Fatehpur Sikri 2

There was a treasury room, one room for gold, one for silver, and one for diamonds. There were narrow hallways between the rooms where guards would have stood watch. The guide said the emperor and his wives were said to have played hide and seek here. He creepily took my hand and tried to demonstrate how they would have skipped and played.

The other part of Fatehpur Sikri was a tomb built for a sufi. Akbar had had no sons, and this sufi blessed him and promised he would have one which is what happened. In thanks, he built this tomb for the sufi. It was in a large courtyard surrounded by walls and large gates made of red sandstone. The tomb itself was made of white marble and laid out similarly to the Taj Mahal. Around this were many other tombs in the red sandstone. There were many elaborate jalis cut into the sides of the building. The guide tried to get me to purchase an offering for the sufi, as it was a “charitable organization.” You supposedly also got your wish if you tied strings onto the jalis. I felt somewhat guilty for not giving an offering, so I threw in Rs 20 into the pot inside the tomb where worshippers were gathered.

At that point the tour was pretty much over, and the guide had mentioned before that his family did stone cutting work, and they had a small shop he wanted to show me. Again, I really didn't want anything, but it's hard to squeeze your way out of these things. There was a guy sitting in a shaded arcade with a bunch of marble pieces. It was the kind of thing where it's a elephant with stone cut out and they have somehow carved one or two more elephants inside it's belly. And marble cut out insense burners and candle holders. I really didn't want, and it was too hot to sit there. I was sweating buckets. He showed me how the marble changed color if you got it went, and said if you rubbed oil on it the colors would stay. I made the mistake of showing interest in a piece that could be a pen holder, incense holder, etc depending on which way you turned it. His first price was Rs. 1500 which was ridiculous! That's over $20, and I knew that it couldn't be more that Rs. 500. I was sick of playing that game, so I was up on my feet, but he stopped me. I could make out that the guide said to him in Hindi, that I live in Ahmedabad, I know the prices. I said I would pay no more than Rs. 300 for it. He lowered his price slightly; I said no, and he kept asking what my bottom price was. Finally I was fed up, and walked away. As we were walking to the car, the guide asked if I wanted this piece and said he could get it for Rs. 300 at a market at the entrance. Yeah, that's what I thought. Rs. 1500 my foot.

However he got the last laugh. Earlier in the tour, he must have realized that I was not going to just take any price without bargaining and that I knew how much things had cost. So he had mentioned that the place charged him Rs. 300 to get in to give the tour. I thought he meant for the entire day he had to pay Rs. 300. So I had been trying to figure out how much to pay him for the tour. I settled on Rs. 300 which I thought was overpaying, and I thought surely he would be satisfied with this. I should have known better by now. He protested and said that no, they charge him Rs. 300 for each time he gives a tour, not for the whole day. He pulled out his license which stated that for 1-2 people they should give Rs. 499. Which was way too much, and I'm sure now this license was a fake. For perspective, when I did my housing surveys, to complete one survey I paid them Rs. 300. It probably took anywhere from 30 min to 1 hour to go to the house, explain what we were doing and administer the survey. The tour was maybe 2 hours and far less skilled that these surveyors. I finally coughed up one more Rs. 100 note. When I got back and checked my Lonely Planet book, it said guides there usually cost Rs. 85. The book is almost 10 years old, but even with that, I paid way more than I should have I'm sure.

And this is why I like Gujarat. People are very honest here, and I don't feel like I'm constantly on my guard. The train to Agra takes 2.5 hours I think. It took us 5 hours to get home in the car there was so much construction. From being out all day, I could feel the grit and dust on my forehead, and my fingernails turned black if I itched a scratch. As I removed my glasses, there was a ring of black where the rims had been under my eyes.

Fatehpur Sikri 1

Then we made the drive to Fatehpur Sikri; I think it took about an hour but I feel asleep so am not sure. When we had arrived in the parking lot I decided it would probably be good if I ate something, so the driver talked to a guy that was standing there who jumped in the car and showed us where a restaurant was. It was a pretty junky little 'dive' but there were no other places around. They ended up having the best fried rice I've ever had. I think they used tandoori chicken in and and had big rings of onions.

I thought the guy that showed us the restaurant just needed a ride to town, but he ended up being a guide. Since he had already waited with us while I ate, I couldn't very well say no. Also I figured this type of palace/fort are usually better with guides, while places like the Taj Mahal don't need too much explanation. He showed me his card that said he was a licensed tour guide, and his U.P. Accent was quite different than any I had heard as of yet. It sounded a lit bit Punjabi.
It cost Rs. 250 plus my Taj Mahal ticket to get into Fatehpur Sikri, and we had to ride a bus and then an auto to get up to the palace part. I must admit, I think I did enjoy it more than the Taj Mahal. No, it was nowhere near as beautiful, but it was really interesting to hear how people had once lived and used this space. The palace had been built by Emperor Akbar who had apparently been very open minded, and while his background was Islam, he developed a philosophy where all religions are united. He had three wives, one Muslim, one Hindu, and one a Goan Christian. He had built this palace, but as it was on a hill, it was abandoned after Akbar died because of water unavailability. So it was only used for 16 years.

He built a palace for each of the wives. The Hindu wife's palace was by far the largest; however, it was also farthest away from the king's room. Then there was the Christian wife's which was much smaller, but had been painted in detail, but only faint traces are still able to be seen. At one end of her palace, it had been built to resemble the apse of a cathedral. The Muslim wife's palace was very small, only a single room, but had been decorated elaborately. There were intricate carvings in the red sandstone and a large jali of star-shaped windows. Back in the day, they had been filled with colored glass windows. Although hers was the smallest, it was also nearest to the king's bedroom. Between the Muslim wife's and Akbar's palace was a square pond (scummed over!) with an island in the middle where there would have been performers. Nearby there was a large, open, stepped tower where people could sit and listen to the performance. The interesting part of Akbar's room was that the bed was raised on a platform, maybe 8 feet high. The floor had been a shallow pond so that the room would have been cooler, and there were steps going up to the bed.

Taj Mahal 2

Let me say, that yes the white marble building is immense and, yes, it is very beautiful. However I must say that I think it's unfortunate that to many foreigners, this is the reason to come to India, and missing it seems to mean you haven't really seen India. There are so many wonderful, amazing, beautiful, interesting things and experiences in this country, and I wouldn't have given up the many other things I have done here to see it.

Ok, that being said the marble with cut out inlays of semi-precious stone is beautiful. Even the calligraphic inscriptions in Arabic around the entry to the tomb was beautiful. Once inside the tomb, it seems quite small, and is somewhat dark for all the brightness outside. As it is a tomb, photography is prohibited, and a Muslim in a white skull cap and white kurta blew on his whistle so that you could not stand inside too long. There were tombs in the center surrounded by a head-high 'fence' with openings cut out of the marble. And the inlaid stones were even more spectacular inside. After dallying as long as I could (half of which was solely to irritate the man with the whistle and basically to assert that if I'm paying Rs. 750 to get, I won't be whistled out before I'm ready!) On either side of the main white building, are two identical red sandstone buildings. On the one side, it is a mosque, but the other side is just a building to complete the symmatry. It simply could not be a mosque because it doesn't face Mecca. These buildings have many intricate white paintings on the reddish pink background of the sandstone in the forms of plants and leaves.

For awhile I sat in the shade on a ledge of one side of the white tomb building. I was actually surprised by the few number of foreigners there that day, but it was exceedingly hot. As there weren't many foreigners, a girl of 20 saw me, and came up and introduced herself with her family. I was thankful that they first asked my permission to take a picture. Many times Indians, often young men, will surreptitiously take a photo with their camera phone. This family was quite insistent that I visit Haridwar for this religious school type place they were part of. I just nodded and wrote down the name of the place as they requested. Many people have told me about their religious sect, and I visited one in Mt. Abu which seemed very kind of new-agey type, and I didn't buy it at all.

Around the Taj is a big Moghul-style garden with long, linear pools, however the garden was unkempt and overgrown, but at least provided shade. A man came up insisting that he knew the best place to take a picture of the Taj. I first thought he was just a helpful worker at the Taj, but then he insisted on taking my camera and taking a picture of me, then of course wanted money. The pictures didn't even turn out! But I just mean that this was how the entire trip to the Delhi area was. In Gujarat no one bothers me, but you cannot get away from people trying to take your money there, and it can be very exhausting.

On the way out, I remembered promising the boy I'd come to his shop and decided that I really didn't want to pass through that street again, harrassed by all the vendors. Just as I was headed towards a different exit, the kid caught me. I was trapped and had to go to his shop. They sold many items made out of marble with the semi-precious inlaid stones as the Taj is decorated in. I really didn't want any of it, but he would not let me leave without buying something. I said I would not pay more than Rs. 150 for the little marble box, as he dropped the price down from Rs. 800, to Rs. 500, and finally to Rs. 300. If I really had wanted it, I would have paid Rs. 300, but as I walked out, he finally gave it to me for my price.

Taj Mahal

I got up at 6 am to leave for Agra. It was one of the most irritating days ever. The vendors and guides were really frustrating. On the way in the private car, we stopped for a toll. I had the windows down and there were all these hawkers on the median, and a man with several monkeys on leashes. Several vendors came to the window trying to sell me something, so I just covered my head with my transparent dupatta, and closed my eyes. After a few minutes I open my eyes to see a damn monkey sitting in the half opened window, and freaked out. I cursed the monkey man, shoed the monkey out of the window, and rolled it up despite the heat. I admit, now yes it sounds funny, but I was really mad at the time. Monkeys are just not something you mess with, even on leashes, and I don't want them anywhere near me. I keep remembering the woman who had to get a face transplant because a chimp attacked her, no these weren't chimps, but, un uh, you get those monkeys away from me.

When we finally reached Agra, the driver already had a guide waiting for me. Luckily he wasn't pushy and said, “I understand, you can't take your time if you are with a guide.” Which is exactly the reason that I didn't want a guide, so they directed me across the street to a hotel restaurant for breakfast. But this place was ridiculous. If you order toast, it should automatically come with butter, right? If not, you are ordering BREAD. Well, no, if you wanted toast or jam, each cost an additional Rs 20. If this were typical to India, I would say ok, but I have never had to pay extra for butter for my toast! After I complained to the waiter, I guess he decided he'd much rather hover over the two Malaysian girls where I heard him exclaim, “I love Malaysian people.”

The car could not take me all the way to the Taj Mahal, so I had to take an auto the rest of the way there. Unfortunately it seems that Ahmedabad is one of the few places that actually uses meters on their autos. The first autowala I asked wanted Rs. 200. Then I asked him how far it was to the Taj. One kilometer, one! That would have cost Rs. 10 in Ahmedabad, so I bargained him down to Rs. 20 and felt satisfied. The narrow road was packed with traffic already at this early time, and it wasn't all just to see the Taj. So then the auto could go no further, and I had to walk the last block, conveniently through a narrow alley filled with vendors. As it was the summer, and most foreigners have enough sense not to go sightseeing in India at this time, I was maybe the only foreigner, and the vendors wouldn't leave me alone. One young man kept hounding me to come in his shop, and as he tried to sell me some trinket, he quoted prices. As we passed a group of young guys sitting outside a shop, they got into the action, too, and one yelled out the price, “10,000 rupees!” Which comes to over $200, and is only a little less than the four of us altogether pay for our total monthly apartment rent. As I am not some foreigner who doesn't know the price of things, I stopped in my tracks, turned around with my mouth hanging open, and shouted, “Aap pagal hain!” Meaning you are crazy! At this everyone in the vicinity burst out laughing, and I stomped away. However, this utterance quickly spread down the street because as I exited the Taj and walked back down the street, and vendors where still trying to sell their wares, I heard whispers in Hindi of “she knows Hindi.” If “aap pagal hain” is what it took, so be it.

But before I could get to the entrance on my way in, a boy of around 8 or 9 tried to convince me to stop in his relative's shop. He was such a good salesman, I couldn't help promising that I would stop at his shop on the way out, and he showed me where to purchase my ticket and get my complimentary pair of shoe covers that only foreigners get with their Rs. 750 ticket compared to the Indians' Rs 20 ticket. As I was able to then keep my shoes on while walking over the scalding hot white marble, I was very thankful for the white tissue booties.

Animals Part 2

Cows

Yes, it is true; there are cows everywhere here. They are a regular part of the street life. Groups of five of them will mosey along the street, doin their own thing. Autorickshaw drivers will honk at them to hurry up and cross the road. Many of them have huge, long horns, but they are almost always very calm and complacent. They will lay down in the median in the road or be chowing down out of a trash dumpster.

As I said 99.9% of the time, they are completely mellow and calm, just ambling slowly down the street. So one time I was in an auto, and here comes a cow galloping down the middle of the road at full speed. Now for me, of course, this was new so I craned my head out to see it running past us. The best part was that I wasn't the only one surprised because the driver, too, craned his neck back and had a "What the Hell?" expression on his face. I wonder where that cow had to be so quickly...

My friend also witnessed a cow running down the street. Only this one had huge horns and was chasing a guy. The guy in front was running full speed, carrying a bicycle. He kept running until he got to a dead end, so I guess as a last defense, the man turned around and shook the bike at the cow as a shield. And the cow stopped and went on its way.

Lizard/Gecko

The little lizard/gecko is also a common household animal. You'll often see them walking around on the walls. We actually have two now - we had a little one, maybe 4" long, that lived in a hole in the wall that was for the hose to connect the gas cylinder to the cooker. I would go in the kitchen late and night, and see a scurrying for him to run back from the counter into his hole. But he only came out at night. We recently got a new one, who is maybe an inch longer and a little bulkier. He is quite the gutsy one, because several times the other day he walked on the floor into the living room- usually I only see them on the walls. I think he was trying to get Rashmi, who was sitting on the couch, because she hates the lizards! Of all the animals here, I really don't have any problem with them though. They say they eat bugs, so I'm all for that.

My friend told me that one night she was working late at her desk in her apartment, and there were two of the geckos on the wall. All of a sudden, the one ran up and bit the tail off the other one. She was so surprised, she screamed. The one still lives in her flat, and you can tell where the tail has been growing back.

goats
Ahmedabad can sometimes be a little rural farm in the middle of the city. For example on the way to CEPT there is open park in the midst of shops and buildings along the road. On the sidewalk there is a entire little shrine where they sell decorative small landscape rocks. At least I think they are selling them...On the sidewalk are all these crazy, colorful sculptures with hindu gods and stuff mixed in. And just past that is a goat farm in the middle of the city. It's kind of an unauthorized thing, and the goats just walk around the street. I'd say there has to be usually at least 30 of them. There's a big empty lot just down the street, and in the mornings you can see people herding them to this lot to eat. Even in Gandhinagar they do this. There is a lot of empty space there planted with lots of trees, so it makes it much more rural feeling there though.

In the 'winter' here, my friend in Benaras says that they often put sweaters on the goats even.

One day, my friend and I were walking around the old city and came to a big chowk (plaza). As we were wondering, we noticed a single goat there. And a single, empty autorickshaw with a driver no where in sight. All of a sudden the goat climbs into the back of the auto, like a passenger. At this point we can't see it, because the autos have closed tops, so we go for a closer peek. The goat is proceeding to chow down on the yellow, vinyl cover. Now, to foreigners of course this is all new and exciting. So the best thing for me is when these things actually surprise the Indians, too. As we stood there, an Indian woman who was walking by also stopped to stare at the goat, so we knew it wasn't a normal occurance!

elephants

Even here in Ahmedabad, in the city you can find elephants. Not roaming around wild or anything, but walking down the street with a elephant trainer, Mahout, on top. Sometimes in the old city, you can find places where they feed them. In intersections they will put down vegetables in the street, and the elephants will just be there eating. I don't see them that often here though, so it's still exciting when you see one.