Sanju Saves the Day!

Namaste!!

So, as you may already know, we left Nepal last Monday and headed back to India. As soon as we set foot in Delhi, we wanted to leave. Of course, this was always the plan, but still... Delhi is awful. It's hectic, pushy, mean, and just downright horrible. We went straight to the train station, where we were redirected to the tourist office, where we were redirected to the Government Tourist Office... there, although we still felt like we were being scammed (we probably were), we paid a somewhat exorbitant amount of money for a personal chauffeur and car for the week we are spending in India. Although it was a lot of money, we think it has been worth it... Sanju, our driver, is friendly, speaks good English and is a surprisingly safe driver.

So, on Monday night at around 2 am, we arrived in Jaipur, the Pink City. We were supposed to go sightseeing on Tuesday, but Steph somehow managed to get a 103 fever and major puking issues, so that got put off. We did go out that night, however, and sat through a 3 hour Hindi movie which we absolutely did not understand. It was cool, though, because the theatre looks like a giant pink cream puff, the inside looks like a really fancy reception hall, and watching the people watch the movie was priceless. They laughed out loud, they clapped, they hooted, they talked on their cell phones. It was wonderful. The next day, we started out with a visit to the Amber Fort. It's supposedly made of "pink" sandstone, but it was considerably less pink than everything else around. It's up on top of a hill overlooking the city and a very cool place to visit, but we think the term Fort is probably pushing it... seemed more like a palace to us... not very strong at all.

Next, we went to see the water palace. While we could only view this from afar (it's in the middle of a lake and only the king goes there with his girlfriends), it was super cool. The palace sits on a platform in the middle of the lake but, when the water is high, it looks like it is sinking. There's really no good way to describe it, so we'll ask you to google it or wait to see the photos.

After that, we went to see the City Palace. It was pretty freaking lame. Pink, admittedly, which helps, but otherwise lame. So we will not elaborate. We did, however, see a palm reader there, which was fun. We now know exactly how long we will live, when we will get married, how many kids we will have, and how "rich" we will be. This is, of course, an exact science, so if all does not go as planned, we will be flying back to India to hunt this guy down.

The next day, we headed to Ranthambhore, for a safari through their national park. The main attraction here is, naturally, the elusive tiger. We did not, however, see or hear one, so we were sorely disappointed. If there had been anything else to see in the park, it might have made it slightly more exciting, but as it stands, we saw all the best wildlife in the street on the way there - camels, pigs, dogs, sheep. Real wild. As there is literally nothing else to do in Ranthambhore and we got back from the safari at 9 am, we spent the rest of the day alternately sleeping, eating and watching the one English channel on our TV. We watched countless episodes of Glee, Criminal Minds and Master Chef Australia. Riveting stuff.

Today, we hopped in our private car and drove the 6 hours to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. We settled into the hotel, went for lunch, then headed to the Taj for sunset. It was awesome!!!!! The Taj Mahal always seemed like something that was so far removed from reality that you could never actually end up there, looking it straight on and getting close enough to tough. But we were, and it was really surreal. They say that, once it was completed, the king who had it built chopped off the hands of everyone who worked on it so that it could never be recreated. Having now seen it in person, we totally condone this move... it's really one of a kind. Of course, being the tourists we are, we also paid 100 rupees (2 dollars) to have our photos taken by a "professional" and have it look like we are holding the building up. Very clever.

Tomorrow morning, we are already leaving Agra and heading back to Delhi. There, we are living in the lap of luxury (thanks to the Ladner parentals) for 2 days (and absolutely not leaving the hotel - see paragraph 1) then coming home on Tuesday. On Monday night, we will post a final list of all the crazy stuff we've seen so far, so be sure to check that out!!

See you soon!

Steph and Kas