Here’s some more fun with numbers:
- 3.5 - That’s how far (in miles) I grew up from my best friend, Andy Wilcox.
 |
| Map from my house to Andy's house. |
- 557 – Current population of our hometown of Little River, KS.
- 19 – Number of people in our graduating class.
- 5 – Number of Females in our graduating class.
- 10 – Number of years it’s been since we graduated high school.
- 5 – Number of years we lived together in college.
- 8344 – Miles between Little River and Brisbane, Australia, where Andy and his wife Molly live.
- 6333 – Miles Andy and Molly Traveled to meet up in New Delhi, India.
- 7791 – Miles between Little River and New Delhi
- 11,007,835 – Population of New Delhi
 |
| Map from Little River to Delhi. (As the crow flies) |
Although I was running on fumes from our excursion in Nepal, I was just as excited about the next leg of our trip. My good friends Andy and Molly Wilcox had flown up from Australia to meet us in New Delhi for a visit to the Taj Mahal.
Like most of my good friends from college and before, I only get to see Andy a couple times a year, especially now that we live on different continents (neither of them being North America). But like all good friends, when you do finally get to meet up, it feels like nothing has changed. This time was no exception as we undoubtedly made a scene with our over the top displays of friendly affection when we saw each other in the hotel lobby. (instance number 6,397 that I’m sure at least one Indian mumbled “stupid American” under their breath about something I did).
The 4 of us proceeded to the beautiful pool at the hotel where we ordered some drinks and caught each other up on our lives. I also got to hear their first impressions on India, because they arrived several hours before us. I always get a kick out of Americans trying to explain India after their arrival. Andy and Molly even had an exciting story about a stalker they acquired in their first three hours here!
 |
| The lovely ladies enjoying the pool. |
After the pool, we went to the concierge desk to inquire about dinner. After informing us that the hotel was home to one of the top 10 restaurants in the world (per Conde Naste traveler magazine) that made our decision easy. Taking a look at our pool gear we were still wearing, probably disgusted by our lack of modesty in his 5 star hotel, he informed us that the dress code was “smart casual”. AKA dress up a little bit. Ruh roh. Hadn’t planned on that. My suitcase was full of clothes I had packed for Nepal, and nothing that would be deemed “smart casual”. I did dig out a plaid-ish collared shirt and jeans that I had worn about 5 times since their last washing, and Andy (who had come prepared) lent me a pair of Merril hiking shoes (as all I had were flip flops and tennis shoes). But I still felt extremely awkward and underdressed compared to the rest of my party. I looked like a freaking lumberjack. But they didn’t kick me out of the restaurant and we had a lovely, albeit expensive dinner.
 |
| View of the restaurant, The Spice Route. Everything was hand painted and hand carved. |
 |
| It's like a freaking clown car, but in real life. (Photo stolen from Andy) |
 |
| Maybe lighten the load next time? (Photo also stolen from Andy) |
 |
| I wonder how many horepower 1 camel is? I'm sure there's a conversion out there somewhere... |
The lines at the Taj can be ridiculous, which is one reason why I insisted on leaving so early. Although they were still pretty long when we got there, they were twice as long by the time we left. Also, everywhere you went, there was a separate line for VIPs (which from what I could tell meant white people) and a separate line for Indians. Now I’m not complaining, because we sped through the "VIP" lines, but I’m not sure how I would handle that if I were going to see say, Independence Hall in Philly, and Americans had to stand in a big long line while foreigners didn’t. But I’ve learned to not waste too much time trying to make sense of certain things here.
 |
| Our guide pushed about 6 people out of the way so we could get this picture. Glad he did! |
Our guide was very knowledgeable, and very eager to take our pictures, which was nice. We even had a few locals ask to take pictures with us. Our guide informed us that they were probably from outside villages, and we might be the first white people they’ve ever seen. That’s happened to me a few times here, but from experience with other friends here, I’m pretty sure they really just wanted pictures with the two fair skinned beautiful American women. Sidenote B: It’s funny to me how Indians strive to have lighter skin, while Americans strive to have darker, tanned skin. I guess you always want what you don’t have.
 |
| Cliche picture...but I like it. |
I’ll spare you the in depth details, as I can already tell that this will be yet another post that’s too long, so I’ll just list some Taj Mahal fun facts:
- The Taj Mahal is actually a mausoleum built by Shah Jahan for his third wife, after she died while giving birth to their 14th child.
- It took 22 years to complete, construction ending in 1653. (and in 2012 I can't find a drywall guy to build a straight wall)
- The constructors used over 1000 elephants to carry construction materials from all over Asia.
- It is made entirely of marble quarried from 7 different countries, inlayed with 28 different varieties of semi-precious and precious stones.
- 20,000 laborers were used to build the Taj Mahal.
o There are stories that say the architects and some workers had their hands cut off to prevent them from duplicating the building ever again. Not sure if that's true or not.
- Decendents of the original stone masons and carvers still perform the repairs. They are taught the craft from birth.
o We toured their workshop to see them in action, and I bought a small elephant from them, for the story. It will be a lovely conversation piece!
- The Taj Mahal was actually built by Muslims, where as 90% of the population today is Hindu.
After a couple of hours at the Taj Mahal and a couple of other stops at shops (where I’m sure our guide gets a cut of the proceeds should anyone buy anything) we had a delicious Pizza Hut lunch and made the 4 hour drive back to Delhi to catch our late flight back to Bangalore.
There haven’t been many times where I’ve actually been excited to get on a plane and head back to Bangalore, but this was one of them. It had been a crazy whirlwind week, and returning to something familiar was a very welcome sight. Plus Bangalore looks like paradise when you compare it to Kathmandu or Delhi. It was nice to sleep in my own bed again. I had also come down with a horrendous case of “Delhi Belly” which is not a lot of fun. Basically you are scared to be anywhere outside of a 15 second sprint radius of a toilet. After living in the country for three months, of course I would come down with it for the first time the week I had visitors.
 |
| Yes, apparently giant baskets do float. |
The following morning we made the drive to the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu to see some waterfalls, as recommended by my driver Shyam. He also recommended that we get the "hot oil massages from the big burly men" that had their business set up close by. After explaining that it sounded like that was right up Andy’s alley, I politefully declined, as did the others. It was dreadfully hot, but we braved the heat and got a tour in the big basket boats they have on the river. It was a fun little ride! Andy even purchased a fresh coconut from a vendor floating by in another boat, so we got to try coconut milk for the first time. Shyam recommended the Indian style fish that was caught in the river and cooked in a pan over a fire about 30 feet up the bank. We also passed on that, as it looked and smelled less than appetizing. I've also seen what they throw into the rivers here. I think he was disappointed and confused why we weren’t taking his suggestions, but that didn't stop him from eating a fish.
 |
| I'm on a boat....never gets old. |
It was a long drive there and back, but it was quite scenic. It wasn’t quite mountainous, mostly large rocky hills covered with palm trees. It was good to drive in the countryside through the small villages, and see another side of India that even I had yet to see. Plus I’ll never complain about listening to country music and catching up with good friends for a few hours, even if it is in the back of a van.
After a little bit of pool time back at my apartment, we ended the evening with a lovely traditional Indian dinner.
The next day we toured the Bull Temple in Bangalore, which is a temple built around a giant statue of a bull honoring some sort of god. After that the other three had lunch and did some shopping on famous Commercial Street while I spent my afternoon running from my bed to the toilet.
 |
| Emily and I after being "dotted" at the Bull Temple. We didn't get struck by lightning, so God must not have been too pissed. |
That night we had dinner at Shiro, which is a somewhat famous Japanese restaurant in UB City, where my guests got to meet many of my other expat friends. Andy and Molly were taking off that night after it seemed like they had just arrived. I loved that they were able to make it up to see me, though. I’m sure they enjoyed their experience, and hopefully I’ll be making a trip down to see them in Australia this time next year!
Emily was in town for a few more days, but we pretty much just tried to recover from the previous week and a half of chaos. She came to work with me one day so she got to experience being a Target India employee, as well as go to a jobsite meeting. I’m not sure we got a lot done because I doubt my construction workers see blond haired white women very often other than on TV. The next day was a pool/spa day. On Friday she got to experience a Romano’s karaoke night, and then she was off as well. It was a bummer to see her go, but we had a lot of fun while she was here.
Overall, between my visitors and my week in Nepal, it definitely was my favorite two weeks abroad thus far. A lot of once in a lifetime experiences that I’m glad I got to share with close friends. Before Andy and Molly left, we made a pact to see the all 7 wonders of the world together. We already have the Taj Mahal under our belts.
1 down, 6 to go!
No comments:
Post a Comment