December in India, Part 8

After our whirlwind tour of Jaipur, we headed back to Delhi to the airport for our trip home.  We got to see some different country than the trip down to Agra.  There were more hills and it was noticeably drier.  We saw a lot of camels for the first little while coming out of Jaipur.  We also stopped and watched troop of monkeys being fed.  The traffic was heavier than the day before with all the long-distance lorries on the road coming up to Delhi.  The road to Agra was a toll expressway with no freight traffic and the road from Agra to Jaipur was not nearly as busy.  We stopped several times at intersections where the traffic backed up.  And once or twice we got delayed by construction on overpasses.  It was a long trip, but still interesting.  We stopped at great roadside restaurant and had chicken pakora and meat samosas.  The latter were very good and I wish I had tasted them earlier in the trip.

December in India, Part 7

We spent Christmas Day in Jaipur touring some very beautiful and interesting sites.  We visited Hawa Mahal, Amber Fort and Jal Mahal in the morning.  In the early afternoon we went to Jantar Mantar and the Jaipur City Palace in middle of the city.  Then we drove for several hours back to Delhi where we caught our flight home to the U.S.

Leaving the Hotel

December in India, Part 6

We left Agra on the morning of December 24th and spent most of the day driving to Jaipur.  The road was very foggy in the morning and we ended up stopped for about 45 minutes in a traffic jam.  As they day went on the fog burned off and we entered drier country.

On the Road from Agra

December in India, Part 5

At the Taj Mahal in Agra

On Monday morning, December 23rd, we checked out of our hotel in Karol Bagh early in the morning and began our three day "golden triangle" tour to Agra and Jaipur.  We had a car and driver for the next three days and stayed at a couple of nice hotels.

December in India, Part 4

Shopping in Karol Bagh on December 22nd.

December 21 - Southern New Delhi

On Saturday the 21st, we hired a car for the day and visited several sites in the southern park of Delhi.

December in India, Part 3

December 19 - Conference and Injury

On Thursday morning we hired a car and drove from our hotel down to south Delhi to the campus of the Indian Statistical Institute for the conference I was attending.  This was the 9th Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development, sponsored by the Indian Statistical Institute
Planning and Policy Research Unit.

Campus of the Indian Statistical Institute in New Delhi

December in India, Part 2

December 18 - Riding the Ho-ho Bus in Delhi

Humayun's Tomb

On Wednesday Morning we took a Tuk-tuk from our hotel to Gurudwara Bangla Sahib Marg, which is a radial road that runs southwest from Connaught Place / Rajiv Chowk.  We caught the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus there.  Given the traffic in Delhi, this turned out not to be such a good deal.  For the same price as two Ho-Ho Bus tickets we could've rented a car and driver for the day.  We rode the bus from there to the Red Fort.  But because we'd been inside the day before, we visited the Jain temple across the street.  Then we walked along Chandni Chowk westward and toured the Sikh temple, Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib.

December in India, Part 1

Last December, Yeongmi and I visited India.  This was our first trip there and we spent our ten or so days in the "Golden Triangle" area of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.  Here is a rather belated report on the trip.