Pink Cities and Taj Mahals

I had quite the introduction to India in Mumbai and I was more than ready to do some more exploring in this crazy country. At first I wasn’t sure at all where to go after Mumbai. I was first thinking of going South to Goa, the party capital of India, but my new Indian friends had all told me to go North first because it was starting to warm up and soon enough it would be wayyy too hot to enjoy anything in that area. So go north I did, and it was still already really, really hot. First stop: Jaipur, as recommended by my Indian friend from Mumbai, Akshay. Jaipur is the capital of the region of Rajasthan, which is one of India’s most famous and most visited regions. It’s mostly desert climate with a hot and intense dry heat. I quickly began to experience this heat shortly after I arrived. I sweated the entire time I was there.

Hawa Mahal

Jaipur is also known as the “Pink City” because of its old, gated historical center which is highlighted by its pink-colored buildings and gates. It’s quite picturesque and makes for a really cool place to walk around. I visited most of the touristy sites: forts, views, monkey temples, and palaces, and it was all worth a visit. I also had my first experience of illness from the food. I decided it was a good idea to try some free local street food at a little community function that was going on down the street from my hostel. It was a cool experience but it didn’t take long after eating that I already started to feel the stomach pain from the not-so-high quality free Indian street food. It kept me up all night and set me back a day, but I was fine after that.

I decided to go from Jaipur straight to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and get that out of the way. The Taj Mahal was obviously one of the reasons I had decided last minute to come to India anyway, and I was getting a little anxious to see it. I stayed one night there and caught it early in the morning for sunrise. My group was some of the first people to show up there and it was just incredible. Obviously one of the highlights of India for me so far, the Taj really does look even better in person. And the lack of crowds, cooler temperature, and beautiful lighting of the sunrise make for the perfect time of day to see it. I wouldn’t go to India just to see the Taj, but people actually do come to India just to see it for a reason. It really is an incredible piece of marble, and don’t let the excessive-mainstream-buildup-tourism prevent you from visiting it because it lives up to the hype.

Since we got up for sunrise I was already finished with the Taj by 9am, and decided to catch a bus to Delhi that day. Delhi’s the capital city, and is known to be a pretty hectic and intimidating place. There’s plenty of scammers and commission-seekers riddling the streets searching for Western prey, trying all they can to get as many rupees from your pocket into theirs as possible. This wasn’t entirely new to me however, and no scammers would benefit from my interaction. Instead, my experience led me to have some fun and comedic conversations with these would-be commission seekers, and each interaction led up to a persistent ‘no, thank you’ from my side that led them searching elsewhere. It was fun but exhausting, walking around with these guys coming up to you all the time trying to get something out of you. But nevertheless, it’s all part of the experience.

The coolest thing I saw in Delhi was the Akshardham Temple. A friend had recommended it to me and it was absolutely stunning. I hadn’t been to many temples yet, but so far I’ve been really impressed. This thing was huge, but the most impressive part was how intricately carved the walls of the temple were. Everywhere you looked there was a sculpture of a God, elephant, some religious symbol, or intricate pattern, which totaled to around 20,000 sculptures surrounding the building. It was yet another stunning site seen and another successful day in India.