Incredible India

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DAY 46
We took a tour of Delhi today by car, it was an experience, our first stop was Jama Masjid Mosque in Old Delhi. We drove through the dust laden streets and the chaos that is India’s capital; the streets were teeming with cars, motorbikes, tuk tuks, people and animals. Sounds assault you from every direction; car horns, people yelling, Hindi music, the wailing of the call to prayer from multiple mosques, everything is manic and relentless. The Mosque was beautiful and quite immense in size; we were dressed in robes to cover our arms. After walking around the square we decided we would climb the towers of the mosque as there is a good view of Delhi, unfortunately we weren’t allowed to as women and children are not permitted to climb the tower unaccompanied. We decided it would be best to leave before we started lecturing people on Women’s rights. I mean we’ve managed to travel through most of Asia surely we could have managed a tower, but alas it was not to be. Next we visited the Red Fort of Delhi which is basically a smaller copy of the original Red Fort in Agra - it was a bit underwhelming and not really worth the 250 rupee entrance fee. We then crossed over the river Yamuna to visit Akshardham a Hindu Temple; it was recently built in 2005. The main monument is intricately carved and around its entire base is 3D carvings of life size elephants involved in various stories with people and other animals - it is quite amazing. The grounds are very large with pools of water and flowers. We ate a vegetarian Thali (an assortment of dishes served as a meal including rice and bread) at the temple restaurant it was very good and a great place to relax away from the din of the city. We then went on to visit a market where we were skilfully talked into buying some small souvenirs. Our final sight late in the afternoon was India Gate which looked beautiful in the light of the setting sun. We headed back to our hotel room totally exhausted from our day out and after dinner had an early night.

DAY 47
We slept in today then took a walk to the Main Bazaar opposite Delhi railway station. The streets were very muddy from the rain the night before so we sloshed our way through, past the hawkers. We were accosted, which would be an all too familiar occurrence, by two young men asking us to visit a bar, saying they wanted to improve their English etc… it’s really a scam to get you to a tourist operator, bar, restaurant of wherever else they get commission. It became a total nuisance and marred our experience of walking around the city. We then walked to Connaught Place to try to find somewhere to have dinner. It was not what we were expecting and we decided after walking around in a circuit that we would go back to our hotel for dinner. We were kindly helped out by a couple of local young men who stopped us from getting totally ripped off by a tuk tuk driver. They escorted us to a nearby rikshaw rank and were very kind in taking care of us.

DAY 48
Today we went to meet and greet Teresa’s Mum and Dad at their hotel in Delhi, ‘The Lalit.’ Once they were settled in we decided to visit the famous Lotus Temple which is a temple of the Ba’hai Faith. In line with the Ba’hai beliefs it is open to all religions for prayer and worship. Inside it is plain with no pictures or statues to mark any religion. It is one of the most visited buildings in the world with more visitors each year than the Taj Mahal. It was designed by the same architect who designed the Sydney opera house. After visiting the temple we joined Mum and Dad for a very good dinner in their hotel.

DAY 49
We woke up early this morning at 4am to catch our train to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. We made our way through the dark and relatively quiet streets to Delhi train station with our back packs. The road was covered in dirt and mud from the rain a couple of days ago. We saw men gathered around small shops drinking chai in the streets. We made it to the railway station to find most areas covered with people sleeping on the floor. The train left from platform 1 right on time at 6.15am. We boarded the train in 1st class (thanks Mum and Dad) which was brilliant. The seats were large, spacious and comfortable; it was very similar to being on a plane. They served bottled water, tea, coffee, bread, cereal and naan for breakfast. We arrived in Agra after about two and half hours. We were met at the station by the tour operator; we made a quick stop at the hotel to check in and then went straight out to see the Taj Mahal. I can safely say that the Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. No photo or image I have seen does it justice. The Taj Mahal construction took 22 years by 40,000 workers at a cost of 40 million rupees. It was completed in 1648. It was built by Mughal King Shah Jahan after the death of his wife Mumtaz Mahal as a memorial and tomb for her body. It is constructed from a special white marble which can only be found in Makrana, Rajasthan. This marble holds two special qualities; firstly it is 93% non-porous which means that it remains unaffected by the ravages of time such as rain and pollution. Secondly, it illuminates under light which at midday looks spectacular, the whole building shines under the light of the sun. In addition to this there are intricate patterns inlaid to the marble in semi-precious stones such as onyx, lapis, tigers eye, malachite and others covering the entrance and painstakingly detailed patterns inside particularly around the tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan. The entrance to the Taj has an inscription in black onyx which is a verse from the Quran about creation and the judgement. The inlay work is a specialist art form which is carried on today by the descendants of the artists that worked on the Taj Mahal.

After the Taj Mahal we visited the Red Fort which was the palace of the Mughal Kings. This fort was in use since the 11th century has a secure place to rule the country. In 1558 the Mughal Kings moved their capital to Agra and began rebuilding the fort in red sandstone as it is seen today. We approached the formidable walls and gates that protected the fort. Surrounding the wall are two moats the first being a wet moat which in the time of the Mughals was filled with alligators, the second was a dry moat which contained lions and tigers - I’m guessing they felt security was an issue. There are amazing examples of Persian and Hindu architecture throughout the fort. One of my favourites was the palace of the queen where there was a shaded room which had a corridor running around the back of the room where servants would stand to fan the queens through intricately carved stone screens built into the wall. The predecessor to modern air conditioning I suppose. We then went on to visit the ‘Baby Taj’ otherwise known as I'timād-ud-Daulah’s Tomb. This tomb was built just a few years before the Taj Mahal and although much smaller you can definitely see that some ideas were taken from this tomb in the design of the Taj Mahal. After a very long day of sight seeing we headed back for a good nights sleep. We stayed in a ‘budget’ hotel in Agra, ‘Hotel Siddartha’ it was situated at the Western gate of the Taj Mahal, therefore a prime position to ‘sight see’ at sunrise tomorrow.

DAY 50
We awoke in the morning to the Call to Prayer from a nearby Mosque at 5.45 and made our way to the roof top to look out over the city. The morning was quite hazy so our sight of the Taj Mahal was slightly obscured but we had other novelties to distract us. The roof tops as far as could be seen were full of swinging monkeys, awake and looking for food. The sheer number of them moving together was enough to scare me, after taking many photos we went back down to the room to get ready for the forthcoming day.
We travelled from Agra to Jaipur on a luxury mini bus, courtesy of Mum and Dad , where we actually got to have an afternoon nap! On the way we stopped to visit Fatehpur Sikri which was an amazing city in the middle of nowhere. It was built by Emperor Akbar in 1570 to celebrate the birth of his son. He had been childless for a number of years then a saint who lived in Sikri foretold the birth of a son who would then become Emperor. When his son was born Akbar moved the capital to Sikri to honour the saint. The city is built on a hilltop with no access to fresh water; to combat this issue Akbar had huge water reservoirs built to catch the monsoon rainwater. There are very beautiful examples of a mix of architectural styles, even some Celtic knots, built into the carvings. There was also a swimming pool built within the private apartments. We arrived in Jaipur in the afternoon, to a beautiful 5 star hotel which had been converted from a palace - it was very beautiful, even if the doorways presented a serious health and safety issue for anyone over 5 foot. Alas, we had been taken to Mum and Dad’s hotel so we hopped in a tuk tuk and made our way to the other side of town. We stayed at the Jaipur Inn which was a great little hotel with a beautiful rooftop bar, highly recommended if you’re ever travelling that way.

DAY 51
We awoke early this morning to begin another packed day of sight seeing. We visited the Amber Fort which at day break is nothing short of breathtaking. It is built into the mountains of Rajasthan with a defensive wall that runs across the mountains (it reminded me very much of the Great Wall of China) in the morning light it was a beautiful peach colour which just glowed. We took a jeep up into the city, although an elephant ride was also an option. When we reached the top we found the palace of the Maharaja, there were numerous elephants brightly painted in the courtyard and sari music playing from an unseen balcony, this was what I had always imagined India to be, only it was better. We were given a tour of the city including the inner courtyard which held thousands of mirrors on the walls and ceilings, the walls were previously covered in gold leaf but this had been stripped out and taken by the last Maharaja. We then drove back into the ‘Pink City’ we were told by our travel guide the reason the city was painted pink was to celebrate a state visit by the Prince of Wales in 1876, it is now a law that all shops and buildings in the city must be painted pink - it is quite a strange sight. In addition to the pink buildings everywhere, there were camels towing wagons, cows lunching on grass in the middle of roundabouts, pigs digging through rubbish on the side of the road, it is ordered chaos. We made our way to the Jaipur Observatory which is home to the largest sun dial in the world as well as astrological instruments that track the movement of the sun and moon. We then briefly saw the Summer Lake Palace which sits in the middle of a man made lake and was home to the Maharaja during the hot summer months. After this we visited the Jaipur Museum and a Carpet & Textile Factory where they make printed material from hand blocks and make hand woven rugs. After another busy day sight seeing we joined Mum and Dad for dinner (as usual) in the courtyard of their hotel and had a wonderful meal.

DAY 52
Today we spent time relaxing with Mum and Dad before our flight to Delhi. We went to Jaipur airport at 5pm for our flight but this was delayed so we waited around at the airport which was surrounded by Indian Army holding machine guns and checking everyone’s flight tickets before letting them into the airport. We finally took off at 8.30pm and arrived in Delhi airport which was probably one of the most disappointing airports I have ever visited. There is one duty free shop which doesn’t take rupees from foreigners, a Subway (they are taking over the world, mark my words), a tiny café and one (somebody loves us) bar. We had a subway then a couple of beers in the bar waiting for our 1am flight to Bangkok, and back to the bastion of civilization in Asia - Thailand.

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Photos

TC Jama Masjid Mosque
Teresa at the Jama Masjid Mosque - beautiful dress!

India Gate
Taken at sunset on our first day in India

Buffalo and Cart
Delhi Traffic - you know the traffic is bad when you're being overtaken by a buffalo!

TC behind the fan screen
This is where servants would stand hidden to fan their queen

Victoria making Roti
And we actually ate it!

Sun dial in Jaipur
The largest sun dial in the world