An adventure to Agra to see the Taj Mahal

 

Our bus to Delhi

Having originally only planned just two full days in Delhi before moving to my work site in the north, I realized that Saturday would be my only day to see the Taj Mahal. I had hoped to find someone in my hostal that was also going and when I heard one guy chatting to another traveler about potentially going to the Taj the next  morning, I butting myself into the conversation excitedly and invited myself along. He seemed interested and we decided that that evening we would make plans. Well, I waited until about 9 pm for him to return and at that point I realized I had better start figuring out something as I had heard it was a 3 hour train ride away. Fortunately in the hostel there were two travel agents that I could talk to about figuring out the logistics of getting down there and back. They said that the train was a bit complicated, especially so late the night before, and similarly, there was a very efficient bus that takes the highway which is also just 3 hours form Agra, but I was also too late to sign up for this as well. The only option left was for me to talk a 5 hour bus ride which they told me might take even longer than 5 hours depending on traffic, fog, etc etc. I was hemming and hawing over this when the guy who said he would come with me came back and just said "What the hell, let's just go." So I did. 

The travel agents booked a place for us on the bus and it was to pick us up at a gas station in the middle of nowhere in Delhi at 7:30/ "Do we have a ticket?" I asked, "No, he'll know you." was all he replied. Ok... so we rushed down to this gas station early in the morning suddenly realized that we had a little problem. Every single bus from Delhi going south stopped at this particular gas station to fill up, and every bus which arrived asked us if a) we wanted to go on their bus and when we said we had already made a reservation they asked b) "Do you know your bus number?" to which we had no response. "Dont' worry, bus is coming." they would reply as they drove off. Finally one man asked us if we had made a reservation and when we said yes, he made a call. "Ok, your bus number if 4329." Who did he call? How did he know? It's a mystery to us still today, but several minutes later 4329 rolled in and we were told to hop on.

We knew pretty quickly that we had made the right decision to take this bus when a vendor came on tried to sell an orange juicer. His sales pitch, which was mixed with Hindi and English was too hilarious and that was before the demonstrations started. He told us how good it was for "pregnant lady" and "newly- married lady" and then he pulled out a baby bottle nipple and stuck it on the top of the juicer showing that you could litterally use an orange as a baby bottle. Next thing some lucky (or unlucky) bus riders found themselves subject to the demonstrations where he would push the juicer inside the orange, then tip someone's head back and pour orange juice straight from the orange into their mouths. At least one guy looked like he was enjoying it a lot.

 

After about 2 hours of driving we stopped for breakfast at a little outdoor restaurant on the side of the road. This was my first proper meal in India, and we were both quite satisfied with our veg curry for 30 rupies each. We realized when we got the bill, however, that we had accidentally ordered the most expencive naan (it was filled with vegetables), so we still wound up paying a whopping $3USD each for this meal (one of my most expencive meals so far).

Finally, around 1pm we arrived in Agra and the bus driver announced that we would be going first to Agra Fort, then to the Taj Mahal, and would stop at each place for 1.25 hours. We were a bit dissapointed by this, as we wanted  time to just wonder the city after seeing the Taj Mahal. Just at that moment, the man pictured above came to us and told us that he would take us on our own directly to the Taj Mahal so that we could have more time there, and that this service was included in the price of our tour. So we hopped out and got in his tuk-tuk and he whisked us away to the Taj Mahal, giving us a leisurely 2 hours to see the site.

Before we even reached the Taj, we passed quite a few monkeys and camels....

And finally we got to the Taj Mahal. The crowds were enormous, but fortunately or unfortunately we were forced to buy a expencive tourist ticket to enter which let us through all the lines without waiting.

So in case you are wondering, yes, it is just as big as it looks in photos, if not bigger, and the reason why you never see photos of the inside is that there is no light inside and all you can see (and not well because of the crowds) are the two tombs for whom this structure was built: the tomb of Shah Jahan, emperor during the Mughal empire and his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, his third wife and a Persian princess.

Before stepping foot on the marble of the Taj Mahal, one must put on shoe covers to protect the stone.

Here is the entrance into the mausoleum. I have no photos from inside to show because a) it was too dark, b) there were too many people and c) technically photography was not allowed, however that didn't seem to stop most people. I tried taking one or two shots in here quickly, however none came out well enough for me to show here.

Next we checked out the side building which is a mosque made of red sandstone, a very typical stone used for building in this area.

Here, too, we were expected to enter shoeless, and while it was not the Taj Mahal, I found it to be quite impressive as well.

 

After finishing with the Taj, we still had some time and decided to do a little wondering around the backstreets in the area. We were starving, so we stopped for some samosas first.

While wondering the backstreets in India (or even the main streets for that matter), you never know what you'll find.

We didn't have much time left before we were supposed to meet our driver, but we found a little rooftop restaurant with a view of the Taj. We were still full on samosas and we didn't have much time, but we ordered ourselves two beers (much bigger beers than we expected) and enjoyed them watching the rooftop scenery around us.

Imagine if this were your view every day...

But finally we had to go back and meet our driver and of course, we were next brought on the typical tourist shopping tour. First to a clothing store. Now, my friend who had been to India several years ago advised me, don't pack many clothes because clothes in India are unbelievably cheap. Well, I couldn't just pack no clothes, so I just packed about three warm outfits and figured I would take her advice and do the rest of my shopping in India. So, now I was brought to a store, where undoubtedly our tuk-tuk driver would receive a commission for anything purchased. upon asking the price for some clothing, I found it to be... cheap... but not unbelievably cheap as my friend had told me.  Finally after seeing that bargaining was going no where, I gave up and left the store. Our tuk-tuk driver was clearly not impressed that I had not bought anything. We told our tuk-tuk driver that we weren't really interested in shopping but he insisted that we go to see an inlayed marble seller. While I did find it to be fairly interesting (though not enough to buy one), my travel companion was at this point visibly pissed off that we were being dragged around like this and our tuk-tuk driver, perhaps still hoping to get a good tip offered to take us back to our bus so we could walk around there.

Our driver, guide and my travel companion (looking not so impressed at where the day was going)

Ah, yes, and how could I forget. As we were headed back to the bus, our guide pulled out a joint and tried to convinse my companion to buy it from him at just 300 rupees. Fortunately, my companion had the wits to say no, even when he offered to split it with him for half the cost. Ha, and while I had been inside the clothes shop trying on clothes, my companion was offered oral sex by another man, also for 300 rupees. It does not pay to be a male traveler in India (or basically anywhere for that matter) as you get solicited for all manner of terrible things.

Finally we were dropped off at the bus and it was time to tip our driver. In the end we agreed to give 100 rupees each, or the equivalent of just under $4 USD. Not sure whether or not we did the right thing, as we did basically get a free ride around town (although how much of our tour fee covered his expenses, we don't know), but feeling the victim of sales pitch after sales pitch doesn't put one in the mood for generosity at the end of the day. Not to mention $4USD can go quite far in this country as well.

But we thoroughly enjoyed our walk about while waiting for our bus...

Finally our bus departed and thought we would be back to Delhi before midnight, but oh no, they had more in store for us. Around 8pm we were awoken to visit a temple to Krishna. The temple complex was quite big and because they closed at 8:30, we didn't have much time to look around, but it was quite interesting watching the worship services in various small shrines about the complex.

Then we were back on the bus and off to another temple to Krishna, now at 10:00pm. We really had no idea what was going on, though one other tourist on the bus tried her best to explain, even though Hindi was not her native language and she also seemed to not understand completely what was going on.

Finally at 11:30pm the bus stopped for dinner at another roadside restaurant. This time I joined some of the other tourists (which turned out to be students from a university in the far east of India, explaining their very different, more South-east Asia appearance that I had been trying to figure out all day) and their professor bought my dinner, a delicious Dal Makani with naan.

We finally got back to Delhi at 1:30 am. We took a tuk-tuk back to our hostel and crashed. But, that was one unbelievable day!

New Banner, New Cross-Cultural Experiences

So, my lovely and patient blog readers. You may have noticed a long interruption in the blogging, and that was because I've been busy with crazy grad school/wedding/honeymoon/and work schedules. However, now that all that insanity is over, I'm preparing for my newest adventure: teaching in a five-week winter camp in northern India teaching Tibetan monks. As my teaching schedule should allow for ample time for blogging, and since there should be plenty to blog about, I have updated my banner to reflect the next two months or so of my life.

Not only will I be posting about teaching and living among Tibetan monks, I am also backlogged on posts from my travels through China, the most memorable of which was spent in a Tibetan area of Yunnan Province, so before I get to the India posts, expect plenty of China posts which will include plenty of Tibetan cultural info as well as the photos here allude to.

So, over the next two months or more, expect posts about my time in China, India and mostly about Tibetan culture and life.

Yunnan Province Part 1: Kunming

 Typically, when you think of honeymoons, you imagine a tropical atmosphere, a fancy resort by the beach, and maybe some champagne in a luxurious hotel room. The last thing you would probably imagine would be trekking through the foothills of the Himalayas, spending $6.00 USD per night to stay in rustic guest houses, and gorging on oily Chinese food.

...However, as I'm sure you can guess if you've been reading my blog for a while, we're more of the trekking, cheap lodging and new and unusual food types, and that is probably how we found ourselves spending two weeks in Yunnan province of China for our honeymoon.

But all good trips need to start somewhere, and for a trip to Yunnan, the most logical starting point is Kunming, the capital and largest city of the province.

We flew in to Kunming late at night on September 13th. As the airport railway was already closed for the night when we arrived, we hopped in the first cab we found (avoiding the numerous obnoxious people in the airport trying to get us into their cabs) and got into town for just 100¥ (about $16.00 USD). As it was late at night, we went straight to our room and passed out.

In the morning, we started wondering around. First thing first, I wanted to get a cell phone as I was to  stay in China for the next month. We found me a smartphone for about 900¥ and then we started to roam about the city. 

The first place we found was a large park with many small ponds. All around the park were various performances and just plain things happening. The photo below was a group of people playing music. We couldn't quite figure out if this was a band having their practice, or a performance, or just a bunch of random people who accidentally met and started playing spontaneously. 

Next we stumbled upon Yuentong Temple 圆通寺. This temple is no less than 1,200 years old and is considered the most important temple in Yunnan Province. As we walked around, we found not just the average temple-goers lighting candles, but also a group of adult students who seemed to be there for some Buddhist education.

The temple itself was decivingly large. While the street entrance seemed fairly modest, the temple expands quite far behind reveilding more and more interesting buildings, pools and statues.

While I don't have any photos, one of the most exciting places we visited in Kunming was the Flower and Bird Market. Lots of good shopping and interesting sights. Probably the best place to pick up bird flu, too.

The next morning we were up at 4:00 am to catch an early flight to Shangrila. Yes, there really is a place called Shangrila. I'll save the next adventure for the next post...

Not so far from Shangrila

Our Korean Wedding at The Korea House (한국의집)

Finally it's the post you've all been waiting for! It's taken me quite some time to get this post up, between honeymoon/ one month in China, and then almost immediately starting to teach a 7 week intensive course in Gangnam after coming back, and applying for jobs during every break time I have, I've had no time for blogging. I miss it so much! After some time, I've finally gotten this post up.

Our Korean Wedding Day:

It's amazing how much build-up there is to a wedding, but when the day arrives, the time just flies by before you know it. Our wedding was scheduled for 12:00pm on a Sunday afternoon, but that meant we needed to arrive at The Korea House by 8:30am to start preparing. As soon as we arrived, with our hanboks in hand, I was whisked away by the stylists and they immediately went to work on me.

The hair went quite quickly, actually. For a traditional Korean wedding, the hair style is quite simple, just parted down the middle and tied in the back. I had been growing my hair out for over a year in hopes that they would use my real hair for the hair piece, however that probably would have been impossible, so instead they just put my hair in a bun at the back of my neck and put a fake braided bun over it, which was strong enough to support the hair peice that would come later.

Next was the make-up. I must say, while there were some fake eyelashes involved, after they had finished with the make-up, I still looked like myself, which I can't really say about the photo shoot we had had the week earlier.

Getting my make-up done

The make up and hair took some time, but once it was done, it was time to suit me up. First went on my own hanbok. This helper whipped it on in no time. However, since I had bought the hanbok myself, I had not bought shoes (I tried on the nice shoes in the shop, but found that they were all too uncomfortable, so I decided not to buy them). Since I knew that the men were given shoes, I assumed the bride would be, too. I was wrong however, and the woman nearly flipped out when she realized I didn't have any proper shoes to wear with my hanbok. Fortunately, my friend who had rented a hanbok got shoes with hers, so even though they were one size too big, I just wore hers instead.

Getting dressed

After I had gotten my own hanbok on, I was then given the bridal jeogori (top part of the hanbok) to wear over it. Actually, this worked out great since I found that the back of my hanbok sometimes flipped open showing my petticoat, and the bridal jeogori was very long in the back and covered the back of the dress.

Fitting the hair piece

My groom didn't take quite as long to get ready as there wasn't really any make-up for him. Once I was done, I headed out just in time for my photographer to arrive and take some pre-wedding photos. I should note that this is quite different from the American wedding ritual where the groom can not see the bride before the ceremony. Modern Korean weddings generally do the majority of the photography before the ceremony, unlike American weddings which would do couple photos after the ceremony.

Pre-ceremony photos

Since our wedding was at The Korea House in Chungmuro (which is open to the public and tourists can visit), the traditional hanok setting made for perfect photography. We recently got our wedding album back and we're quite satisfied with the way the photos came out (thanks again to Aand Studio).

Waiting in the 신부대기실

Once photos were done it was nearly 11:00, time to wait in the 신부대기실 or the bride's waiting room. While waiting here, guests can come up and take their photo with the bride (me!) before the ceremony. The groom and the rest of the family members wait by the door and greet guests as they come in.

At 11:45 I still had not received even one word of instruction on what to do for the wedding. I know that the men had run through their part earlier, but no one had explained anything to me. Just before it was time to head down, my two helpers (you can think of them as bridesmaids) came up and "taught" me how to bow. I thought I knew how to bow, I do it all the time in Korea, but this bow was totally different. Rather than getting down on my knees, I was taught to squat down all the way to the ground (being supported on each sides by my two bridesmaids) and then once I had gone down as far as I could, push back so my bottom was on the ground. Then I was told to lean forward and bow my back and head down, keeping my arms in front of my face, the big sleeves would keep my face covered.

We practiced this several times and it felt quite awkward but they assured me that I did a really good job, better than most foreign brides (probably helped by the fact that I could understand them as they couldn't speak English. I imagine most foreign brides must struggle terribly with the language barrier). After practicing bowing down, they whisked me down the stairs and into the house where I would wait for the ceremony to begin.

While waiting in the back, they also brought my mother in from the crowd. No one mentioned to me that she needed to play some role in this all. Suddenly, my helper was firing instructions at me at what my mom needed to do and what I needed to do. In the stress of the moment I was freaking out that I wasn't translating it right. "Ok, one more time... who follows who?" Finally the helpers very slowly explained what we all needed to do and I translated for my mother. Basically, my groom would put a wooden goose on a table in front of us. My mother needed to pick up the table and bring it inside and then we would all march out together in a line. 

The video here shows the rest of the process better than I can explain in words, so take a look! Thanks to Steve the Qi Ranger for our beautiful video.

We concluded the wedding with a little pansori, because, well, you can never have too much of that!

After the wedding was finished, it was photo time. First was photos with family, and then with friends. We were really overwhelmed by the number of friends that came to our wedding. There were even some friends who ducked out of the photo, believe it or not! 

(not) all of our friends

After the official photos were taken, my new husband and I were being pulled on all sides by friends wanting to snap photos with us in our wedding get up. But, way too quickly, we were whisked away by our helpers. I couldn't quite figure out why until we were brought into a room with all our family and we realized that we still had to do our pyebaek.

Pyebaek (폐백) is basically the Korean wedding tradition in which the groom's family welcomes the bride into the family. It is typically done privately with just family watching

There are several Pyebaek traditions. First we had to take the customary family photos. For my family, my friend Megan was a stand-in for my father who could not come to Korea.

Next we served rice wine (cheongju) to our families. I held the cup precariously over my hands covered with several layers of cloth while my groom poured and served it. Then our families took a few bites of the traditional snacks prepared. My mom and friend looked frightened to death of trying them.

Next it was time to toss dates and chestnuts into my cloth. The groom's mother and father each take a turn at throwing a handful of dates and chestnuts while we try to catch them in my cloth. The dates represent the number of girls we will have and the chestnuts represent the number of boys we will have... fortunately his mother completely missed and his father only got five in our cloth, so we're only having five children... don't want to think about what would have happened if they had both had better accuracy...

Getting ready to catch the dates and chestnuts our children

The only thing missing from our pyebaek was when the groom carries the bride on his back around the room. Don't know why we didn't do that, but I'll bet my groom paid them off because I know that was probably the part that he was least looking forward to.... suspicious...

Finally, it was off to eat with the rest of our guests. Actually, it was more like walking around and chatting with everyone we could and then finally when the staff told us that they would be closing up our buffet within the next 5 minutes we grabbed a plate of food for ourselves and scarfed some down before packing up our things and heading out. Then we went on to our after-party in Itaewon... which is a whole other story...

what we were wearing under the wedding garb