shopping in india

We were "forced" to visit at least one agency-sanctioned shopping center every day that we were in India. Except for the carpet place in Jaipur, they all sold the same things-- clothes, jewelry, furniture, accessories-- that all looked the same.

Now that I think about it, there are probably hundreds of carpet places in the cities that we visited. But I enjoyed this one anyway.

I have a new appreciation for expensive handmade carpets, the operative word being "expensive".

They also have a woodblock printing workshop.

As we were leaving, they gave Desmond the piece of cloth that he "personally" printed as a souvenir. But actually, there was a stack of identical ones, already pre-made, under the table. The demo was fun, at any rate.

second day in india: lunch & dinner

When we arrived at Hotel Laxmi Vilas (yez, that's how it's spelled) in Bharatpur City for lunch on 23 September 2012, it was already 330PM.

It's actually a palace that was built by the maharajah's brother in 1887 and converted into a hotel in 1994. So interesting! Too bad we didn't stay there. We could have, since it's only one hour away from Agra i.e. Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri. Plus Bharatpur has its own attractions such as the Iron Fort and the bird sanctuary. Ah, well.

second day in india: fatehpur sikri

From the Taj Mahal, we rushed back to the coffee shop of Radisson Hotel Agra for breakfast-- our third meal at the same place in less than 24 hours. And then we checked out of the hotel, got back on our bus and drove for a little over an hour to reach Fatehpur Sikri.

The city of Agra has three UNESCO World Heritage Sites and this was my favorite.

mother's taj mahal outfit

Thanks to our shutterbug travel companions, here are some more pictures of my mother at the Taj Mahal. After all, she did buy an outfit especially for that day. It is now hanging in the black hole/ treasure chest/ Pandora's box that is her closet. Will it ever see the light of day again? Will we ever go back to India, or perhaps attend an Indian wedding? Who knows? But if we do, she will definitely be ready.

From Karen:

Our tour guide Mr. Singh tells us the story of the Taj Mahal.  So serious.

From Desmond:

Posing in front of one of the four 40 meter tall minarets.

second day in india: taj mahal

I don't think I can say anything about the Taj Mahal that hasn't been said before-- about its majesty, its beauty and the immortal love story. It's so famous that everyone has heard or read about it and tend to think of it as familiar. But the truth is, nothing can really prepare you for the first time you meet her.

We arrived at the Taj Mahal complex at 730AM on 23 September 2012. Our tour guide gathered us in front of the main gate (darzawa) for a briefing, but you could tell that all of us were just itching to go inside.

After a 20-minute history lesson, we finally went through the gateway and there she was. My first view of the Taj Mahal, bathed in golden morning sunshine.

agra fort: other people's photos

We were in and out of Agra Fort in an hour and a half. It pained me to treat a UNESCO World Heritage Site like a McDonald's drive-through. It took about 20 minutes just to get from the entrance to the center of the complex. Our tour guide then gave us the super-short mandatory history lesson that I couldn't pay attention to because I just wanted to start shooting. When he finally let us go, the sun was setting and we had barely 40 minutes to see everything. Of course it wan't enough and I missed a lot of details.

Herein lies the advantage of traveling with a group of people who all have cameras and who don't mind giving copies of their stuff. Sharing is caring.

While going through everyone's JPEG files, I found out some things about my friends. Such as...

I now know that Jerry likes to take pictures of signs and maps, and he was the only one whose entryway and garden shots were properly exposed.

india: day one

Our Philippine Airlines flight left Manila at 6:40PM on 21 September 2012. With a stopover midway in Bangkok where we had to stay inside the plane while the clean-up crew did their business, we arrived at our hotel in Delhi, The Claridges Surajkund, about ten hours later, which to us was 5AM the next day.

We had to have breakfast, check out and board the coach by 9AM, Delhi time. Since Manila time is actually 2.5 hours ahead, it wasn't so bad because we still managed five hours of sleep. That didn't give me enough time to take decent pictures of our hotel, though. Suffice it to say that The Claridges had the nicest beds, bathrooms and toiletries of the five hotels that we stayed in. You'd think that it's not worth paying for five-star accommodations for such a short stay, but I really appreciated it after being contorted inside a plane for so long.

I was quite apprehensive when I saw our itinerary because all our meals would be at hotel coffee shop buffets, but our first breakfast was not bad at all. Half of the spread was Western or continental food, while the other section featured local eats. All of our meals turned out to be like that. Of course, I avoided the non-Indian dishes as much as possible.

A hearty and somewhat spicy breakfast put a smile on my face and prepared me for the five-hour drive to the city of Agra. All we saw of Delhi was the airport and our hotel, but it was fine because our flight back home would be from Delhi anyway and a city tour was included in our package.

Our tour guide said that we came to India at the right time because they had just completed the Yamuna Expressway which significantly cut travel time.

views from inside a bus

Before I start on India, let me get this out of the way first. I am cringing as I type this because I never thought that I would ever do something like this, but what's done is done...

I joined a package tour.

There are so many reasons I don't do package tours. I could go on and on, but my biggest beef is the complete lack of interaction with the local people. No, asking the tour guide insipid and asinine questions does not count.

Sunset at India Gate, New Delhi, 25 September 2012. We didn't even get off the bus.