July 17-19
I have wanted to visit India for years. It has very much been on my list. I knew that it was going to be dirty and gritty and crowded and poor, but I was excited for the colors and the food and the culture. I got all of it.
We flew into Delhi and headed over to our hotel in the city center. Even late in the evening, the streets were crowded, but the driving wasn’t as frantic as I was expecting. We would get a taste of that later. It was after ten by the time we arrived to our hotel, so we had an easy choice to just get settled in and go to bed.
The next day we had an open morning, so we took the opportunity to walk to the market. This seemingly simple task in any other country we’ve ever been to was very difficult in Delhi. Two or three steps out of the hotel and we had a tuk-tuk driver offering a ride. Not a problem – we turned him down and continued our mile or so walk. He then followed us along the road for the next quarter mile, continually reminding us that he was there and wanted to drive us. He finally gave up on us and we experienced about two minutes of relative quiet on our walk.
To give you an idea of what walking down the street in Delhi was like, I can tell you that the few minutes we actually walked, it was tough. If there was a sidewalk, it was narrow and dirt. But most often, people were just walking in the road. Cars, bikes, motorbikes and tuk-tuks have no issue driving the wrong way down a street, so you constantly have to be concerned about getting hit from both directions. Plus it was incredibly hot and humid, and since the women dress more conservatively in India and all of the men wear pants, we were both a lot more covered up than the weather warranted. Both Michael and I were soaked through in a matter of minutes.
Shortly after our initial tuk-tuk abandoned us, a man walked up to talk to us. He claimed to be a concerned citizen. Apparently, the neighborhood that we were about to walk through was very dangerous and he suggested we get into a tuk-tuk to go the remainder of the way. Michael and I both thanked him, but continued walking. He approached again, telling us that he isn’t a driver and has no vested interest in the advice he is giving, but that he really recommends we take a tuk-tuk. I thanked him again and continued walking. At this point, he got aggressively angry with us. He stated that we are guests in his country and if we have a bad experience, it reflects poorly on him and his country. Ugh. What are we going to say to that. So we got in the tuk-tuk. I do not believe for a second that we would have had any issue.
https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/img_2816-1.movThis was our first tuk-tuk in India. It went poorly. First of all, the man who allegedly had no skin in the game definitely had skin in the game. He negotiated the price for us: 40 rupees which is like 75 cents or something. Great. But he had the guy take us to the wrong place… on purpose. Since I’m a crazy diligent google mapper while in cabs (and now in tuk-tuks), I knew he was taking us to the wrong place. When these drivers take you to some of the markets, they get paid by the markets – apparently they get lunch tickets or something for bringing tourists. When we arrived, we made him take us to the correct place. He was annoyed and pushed back a lot, but we refused to go to their market. He tried to tell us that there was no market at the place that I was pointing on my map. I told him it was fine – it is still where we want to go, even if there is no market there. Finally, he switched directions and took us to our market, which magically appeared exactly where we expected it to be. Can you imagine that!
Second issue, when we got out he charged us 80 rupees. Rookie mistake. We didn’t confirm that it was 40 all in and he was asking for 40 per person. Annoying, but this entire ride was a great reminder that we are not in Europe anymore. We need to get our act together and not be pushed around by locals trying to manipulate us.
The market was great – simple with a lot of clothing, purses, and random goods. As we’re getting close to the end of our travels, we’re starting to think about presents to take home for los niños, so this was one of the few times in 8 months that we walked into a market and actually bought things. And it was also a step back into having to negotiate prices. That is not my favorite thing, but I’ve become decent at it. I wouldn’t say that I get the bare minimum price by any means, but I can usually negotiate 1/3 or half off the price which feels like a win for me.
I did see a new trick at this market. After buying something from one stall, the next stall was trying to get my attention. The first woman, who was bagging my purchase, handed it over to the next woman to finish bagging. That way, I had to negotiate with the second woman to get my original purchase. Shifting control from one seller to the next. I prefer to feel like I have control when I’m buying something. I would like to say that I didn’t fall for their trick and walked away… but that would not be truthful.
After wandering the market for a bit, we negotiated a tuk-tuk to take us to the train station. We needed to buy train tickets for our trip on Friday to Punjab. Michael nailed the negotiation of the price… and that it was for both of us… before jumping in. We had thought about everything! We were not going to be taken advantage of this time! WRONG. The guy did not take us to the train station. He took us to a travel agent where he got a kickback for the tourist drop off. Come on, man. We should have fought it, but we were optimistic that this would just get the job done and it wasn’t worth the fight. It didn’t work. The guy told us there was a problem with the train and that he had a driver who could drive us to Punjab. Certain that we were once again being taken advantage of, we left.
Having achieved very little in our day, we shifted gears and took the metro 30 or so minutes into the suburbs for a cooking class. The metro was clean and easy with trains coming every two minutes. A tuk-tuk picked us up from the metro station. It was negotiated on our behalf, so not only did it take us to the place we wanted to go, but it also used a direct route and cost exactly what we expected. Indian food is some of our favorite, so Michael found a class with Preeti and her husband, Sonu, in their home.
It is slightly awkward to cook in someone’s home – for me at least. They were very nice and welcoming. We spent our time in their kitchen and their living room. The living room consisted of two full sized beds, a couch, a coffee table and two chairs. It was also air conditioned. The kitchen was not – which made it was super hot.
After walking through the spices and herbs that are typical in an Indian kitchen, we started by learning how to make chai tea, mint sauce, and a fried appetizer of battered cheese and potatoes. Apparently the word chai just translates to tea, so chai tea is really just “tea tea”. Real chai is heavy on the milk and sugar – really delicious!
Preeti wanted to know how spicy we wanted to make the mint sauce. Michael doubled down on “spicy” even though Preeti seemed concerned for us. But it ended up delicious, plus Preeti swore that the spice level was as spicy as she prepares anything. So we felt pretty legit and I was grateful for the spice training I put myself through over the past few years.
After enjoying our appetizers and tea, we moved on to the more complicated part of the meal: chicken masala and yellow lentils in a curry. Both dishes used similar ingredients for the sauce, but somehow tasted very different. We also made some cumen rice to go with the dishes.
The final item that we cooked for our meal was a simple bread. We were hoping to make naan, but apparently that is a lot of work and most people don’t make it in their home. The bread we made still ended up really cool – especially since we cooked it right on the flame. That is a trick that we will definitely use at home.
All of the food was delicious, and it was great being able to spend time sharing the meal with Preeti, Sonu, their daughter, and Sonu’s father and sister who all live with them.
Another treat: while we were cooking, a traditional drummer started playing in the alley below us.
https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/img_2833.movApparently, these drummers play for weddings, funerals and the birth of a baby boy. Of course, I asked the potentially culturally insensitive question about how baby girls are celebrated. The question was mostly ignored.
These drummers were there for a wedding!
https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/img_2850.movOn our walk out, we got to see the bride and some of the other women dancing in the street. It was a very cool addition to our night.
The next day, Sonu (who also runs a travel agency) organized a day trip to the Taj Mahal for us. Sonu and his driver, Raj Kumar, drove us the roughly 3 hours to the Taj Mahal in Agra. Once there, we dropped off Sonu and picked up our tour guide for the day, also named Raj.
The Taj Mahal did not disappoint. It’s incredible.
A few fact about it:
– The Taj Mahal is a white marble palace built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. This wife was apparently his first love, and gave Shah Jahan 14 children. She died while delivering the 14th at 39 years of age.
– Shah Jahan was going to build himself an identical palace across the river that was all black marble, but he died before he could construct it. Instead he is buried in the Taj Mahal.
– “Taj Mahal” is Arabic for “crown of palaces”.
– 20,000 artisans were used to build the Taj Mahal… and a thousand elephants to haul in the marble.
– The four minarets surrounding the main building are not perpendicular to the ground – they each lean 3 degrees away from the building. This was done intentionally. The architect was worried that they would collapse and decided that if the towers were to fall he didn’t want them to fall into the main building. So he built them to fall away. They never have fallen, but I like the thought process.
– Construction began in 1632, one year after Mumtaz’s death. It took 22 years to build, so there are several places throughout the building that reflect this (22 stairs to enter the building).
– This floor is called the jasmine floor because the art is suppose to be jasmine flowers.
– All of the carvings are done in a style that is called marble inlay art. More about that later.
– The words around this door are the first chapter of the Quran and the letters get progressively larger as you make your way to the top so that they appear to be the same size when you look at it from far away.
– There were several times when touring the Taj (and later the Agra Fort) that Raj told us that there was previously gold or gems on the walls and ceilings. He then consistently followed up with the phrase, “but the British stole them”. I asked once if there was any attempt to get some of these items back from the British. I don’t think this was his area of expertise and I haven’t done any additional research, but he believed that most of the items were sold, not sitting in a museum waiting to be returned.
Unrelated to the Taj Mahal, we had our first experience in India truly standing out. People stared and tried to sneak pictures of us. Some even came up and asked for pictures. This is a first for me.
After leaving the Taj Mahal, we went to a marble inlay art store to see how the marble is carved. It’s an UNESCO initiative to preserve this cultural process. It is unsurprising that it would have to be preserved as the process seems really difficult and time consuming. One guy cuts the stones into tiny pieces with this wheel:
And the other guy glues the stones into the marble after carving away a space for them to fit. After all of the stones are glued in, the entire item is sanded so it is completely smooth to the touch. It feels as if the stones were painted on.
The orange on this white marble is painted on so the artist can clearly see the pattern that he is carving into the marble. Once sanded, it returns to its white color. The work is simply stunning and there were a few pieces that Michael and I would love to have. But super expensive… and we don’t have a place to live, so…
Next, we were off to see the Agra Fort, the main residence of the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638 when the capital was moved to Delhi. This is also a UNESCO World Heritage site along with the Taj Mahal. This red sandstone fort was more like a walled city and originally had five hundred buildings, although some have since been demolished. We saw just a few of them.
The emperor who built the Agra Fort had three wives. One was Muslim, one was Christian and one was Hindi. As such, the art work in the below picture reflects the three different religions.
An interesting historical item: Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal, was overthrown by his son in the years before he died. It is believed that he detained in the Muasamman Burj in the Agra Fort. From the balcony in this tower, Shah Jahan could see the Taj Mahal.
After this, we grabbed some lunch and then started the drive back to Delhi with Raj and Sonu. Mmmmmmm……
