The Golden Triangle

My last week in India, Bimpe and I planned a trip to the Golden Triangle which includes the three cities of North India- Jaipur, Agra and Delhi. Before heading up North, we visited Bombay (Mumbai) and meet up with Neha and Ruchi, two other students from our class who were doing rotations in Delhi.
Bombay was interesting. It is known as the wealthest city in India, yet has about 90% poverty on its streets. We visited the Gate to India, where the British first arrived when they reached the country, and toured the best hotel in India called the Taj Mahal Palace. It was amazing and had all the best shops located inside. We also visited one of the shores and saw some of the homes of the famous Bollywood actors. We even visited a nightclub not really expecting much, but to our surprise it was so much fun and the music was even better than in the states!
After our fun weekend in Bombay, we flew to the North and started our week of travel in Jaipur. I had heard that Jaipur was amazing, yet I really didn't realize it until we got there. It is known as the "Pink City" since many of the buildings have a pink color because of the type of clay used to build them. It was so cute and the shopping was unbelievable! We visited the Jantar Mantar, which is a famous observatory build by an astronomer about 200 years ago. It was really cool to see how the instruments could give you the local time based on the sun within minutes of the time on one's watch. We also toured one of the famous palaces, now called City Palace Museum. The architecture and views were great and the museum of art and artifacts was interesting. Outside of the museum were two large silver urns that were used by a king to carry his water on all his trips away from India. They were huge!

Our second day in Jaipur, we went to the beautiful Amber fort and were lucky enough to get the famous elephant ride to the top of the fort. It was so much fun and an experience I will never forget! Seriously, how can you go to India and not ride an elephant?! (Bimpe informed me that Indian elephants have smaller ears than African elephants, which I thought was a cool fact.)

Our last day in Jaipur, we went to Chokhi Dhani, which is a renactment of an typical village from Jaipur in the past. It was fun and we got to see cool dancing and eat traditional North Indian food.
Next we travelled to Agra. There we visited the Agra Fort and the next day we saw one of the seven wonders of the world...the Taj Mahal!!! It was indescribable to actually see this beautiful monument and everything about it was perfect. It is known as a symbol of love and was built by a king for one of his wives after she died. It is so perfectly made that it took 22 years to build.
Our final stop was in Delhi where we saw the home of India's president and some of the different parliament houses. We also saw a tomb of one of the king's and visited the famous lotus-shaped temple. In one of the markets we got some henna artwork on our hands, which is traditionally done for a Indian wedding or party. It was really cool seeing the man draw the designs freehand and the ink dried in about 30 minutes. This week of travel was amazing and I feel fortunate to have been able to visit these places and experience many new unforgettable things!