Finally Getting To See India

About two weeks ago Jeff finally had a day off work. We (me, Jeff, and two other employees from Jeff's company) took the opportunity to head out of town and see the Taj Mahal. We hired a driver and headed out in the early evening. Because traffic is so chaotic, it took us about 6.5 hours to get there, an hour and a half longer than the 4.5-5 hours we were expecting. But we got there safe and that's all that matters!

Right now is prime tourist season in Agra because the weather is not too warm. Before we left we called a bunch of different hotels looking for open rooms, but everywhere was booked solid. We decided to just head out and hope to find open rooms when we got there. Our car was pretty big, so if all else failed we could sleep there. It sounded like a good idea when we left, but after the long drive I was really dreading the thought of marching from hotel to hotel searching for a room. The first hotel we came across was the Holiday Inn. We had called them before and they said they were booked, so I was not optimistic. Jeff and his trainee from the Delhi office went inside while I waited in the car. I saw them getting ready to leave the lobby with no keys in hand, so I looked in my book for addresses of other hotels. When I looked back up they had disappeared. I had no idea where they went but I was thinking maybe they were using the phone to call other hotels. Suddenly they reappeared with two room keys! The hotel had two cancelations just minutes before we arrived. We were all ecstatic that the first hotel we tried worked out! Plus the hotel was really nice, which is important, because the standards of hotel vary widely in Agra. We all slept soundly on the most comfortable beds we'd laid on in over a month!

The next morning we met up early feeling refreshed. Our driver took us straight to the Taj Mahal, as we knew the earlier we got there the smaller the crowds would be. To prevent pollution from damaging the marble, no one can drive within one kilometer of the Taj Mahal. We easily could have walked the one kilometer, but in the parking lot there were many carts pulled by camels to take you there. The ride was really cheap, so we decided why not just take the cart and have the experience. Before we all hopped in the carriage they let me hop on top of the camel for a photo op!

We reached the gates and there in front of us was the Taj Mahal.

It was just as incredible as we had imagined. The pool in front of the Taj has countless fountains, which look really cool when they are on. But when they are off you can get a great picture of the Taj and its reflection. We were lucky and got photos with the fountains on and off.

We were so impressed by the intricate inlays all around the Taj. It's amazing to think of how much time it must have taken to complete all of this work.

I am sure most of you know, but the Taj Mahal was built as a mausoleum for Emperor Shah Jahan's favorite wife, so while the outside is incredible, there is not too much to see on the inside. There's just one center chamber. It still has the same gem and marble inlay as the outside, but unfortunately over time a lot of the detail has been destroyed.

After a quick stop at a nearby shop for some souvenirs, we headed to the Agra Fort. The fort is absolutely massive. Only a small portion is open to the public, but it was impressive.

The outside and the entrance were crawling with monkeys, which was totally unique.

The fort has tons of different rooms and all kinds of passageways to explore.

Jeff and the boys found an old narrow passageway that lead to this balcony.

We were also able to get a good view of the Taj Mahal from the fort.

After the fort we decided to head out of town, in hopes of seeing a bit of Delhi on our way back to Panipat. We would have liked to stay longer, but at least we hit the two big sights! The drive to Delhi took quite a long time, but luckily we made a stop at McDonald's along the way so we had full bellies. In Delhi we briefly drove around the diplomatic center and took some pictures. We then headed to the city center which is full of shops and restaurants. We did a little shopping and enjoyed a good old American meal at TGI Fridays. We then hopped in the car and made it back to Panipat by 11:00 at night. We were all exhausted from our whirlwind 28 hour trip, but it was definitely worth it to get out and see more of what India has to offer.

P.S. We meant to post this a while ago, but we have been without internet for the past week!

"Life in Chicago is Easy"

That is a direct quote from Jeff's trainee on this assignment. He is originally from India and works out of the New Delhi office, but he spent about a year in Chicago training, so he can definitely compare the two. The following are a few things he pointed out that make life in Chicago so easy:

1. The power almost never goes out in Chicago, and when it does, it is usually because of a major event like a storm. In Panipat (and we understand the Delhi region too), the power constantly goes out for absolutely no reason at all. The first time it happened we were kind of freaked out, but when it kept happening we realized it must be a chronic problem. I did a little research, and I guess the demand for power grossly exceeds amount of power the city's system can generate. I am stuck in the hotel room for the majority of the day, so I started keeping a tally of how many times the power goes out. We've been here four weeks and on average the power has gone out about 12 times a day. It usually doesn't stay out for more than 10 seconds or so, but sometimes it lasts up to a minute. Many hotels have back-up generators that kick on pretty quickly to minimize the impact, but we aren't sure that our hotel has one as some of the outages can get quite lengthy. We've gotten used to it, but it still can get pretty annoying when you are in the bathroom or the elevator or in the middle of doing something online (the wireless internet goes out when the power goes out too).

2. Driving in Chicago is easy. That's right, I said it, driving in Chicago is easy . . . compared to driving in India. Jeff's company doesn't let employees drive here, and I can definitely see why! In the big cities people are earning more money and one of their favorite big ticket purchases is a new car. That has lead to a boom of vehicles on roads that simply weren't built for this level of traffic. Driving is not only hard because of the number of cars, but also because of the way Indians drive. I think it must have something to do with the culture, but Indians drive very impatiently. If you leave the littlest space in front of you, it is pretty much guaranteed that a car will sneak in there. If there is a little gap between your car and the edge of the road, someone will drive on the side of the road and try to pass you. People drive so close to each other that you constantly feel like there is going to be an accident. However, traffic moves so slow that accidents don't seem extremely common.

That is city driving. Driving in the country, and out here in Panipat is slightly different. There is still a great deal of traffic, and people still drive very impatiently and use their horns incessantly, but there are not nearly as many cars here. But if there aren't as many cars, then how can there be traffic you ask. Good question. In Chicago traffic may get backed up, but at least you know you are only fighting with other cars and trucks for space. In India cars, trucks, rickshaws, bicycles, ox/horse/donkey/camel carts, tractors, pedestrians and stray herds of animals are all competing for space on the roads. Now all of these vehicles cannot move at the same pace, so it is a constant battle to get around the slow moving vehicles and drive at a reasonable speed. I don't know what the speed limit is around here, but in those few rare moments where you are unencumbered by traffic you are fearful that something is going to jump in the road and cause a serious high speed accident (we have seen a few of these and they are not pretty). As of 2000 (which was the latest statistics I could find) an average of 270 people died on the roads each day in India.

One thing that initially drove us crazy is the number of times that Indians honk their horns. In the US you may hear a horn honking every so often if a person is driving like a jerk. In India, horns are constantly honked so that other drivers know you are there. If there is someone in your lane that is going to slow you just keep honking until he moves over. If you are frustrated with the guy in front of you and want to pass him in an incredibly tight spot, you just keep honking so that everyone around you knows what you are doing. It almost seems like drivers don't really use their mirrors or watch for other drivers; they just honk and people will get out of their way. It is really something amazing. When we are back in the city in traffic we will have to try and take a video to show you what it is really like. The thing that is amazing though is that despite all of the chaos on the roads, no one seems to be getting angry. They all just accept that this is a part of life and they don't let it stress them out. Even as a passenger I get completely stressed out by the driving, but the drivers are cool as cucumbers.

3. You don't have to constantly worry about what could possibly be in your food in Chicago. Anyone who talked to me in the very brief amount of time we had to prepare for this job knows that I was borderline paranoid about getting sick from the food in India. Hygiene isn't quite the same here, and I had read reviews of our hotel detailing horrible illnesses from the food. We started off slow, eating very little hotel food, but now we full meals and so far we have been okay. Jeff was extremely sick two weeks ago and could hardly move for several days. We're not sure if it was from the food, our malaria medicine, or just exhaustion (he's been working 10-14 hours every day) but luckily he is much better now.

4. There are not nearly as many people in Chicago as there are in India. And not just that there are not so many people, but there are not so many really poor people. Everywhere you look here you cannot help but see the poorest of poor. It seems to me that in this town you either live in a gated community or in a shack (if you are lucky). Our hotel, which is light years away from many of the hotels we have stayed in, is by far the nicest place in town. We chuckled to ourselves because it is a "three star hotel," but compared to the city surrounding it, this is a 25 star hotel.

5. You don't have to worry about having hot water in Chicago. In India, access to hot water is not as easy as you would think. Even at our extremely nice hotel in Delhi our first night here, the water was luke-warm at best. At our hotel here in Panipat the water is hot, which is excellent, but it is only available a few hours a day (a lesson I learned when I attempted to take a shower the first afternoon here). And lets just say that the water pressure leaves something to be desired.

6. There are places to go and things to do in Chicago. This comment is specifically aimed at the city of Panipat, not the country of India as a whole, as there are TONS of places to go in the country. In Panipat however there is absolutely positively nowhere to go and nothing to do. There is work and there is the hotel and that is it. There are no shopping malls or restaurants or bars. There is work and there is the hotel and that is pretty much it. If you look at our pictures and videos from the previous post I think you will agree.

Some may read this post and think that it is just us sitting here complaining. I can see how it can come off that way, but we had a purpose. Being here has really opened our eyes to a whole different lifestyle, different than any country we have been to before. While we may complain about silly things in Chicago, we really have so much to be thankful for. Life may not be perfect all the time, but remember, it could be worse!

Portait of Panipat

Panipat is really the poorest place either of us have seen. A large portion of the population lives in tents, shacks, or small huts made of cowpies and covered in straw (there are tons of these huts around, and most of them are used to store cowpies for fuel, but we were told that people live in the larger huts). There really is no way to explain what we see on a day to day basis, so we thought pictures/videos would say it best.

There are literally thousands of stray dogs all over the city. Tell me these puppies aren't adorable!

This is a stack of cowpies on the side of the road. The more moist ones are used to create the huts while the dried ones are stored inside to be used as fuel.

Some roadside shops.

This is a very common sight. It's kind of cut off, but there are at least 10 people in this tiny rickshaw.

These two pictures are of the same small village in the city. It consists of hundreds of tents, shacks and cowpie huts all crammed together.

Like the pictures, these videos were all taken from the car, so they move pretty quickly, but we think they show what life in Panipat is like.

This is a video of that same village above.

This is another small village in Panipat. If you watch closely you can see the cow pie huts as well as some stone shacks. There are also a lot of shops and wild animals in this area.

This video pretty much sums up what its like to drive in Panipat. Bear in mind this is a divided highway meant for speedy driving.

You can see a lot of the cowpie/straw huts in the background and the foreground here. You can also see a lot of cowpies laying out to dry.

Happy Indian Republic Day

January 26th is Republic Day in India. It is a huge celebration throughout the country that commemorates the signing of the Constitution of India. In Delhi there is a huge parade from the president's palace to and old fort (you can read all about the parade in the link above). Military regiments from all over India come in their dress uniforms to march in the celebration. When we were driving from Delhi to Panipat we passed by a regiment on camels making their way to town. They had the most incredibly awesome moustaches. Unfortunately we weren't able to snap any pictures.

Here in Panipat there was music and celebrating in the streets. The company Jeff is working with had their own parade and in the days leading up to Republic Day spent a great deal of time working on their floats. We weren't able to attend the parade, but we did see the floats in the company's township the day after the parade. Our particular favorite was this peacock, as the employees who were supposed to be helping Jeff and his coworkers spent many work hours creating it.

Something you may not know (at least we didn't know it): peacocks are the national bird of India and you often see them walking along the side of the road.

We're Here

We know it has been a long time since we've posted, but we wanted to let you all know that we are here in Panipat, India. We didn't think we would have internet access here, but it was a very happy surprise when we learned that our hotel had recently installed wireless internet. We intended to post earlier, but our internet service has been disrupted for at least the past week. In case you haven't heard, five internet cables were cut around the Middle East. It's still unclear what happened, but there are many theories out there. In any case we were sans internet for many, many days. It seems that things are back to normal, so we hope to be posting more about India soon!