Vinod and the Taj

Man. I've done a fair bit of traveling lately, but I've never been beaten down like India. It's way intense. Talking to other traveler's it seems like they're in the same boat. There's SOOOO many people, animals, cars, rickshaws, bikes, camels, cows, dogs, bisons and more wandering the streets...you name it, they've probably got it. I think that traditional backpacking is probably very difficult to do your first trip in India...at least through the touristy areas and with limited time. All the other backpackers we've run across have relented and gone through travel agencies to book drivers, trains and/or hotels. Should've probably booked the tix back home, but who can plan for a 3 week trip months in advance? With my ever changing moods, it's just not feasible. Anyhoo, things are on the up and up. We've (thank god) gotten out of crazy Delhi and into slightly less crazy Jaipur (with a stopover in Agra). And our moods have considerably increased. It's not that we were in a bad mood before, but we were a little on edge. Didn't know who to trust or what was legit or not. So far, so good though. For me, I'm just concentrating on breathing;) After my stomach troubles, they conveniently proceeded into a cold, complete with sore throat, drippy nose, and fatigue. I feel like a semi has hit me, and breathing all the polluted air is a huge relief;)

We've had a driver (Vinod) the past few days and he's been awesome. Tells lots of funny stories and looks out after us giving us advice and who to avoid and such. Ali and he always sing "from Chandni Chowk to China" (a recent Bollywood hit) and he's taken to calling her China. The other day she was sleeping in the backseat, and he asked me "is China sleeping?" pretty hilarious. Told me a story yesterday about a Japanese tourist that came and saw a few semis tipped over on the side of the road and was wondering what happened. He told her that they don't have jacks in India to change tires, so they flip the semis over to change the tires....she believed him until he started laughing!! Seems like everywhere I go the locals have funny stories to tell about the Japanese tourists;) He told us how they fly to India just to take a picture of the Taj Mahal and then go right back! He told one guy that a temple was the Taj Mahal...the guy proceeded to take a ton of photos of it and was ready to go back to Delhi! How can you not know what the Taj Mahal looks like, and still fly all the way over to see it?! pretty crazy to me. Anyhoo, Vino's been awesome. and the Taj Mahal...wow, words cannot express how beautiful it was. I'm usually not a fan of huge touristy sties, but this one was incredible. So simply and elegant yet very majestic and detailed. Simply heavenly;) Michelle, Ali and I were all lost for words.

So being an obvious tourist here and going to touristy areas, we've gotten a lot of harassing to buy stuff. Rather than be rude and grumpy about it, it's been a lot of fun to joke around with them, and it makes my day to get a smile from them in return...I'm sure they can't enjoy the grumpy tourists all day long;) So I try to make it fun for both of us, as annoying as it is. I've learned a few Hindi words which has done wonders. One kid was shocked and said "oh Hindi" and left us alone. One persistently buggy kid I told "bas" which means enough, to which he thought a minute and then responded with "bas station is over there madam" to which we both burst out laughing and left on a very cheery note. Another kid I told him I would take his touristy gift for free, to which he laughed and shook my hand good bye. And then there was the cutest little boy in the mosque in Fatehpour Sikri, an ancient abandoned town. He was 8 and knew a few words in lots of languages, even Farsi! He was such a good little salesman and spoke so convincingly I burst out laughing...he was also very persistant. I couldn't resist and gave him and his older brother some gum. Another bunch of boys saw him chewing gum and asked me for some to which the little boy said "no madam has no gum" (which I clearly did since he had been with me for about 15 minutes in which he had gotten the gum)...after realizing it was obvious that I did have some gum and gave it to him he quickly changed his story to "madam has only 5 pieces of gum, to which she has already given to 5 little boys!" what a little shaytun! I always seem to fall for the cute little boys though and he was quite a character.

Did a bit of shopping today. I've never been a huge fan of bargaining, but apparently I've learned some from you dad. I kept talking the guy down and didn't budge much and eventually got it down to a very reasonable level. I was happy but wasn't quite sure how much it actually went for so I asked Vinod and he said the shopkeeper told him in Hindi that I was very smart;) so apparently it went alright. Too bad we were to shocked to do it for our tour;) oh well, you live you learn right?

Unfortunately, (and this really is the saddest thing of all) Ali and I have yet to eat really good Indian food...in fact, I would say so far it's been much better at home. Since becoming sick, I haven't been able to stomach it too much and the stuff we've eaten is just touristy garbage. I'm looking forward to trying some local places again soon once I'm feeling up to par. Tomorrow though we're going to see a Bollywood film in the cinema, so we're super stoked. Jaipur has a beautiful palace and we got to see them preparing to shoot a new Bollywood film inside it....was pretty cool to watch the preparations for it. Anyhoo, here's to better Indian food in the near future.