Make it count

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Day #22 - Everest BaseCamp

Saturday, March 12, 2022

Itinerary - Jaipur to Delhi

Final day in India. I met at 7:30am at the reception desk this morning so I could get over to the pharmacy location where I took my Covid test. I had a sense of uneasiness- were they going to get my results to me in time? Do they have my information correctly so they can get in touch with me? Well - I did what I could do - now I just had to hope for the best.

Returning to the hotel - I grabbed some breakfast, took a shower, and did my final packing. We left at 10:30am for the 5-hr drive back to Delhi. We did make a quick stop at the Laxmi Narayan Temple. This was a pretty cool Hindu temple on the way out of town. My driver and I did a short walk about.

I settled in for my long journey back - periodically dosing off in the back seat. The road from Jaipur to Delhi was extremely busy the whole way - with a lot of big trucks moving slowly. This experience was totally different than my road-trip from Delhi to Agra - where there was nobody on the roads. My driver let me use his hotspot to check my messages (and see if my test results were in). Great news - negative result!!!!! I just held my breath when opening the email. My fate was either flying back today or holing up in a hotel for 10-days in Delhi, spending tons of extra cash, plus missing out on a couple weeks of work. (There’s a lot on the line when it comes to these Covid tests)

My driver dropped me at the airport at 5pm for my 1:30am flight. I had to wait until 8pm before I could check-in. I then got a late dinner and vegetated at the airport until my flight left.

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It’s about 8am local time in Chicago. I’m 1-hr from landing. I’ve been on this plane for 18 hours - with a 17+ hr flight time. I didn’t see this trip on the Top 10 longest 1-way flights in the world - but it’s right there. 17-18 hours is about as long as they go. The flight has gone pretty well. Probably got about 6 hours of sleep, read nearly a full book (Beyond Possible - about the guy who climbed all 14 of the 8,000 meter peaks in the world in 6 months), and watched the movie ‘The Big Short’. I have a pretty quick turn around to Denver. Hoping to get into Denver around 12:30 pm local time on Sunday, March 13th.

I’ll do a quick recap later tonight. Here’s to the good ole USA!!!

Laxmi Narayan Temple

Quick temple tour

Last hotel stay in Jaipur

Delhi Airport

Hindu Temple

Bhupinder (my driver) and I

Friday, March 11, 2022

Day #21 - Everest BaseCamp

Friday, March 11, 2022

Itinerary- Jaipur Day Tour

Final touring day for me on my Everest BaseCamp journey. I’ll be driving back to Delhi from Jaipur tomorrow. I’ll then be dropped off at the airport for my return flight to the US at 1:30am on Sunday (March 13th). I have a Covid-19 test setup for tomorrow morning - crossing my fingers I get that negative result which is required to board my return flight.

Today’s tour consisted of a number of temples and sightseeing in the city of Jaipur. After another great breakfast at the hotel - I met my new guide at 8:30am at the reception desk. Our first location was the Amber Fort.

A couple things I learned about Jaipur during our ride to the Amber Fort:

(1). King of Jaipur is 24-years old. Plays polo. Lives in UK most of the time

(2). Jaipur has 7 million people - 2.5 million in the old city. Jaipur is also called the Pink City - all the buildings have a pink/orange exterior color.

(3). Jaipur is the capital of this state.

(4). Famous location in Jaipur is the wind palace (Hawa Mahal). 953 small windows - designed so women of the royal household could observe the streets outside while remaining hidden. Hallmark of Jaipur.

(4). 3,300 temples in Jaipur

(5). Jaipur has never been attacked - diplomatic and get along with other leaders.

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Amber Fort was the capital of the state until 1728. It’s located high on top of a hill overlooking Jaipur. (I had an option of riding an elephant to the top - opted against it). We spent about 2 hours walking the grounds - viewing the king’s palace, etc. It has the largest mirror palace in all of India - with 800,000 glasses. The convex mirror design reflects the light. This was the sleeping quarters of the king in winter. It took 7 years to build this part of the Fort.

After completing the tour of the Amber Fort - we made a quick stop by the Water Palace (Jal Mahal). It’s a palace located in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake. It was primarily used as a summer palace for the king and also for some recreational duck hunting.

Next on the tour was the Maharaja’s City Palace. This is the location for the current-day king. This place was pretty interesting. I got to see a history of all the former kings - many of which played and excelled at the sport of polo. Each state in India has its own king. As a step further, within each state there are a number of kings (this part was a little confusing to me)

After the City Palace tour - we made 1 final stop at the Jantar Mantar. This was a collection of 19 architectural astronomical instruments built by Rajput King Sawai Jai Singh. This place consisted of a number of sun dials, signs of the zodiac, etc. Pretty neat stuff with how accurate these devices are when considering dates and times.

It was about 1:30pm by this time. We had been going hard for nearly 5-hours. We went back to the hotel for some lunch and I worked with the hotel staff to get my Covid-19 test set for tomorrow morning at 8am. They are telling me results will be back within 8-12 hours (hopefully). I will say that Covid has created a layer of stress when traveling internationally that I’m just not a fan of at this time. Setting up a Covid test in a foreign country within 24-hrs of flight departure is not easy. In Nepal - S2 Mountaineering made everything simple. Here in India - I’ve had to plead, beg, and pay for somebody to help me. It’s not been so smooth. I’m just hoping things work out in my favor

It was late afternoon after lunch and Covid coordination- I decided to stay in the rest of the day and get some rest.

Here’s to an incredible trip coming to an end. I pray for good fortune on my return travels. I’ll be writing up the blog at least 2 more days until I find myself back in Denver.

Keep the Faith! Here’s to safe travels and negative Covid tests in my future!

Amber Fort

Entering the Old City of Jaipur

The Wind Palace

Mirror Palace in Amber Fort

Jantar Mantar

City Palace

Looking out from Amber Fort

Water Palace (Jal Mahal)

City Palace - 1 flag means king is not there

Amber Fort

Jantar Mantar- Libra

Bunch of motorcycles

Glass palace

City Palace

Elephants walking up to Amber Fort

Entering the City Palace

Entering Jantar Martar

Wind Palace

Fancy Sun dial

Mirror Palace at Amber Fort

Amber Fort

Cobra

Stepping well - saw on way to Amber Fort

Lookout area in Amber Fort

Amber Fort

Sundial

Current royal family

Amber Fort

City palace - royal entrance

Thursday, March 10, 2022

Day #20 - Everest BaseCamp

Thursday, March 10, 2022

Itinerary- Agra Day Tour

Well, besides absorbing the culture and learning more about India as a whole, the one site I was most interested in visiting during my time in India was the Taj Mahal. Today I made that happen!!

I had an early morning alarm set for 5:30am so I could meet my driver/guide at the reception desk for our 6am departure to the Taj Mahal. We wanted to get there for sunrise. Spectacular!! My 2-hr walk about at the Taj Mahal did not disappoint. Here’s some take-away notes:

(1). Constructed in the 17th century - started 1631 and finalized in 1653. 20,000 people worked on it. 22 years to finish.

(2). It’s a Mausoleum. King of Mughal Dynasty (Emperor Shahjahan) built this for his 3rd wife (Queen Mumtaz Mahal). 14 children from this wife. She died giving birth to last child. She was only 39. Only 6 children survived after their births.

(3). When the queen died, she was kept 6 months as a mummy because the king was looking for the right architect to build the Taj Mahal. 24-year old designed it.

(4) Taj (crown). Mahal (palace). Taj Mahal is the “Crown Palace”

(5). The Taj Mahal was never lived in - only a tomb.

(6). Left of Taj Mahal is an active mosque. Closed to the public on Fridays - only the descendants of the workers can visit.

Right of Taj Mahal is a guest house (nobody lives there)

(7). Perfect symmetry - intricate design made from marble. Single blocks of marble - no joints. No marble panel was the same. Marble brought in by elephants. Used marble because it’s non-porous, a crystal, and has a translucent nature

(8). Nobody can drive within 1km of the Taj Mahal because of pollution. Must use electric carts and then walk.

(9). 4 colors of stones used on the intricate designs within the Taj Mahal - red, green, black, yellow. There are no paintings - just different colored stones.

(10). Jumana River runs behind the Taj Mahal.

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After the tour of the Taj Mahal, we came back to the hotel for a couple hours for some additional rest, to grab breakfast, pack-up, and check out. We met at 10:30am for the next part of the tour - Agra Fort.

Agra Fort is a huge Fort that once held the entire town of Agra - protecting the people from outside rulers/states. Some interesting things I learned during the tour:

(1). There was both a wet moat (filled with alligators) and a dry moat (filled with tigers) around the perimeter of the Fort.

(2). 3 entrances - all angled to help with protection. Uphill into fort - they could roll cannon balls, etc down the hill if attacked. The walls provided an echo effect - makes it easy to hear who’s coming

(3). 70 percent of the Fort is used by the army - making it not available to the public.

(4). The King’s palace was made of marble like the Taj Mahal. No paintings - just the different color of stones. The King would have 3 wives - each living in their own palace within the Fort.

(5). 6,000-7,000 lived in fort at 1 time

(6). The King who built the Taj Mahal was actually isolated for 8 years by his son - the next King. It was thought he was spending too much time/resources on the Taj Mahal - and not maintaining the kingdom.

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After the morning tours - we stopped by a marble shop. (I like doing tours - but these “sale stops” are always apart of the itinerary). It was interesting to see how they achieved the designs found at the Taj Mahal. The detail required in processing the colored marble was fascinating. I ended up buying a small piece of marble as a memory - about $20. There were many marble pieces for hundreds, even thousands of dollars. I normally don’t buy anything - but it was a cool souvenir.

It was early afternoon now - we next took the 4-hr drive to Jaipur- my tour destination for tomorrow. My driver and I stopped for a quick lunch on the way. I wasn’t too hungry after a great continental breakfast from earlier. I just grabbed a bowl of vegetable soup.

Some interesting things on the drive:

(1). You have to stop and pay a tax as you enter each new state

(2). During the colder months (Nov-March) - they use cow dung for heating purposes. We passed an area where cow dung was laid out to dry.

(3). Road conditions are much better than I expected. There are still random tractors, small taxis, etc on the expressways going 10-15 mph requiring cars/trucks to brake abruptly.

(4). There are often times where families are riding on the back of a motorcycle. I saw 3 small children with a man & women (not the safest setup in the world)

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We rolled into Jaipur around 5:30pm. I got checked in and worked with the staff to help me setup a Covid-19 test on Sat (12th) morning before we drive back to Delhi. I need to once again provide a negative Covid-19 test result to board my plane to the US on Sunday (13th) morning at 1:30am.

Today was a really interesting and educational day. The Taj Mahal was incredible to see in person. I’ve found myself say the phrase - “Well, it’s not the Tajal Mahal, but…… “. I’m not sure where that came from - but it makes some sense to me now. I asked my guide about why other kings didn’t build such elaborate temples for their wives. His response was: “They did - there’s many amazing palaces all over India. Many of which could be considered better than the Taj Mahal”. That’s interesting to me - but not surprising. I’ve seen other things in my travels around the world consistent with this. Sometimes - the promotion for an area is just first class. The area is great - but you never realize there are other places that may be just as special- or maybe even more so. Think about all those amazing places we’ll never see/hear about.

I’m going to sign off for now. Goodnight from Jaipur, India!!!