Advertisement
Published: March 16th 2011
Well here we go again back in travelling mode. This time no months of planning , no build up of excitement, yes I know its only a tiny winy trippette but you would think there might be a tingle somewhere! Perhaps it will explode hopefully very soon!
I Arrived in Delhi on Wednesday morning (10th( after an eight hour overnight sleepless flight. But managed to catch up on three films so that was a bonus. I wasn’t sure what to expect so it was rather a surprise that the airport is brand spanking new, and the surrounding area is under massive development - must be the 8% GDP that India enjoys. My first afternoon I actually spent by the pool relaxing , I was to meet the rest of the group early that evening , and was the last to arrive. It turns out there are 10 of us and I am the only brit , surrounded as I am with ozzies and Canadians even our tour guide is from Ozland!! They are a great bunch just as well as we have 19 days together!
India is a huge sub continent with 102 billion people in around 24 states.
We were to vist three of them on this tour with most time in Rajasthan, a pretty wealthy little kingdom!
Delhi is an interesting place it is a city of 16 million people and has developed over the millennium from 8 cities each building on the last Through out the city there are the remains of the walls of old which gives so much history to the place . Today it is a conglomerate of many contrasts from the majestic colonial government buildings of New Delhi to the narrow, windy streets of the old city. There is poverty of course, there are beggars , rough sleepers and areas where the poorest people scavenge a living but it wasn’t in your face so to speak , It is a chaotic place , the traffic is legendary , the hooting loud and continuous and crossing the roads is a nightmare! To add to the confusion cows wander the streets rooting for food in the rubbish tips and by the wayside
We visited the great Mosque, the largest in India a beautiful building dating back to the mid 17 century. We were all donned out in polyester flowered long robes -a
site to behold!!! We took a Rickshaw ride through the heart of Old Delhi which was a bit hairy , very little to hold on to, the smells and sights of the crowded ally ways through which we passed, housing shops of every description including those that sold animal parts!!! This is the part of town that lucky girls about to be wed come and shop for their troussaue and all the paraphernalia that go with betrothal. We visited the tomb of a Mughal Emperor which was commissioned by his wife and build as a fore runner to the Taj mahal so that gave us a taster of what was to come. We stopped off at a Sikh Temple and toured the kitchens from where they feed any one who cares to turn up - over 7,000 a day! Not sure I would want to peel all those vegetables!
And then some of us did what we do best ,a little retail therapy and finally Di and I wandered into the most glorious hotel in Delhi had a cocktail - as you do - and then decided that blow it, we would have an early supper there too
. The hotel Imperial was happy to allow us to wander its floors to look at the magnificent collection of prints and paintings that covered the history of India. We two then took the metro back to our abode and felt very proud of ourselves, there were very few women around after dark and on reflection travelling on our own perhaps was not such a sensible thing to do.
The following day we boarded our friendly bus and made our way the 200 klms to Agra ,a city that has 3 world heritage sites, in the state of Andhra predesh IT took us 5 ½ hours , if you can imagine roads crowded with toot toots, bicycles, cars lorries , camel trains, tractors water buffalo pulled carts, motor bikes, a melting pot of transportation, that’s why it took so long- I wouldn’t want to be a driver on these roads.
After a very pleasant lunch outside in the gardens of a restaurant serenaded by a lady boy, and snake charmers we visited the Red Fort. I have to say that this grand place built in 1565 by the Mughal emperor Akba was wonderful , it took just
8 years to complete and was worked on by 18 thousand people. It is a mishmash of architecture heavily influenced by the moors so reminded me a little of Al hambre but is hugely bigger covering an area of 2 ½ square kilometres. It is made of red sandstone and has beautiful marble inlays with a mirrade of gemstones . It was truly awe inspiring and what is more we had our first glimpse of the Taj. The history and intrigues behind the fort are long and complicated suffice to say that the Emperor was imprisoned in his own palace by his son who wanted the throne, and died there. He was able to see the Taj which he had had built in memory of his dead wife- what tangled webs we weave. Finally for that day we were taken to a - wait for it- factory which made marble artefacts that used the same techniques as the workmen of old, didn’t buy anything!!
The following day was an extremely early start up at 5am to see the taj mahal at sun rise. Was it worth it ? judge for yourselves, you have seen the pictures but nothing prepares
you for the beauty of that wonderful building fashioned out of translucent white marble built over 22 years , starting in 1631 with 20,000 workmen to honour the Emperor’s dead wife. It was truly beautiful with the early soft sunlight catching the building and changing its glow as the sun started to rise in the sky. I just had to sit you know where, it just had to be done! Later that morning we visited the ruined city of Fetehpur Sikrt on the outskirts of Agra, another amazing red sandstone site once the capital of India but was abandoned after only a few years due to lack of water . We then crossed the boarder into Rajasthan but that is for another day
Advertisement
Tot: 0.173s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 14; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0752s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jeannette
non-member comment
Hello from Forna
It all sounds wonderful and exotic! I'm very envious... loved all the photos. xxx