Chinese New Year

The sky is filled with smoke tonight, the last night of the 15-day long Chinese New Year holiday. It is marked by the first full moon of the new year and celebrated by a special Lantern Festival. Everywhere you turn and everywhere you look, there are bursts of light and fire from the firecrackers and fireworks that is exploding throughout the city. Cascading streaks of bright, colorful sparks are vsible from my window. Right outside my apartment building, in and by the man-made lake in my complex, people are lighting fireworks. Visually, it is spectacular. Even though it cannot rival the professionally orchestrated firework displays for things like July 4th, how often does one come within inches of live fireworks? However, the loud crack and pop make it sound like Beijing is being beseiged by bombs. It is a bit eerie and disconcerting.

After I came back from India, I felt a slight twinge of regret for not spending Chinese New Year in a country that actually celebrates it since I am living in Asia this year. It's the most important holiday for the Chinese. But the explosion of the fireworks, reminded me of Chinese New Year as a little girl in Taiwan. I remember disliking the loud, inescapable explosion of firecracker that drowned out everything. In China, there is 15 days of fireworks. If I remember correctly, the loud noise is supposed to scare bad spirits away so you can have a good year to look forward to. The noise was a minor nusance over the past few days. Tonight, the sound is so loud and persistent that you just can't ignore it. No wonder people try to escape China during Chinese New Year. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like during Chinese New Year's eve. It must have been even worse.

Since it is the first full moon, the tradition is to eat little round dumplings with sweet fillings inside to celebrate. I feel like most Chinese holidays are accompanied by a specific food or foods that you are supposed to eat. We had the dumplings in the office today. Before Chinese New Year, I was told that it was a tradition to make and eat regular meat-filled crescent-shaped dumplings, so we made dumplings in the office. During mid-Autumn festival, the office gave everyone mooncakes per local customs. There is also another holiday where you are supposed to eat bamboo-leaf wrapped rice balls stuffed with meat. I thought it was great that the office provided these foods for everyone since it introduces the foreigners in the office to things that we might not have known about or could not make on our own.

It will be a sleepless night with all this ruckus. It's been going on since dusk and show no sign of relenting. Or does it all just magically end at the stroke of midnight?

Jaisalmer, Jaipur and the End of My Trip to India

We arrived in Jaisalmer early in the morning, and went to drop off our bags and grab breakfast inside the Jaisalmer fort before our camel safari with Ganesh Travels. Jaisalmer is called the Golden City, and the golden colored fort towered majesticly as the sun rose. Almost all the buildings were built from the same honey colored stone. From the top of the guest house we stopped at, we can see the impressive, sprawling complex of the Jain temple that Jaisalmer is known for.

I met my camel in the Thar desert after an hour-long jeep ride with my group, which included me, Jia, another American named Andrew (the only male in the group), a girl from Australia named Natasha, a girl from London named Fiona and a couple of Polish girls who were really quiet, as well as our 5 camel drivers (which included 2 kids just 12 and 13). My camel was a 9-year old named Mr. Simon with a crooked nose, caused by a punch in the nose by a crazy Israeli a few years ago. He was not super friendly and would not allow me to pet him, and mostly just chomped and chewed away with me astride it. We were told that it was camel "love season" and Mr. Simon was extremely mellow since he was given a female camel the day before and worked "very hard for an hour." He's not a daddy yet, but a baby camel might be forthcoming next year.

We visited a couple of villages in the desert - isolated, desolate places where the people mainly raised goats and sheep to survive. The women and children were surprisingly aggressive. They asked for the jewelry we wore and when I said no, one of the woman literally tried to ripe my ring off my finger. Needless to say, I was ticked off. The ring was worth more than these people make a year, but rings do not feed people. It is one thing if they asked for contributions to their school, or for food, but stealing people's jewelry is just wrong any way you look at it. Poverty in India is extremely high and prevalent throughout, but out in the desert with only tourism to feed them if they are lucky, the poverty is omnipotent, holding these people firmly in its grip.

We camped out in the desert that night. We played in the sand dunes until dinner - a simple, but tasty meals of chapati and vegetable that our camel drivers cooked in the desert. After dinner, they sang and danced for us. With nothing else to do, it was an early night for everyone. As I layed awake most of the night (sleeping on sand is not exactly comfortable), waiting impatiently for sunrise as the camels chomped and chewed throughout the night, the stars that blanketed us twinkled brightly. I think I would have still preferred it if we had slept in Jaisalmer as opposed to in the desert, but the stars were really amazing and made the experience (my first outdoor camping experience) almost worthwhile. The weather had also warmed up a bit, so I did not even need all of the 10 or so layers that I had packed, worried that we might freeze to death in the desert.

The next morning, we took an hour long camel ride back to our jeep and headed back to the fort. We walked around, ate lunch and showered before heading to the train station for my long ride back to Delhi. On the train, Jia and I met a group of Chinese tourists, including an amazing photographer from Shanghai. His pictures are available on www.xfilm.com.cn. At the last minute, I decided to get off at Jaipur and spend the day there instead of back in Delhi. We visited the City Palace there (not that impressive after the City Palace in Udaipur!) and grabbed lunch before I hopped on a bus to Delhi.

International flights into and out of Delhi all seem to take place in the middle of the night. Mine was at 3:45am. The airport was the definition of chaos. It was managed and run with about as much efficiency as a Communist Commune - none of the airport workers seemed to care much about getting anything done. People everywhere pushed and shoved. It took over 30 minutes to get into the airport, where I was then faced with lines to get my bags screened (another 30+ minutes), check in, go through immigration (took more than an hour!) and finally, security screening (another 20 or so minutes). When I finally made it to customs, the customs officer asked me for my ticket several times. I had an e-ticket and no paper ticket. He was unsatisfied with my itinerary (which clearly indicated electronic ticket). You think that after processing thousands of people, he would have understood the concept of an e-ticket. Anyway, if you have been doing the math, yes - the whole process took over 3 hours. Most flights left late because none of their passengers had made it through all of the lines by the time the planes were supposed to leave. Mine unfortunately, was really delayed on top of that. By the time it was 5am and my flight finally boarded, I was exhausted.

I arrived back in Beijing yesterday afternoon. Beijing was as gray and colorless as usual but it was a welcomed sight. The airport there ran with military efficiency. The customs line took less than 10 minutes as usual. Back in my apartment with indoor heating, it felt good to finally feel warm again. I almost could not pull myself out of bed this morning... It's bratty of me to say this, but it felt good to be back in a developed city.

Ultimately, I think India has a lot of potential as a major tourist destination. The architecture, palaces, and temples are amazing, they have an amazing culture to share, but the sanitation and hygiene left a lot to be desired. Men urinated all over the place, treating India like one big public toilet. Cows and stray dogs deficated everywhere. Public health plays a huge impact on development and India has a long way to go. Delhi was much more under developed than I had expected, not at all what I had imagined the capital of a country going through rapid growth and nothing like the capitals of other developing countries I have visited.

Although I hate to praise China's Communist government, China has done a lot more in terms of poverty alleviation and mandatory education. According to Jia's friend in India, only about 50% of the population is literate. There is no compulsory education system. In many ways, the Indian government is failing its people and assuming that the NGO world will step in and fill the gaps. The population is booming and the country really cannot support the growing masses. One of the camel drivers even commented - people in the villages are like animals. They have huge families of more than 10 people but no way to support, feed and educate everyone. It was sad to see. India's rapid development needs to spread to the masses and not only be concentrated among the wealthy, adding to the already huge wealth gap.

Udaipur & Jodhpur

We arrived in Udaipur at 2:30am in the morning, after a long, cold, miserable, though not quite as hellish bus ride, only to find our hotel completely shut for the evening. Our banging on the windows managed to wake the entire neighborhood, all except for the hotel's receptionist. We ended up staying at a guesthouse right next door that night, without heat or hot water. Sabrina, Jia and I literally had to huddled together for warmth. Lack of indoor heating has made our trip to India almost unbearably cold. The next morning, we quickly checked into our hotel where a hot shower made us feel so much better.

Udaipur is often called the Venice of India. Several man-made lakes surround the city, with a system of canals of some sort feeding them. Lake Pichola, right by Ganguar Ghat where we stayed, is the largest of the lakes. In the center of the lake is the Lake Palace, an ultra-exclusive hotel that you can't even visit unless you are staying or eating there. Luckily for us, there were several other palaces that we could visit, including the City Palace and the Monsoon Palace. Part of the City Palace has been converted into a museum open to the public. The palace, right by Lake Pichola, was beautiful. The other half of the palace has been converted into several exclusive hotels that you can't visit either unless you were staying there. We were allowed to walk through the grounds (although we had to pay for the privilege) on our way to the City Palace jetty where we caught our boat for a boat ride around the lake. In the center of the lake was another palace on Jagmandir Island. It was lovely, with a cafe on the open air garden and terraces that had with fantastic views of all of Udaipur, including the Lake Palace and the City Palace. There is a restaurant there that is probably incredibly lovely at night, although we did not eat there.

The Monsoon Palace is perched on top of a hill overlooking all of Udaipur. Jia and I went up there with her friend Anuja. Our little autorickshaw definitely had a bit of trouble making it up there, but we made it in time for sunset. There is not much to the palace itself, but it is, without a doubt, the best place to view the sunset over Udaipur. We sat atop the stone walls of the palace overlooking the city as the sky changed colors from blue to shades of orange, red and yellow until finally the sun disappeared over the hills. Afterwards, we went to Anuja's place where her cook whipped us a delicious, traditional Rajasthani dinner of dhal with wheat balls.

We left for Jodhpur by bus early the next morning. The supposedly 5 hour direct to Jodhpur bus ride became a 7+ hour ride with multiple random stops in between. But we nonetheless got here in time to visit the amazing Mehrangarh Fort. The fort was perched on top of a hill which we climbed. We had a fabulous view of the oldest section of Jodhpur from the fort, which is painted almost entirely in blue. Thus, Jodhpur is known as the blue city (Udaipur is known as the white city, Jaipur (which we skipped) the pink city and Jaisalmer (where we are going next) the Gold City). The palace within the fort was surprisingly amazingly well maintained, with intricate and detailed architecture, and a really well-done museum complete with an informative audio guide. Jia and I had to zip through the fort since it was about to close but nonetheless, we were glad we had the opportunity to see it.

We are heading to Jaisalmer by train tonight. In Jaisalmer, Jia and I are going on a camel safari where we will be spending a romantic Valentine's day with each other - in the Thar Desert. We are almost certain we will freeze to death since we don't have the right clothing for the weather, but I did pick up a sweatshirt at the fabulous price of 50 rupees in Udaipur, which will hopefully make it a bit more bearable.

Agra and Pushkar

The majestic Taj Mahal, the Baby Taj, Akbar's Mausoleum and the other sights in Agra and Fatephur Sikri truly demonstrate the incredible architecture and magnificent artistry of the Mughul empire. We spent our first day in Agra visiting Fatephur Sikri, the site of Akbar the Great's capital during his reign. The old city walls encompass an impressive mosque and his beautiful palace. The impressive gate to the mosque was covered, of all random things, by huge honey combs. Beside the mosque, there was a beautiful marble shrine on the inside, with amazing carved lattice windows, all carved out of marble. The multi-story palace was airy and open, with large courtyards. The city was abandoned after Akbar's death due to the lack of water and the capital moved to Agra, where Agra Fort and a new palace was built. Today, there is a lively and chaotic market and approximately 40,000 people reside here.

Agra, like the rest of India, is crowded and chaotic. There is development right up to the gates and walls of the Taj Mahal. We tried to wake up in time to see it at sunrise, but it was freezing and cloudy so we promptly abandoned the idea and went right back to sleep. But the Taj was beautiful anyway. Even seeing the Taj for the second time was incredible - it is quite simply, magical. We grabbed lunch at a nearby rooftop restaurant where we ate with a view of the Taj in the background. Afterwards, we went to Sikandra to see Akbar's mausoleum, an impressive red sandstone structure decorated with marble inlay. We followed that with a visit to the Baby Taj, the first Mughul structure built entirely out of marble. It is much smaller than the Taj, but the details and design was even more intricate than the Taj. As the sun set, we went to view the Taj from the other side of the river, where we saw the back of the Taj. It never gets old.

However, living in the shadow of the magnificent Taj were some of the poorest people in India. In a small tent city, there lived hundreds who did not have real abodes. Despite the rapid pace of development in India, this is still one of the poorest countries in the world. In fact, it makes China look amazing in comparison. Children begging without shoes as well as adults, and the litter, fecal matter and urine strewn about everywhere on the streets detracts from the amazing sights and culture India has to offer and serve as a reminder that India still has a long way to go in terms of development.

We took an overnight bus to Ajmer, the closest big town to Pushkar. The bus ride was an experience to say the least. It was freezing and the bus made multiple noisy stops that made it impossible to sleep. We finally got to Ajmer at 5:30am in the morning. We were cold and tired, but found a place at the railroad station to store out luggage, then hopped on the bus to Pushkar. When we got to Pushkar, nothing was open. Things in India open surprisingly late. Even in Delhi, nothing opened until 10am. We made a half-loop around a empty, deserted town before finding a cafe open for breakfast. Post-breakfast, the town came to life. Dozens of little stores selling shawls, clothing, jewelry and other items opened and people were everywhere. We shopped, visited the Brahmin temple and walked around the ghats by the lake. The lake was small but pretty, dotted with colorful pilgrims who were visiting this holy Hindu city, and pretty pale blue and white buildings on little hills. It was nice and relaxing, and full of hippies from Europe enjoying the chill pace of life.

We rushed back to Ajmer hoping to make it in time for our train to Udaipur, which we missed. Plan B is a bus to Udaipur, which we are determined not to miss.

Varanasi

Varanasi, simply put, was chaos personified. Our visit there was truly a unique and crazy experience. It is one of Hinduism's holiest places, where millions of Hindus come to to bathe in the Ganges, whose holy water is supposed to wash away their sins, and the place that people go to be cremated after death at the burning ghats. Jia and I stayed at a local hotel by Meer Ghat along the Ganges, and spent our first afternoon visiting the Viswarnath Temple and walking along the many ghats. We were assured that if we had never seen a dead body before, we would do so in Varanasi. At the ghats, we saw people bathing and yes, corpses being burned at the Manikarnika Ghat, the main burning ghat. Piles of wood were stacked up high all around for that purpose. We saw a body wrapped in a colorful piece of cloth, carried through the streets toward the ghat. The cremation process at the burning ghats is suppose to free people from the cycle of birth and rebirth.

Early the next morning, we took a boat ride in the fog on the Ganges where we observed the pilgrims that have come to Varanasi to bathe in the Ganges. Thousands of people were bathing by Desaswamedh Ghat, the main ghat, where throngs of people covered every free inch of space on the steps of the ghat. While there were fewer people at the other ghats, all the ghats were buzzing with life, as people washed their clothes and laundry and washed themselves in the river. The weather in Northern India was surprisingly cold, and the water probably even colder, but nevertheless, the pilgrims eagerly jumped in for ablution. We rowed by Manikarnika Ghat again, where we observed the watery burial of a baby. It was carefully put on a boat by relatives, then rowed to the middle of the river where its body was thrown overboard.

After the boat ride, Jia and I took a yoga class at one of the yoga training centers. The teacher was a bit crazy but the class was good nonetheless. We then got an ayuvedic or energy massage which was the most bizarre experience. It would be an understatement to say that we felt really uncomfortable. The masseuse kept telling us we needed male energy. Towards the end, we just told him we were done and had to leave. Ultimately, we couldn't tell if he was a real masseuse or not, and if the massage is anything like what an ayuvedic massage should be like.

Aside from the religious rites, Varanasi was also an assault on the senses. Cows, goats, sheep and dogs roamed freely, and the pungent smell of animal fecal matter, which littered the street, and human bodies and waste was overbearing at times. The twisted, narrow streets in the Old Town were crowded with visitors and locals alike, and the cows that are considered Gods. Avoiding stepping on sometime unpleasant, the touts that were so pervasive as well as the animals on the street made walking an obstacle course that required your constant attention. It is definitely not for the faint of heart and after two days, I was relieved we were heading to Agra.

Wedding, Delhi City Tour and the Taj Mahal

Nisha's wedding officially started at 7pm, although the groom's guests gathered at 5:30pm to start dancing down the street, a big part of the wedding festivities on the groom's side. The groom sat in a horse-drawn carriage at the end of the procession, while the musicians played in the street and the guests danced their way to the huge tent set up for the wedding. I was told to arrive at the tent around 6:50 to see this happening, but after getting stuck in traffic behind the procession, I got out of the car and joined the groom's friends. It was loud, chaotic and fun. When we finally arrived, Nishant's friends formed a line to keep him from entering, as if to prolong his last few minutes as a single, unmarried man. Finally, they carried him in.

On the female side, the guests slowly arrived on their own time, filling the massive tent beautifully decorated with flowers and chandeliers. Over 1,000 guests were in attendance. The women's saris and lenghes were even more spectacular tonight. The bride arrive after the groom, quietly making her way to the stage, looking ethereal in a beautiful pink dress so ornately decorated it weighted 20 kgs (44 pounds). The bride and groom exchanged garlands of flowers, then greeting their guests. The actual wedding ceremond did not start until 1am in the morning. Until that point, everyone just ate and chatted. The massive buffet included dozens of dishes and an army of servers passed out hors d'oeurves all night.

The wedding ceremony took place at Nisha's house and involved a series of pujas (or prayers). The bride and groom had to walk around this holy fire kept lit by ghee 7 times, once for each of seven promises they made to each other. The ceremony took 3 hours, before ending on an emotional note whe Nisha bade her family and parents goodbye and left to joing her new family.

The day after the wedding, I joined Nishant's friends on a tour of Delhi. We visited the Qutb Minar and Jama Masjid, drove by the Red Fort, Lotus Temple and the government buildings. That night, we attended an elaborate reception for 1,300 people where the bride and groom greeted people as an officially married couple for the first time.

The day after the reception, we went to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, often referred to as the greatest monument ever built for love. The Taj Mahal was breath takingly beautiful, an elegant, perfectly-symmetrical white marble structure set against the blue sky. It truly blew me away ad exceeded all of my expectations. To say it is incredible would be an understatement. We also visited the Agra Fort where Emperor Shah Jahan's palace was located and from which he had a perfect view of the Taj Mahal in the distance.

After returning to Delhi late that night, we had a late dinner, slept for 3 hours and then woke up at 4:30am to watch the SuperBowl. Watching the Super Bowl in India was definitely not something I had expected, but it was fun and the Giants won!

Jia arrived on the 5th and we left for Varanasi right away.

First Impressions of Delhi

I arrived at Delhi airport at the ungodly hour of 3:30am a couple of nights ago, so I would make it in time for Nisha's engagement party the next morning. The event took place at the Maurya Hotel. All the women were dressed in beautiful, colorful saris and langas of every color, making me feel like a plain ugly duckling in my plain black dress. First came the groom's ceremony, where a group of men chanted something in Hindi around Nishant, the fiance, on the stage before giving him his engagement ring while everyone watched from below. Nisha arrived afterwards, looking absolutely radiant in a traditional Indian outfit of light and dark green. She was showered with gifts from him and his family, including an incredibly beautiful diamond necklace set and of course, the diamond engagement ring. An army of photographers documented the event like paparazzis. This was followed by dances by Nisha and Nishant's wedding parties. I would have been included in Nisha's group if I had arrived early enough to learn the dances. They were fun to watch - teasing the soon to be bride and groom about falling in love and getting shackled in marriage. Of course, tons of food followed afterwards. There was so many courses that I couldn't even try a bit of everything for that would be too much food.

In the evening, the guy and girl's events split. Nishant's side rented a huge club in Delhi for what was essentially a bachelor party. The girls went to Nisha's house for henna and another small traditional ceremony. I had henna done for the first time on one hand. It took hours to dry making it impossible to do anything. It dried a bright orange on my hand, leaving behind an intricate design. Nisha had it done on both arms up to her elbow and on her feet. Her design was incredibly dense and intricate, taking the 2 henna artists over an hour to do. She was so handicapped by the henna that she had to be fed her dinner, which was an elaborate, fully catered chaat bar, completely different than the curry based lunch we had.

This morning, before heading to Nisha's house again for the Goddess ceremony and other ceremonies at noon, I went to the New Delhi train station to purchase train tickets for my trip in India with Jia and Sabrina. The event was stressful - most tickets were completely sold out with long waitlists. There is a tourist quota that required passports to purchase but I only had my own. So I had to purchase tickets at the general quota area. The Indian train reservation system was really complex. I muddled through it as best as I could but only procured a fraction of the tickets we would need.

The station was seedy to say the least, and showed a stark contrast to the elaborate engagement I had witnessed the day before. Poverty is a huge problem and the area by the train station seemed worlds away from the beautiful, gated Sunder Nagar neighborhood I am currently staying at by Nisha's house. It was loud, dirty and gritty. Men milled around everywhere, openingly staring, making it rather uncomfortable as a female, even though I had a driver with me. Rather open public urinals (mostly for men) euphemistically called "Public Convenience" are everywhere. I had originally planned to travel for a couple of days on my own if I could not meet up with Micah, but now it no longer seems like a good idea. Still working on a Plan B. I might go to Agra with Nishant's friends from the States even though I will be going with Jia and Sabrina. Jia and I are going to Varanasi together, then meeting Sabrina in Agra from where we will head to Ajmer/Pushkar, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer before I head back to Delhi for my flight.

I arrived at Nisha's house in time for the first ceremony where everyone dabbed oil and some colorful powder all over her head, shoulder, knee and feet. I did this as well. It could not have been comfortable for Nisha though! The guests were feed little snacks of samosas and pakoras while waiting for her to get cleaned up. Then came another ceremony where she had a pink string tied around her wrist. Afterwards, people walked around her in a circle, throwing rice that she passed to everyone as part of the Goddess ceremony. She was given gifts and people paid her respect by touching her feet. Then she left to go to the salon where she will get dolled up again. Her dress will weight almost 20 pounds she told me yesterday.

Over 1,000 guests will be in attendance tonight at the wedding. There will be food galore again, and a couple of ceremonies, including the wedding ceremony which will officially make them husband and wife. I hastily picked up a dress yesterday since I did not have anything suitable for a wedding - a fancy beaded black dress that looks a bit more Indian than what I wore yesterday. Hoping to fit in a bit better this time. The festivities start at 7pm and will last until 4am. One MIT alum from the class of '69 who interviewed Nisha jokingly said that in India, the divorce rate is so low because no one wanted to go through another wedding ceremony again after going through their first. They are long and exhausting for both the groom and bride. It will be a spectacle!