Spring Break Trip to India Part VI

Thursday was another travel day - it was time to complete the Golden Triangle.  We got up early, ate breakfast, packed, and climbed back into the van for a long day of driving.  We drove through the same area we'd gone through when we went to the Amber Fort and to the Elefantastic.  It was nice to drive through the hills.  The road from Jaipur to Delhi was much more crowded with trucks.

The fun of the day was that we had a lot of monkeys along the side of the road, which was a lot of fun to see through the windows.  The day itself was probably the hardest day of travel - it had just been a long week, and so we were ready to be done.  We had one more period of negotiating when the driver brought us to a roadside tourist trap place.  The girls weren't hungry.  We bought everyone a soda, but everyone (at the restaurant and the driver) was unhappy that we didn't want to spend enough money.

When we got into Delhi, the traffic was very bad.  It took us a long time to get to our hotel.  We drove past the airport, but it took us over an hour from there to where our hotel was.  We had to have someone come and help guide us to the hotel from the back way because of the traffic.

Our hotel was a small micro hotel, homestay place called "The Estate."  It was terrific.  The area was very nice - when we drove to the airport the next morning we discovered we were in an area with a bunch of embassies and residences and other nice homes.

While we checked in, we were given drinks, and sandwiches.  The girls went out and played in the backyard, which had a nice playground and a trampoline.  There were also nice areas for sitting, which Yulia and I took advantage of later in the evening.  The girls had a nice movie night as part of the stay.  At five, we had dinner - they arranged for us to eat early.  The food was superb.  We had a good experience with food throughout our trip, and this was no exception.

Relaxing after a long drive

Our villa. We were on the first floor, and the girls were on the second.

One of the best dinners we had in India. They kept bringing food until everybody was full.

The living room of our villa

It was really nice and peaceful even though we were in the middle of a city chaos

These tall walls with the vines really kept the noise down

We had planned to just spend a quiet night, which is what we did, and we loved it.

The Estate was also the only place on our trip that had great Internet service!

They came in to get our beds ready for the night and left this little gift for us. Apparently they sponsor a nonprofit organization called SShrishti that reaches out to children that come from the city's so many impoverished slums and gives them care and education. It also reaches out to women from the most impoverishing communities in Delhi and rural areas of India and gives them a chance to educate themselves so they can live a better life.

Friday morning we were up and packed and ate breakfast and were out the door by 8:15.  The drive to the airport was nice.  The taxi drivers (we took two) went on the back roads and we missed major traffic jams.  We had a good check in, but the passport and security lines were quite long.  We had about an hour and a half before boarding and Yulia went to a store to use up all of the Rupees we had left over - she bought Indian candy and treats to bring back to Kazakhstan with us.

Waiting for our ride to the airport. Taraz decided to get ready for Astana's weather well in advance! :)

Goodbye, Estate! We absolutely loved our stay here!

The flight from India to Almaty was pretty bumpy, but we made it okay.  When we landed in Almaty we learned that our flight had been delayed.  I had left a book in my seat, so being delayed made it possible to get it back.  The girls were pretty tired, but they entertained themselves by dancing, practicing figure skating moves, and in general just being kids.

Mimi spent probably good two hours coaching Nika on the proper figure skating technics.

They also entertained a few little kids. This little boy tried to copy them for quite some time. 

The kids did a bit of this too.

And then they lost their minds a bit... but hey, one more hour and us, the adults would be reaching the same state of mind!

We arrived in Astana at about 10:00, and once we finished getting our bags, we ran and just missed a bus, so we had to wait for the next one.  We were home by just after 11:00.  7 days worth of India. We were home, and happy.

And of course, Astana is greeting us back with this awesome weather. But we do love to be back!

******

India was a good experience.  We loved the things we saw.  We really had a great time.  However, we also were very stressed out by the constant negotiation, the crushing poverty, and the other difficulties we encountered.  We are glad we went, but are not sure if we'll plan on going back again.

Spring Break Trip to India Part V - Elefantastic!

Wednesday was our last full day of sightseeing in India.  We had made an appointment to go the Elefantastic.  Outside of Jaipur is an "elephant village" where elephant keepers live.  Most of them use the elephants to take tourists up and down the hill at the Amber Fort.  They also let tourists come and interact with the elephants.

We had heard good things about the Elefantastic from our friends here in Astana.  Yulia looked them up on the internet, and found great reviews.  She made an appointment with them.  Our guide from the day before and our driver tried to convince us to go somewhere else - our driver even had a brochure from the place he wanted us to go.  We told them both that we were going to Elefantastic.

On Wednesday we had the morning free, and when the driver came to pick us up at 11:30, he tried to convince us to go to the other place.  We were firm. When we got to the elephant village, he wanted to take us to the other place.  We finally got to Elefantistic, and we were glad we did.

We had four elephants for our group.  When we arrived, we were given drinks, and then an introduction to the elephants.  All of the elephants were females, and our ranged in age from 19 to 52.  Yulia and I got to interact with the 19 year old because she was nervous around small children.  We spent about an hour feeding them a mixture of alfalfa and modified corn that were bundled up by the handlers.  While we fed them, we also petted them on their faces and on their cheeks to bond with them.

Meeting the elephants for the first time.

Rahul (the owner of Elefantastic) is explaining to the girls about how to communicate with their elephant.

Lina was in heaven!

Yulia with our teenager (she is 19 years old, elephants live about 75 years, pretty much like people)

The place had a bunch of other animals.

After we had bonded, we painted the faces and bodies of the elephants with a mixture of paints that were made from rocks and glycerin mixed together. The girls had a great time with their decorations.  After we did our decorating, the handlers moved the elephants out to the lawn and we washed them off and gave them water to drink.  The younger girls rode their elephants over and they got sprayed as they used their trunks to spray themselves to cool off.

Hard at work

They said that painting of the elephants is traditional only for that part of India

Here you can see how they wrap a bunch of corn in alfalfa because the elephants prefer alfalfa but the corn has very important nutrients for them. 

I think we did a great job! The handler is making a feeding roll but our girl figured it out and tried to shake the corn off leaving just alfalfa

Having fun!

Drinking time!

When the elephant drinks, she sucks in the water and then blows it into her mouth with such force that you hear it going right down her belly. You see how her belly got bigger!

Lina and Taraz washing their elephant. She was the oldest of the ones we had for our group (52 years old), and her name was Naughty! Lina said she was constantly trying to steal food from everyone's hands.

Scrubbing the trunk with brushes.

Muscan, I think, is 22 years old and is very playful. She was always trying to spray the girls with water.

They are really amazing creatures!

Lina and Taraz are going for a little ride.

After this adventures they were soaking wet but it was almost 99 F that day, so I think they really appreciated it!

And here is Muskan giving a shower to the girls!

The best day in India!

After everything was cleaned off, we rested for a few minutes and then the girls got on the elephants for a ride through the elephant village.  I chose to walk - Yulia road our elephant - and was the designated camera man for the parade.

Getting ready for a ride in the Elephant Village. The top of elephant's heads are covered with this anti-mosquito mixture (black)

Yulia is on her elephant

The parade.

During the rainy season which will start in a couple of months, this whole area floods, and then the elephants like to swim in the water.

Some pigs we saw along the way

And mischievous goats

When we got back, we said goodbye to the elephants and handlers, and then we were driven to the house of the owner of the operation.  She had prepared a lovely meal for us.  In the house she had a pug, golden lab, and bunny rabbit.  The meal was vegetarian, but was very delicious and filling.  She made some pumpkin that was sweet and a bit spicy and very delicious that was a big hit with all of us.

At Rahul's mom's home.

She fed us amazing dinner, and the dogs and the bunny kept the girls entertained

This bunny was very social

And so was this pup...

We got back to the hotel in time to all go swimming together.  It was a nice end to a nice day.

_____

We loved Elefantastic.  The elephants were all well taken care of and their handlers treated them well.  It is set up as a foundation to help the elephant handlers and their families break the cycle of elephant abuse and tourism.  The handlers receive benefits - and their children receive education and health care.  The whole experience was very nice, and we appreciated how well everything was run and the higher purpose of the experience.

Spring Break Trip to India Part IV - Amber Fort and Pink City

We met our driver and our guide for the day in the morning on Tuesday.  We reiterated that we wanted to go to the Amber Fort, and then to see the Pink City and to do a little bit of shopping for souvenirs with the girls.  We hoped that we would minimize the amount of "extra stops" by making things clear beforehand.

Driving through the Pink City

We've seen a few times when people, mostly women, would carry their load on their heads.

Shops of the Pink City. This area is for the tourists, and the shops have names in English and are more organized. We've also driven through the area for the locals (there people mostly spread out their goods right on the street but I am sure the prices were much, much lower)

One of our unplanned stops. The palace in the background is standing in the middle of the lake.

Jal Mahal stands in the middle of the lake. Now it is a museum

It didn't start out promising.  The guide took us on a long way around the city and kept pointing things out and asking if we wanted pictures.  We kept saying no.  Finally he seemed to get it, and we started toward the outskirts of town where the Amber Fort was located.  We drove the pink city on our way.  The Pink City was the original city and all the buildings are painted pink - hence the name.  The most famous part of the pink city is the Hawa Mahal.

Hawa Mahal (English translation: "Palace of Winds" or "Palace of the Breeze") is a palace in Jaipur, India, so named because it was essentially a high screen wall built so the women of the royal household could observe street festivals while unseen from the outside. Constructed of red and pink sandstone, the palace sits on the edge of the City Palace, and extends to the zenana, or women's chambers. [Wikipedia]

We got out and took pictures here - and it was a good time of day to do it, before things got too crowded.  The theme of "royal ladies" was one that came up again and again in the palaces and areas we saw.  The royal ladies were always kept separate.  I kept asking our crew of girls if they were glad not to live in those days when they had to hide away from everyone.

Hawa Mahal.

We thought it would be very appropriate to take a picture of all the "royal ladies" in our group in front of Hawa Mahal.

After we took pictures at the Hawa Mahal, we drove to the Amber Fort.  The Fort is in the hills outside the city and the entire area is surrounded by a large wall.  The fort itself is up on the hill and is very impressive.  We had a few options for getting up to the fort.  We chose the free option - to hike up ourselves rather than ride up on elephants or in a jeep.  We wanted the hike, and we didn't want to ride the elephants, since they used saddles that are uncomfortable for the animals.

I was wondering if we would see this in India, and surely we did. He wanted a lot of money though and was unhappy when we gave him some change after watching him literally for 1 minute. More on this later.

Amber fort is right behind us.

This elephant was taken to the Amber Fort to give the tourists a ride up the hill. See this huge saddle on top of his back (most of it is under the red cover)? While elephants are very strong, their backs are not made to carry heavy weights, and those saddles are very heavy.

Amber Fort. You can see a line of elephants (red spots) making their way up the hill.

The gardens in India are beautiful. We can only imagine how it would look like when the fountains are on.

We had a nice hike up the hill and then spent about an hour and a half looking at the fort itself with its palaces and views.  We loved the gardens and a room that looked down over them which was situated so that the breeze always blew through.

There was something majestic about this view. 

We opted out for hiking, though.

The hike was actually quite pleasant

There are lots of stray dogs in India.

Watching the elephants move.

This was the way for going up via jeeps.

We had to wait for about 7-8 minutes before we saw a gap between the elephants big enough to safely cross the road.

Elephants going back out of the Sun Gate to pick up more tourists.

Ganesh Pol Entrance named after the Hindu god Lord Ganesh who removes all obstacles in life,  is the entrance into the private palaces of  Maharajas. It was built in 1621-1627.

This is where Raja's ministers would sit.

In front of Ganesh Pol Entrance

A view into the first main courtyard. This was the place where armies would hold victory parades which was also witnessed by the Royal's family women through the latticed windows (pictured later)

The second courtyard has the 27-pillared Diwan-I-Aam or the Public Audience Hall where Raja (king) would listen to petitions from the public.

A view out from the Audience Hall

Maota Lake and Saffron Garden

See the wall going along one of the mountain ridges across the lake? The mountains around have a lot of those walls.

A ceiling in one of the rooms. Depending from which side you looked, it would change the colors. The same room had another interesting feature: the walls though marble were hollow inside, and so whatever you say into one of the corners (no matter how quietly) could be clearly heard in the diagonally opposite corner.

The third courtyard has Sheesh Mahal or Mirror Palace (right behind us) which was built in 16th century. 

Trying to show Sophie her own reflection in the wall made out of mirror mosaics.

Multi-mirrored ceiling of the Mirror Palace. Beautiful! The interior was designed in such a way that it would glitter brightly in the candle light when in use.

One of the gardens in the fort.

And here are the latticed windows that allowed Royal ladies to watch the military parades without being seen. It is located in the fourth courtyard where the royal women and concubines lived.

They are made out of a single block of marble that was the same marble they used to build Taj Mahal.

A group of tourists with local cleaning women

A beautiful Mughal Garden views from the fourth court or women's quarter.

Here is another wall built on the mountain ridge with the tower on top.

Amazing balance

Some of the carvings of animals on the walls

As we were coming out of the fort, our guide pointed out this interesting black formation under the balcony. Guess what it is?

Beehive! Those are the black honey bees we saw at Mahatma Gandhi memorial gardens.

The kids and Yulia also explored the dungeons of the fort.

They were used for the armies to move quickly from one side to another.

On the side you see three women working. They are weeding the grass. It was about 95 F that day.

After we finished at the fort, we went and saw a demonstration about how they do fabric printing with natural dyes.  We also saw a demonstration about how they make rugs by hand.  It was interesting, but mostly a ploy to sell us rugs.  Our friend, Ramona, wanted to buy a couple, so we sat through the demonstration.  We ended up buying a small rug with a design of the Taj Mahal on it to hang on our wall (in the Russian fashion).  We also bought some silk scarves for the grandmas that were done with the printing technique.

Watching cloth hand printing process

Trying it out (the girls made a little elephant print on a piece of cloth)

Hand making rugs. This rug will take about 4-5 months from start to finish. A man is working on one side (you see him) and a woman on the other. They have to synchronize all of their movements because one doesn't see what the other one is doing.

Neat!

Lina and Taraz decided to try it out.

Lina is one happy little bug!

Those are all handmade rugs. They had the ones that were made out of silk (the one we bought with Taj Mahal is made out of silk also), the ones that were made out of wool, and the ones of camel wool.

After the rug shop, we went to shop along the street.  The older girls had some money they had earned by speaking Russian with the girls we were traveling with.  We gave the twins a little bit of money so they could find something for themselves.  We spent about 45 minutes between a couple of shops and the girls found what they wanted.

The woman from the hotel in Agra had told us about a hotel, the LMB, that had great food and a nice sweet shop.  We went there for lunch.  It was a nice restaurant and most of the patrons were Indian.  The food was traditional thali from Rajasthan and was very good.

Having lunch at LMB restaurant. Every container has a different sauce or vegetable mixture.  Some were spicy, some were sweet.  You mixed them together to make the right flavor.  The white sauces is a yogurt sauce that cleanses the palate of spices.

After our restaurant, we came back to the hotel.  The girls and I swam for awhile, and we just had a relaxing evening.  Yulia and I weren't hungry, so we didn't go eat.  Our girls went with Ramona and her girls for a snack at the restaurant upstairs.

We had a nice day - the right length, and with some great sites and experiences.