The second day we decided to walk around the city area where it was said to be Ganesha’s (their major God) birthday as well as Eid (celebration after Ramadan) and there would be parades and festivals throughout the day. While walking around we noticed we were some of the only non-Indian people out on the streets so we of course attracted plenty of attention from the locals in addition to rickshaw drivers. It was quite a sight to see lights strung up all across these small streets between every building along with food carts, kid’s carnival games, and music playing from local stores and restaurants.
Since we had not yet tried McDonalds in India we made sure to grab it for lunch. We knew it was very different due to their vegetarian standards and non-beef substitutes so we were interested to see what they came up with. Their interpretation of the Big Mac was the Maharaja Mac where it was chicken patties instead of beef and tasted delicious as well as their regular veg burger surprised us. During the couple minutes I had to wait for my burger, Liz went to get a table only to be harassed and bothered by little Indian boys and teenagers who thought it would be so cool to talk to a western girl. She did not give them that satisfaction and shortly after an employee tossed the kids out the door after noticing what was going on. That afternoon we hung out with a couple English guys from our hostel who arranged a Cricket match with some of the rickshaw drivers and locals in the area. I had no idea how the game was played but had a very basic idea of what the goal was…hit the ball that was pitched to you and run (similar concept to baseball). We showed up at the field to find well over 20 Indian kids who were already playing and hopped on after they were finished. In India Cricket is by far the biggest sport and essentially the only one they care to play, and to our luck some of these drivers were on club teams and traveled around India to compete. I was the only person who had never played or even watched a game before and ready to be the biggest loser out on the field. These guys were all pretty good and when it came time for me to bat, the pitcher eased up on me knowing it was my first time. I managed to hit the equivalent of a homerun which was exciting until the next pitch, which was much harder, I popped up and was out (in cricket you continue to bat until you get out). It was a short lived moment of glory but a fun one. The game ended early because of some loser Indian guys who lived at the apartment adjacent to the field wanted to practice javelin, and they get priority over people who don’t live there. It was a very selfish move on their part to kick 30+ people off the field so they could practice right then rather than to let us at least finish. We took off to grab a beer with the rickshaw drivers we came with and the English guys hoping that we were not going to try to be scammed. We were very tentative as it had the setting where they would come out charging like $50 per beer or something absurd since there was no menu. Fortunately all was well, and we headed back and relaxed the rest of the night. We arranged for the same rickshaw driver to pick us up that next morning and take us around the various sights of the city since we figured we could trust him a bit more than some other guy on the street.
Cricket match
The next morning we met our driver and took off to see the city palace, water palace, mausoleums, and a textile factory. The city palace was a disappointment in our eyes because it lacked much beautiful detail compared to others we had seen and the whole upper portion of it was closed off. We wasted money on an expensive ticket for a walkthrough that took about 20 minutes. The mausoleums of the royal family were a great sight all carved from marble and with intricate detail and situated high on a hill surrounded by mountains and overlooking the city. These kids in the area kept running around spying on us which seemed odd; we thought it was going to be like Slumdog Millionaire and we were going to get hustled somehow, but it all turned out to be ok. The water palace was our last sightseeing venture of the day and did not last too long since you cannot actually go inside or get anywhere near it. You can only see it from land about a few hundred yards away, but it appeared to be a gorgeous palace even from a distance. We then stopped at the silk factory and received the free tutorial on how it is all made and then the sales pitch on every overpriced item they had. Liz bought a beautiful pink sari while I had them custom make me a pair of cotton light weight pants to try and blend in a bit more with the local crowd. Tired from the day’s activities we headed back where the hostel cooked us a homemade Indian meal and we relaxed for the remainder of the night. The next day we took a train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.
Water Palace
Security guard at the mausoleums
At the mausoleums
View from the mausoleums
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