♦Guest post by Jeff Kalinowski♦
India is one of those places that many of us (notably Jimmy, Alysia and myself) have wanted to visit for a long time – but we were all put off by the rumors of insane levels of poverty, overcrowdedness, and general inefficiency that plague the country. So when Dhruv offered to take us to his homeland and act as our private tour guide, we were thrilled that he could help us overcome these challenges and we could share this awesome experience together! Our trip began in the northern state of Rajasthan (the subject of this post) before moving on to the city of Agra in Uttar Pradesh, and then finally to Goa – both of which will be covered in future posts by Alysia and Dhruv.
One of the charms of India that I discovered on this trip was in noting the differences within India itself. Because India was formed from hundreds of small fiefdoms which were only aggregated due to British colonization in the 1700’s, the food, clothing, and culture in different regions still have unique subtleties, and Rajasthan is no exception. Rajasthan is a state in northeast India that borders Pakistan. Its strategic location connecting the Middle East and much of Asia to the Indian sub-continent has left it rife with remnants of the area’s history, including numerous forts, palaces, and temples with varied cultural and religious symbolism.
Much of the state is also a desert climate, which may not be so surprising given its proximity to the Middle East. One of the fun features of the Rajasthani people’s dress is that they’re known for wearing vibrant colors to help offset the drab desert environment – although personally I found that Indian dress everywhere was exceptionally colorful and fun (and resulted in some amazing clothing purchases by the Lovgrens and me!).
We met up with Alysia and Jimmy in Rajasthan’s capital city of Jaipur. While none of us had heard of this city before our visit (except Dhruv – who planned the trip), it turns out that it is a sprawling metropolis of roughly 5 million people. Jaipur’s oldtown district is known as the ‘Pink City’, as the entire area – including the building exteriors and surrounding city walls – has been painted this color since the 1800’s, when it was initially done so in honor of a visit from the British royal family.
Despite the crowded conditions and massive amount of people, I was constantly delighted to find rural elements in this urban landscape. Notably, there was a constant presence of cows almost everywhere we went. Cows are considered sacred in the Hindu religion, and most people in India find it offensive to eat them. Instead, they are revered and even occasionally used to convey prayers to the Hindu gods (yes, I mean to say that people pray to cows in the street!).
The result of this deeply rooted custom is that cows seem almost as numerous as the people, and can be found all along the roadway eating trash, sniffing at market stalls, or crossing the road to block traffic. In fact, we briefly considered starting a business there involving ‘trash-fed cows’ since the ‘grass-fed’ variety is so popular in the U.S., but we weren’t sure if it would garner the same level of enthusiasm. In addition to cows, there were pigs, goats, monkeys, dogs, mules, horses, camels, and the occasional elephant sharing the roads with us. It was a real hoot.
Stay tuned for an upcoming blog from Jimmy on our driving experience in India; it sounds weird, but we all agreed that this topic warranted its own special blog post!
We stayed for the first few nights at a palace of the King of Jaipur as his invited guests. Well, I guess paying guests is probably a more accurate description, since he now leases out this particular palace as a hotel to earn income from tourists. And yes, the royal family of Jaipur remains in place from the good old fiefdom days, despite the federal and state governments that have been formed to unite and govern all of India. It’s sort of the like British Royal family – people follow the royals’ lives with interest and respect, but the family now has limited influence and power. In any case, the palace was a gorgeous space with sprawling lawns, intricate details, and of course, fantastic food.
We spent every morning having breakfast on the veranda listening to the peaceful sounds of a flute player in the courtyard playing traditional music, watching flocks of pigeons and peacocks on the lawn, and enjoying a diverse breakfast of northern Indian foods.
Northern Indian cuisine, we came to learn, is primarily focused on breads and heavily cooked vegetables (most often cooked with a lot of butter and oil). Alysia and Jimmy seemed a little concerned at first about eating vegetarian food – which is common in India, since the majority Hindus don’t eat meat – but I think we were all pleasantly surprised by the wide variety of flavor profiles and great taste of the vegetarian foods we sampled. This included: Paranthas, which are thin breads stuffed with various fillings like potatoes, cauliflower, or radishes; Puri Aloo, which is a combination of a fluffy fried bread with a potato curry; and Poha, a light rice dish mixed with peanuts and mustard seeds (yes, the Indians love their carbs!).
The breakfast options even included some South Indian foods, such as: Dosas, which are rice crepes filled with potatoes or paneer (Indian cheese); Idlis – which are puffy, moist rice cakes and usually dipped or soaked in coconut chutney and a light lentil soup known as ‘Dal’; and one of my favorites – Uttapams, an open-face rice ‘pizza’ with tomatoes, onions, etc. for toppings.
We also had Indian ‘street food’ at a mall food court. We all love street food as a general rule, but were concerned about the hygiene of the food preparation of the actual food vendors in the streets (where, in some cases, the taste of the vendor’s sweaty hands and arms are alleged to enhance the flavor profile of the food), so Dhruv directed us to the local mall for a safer, cleaner variety. That included Vada Pav, a staple in the city of Mumbai that is a fried ball of potatoes in a roll-like bread, and Chana Bhatura, a giant fried, crispy bread with Chana Masala.
In addition to the vegetarian dishes, we still got to eat plenty of lamb and goat – which was amazing. One of the best meals we had was at Cinnamon, the 5-star restaurant located in our palace hotel.
The highlight of the meal was a dish called Raan, a whole leg of lamb that has been spiced and roasted to heavenly perfection.
This stuff just melted in your mouth and had to be one of the best things we ate on the entire trip. We also had an amazing dessert called Rabri Malpua, which is a sweet pancake covered in sugar syrup and thickened, sweetened milk.
My other favorite dessert (there were so many favorites its hard to keep track) was Kheer, a rice pudding flavored with cardamom, saffron, and pistachios.
But in order to earn all of this rich and flavorful food, we knew we had to see the sights and work up an appetite (or said another way, work off all the carbs!). So, on our first day in Jaipur, we decided to check out Nahargarh fort.
This is one of three forts built to protect the city when it was built, and they are all connected by what is known as the ‘Great Wall of India’. At 36 kilometers long, this is the 3rd longest contiguous wall in the world (although a guide later pointed out that it will get bumped down to 4th place if the U.S. builds a wall along the Mexican border).
We hiked around the fort and along its walls, surmising about historical events that must have taken place there. As a reward for trekking around in the hot sun all afternoon, we stopped for a bite and some local Kingfisher beer at a café inside the fort. There we had our first sampling of a cuisine that was new to the non-Indians of our group: Indo-Chinese. This blend of Indian and Chinese cooking is the most ingenious idea ever, as it blends the best of both foods into a delectable fusion. We had Chili Chicken as a mid-afternoon snack and enjoyed the views of the massive city of Jaipur below.
While we all agreed that Nahargarh Fort was pretty impressive, we had no idea of what lay in store for us during a tour we embarked on the next morning. We started with a quick stop at the Hawa Mahal, or Wind Palace, inside the Pink City. This was a beautifully-constructed, intricately-designed palace intended to allow the ladies of the royal family to view street festivals and parades as they took place on the streets below.
An old custom in this region resulted in women remaining hidden from the public behind screens, which allowed them to view scenes outside without being on full display to the public, and also catch a breeze from upper balconies given the intense summer heat. We also stopped for a quick view of the Jal Mahal, or Water Palace, which was built in the middle of a man-made lake and remains accessible only by boat. Unfortunately, this palace is not open to the public, so we were limited to viewing it from the outside.
Our next stop, however, not only allowed visitors but took several hours to explore fully. This was our visit to the most popular of Jaipur’s forts: the Amber Fort.
This very large structure includes numerous small palaces built within the fort, which housed the royal family and their guests. The combination of the size, intricacy, and elegance of the space was astonishing.
Visitors had the option of taking a jeep or an elephant up the steep hill to arrive through the outer fort’s gates, before disembarking to journey through the structure on foot (we chose the jeep since the elephants are not given proper care and we didn’t want to encourage that practice). While the outer structure of the fort was impressive, the interior included a large, well-maintained garden separating the palace of the queen and the palace of the king. The queen’s palace included many of the previously mentioned shades for her to look out from, shallow pools of water to help her to keep cool in the summer, and colorful carvings inlaid into the walls.
The king’s palace, though, was the real star of the show. Known as the Sheesh Mahal, or Mirror Palace, the walls and ceilings are decorated with tiny pieces of glass and precious stones.
Legend has it that the king, or maharaja, at the time it was built had promised his queen that he would bring the night stars to her, since she loved looking at the night sky so much. And as intended by the maharaja’s architects, when you place a candle within the palace, the light flickers across every single tiny piece of glass throughout the interior, creating a sea of stars while the king and queen slept inside. It was truly an impressive sight – although admittedly difficult to fully appreciate the light display through pictures.
Our next stop was to Jantar Mantar: basically a collection of 19 giant astronomical instruments built by Maharaja Sawaii Jai Singh II in the early 1700’s. This place contains the world’s largest stone sundial and is a UNESCO heritage site.
As the only non-science nerd amongst our group (sorry Dhruv, Alysia and Jimmy!), I can’t say it got my juices flowing quite like it did for the rest of my crew. But, the size of these instruments, and the precision with which they still work today, does seem rather impressive considering they were built so long ago. Apparently, the sun dial is still accurate to within 2 seconds of time.
Our last stop on the tour was to the King of Jaipur’s current palace. Known as City Palace (or Chandra Mahal in Hindi) and located inside the Pink City, this is yet another extravagant building in Jaipur that’s, well, for a king.
While there is a special section of the building where the family spends their time that is not open to the public, we got to experience the rest of the opulent palace. This included a special apartment for guests where Princess Diana and Prince Charles have stayed, as well as Oprah Winfrey and a number of other celebrities (apparently the royals of Jaipur are pretty popular?!). One of my favorite rooms in the palace was the Golden Room of Shobha Niwas, which is a prayer room made of marble and gold columns, which is still used by the royal family on religious holidays.
The top floor of the palace was 6 stories up, with open-air walls to allow the wind to blow freely to help cool off the royal residents in the time before air conditioning. Summers in this part of the world can reach temperatures above 130 degrees fahrenheit, so the extra lengths people took hundreds of years ago to achieve a nice breeze seems like it might have been worth the effort! The interior of this level was blue to match the color of the sky, and – much like every other floor – the hand carvings along the columns, arches, and walls were highly intricate and offer a good illustration of the detail weaved into Indian palatial architecture.
All in all, we were highly impressed with the historic structures built in Jaipur that still endure today. It seems like this is a spot that should be on more travel lists given the rich history and beautiful art and architecture.
But our experience in Rajasthan did not end here. While we had a great time experiencing what life might have been like for the locals hundreds of years ago, we also wanted to check out the life of locals that remain today in Rajasthan, outside the big city of Jaipur. Fortunately for us, just such an opportunity presented itself. There is a simulated Rajasthani village called Choki Dhani outside of the city that allows visitors to come in to experience different aspects of the Rajasthani people’s daily lives: including local dances and activities, camel and elephant rides, and a Thali-style dinner – which is sort of like a buffet where the waiter comes around with buckets of food and offers it to diners.
Our village experience began with local women performing a traditional dance– who promptly encouraged Alysia to jump onstage and join them. With a little cajoling from her loving husband and dear friends, she was finally persuaded, and she learned some sweet Rajasthani moves that she showcased in tandem with the other dancers.
We also saw a very strange puppet show (since the Rajasthani consider this a core tradition of their ancestors), banged on a big gong (because who turns down banging on a gong?), and Dhruv and I almost died riding a camel.
It’s possible that I’m exaggerating that last point just a little, but it sure felt like that camel was doing its best to throw us off it. Dhruv, apparently, thought our near-death experience was the best thing ever.
While we didn’t know it at the time, Alysia was about to enter her own near-death experience… based on the food we had for dinner. At a traditional Rajasthani Thali, everyone sits on the floor and the waiters circulate scoops of food onto banana-leaf plates and bowls set out for you. We weren’t actually sure what a lot of it was, but it seemed like every item contained at least a fourth a stick of butter, several table spoons of oil, and lots of delicious spices. The Rajasthanis love butter so much, that when they noticed Jimmy wasn’t eating the extra sides of butter they had provided for him, the waiter actually tried to spoon straight-up butter right into Jimmy’s mouth for him! Constantly calling out his massive size, they were kind enough to offer/force double the amount of food everyone else got onto Jimmy, and made a show of giving him extra scoops of everything.
But the thing is — while the spices make everything taste great, all that butter and oil will eventually take you down. And for poor Alysia, she was feeling it the next day. But, you know Alysia – nothing can keep that girl down. While she was forced to pass on the spicy Indian foods for the next day in order to recover, she took everything else stride and kept going. Two pounds of butter and oil in her stomach was NOT going to mess with her vacation!!!
Our last day in Rajasthan was spent in transit to Agra, in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh. However, since we were driving by car, we were able to make some incredible stops along the way. First, we took a slight detour on our route to visit the Monkey Temple, which celebrates Lord Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god. There is a special mountain spring at the top of the temple which flows into several pools, where the pious come to bathe in the sacred waters. In addition to seeing the ornate temple built into the side of two adjacent cliffs, we were attracted by the hoards of monkeys roaming freely all around the immediate vicinity. Being a worshipping place of the monkey god, it only seems natural that people would bring offerings of bananas and other food for the monkeys, and that hundreds of them inevitably make a very comfortable home in the small village and cliffsides surrounding the temple.
Our second stop was to the Chand Baori stepwell. Sometimes considered one of the most overlooked landmarks in the country (although I would put Amber Fort in that category as well), this stepwell is the largest in the world. Now is the time you may be asking yourself: that sounds nice… but what the heck is a stepwell? Its basically a giant hole in the ground (e.g. a well) with steps leading to the bottom (e.g. a step-well). People in India created and used them to store water, and additionally utilized them as gathering places to meditate, keep cool, and socialize.
We had seen smaller versions of stepwells at the forts in Jaipur, but the Chand Baori took them to a whole new level. Believed to have been built by King Chanda sometime in the 9th century, this structure seemed more like an upside-down Egyptian pyramid, with 3,500 symmetric steps on all four sides going down 13 stories into the ground. There were also carved-out platforms in the rock where performances may have been delivered to large audiences sitting on the steps.
It felt a bit like an auditorium that was built down into the ground instead of above it. Once again, the thought of such an impressive undertaking being built in this area a thousand years ago was awe-inspiring.
Overall, the state of Rajasthan proved India to be everything I had hoped for: a unique culture, history, and architecture – combined with awesome food, friends, and so much fun. Add in the monkeys and cows and I just don’t see how we can top this one…
Or… can we? Guess you’ll have to wait in anticipation of Alysia’s upcoming blog about Agra to find out!
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