Electrical system in Delhi
Emma and I with some of our fans at the India gate in Delhi
From the overcrowded streets of Delhi we carried onto Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Seeing the Taj for the first time literally takes your breath away. I have never seen something more beautiful before. The white marble is so extravagant and beautiful, it doesn't even seem real. You feel as if you are in the Disney movie Aladdin or dreaming just waiting to wake up. My senses were heightened as well by the excessive amount of people that visited the Taj this very weekend. Little did we know that it was the anniversary of Sha Jahan's death, the emperor whom built the tomb for his favorite wife that passed away. Because of the holiday, free entry was given to every person that came into the Taj this weekend. Indian women dressed in their best sari's of gorgeous colors to come witness one of the 8 wonders of the world, which our guide informed us is something that some of the local population waits a lifetime to see. The last Moghul decendent, Prince Tuci also graced his presence at the Taj that afternoon. Considering we were the only "fair skinned" within the walls of the Taj, we pointed at him and luckily Emma and I snagged a picture with royalty. I felt so excited to be there and even as I type this I still can't even really believe that I visited the Taj Mahal. It is something I never dreamed of doing so I feel extremely grateful for the experience.
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Prince Tuci
Agra was hard to leave considering we had a view of the Taj from our balcony window from the hotel, but it was a quick one-night stay as we continued onto Jaipur "the pink city" of India. At it's building, the entire city was painted pink and continues to oblige by the law stating that the buildings must retain their facade. Like with Delhi, crossing the street is always a life-threatening experience as you will rarely, if ever, see a break in the traffic. The only way you are the manage crossing is watching every side of your body, slowly inch your way forward and pray. Makes even driving difficult when cows have the right-away and act like the Michael Corrleone's that they are within all of India. There will be no rib-eyes of rare filets for this carnivore anytime soon!
Jaipur really has a spirit of its own. Being the textile and gem center of India, women walk around with the most intricate designs/fabrics on their saris. Max and Alex found a tailor to use these vibrant patterns to make their smoking jacket dreams come alive, but they didn't stop there. Max proceeded to have made his long-wanted linen suit and alex is currently satisfied with his choice at pinstripe glory, all being done under 200 bucks.
As the boys were getting fitted, Lisa found a resurfaced sense of energy when her vertigo symptoms went away and she got to experience the luxury of a private Indian hospital. Took Alex a bit of convincing, but she finally parted with the first class medical service. Lisa aggressively haggled shop-owners down to their cheapest prices through out the bazaar. Of course, we have to keep reminding her "yes, Lisa, you are the best shopper," as she continued to weave her way in-and-out of various shops along the street, getting a new high with every new bargain. "Go Go Go" is currently the theme of this trip, or so we have figured out...all of my mother and Lisa's travels. If the bazaar of Jaipur didn't know intense Jewish mothers before, Cathy Jo and Lisa Goldman have now made the shop owners a tiny bit frightened. This "Go Go Go" mentality for a little further emphasis has correlated to roughly three members of the group going down a day with a fever. Don't worry, all have recovered.
I took my first elephant ride in Jaipur, up to the Amber Fort. Never again will I ride an elephant for a tourist attraction. Metal bull-hooks punctured the ears of every elephant. These elephants are subject to constant confinement and mal-treatment as you can see by the color of the skin where the beautiful grey hydes have slowly been splattered by a light pink color because of the lack of wild greens in their diet. India is home to 50-60% of Asia's elephant population and being the animal lover that I continue to be, this really struck me hard when I saw this happen. Eleaid has made major strides in preventing poaching in the last 15 years, but still elephants are struggling through out India because of their loss of habitat. I recently got the pleasure of seeing wild elephants in the mountain town of Munnar (in southern india), its was so beautiful and peaceful to see animals in their own environment, but with all the shouting going on by the local population...you realize this is fading very fast. Our guide through out Munnar told us an incredible story from May 1st of this year:
May 1st is a holiday within India and the streets along one of the roads (close to where elephants roam) were jam-packed with cars. A wild female elephant came to the road in order to get down to the lake for a drink of water when one ignorant man decided to drunkenly throw his beer bottle at her. Getting upset like any other mammal would do if this happened to them, the elephant started stomping on the parked cars along the road...lifting them up with her trunk and smashing the hoods with her feet. The people were generally out of their cars as she was doing this, but on her rampage, the elephant began to lift the hood of a car where a mother had come to feed her baby. The elephant had managed to demolish 5 or 6 cars before picking up this one...but as the trunk lifted up the hood, the elephant slowly put it back down to the ground sensing the mom/innocent child that sat within. Her senses brought her to put it down. If this isn't an incredible animal, I don't know what is. The elephant put that car down and crushed the one right behind it the guide told me today. Pretty remarkable what animals sense and how they can maybe live amongst people if people weren't so destructive.
If you want to help or aid the Elephant conservation efforts, you should all visit the Eleaid website.
With Munnar came the jungle mountains, fresh air and exercise all of us were extremely excited to take. I have currently learned to play gin and continue to be pretty bad at it. Banana-grams is a new family favorite, minus the fact that Lisa has managed to memorize all the scrabble two-letter words regardless if she knows the meaning or not. We are still in debate whether this is the correct way to play banana-grams or if we are just giving the Goldman family a little handicap.
Typical Jarwhol on top of our hike in Munnar...see Human Planet for reference
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