INCREDIBLE INDIA AT LAST!!!!!!! (AGRA, JAIPUR, UDAIPUR, JODHPUR AND BACK AGAIN!)

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INCREDIBLE INDIA … AT LAST!!!!!!! (AGRA, JAIPUR, UDAIPUR, JODHPUR AND BACK!)

AGRA

Leaving Varanasi we headed out of our 12 hour overnight train to Agra, home of the ‘heart of India’ the Taj Mahal. This as you might all agree is the one thing that everyone thinks of when you mention India so we were very excited to be going there at last.

Around 6am the sun starting to come up we were approaching Agra and even though we were still quite away from our stop in the distance we could see the Taj. What a sight. It looked huge even from quite far away, and had that very misty colour to it through the morning haze but still… what a sight. This in turn quickly woke our sleepy heads and got a quite excited for the rest of the day.

The only slight turn off with the approach is that all the locals use the train tracks as the community toilet and we don’t mean a ‘number 1’ either. Loads of them quite happily taking a good old dump chatting to each other while doing there business even though a train packed full of people creeps by slowly, also noticed a major lack of toilet paper. Do we dare even think about that!! A Lovely sight!!

Anyhow we arrive at our station and quickly headed out to Agra town a few Km away to find a place to stay just 2 min away from the Taj South Gate. Checked in and chilled for a few hours dew to lack of sleep. Didn’t really do much that day apart from check a little bit of the town out, we were thinking of maybe trying to do the Taj but we had been told that early morning was the best and at 750Ruppees (tourist price - 20Ruppees for a Indian) it wasn’t something we could do twice. Luckily though the place we were at had a roof top restaurant and had a great view of the Taj so spent a bit of time chilling and watch the massive crowds swarm the Taj Mahal grounds.

Following morning we headed out at 5.30am, we headed to the West gate grabbed our tickets ready for the sunrise. First there but for some reason they would let people in until around 6.45am which sort of misses the sunrise. Crazy! But at this point we are not surprised… It’s India!!! Anyway they eventually let us in and we are more or less the only people there. Very quiet and chilled, nothing like you would expect. So taking advantage of this we managed to take a load of postcard perfect pics of the Taj Mahal which was not what we thought was possible. So after a few snap a local guide came up and showed us all the best places to get the best shots. This was quite cool and but then he proceed to take the camera and shoot us which was also quite cool. We had more photos of us taken in 10 minutes at the Taj than we have taken in the entire trip. Check out the cheeeeesy poses!!!!!

So we spent a few hours checking the place out watching the sun come up and change the colour of the Taj which was quite an amazing sight in itself. The shadows that get cast on it are fantastic and make some great shots. Plus the sheer size of this place to just huge. TV and pics do not do it justice. Check out the pic of Liane sitting in the archway of one of them main doors. It’s massive.

Anyhow, after a few hours we went back packed up and headed out to catch the bus to Jaipur.

JAIPUR

So later that day (later than planned, as usual!) we arrived in the state of Rajasthan and its capital Jaipur. Very, very large place indeed. So quick rickshaw to a cheap hotel and settled in for the night, well after grabbing a McDonalds before hand!!

Following day we headed out to check the city and its sights. First stop was the Old City or otherwise known as the Pink City. All built around 600years ago in the time of the first Jaipur Maharaja. Checked out a few small palaces, including the Wind Palace, that was created just for the wives of the Maharaja so that they could watch festivals and processions on the street without being seen themselves as this was not allowed. If they ever went out in public they would have to cover themselves up entirely! So this palace was created with fine lattice windows, and very small look-out that meant the wives could see out, but no one could see in. We also went to some tombs, water palace and the infamous monkey temple that is glorified in the discovery channel series! Long day but loads seen, including a few elephants! Headed back for the night ready to go up and see the Amber Fort (Amber palace) the next day.

Early start we jumped in the rickshaw and headed about 20Km North of the city to where the original city location was. As we approached you could just about make out the snaking wall surrounding the valley up on the ridge. Looked like the Great Wall of China. Then as we went a little further we could see the Amber Fort way up high with the Amber palace just below. Huge place, we dropped off and then walked up ourselves, you can get an elephant ride but this is just hell for the elephants, in that heat walking up and down all day, and we didn’t want to contribute to the misuse of these beautiful animals.

The fort complex is spectacular, and the best thing is that they let you wander around all the secret corridors and pathways. Unlike a lot of places that have a set route and that is the only way you can go, here we could wander around, get totally lost and go pretty much everywhere we pleased! It was like being a kid again! This is the kin of thing we had been waiting for all this time, the typical India that you dream of… Incredible!!


We bumbled round for hours and hours, getting lost in the vastness of the fort, and getting amazed by the beauty of the mirror and glass work. The fort has incredibly ornate walls made from glass tile and mirror mosaic which is simply breathtakingly beautiful. The pictures really don’t do it any justice unfortunately, its one of those things you have to see in person.

On the way down we decided to go down to see the elephants and buy them some bananas and have a little hug with them. We found one old girl at the bottom of the hill and we chatted to one of the mahouts (elephant handlers) and asked him how often the animals get a break, and he informed us that they only go up the fort 5 times a day, then off home. We were happy that they don’t get too overworked. The mahout then took us to a stall to buy some fruit for the beasts and walked us through the elephant stables, where about 20-30 elephants were chilling out! So great to see so many gentle giants, we really do love them! We only bought 1 bunch of bananas as we got pretty stung with the “white skin tax” and decided to give them to the old girl we met at the bottom of the hill! She loved them, almost took them straight off us as soon as she could smell them and before we could take any snaps! But we held her back and managed to get some good pics!

Next stop… Udaipur!

We caught the overnight train to Udaipur - a town that is famous for the luxury Lake Palace Hotel that was immortalised in James Bond Octopussy!
We arrived nice and early around 6am and found ourselves a nice little hotel next to the ‘lake’, now its more of a field than a lake due to lack of rain in the monsoons. We put our things away, had some brekkie and went for a wander around the town. We walked down toward the lake and there was a bit of water near the Lake Palace, we could’ve walked across to it had the guard not stopped us! (and taken Liane’s picture - surprise surprise!)
The town is undulating like a French ski resort, but in blazing heat and sunshine! There are lots of little lanes on slopes and hills, it is very charming indeed.

We had read in the book that the previous Maharaja’s collection of classic cars was on display in a dedicated museum so we checked that out. They were so beautiful, there were the obligatory Rolls Royce (that was in James Bond!), the chap showing us around even explained the reason behind the different colour of the RR logo (when both R’s were alive the logo was 2 red R’s, when one died it was 1 black and 1 red, then when both had passed it was 2 black R’s - who knew!!) there were Mercedes, Cadillac’s and the most beautiful Ford model T.
It was getting very hot so we called it quits for the day and went back to catch up on some sleep.

The following day we went to the City Palace, this is another great example of typical Rajasthani architecture, similar to Jaipur fort, not as big, but the same style lattice window stonework etc.
Inside the palace were collections of the maharaja’s swords and muskets from many moons ago, and beautiful mirror work rooms with extravagant and sumptuous colours.

We had been considering going to the Lake Palace Hotel for a dinner buffet, as that is the only way to see the inside but at 2000 rupees a pop we thought better of it!

Unfortunately at this time of year it is almost too hot to do anything in India as the temp was hitting around the 40+C, and there wasn’t much else to do in Udaipur, to be honest I’m not sure it would even be on the tourist trail if it hadn’t been for Octopussy. So we headed off in search of the renowned ‘Blue City’ aka Jodhpur!

JODHPUR

After being told that the bus was 8hrs we decided to get and overnighter to Jodhpur, and for the first time we arrived early, very early. It only took 6hrs in fact so we got in around 4.30am!!! Luckily our hotel dude in Udaipur had given us a business card of a friend who has a hotel and warned him that we would be coming early (wish he’d told us though) so he was ready and waiting, the only light on in the street!
It was actually quite good arriving at that time as it meant we could still have a few hours kip and not miss too much of the day like we would normally if we arrived at 6/7am… so we headed for bed!

It turns out that our hotel was in the heart of the Blue city and had a great view of the fort from the roof restaurant, not bad for a 5am find! It wasn’t quite as blue as we thought, we were expecting every single building to be a rich shade of indigo, but it was more like every other house, if that…

We got up at a reasonable 10ish and went to have a mooch around the nearby clock tower and market area. There was a festival on (surprise surprise!) with a huge procession going through the street, men in bright red turbans, women carrying offerings of fruit wearing vibrant saris, Rajasthan is probably the most colourful of all Indian states that is for sure.

By now it was again time to be heading for the shade, so back to the room and the artificial wind by ‘fan-power’!
We were still too tired and hot to do anything else that day so we reserved our energy for the next day where we would tackle the fort and the palace.

Jodhpur fort is high up on a ridge looking over the blue city, and it is stunning, the lattice-work windows are the finest that we had seen in any of the other ’Purs. The almighty book had recommended that we take the audio-tour (that is included in the entrance fee of Rp250) and it was very informative, explaining the various sections of the fort. It also had the maharaja himself talking about life at the fort and the various ceremonies that took place, and one of his wives explaining the life in the women’s wing of the fort etc. There was more of the typical mirror-work etc, but it doesn’t seem to matter how many times you’ve seen this magnificent mosaic works it still takes your breath away every time. Simply too beautiful for words…
From the fort you can see the other side of the Blue city, which is very, very blue, like how we imagined it to be everywhere.

We then took a rickshaw over a nearby tomb of someone we can’t remember, and that was supposedly meant to be part of the inspiration behind the Taj Mahal.
From there we went right across town to the Palace, which was the last of the great Indian palaces to be built, constructed around mid 1940’s to 50’s. Now it is a hotel owned by the Taj Group, and only a tiny section is used as a museum, and not really worth the Rp250 we paid.

So we had completed Jodhpur already, the only thing left was to secure Glastonbury tickets the next day! Which we did manage as you know, but we won’t go into the grim details of internet ticket booking!

We had wanted to go onto Amritsar where there is a beautiful Golden temple made from 750kg of gold, we tried to book a ticket on the train but there was no availability so fate had played our cards for us, and we decided to head straight for Nepal on a mammoth journey… 26 hours on the train back to Varanasi, followed by another 6 hours up to Gorakhpur, and then 2 hours to the border town of Sunauli… and that was just the Indian side!!!

From there it’s Nepal, our final leg or our world domination tour!!!

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