I signed up eons ago not only to purchase the Taj Mahal & Jaipur official Semester at Sea trip, CHE 04, but had also eagerly upped the ante on the trip by volunteering to be trip leader, a decision 100% motivated by the fatty discount that trip leaders get for spearheading a trip. Over time on the voyage, I learned that trip leadership is actually nothing to sneeze at, and those discounts are earned with blood and tears as often as not. Horror stories on student misbehavior, bad guides, and itineraries that failed to live up to their descriptions in the field manual. After receiving more details on the trip itinerary, a vigorous one with long bus rides and early morning wake up calls, I begin getting a little nervous about how it would all go. By the time I was attending the trip leader meeting after logistical pre-port, I had a case of the shakes, nervous striking snakes in my belly, and I would have given anything to shove my trip leader envelope into someone else's hands!!
Thankfully, my anxieties proved of little subtance. We started out our trip auspiciously, as the first people to leave the ship. We boarded the bus for the 40 minute ride to the airport. India has interesting travel security rules that in many ways exceed even what is required in the United States! In an effort to avoid lost baggage and other snafus (an inevitability when traveling in India) we all took carry-on bags, and the only checked baggage was a giant bag packed with all of our liquids and toiletries, batteries (including camera and cell phone batteries), and sharp items. In India these things are not allowed in carry-ons, even in small amounts. Each member of our 32 person trip was obliged to pack their items in a small ziplob bag labeled with their name which they then placed in the communal checked baggage. Lukily, our giant bag-o-toiletries survived the trip and was never lost. Only mild spillage. Robitussin. It was me. Oops :)
Our flights round trip experienced major delays, each being delayed by an hour. Thing is, in India the time they give you for your flight is actually not the time that you take off from the runway. It's the time to be past security and at the gate. The gate is not the place where you board the flight, however. The gate is the place that you wait in line for the bus. The bus then takes you to the tarmac, where you board the plane. Our flights were great though, the seats wide and leather. We were given meal vouchers for the flight as a part of our trip, and so we enjoyed transportation closer to American business class than the steerage type travel we suffer in the US for 3 times the cost!
We finally arrived to Delhi late. We met our tour guide for the entire trip, Ramesh and he escorted us to the bus. Giving us an abbreviated night bus tour (boo) instead of the city tour we were supposed to have, we went to our hotel, The Lalit. The Lalit was AMAZING. Five star accomodation. Having been dressed (apprpriately) in a pair of ratty, too-big capri pants and an Obama tee shirt, along with my dirty and busted sneakers (which I am getting rid of after the voyage), I immediately was chagrined and felt underdressed. I was fit for the back entrance! However, I held my head up high. When I got to the room I felt even worse. It was beautiful, had a large flat screen television, and an amazing bathroom. I felt that it would clinch my plebian status to take pix of the room, so I made a video (not that much better). I had a nice dinner, a long bath, and went to bed.
The next morning after breakfast, we hopped onto the bus for a bus tour of New Delhi and a long ride to Jaipur. When we arrived, we took a tour through the city of Jaipur also and saw many things. Palaces, temples... the streets were a montage of curious and compelling sights: sacred cows in the roads, sacred cows and dogs scavenging in piles of garbage, fruit and spice markets, massive snarls of telephone and electricity wires in the sky (their power grid must look like a pile of spaghetti noodles), entire families on mopeds, bicycle rickshaws, men peeing on the street (apparently not a big deal), BMWs and Mercedes next to people in oxcarts, dust sweepers losing the battle against the amazing dust, beautifully dressed women in saris, billboards, advertisements, roundabouts, elephants, beggar children, the list is infinite.
After a day of touring Jaipur, we checked into the Hotel Mansingh. They had prepared a special dinner and show for us. A traveling troupe family of performers sang, danced, and entertained while we scarfed down delicious buffet food in a small courtyard by the pool. The trees were decorated with lights and the popular hanging mobiles of birds, elephants, and stars of India. I remember that they served
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