Days 5 through 6 of My Trip through North India

So...days 5 through 6 of my trip through North India. Let me tell you, day 5 has been my favourite day. And I'm pretty sure once I explain why, you'll see why it's my favourite day! ;) And yes, I know, I'm way behind!

Day 5 - Jaipur

This was a great day! The first thing that we did was wake up super early to head to the Amber Fort! The reason for this was because we needed to get to the Amber Fort early so that we could RIDE ELEPHANTS UP TO THE FORT!!! Now that was pretty friken' awesome! We also had a pretty awesome rickshaw driver, well, two of them. The driver for the rickshaw that I was riding in, his

Amber Fort

name was Shampoo. *giggles* Shampoo! The reason for the name, he said, was because it was a nickname that he got when he was younger, for using to much shampoo when he washed his hair. He was a pretty cool guy, he was around my age, so about mid- to late-twenties, spoke excellent English, and knew a lot about a lot of things. I kind of wish I had a picture to show you, that's the one thing that I tend to forget to do, was take pictures of the people that I connected with.

Jamie and I on our elephant!

Anyway, we wake up early, catch our rickshaws and drive out to Amber Fort. Amber Fort is in Jaipur and is the one place where we could ride elephants! Now that was super cool! We actually got to ride elephants! Yes, the most super, cliché thing that someone could do in India, but it was still pretty awesome! And elephant rides only go in the morning for a few hours, which is why we needed to get there early in order to be able to get to the elephant rides. On our way up to Amber Fort, we actually started passing the elephants that would be used for the rides. We stopped and were able to touch and get close to them. They were big! And very gentle creatures too. We weren't all the way up to where we needed to be, so once we were done saying "hi" to the elephants, we climbed back into our rickshaws and finished driving our way up. We then got ready to ride the elephants up to the fort. That was pretty awesome!

Like I said, beautiful architecture...and Jeannie, of course.

Jamie and I on the elephant :)

When we got up to the fort, we all climbed out and started our time exploring the old fort. It was a beautiful fort, one that had a lot of awesome architecture. If there's one thing that I've grown to appreciate since my time in India, is that I love the way the buildings look and how they are shaped and just how it all looks. It's just beautiful! By the time we were done exploring the fort though, we were getting tired enough that we needed to sit, eat, cool down, and get something to drink. I swear I drank more water while I was in India than I had my whole life. Which is a very good thing, mind you. But still, a lot of water. Once we were done with recuperating from our trekking and exploring, we decided that we needed to head up to the next fort. There was a fort, above?, the Amber Fort. so we walked the "secret tunnel" to the fort that is above the Amber Fort called the Jaigrah Fort. The walk up to the fort was long and hot, but it was worth it for the amazing view! And the small breezes that came very so often also made it very enjoyable. The tunnel was cool to look at as well, but the view from the top of Jaigrah Fort was simply beautiful!

"Secret tunnel" :D

View from the Jaigrah Fort

If there's one thing that I will say about India, there is a lot of beauty in just some of the smallest of things, be it the amazing tunnels that were created to walk from fort to fort, or the view from the top to see the green, rolling hills as far as the eye can see. It's a wonderful place and it's a place that is beautiful to see. You can almost see what India would have been like when these forts would have been up and running. It's like stepping back in time.

Also, random thing, I GOT TO DRIVE A RICKSHAW! Shampoo, our rickshaw driver for the day, is a guy who is about our age, mid-20s, and he was a blast! And he let me drive his rickshaw! How many other people do you know can say that they drove a rickshaw from Amber Fort in Jaipur? Heck YEAH! ;D

After the forts, we headed down and went back to our hotel. We were able to relax and enjoy our last day in the hotel before we head for Agra the next day. We spent out last night in the hotel in Steve, Jeannie, and the boys' room watching BBC and just enjoying the time that we had in an air conditioned room.

Day 6 - Agra

This was the day that we headed to Agra and we all rolled out of the hotel and headed to catch our sleeper train to Agra. It was some time till we were able to actually get to our train, so we headed to check out this museum. It was an interesting place, as it was the palace, I think, of a man that just
wanted to collect the things he liked. It was a pretty cool place, but what interested me most about the museum was the Egyptology section. And I love looking at all the statues and mummies, and figures, and everything from Egypt. So this is the only part of the museum to have pictures, though I probably should have taken more, but you know, whatever. :)

When it came time for us to catch our train, we got on our train, a non-AC sleeper, and just sat in to ride on our way to Agra. One of the coolest things about this train ride was that I was able to get some cool pictures of the scenery out the window and the train door. And then I settled in to sleep for a few hours before we get to Agra. We were actually getting into Agra really late, so the nap on the train was good to have.

So, we get into Agra, and it's really late! Like, late enough that we all just want to eat and then collapse into our beds. We're set up into two rooms again, me and the girls in one room, with Steve, Jeannie, and the boys in the other room. We order Domino's Pizza, and literally just fall into bed and sleep. We had to get up early the next morning in order to get to the Taj Mahal! WHOO! But that is an adventure for another time.

Talk to you later,
Ashley

Day 3 through 4 of My Trip through North India

So, I need to continue my latest blog posting...my last major trip in India. I've been lazy lately and haven't updated like I should have been doing. But I'm fixing that now!

Now, to continue:

Day Three - Amritsar

If you remember, when I last left you, I was just getting on the sleeper train to head to our next destination city, Amritsar. We had 10 hours to kill on the train, and we were all split on too. I was luckily next to Jeannie and Stephen, so I wasn't completely by myself, which I am very thankful for. It's hard enough to be in a foreign country without being left alone on a train as well.

So, I had the top bunk on my side of the compartment, while Stephen and Jeannie had the two bunks next to me, only they were across the way. And since it was a sleeper train, we all settled in to just relax and read or do whatever it was that we could in our little bunks. It was also a time where we could get some food. I was STARVING as well! But me, I was worried about my money a bit...I didn't really want to spend a lot of money, so I bought a candy bar first. I, naively, thought that it would keep me filled up till we got to Amritsar the next day. Sadly, Stephen then had to buy dinner
and that just smelled HEAVENLY! I had to buy it and eat some actual food. Warm food too, mind you. Let me just say, it was delicious and I was really glad that I had bought actual food. And it was funny as well. Jeannie had an interesting way of eating her food. But that's just what you have to do when you're really hungry and want to eat food without spilling it everywhere and letting it go flying onto the train floor.

Once we were all feed, it was by the time that we were all settling down to sleep and hopefully rest enough to enjoy seeing the Golden Temple the next day. So, that's what we did. We all did random things, reading, working, listening to music, writing in our journals (well, I did), and all the other things, and we all just turned in to bed. Now, let me tell you...sleeping on these sleeper trains...so not comfortable. Nor is it so easy to get a deep night's sleep. I swear, while I may have slept for a full six hours, I didn't sleep deeply the way a person should.


We end up in Amritsar the next morning at about 6:30 in the morning. We make out way to the free bus ride that's near the train station to take us to the Golden Temple. That was a heaven send actually, as we didn't have to pay for a rickshaw. And when we got there, we all had to cover our heads in some way. The girls all had scarves, and the boys had to wear these pirate head wraps. It was kind of cool to wear the scarves in the way I've seen some girls wear them. A cool thing about the Golden Temple was that, even though were a lot of people in the area, and there was a lot of talking, but the thing was that it was a noisy quiet. It was beautifully reverent and quiet and just a nice place in general. Compared to a lot of the other religious sites that I've gone and seen and just been around in general during my time in India, this was one of the more spiritually reverent and connected places that I've seen. Let's just say, it was one of my favourite places to be on our trip.

After we had visited, and walked about the complex, as well as actually go inside the temple (which was pretty cool!), it was about 8:00, maybe 8:30 in the morning. Let's just say, that by this time, we were all STARVING!! There was a McDonald's close by, so we all trooped over there with our super super heavy backpacks, and ordered some hotcakes (pancakes) with the hash brown thingie and this really cheap, crappy orange juice drink that said it was Minute Maid orange juice. Yuck.

Once everyone had eaten, we all split off into groups. Lizzie and Oliver went off one way, Stephen, Jamie, and Westen went of to see the Indian/Pakistani broader. That left Kendra, Jeannie, and I in a group by ourselves. We wandered around Amritsar, looking at all the booths that sold those random little necklaces and trinkets and things like that. All three of us eventually got bored and ended back at McDonald's, just talking and waiting for the others to show up. By the time everyone did, we decided that we wanted to eat at Domino's for lunch, which was delicious! Pizza in India seems to just a little bit better than the pizza here. But that may just have been because I really really missed American food.

When we were done with lunch, we headed back to the train station to board our sleeper train for our 17 hour train ride. Now, that was a LONG train ride. I read for most of the trip, being in a top bunk again. I got quite a ways through the fourth Game of Thrones book, "A Feast for Crows". I then proceeded to fall asleep.

Day 4 - Jaipur

We roll into Jaipur. Let's just say that the after two nights on sleeper trains and not showering....we were SO happy to get to Jaipur. And our hotel. Which also had a Western shower. HALL-AFRICKEN'-LUEIGH! (if I even spelled that right...). It was so nice to shower and just let it feel like I'm a clean human being again. So, all the girls are in one room, and the boys and Stephen and Jeannie were in another room. When we were all clean humans again, we got ready to set out for the day. The first thing that we did was eat breakfast! I was starving and it was good to have some actual food.

The guards outside the Textile Museum.

We first headed off to a place called City Palace. It was a big museum place. There was a textile

Just some cool looking
architecture.

museum, an artillery museum, as well as a place that sold a lot of hand made items for very expensive. And I mean very expensive. But it was still a good place to just wander around and see what's what.

When we were done wandering around City Palace, we started trying to find other places to explore. We actually tried going to see another museum to explore, but we ended up getting lost. When we figured that out, we headed to a place near City Palace called the Palace of the Winds. There was a lot of little shops right out front, all along the street. There was so many things that you could buy from cheap little elephant keychains to these awesome genie pants! We all ended up buying at least one thing on the way there. I got a scarf for my grandma, bartered all the way from 600 rupees to 300 rupees. I also bartered for a nightie from 800 rupees to 150 rupees. Am I good or what? ;)

The view from the top at the temple.

A mother and her child at Monkey
Temple

Anyway, after we went through all the shops, we decided that we could either head up to the Monkey Temple or back to the hotel to rest and then the Monkey Temple. We decided that going to the Monkey Temple then back to the hotel would be a better course of action as then we wouldn't be wasting as much money. Monkey Temple was pretty cool though. It was a long walk up to the temple and there were monkeys everywhere! And when we got to the actual temple, it was a beautiful site to see! To see all of Jaipur below as well the sky at the sun was heading towards sunset. It was just a wonderful site to see! And the monkeys were kind of funny as well. There weren't a lot of monkeys up at the temple, but on our way down, we saw a TON of monkeys. And we got to feed them. They were so used to humans coming around and just giving out food that they were would just come up and grab the bag of peanuts right out of your hand. It happened to Jamie. A monkey stole both of her bags right out of her hand and ran off with them. Luckily, Westen was brave enough to go after it and get at least one bag back for her. It was kind of crazy at the same time.

We get back to our hotel, and we eat at the restaurant that the hotel has in it for dinner. And then we just chilled in Stephen and Jeannie's room for a while, watching their TV as it actually worked before we all headed to bed. It was a wonderful first day in Jaipur.

Talk to you later,
Ashley