Bangalore/Bangaluru

We bused all day from the Himalayas to Bangalore and arrived early, early morning; we got a little rest before visiting a wholesale saree shop in an area of Bangalore called Chickpet. The saree shop was a nondescript building tucked down an alley, but the business itself is incredibly developed. We learned that India houses these types of businesses in a way that may seem strange, but due to the collectivist mentality, word-of-mouth and customer loyalty allow “mom and pop” businesses to thrive, and can even inhibit multinationals from breaking into the scene.

The sarees in the small shop were made in a building only a ten-minute walk away, so after a quick introduction to the shop we walked over and saw how they make them. (Manufacturing is mostly automated with a few manual jobs performed by the workers.)

After Chickpet we were able to do some shopping on the main strip called MG road. The store we spent most time in was Cauvery, a government store that sells hot items like silk and sandalwood. Apparently it’s best to only buy sandalwood at government stores because of the inauthentic wood being posed on the streets as real (they just spritz a cheaper wood with a sandalwood spray and pose it as sandalwood).

I forgot to mention…We rode the train

To get from Dehli to the Himalayas we took a train from New Dehli station to Shatabdi and then from there took shuttle cars from Kathgodam to the resort.

(Side note here: the drivers of the cars that took us up to the resort were the equivalent of highly caffeinated billy goats—and we basically played chicken with other cars, trucks, and motorcycles all the way up the mountain. The Pig Trail’s got nothin’ on those hairpin turns, and I got a little green around the gills.)

The train ride wound up being a huge trip highlight. We started early morning, around 6:45 and rolled in early afternoon. But on the way we got a totally different view than what we’d been seeing from the bus. So far we’d only taken main roads as travel, and though we’d seen some different countrysides from Jaipur to Agra to Dehli, the train ride gave us an almost, behind-the-scenes look at towns and farm land. Something in particular that struck me was how the outskirts of one particular town we passed by was nothing but shantis and a trash dump, almost as if they’d been pushed to the periphery.

We passed over the Ganges (Ganga in Hindi), and I immediately saw how the great esteem for the river has come to be—there were people bathing and doing laundry, and the lushness that was grown up all around the river was indicating of how the river has attained a sacred quality.

I haven’t been as diligent at taking pictures as I should be… I apologize.

TheHimalayas, pronounced Him-all-yas

Though we're currently in Bangalore, I couldn't pass up writing about the experience we had in the Himalayas.

We stayed at Ramgarh Bungalows, which had a one time been used for British soldiers in the late 1800s, early 1900s. So, the buildings were old, but incredibly charming. My roomie, Meaghan and I stayed in what was called "Fuchsia." Needless to say, the room was very... pink. The view from our front door looked a little something like this:

Pictures, of course, do no justice.

The first day we took a tour of the orchards. Our guide informed us that the locals harvest three months out of the year, and make enough to live off of for the rest of the year. Their main fruits are peaches and plums. But nothing was ripe while we were there, which was terribly disappointing; however, we got to experience every possible jam and jelly ever to be made in the world with our breakfast—I’m being serious, too…there was rhodendran jelly, yes, rhodendran.
The next morning we got up early and hiked up onto a very tall mountain, and though the mountain hike was beautiful and all, what we found at the top of it was even more beautiful—Baba, a 72 year-old yogi who made us tea and taught us pranayama breathing. He lives on the mountain, having hand built everything up there: his house, the temples, the stairs (which I greatly appreciated), etc, and he only comes down twice a year. Also, he’s been doing yoga since he was six. Six.

And, by the by, he gives insanely good hugs…

The Amazing Race Continued...

I’m behind because internet is so hit or miss—I apologize! We’re already in Bangalore and I’ve yet to finish writing about the Amazing Race in Dehli and the entire stay in the Himalayas.

So, let’s get started…

Our last day in Dehli, as I mentioned in the last post, we did an Amazing Race with our groups from FIIB. The stipulations were: Use at least three modes of transport, and get a picture at the India Gate, buy something at Roopak Spices (a small spice store in Ajmal Khan Road), go inside the Rail Museum, take a picture on Platform 2 of New Delhi Railway Station, visit the National Museum, and end it all at the Cottage Emporium on Janpath. As I said before, our group got 5^th, but it was such a wonderful experience. We took a auto rickshaw, the metro, and pulley-rickshaw. Pratika, Humayun, and Neshant were incredible group mates—they really took care of us as we romped ourselves around Dehli.

One of the best moments was when Pratika, myself, and Alexa jumped out of our auto rickshaw and tried to pay the driver with a 100 rupee note; he held it up to the light and shook his head. Pratika had a few words with him in Hindi, and he held it up to the light again, pointing and shaking his head. She took the note and held it up as well. She said something else to him, and after all was said and done, he refused to accept that particular note, and we paid him with another. I asked Patrika what had happened…she said, “They’re like that sometimes.” We immediately ran over to the metro (trying to make up for lost time) and used the same bill to pay for our metro tickets, no problem. Vikas said that maybe he noticed a slight tear in the bill, because sometimes people won’t accept torn money, because like with many things in India, there are superstitious underpinnings.

Despite our sad ranking in the race, I was proud of our group and I think it was one of the highlights of the trip thus far. After the race, we were given time to do some shopping at the Cottage there, which is a government store, and has anything and everything a tourist could want. A group of us also went to Pizza Hut nearby and I had my first spicy paneer pizza…I’m kind of into now, and I would be super excited if it caught on in the US. We also strolled the streets, and this brings me to another highlight to the day. Tyler, from the group, wanted to buy a shirt, so we all went and helped him pick one out… it was a very Indian adventure, we shopped as a collective and helped him make his purchase—it was gratifying and I get why it’s a way of doing it here in India.

I have to run, but to tie up our time in Dehli, I want to say, I’ll miss our FIIB friends, and I wish them all the best!

In Dehli!

We're back in Dehli for a few days where we'll be spending some time visiting with students at the Fortune Institute of Business. We went to the university yesterday for a series of three lectures on a number of interesting topics (India's economy, eCommerce, Black Money, etc). And, today we'll be meeting up with FIIB students to get to know them because tomorrow we're doing an Amazing Race around Dehli!

To recap a few things from the past two days. I gave the Taj Mahal her very own entry, but we also visited Agra Fort that same afternoon, and yesterday we visited Qutub Minar:

 

An Islamic monument roughly 234 feet high built in the early 1300s.

My favorite factoid about this place is that there are also ruins located just to the left (if you're looking at the picture above) that were the first college and tomb combo.

Also, shout out to Michaela (sorry if I misspelled it...hm) for being the model in this photo!

After Qutub Minar we spent the rest of the day getting to know the students from Future International Institute of Business. We got to know one another by going to Chandi Chowk, a marketplace that makes Times Square on Saturday night look like child’s play. While we were there we ate lunch with the students in our groups. You’ll see a picture of the coolest group below: Me, Pratika, Nishant, Humayun, Darren, and Alexa.

Our assignment at Chandni Chowk was to pick out three shops and speak to the owners. We asked the owners questions such as, “How long have you had this shop?” “Did you inherit the business?” “What kind of customers do you attract?” “How long does one transaction usually last?” The results after collecting our information, was that most often it seemed that shop owners had inherited their business from the father and intended on keeping the shop in the family. In one instance we met a bookshop owner who presented his son as heir to the bookshop. We also noticed that the customer base was loyal and this relational aspect really created for a shopping ‘experience,’ rather than a ‘transactional’ one. All in all, it was a wonderful chance to see the chaos of the marketplace and get to know our group members, because whether they liked it or not, they were stuck with us for the better part of the next day… the amazing race. Which for our team, turned out to be not really so amazing when we realized we came in 5^th…. out of 7 places. Hm. But don’t let that fool anyone, because the race was fantastic, fun, and worth the Dehli heat. 

More details on the amazing race another time... internet access is limited in the Himalayas... yes, we're in the Himalayas.

The Taj gets her own entry.

The Taj... she's beautiful:

Some quick notes about the Taj... it was built in the 1600's by Emperor Shan Jahan (emperor during the Mughal Empire) for his third wife. Both Shan Jahan and his wife rest peacefully in the basement.

This is officially my favorite place I've visited in my travels thus far--sometimes these kind of monuments can really be a letdown when seen in person, but not the Taj. She really is breathtaking. While inside I got goosebumps, because not only is the architecture incredible, but the particular way she echos is something I've never heard before.

One last thing--I'd been waiting to do a yoga pose somewhere...

The elephant--Sonia.

We rose early this morning (still in Jaipur) to exceptionally lovely weather. Apparently, during the night there was a storm that passed over us, cooling the area; though, I'm guessing most of us were so far into dreamy-dream land that we never even noticed. We drove a few miles away to Amer Fort (first picture) where majority of us rode atop an elephant for the first time. The fort was built in the late 16th century, and is essentially a labyrinth of rooms and staircases, hidden balconies and lookouts. There's really something magical to it.

The elephant that took me and Meredith (my elephant-riding buddy) up to the fort was named Sonia (see above). She was a lovely animal with real spirit; really, we passed up five or six others on the way up the mountain. The man sitting atop her head was the driver; though, I couldn't quite catch his name (I tried to make him spell it, but instead he told me Sonia's name), but he did tell us he has lived in Jaipur his whole life, and has no intention of leaving...and, by the by, he has six children. I find myself striking up conversations with people as much as possible (perhaps it's the writer in me), because I think the only way to really understand a place and its people is to watch and listen to a place and its people--yet, as often is said, sometimes the more shocking realization while abroad is how similar we all are... there's really no way around it.

On the way to Agra this afternoon, we stopped at Chand Boari (also in Rajasthan), a well built by King Chanda sometime between 800 and 900 AD. The small pyramid-looking things are steps, and though it's not visible in the picture, at the very bottom is a well. Because I thought important to show how large this piece of architecture is, I made sure to get those two people in the picture (yeah... it's that big).

Off to sleep, but will write soon--we go to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise...

First Day Results

 So much to tell, so let's get to it!


This first picture is proof we made it to Delhi. It was a long 14 hours, but we made it through Immigration and Customs and got a quick bite before heading off to Jaipur--the Pink City.

We got to experience night-Dehli traffic which was chaotic, to say the least, but more importantly to note, it was like listening to a traffic-horn symphony. Apparently in India, the car horn is almost like a greeting or a "hey, I'm here!"

Because we were tired and we had a five hour bus ride ahead of us, it soon become a lullaby...

 The Pink City, and our first official day as tourists. Not all buildings are this ravishing salmon, but many are. We had a packed day of touring the city, including Jantar Mantar (below), where we saw sun dials built in the 17th century. This is merely one of many, and they are incredibly accurate.

We also tried our hand at the Bapu Bazaar, where I do have to brag that I haggled Annu (yes, we got on a first name basis once he realized I was serious....heh) down from 2,050 to 480 on a kurta and pants. I was quite proud. The bazaar was packed, and we took liberties of shadowing Indian shoppers today to get a glimpse into some key aspects of how they shop. A few takeaways I found were, it's okay to be picky. In fact, it's okay to have the shop owner pull out as many sarees and spread them on the floor for you as you want--you're the shopper, and you should get what you want!

We're riding elephants in the morning up to Amer Fort, and I'm looking at only a few hours of sleep... I'll write again as soon as I can.

Love to all in the west!