There was a quick security scan of our bags and the train was waiting in front of us. Took a bit to find the right car but we managed to find our seats a few minutes before it left after a little bit of running. We got one step below the first class but still had AC. It was not too bad but chairs were definitely in need of repair since they seemed stuck in recline mode and it wasn’t the most comfortable journey for 4 hours. It was interesting there were people walking up and down the aisles selling chips or one guy had a large metal beverage dispenser he carried past us several times selling masala chai!

Once we made it to Agra to exit the train station it was like every Tuktuk, bus, and taxi knew exactly when the train would arrive and parked directly outside the station. Everyone was coming up to us asking if we want to take their taxi but I had already started an Uber. One guy didn’t like that we just said “No thank you” and actually followed us through the maze of tuktuks for awhile trying to argue until he finally gave up to go find a different client. Nothing scary but a bit annoying. After finding the right car in the maze and making it out of traffic we finally made it to our hotel. After dinner we watched a short traditional puppet show and Mr. Wander got to wear a Pagari! He said it was quite tight, which after watching it tied on him I fully believe.

We rested in the afternoon and got to bed since we had to be up well before sunrise.

A guide picked us up in a tuktuk which allowed us to get much closer to the entrance of the Taj Mahal. We already had purchased our tickets the night before and had them printed so we could walk right in when it opened at 6am without waiting in line. After a quick security check and collecting the bottle of water and shoe coverings that comes with the tourist ticket we walked around to the main entrance, and finally got our first sight of its beauty!

Since we were there so early it wasn’t very busy yet so we were able to get some pictures with minimal people.

After some pictures at spots (and a bit of a photo shoot on one of the benches at our guides insistence) we made our way along the pools. The guide timed it right and we got right up to the Taj as the sun was rising.

After this we got to go inside the mausoleum but we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but it was absolutely beautiful. In all the pictures I’ve seen of the Taj Mahal you always see it from far away, like our first picture. I just thought it was entirely white marble but when you get closer you get to see some of the detail of this amazing gem designs set right into the stone.

There are many types of materials used including jade, mother of pearl, agate, jasper, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, and turquoise to name a few. The flowers inside the mausoleum was even more intricate and some flowers had 50+ pieces for the pedals! Even the marble used was special for a few reasons, firstly it is impervious so it doesn’t hold onto dust and it has not needed to be cleaned in 400 years since it was first completed. Secondly the stone will illuminate with the sun or moon, and there is a special tour you can do if you come during the full moon! While most of the gems came from all over the world as part of the silk road and other trade routes, the marble was sourced from a quarry 200 miles east in Rajasthan.

One really interesting thing about the Taj Mahal is the perfect symmetry everywhere, except for the cenetaphs inside. It was built by the king for his favorite (and third) wife who died in childbirth after 19 years of marriage because she asked him to build her a tomb “that the world has never seen”. Her (empty) tomb that is visible inside is in the exact center but his is slightly off to the side, and they are both actually buried below the floor. The symmetry doesn’t just extend to the building and the four minarets, there is also a Mosque on the west side (facing East) and its jawāb (literally “reply”) that is a mirror image on the East side, but not used a it does not face the correct direction. The Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays because the Mosque is still in use today.

One last fun fact, the four minarets (towers) are all angled out a few degrees so that if an event such as an earthquake occurs, the towers are more likely to fall outward instead of on the mausoleum! As we walked back to the Tuktuk there were SO many more tourists entering by the masses and is one reason I am so glad we did the sunrise tour. We were taken back to our hotel to get breakfast and then he brought us to one of the families that are descended from the artisans who did the gem work on the Taj Mahal 400 years ago! They all still live in a village just outside the grounds and claim to have had the skill for 17 generations and it was about 14 generations ago that had done the work we saw on our tour.

The artisans work in pairs, one shaping the gems to create the flower patterns and the other to carve into the marble. There is a secret family recipe that makes the “glue” which binds the gems to the marble in a way it becomes one with it. The result is a perfectly flush pattern onto the marble. The marble looks red due to the henna used to help see the work more clearly, it is easily washed off once the process is complete. When built the Taj originally was also covered in the henna which is why it was washed only the one time to remove the brownish red color.

I really found it interesting learning about how it is done, how they carve a 35 degree bevel on both the pieces and the marble to ensure they remain perfectly flush. As they are tied in with a UNESCO site, they can source the marble and gems for free, as well as use of a shipping service to ship anything over 2kg anywhere in the world for free!

After the presentation they brought us upstairs to do their sales pitch, and honestly I was very tempted by one of the table tops that was a light blue mother of pearl and just so gorgeous! This wasn’t the exact one but the pattern was similar:

I took their card in case I am still dreaming about that table once we finally have a house again and maybe I can reach out. We ended the tour a bit early and skipped Agra Fort because as it was getting warmer I started to feel worse. It was getting so hot in Agra that a special task force was brought to the Taj Mahal over the next few days to hand out extra water and watch for signs of heat exhaustion from tourists!

New Delhi and India Thoughts

We took a train again to Delhi from Agra but we left from a different station that was much nicer, as was the train which was their express that got us there in only about 2 hours. By this point I started showing more normal cold symptoms so we decided not to do any tours for our 2 days here and tried to rest before heading to our next country.

India was definitely a roller coaster country for me, there were some really great highs such as meeting my friends in person (finally!), learning to cook samosas and hanging out with that family, and the intricate flowers of the Taj Mahal. On the flip side, it was also the most stressed I have been since leaving home back in December but I know some of that was due to the impending illness, and some of it is just being around SO. MANY. PEOPLE for so long. It does leave me with some mixed feelings but we’ve already decided that if we go back the plan is to try fewer cities and I think that will be more relaxing and more our style, anyway.

Our next stop was a quick 2 hour hop away to Kathmandu, Nepal and then into the Himalayas for 3 weeks for a true adventure! Until next time, alavida!

Learning about India

• Language: Hindi, but most we met speak English very well, everyone also speaks a local dialect
  • Hello: Namaste (it literally means “I bow to you”)
  • Thank you: Dhanyavaad
  • Palace: Mahal
• Currency: 100 Indian Rupees ~ $1.20 USD
• Airport tip: Make sure you have your ticket/reservation printed or easily accessible on your phone, it’s needed just to get into the airport. And put your crochet hooks in your checked bag to be on the safe side
• Honks while driving is more of a courtesy often used instead of a blinker, and I rarely saw honking used because someone was mad at being cut off. Most trucks even had writing on the backs saying “use horn, no blinker” so they don’t have to worry about their blind spots
• Masala refers to a spice mix or something being spiced so it’s not a specific flavor, and chai means tea so “masala chai” means “spiced tea”