This past weekend Stacy, Karen, David (aka 'Wies') headed to the GOLDEN TRIANGLE! It was one of my favorite trips so far. The famous Golden Triangle of India covers three beautiful cities -- Delhi (the capital of India), Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) and Jaipur ("Pink City" and land of Rajput kings.) The forts, palaces, architecture, color, art and history epitomizes India and its beauty. Each city is unique in its own, all three remain popular tourist destinations for tourists like us and are easy to drive to (5hr drive away from each.)
Agra
Friday night we flew into Delhi and drove to Gurgaon to stay at Karen's house. Saturday morning we drove to Agra, 250km north. I felt like I was taking a road trip down highway 5. We stopped at a little trucker stop which looked just like any other trucker stop -- food, overpriced goodies, lots of tourists stretching their legs. The hawkers along the truck stops (and in all of northern India) were really aggressive and tried to get you to pay them for anything. One guy had a bear on a rope dancing in hopes that we'd take a picture! It was really disturbing.We arrived in Agra, Stacy and I stayed at the Trident Hilton which was a nice, quaint hotel about 1.5km from the Taj Mahal. Wies and Karen opted for the Oberoi which overlooked the Taj from their window. The Oberoi is by far the classiest hotel chain in India, look at my webalbum for photos, it's extremely illuminating and beautiful. I shopped a little in Agra with our driver, Ram Babu, then headed to the Oberoi for a massage and dinner with everyone. It was a fun day just relaxing and taking it easy at the hotel.
Next morning we woke up at 5am to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise! (Click here for more info.) We were told it was the best time to go, so we headed to the Oberoi and took a golf cart to the front entrance. Already, hawkers approached us wanting to sell us postcards and gadgets. Stacy had to tell them she'd come back to them later (and sure enough, they remembered her when we were leaving.) It cost us $15USD to walk in, there were tons of tourists there waiting for the sun to rise. We all felt like we were kids going to Disneyland, we were SO excited to be seeing one of the 7 wonders of the world!!!
That's me and the Taj
The Taj was absolutely amazing -- words cannot even convey its beauty. The story behind the Taj -- Emperor Shah made this monument for his passed wife. According to history, it took 30 years to build with help of 20,000 workers. They hired European experts to come in to help with the artchitecture. It is believed that Shah had the hands chopped off of these 20,000 workers so nothing could ever be built like it again (not sure if this story is true.) A romantic monument with architecture, nice place to share with friends and loved ones.
Me, Karen, Stacy and Wies posing with the Taj Mahal!
Jaipur
After the Taj we headed to Jaipur, jumped back in the car with Ram Babu and rocked out to Indian tunes. Arrived to a beautiful city, by far my favorite in India. Jaipur, also known famously as the Pink City, also the capital of Rajasthan state. It's called the pink city because all the cities are painted pink. They did this to protect the buildings from the reflection of sun rays. Although I haven't been to Europe myself, it felt like I was walking along the streets of Europe. Gorgeous, gorgeous architecture, it was breathtaking. We checked into our hotel, Park Plaza, then went shopping along Jauhari, Bapu and Nehru Bazars all bordering each other. There we found a large collection of quilts, fabrics, handicrafts, jewelry... I bought some fun pajamas, shawls and bangles. Stacy found herself a cute little Santa to give away as part of her white elephant gift! Her and Wies also got some drums I bargained for (I bargained for them to be $2 each!) On a whim (total whim), Stacy and I got our hands painted with henna! It's called Mehndi design -- where women will paint their hands, feet and back with henna. Click here for photos of Mehndi designs. It was fun, it's still on my hands and should last a few weeks. Later that night we went to Four Seasons -- a family joint serving Indian and Multicuisine (which I've come to understand as just Indian and Chinese foods haha.)
Delhi
Before heading back to Delhi, Wies decided we go see one of the famous forts in Jaipur, so we visited the famous Amer Fort on the Jaipur-Delhi highway. What a great fort to pick! We got to ride elephants to the top (our first elephant rides!) It was a lot of fun, they kinda stunk but I braved through it for the chance to ride one :) Amazing architecture, and the weather was perfect!
Our last stop of the triangle was where we started, in Delhi. Delhi is the current state capital of India, and by far the most developed. It's a big metro city, old and new, urbanized and well structured and home to over 15 million people. I wish we had more time in Delhi to explore, maybe another trip and another time. We ate at the Oberoi again in hopes of tasting some of this delicious sushi Karen and Durand would rave about. Unfortunately they closed, so I guess I'll have to wait for sushi until I get back home :(
No wonder why tons of tourists flock to the Golden Triangle, it's beautiful!!! I wish I had more time to explore the North to such cities like Udaipur, Jodphur, Jammu... ah, another time!
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