The Golden Triangle

JAIPUR - AGRA - NEW DELHI

These three cities make up "The Golden Triangle" of tourism in India.

JAIPUR, Rajasthan

Warned by our guide book that Jaipur was a hornets nest of scams such as dishonest "touts" (people who prey on naiive tourists), and potentially dishonest hotel managers, we were on our guard when we arrived at the airport and our taxi driver picked us up with a sign that read "Geiner." After he did his best to assure us that he was, indeed, our taxi driver he proceeded to take us to a different hotel, claiming that the one we booked was under construction (exactly the kind of plot our book warned us about). This was so suspicious that we insisted that he show us the original hotel and check his story of said construction. We checked the address, realized that he was telling the truth and that this is probably the first time that this kind of story turned out not to be a scam! In fact we got a better hotel, a better room, and a discounted rate for having been moved! It was great!

Rajasthan is the land of palaces, and it was very different from South India. After talking with our friendly driver, Bhati, we hired him for the next two days to show us around Jaipur. He was great! So friendly and honest--he even gave us money out of his pocket when we couldn't make it to the ATM.

The story goes that we were enjoying our introduction to the hotel when Teri started to feel sick. A bug bite on her foot worsened and she developed a fever. When her fever reached 103.7 degrees f, and she was shivering and her teeth were chattering, we decided to call the doctor to come to the hotel. Dr. Sen came around 1am and decided that she needed anti-biotics in injection form... in her bum! She got two shots and took some Tylenol and called him in the morning.

We spent the morning at the clinic where the doctor did a blood test and asked us to return in the evening. In the meantime, Bhati took us all around the "Pink City" of Jaipur, the Amber Fort, and a famous cenotaph. We saw decorated elephants and camels in the road, and a snake charmer with his toothless cobra. Still scary!

We returned to the clinic and he said Teri had an infection and needed another shot and more anti-biotics. We returned to the hotel and prepared for our 4am departure to the train station.

AGRA, U.P.

Agra...vating! Need we say more. Taj was cool. Everything else sucked. Even our guide had his shoes stolen while showing us around holy ground. Too bad we booked two nights here. Crap. Early morning departure, 3:45am, to train to Delhi.

New Delhi

Our favorite deli in India! No, really, we liked it here. It was such a contrast to the rest of India that we have seen. We stayed with an amazing family in an AMAZING house and met lots of other cool travelers who are working here, got married here, etc. We have met more Americans here than anywhere else we've been in India. We wanted to see "the city" life of New Delhi, so we skipped all the old stuff and sought out the hotspots of the "moneyed middle class," as the buzz phrase goes.

We found them jogging at Lodi Gardens, a type of Central Park. We loved strolling here and welcomed the feeling that we weren't so foreign here--there seemed to be lots of expats with families enjoying the green lawns and shady trees. We then went to a shopping center and purchased discounted designer glasses. We spent the night talking and laughing with the other guests here. The next day we went to City Center to try and buy tickets to a Bollywood movie, but they were all sold out, so we happily ate gelato instead. We walked around a giant mall that had familiar chains, air-conditioning, and coffee bars.. where are we?! We couldn't believe this was the same India we had been immersed in for the last five weeks.

We rode with a friend to the Red Fort, checked out a Jain Temple (complete with Bird Hospital), and poked our heads into "Old Delhi," before returning home to a home-cooked meal.

Overall, we liked New Delhi a lot but realize that our guest house probably set this positive tone. We are glad to be finishing our trip here and I'm sure we'll revel in the memories of all of the things we forgot to mention on this blog during our early morning flight back to Athens.

We're looking forward to meeting up with Matt's parents in Greece for some quality time on the island of Santorini.

Namaste,

Teri & Matt