Adventures with My Mom

Namaste!

I am finally sitting down to write my first post to this blog. At this point, i'm not even sure where to begin. The 2 weeks have literally flown by and I am sad to see my mom leave tonight but also excited to have the world school group come in a few hours. I’m nervous about being a tour leader and am sure it will be quite a learning experience!

My mom and I arrived in Delhi where we were greeted by our driver, Sanjay. First of all, having a car/driver is like paradise. Course, the car was an old ambassador made popular by the British but we would have cared less. Our driver was amazing and took us wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted. As most of you know, i'm always late but my mom makes me look legit so the joke was that whatever time we "said" we'd be back, well, after meeting some indian guy and going to some indian guy's shop, we were always late! Sometimes we forgot where the car was but usually, we just got carried away on some indian adventure and just couldn't help it. Even better, he took us to places that we never would have known about and told us so many stories of indian culture. he also bought us water and bananas for "indian" prices and not "tourist" prices. pretty much, i'm not sure i'll travel without one for anything involving mothers or husbands!

the first place we went was jaipur. we arrived at our hotel which was over the top amazing (first class when you ride w/ your mom!)...everyone was beyond nice and we got upgraded to a room w/ a front lawn. we had totally weird indian massages (i think mine the guy wanted a happy ending? no gracias senor!). the first morning we woke up to do early morning yoga at the outdoor yoga area. we started onrolling our mats when this indian guy showed up out of nowhere to teach us yoga. we're like, huh? well, okay. so we did this pretty basic hatha class. The next morning when he showed up, we said we wanted to do our own thing and offered to have me lead and him follow. So there he was, doing anusara yoga not having a clue about it. It was almost like we were doing 2 different sports! jaipur is a very colorful city and the streets are NUTS! total chaos...cars, tuk tuks (auto rickshaw), bike rickshaws, motorcycles, people, camels w/ carts, trucks, elephants, dogs, and cows are just some of the fine features of any one street. we shopped til we dropped meeting a couple of store owners who were quite nice.

after visiting the "amber fort" outside of town which is this amazing old fort/palace which rich history and beautiful surroundings, we headed off to an old majaraja's palace in a town called samode. driving out there we overshot the turn. so sanjay drives up to these 2 policeman who are in the road and they told him to turn around and go back. by turning around, that meant driving the wrong way on a one way street to go back. yeah, like that would ever happen in the states. my mom kept asking...."how did you find this place?" "is this right?" i was like, um, i hope it's cool? pretty much there were a few isolated villages, dusty, dry hills and that was about it. sanjay took us inside a couple of villages. by village, this meant about 4 mud huts and a handful of animals and people living in them. we learned how they cook, get water, where they sleep, etc. 75% of india lives in the village. so all that info in the papers about india becoming the next powerhouse is sort of true but when you get here you have to wonder. aside from delhi, bangalore and bombay, this fact is very misleading. we finally arrived at the samode palace...heaven! talk about an oasis in the middle of nowhere. for some reason, they upgraded us to the honeymoon suite on the top floor overlooking the pool. nice!

the next day was the first highlight. after yoga and breakfast, we set out to hike to the top of a hill where there was a hanuman temple. hanuman is the monkey god in the hindu religion. my mom had been getting a crash course in hindu and this was her first temple visit. we honestly thought it would be about 30 mins and then we'd read by the pool for a couple of hours. ha.

we got about 3 steps up when a new indian guy started walking with us. indian guys come up constantly wanting to drive you somewhere, show you a shop, show you a temple, etc. they claim to be "official" but that's never the case. either way, this guy's english was great so we walked with him learning about the temple, hinduism, the area, etc. this short hike turned into a 7km pilgrimage to the famous temple. he said hardly any tourists ever went cuz they were usually in a group and had no time. one of the great parts about not being in a group and having a driver is having a flexible schedule! we hiked to the temple, saw the guru, watched the people worshiping various statues and walked back. the whole trail was made of stones that an old man decided to build by hand. he is still busy at work and won't go to the temple until the road is complete. in return, people donate money to pay for his work. he just took it upon himself to service the community. fantastic!

after samode, it was off to jaipur. sanjay took us to a really fancy jewelry emporium where we learned how the famous jaipur stones are cut, made and designed. the workshop was right there in the store. then it was off to an amazing miniature painting store where a man was working also. he inscribed our names on a grain of rice. the workmanship of these small paintings was extraordinary and a magnifying glass helped to see all the detail. the shop owner loved us and gave us more than we bought including 2 ganesh statues. ganesh, the god of good luck, is everywhere in india so receiving ganesh rather than buying him for yourself is extra good luck. he read our minds and seemed to see everything inside my mom. it was quite amazing and she was practically crying by the end he was so touching. after this shop, sanjay took us to get kasmiri saffron which is some of the best in the world. course, the saffron was inside the best pashima place we had seen by a long shot. geez! my mom went to town on the shawls and they fed us their secret saffron tea. talk about suckers. we fell hook line and sinker for this shop.

finally, it was off to bundi....only 6 hrs late! our first night drive. day driving is one thing. night driving is a whole other beast. this 5 hr drive was nuttier than anything we'd ever seen for at night, the trucks come out, and i'm talking about 10 million of them. with no road rules whatsoever, it was a total free for all. the best part is the truck drives are all smuggling, drugs, guns, and overloaded grains and who knows what else. there are no checkpoints so anything goes. oh, and they drink whiskey and smoke hash on top. nice!

we made it to bundi barely....bundi is a small town in rajasthan a little off the tourist track. i had heard good things about it. the next day we walked around and went to the palace. very cool but the town was sort of uneventful. the next day my mom woke up feeling sort of sick...this turned bad quickly. she stayed in bed while i rented an indian one speed bike and road off into the country. it was so nice to get out of the chaos and into the country. the ride was really great but i felt bad being away so i went to a dried up lake and turned back. my mom was still super sick. yuck. so i went to the nearby fort which was virtually abandoned. i was a little lost when another solo woman asked if i knew where it was. she was lost also. so we hiked together in search of this fort. it was unbelievable. totally abandoned and huge which palatial carvings and paintings on the walls. the craziest part is that there wasn't a soul up there. almost eery but quite beautiful. eva was super cool and we sat for a bit to chat in a palace room overlooking the city. all of a sudden, i felt something on my shoulder. i look over and it was a reces monkey right next to me. AGH! we both screemed like little girls and next thing we knew, there were 3 of them cornering us in a room. i totally freaked and the more i freaked, the more it freaked. we managed to get out of the room dying laughing, our heartbeats racing. we walked a bit down the path and they came after us again. holy crap! we ran and made it to the entrance...barely alive, once again.

that night we had to get on a train to go to the next stop...kanha tiger park. my mom by now was super sick. it was a rough ride w/ a driver who wouldn't stop honking. we got on the 2nd class train car for our first night train. man, did i feel bad for my mom. Not exactly a nice train and even worse was the bathroom. ambien was essential. we passed out and finally made it to our stop...only 2 hrs delayed. upon arrival, mom was really sick. so the taxi driver took us to the hospital. we got some indian medicine which doesn't work at all and then drove 3 hrs to the park. I went on an afternoon safari which was pretty uneventful. The next morning, my mom somehow managed to go out with us but it wasn't pretty. But we did see 2 tigers who walked right in front of our car which was so incredible. Talk about beautiful animals. Wow. we got her back early to sleep off the sickness. luckily, the next day, she woke up feeling a bit better so we went back out again. at this park, you drive in jeeps to find tigers. we actually had some great sightings..aside from riding in a jeep, we also got to ride elephants to see tigers. once the trackers find one, you are allowed to ride the elephant to the tiger. we had one ride that was amazing...we surrounded this tiger who got sort of pissed and walked into the stream that was right there. so we rode into the water to cut it off. lots of action and we couldn't stop laughing. course, the card on my camera filled up right when it was in the water!

That night, we experience quite the indian adventure in getting from point A to point B. that's ALWAYS the worst part. we set out at 8pm to drive back to japalpur. normally, it's a 3 hr drive but we gave ourselves plenty of time to make the 1am train. about 2 hrs into the drive, the lights started getting dim. then they went out. how you can drive w/ no lights but the car still working i have no clue. but we did! now, since we were near tigers, we were also in the middle of nowhere so no trucks, no villages, nothing! total darkness. my mom happened to have her new petzl headlamp in her purse. i grabbed it and for real, used it as our only source of light to drive. for 2 hrs we drove this way. you know it's bad when indian cars/trucks are honking at you. finally, the taxi boss arrived to save the day only he instead drove behind our car to be our light source til we made it into town. eventually, the car died but we were clsoe to the station at this point. we hitched a ride to the station and made it w/ abou 30 mins to spare. are you kidding me?

another night train. in hindsight, our travel schedule for this was a little ridiculous. live and learn around here. the logistics are SO hard to figure out. this train was super slow and was brutally painful. it stopped at every rinky dink station for 20 mins. we read and read and ate potato chips and cookies. a girl finally told us that the train was running 5 hrs late. 5 hrs late? agh! i was freaking out. at one point, about 2 hrs after this news, i looked up to see what station we were at...varanasi. varanasi? that's us! "mom, hurry, we're here!" we quickly got all of our stuff and went to get off the train only to find a track but no platform? pretty much we had to jump off the train and get on the track to go back to the station. hilarious.

for those who don't know where varanasi is, it's one of the holiest places in India in the northeast. the "ghats" are old buildings from the majaraja days that run along the river where people bath and go to cleanse themselves of their sins, pray to their gods, ask for salvation and oh yeah, get cremated. about 200 bodies are cremated everyday. there are 2 "burning ghats" that perform the cremations so you see bodies burning all over the place. you see funeral processions bathing a cloaked body in the river. there is raw sewage, dead bodies, soap, garbage along w/ other bodies who aren't cremated in this water. it is the dirtiest water you could ever imagine and people drink it left and right. they brush their teeth. they swim like it's a regular swimming pool. it's something not to be missed and truly one of the strangest places on earth. we thought driving in jaipur, driving to bundi, driving in the woods with no headlights was nuts. Ha. Those were child’s play compared to what it’s like driving in varanasi. Unbelievable really. I think we almost got in about 100 accidents in 3 days. The first day we needed money so I went to get some from the atm machine. I got so excited by all the bills flying out that I left the atm card in the machine. I didn’t realize this until about 6 hrs later. That night, we ate dinner w/ some new friends one of whom was a Harvard grad working for Citibank in delhi. She told me that the guard probably took my card and would still have it. I couldn’t believe it. The next day we went to talk to him and sure enough, he turned it in to the main branch. Like that would ever happen in the states. But then again, what’s an Indian person gonna do w/ my bank card?

Later that morning, we met a man in the lobby of our hotel from san Francisco. Turns out, he’s a hugely famous photographer named Andy Katz (http://www.andykatzhphotography.com/). He’s done over 10 books and traveled extensively around the world. We ended up traveling with Andy for the next 3 days. He taught me so much about photography and it was so great to learn from a master. And he was super funny and it was nice to have some new blood to hang with.

After having a suite in a decent hotel on the river, my mom after being sick, traveling 2 miserable train rides and watching people bath in nasty water, wanted a nice hotel w/ a bath. We checked out of our hotel to drive way out of town to the only two 5 star hotels. Upon arrival, we found them to be in a yucky area with a handful of tourist groups. Nothing special and we decided to go back to our other room in a better location. they did have beer and we bought 2 to bring back to the water. So we went BACK to our original hotel only to find that not only was our room taken but the whole hotel was FULL. Agh! We ended up at this crappy place around the corner. Funny how things change. My mom went from the Palace hotels to the Hotel Divya for $15 in just a week. Down and out in varanasi…it was fantastic.

Luckily, we were able to go back to our original hotel the next day. Pack. Unpack. Pack. Unpack.

Each morning we woke up for a boat ride on the ganges. Each evening we boated it down to the various ceremonies that they perform. We went to one of the oldest ashrams only to find a bunch of sadhus (holy men) smoking weed and cigarettes? That was sort of a let down to say the least. We toured the temples, went out of town to where Buddha gave his first sermon, walked along the main ghat which was total chaos but very colorful and saw men silkweaving in a muslim neighborhood.

To get out of varansi, we had a flight to delhi. I have never been so happy to see a plane in my life. We were practically kissing it! My favorite part was this sign where you checked in that read, “no toothpaste, no deodorant, no lipsticks, no shampoo, no guns, no pickles.” No pickles? Um, okay.

An hour flight with all these nice stewardesses passing out cookies and we were back in delhi with our driver picking us up. I wasn’t sure were were getting sanjay but sure enough, there he was….SANJAY!!! we were so excited to see him! And this time, we brought our friend Andy. Sanjay worked out a trip for andy in rajastan in about 15 mins. So andy’s tour was all set and we were all happy as campers. That is, until we started driving. On this drive that everyone said took 2 hrs but really took almost 5, we only saw a dead horse who got hit by something and a tractor that got split in 2 with a smashed van that had obviously rolled. Nice.

Arrived in agra where we had a room at the Hilton. Normally, I’m not one for staying in chain hotels in foreign countries but this was nice, Really nice. It was clean and beautiful. The service was beyond excellent. Food was a buffet. I’m not sure any of us had been that dirty in quite some time so this felt like paradise. Best shower in a long time. So good we added a night, I think just to stay in paradise amongst the pollution.

Woke up super early for sunrise at the Taj. Talk about special. That building is one of the 7 wonders for a reason. Being there first was great also. After the Taj, we went to a shop where inlaid marble was produced similar to what’s on the taj. Talk about minute painstaking work. Unbelievable. And it’s ALL over the taj…semiprecious stones inlaid into white marble. That night we went back to the taj for sunset. It started raining. There was lightening. Andy was photographing everything in the rain. We shut the place down.

Yesterday morning we woke up only to battle the drive back to delhi. This drive was actually uneventful. Finally.

Last night was another really special night. We went to sanjay’s house for dinner and met his wife and neighbors. Finally a home cooked Indian meal. His cute wife dressed us both up in her saris which we wore while eating. We toured the neighborhood and had a 15 min conversation with a group of women who spoke no English. We improvised. We drank chai with about 4 households. Everyone was so nice and were so honored to have us in their homes. At one point, we counted 40 children in one small room. It was fantastic!!! I am so happy my mom got to experience the true Indian culture and eat real Indian food.

Now we’re back in smelly delhi. We’re staying at the Taj Palace which once again, we got upgraded to the penthouse? My mom apparently has “upgrade” written on her forehead because I think we got one everywhere we went and didn’t even do anything….nice! This city is beyond polluted. It’s so nasty. We did manage to find an artsy neighborhood w/ interesting shopping and the best south Indian food restaurant!

I know this is so long but I want to share my experiences along with keeping an online journal. This country is truly the land of contrasts. The highest highs, the lowest lows can happen all in one day. It is the most filthy and the most beautiful place on earth. I imagine you either love it or hate it but it has grabbed me like no other country in its uniqueness. The people are certainly what make it special. Just when you thought you couldn’t be bothered more by them, someone comes along who says something that just blows your mind. Money means nothing here. It’s what’s inside that counts. It’s about respect and family. It’s about love and kindness. There’s no way this place would function if people didn’t respect each other. there are just too many of them. I am so happy my mom could experience this country. I am so happy she was with me and not on a guided tour going to all the fancy places and not meeting anyone. It’s sad that people are so paranoid of the dirt that they don’t get to meet any of the fantastic people here. I am so surprised she was able to ride a yucky train, stay at a $15 hotel room and usually with a smile on her face. I am so lucky to have such a great mom!!!

I hope you all are doing great and miss each and every one of you. I hope to write more often so these aren’t so long. I will post photos when I can….

Much love,

a