Written as of 31st January, 2006
So yes, it's barely been a few days since I left Bombay, and you're hearing from me already. Hi, my name is Aurina and I am an internet addict. I am currently writing from a hotel lobby in Jaipur. We just got here last night at about 10:30 p.m, and thus far, this is definitely my favourite place. The hotel is filled with balconies and arches and really ridiculously nice people and I think I'm going to segregate this e-mail by city so all of it doesn't sound so disjointed.
First stop, Delhi: We took a Rajdhani to Delhi which made me feel really spoiled, but I'm pretty sure I deserved it. I think. We were only scheduled to be there for a night as a stopover before we made our way to Agra. My friend Raghu was kind enough to let us stay with him in his (palatial!) flat for the night. What did we do in the day? Absolutely nothing. It was great. Between Rosemary's jet lag and my intermittently painful right breast (which had only been unstitched a day), our enthusiasm levels weren't exactly high. The most we exerted ourselves was through quizzical frowns and naughty giggles while trying to figure out how the hell "The Jasmine" worked. I'd say more but my parents are reading this(Hi!). I'll give you a hint: Cosmo was involved.
The only times we left the house was to eat lunch and dinner, and even then we went to the same restaurant twice. That's right. We're all about adventure. After dinner, Raghu, his friend Vijay (who works with HRLN Delhi!), Rosemary and I had a pleasantly laidback evening that involved rum, Joni Mitchell and compulsive channel changing. We had an early morning train to catch, so we went to bed relatively early.
Agra: The train ride to Agra was spectacularly uninteresting, although Rosemary did see an unprecedented (for her...I've had the privilege of seeing more, I'm sure) number of bare bums going about their morning business on the railway tracks. When we reached the station at Agra, we managed to find an auto who was willing to do the whole pre-paid thing. We agreed on Rs 50, which with our luggage and all felt like a pretty sweet deal. The ride to the hotel was a good 30 minutes long which made me inordinately proud of my haggling skills. It was only later that we found out that the hotel was barely 5 minutes away, and that we had, quite literally, been taken for a ride. At least it makes for a good story eh? In any case, the hotel at Agra is owned by my mum's friend which means we paid for absolutely nothing but that damn rickshaw. Nothing. Not for food or phone calls or anything. It was sort of embarassing, but man, the awkwardness was definitely overshadowed by the impossible coolness of it all. We were waited on hand and foot all for no cost. That's what I call a real holiday.
We didn't see much in Agra except the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, but both of those were totally worth it. The first words that popped into my head when I saw the Taj was, "Blinding beauty." Against the sun and haze of Agra, the translucent whiteness of the structure is just.... dazzling in the most literal sense of the word. I guess I'd been so saturated by images of the Taj that seeing it in person was really surreal; it took me a while to fully digest its unequivocal magnificence. The mosque to its West (and its identical counterpart) were really beautiful too. I have to admit that I was really skeptical after hearing horror stories of women being leered at and grabbed at the Taj, but for the most part, our visit was without incident. We were, of course, assailed by child vendors speaking impressively good English, who kept thrusting ball pens embellished with crystal animals in our faces, but that was to be expected.
The Agra Fort wasn't nearly as striking, but it did reignite my once-keen interest in Mughal history and architecture. It was definitely really interesting - The Diwan-I-Am was my favourite - but I was really disappointed by the lack of maintenance; several of its walls were irreparably scarred with "RAMU LOVES MALTI!!!!" type etchings.
Jaipur: The bus ride from Agra to Jaipur was...well, pretty run-of-the-mill if you don't count the fact that it stopped every time someone (and by someone, I mean someone who was male) wanted to pee, picked up hitch-hikers and that the men sitting in front of us were not-so-subtly conspiring to pick us up when we reached Jaipur. (Made me think of that one time at Toto's, Sowmya...heh). And here we are now. Our run of free accomodation has sadly come to an end, but those were good days and we'll remember them fondly. There's not much to report from here so far except that the breakfast was stellar and that this hotel is unexpectedly luxurious. We're about to hit the bazaars, so I'm all prepared to put on my bargaining hat which will be interesting, because I really can't carry it off at all. We'll see.
That's it for now. If you've scrolled this far, congratulations! You win a ....well. Tell me what you want from Rajasthan and I'll get it for you. I miss you all. And I don't mean it in a "this-is-the-end-of-an-email-and-I-have-nothing-else-to-say" way. I really need pocket-sized versions of my friends to carry with me everywhere.
First stop, Delhi: We took a Rajdhani to Delhi which made me feel really spoiled, but I'm pretty sure I deserved it. I think. We were only scheduled to be there for a night as a stopover before we made our way to Agra. My friend Raghu was kind enough to let us stay with him in his (palatial!) flat for the night. What did we do in the day? Absolutely nothing. It was great. Between Rosemary's jet lag and my intermittently painful right breast (which had only been unstitched a day), our enthusiasm levels weren't exactly high. The most we exerted ourselves was through quizzical frowns and naughty giggles while trying to figure out how the hell "The Jasmine" worked. I'd say more but my parents are reading this(Hi!). I'll give you a hint: Cosmo was involved.
The only times we left the house was to eat lunch and dinner, and even then we went to the same restaurant twice. That's right. We're all about adventure. After dinner, Raghu, his friend Vijay (who works with HRLN Delhi!), Rosemary and I had a pleasantly laidback evening that involved rum, Joni Mitchell and compulsive channel changing. We had an early morning train to catch, so we went to bed relatively early.
Agra: The train ride to Agra was spectacularly uninteresting, although Rosemary did see an unprecedented (for her...I've had the privilege of seeing more, I'm sure) number of bare bums going about their morning business on the railway tracks. When we reached the station at Agra, we managed to find an auto who was willing to do the whole pre-paid thing. We agreed on Rs 50, which with our luggage and all felt like a pretty sweet deal. The ride to the hotel was a good 30 minutes long which made me inordinately proud of my haggling skills. It was only later that we found out that the hotel was barely 5 minutes away, and that we had, quite literally, been taken for a ride. At least it makes for a good story eh? In any case, the hotel at Agra is owned by my mum's friend which means we paid for absolutely nothing but that damn rickshaw. Nothing. Not for food or phone calls or anything. It was sort of embarassing, but man, the awkwardness was definitely overshadowed by the impossible coolness of it all. We were waited on hand and foot all for no cost. That's what I call a real holiday.
We didn't see much in Agra except the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, but both of those were totally worth it. The first words that popped into my head when I saw the Taj was, "Blinding beauty." Against the sun and haze of Agra, the translucent whiteness of the structure is just.... dazzling in the most literal sense of the word. I guess I'd been so saturated by images of the Taj that seeing it in person was really surreal; it took me a while to fully digest its unequivocal magnificence. The mosque to its West (and its identical counterpart) were really beautiful too. I have to admit that I was really skeptical after hearing horror stories of women being leered at and grabbed at the Taj, but for the most part, our visit was without incident. We were, of course, assailed by child vendors speaking impressively good English, who kept thrusting ball pens embellished with crystal animals in our faces, but that was to be expected.
The Agra Fort wasn't nearly as striking, but it did reignite my once-keen interest in Mughal history and architecture. It was definitely really interesting - The Diwan-I-Am was my favourite - but I was really disappointed by the lack of maintenance; several of its walls were irreparably scarred with "RAMU LOVES MALTI!!!!" type etchings.
Jaipur: The bus ride from Agra to Jaipur was...well, pretty run-of-the-mill if you don't count the fact that it stopped every time someone (and by someone, I mean someone who was male) wanted to pee, picked up hitch-hikers and that the men sitting in front of us were not-so-subtly conspiring to pick us up when we reached Jaipur. (Made me think of that one time at Toto's, Sowmya...heh). And here we are now. Our run of free accomodation has sadly come to an end, but those were good days and we'll remember them fondly. There's not much to report from here so far except that the breakfast was stellar and that this hotel is unexpectedly luxurious. We're about to hit the bazaars, so I'm all prepared to put on my bargaining hat which will be interesting, because I really can't carry it off at all. We'll see.
That's it for now. If you've scrolled this far, congratulations! You win a ....well. Tell me what you want from Rajasthan and I'll get it for you. I miss you all. And I don't mean it in a "this-is-the-end-of-an-email-and-I-have-nothing-else-to-say" way. I really need pocket-sized versions of my friends to carry with me everywhere.
posted by Auri @ 6:57 PM
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