Hello again! It's an overcast and cooler Friday morning, the end of my first week here in Gurgaon, and all is so much more than well. Today I'm going to write about the first day of our weekend trip to Jaipur and our visit to Chokhi Dhani, an Indian fair.
Here's an example of a typical Indian trucking rig. I shouldn't say typical, because you see all varieties of trucks and trailers hauling cargo. Notice the colorful designs. The rear and tailgates of the trucks have slogans promoting various things, like where they're from and who they are, mostly in Hindi. They all almost invariably have BLOW HORN written on the tailgate so they know where you are on the road. Also "OK", with the O on the far left and the K on the far right. They're cool like that. :) And "USE LOW DIPPERS AT NIGHT", which means low beams. (Low Dippers. Cool band name. Reminds me of the Little Dipper, and a dipper that you would use to drink water out of the middle of a lake in the Boundary Waters in MN.)
This is a nice resort that we stopped at to have tea once we got out of the city of Gurgaon. Tea = what Americans call chai tea. There are a lot of different ways to make chai tea, but the common chai recipe includes black tea, spices, milk, and sweetener. More on the variation of ingrediants: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_chai#Ingredients
The grass in India is similar to longer bent grass you'd find on golf course greens and Brit's lawn bowling pitch. Nice and soft.
(And boom. Writing this in bed at 10:43am and the rains start. I love it.)
Praveen, Tuk Tuk, and Shweta peaking out from the backseat, just before we rolled out after chai. I believe that Tuk Tuk is the same word for auto-rickshaw. Probably because she's a cute little buggy.
One of the common methods of transportation in India is motorcycle. Woman usually ride side-saddle. I have seen up to five people on one bike, babies wrapped and cradled in mothers' arms, children on laps or squeezed in-between passengers.
The state of Rajasthan has beautiful mountains. There's a fort on top of this one.
Roadside hotel and restaurant. You drive on the left here. Steering wheel is on the right.
India has beautiful skies.
And sunsets! This is Jaipur. There was a lot of construction on this trip. Thanks to Praveen for being such a patient driver.
Here is the gate to Chokhi Dhani, an expansive and jovial Indian fair, sort of like the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, MN, except with traditional Indian food and amusements.
Receiving a Tilaka (I believe), from the greeter. From Tilaka wiki: In Hinduism, the tilaka (tikli or sheether harr in Bengali, tika, or tilakam or tilak in Hindi; Sanskrit: तिलक tilaka; Hindustani pronunciation: [t̪ɪˈlək])[1]is a mark worn on the forehead and other parts of the body. Tilaka may be worn on a daily basis or for special religious occasions only, depending on different customs.
Camel ride. Someone else is up there.
My niece Hannah said I had to ride an elephant while I was here. We did! And they move a lot quicker than I thought, even walking.
This dancer would not let the American off the hook. I had no idea what I was doing. I have video of this. You'll have to blackmail me to get it.
Dinner time!
My turn to wear the waiter's turban.
I eat so much DELICIOUS food (that I can't yet pronounce). I already cook at home with a few Indian spices, but I will be researching everything I eat and experimenting in my kitchen when I come home. The most common salad is made with cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes. I think this one has some type of cabbage instead of tomatoes. There is a lental dish and a spinach dish in those bowls. The red chili sauce at 1 o'clock on the plate was hot and delicious. Everyone doubts my hot spice acumen but I can hang with the best of them! At 6 o'clock is a sweet grain dish. Most Indian meals are eaten with various types of breads and/or rice. You usually get a spoon, but eat mostly with just your right hand. These plates and bowls are made from lotus leafs and are disposable. The cups are mud pottery.
View of the restaurant.
After Chokhi Dhani, Shweta arranged rooms for us at a really nice hotel. Her brother Amit operates another of these same hotels in Pushkar (next blog post). This is the outdoor hallway to the rooms.
We're taking a rest and enjoying some Sprites. Notice the marble floors. Everything is marble or granite or some other stone here.
Shweta and Praveen told me that this hotel was built in classical Indian design. Beautiful. Attention was given to every detail.
Pool just below my balcony. I took a nice early morning dip. There were some students from Prague already swimming. I went to Prague last fall with my band so we had some things in common to talk about. They also told me about the bus they took from Delhi to Jaipur. This made me even more thankful for Praveen and Shweta.
Restaurant on the terrace. We had breakfast and tea here (read: chai).
Here's an example of a typical Indian trucking rig. I shouldn't say typical, because you see all varieties of trucks and trailers hauling cargo. Notice the colorful designs. The rear and tailgates of the trucks have slogans promoting various things, like where they're from and who they are, mostly in Hindi. They all almost invariably have BLOW HORN written on the tailgate so they know where you are on the road. Also "OK", with the O on the far left and the K on the far right. They're cool like that. :) And "USE LOW DIPPERS AT NIGHT", which means low beams. (Low Dippers. Cool band name. Reminds me of the Little Dipper, and a dipper that you would use to drink water out of the middle of a lake in the Boundary Waters in MN.)
From Wikipedia: Monsoon (UK: /mɒnˈsuːn/; US: /mɑːnˈsuːn/) is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation,[1] but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea.[2][3] Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally-changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase.
So these are rainstorms that I have been calling monsoons. Whatever you call them, it can rain a lot in a short period of time. Just like in Minneapolis, the traffic immediately grinds afterward, even in non-rush hour time periods. There are just so many cars and trucks on the roads at all times.
This is a nice resort that we stopped at to have tea once we got out of the city of Gurgaon. Tea = what Americans call chai tea. There are a lot of different ways to make chai tea, but the common chai recipe includes black tea, spices, milk, and sweetener. More on the variation of ingrediants: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_chai#Ingredients
The grass in India is similar to longer bent grass you'd find on golf course greens and Brit's lawn bowling pitch. Nice and soft.
(And boom. Writing this in bed at 10:43am and the rains start. I love it.)
Praveen, Tuk Tuk, and Shweta peaking out from the backseat, just before we rolled out after chai. I believe that Tuk Tuk is the same word for auto-rickshaw. Probably because she's a cute little buggy.
One of the common methods of transportation in India is motorcycle. Woman usually ride side-saddle. I have seen up to five people on one bike, babies wrapped and cradled in mothers' arms, children on laps or squeezed in-between passengers.
The state of Rajasthan has beautiful mountains. There's a fort on top of this one.
Roadside hotel and restaurant. You drive on the left here. Steering wheel is on the right.
India has beautiful skies.
And sunsets! This is Jaipur. There was a lot of construction on this trip. Thanks to Praveen for being such a patient driver.
Here is the gate to Chokhi Dhani, an expansive and jovial Indian fair, sort of like the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, MN, except with traditional Indian food and amusements.
Receiving a Tilaka (I believe), from the greeter. From Tilaka wiki: In Hinduism, the tilaka (tikli or sheether harr in Bengali, tika, or tilakam or tilak in Hindi; Sanskrit: तिलक tilaka; Hindustani pronunciation: [t̪ɪˈlək])[1]is a mark worn on the forehead and other parts of the body. Tilaka may be worn on a daily basis or for special religious occasions only, depending on different customs.
Camel ride. Someone else is up there.
My niece Hannah said I had to ride an elephant while I was here. We did! And they move a lot quicker than I thought, even walking.
This dancer would not let the American off the hook. I had no idea what I was doing. I have video of this. You'll have to blackmail me to get it.
Dinner time!
My turn to wear the waiter's turban.
I eat so much DELICIOUS food (that I can't yet pronounce). I already cook at home with a few Indian spices, but I will be researching everything I eat and experimenting in my kitchen when I come home. The most common salad is made with cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes. I think this one has some type of cabbage instead of tomatoes. There is a lental dish and a spinach dish in those bowls. The red chili sauce at 1 o'clock on the plate was hot and delicious. Everyone doubts my hot spice acumen but I can hang with the best of them! At 6 o'clock is a sweet grain dish. Most Indian meals are eaten with various types of breads and/or rice. You usually get a spoon, but eat mostly with just your right hand. These plates and bowls are made from lotus leafs and are disposable. The cups are mud pottery.
Tuk Tuk giving her elbow a rest on my knee as she eats. Fried red chili potatoes at noon, more lentils at one, a spicy veggie that I swore was beef at three, dumplings at seven?, butter in a nut shell at eight. I see she has a sweet tooth because that sweet grain dish is already gone.
View of the restaurant.
After Chokhi Dhani, Shweta arranged rooms for us at a really nice hotel. Her brother Amit operates another of these same hotels in Pushkar (next blog post). This is the outdoor hallway to the rooms.
We're taking a rest and enjoying some Sprites. Notice the marble floors. Everything is marble or granite or some other stone here.
Shweta and Praveen told me that this hotel was built in classical Indian design. Beautiful. Attention was given to every detail.
The door to the balcony.
Painted ceiling and fan.
Balcony. I was hanging out up here with the doors open and Shweta said I better close them. I forgot to. Afterwards she said there were monkeys on my balcony. I was taking a shower. The mystery of the monkeys and the open room. I never saw them.
Pool just below my balcony. I took a nice early morning dip. There were some students from Prague already swimming. I went to Prague last fall with my band so we had some things in common to talk about. They also told me about the bus they took from Delhi to Jaipur. This made me even more thankful for Praveen and Shweta.
Restaurant on the terrace. We had breakfast and tea here (read: chai).
Tuk Tuk loves flowers. After breakfast, she picked this one for me so I stuck it behind her ear. Thanks to Praveen and Shweta for this marvelous first day! On to City Palace!
Hey Matt, I really enjoyed reading your post today and looking forward to read more!
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