India, oh India.

This country is so polarizing.

You’re either going to love it or hate it.

It’s so raw, so wild, so free, and so rich.

Yet it’s so dirty, so constricting, and so poor.

The shopping malls are grand and the rich areas are filled with fancy restaurants so big they look like a ball room.

But you step outside and you’re walking on dirt roads and getting taxi’d around on the back of a motorcycle.

The construction workers wear button up dress shirts, jeans, and flip flops.

The police only want a selfie with you.

But the best parts of India? 

The people and food.

Everyone is so friendly, welcoming, and excited you are there to see their country.

And every meal you eat leaves your tastebuds with that puppy dog kind of love.

On this trip, we spent 10 days in the northern part of India. Our time was split between New Delhi and several towns north of New Delhi, in the state of Uttarakhand (which is mostly foothills of the Himalayas).

We went during our Chinese New Year break, which is the first few weeks of February.

For this trip, we were hosted by Scott’s friend who he met while working at Petco Animal Supplies.

His name is Sid. Sid works in the IT department. When they met, Sid was working in the states, but since moved back to India.

With that, we had a very special experience spent with a native. Sid has a USA salary living in a country where, according to cheggindia.com, the average person makes $571 USD per month.

So we had a trip revolving around the middle-upper class of India… a very different experience than when Scott went back in 2017.

In 2017, his trip was spent slumming it (mostly), finding cheap hotels in the middle of the country, and riding in a tuk tuk all day. This year, we ate at boutique restaurants, slept in river-front hotels, and drove around in an SUV.

With all that said, sit back, grab a drink, and enjoy our 10 day journey through India.

 

Day One – Sunday Feb 4th, 2024 – Delhi, Redfort, Dilli Haat – Ina, and Cricket

We had a 6 hour, non-stop flight from Hong Kong to New Delhi. We arrived late on Feb 3, 2024.

Our first day here was SO busy.

It started with Sid taking us to a nice lake-front restaurant for brunch which was inside a nature preserve called Sunder Park. 

After arriving at Sunder Park, but before eating, we walked around the nature preserve. We saw so many wild green parrots flying around. It was cool to see wild parrots flying like you’d see a flock of pigeons in the USA. 

And we even saw three or four peacocks! Did you know peacocks fly?? 

We finally sit down for brunch and Sid orders all the food. We were with Sid, his wife (Kritika), and two of their friends.

ANDDDDD we have now re-introduced our taste buds to the most amazing food on the planet!

We’re not sure if it’s because we had been living in China for a while or what, but the food was sooooooooOOOOOooo amazing here (and all throughout India). But this place in particular. 

It was such a shock how great the food was, we were not ready for it.

Here is a photo of the lunch spot:

Oh, and Scott leaves google reviews for most places we visit as we travel (except this brunch place, of course). You can view and follow his reviews here:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/389EmkR6XWLqzb4h6?g_st=ic

After eating we walked around the Nature preserve for a while, there were some old worship / prayer temple things. They had Urdu calligraphy inside.

From here we drove to the Red Fort, which is on the northeast side of New Delhi. Copied from wikipedia:

“The Red Fort or Lal Qila (Hindustani: [laːl qiːlaː]) is a historic fort in the Old Delhi neighborhood of Delhi, India, that historically served as the main residence of the Mughal emperors. Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned construction of the Red Fort on 12 May 1639, when he decided to shift his capital from Agra to Delhi. Originally red and white, its design is credited to architect Ustad Ahmad Lahori, who also constructed the Taj Mahal. The fort represents the peak in Mughal architecture under Shah Jahan and combines Persian palace architecture with Indian traditions.”

It was massive!!!

On the inside, there were these ancient bathing stations made out of pure Indian marble with inlay stones, just like what you will see later at the Taj Mahal.

Inside the Red Fort Marissa bought her first souvenir of the trip, an indian scarf:

After the Red Fort we went to a famous street called Chandini Chowk where brides-to-be go shopping for all their wedding-day clothing. We hired a bicycle rickshaw and Scott, Marissa, and Sid all sat in the back as this poor guy bicycled us around. 

Next up, we separated from Sid because he had a cricket championship to play. We hopped in an Uber and headed off to “Dilli Haat – Ina” which is a must see if you’re ever in Delhi.

Dilli Haat is an open air market with crafts, food, and sellers from each state of India. Haat literally translates to open-air market.

Below is a link to more info about it, but it was a highlight of our trip because we got so many cool things and each stall was selling handmade items that were very common in their region of India, so it was a true culture experience with items from north, east, south, and west India.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g304551-d320433-Reviews-Dilli_Haat-New_Delhi_National_Capital_Territory_of_Delhi.html

Inside Dilli Haat we bought stone coffee/tea mugs ($6), a wool blanket from Kashmir ($18), matching wooden bracelets, and a brass miniature rickshaw ($6). Everything here you barter for, so I’m sure we paid way too much for these. But trying our bartering skills was fun and there were so many stalls it was easy to say no and walk away, which is precisely when they started lowering their prices.

Both of us were both raised by single, middle class, working mothers and both had very supportive extended families. We were not poor by most worldly standards, but, with only a single income, money was also never freely flowing into our households. 

With that, both of us have frugality embedded deeply in our habits. We hold onto our money like the monkey who stole your hat.

But, while we were in this Dilli Haat, we both realized how our relationship with money is actually unhealthy in some situations.

Because sometimes, it actually takes courage and strength to spend the money you’ve earned on things that are important to you.

This market was filled with all these super cool things. Things that we may never have the opportunity to buy again. For example, 100% Kashmir wool blankets for only $20. They were literally made in KASHMIR.

And we are like na, that’s way too expensive. 

But we loved them. And we have enough money to buy it. 

So now, as we travel, if we see something we truly love, and it’s not absurdly expensive, we are open to buying it. Because when we get back from our Asian adventures, it’s more important we have some items to show our family and future kids than the twenty bucks we saved. 

And gosh darn it, that Kashmir blanket is the softest thing you’ll ever feel while watching a movie. 

So, after our shopping extravaganza, we Uber from downtown Delhi to Sid’s cricket tournament in Noida.

His team won! 

Cricket is such an interesting sport and VERY popular in India. Cricket was brought to India when it was ruled by the Brits, sometime in the 1700s. Now it is “India’s Sport.”

Similar to baseball, your team goes to bat in an attempt to earn points. If your team bats first, you have 120 pitches to score as many points as you can, unless all 10 players get out. When all 120 bowls (pitches) have been thrown, you switch sides and the other team needs to beat your points to win.

Sid is a bowler, which us Americans would call a pitcher. What’s savage about cricket is they don’t use gloves. So they catch this hard ball with their bare hands. 

Above is a photo of the cricket field. It’s a circle and the batters bat from the middle of the circle.

After the game we all piled into Sid’s car, which included two other team mates, and headed back to Sid’s house for a traditional Indian dinner prepared by Sid’s mother, Madu. The meal consisted of dal (lentils), naan, cucumbers, the longest grain rice you’ve ever seen, and a roasted veggie mix.

Day Two – Monday Feb 5th, 2024 – Noida to Kasar Devi

We woke early today to begin our northern India road trip adventure. Today we will stop in Sid’s hometown, stop to see the progress of his new-build home, and finish the day at our hotel in Kasar Devi, high in the Himalayas. 

This part of India (the Himalayan foothills) is known for its vast spiritual history. With the combination of being nestled high in the mountains (which makes you closer to God) and the high geomagnetic field activity, this area is filled with tons of Hindu temples and has been made internationlly famous by several western celebrities who visited looking for enlightenment, including the Beatles (1968) and Steve Jobs (1974).

Our trip to the Himalayan’s came together because of a few different circumstances:

1. When Scott visited India in 2017, he started in Delhi, but traveled west and then south, never seeing the northern part or the famous spiritual history of India. 
2. Scott had recently read Steve Jobs biography where, in it, Steve traveled to northern India as a young man in search of meaning and Scott had recently read the book “The Autobiography of a Yogi” where Yogananda talked a lot about this part of India as he was coming of age.
3. Sid is currently building a house in these mountains, so he’ll use any excuse to get up there and check construction progress. 

With those 3 things, Sid put a day-by-day itinerary together for us and it did not disappoint. 

Here is our travel route for day one. We started in Delhi (actually, Sid lives in Noida). We head east for a bit through the state of Uttar Pradesh, then turn north into Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand is bordered by Tibet to the north and Napal to the east.  The state is often referred to as the “Devbhumi” (meaning ‘Land of the Gods’), due to its religious significance and numerous Hindu temples and pilgrimage centers found throughout the state. The holy Ganges river also begins in the state of Uttarakhand, which we will spend time exploring this trip.

Our first stop was Sid’s hometown. Sid’s father helped run a Xerox factory that made printers / fax machines back in the 90’s. We stop to see the house he grew up in, which was in a community built next to the factory. 

And we visit our first temple, which is in Sid’s hometown.

In Hinduism, there are several different gods they worship. Each temple will have different gods in them and you offer each god a different offering or perform a special ritual that relates to that deity.

Here we poured water over Shiva’s head. We offer water on Shiva as a gesture of reverence, gratitude, and devotion to his divine power. Apparently Shiva had a temper and water, a symbol of purity, signifies the surrender of one’s ego and desires to the Almighty. You slowly pour water on him to cool off his anger. While you pour the monk says some things. Then the monk puts a tilak on your head (more on that later). 

After we poured water over Shiva, we continued driving North. We stopped at a roadside restaurant and Sid introduced us to the Indian breakfast food called Paratha’s. These quickly became our favorite dish of this trip:

They are like a quesadilla but the inside is veggies, either radish or potato. And of course the flavor of India.

We continue on until Sid stops at a roadside guava stand. He gets out and buys us each a guava.

We continue north as we dodge cows, monkeys, and literally who only knows what else.

We arrive at the construction site of Sid’s soon-to-be new home. Sid needed to meet with his contractor to discuss a few things. His property is located in the hills of Bhowali, overlooks a nearby town, and overlooks a beautiful lake (Bhimtal Lake). It was a really nice location and Sid’s story was so inspiring.  

When Sid was finished with his contractor we started driving toward the Kainchi Temple / ashram. But first we stop for gas and inside the car we have our remaining guava pieces. Instead of throwing them out Sid says, “go feed them to a cow!”

So Scott takes the guava and walks down the street and starts feeding the cows, hilarity ensues. He feeds one cow, then another cow walks over and grabs the bag and starts trying to eat the bag. Then four other cows come over and are all sticking their heads out trying to bite the guava through the bag! 

After the cow debacle we finally got to the Kainchi ashram. It’s located in Nainital, Uttarakhand, just north of Sid’s build site. 

This is the ashram Steve jobs spent time at in 1974 (when he was 18 years old) and later told Mark Zuckenburg to visit, which Mark did when Facebook was going through a tough time. 

We go inside and pay our respects. A hindu Guru named Baba (Neem Karoli Baba) spent a lot of time here during his practice. This is the guru Steve jobs came to visit in 1974 but, sadly, right before Steve Jobs arrived, Neem Karoli Baba had passed away. 

These temples do not allow phones (or photos) inside, so we don’t have any photos inside. At this point though, we have stopped at about ten of these temples today, it just happens that the Kainchi Temple was made famous by celebrities. 

As we were driving away from the Kainchi ashram, Sid asked us, “Are you up for Maggi?

We replied, “What is Maggi?”

As Sid was explaining, we realized it’s India’s version of ramen noodles. 

Sid pulled over to a small shack on the side of the road. We got out, sat down at a small table, and waited for our maggi.

$1 meal with a $1,000,000 view:

After eating, we all go into the shack to see what a maggi “restaurant” consists of:

After maggi, it’s about one more hour of slowly-winding roads through the Himalayas until we get to a city called Almora. The city of Almora is just before Kasar Devi (our final destination for the day) and it really took our breath away. 

Kasar Devi is on top of the mountain but Almora is a town built in the mountain, just below Kasar Devi. Almora reminded us of an Italian city built into the side of a mountain. But it’s India, so all the houses are painted vibrant colors: pink, yellow, lime green, sky blue, etc.

It was beautiful to see. Usually we aren’t fans of the bright and wild colors, like those of homes in Mexico and South America, but when you look down from a mountain peak and see so many colors in the city, it’s something special. We assume they don’t have HOA’s telling them what color to paint their house!

It was hard to capture the feel of the city, but here are some photos of Almora:

 

Here is a screenshot copied from a website, travelsetu.com:

We get through Almora and up to the city of Kasar Devi. We are staying in a hotel Sid selected called ALhito. The front wall of our hotel room is all glass and looks out over the Himalayas:

We could not think of a hotel we’ve stayed in with a more beautiful view. You look out of your bed to layers and layers of Himalayan mountains and, far in the distance, you get a glimpse of the snow capped himalayan peaks which are around 8,000 meters tall (26,000 feet) here.

Our hotel is at 2,111 meters (6,925 feet), so when we look down, we see clouds. And we look into the distance to see these peaks. It was surreal. And all from our bedroom.

After we checked in, we took a bunch of those random cell phone photos you take when you’re so excited and can’t get over how beautiful the place is, but really, all you need is one photo, and that photo never looks as beautiful as your eyeballs saw.

Here are those photos:

Can you guess what is in the cup we are holding in each photo?

Lemon, ginger, honey tea. 

Our newest addiction. 

We get settled in, drink 3 lemon-ginger-honeys, and grab dinner at the hotel. Inside the hotel they had a copy of the Autobiography of a Yogi!

Day Three – Tuesday Feb 6th, 2024 – Poop sticks, temples, Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary, and more temples

We woke from a slightly below-average sleep and had a massive breakfast at the hotel, which of course had the most amazing views of the himalayas. 

And Lemon ginger honey tea.

Walking back to the room, which is up a steep set of stone stairs, there was a monkey holding its baby. The baby was SO cute. Scott pulled out his phone to take a photo and the mommy monkey charged towards him!

And sadly, not enough time for Scott to capture a photo. Just enough to clinch his cheeks before pooping himself!

And on that note, we had been dealing with small-toilet issues. Without going into too much detail, the toilets were a bit too small for our “logs” and we had been using a stick to break up our logs so the toilet wouldn’t back up. Stressful but funny. But we were so thankful our stomachs are doing great here in India and pumping out healthy “logs.”

Highlights from the day:
1.Lots and lots of lemon ginger honey tea.
2.Visiting the temple dedicated to the Golu Devta God. From wikipedia:

“Golu Devata is considered to be an incarnation of Gaur Bhairav (Shiva), and is worshiped all over the northern region. He is regarded as the dispenser of justice by the devotees with extreme faith. Historically, he is considered as the brave son of king Jhal Rai and his wife Kalinka, and a general of Katyuri king”

While at this temple, the workers had us hide the offering food in our shirts and run/rush to the temple so the monkeys don’t steal the food from us. As you’re walking up to the temples, there are several large bells you ring. So we are walking fast yet crouching and also trying to reach up and ring the bell each time we pass one.
3.Seeing a brown goral, which look like goat-deer. Funny looking little thing. Here there is the Himalayan goral, but sadly we didnt get a photo.
4.Observing the conflicting behavior of the temple monks and some Hindu’s: They are very spiritual and in touch with nature/spirits but simultaneously have little respect for the Earth’s beauty by littering and throwing trash on the ground.
5.Feeling super relaxed and calm at the Kasar Devi temple because the Van Allen magnetic belt touches that area of Earth and, apparently, brings positive vibes from cosmic stuff and solar winds. This is one of three places on Earth where the Van Allen belt touches Earth’s surface (the other two are Machu picchu (Peru) and Stonehenge (UK)). It all sounds like some fake Sedona woo-woo hippie dippy stuff, but we do admit, we felt VERY at ease up there. Visiting the Kasar Devi temple was one of the reasons we wanted to come to this part of India. Here are some photos from the Kasar Devi temple:

6.Driving through the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary (where we saw the goral) and did a 4km hike up to this lookout of the himalayas. Sadly, the snow-capped peaks were covered by clouds.

We stopped for lunch at the Himalayan Hobbit House, a really beautiful restaurant in Kasar Devi. Thankfully the misspelled sign wasn’t an indication of the restaurant quality because it was amazing!

As we traveled throughout the day, we stopped at little temples here and there. They are spread all over this part of India. Here are some additional photos from the day:

Day Four – Wednesday Feb 7th, 2024 – Temples, more maggi, riverside hotel, dinner with Sids contractor

We woke today and eased into the morning. The clouds were clear and we could see the snow-capped peaks in the distance, so we ordered breakfast and relaxed. And can you guess what else?? That’s right, more lemon ginger honey tea.

We hit the road and our first stop was at the Chitai Golu Devta Temple. It’s dedicated to the god of justice and filled with bells & letters from pilgrims. There were bells EVERYWHERE. You would buy a small brass bell, write a prayer on a small piece of paper, then tie the bell somewhere on the grounds. 

We had to dodge monkeys here too.

Or give in and hand feed them:

After this temple we drove to Jageshwar. There are tons of temples in this town (some temples are large enough for you to walk into. Others are small and you just walk up). Jageshwar is a location many Hindu’s believe every devoted Hindu must visit in their lifetime. According to wikipedia, there are over 200 temples in this area built from cut stone. But this official plaque says there are only 125.

Order of operations for a temple visit:
1. First remove your shoes.

2. Walk up to the shrine, bow your head, put your hands together like the praise emoji.

3. Say a small prayer thanking that God for the fortune you have in their area, asking them for help in their area, or asking to bless someone else in that area. 

4. After your short prayer, the temple monk, who is holding a stainless steel lunch tray, will dip his thumb in the liquid substance and wipe it on your forehead. The “substance” varies based on the God. These can be ash from a sacrificial fire, sandalwood paste, rice, turmeric, cow dung (poop), clay, charcoal, or red lead. In general, we saw the yellow turmeric, red lead, rice, and sandalwood paste. The mark on your head is called a “tilak.”

5.After receiving your tilak, you typically give the monk some cash as a donation, but you can also bring in your own offering of food, rice, etc. 

In Jageshwar, we slowly made our way through all the temples. 

By the end of this day, we had visited so many temples, we looked like tribal warriors:

After the Jageshwar temples Sid took us to lunch at another one dollar meal, million dollar view spot.

We then proceeded to the house Sid is having built to check-in, then spent 3 hours driving down the mountain back towards Delhi. It was crazy to see the workers working in flip flops. And there were LOTS of female workers. One lady would be mixing up the cement. Another lady would walk over (in her flip flops) and fill a basket with cement. Then balance the basket of cement on her head and walk it over to the retaining wall. 

We made it to our accommodations for the night, Rill and River Luxury Camp, which was at the bottom of an enormous valley and nestled right on the riverbank.

We get settled in, order some snacks, lemon ginger honey teas, and then head to dinner at “Let Me Dine”. We are meeting Sid’s contractor (his name is Deepak). The restaurant (Let Me Dine) was run by Deepak’s sister. The food was top notch and they cooked it using a tandoor oven. Marissa was curious so the cook invited her back to cook a few things with him!

It’s February in the Himalayas, so we were very cold! But the restaurant had personal fire pits for each table! So much better than those tall and silver propane heaters.

Day Five – Thursday Feb 8th, 2024 – Road Trip back to Delhi and arranged marriage 

Today was spent slowly making our way back to Noida (Delhi). We first stopped at the wedding venue where Sid and his wife, Kritika, were hitched. It was a beautiful spot right on a lake. We ate breakfast on the grounds then went for a walk after. The walk led us through the woods and up to this small village. The village gave us European vibes. 

And speaking of Kritika (Sid’s wife), because their marriage was “arranged,” we were able to ask questions to get first hand info on how it worked. Growing up it was always crazy because when we’d hear “arranged marriage” we thought these two people were forced to be married by their parents.

But it’s nothing like that. 

It works like this:

When you’re ready to be married, you let friends and family know you’re ready. Friends and family begin to recommend people they think would be a good match.

Like turning on Tinder except the algorithm is your family. They link ya’ll up. 

You text / talk digitally before meeting to see if you vibe.

If y’all vibe, the woman’s father meets the man first (to verify you’re cool). If he gives a thumbs up, the two meet and date for a while.  

After dating for a while the two must decide if they want to marry or not. There’s no dragging it on for years and years. 

So, besides the parents meeting the man first, there’s not much difference between our culture. 

We digress. 

So, we leave Sid’s wedding venue and keep heading towards Delhi. We drove through a teak tree forest, which was special because that wood is very rare and expensive in the states, but here there are forests of it.  

We also stopped to get a cup of roadside sugar cane juice, where a very clean and sterile machine crushes the raw cane and catches the juice.

Our last stop of today’s road trip was at the Ganges river. Sid’s friend’s father passed away recently and the friend asked Sid to stop and get a jug of Ganges river water (it’s considered sacred). The holy Ganges water is used in rituals.

Day Six – Friday Feb 9th, 2024 – Driver Mohit, Haridwar, and the Ganges river

Sid has not taken a day off work this entire trip. He works online for Petco, a USA based company. So when Marissa and I would go to sleep each night, Sid would go online to work. 

He’s crazy.

But he also needed some rest and had some work to do that needed focus, so he arranged a driver for us, meet Mohit:

Mohit will drive us from Noida to Haridwar, a town on the Ganges river where, each day from 5am to 6am and 6pm to 7pm, thousands of people gather to perform a ritualistic bathing on the banks of the Ganges to wash away their sins. Aside from bathing, this hour-long Ganga aarti (ceremony), performed twice a day, is a sacred Hindu ceremony that involves offering light and sound to deities as a way to show reverence and ask for blessings. The Ganges river is very, very long. But it’s considered most fresh and holy here in Haridwar because it is where the river first exits the Himalayan mountains. 

And we were headed to watch the Har Ki Pauri aarti!

We arrived at the ghat (a word for bathing steps) near sunset, just in time for the 6pm aarti. 

We took some selfies and made our way to the steps on the west side of the river so we could watch the ceremony across the river and not be behind the monks.

Locals were selling large sheets of candy wrappers, taken from local factories, to sit on. Mohit bought us an almond joy ‘blanket’ and walked us right up to the front of the crowd so we had a front row seat.

We had some drama while sitting here. 

Here’s what happened.

Locals were walking down the river on the first step (the step fully in the water) selling offerings for people to buy and send down the river on mini rafts made of leaves.

Scott thought it would be cool to do so he stopped a guy. They guy gave us the offering and asked us to repeat after him. As we were repeating Hindi (or sanskrit??), another man walked up to us, who, at the time, Scott thought was part of what we were doing. He handed Scott a stainless steel cup of milk and had him pour the milk into the water (while we were still repeating the words of the other guy). 

After we finished reciting the ritual words and sending the flower offering down the river on the mini leaf raft, we paid the first guy. Then the milk guy started demanding money, and a lot of money for his milk (100 rupees, about $1, for an ounce or 2 of milk). 

$1 might seem small, but the first guy (and locals around us) were saying the cost of the milk ritual is 20 rupees. 

Being overcharged because we are foreigners is something we are used to while traveling overseas, but it’s like biting your tongue — you can do it for a while but sometimes you’re not in the mood to bite your tongue, and snap. 

And, in this moment, after 6 days in India, Scott was not in the mood to be taken advantage of. 

Scott kept telling the guy no, over and over. We even handed him a 20 and he wouldn’t take it. 

Would it have been easier to just pay him?

Sure.

But we travel A LOT and after doing things like this repeatedly for a week, the principle takes over and we don’t care. Well, Scott doesn’t care. 

We kept saying no to 100 rupees, over and over, for a solid 10 minutes. The man would not leave, he just stood in front of us until, eventually, a guy standing next to us pulled out 100 rupees and paid the guy.

What’s funny is, later, a young boy walked by us and, without asking, put a tilak on Scott’s forehead. Then demanded money. 

We just paid this boy.

The aarti was so special. Monks stood on a stage near the river’s edge, lit torches, then played bells in a rhythmic tune while chanting songs. We didn’t take any photos of the aarti, only videos.

After the aarti, we walked around the ghat watching Indian’s continually bathe, drink, collect, or splash the Ganges river water. One stranger, who had great English, told us, “you really should drink it, it’s good for your health. It’s pure.”

No thanks, buddy.

Here are some photos of our walk around Haridwar after the aarti:

We eventually get dinner with Mohit and then head to our hotel. While walking to our hotel, we saw some really sad poverty. People were burning clothes to stay warm. There were also these elderly ladies sleeping on the hard sidewalk, hiding under blankets. 

Day Seven – Saturday Feb 10th, 2024 – Uneventful

Mohit met us at our hotel around 9am and we hit the road.

Not sure where Mohi slept, but it wasn’t in our hotel. 

The drive back to Delhi was about 4 hours and this day was fairly uneventful.

Sid took us to get samosas, which are mashed (and spiced) potatoes, wrapped in dough, then deep fried:

Then we went to a grocery store where Marissa bought a ton of Indian spices we could take back to China (including bags of Maggi!).

We ended the day watching the Bollywood movie Rockstar (2011). Great movie.

Day Eight – Sunday Feb 11th, 2024 – Church in India, President’s house, Pure Vegg buffet

If you’re in our church and are traveling overseas, make sure to reach out to the Bishop before just showing up to the church. A lesson we learned in Mexico but forgot here. 

We got to church at 10:30am (church starting at 10:30 should have been our red flag) and, come to find out, church had started at 10am. We sat through the last 30 minutes, then ate bread during the 11am service and bounced early. The church building was really nice though. It had its own compound but felt like a house (mansion).

Mohit picked us up after church and took us to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence to the Indian president. 

Similar to the white house, you could walk around but not get too close nor go inside. The grounds were beautiful with massive tulip gardens. Purple, orange, pink, and yellow tulips were everywhere!

After Rashtrapati Bhavan we met Kritika (Sid’s wife) for lunch at a south indian restaurant called Juggernaut. We LOVED the uttapam with cheese on top.

For dinner Sid took us to a pure vegetarian buffet. Scott was literally in heaven. It was the best restaurant we ate at on the entire trip.

But, of course, it was expensive. It’s surprising there aren’t vegetarian buffet restaurants like this in the USA. Especially in woo woo cities like Austin or Denver. 

Day Nine – Monday Feb 12th, 2024 – Taj Mahal

We woke on Monday to really sad news – Sid’s brother-in-law had a heart attack. His brother in law lives in south India and is really close with Sid. Sid booked a flight to go down and hired a different driver to take us to the Taj, since Sid would not be driving us now.

Sid is a saint. 

And Mohit said we smelled too bad.

Jk.

Oh, and Sid’s brother-in-law is doing well now!

We meet our new driver, bid Sid farewell as we will not see him again, and head for Agra, the old Capital of India where the Taj Mahal was built.

Upon arrival we were hawked down by locals trying to get us to hire them as a guide. We decided to hire one so we could obtain information we would likely forget later. 

The Taj Mahal, like many massive and ancient buildings that we don’t understand why they were made so big, is a mausoleum (a big word meaning fancy tomb).

Construction began in 1631 by the fifth Mughal emperor (Shah Jahan) to bury his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It was finished in 1648.

The building is made of Indian marble with tons of inlay stone. It’s 243’ tall.

As the emperor was approaching his death, he began construction of his own tomb across the agra river, which is directly behind the Taj. 

Our favorite story about the Taj Mahal is that, when the emperor finally died, his son was like nah dawg, I’m just gonna put you in this tomb you built for your wife and save money. 

So Shah’s casket, which sits right next to his wife’s, is the ONLY thing in the Taj Mahal that is not symmetrical (because the wife’s casket sits in the middle of the room).

And when you’re in back of the Taj, you can look across the river and see the cleared lot for the emperor’s unfinished tomb.

As for our guide, he was great. Besides sharing tons of info with us, we had also, unknowingly, hired a photographer. So we have a bunch of photos at the Taj. Here are some:

Here’s a photo showing the inlay stone. It’s insane to think this is all over the entire Taj Mahal. To make the stone inlay, the artists would first cut and shape the small color stones. Then set the stones on top of the Indian marble and trace those exact stones cut. Next they’d carve out the marble with a diamond tip carve tool that resembles a pencil.

Here’s a cool optical illusion at the Taj. In the below photo the Taj looks really close. It’s an optical illusion because it’s actually the same distance away as the second photo, which was taken just a few steps forward.

As we were about to leave the Taj Mahal we were sitting on a bench drinking water staring at the Taj. A family walked up to us and, without saying anything,  handed Marissa their 6 month old baby!

They then all stepped back as the mother took a photo of Marissa holding their baby! 

It was hilarious. 

Like who are you and why did you just give me your baby?

Like most places we travel, the end of the tour took us to some shops for us to spend our money. He first took us to some rare gem store. The only customers there were elderly women. We started watching some demonstrations on how they polish the fancy green stone. We stopped them mid demonstration and asked how much the stone was.

He said something like, “this one is only $15,000 USD.”

We laugh and looked back at our guide as we said, “this place is not for us, we argued over spending $23 for you”

We got in our car and headed back to Delhi. It’s a 3 hour drive one way.

Our flight back to China is at 3am, so we just chilled with Sid’s family. 

End thoughts

We really loved India. It’s so raw, wild, so yummy, and alive. And the people.

The people are just so friendly.

This trip we saw a lot of the luxury side of India, but also lots and lots of spiritual history. And the spiritual culture of the subcontinent. 

It was also amazing that our stomachs held up really, really well!

No Delhi belly!