ARTICLES
Meet The Maharaja
Destination Elsewhere, April 2007
Landing a one-on-one interview with the Maharaja of Jaipur doesn’t necessarily give you the exclusive you’d hoped for.
ENTRIES FROM THE GLOBAL TRIP BLOG CHRONICLES
On The Way To Delhi
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted October 26, 2004
DAY 373: All my bags were packed, I was ready to go… ‘Cuz I was leaving on a jet plane, didn’t know when I’d be back in Kathmandu again…
Good Old Delhi
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted October 28, 2004
DAY 374: Centuries ago when the British came and butchered the people of India, there was an immediate resentment and a rebellion built up within the British-governed Indian society. This was to be expected of course; I mean, what do you expect when a Western superpower forces a governmental system upon a country in order to regulate the taking of its natural resources? (Sounds familiar, huh?)
American Leftovers and Indian Flair
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted October 29, 2004
DAY 375: Since my arrival in India I had two leftover errands from Nepal that I wanted to take care of right away: finalize my insurance paperwork for reimbursement from the rescue from the Everest trail (total expenses came close to $5,000 USD!) and more importantly, try and get my absentee ballot for the 2004 US presidential election. I had tried numerous times in the Anoop Hotel’s fax desk to electronically send the eleven sheets of documents to my insurance company, only to have them tell me that I also had to mail in the originals. I had spent even more money and time to fax in my absentee vote ballot application to either of two numbers in America that I had gotten from the US embassy in Kathmandu. I don’t know which party was playing games on the other end, but the fax machine wouldn’t pick up my call.
Worldwide Pants
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted October 30, 2004
DAY 376: Bedridden again, this time in Delhi to rest my leg from the bacterial infection I contracted from a weird insect bite (and the mild “operation” I had to get it cleaned out), I sat in my room as the penicillin did its thing. For me it was a time to catch up on world news with CNN International and BBC World, with its always catchy break filler background music (RealMedia file) so jazzy that I think I even heard it in a club once.
Gandhi Park
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 01, 2004
DAY 377: In 1888, a young man from India went to London town to study law. Three years later he passed the bar exam and became a bona fide lawyer under the British court system and eventually became the legal representation of a firm in South Africa. Little did the young Indian man know at the time that a couple of decades later he would be hailed as a saint by some — and shot to death by another.
Playing The Game
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 01, 2004
DAY 378: Every now and then back home in the metro New York City area, my friends and I, inspired by the movie Swingers, hop in the car for a spontaneous 2 1/2-hr. road trip to Atlantic City so that we can pretend to be high rollers. Because of the free parking (and the fact that we are not high rollers), we often end up in the parking deck of the Showboat casino and eventually walk over to the adjacent Taj Mahal, Donald Trump’s palace of green felt tabletops, shiny slot machines and a pretty good buffet.
Jaipur Introduction
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 02, 2004
DAY 379: I woke up in Agra fighting again, the constant fight in my mind between myself and The Blog. “Blog” wanted me to hang out in my shabby room in Agra until I typed up another entry, while I just wanted to get out of there. I really wanted to go; there was a haze over the view of the Taj Mahal, the place was deserted, the toilet was clogged with drainage leaking onto the floor, and I was pretty sure Nati the shady auto-rickshaw driver was going to show up to drive me to another store to make commission if I didn’t leave by mid-morning. “Blog” said I could go, but only until I got some work done first.
Monkeys, Elephants and Pangkot Palace
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 02, 2004
DAY 380: According to the tips provided by Blogreaders Duaine and markyt, the fictional Pangkot Palace from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is not just a set in a British sound stage. The exterior shots were filmed on location in India, more specifically at one of the palaces in Jaipur. While “palace in Jaipur” is like saying “skyscraper in New York City” or “church in Rome,” it was narrowed down to one palace, the Amber Fort, the former residential fort and palace complex built by Maharaja Man Singh in 1592. While the current Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh (forty odd generations down from Man Singh) chooses to live not the 11 km. north of the city where the Amber Fort is, but in the City Palace itself (it’s closer to the movie theater and the Pizza Hut), the inspiration for Pangkot Palace still remains on a hilltop for tourists to wander and for filmmakers, particularly the ones in Bollywood, to continue using it as a film location.
Look At The Stars
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 03, 2004
DAY 381: From what I gather, astrology has a bit of legitimacy in the public eye in India. In fact, the day before I saw on the front page of the legitimate Hindustan Times, whose cover story was the US election — it’s the cover story in most countries since the American president affect the entire planet — one blurb in the corner that had two prominent astrologists tell what the stars said about the election: that Bush and the Republicans would win a second term, but that second term would be tough. At the time, it was not in the hands of the stars but in the hands of American voters, at home and abroad. (The news reported that the American embassy in Delhi had a record voter turnout of 5,000, two and a half times more than usual.)
Meet The Maharaja
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 04, 2004
DAY 382: Baldel, the bearded old Indian man in the paisley shirt, greeted me with a smile and a wave like he did every morning I walked down the market area from the Evergreen Hotel. It was his way of telling me his cycle rickshaw services were available to me without being too pushy like the other cyclists.
“Hello, how are you?” I greeted him.
“How is your leg?” he asked. The day before he had brought me to the local hospital to get my leg checked out.
“It’s fine,” I told him, hopping into the carriage, no questions asked. “I need to go to the City Palace,” I instructed him. He had been there many a time before, it being one of the main tourist attractions in Jaipur. However I was going there not as a tourist but as a journalist. “I’m going to meet with the maharaja.”
Celebrities
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 08, 2004
DAY 383: I’m hoping that readers of The Blog don’t think they don’t have to travel on their own because they are simply traveling vicariously through me at their computers. Each journey is different for everyone — this is simply my story — events and emotions are based on many individual factors, including the time of the year you travel, your budget, the people you meet, and/or whether or not you perspire the smell of chicken soup. (You guys out there know who you are.) As we’ve learned on this Blog, appearance is a big factor — sometimes to one’s advantage, sometimes to one’s disadvantage. As I read one woman write, “Being an American female traveling alone in India is like being a walking aphrodesiac with a big sign over the top which says ‘FUCK HERE.’” [sic]
Holy Rats and Camel Humps
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 10, 2004
DAY 384: While Bikaner is home to the beautiful Junagarh Fort, it wasn’t the architecture that brought me there. No, I had come for something much smaller in size than a big impenetrable fortress, and that little something was covered in dark fur and sported a long tail. Thirty kilometers south of Bikaner lies the Karni Mata Temple, known by many simply as the “Rat Temple” for its thousands of sacred rats that run rampantly through the building. According to Hindu lore, a rat was the reincarnation of the nephew of Karni Mata, Bikaner’s patron goddess, and all the male descendants thereafter were also born as rats.
Remembering Bond
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 11, 2004
DAY 385: Udaipur, the former capital of the Mewar Kingdom, named after its founder Maharaja Udai Singh II, gets plenty of tourism, as it is arguably Rajasthan’s most romantic destination with its scenic palaces — palaces perched on mountaintops overlooking palaces that look like they are floating in the middle of a lake. Even for a “palaced out” guy like me, the “City of Sunrise” was a great feast for the eyes, a place Let’s Go says has “somehow managed to retain a number of fairy-tale qualities” — it’s no wonder it served as the perfect exotic locale for Roger Moore as James Bond in 1983’s Octopussy, a proud fact that the city of Udaipur proudly clings onto. I remember seeing the movie 21 years before, but upon my arrival, nothing looked familiar or was coming back to me. (Then again Octopussy wasn’t on my repertoire of 80s movies I’d seen over and over and over again, like Ghostbusters.)
Trinidad. Erik Trinidad.
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 14, 2004
DAY 386: The centerpiece of Udaipur is the famous Jag Niwas, more commonly known as the Lake Palace, the one-time summer residence of the royal family when simply being crammed in a boat on Lake Pichhola wasn’t good enough. “I think I want a palace built in the middle of the lake,” the maharaja probably said. And so it was made. “It’s good to be the maharaja.”
My New Beat
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 14, 2004
DAY 387: Mumbai is India’s showcase modern and cosmopolitan city, or as Let’s Go puts it, “India’s largest city, in attitude if not in population…[uniting] all the country’s languages, religions, ethnicities, castes, and classes in one heaving, seething sizzler of a metropolis.” It is the gateway of India’s international business, its fashion capital and India’s main source of entertainment, with the second largest film industry in the world after Hollywood (hence its nickname “Bollywood”), and it’s Indian pop music scene. In fact, in the Indian Idol reality show (the Indian version of American Idol), people who try out in the first round and impress the judges get overjoyed when they hear the phrase, “You’re going to Mumbai.”
Sacred Stones and A New Home
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 16, 2004
DAY 388: Within the confines of Mumbai Harbor is an island known as Elephanta Island, named by the Portuguese when they “discovered” it and found a big elephant statue on it. Elephanta Island, regardless of its lack of actual live elephants, is a popular day trip from the Gateway of India, as it is just one-hour away via one of the ferries that leave every half an hour.
Holiday For Pyros
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 16, 2004
DAY 389: The Let’s Go: India & Nepal guidebook just has one sentence to describe the Hindu holiday of Diwali in all of its 891 pages:
“The autumn holiday of Diwali is an especially auspicious time of year when Hindus look to Lakshmi [goddess of wealth, fertility, and general well-being] to bring prosperity during the new year.”
Hindu For A Day
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 17, 2004
DAY 390: Despite the mass commercialization of the Christian holiday of Christmas, with its holiday songs, plastic lawn ornaments (that look absolutely awful if there’s no snow on the ground), and disgruntled mall Santas with sore thighs from the constant kids on their laps asking for things they probably don’t deserve, a small minority still remembers that at its core, Christmas is a religious affair, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Churches around the world get a surge in attendance on December 25th more than on any other day of the year.
Family to Family
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 17, 2004
DAY 391: Because of the hole in my leg from the pus drainage operation of the abscess I developed in Nepal, I wasn’t exactly the most beach-worthy traveler in India. While salt water might have aided in the healing of the skin, the conditions of the beaches of southern India, as scenic as they were, probably weren’t the most sanitary, what with all the foreigners peeing in the ocean and all. (You know who you are.) The usual place to go to after Mumbai was the former Portuguese colonial beach city-turned-hippie haven of Goa about twelve hours directly south by bus, and as much as I wanted to see it, I knew I’d just feel like a dunce being at the beach town, not being at the beach. I wouldn’t be able to even just stroll on the beach in shorts for fear that sand would blow into the hole somehow, or even worse, the eggs of sandworms. Eww.
Return Of The Touts
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 19, 2004
DAY 392: It was Sunday, the one day weekend for Chrissy at the NGO she worked for since they expected her to work with the reset of them on Saturdays. (This she would complain about because she was already working ten-hour days, and voluntarily for free, too.) Taking advantage of the one day off, we decided to venture outside the city limits with Koco to the main tourist sites. Translation: we decided to leave the security of Kenneth and Geeta’s Chennai guesthouse to be open prey for scammers and touts.
Female Condomania
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 19, 2004
DAY 393: Monday. For most people, the day to go back to work, a day when business reopened after a one- or two-day weekend. My only goal of the day was to go to the open airline offices and figure out my itinerary after Chennai — but before breakfast was over, I had an additional mission: to track down a female condom.
Martyrs and Magicians
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 21, 2004
DAY 394: Chennai, India’s fourth largest city formerly known as Madras, isn’t exactly on a backpacker’s must-see list. Cuckoo in Mumbai warned me there wasn’t much to see there in terms of tourist sites. Geeta said it’s primarily a place where people travel to for business. Some Indian girls at the guesthouse said that in terms of nightlife, Chennai was “a sleepy town.”
The French Connection
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 21, 2004
DAY 395: Pondicherry, the one-time capital of French-occupied India, remains a city with a French influence, a place where curry meets crêpes. Pondicherry, which is of course English for Pondichéry, was founded in 1673 when France took over the area as a base of their trading routes, so that they may have an advantage over the English and the Dutch — it wasn’t until 1954 that the French gave the land back to India. Readers of Yann Martel’s popular contemporary fable Life of Pi will recognize the city’s name as the first part of the story takes place there, the part when the hero, Pi Patel, sneaks behind people’s backs to be a Christian, a Hindu and Muslim all at the same time. (No, that doesn’t spoil the plot in case you were going to read it.)
Mothers
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 21, 2004
DAY 396: Pondicherry isn’t just known for its France meets India vibe; it was in Pondicherry that a worldwide New Age movement was born in the 1960s based on the “integral yoga” teachings of Sri Aurobindo Ghose, which combined yoga with modern science. To the uninformed person, the movement appears like some sort of a futuristic science fiction cult, especially since followers of it meditated around a big crystal ball that focused the energy of the sun and the fact that the movement’s primary organizer was a woman whom is only referred to as “The Mother.”
All Roads Lead To Bangkok
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted November 22, 2004
DAY 397 (42 days since last Thailand entry): In India, I had a somewhat unique experience unlike the average backpacking Brit on “gap year” between high school and “uni,” what with my “press credentials” opening doors for me, and my invitations to stay with modern Indian families instead of backpacker haunts. However, it was inevitable for me to put on my hiking boots and get back on the Backpacker Trail since I was headed back to southeast Asia. When you’re on the budget travel circuit in southeast Asia, all roads inevitably lead to Bangkok, a place that one t-shirt I saw proudly proclaimed is the “mecca of backpackers.”
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ABOUT ERIK R. TRINIDAD
When he’s not making a living as an interactive/motion designer or playing with fast food, Erik R. Trinidad is a travel writer, blogger, video host and producer focusing on adventure and culinary content. His work has been featured on National Geographic Intelligent Travel, Adventure.com, Discovery.com, Saveur, Condé Nast Traveler, and 
Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I Know Why, which also includes the work of Tim Cahill, Doug Lansky, Jennifer Leo and Rolf Potts. He has also referenced his travel experiences in his solo book, Fancy Fast Food: Ironic Recipes with No Bun Intended.
For over ten years, Erik has traveled to the seven continents of the world — from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo — with a curiosity for exotic foods and a thirst for adventure (and writing material). In his travels, he has been mugged at knifepoint in Cape Town, extorted by corrupt Russian police on the Trans-Siberian Railway, stranded in tornadic storms in the American midwest, and air-lifted off the Everest Trail by a helicopter that was thankfully paid for by his travel insurance. But it hasn’t been all fun; he has also donned a tuxedo amidst the penguins of Antarctica, paraded with Carnival-winning samba school Beija Flor in Rio, run for his life at Pamplona’s “Running of the Bulls,” cage-dived with great white sharks, gotten shot point-blank in the stomach in Colombia (while wearing a bulletproof jacket), and above all, encountered many people around the world, including some Peruvian musicians in Cuzco who learned and played “Y.M.C.A.” at his request. He loves the irony that, after everywhere he’s been, he has never been to Mexico.
Erik writes stories and news articles when he’s at his base camp in New York City, and continues his blog when he is on the road — provided he’s not occupied tracking down lost luggage.
Additional news/article clippings at ErikTrinidad.com.
See Erik talk about travel in an American Express ad:
Read about Erik in this feature article from Filipinas magazine by National Geographic Traveler Associate Editor Amy Alipio.