Dad, I Rode An Elephant

This morning after we ate breakfast we loaded our luggage into the bus and filed onto it. We were all so excited to start touring today because today is the day we got to ride elephants, in India. 

We stopped at a pink building and if it was important we don't know and we'll probably never know-- because we're girls and we saw a shoe shop. It's normal. Shoes in India? Please! Forget the pink building (even though it was pretty). Some of us bought shoes, and others forced our money to stay in our pockets. And those of us who were lucky enough to escape the temptation of shoes eventually met a snake charmer on the street. Of course we took the opportunity to hold a snake! And it came with a price, as all things do in India. (Traveling Tip: don't take pictures with random people. They demand payment after. Another story to come).

Also, the street vendors are persistent. Extremely persistent. And if I wasn't claustrophobic before my trip here, I sure am now. But seriously. Sometimes we get a bit frustrated because we want to enjoy India and the sites we only have this chance to see. And all the while we have Indian trinkets, blankets, and tourist spotters in our faces attempting to steal our attention and our rupees. It's all a part of experiencing India though. 

Some of my favorite sayings?

    "Only _____ rupees Madame!"

    "Top quality, Madame."

    "For you I give best price, student price, only _____ rupees."
    "Free, for a kiss."

We drove to the base of a mountain and saw elephants carrying tourists to The Amber Palace. I think our hearts all skipped a beat as we paired off. It seemed way to good to be true-- riding an elephant in India? Pinch me. We stood in line for an elephant ride among persistent vendors set on selling us outrageously priced souvenirs and then faster than I could think, I was riding an elephant in India. His name was "Jampa" and he was the best elephant. Dreams really do come true! Dani and I rode Jampa to the Amber Palace and then Ramesh and Raj took us on a tour of it. 

Ramesh and Raj take such good care of us. But seriously, if you knew how many times on the Dehli trip we could have been in serious trouble without Raj and Ramesh looking after us, you'd probably tip them well. Very well.

After the tour we headed back to the bus and paid way too much for pictures of Dani and me riding elephants. A woman with a small baby came up to me and asked if I'd take a picture with her baby-- she shoved the darling girl into my arms and Dani snapped a picture. Immediately following the picture, the woman demanded rupees. I've thought about this a bit, and realized how that precious baby girl was being sold by her own mother. It bothered me more the more I thought about it. I won't be taking pictures with anyone other than my nursing friends the rest of this trip.

We then stopped to take a picture at The Water Palace and saw camel rides across the street. Kendra and I decided to save some rupees on this round, and took pictures with the camels instead. The ten other girls with us jumped on camels for another ride.

We then set off on another 5 hour drive to Agra. If you've been following the blog, you know that this too is normal. They did not disappoint us with our hotel. We stayed at Jaypee Palace, and "Palace" was no understatement. I felt like royalty. They greeted us like tourists entering Hawaii with strings of flowers-- but Indian style with Jasmine. We met back up with Jaclyn and Kristin at this hotel and they'll be finishing their tour with us. It was so nice to have everyone together again. 

We then visited Agra Fort and learned a lot about how they had engineered air conditioning and heating systems without electricity in the past. It was so interesting learning about how resourceful and brilliant they were. 

A king that once lived there ruled for an extended period of years-- because the people respected him. The king had 3 wives (one Hindu, one Muslim, and one Christian) as well as over 365 concubines. That's more concubines than days in the Muslim calendar, mind you. We saw the parliament quarters where all things India were discussed. There were rooms painted in gold with precious and semi precious stones. It once had orchards in the courtyard, but then marijuana gardens replaced them when a different king took the throne (from the words of our tour guide he was very much an alcoholic). There were even market places within the fort where the king could shop for concubines while the prospective concubines shopped for other things. We even saw the living quarters of the rest of the royal family. We didn't get a chance to learn about or visit the mosque in the fort because it was under renovation. The Indian army still resides in the fort and occupies about 80% of the fort currently, so we only saw maybe 15% of the entire fort-- it's huge.

We had Dinner at the Taj Mahal restaurant and then visited a rug weaving factory. I have a whole different appreciation for rugs now. There were over 400 knots in every square inch! And every knot is tied by hand. They were flawless! Yogi, the shop owner, showed us around and let us take off our stinky, sweaty shoes and test out the carpets. They tried selling us rugs, but let's be honest: as beautiful as they were, there was no way we could afford those on a student budget. We sang "A Whole New World" and pretended to ride magic carpets instead. The pictures are a laugh and a half. It was great!

Yogi joked as he took a photo with us (14 young girls) that he was the richest man in the world-- that women were a great treasure. He was so sweet. He's been investigating the church the last four years. He told us how much joy living the Word of Wisdom brings to him. He says he doesn't want to make decisions too fast and I respect him for that. We've had lots of missionary experiences here. We aren't allowed to proselyte, but when people ask us questions, we always take the opportunity to answer them the best we can.

When we returned to the hotel we opened the door that joined our rooms with our neighbors Kendra, Andrea, and Rachel. I love these girls. We've become so much closer this trip and I'm grateful for the chance to make friends. We laughed about little moments from the day and about how ticklish Kendra is while looking at pictures of elephant rides and camels and soon thereafter, we passed out.