rishikesh has to be one of my favorite places in india. the blue grey color of the ganges is rad. it flows west carving a valley into the foothills of the himalayas making for sunsets which are about as good as sunsets get. and what’s more there are numerous small (to tiny) white sand beaches along its banks. the city itself is quite small and uncrowded which is a nice break from the other indian cities i’ve been to. it’s just as hilly and vista-y as san francisco as well. i say all that to say that rishikesh is idyllic.
anna and i spent most of our time walking along the river or hiking into the foohills. we made it to the now abandoned ashram where the beatles stayed. it’s only sort of abandoned though. some people appear to be living there and the rest of it is occupied by the largest spiders i have ever seen. these spiders are quite prevalent around rishikesh actually, unfortunate for this swedish girl at our guest house who greeted us outside her room asking, “are you afraid of spiders?” and then asked for our help getting rid of a tiny spider that had crawled onto her bag.
after rishikesh we headed down to delhi. anna had to catch her flight to australia and i had to arrange my visa for nepal. delhi seems pretty standard as asian cities go and admittedly i’m not a fan. delhi reminds me quite a bit of bangkok. both are large, crowded, loud, smoggy, hot, and i only seem to go there while i’m trying to get someplace else. that said i found all the government buildings to be very interesting. they are all quite various shades of the same earthy red with nifty domes and cornices. and. i would definitely recommend a look at the national gallery of modern art. almost entirely indian artists, the collection is an interesting look at european modernism springing from hindu culture instead of christian. much of the artwork there is a result of the british introducing realism and later styles during its occupation of india. not to mention that a trip to a museum ensures a couple hours of quiet and air conditioning.
in order to get my nepal visa i first had to get extra pages for my passport. i’ve never been to a us embassy before and it did not disappoint. nearly all the embassies in delhi are located in the same area. the us one, however, was the only one with a huge line of indians waiting (inside and out) to get visas. when i arrived at the embassy i was ushered past the visa line to the services for american citizens area. the difference between the american and visa applicant areas is like the difference between first class and economy on an airplane. the visa area also got to watch propaganda videos with colin powell describing how much the us has done for india. say what you will about that matter, but personally i’m always annoyed when i’m being advertized to after i’ve already clearly decided to buy the product.
the most notable thing to me however was that the bathroom in the us embassy is the only bathroom i’ve used in india in which i was able to dry my hands afterwards. from sea to shining sea!
once my passport was sorted out i took a train down to agra. the train was to depart from the new delhi railway station. now, also like bangkok, most backpackers stay in the seeming buttcrack of the city. in delhi this area is called paharganj. my theory is that these cities do this to keep the rowdy backpackers out of the face of the people who live and work in the city. however, in delhi’s case paharganj is filled with just as many indians as any other part of delhi. including one day a huge parade of grade schools through the main bazaar of paharganj. it seemed to be mainly a sikh affair which included young male sikh sword dancers and younger female bagpipers … seriously. however. this is not my point. i had to get from paharganj to the train station. naturally, i walked until i found a rickshaw driver. i asked him to take me to the station and then we haggled over the price. he wouldn’t go low enough so i decided to try another. he said something about walking to the end of the bazaar, but i couldn’t really understand him. the bazaar is crazy so i decided that walking the two blocks to get to the end of it was a good idea in any case. once i got to the end i found another rickshaw driver to take me to new delhi railway station. he looked at me and then point across the street to the building with big letters saying, “new delhi railway station.” ah … tourists.
agra is where people go to see the taj mahal. where i am right now. like poutine and canada the taj mahal is the premier tourist attraction in india. and there’s reason. i will join the billion people before me and say that this place is “breathe-taking”. i was somewhat ready for the “grandeur” of the outside, but wasn’t quite ready for how intensely ornate (and entirely marble) the inside is where photography is prohibited.
the taj mahal has quite a history though. most people know the general story. the emperor shah jahan commissioned it for his second wife, mumtaz mahal, after she died in childbirth as a monument to his love for her. things i didn’t know, however, include that shah jahan paid for the construction by levying an oppressive pilgrimage tax on hindus (the majority of india was governed by muslims at this point) and that he amputated the hands and thumbs of many of the laborers so that they couldn’t replicate it. what goes around comes around though. his son, aurangzeb, facilitated by the instability caused by the hindu pilgrimage tax, imprisoned shah jahan and killed all of his brothers in order to take power.
but that was like 400 years ago. now the place is full of tourists and, at least this morning, fog. the fog is nearly as impressive as the taj mahal. pouring off the yamuna river behind the monument it became so thick at times that i couldn’t see the three story tall minarets which were only 50 yards from me. coo-ool.