Kelley's Travel Blog

It's Sunday, May 13th....only 3 days left in India. I can't believe it! These last 6 weeks have flown by. I decided to stick around Hyderabad for my last 2 weekends because I wanted to make sure I maximized my time here and there were some things I still wanted to do....like buy a saree. So, Swathi and Soumya took Rhonda, Hyun and I to help us buy a saree. We went to a store called Kalanikethan. It is an all-in-one wedding/saree store. Since Indians wear sarees on special occassions, including brides, this store is a one-stop-shop for everything. We gave them our price range and they showed us lots of different materials. Most of them were flashy and bright with lots of beading.....and lots of pink! So, it was hard for me to pick something! With the help of the other girls, I finally settled on a blue and black one with minimal beading. Unlike the Indian women, us white girls don't look too great in most of the bright colors offered.
After a material was picked, we had to take it upstairs to pick out a slip that goes underneath. Then it was back downstairs to get measured for the "top" (it's more like a skin-tight half shirt) that you wear underneath. Two days later, the sarees were picked up (thanks to Soumya & Hyun!). Then we decided to wear them 2 days later while some of the leaders from our offices were in Hyderabad. Here is a picture of Rhonda (a co-worker here also from the SD office), Larry (our SD office managing partner for tax) and I:

I heard putting the saree on is quite a complicated process and takes lots of practice. So, I took my saree with me to the office and had a few of the girls help me put it on. The funny part is that not all girls know how to put it on -- only a few. Most of them have their mothers help them, or if they don't know, maybe a neighbor. The reason it is so hard is because the saree is just one long, rectangular-shaped piece of material, and you just have to wrap it and tuck it and pin it all around you. Luckily I came prepared with a box of saftey pins! By the end of the day, I think I had about 10 of them holding me together. Here are a few of the girls that helped me get dressed that day:

In order for us (US expats) to feel comfortable in our fancy sarees, the other girls in the office also wore their sarees. They all look much better and more natural than I did!!

Most of my time over the past few weeks has been taken up by work, but when I'm not doing that, I hang out with the other US people who are here and also our great Indian co-workers. One Sunday, we went to brunch at a nice hotel and decided that it was time to see how many American girls we could fit in one rickshaw -- definitely not as many as the Indians can fit! We only got 6 of us in one.

One day after work, we went to happy hour at a local "pub". Funny thing about pubs here is that they are mostly disco-techs that serve one kind of Indian beer that gives you a brutal headache after 1 round.

And one night at a "pub" I tried Hookah for the first time. Very strange. I was having a hard time with it (as you can tell by my face) because you are not supposed to inhale, but it's hard to get the smoke and flavor without sucking in hard.

Alex, Steve, Hyun and I left our hotel in Delhi at 7:30am to make the long drive to Agra (the city where the Taj Mahal is). It was supposed to take 4-5 hours. It took us about 6. There were two car accidents along the way and no optional side roads to take. So, we sat in halt-n-go traffic for over an hour. It was painful! It's not like when you get stuck in traffic on the highway in the US. There is constant honking (high-pitched horns and horns that will stay in your head for days), swerving in-between and around other cars, crowded rickshaws (there are 24 in the picture below...besides the 5 in the back, there were 7 on each of the 2 rows of seats inside and the other 5 in the front seat with the driver or hanging off the other side!), motorcycles, bicycles and huge over-loaded trailers (the second picture below - we saw some camels pulling these also).

Here is a taste of what the roadside looks like between Delhi and Agra (not too exciting...just some small towns and dilapidated country side):

We finally arrive in Agra around 1pm and check into our hotel - The Taj View. It is a nice hotel that has a view of the Taj Mahal from the rooms. We are starving by this time and take the suggestion of a nearby restaurant. It was not good. I think the only reason we went there was because the tour guides get some sort of bribe to send foreigners there. The ratio of foreigners to Indians was about 5 to 1 (mostly white people, except the Koreans I was with ). And there was entertainment provided by a father/son duo - a puppet show and singing and dancing. Just something to get a few rupees out of the foreigners!

It's now about 2pm - the hottest part of the day. Not only was it the hottest part of the day, but it was the HOTTEST day on record for April 29th. 46 degrees Celsius - that's about 115 degrees Fareinheit!!! I'm thankful I did not know this information at the time - we found out the next day. So we get out of our air-conditioned car and have to get into a rickshaw that will drive us closer to the entrance of the Taj Mahal. They do not allow cars within a certain distance (about 1 km) because they want to protect the white marble from the pollution. The rickshaw takes us about 1/2 km and then we have to get out and walk the remainder of the way.

Here it is! The Taj Mahal. It is so big that it looks like it's close. But, from where I'm standing to the entrance is about 1/4 mile.
Our tour guide for the day, Kenneth (an interesting name for a native Indian), told us the story of how the Taj came to be. Honestly, I was fading in and out of consiousness because of the heat, but I mananged to hold on to a few key facts:

• The Taj was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal (yes, it's actually a mausoleum). He loved her very much and she died while having their 14th child (I can't imagine!). Just before she died, she asked Shah Jahan to promise her 3 things - 1) don't marry again 2) take care of the children and 3) build something for her memory that all the world will come to see. So....he built the Taj Mahal
• The construction took 16 years. 1632 - 1648
• Mumtaz Mahal died in a different city and was buried there immediately after her death, so her body had to be moved to Agra and buried again twice (once in the garden outside the Taj Mahal, and then inside once it was completed). This is a big deal for the muslim religion because there is a belief that when someone dies, they should be buried within 10 days.
• The Taj Mahal complex consists of 3 red sandstone buildings on each side - a gateway building in the front that you walk thru to get to the Taj, and two identical buildings on either side of the Taj (one is a mosque and the other is not because it does not face towards the west). Here is a picture of one of the hallways inside the non-mosque building:

I cheated and took this video clip walking in. I forgot to take a video before I entered the "no video camera" area.

I am sitting on the "Princess Diana's Bench" in the picture below -- they call it that because she was photgraphed here when she visitied.

Seeing the Taj Mahal up close is even more impressive than looking at it from a distance. One of the reasons it took so long to build the structure is because of the intricate detail. Calligraphy consisting of passages from the Koran (the muslim bible), inlaid semi-precious stones, relief motifs (carvings), and abstract geometric design....just to name a few of the detailed decorations on the walls of the Taj Mahal. Absolutely amazing!

The huge size of the Taj can be demonstrated by this picture below. This is a stone replica showing the actual size of the point on top of the Taj Mahal -- it's big!

Here is me "grabbing" that tip:

On the way out of the Taj Mahal, while walking down the street to get back to the car, we passed one of the many cows that stroll down the streets in India. Only in INDIA!!!!!

Friday 4/27 - We (co-worker Steve and I) left Hyderabad in the afternoon and after a 4 hour plane ride, next to a very stinky man, arrived in Delhi around 10pm. The flight is usually only 2 hours, but we flew on the Indian version of Southwest (Air Deccan) and they made a stop in the middle. Our hotel was a very nice - supposedly one of the oldest hotels in Delhi. And we were SO excited to actually find Amstel beer on the menu! (You can see my excitement in the photo.) Most restaurants here only have a choice of Kingfisher and Fosters. Kingfisher is a cheap light beer that gives you an instant headache and Fosters is everywhere because there is a brewery in India.

Another co-worker, Alex, arrived in Delhi late Friday night and caught a few hours of sleep before our busy day touring around Delhi.

Saturday 4/28 - Alex, Steve and I were picked up at 9:00am from our hotel by Shakti, our tour guide for the day, and Manoj, our driver for the weekend. We started with Old Delhi - the older part of town that is more crowded with older buildings and infrastructure, and narrower, busy streets. Our first stop was Jama Masjid - the largest mosque in Delhi (because it holds about 25,000 people...I think). I knew when I got dressed that morning it was possible that I may have some issues because I wore a sleeveless shirt and long shorts. NO ONE (at least not any Indians) wears sleeless shirts and shorts. But, I knew it was going to be extremely hot and I didn't really care....I could deal with the stares! So, at the Jama Masjid we were asked to remove our shoes and they dressed me in a nice long robe. Since it is a mosque (a place of prayer for muslims) that is still used today, they take the dress code very seriously. Here I am in my beautiful attire - Alex on the left, Steve on the right.

Shakti told us about the history (most of which I've forgotten) of this mosque and explained the strict "mosque guidelines" that are followed. For example, in order for a place to be a mosque, it must face west and have the tall towers in which to make the calls to worship (and they worship A LOT - at least 3-4 times per day) and be able to hold a lot of muslims at once - where we are standing in the picture above is where most people will kneel to pray.
In the picture below is where the VIPs pray. One person for each of the squares.

After Jama Masjid, Shakti took us to Mahatma Ghandi's memorial. The first thing Steve and I noticed was GREEN! Green grass and trees.....oh how we have missed them in Hyderabad! Hyderabad has a very rocky landscape and there is really no open spaces with grass. Ghandi's memorial is inside a large park area on the eastern side of Delhi, near the Yamuna River. It is named Raj Ghat and marks the spot of Ghandi's cremation on Jan 31, 1948. The black marble platform is a sign of his simple way of life -- he lived without any frills. He never slept in a bed, always on the floor and did not have any servants like most leaders would have. Sounds like a very interesting guy - I hope to read up on him more in the future.

The next stop was Birla temple (the official name is Laxmi Narayan Mandir). Built in honor of the hindu goddess of wealth, Laxmi. This was the most interesting part of the tour for me. We heard a lot of neat stories and explanations of the different religious beliefs. The unique characteristic of this "temple" is that it represents all 4 branches of Indian-originated religions - Hinduism, Sihkism, Buddhism and Jainism (? I'm not sure about the last one). I was only able to snap this quick photo from the car because they don't allow cameras (or shoes or bare shoulders) inside. The greatest characteristic of Delhi that our guide, Shakti (a native Delhian), drove into our heads that day was that it is a city of many religions and that it can exist that way without tension. The Birla temple is one example. There are many elaborate statues and pictures of the different Gods that are worshiped - there are about 250 different ones. Everyone picks a God to worship. Among Indians, you will see figurines, pictures, even cell phone backgrounds of the god that each person picks to worship. It's neat to ask people which God/Goddess they worship because they all represent something different. The most popular is Ganesh - the elephant god. He has a man's body and an elephant head. The story of how he came about is very interesting, but I don't want to write that much....so, go google it if you want to know.

The next couple of stops were the Indian equivalent of the White House and the India Gate. India Gate is a war memorial and the area surrounding is popular among the locals to picnic.

After a lunch stop we visited the oldest mosque in India, called Qutab Minar. It does not currently serve as a mosque, since it was mostly demolished by succeeding rulers. After that, we continued on to Lotus Temple - a relatively new temple built in the 1980s in the shape of India's flower, the lotus.

Shakti had to leave us at 4:00pm and so we decided to explore the popular new mall. The main reason was because Steve was craving Korean food and he had done some research before we arrived in Delhi. Steve and Alex are both Korean (as well as Hyun who met up with us that evening) and they REALLY wanted to get their fix! So, after walking around the mall for a while (really, it wasn't much different than any US mall...just a little smaller and tighter spaces) we ate at Restaurant del Seoul.
We were hoping to catch the final match of the World Cup Cricket at a bar in the mall, but found out that it was delayed due to rain. So, we went back to the hotel and got a good night's rest before our adventure to the Taj Mahal on Sunday.

This is the first thing we saw the next morning, walking down the street in front of our hotel. Only in India!

(Taj Mahal to come.....sorry, I want to get at least a few hours of sleep!)

My first weekend trip to see another part of India was to a city on the west coast of India. The city is vacation spot for many -- indian honeymooners, british vacationers, even some Americans. There was 7 of us - all girls (yes, that was interesting!). It was a fun weekend. Relaxing by the pool, shopping and enjoying a few well-deserved beers after a busy week.
Our hotel was very nice (a pics below)

There isn't anything too exciting to write about. But, I did take a video of Baga Beach. This is a very popular beach for the young party crowd. We stopped to have a beer and watch the sunset (which wasn't too great b/c there was too much pollution and the sun just sort of disappeared).

Well, Tuesday thru Friday was pretty uneventful. Just more waking up at the crack of dawn, working and enjoying good conversation with the staff here. I'm beginning to understand the culture better. Also, I am reading a fantastic book that a friend gave me called Holy Cow (thanks Julianna!) that is written by an Australian journalist who spent some time in India. Wow, is it dead on! The way of life is described perfectly. The little things that get on your nerves, to the amazing characteristics of the Indian culture. Let me give you an example --- You must ask a waiter for the same drink 3 times before you actually get it, then wait another 5 minutes for him to set the bottle of beer on your table, walk away, come back with a bottle opener, present the bottle like it's a bottle of fine wine, pour it with 3 inches of head, then disappear for another 20 minutes until you get up to track him down to order your food. Dinner is not a quick thing here. And, that's just one example of many little things that would drive a obsessive-compulsive person mad in a matter of minutes here! I think a lot of it has to do with the old and new characteristics in India. Here is a good example of the old (yes, right in the middle of traffic):

Friday night I was talked into going to a club to hear a very popular DJ named Bali Sagu (I had never heard of him, but an Indian guy who is from the US and works in our LA office was going nuts that this guy was here and he had the opportunity to see him). Yes, that's him in the picture - Bali Sagu at the top, Bobby (crazy for Bali) below.

Saturday I had a great lunch with all of my San Diego-assigned professionals. It was a celebratory "End of busy season/April 15th" lunch. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera along. But, the food was great -- I'm really going to miss some of the stuff here.

Sunday was the adventurous day! Four of us (Bobby, Annette, Tara and I) decided to visit Charminar. This is supposedly the most famous of all of Hyderabad's symbols. Charminar is the actual temple/structure as seen in this picture built by Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah, but the surrounding area is also referred to as Charminar. Many, many shops line the streets.

Here is what it looks like from the top looking down:

And here is what it's like to walk along the very crowded streets:

The really fun part happened when we decided to take a rickshaw to Golconda Fort (we were told it was very close by). Here is a little taste of what the experience was like...

We were all very cramped inside....and to think that it's common to see 6-9 people crammed in one of these!

Golconda Fort was amazing. We didn't have enough time to hike around the entire area, but we got a pretty good tour from a local guy - we paid him 500 rupees (the equivalent of $12) for a great 45-minute tour. I would like to go back and hike up to the top. We had a nice 360-degree view of Hyderabad and I can just imagine what it looks like all the way on top.

One of the funniest parts of the tour was when the guide took my camera into the bat cave to take a picture -- look closely...those are all eyes!