Hi friends! As I told you last week, I went to Jaipur for the weekend and it was soooo much fun! We were only there for a few days but I think we managed our time well and accomplished a lot in the short time we had. My friends and I bolted out of Delhi on a 4 hour train to Jaipur just after our Hindi exam - which went really well, by the way! Once actually in Jaipur, there was tons to do and not enough time, but we decided to start off with a visit to Amber Palace, which was located on top of a hill and gave us the opportunity to ride hathis (elephants!) up the hill and into the palace. Our hathi's name was Lakshmi and she was beautiful, as was the view of Jaipur from that hill. The palace itself was amazing, it was enormous and a truly beautiful work of art. We were able to visit the queens' chambers and, yes, that is queens as in plural because the king who lived here had 12 queens once upon a time.After some quick lunch, we then moved on to Jantar Mantar, Jaipur's own observatory. The architecture there was surprisingly modern for having been built in the eighteenth century. It was like going to a giant, old Reuben H. Fleet Museum, which was one of my favorite field trips back in elementary school. From Jantar Mantar we were only a short walking distance to Hawa Mahal, another of Jaipur's beautiful palaces whose name means "The Palace of the Winds." This palace is located right in the middle of Pink City in Jaipur, where all of the buildings like this one are built of red and pink sandstone, driving through there is a lot of fun because of this.The architecture of this palace is really interesting because it was made so that the royal ladies (not including the 300+ unofficial queens) could observe the streets without being seen. Once you got to the highest level of the palace, you got another breathtaking view of Jaipur.
We then headed to dinner at small village just outside the city. This was much more than dinner. Once inside Chokhi Dhani, there was A LOT going on. Want to dance some Bangra? This way please. Want some delicious Indian-style ice cream (kulfi)? Straight ahead and to the right. Some chaat? Why yes, I'd love some chaat, extra masala please. Mehendi (Hindi for henna)? Take a seat for 2 minutes, it's fast and free! Want to ride an elephant? Well, I kind of already did that today. Well, how about a camel then? We have those too. Actually, that would be kind of fun and I haven't done that yet, sure why not? (Camel rides are fun, but tricky - be careful when mounting/dismounting, it might ruin your mehendi...just saying).
Wait, why are we here again? Oh yeah, dinner. There are several eating areas for you to choose from. Remove your shoes and take a seat. Once seated, we had one giant and an entire stack of banana leaf plates. Question: are all of these for me? Answer: YES. The waiters, dressed in traditional Indian wear, then came down the aisle and put a different type of subjee (vegetables) dish in each of the little plates, brought us four or five different kinds of roti (Indian bread), gave us some salty lassi, and 3 or 4 different desserts. Everything, except for the lassi (who drinks salty yogurt?), was so delicious I even risked eating the chutneys and palak paneer, which is usually a don't if you want to avoid Delhi Belly. I definitely couldn't finish everything though, there was sooo much food and, apparently, "No more food please, I am REALLY full" means "Please put dollop some more of everything on my plate." All the waiters thought it was hilarious to see us look like we were about to have a heart attack. I did feel like had eaten enough for an entire army but it was delicious so I don't regret it. All in all, Choki Dhani was really and though I am aware that it was a very touristy attraction, it made me feel better that all the other tourists around us were Indian tourists.
But then it was time for reality so we all worked on our Independent Study Proposals and headed back to Delhi via what was probably the most traumatizing train experience of our lives. We booked our tickets a little bit on the late side so we were stuck in the non-AC train, which we wouldn't have minded had we not been completely surrounded by 1,000 other people. Everyone preferred to wait 6 hours before going to the bathroom rather than attempting to get through the crowds. My roommate also shared a shoe with someone for a good part of that train ride. But we made it back to Delhi safe and sound, though extremely tired. We were here this entire week, going to classes but are heading out again today. The group is splitting up and going to three different cities in order to participate in their week-long workshop that is required of the program. My group is going to Varanasi, the oldest city in India!! I'll be taking my computer so I can keep up with my work and will try to keep you guys updated, if possible. Wish me luck everyone!
Love,
Eli
P.S. Check out some pictures of Jaipur here.
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