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Published: February 15th 2008
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Hey everyone - we have now made it to India. We are one week in and are coping fine, although Simon has been struck down with our first case of "Delhi Belly" and we both picked up colds because Northern India is a whole lot colder than SE Asia.
We flew into Delhi late at night to be greeted by fog, dust, wandering street cows and locals clustered around small rubbish fires (in the street) to keep warm. It was kind of hard to get a clear view of much, although some of the street smells we picked up loud and clear.
We have been really impressed by the food on offer - but we are sure the stuff offered close to tourist centers has had it's spice content turned down a bit. Butter chicken here is very hot and not very buttery, and the chai (spicy tea) made with milk is delicious.
Our first breakfast we discovered the Dosa, a savoury crepe usually stuffed with potatos and spices. We decided to order a couple each as the picture given on the menu looked pretty small - only to have each Dosa turn up over the size of
a dinner plate with a number of dahl, chutneys and dipping sauces each! Never mind, the staff (including the cleaner) had a good laugh with us.
Delhi was really easy to get around, with an underground system, heaps of cruising autorickshaws (open sided 3 wheel cars) and, yes, the local buses.
The Metro look us to the Red Fort (photos attached) which after the imposing gate was a bit dissappointing as years ago the army had stripped out all the shiny stuff - although the remaining marble work was still impressive. We also took a bit of a walk and found India's largest Mosque, consisting of a really big square with a facade pointing the way to Mecca.
Our second day in town we took in "New Delhi" mostly built by the English, which includes a number of Mogul Empire tombs such as the striking "Humayun's Tomb". This one was hidden behind a high fence, forcing you to pass through the gate before revealing itself.
On our final full day in Delhi we decided to crank things up a notch and try ... the LOCAL Bus network!!! No tourists, air conditioning or assigned/comfortable seating here people.
We started off well and found our bus to the Qutb Minar, which would make a fantanstic replacement for Auckland's Sky Tower (photos attached). The bus back was NOT so good - the bus was full and the central isle clogged with people when we got on. At least Sandra managed to slide into one of the seats reserved for women (which an old man kindly got out of). The bus took off, and at every stop more and more people got on...and no-one got off! By the end of it we had the local population leaning over us from all directions, and occasionally poping up under our arm-pits. Finally, about 5 minutes before we thought we would arrive at our stop we started trying to reach the doorway (from the middle of the bus) - this was almost impossible. Finally, we managed to slip-stream in befind a small Hindu woman who seemed to have a knack for pushing through the crowd, and managed to squeeze through the mass of people between us and the door. It was more of an ammusemnet pack ride than a simple transit accros town!
After Delhi we travelled to Jaipur, in the
desert state of Rajasthan and home to a Marahaja's palace and the Amber fort.
We chartered an autorickshaw and visited a number of sites around the city, including a Temple of the Sun God, which is more well know for it's resident monkey troop than for the Sun God. The monkeys were great, they were really well behaved (and well fed) - some would happily open your hands up to extract all the peanuts you were holding (which the locals feed to them to improve their good Karma).
We were also impressed with Jaipur's Royal Gaitor (cenotaphs) which provided the cremation site for the Marahaja (pictures attached).
However the sights in the old city were a bit of a let down, especially considering the high admission fees. The palace consisted of a set of 3 courtyards, and large modern facade and a pretty boring museum.
The Palace of Winds, with lots of latticed windows so the ladies could watch the street below without being seen was also not quite what we expected. The best views of it were from the street outside :-( Of the internals a lot of scaffolding was in the way, the detailed
Mosque peaks
They wanted to charge us heaps to take in a camera, so we took photos from outside :-) lattice work was only on the street exterior and most of the tunnel walls had a good coating of graffiti.
All of these shortcomings were forgiven the next day when we reached the Amber fort. This actually looked like a 'proper' fort and provided the views we felt were lacking of the Red Fort in Delhi. It had a dry dusty landscape and large walls rising from a steep hillside.
We also took the time to climb to Jaigarh Fort at the top of the hill overlooking Amber fort. This fort was never captured, presumably because it controlled most of the local water reservior).
We then moved onto Bikaner, and visited the Karni Mata (Rat) Temple.
At this temple the rat is treated as sacred, given lots of food, and little piles of bedding material. The Temple is also constructed with a row of tube like rat holes emerging about 3 inches from the floor all over the place to allow 'easy access'. As a sign of respect, we were asked to remove our shoes before entering the temple..... we steped very slowly and carefully in, trying not to think about how clean (or otherwise) the
floor was. After a bit, however you do get used to seeing hoards of rats scampering about the place - and Sandra will be blessed with good luck as she had a rat scamper across her toes (lucky thing!).
We have been travelling mostly by train between cities so have had a taste of India Rail services in the form of sleeper trains. The more expensive your ticket, the better the experience (not supprising really).
The most basic (still a 'sleeper' car) in which we travelling last night to Jaisalmer (the best coach availably on that run) had all the railway officals warning us to "take care of our belongings...." Thankfully we didn't have any problems, and our bags were still happily locked to the train in the morning 😊
We are heading out for a three day camel safari in the desert tomorrow - will let you know how it goes (with LOTS of photos of course) when we are back.
S&S
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