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Published: July 30th 2005
Fatehpur Sikri
A Mughal City, a complex of forts & palaces built in red sandstoneHi everyone,
Now that you have recovered from week one, here goes week two!!!
We hopped onto the tour bus, this time towards Agra, noted for its Forts and Palaces, but most famous for the Taj Mahal.
En-route we stopped at a Bird sanctuary 'Kheoladeo Ghana'. it was beautiful & peaceful, we had hoped to see an abundence of birds & wildlife, but as it was explained, there had been insufficent rainfall so most have the creatures had migrate or were still in hibernation. It took a keen eye to see what wildlife there was remaining and fortunatly, we had a very good guide.
If we had been here after the rainy season, the view and experience would have been very different. Most of the land would have been submerged in water and we would have been able to have seen the sites by boat instead of cycle rickshaw.
Just South of Agra is the deserted Mughal city of Fatehpur Sikri, in its centre, a huge Palace built in the red sandstone of Agra. It was home to Akbar, another Mughal Emperior, and his four wives. Each wife had her own temple and house within the Palace walls.
Taj Mahal
Even in this picture, it looks super imposed. The detail was so precise that the sandstone looked like it had been carved from wood.
All the houses were individual and beautifully decorated to reflect the four different religions. Akbar apreciated all religions and wanted to unite the people, so it didn't matter which way you worshiped as long as you worshiped one God. He had chosen his wives to reflect this. It was a nice idea, a shame it went tits up!!!
Over the past couple of days, we had been trying to organise Satya a birthday present and thought it might be quite a nice idea to get a group photo. Trying to do this without him suspecting anything was near impossible!!! We found a guy who would take a photograph for us and develop it while we walked around, but to our horror, Satya ordered a copy too...typical!
The sun was so strong it was starting to take its toll on the whole group.
We all started to wilt and were in desperate need of a shower. Although the it was beautiful, we just couldn't take anymore temples for a while.
It was a surprise to us both when we arrived at a hotel
that was as sophisticated as the Hilton, if not better...although all our accomodation had been fantastic in its own way, it was nice to finally reach a place that had a power shower, instead of a trickle.
5am wake up call. To go and see the Taj Mahal in all its glory at sunrise. Unfortunatly it was too cloudy so we never got to see it rise, but it was still mind-blowing. This magnificent building took 22 years to build and is the resting place of Mughal Emperior, Shah Jahan and his wife, Mumtas Mahal.
When we walked around the building, you could really feel how much love this man must have had for his wife. Because the detail and beauty that decorated the walls was beyond words. It was breathtaking to see, especially how each block of marble had seperatly carved precious and semi-precious stones inlayed into them, in the shapes of exquisit flowers. When you see the Taj, it looks almost like it has been air-brushed onto the skyline...the only word to describe the scene is 'wow'.
When we got back to the hotel for breakfast, it was time to surprise Satya with his birthday cake,
Women Working
At the Buddha\'s Temple. Beautiful range of colours which Charlie had organised with the hotel the night before.
Satya had neglected to tell us it had been his birthday about two days before, so this was the first opportunity we had to celebrate it. We did a collection for him and wrote him a card. But we found that getting the cake and Satya in the same room at the same time was almost impossible. We finally managed it after a few close calls. Satya seemed happy and very thankful, he was actually speachless at one point, which is quite something for Satya...only joking mate!!!
Joan gave a wonderful speach which, if it wasn't for the fact that we were in the middle of a restaurant, we both would have cryed.
We had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves and wanted to finally get all our pictures onto CD. We seemed to spend most of the day sitting in this shop, it sold everything from sex remedies to 10" vinyl! very odd, but amuzing.
Eventually we got our pic'ies onto disc and left Nicola and Dale in some serious bartering for some DVD's, 'Bangra style'.
We waited around to find out the plan for the
Buddist Chaps
They just look so pure..... God he was gorgous! evening as we'd just been informed that the train, that was supposed to take us to Varanasi, had been delayed...by 15 hours due to heavy rain fall!!! God only knows what Satya had to beg, steal or borrow to get us onto this other train, but he managed it. It was amazing how he kept his cool, I think I would have fallen apart on many occasssions, particularly this one.
Before we got on the bus to a train station, we said our goodbye's to Dale and Joan. It was soooooo sad watching them wave us off, but they had booked a slightly different tour to us...
The Sleeper train was an experience to say the least. Although it was quite comfortable, you had a feeling of vulnerability. Neither of us slept well as there was a lot of commotion throughout the night. It felt like we were battery hens, packed into a small compartment for the night.
It was amazing to hear the guy’s patrolling the corridors with refreshmments, chanting “Chai, Coffee…Chai, Tea” It's something we definatley won't forget.
It was nice to reach the hotel. We were both feeling totally exhausted and in desperate need of
Memorial
The teachings, where written in evey language. a shower and grub.
The rest of the day was spent watching a film. Nice to do something effortless!!!
At around 12pm, we set off for the Buddha Temple to see exactly where Gautama, the original Buddha himself, preached his first sermon, 2500 years ago.
We hadn’t realised that Buddha was native to India, we thought that Buddhism had had started in Tibet or Thailand.
The Monks have a kind of beauty that cannot be expressed in words.
We toured the Buddha museum, which holds artifacts and stonework from the actual sight where the original temple stood when Buddha was alive. It was very interesting to learn why the image of Buddha looks the way he does - the ears, for example, are elongated to represent a great listener. All the features symbolize Buddhism’s idea of perfection.
(Lou) “ We were also informed that if you have a mole on your foot, that it is a sign that you are a born traveller…I have two on my right foot!!!”
We ate in a 3* hotel, two doors down from our hotel. The food was great, but the real attraction was the waterfall…
(Lou) “I sat
Handloomed Silk
In Varanasi, they even use silver thread & gold thread. You can see it glow. next to it and realised by the end of the evening that I was drenched!”
Day 11 - Up at 4am to visit the Ganges…we were finally able to see our first sunrise, as we climbed over the many fishing boats to get an unobstructed view. It was incredible to see men, women and children bathing in this filthy water. Because this is a very holy sight, people were even drinking the water to be purified of their sins. Spiritual belief has to be strong to attempt this, as there is no way we would consider it - the crematorium washes the ashes down the river, only a few hundred yards from where we stood…one of many reasons why not to do it!
Walking back through the narrow streets, you have a real understanding of the differences in our cultures and way of life. We couldn’t imagine having to wake up to the stench of rotting food, rubbish, dung and general stall air every day. If that wasn’t enough to turn our already delicate stomachs, the sight of the lepers’ hands did. He seemed to follow us around for the whole morning and it got pretty upsetting.
The Bathing Ghats
On the banks of the Ganges. (Charlie) “ I met a mute boy who seemed keen to help me around the streets. He seemed interested in how I was wearing my hair in pigtails.
We got on really well considering - there wasn’t the usual language barrier, all he used was sign’s, it was pretty easy to understand him…extremely cute and wanted to take him home with me.”
A bloody tuk-tuk driver properly ripped us off. They don’t take you where you want to go, they take you to their mates shop instead, claiming that it’s where we needed to be!
We intended to visit the bizarre’ next to the Ganges, as they are noted for the exquisite hand loomed silks and fine crafts. and hoped the tuk-tuk drivers was going to take us there, so we paid the 60rs, which is quite alot for these guy's. But you do get this feeling of uncertainty -
"do they know what you have asked for, do they understand", only to discover, no, they didn't get it. We were dropped off 1 kilometer away, to a Mall-like complex that didn’t resemble a bizarre in the slightest!!!
We decided to walk to it ourselves, only to find
that it would be another hour in the blistering heat, before we would fine it 8 kilometers away!!!
We headed back to our hotel, disgruntled. When we got back, we explained to Satya what had happened.
When we were collected from the hotel that evening, to see the night festival at the Ganges, we had the same tuk-tuk driver! Satya reprimanded him about the incident and he became apologetic and very obliging!!! Strange that!
It was a beautiful experience, witnessing this nightly event. Although it is a very long service, you can comprehend how important it is for Indian people to have such faith, in a community built and living on the poverty line.
The smell of incense filled our lungs and was a welcome relief.
(Charlie) “ Guess who I bumped into on our return through the bizarre…my little mute friend. He was keen to warn me of potential thieves (which was ironic as we later found out that he might be one himself - he was pretty scared when the police turned up, legging it just in time to miss a punch in the face?).
(Lou) ‘The journey back to Delhi wasn’t as chaotic as our
Ganges at Sunset
A ceremony on one of the bathing ghats (banks) of the Ganges first sleeper train experience, thankfully. We arrived at the station where about 4 men managed to carry our backpacks and suitcases to the correct platform - two bags on their heads and two on each arm!!! I can’t even carry my own bag without getting a hernia, never mind balancing it on my head”
We were free to check out Delhi on our own. Our hotel was not in the centre, but it was quite close to the Mall. Typically, us women headed straight for the clothes stores.
The Mall was identical to shopping centres back home and about the same prices!!!
(Lou) “Alisha and I decided we’d had enough window shopping for one day. We asked around four rickshaw drivers to take us to our hotel that was about 20 minutes away. None of them had a clue where it was. In the end, we decided to trust the advise of a man at the bus stop, who said that this bus would take us right past the hotel. We were desperate so we hopped on. It wasn’t bad at all and a lot cooler than the rickshaw ride.”
(Charlie) “I had my own traumatic experience
Candle
Making a wish when leaving the Mall. I was mobbed by a group of children who scratched all my arms in an attempt to get money out of me! All I wanted to do was cross the road, give a girl a break…”
The evening meal was delicious, although it was the cause of our first real ‘Delhi Belly’ experience.
The restaurant was beautifully decorated in the different styles of the Indian Culture. Fresco'd walls and fabric hung from the ceilings, gave us a real taste of what the Havelis and Palaces, we’d visited on our tour, would have looked like when they were first built.
We met Franky at the airport after spending a lovely day with Alisha, by the pool at her hotel…the Taj Hotel, no less!
Charlie was suffering from a combination of Delhi belly and sunstroke by this point, so she felt like dieing on the plane. Lou didn’t feel to hot either.
Singapore airport was a great place so much to do. We met a top guy called Mike, who was not only yummy (in Lou’s opinion) he was from Oz, so he could give us some 'inside' information about where is good to visit.
'Street Life!'
Amazingly they don't seem to get killed. This is the end of our India experience. We’d like to thank all our friends on the Indian tour, who have made our memories of India and the whole experience, one that we shall never forget.
Lots of Love
Lou and Charlie
xoxoxoxoxoxox
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