The Hampstead Pond Swimmer Goes to Rajasthan
Trip Start
Aug 05, 2008
1
2
Trip End
Sep 05, 2008
Loading Map
New Delhi,
India
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
The Hampstead Pond Swimmer goes travelling
The first travel disaster!!
I arrived at the airport last night all set to travel. Imagine the embarrassment when the counter clerk said "where is your is your visa"? Moi, monsieur the experienced traveller, never gave a thought to it! So, boarding denied, I was in the queue at the Indian High Commission at 4.30am this morning and that turned out to be terrific. I met William Solomon - probably my remotest unknown cousin, the experienced Indian traveller and Ashram expert who kitted me out with the latest boots for the Himalayas and told me how to get to the most spiritual parts of India - up to the source of the Ganga. So it is eat your heart out Golden Triangle - I will try to spend as much time as possible in the far North. Don't ask what it cost me to reissue the ticket.
Here I am in my airline issue PJs in the lap of luxury. After a yummy curry the stewardess made my bed (although she failed to get into it) and I had a perfect 7 hours sleep. Badly needed after the visa fun and games. A bit worried about immigration as I had a load of kit all with invoices and declaration on the landing form - but I am on a tourist visa so was prepared for some discussion. As it happened I sailed through and the customs guy just took my form and did not look at it. Probably went through the wrong channel!
Taxi to the hotel - booked for me in a posh part of Delhi and after unpacking, checking emails etc went to the local market to get an Indian phone +91 9811 528023 if anyone wants to call. Knew I was in India when I saw the cows wandering around the market. Holy Cow!
Early night for a big day on Tuesday.
Breakfast early Tuesday and Tarlochan the guy from the Indian company who are making our tinnitus device and will be distributing it in India arrived with Dr Biswas, a neuro-otologist who had come from Calcutta to see me. We all went to the Sir Ganga Ram private hospital in Delhi where I made a presentation to him together with a group of ENT professors from different hospitals around town. You would all have been proud of me. At one stage I was asked to repeat a technical explanation of why deaf people often get tinnitus and the mechanism by which this occurs. This professor liked the explanation so much they wanted to film me saying it!
Then off for a curry in an excellent restaurant in the market
Tomorrow will change to a downtown more Indian typical hotel at one third the price of this one and will take a tour of Delhi. Friday to Agra and the Taj Mahal and Saturday to Fateh Pur Sikri Fort. Up to Chandigargh on Sunday for two days business with product development and then off to Rishikesh, Gangatree, Gumache and a six hour walk to the source of the Ganga. Hope to stop at the Krisna Ashram along the line so by the time I arrive in DC I will probably be in my orange robe chanting at the corner of Wisconsin and M. Rob - do you know any good shuls in Buddhaland? And so to bed.....
Change of Plan
Today was an admin day. I changed to a downtown very Indian hotel called C Park and having decided to do a day tour of Delhi on Friday and then go to Agra by train on Saturday headed off to the main railway station to buy my ticket.
Of course I got picked up by a local agent and sent off by TucTuc to a tourist office who explained that I had got it all wrong. Now is the rainy season up North and I would not be able to see the Himalayas and would have a combination of rain and mist if I stuck with plan A . So the Hari Krishnas will have to wait for my next trip and I am certainly hopeful (is that not my nature?) that I will have to visit a few times to help develop the Indian market. Mountains here are for the Summer season.
So Plan B is as follows:
The rest of this week to Rishikesh and Shimla ending up in Chandigarh, where the medical electronics factory is based. Monday and Tuesday seeing the new tinnitus product, which is nearly ready. Starting next Wednesday a two week tour of Rajasthan including the desert and visits to the famous red, blue and pink towns of Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaipur (not in that order for travel or colour), plus others and finishing up in Agra for the Taj Mahal. Then back to Chandigarh for another couple of days' business and back to London Saturday Dec 1st.
Happy Diwali everyone
I was picked up at 9.30 for the drive to Rishikesh. Would love to be eloquent about the beauty of the Indian countryside but it was one crowded and rather dirty town after another full of small shops selling nothing you would want and fruit which you dare not eat. It was altogether a five hour rather boring drive. The only excitement was the hair raising Indian idea of road discipline. Road filled with bikes, motor bikes, buses, people trucks, tractors, bullock carts, small vans and idly wandering pedestrians and cows. Vegetarian lunch at an attractive tourist restaurant on the way. Then I had my first view of the Ganges
which was exciting. Checked into a clean hotel in Rishikesh - The Ganges View with lovely view over the Ganges and had sleep until 7.00 when went out to see the Diwali celebrations. Fairly muted but there have been fireworks all evening so far. Quiet dinner in the hotel.
Serendipity takes over
Saturday morning I asked the driver to take me into the Himalayan foothills and ready in my new hiking boots to go on some kind of mini-trek. Then in the afternoon we would return for a boat trip on the Ganges and then the famous Rishikesh ceremony.
Half way up the mountain I saw a sign for Ananda. Go there please I said to the driver. Now some history. Most of you know that I was for a couple or more years the distributor for beautytek and as such was doing some treatments on a health and beauty journalist for the Daily Mirror. In the middle of the course she had to break off for a week as she was invited to this new spa opening in the foothills of the Himalayas. Well she returned saying it was the most beautiful, luxurious and therapeutic place imaginable. When I was planning my trip I looked at the website and decided it was just too expensive. So when I saw it was, entirely unknown to me, just where I was for a couple of days I had to go and take a look. Well they would not let me in. So I said I wanted to have a treatment. Residents only they said. I want to be a resident I said. So I checked in for the most pampered 24 hours of my life.
The spa is in a Maharaja's palace with an ultra luxurious hotel block and spa centre.
Saturday afternoon I lazed by the pool, had a salt scrub, a yoga meditation session and then yummy Indian dinner. No starvation nonsense here! Sunday morning I was off at 7.00 am for a three hour uphill trek (7 km and 1200 ft) to the hilltop temple.
Could just see snow-caps in the distance. Back by jeep to the spa, a consultation with my Ayurvedic doctor and then some pool time before my Ayurvedic massage - two masseurs working in synchronization on each side of my body for 45 mins.
The day before my UK GP (Dr Laleye) had phoned saying she knew I was in India but she had a blood test result which showed that since I had come off statins my cholesterol had gone up. She wanted to see me when I got back. So I asked the Ayurvedic doc for the natural way. So now it is two garlic cloves followed by a one hour brisk walk every morning. No dairy products (cheese once a week allowed), no red meat (once a month allowed), no nuts, no fried food, and oats with juice and seeds for breakfast. Do for a month and repeat the blood test.
By now it was 2.00 in the afternoon for the six hour drive to Chandigarh. Another boring drive except when it got dark when we had all the previous hazards plus trucks with only one light, trucks with no lights and hordes of suicidal bikes and carts with no lights at all. Will not drive at night again!
Arrived very late in Chandigarh where I was staying with Suman the factory owner who I had met earlier in London. He had waited dinner for me and having eaten nothing since 6.30 am was glad of his hospitality.
Back to Business
Monday morning we drove to the factory had a tour and met many of the staff. They have an amazing technical capability and Suman runs the place in a patriarchal manner but giving his staff full authority over decisions although they are encouraged to discuss with him before making the decisions. They are growing at a phenomenal rate and with over 400 employees are proud to have staff turnover of less than 1%. They look to him as a father and role model.
Later in the morning I was introduced to the team who are re-designing our project and they are making a fine job of it. When they are finished which should be early in January we will have a system in London to trial. Meetings with Suman and the team leaders over dinner at his house in the evening.
Tuesday was similar and devoted to implementing the design changes which we had discussed the previous day and spent a lot of time emailing you all the blog address. Because of low band width I had to do it 2 or 3 addresses at a time. Apologies if anyone got duplicate or triplicate emails. I said I would email updates but have had a change of mind as it just takes too long. I am writing this in MS Word on the train back from Chandigarh to Delhi and will cut and paste to the blog when I can find a connection in Rajasthan. My car will come at 8.00 am and I think we are headed first to the desert in the North West of the State.
By the way the train is excellent and so far have been on board two hours and they have brought to the seat in order: mineral water, mango juice, spicy tomato soup, vegetarian meal with rice and roti (Indian bread).
Special thanks to Ricci Horenstein and Su Rose - both near neighbours in Belsize Park. Ricci came round last week and somehow the conversation turned to R D Laing. I said who is he? Ricci said she could not be friends with someone who did not know who R D Laing was. I went to the local psychology bookshop and they were sparse in their stock but had one book. Not "The Divided Self" which I wanted to read. I also stocked up on books on autism. Well Su came round that afternoon, saw 0oy books and said R D Laing!! She had been friends with him and lent me Mad to be Normal - his life in interview form - both entertaining and instructive about his ideas, Psychiatry, Psycho-analysis, and people at the Tavistock and hospitals I know in Glasgow and London. Also about his own long stay in India in the sixties. So Ricci - you can be friends with me again!
Now it is thanks to Gillian who lent me a book on Rajasthan which I will start reading now.
Rajasthan
I am writing this, sitting at my dinner table on the terrace overlooking the lake at the super luxurious Fateh Prakash Palace Hotel in Udaipur to which I got upgraded for a modest sum as Udaipur is sold out at my mid level. Have just finished dinner with fireworks over the lake for some visiting VIP. When I asked who, they said "for you too sir!" This is my seventh day of the tour and time to catch up with my thoughts.
Jhunjhuna and Mendawar
Wednesday morning I left Delhi with a new driver and much more comfortable people carrier at 8.00 for the drive to Jhunjhuna and Mendawar where I was spending the first night. On the way we saw a huge and deadly serious fight between two men - apparently over a motor bike incident. Looked like a fight to the death but did not hang around to find out. Arrived at Jhunjhuna and went to the Rani Satri Temple where got friendly with a group of 12 year old boys who really introduced me to the non begging, very friendly world of Indian school children. The temple was really my first and just amazing to see the blown up God figures and the devotion which every day Indians pay to them.
Next we went to the Khetri Mahal a pretty ruined Haveli (important house) in the busy town centre. Many storied intricately carved but quite run down.
From the top we could see all of the town and especially the local school where the boys from the temple were vigorously waving to us (my driver called Ravindra and me).
Left for Mendawa where picked up a 12 year old boy called Asis who guided us to the hotel. And what an amazing place! Mandawar is famous for its painted Havellis and my room was completely painted as below. Amazing how similar the bed-head is to my own Mexican one at Buckland.
Before leaving Asis asked if he could be my guide for the morning and when we had agreed the time 7.00 am he finished by confirming "Promise?" and I promised and he was of course there in the morning. He spoke English, French, German and Italian! He was an excellent guide but of course ended by taking me to his father's shop where I had tea, biscuits and bought a cushion cover.
Then at about 10.00 we set off for the eight hour drive to Bikaner - the first of many forts seen and to be seen on this journey. Mike - remembering your love of Welsh castles - you would be absolutely enthralled with the number and variety of forts in Rajasthan. Given the history of alliances, betrothals and betrayals it could well have been the model for the five kingdoms.
The route to Bikaner was long and dusty going into the Indian desert. It is a stone desert meaning that there is arid scrub over a stone base. I had about 7 hours alone in the car and this was the low point of my journey. I felt alone and lonely and missing Ruth as a travel companion looking forward to solitary dinners and sightseeing with no-one to share the experience.
I arrived in Bikaner late afternoon and my spirits were lifted by the beauty of the Fort - one of the richest and most beautifully decorated. Bikaner was on the silk route and the Maharajas exacted tribute on all merchandise passing through the town. Fantastically intricate paintings and sculpture all the most detailed work being carried out by Moslem craftsmen. Today there is little love lost between the adherents of the two faiths. India and Pakistan were playing one day cricket all week and great joy that India won the series. This is a detail from a palace ceiling
The second thing in Bikaner is the Jain Temple. Jains like Jews are not allowed images in their temples but for some reason this is full of the most exquisite images and Jains no longer pray there. It is a temple museum under the protection of the local Maharaja. It has some of the most beautiful work I have seen so far. The third local spot which fortunately I missed is the mouse temple where you remove your shoes as always and the local holy (?) mice run all over your feet. Have not quite understood what this is all about. The fourth is the desert camel institute and I will spare you the camel photos. My hotel was quite ordinary and walked up to the local palace hotel where I had arranged to meet an entertaining retired chief engineer from the Merchant Navy - break for more fireworks - to see folkloric dancing and have dinner. He did not show and dinner was expensive and poor and the dancing was boring.
That is where I last managed to get an internet connection just next to an art studio where they painted very detailed miniatures. The artist showed me his technique for painting hair and gave me a present of a fine squirrel hair brush.
Friday Morning was the long desert drive to Jainsalmair with the promise of a desert night under the stars. I took quite a lot of desert people photos with most very happy to pose for a few rupees. The following family picture has a sad overtone. I took a few pictures of some farm buildings and the whole village turned out saying rupee rupee rupee. I got out my money intending to give much more than my usual and suddenly as I pulled out a 100 rupee note, £1.20 to me and about two days wages for them,
the women snatched at all my money, tore the note in half and then complained they only had half a note. Another had the other half. I was sad because if they had been gentler they could have had more for the appealing baby etc.
Lots of camels on the road now mainly pulling carts or carrying big bales of straw.
Jainsalmair
We arrived at the desert camp at about four and at 5.00 started the camel trek to the dunes to see the sunset.
Once out of the village the driver got on board and encouraged the camel to move at a fair trot. I tried to remember my horse riding days but the rhythm is different. Well we got to the dune area, much less impressive than the dunes on the Northumbrian coast, and waited with the other hordes to see the sun go down behind the pollution. In that sense I was better off with the Hemingway beer swilling crowd at Key West!
Back to the camp centre for an excellent dinner and I was adopted by a lively crowd of young Spanish. After dinner it was back on the camel for a shorter ride to another area for sleeping and sunrise. We were all a bit hesitant because the sunset was a bit underwhelming but went on the promise of a campfire. Well that was a great evening. The Spaniards brought some rum and rolled some cigarettes (!) which got passed around and we sang with the camel drivers songs in Spanish, English and Hindi.
The Hindi ones were quite soulful and beautiful.
I look quite Indian in the photo??
Next day went to the local village which acted as a co-operative for the more remote desert villages where I bought a bed cover with embroidery and tiny mirror discs for a tiny fraction of a John Lewis price and took loads of photos of desert subsistence living.
`
Next we went to my driver's cousin's hotel where we had coffee (ugh) and met my guide for the day. Quite a character called Selim Singh. If all is to be believed he was completely unschooled and taught to read by a volunteer. Now he does volunteer work with desert children. His goal is to open a desert school. Also very flamboyant and boasts of his prowess as the Tom Conte figure in Shirley Valentine when he goes on vacation to Goa! He is the local cricket all rounder playing with the Maharajah for the district team. On the way he met one of his fast bowling students.
The Jainsalmair fort is very like the Old City of Jerusalem. Unlike most I have seen it is a city fort with teeming markets and people living there. It is called the Golden City - another echo of Jerusalem. But the temples were Jain and Hindu with prohibition against photographing the idols!
Selim knew all the "best" shops and I came away with some interesting old Indian items. Also some ground spices for my curry kitchen. Went to my hotel where there was some problem with my voucher and, whilst waiting, went for a beer at a hotel owned by one of Selim's friends called Jawaharal (like Nehru). We ended up going back to the desert for a gypsy dance evening with dinner at another hotel he owns and this time the clientele was 100% Indian. I was the only white face there. It turns out that the European and Japanese tourist market here although huge is absolutely dwarfed by the Indian tourist market. In the forts there are far more Indian families than Europeans. Anyway Jawaharal swore undying lifelong friendship and is going to send me a business plan for hotel development on some desert tract he owns!!!
Selim dancing
Next day to Jodhpur where there are two main sights: The fort and fort museum and the new palace. The museum is apparently the best in Rajasthan and has loads of interesting artefacts
such as the Howdah above.
In the depression of the 1030's the Maharajah employed 25,000 people for 15 years to build the last of the great Indian palaces. It is now one third museum, one third hotel - where Liz Hurley got married recently - and one third still Royal Family residence. The museum was about the family and the construction and is open to all. When I approached the hotel I was told only if I had a drink and minimum price 2000 rupees. I said of course and no-one monitored what I did. Sumptuously lavish at a minimum of $400 per night.
Back to my hotel in the teeming market area and met up with Rafaella Italian who I had also seen in Jaisalmair and had drinks on the rooftop restaurant of my hotel.
Monday (I think) was brilliant. We went to the Jain temple complex at Ranakpur Which I think is the largest in India. Certainly the largest in Rajasthan. The statistics about the number of idols, of columns, of shrines etc is boggling.
Then to Kumbhalgarh a mountain fortress with a wall second in history only to the Great Wall of China. At 6.30 every evening they illuminate it with a soft golden light.
Before dinner met up for drinks with two Americans, one Canadian and a Brit (well Czech actually) but living in London. Joined them for a jolly dinner in this VERY nice hotel. So I am getting quite good at meeting people and that was four evenings running I had good company.
Tuesday morning I had time out by the pool and told the driver 2.00pm for the drive to Udaipur.
At the pool I met Yvonne, a really nice Jewish lady from Camden travelling with her daughter Rachel, who is just taking up her first job as a registrar at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, a husband who has had a stroke, is under the care of Queen Square, and needs full time care and she has just sorted her finances by selling a property in Camden. Sound familiar? As you can imagine we had a lot to talk about, including J D Laing again and are meeting up for dinner in Pushkar later this week.
The driver took me back to the fortress at Kumbhalgarh which we explored up to the topmost rampart and then off to Udaipur where I was booked in the Palace hotel overlooking the lake and two lake palaces. Arrived in time for dinner which was on a terrace overlooking the lake with fireworks from the far shore. When I asked what the fireworks were in aid of I was told for a visiting dignitary. Asking who I was politely informed "for you too sir".
Wednesday morning we went south to Dungarpur along the fast Delhi-Bombay highway to a little known but exquisite palace with amazing pictures over five or six small floors culminating with illustrated scenes from the Karma Sutra behind a panelled door in the sitting room. I am sparing you the Karma Sutra pictures and the horse and rider and the tiger are representative of the general quality of the palace art.
Then it was bar snacks at the local palace hotel and another four hours by the pool before returning to Udaipur. It is Honey Festival today so we saw a procession through the town of Dungarpur including bands, saried ladies, school kids, floats including the Taj Mahal, lavishly decorated horses and camels ridden by well bedecked riders and an elephant. My first in India.
Back to Udaipur where I bought and wrote a very few postcards over dinner to which I was taken on a motor bike pillion by a friend of the bookshop/cardshop, man who I asked for a restaurant recommendation. Just as good as the Palace Hotel dinner but at 20% of the cost! Bike home again and the blog is up to date. Annoyingly the fancy hotel Wi-Fi is down so cannot post it just yet.
Friday morning up for quick tour of the Palace museum. Sitting quietly at breakfast on the terrace my phone rang and I heard "Hello - I am behind you" and it was Rafaella by co-incidence on the same terrace having just arrived from Pushka for breakfast. We took photos and went off in our separate directions and then spoke regularly as we travelled in different directions around the country.
and then the drive to Pushka, where I am now, in the computer room of a very boring looking hotel. I slept most of the journey.
Pushka
This is a holy city for Hindu of all persuasions (Sikhs, Jains, Brahmins etc) and is dedicated to Lord Brahma who is the father of Gods and his two helpers Vishnu and Shiva. Hindus believe in a God who is everywhere, in everyone and in everything. The triple God Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva are three aspects of the same God in his role as Creator, Preserver and Destroyer (if it suits his purpose). Just like the Jewish God. All the other Gods are just different aspects of God and are prayed to for different things in the same way that we ask for different things in the Avenu Malkenu prayer on Yom Kippur. I learnt all this at Shabbat dinner at the Pushka Habad house from an Israeli who learnt it from a book by Ezriel Carlebach who was the first editor of the Israeli paper Ma'ariv.
Friday was the last day of the Pushka Fair - an annual event which combines a huge Camel and Horse combined with camel races, cow races, and various games played out in a huge arena. Add to this a huge number of stalls designed to support the huge number of participants and tourists who come to this three week event. This really was teeming, colourful, vibrant India. My local guide arrived by motorbike and so we set out into car free Pushka.
First to the most important temple - the Brahma Temple. Heavy army presence into the temple where everyone was jostling to get in and to see the inside shrines. Next past busy stalls in the main market area - market here means shopping street so that the West End would be the market area in London - not Camden or Petticoat Lane. This is really teeming India! 1.25 billion and growing. They expect to overtake China in population by about 2040.
Then to the Holy Lake where I participated in the "ceremony" with a priest who asked for money ( like shnoddering, Tzdakah, Yahrzeit donations?) to ask Lord Brahma for all the things one would ask a God for - long life for you and all your family, prayers for departed, parnassah, success, happiness - you all know the list. Then I threw petals in the lake, lots of holy water, and have a holy wristband, and red dot on my forehead which I washed off before mincha! - read on
Next past the funfair with huge Ferris wheels and even a wall of death - I think now banned in the UK by Health and Safety. This has not yet taken over in India where families including babies on motorbikes is the norm. We walked through the display area and then a camel cart ride through the mini desert where loads of activity of all kinds from selling livestock, resting camels, eating, washing, singing, snake charming and just living.
Lunch in the market was fresh pineapple juice, some mixed seeds from a street vendor and a pappadom from another. Then back on the bike towards the hotel but I asked for a detour to see a large white and apparently very new Sikh temple. There I had to cover my head with a handkerchief as well as the usual shoe removal. Walking back from the temple I saw a couple of religious Jews so asked if I could take a photo to show Robert and Yelena that frummers can travel in India. It turned out they were from the Habbad (Lubavich) Centre which was a few steps away.
So Friday night service followed by an excellent vegetarian Shabbat dinner outdoors behind the study/service area. A large crowd of mainly Israeli students and tourists. Apparently there is a Habad network all over India but this is the only one in Rajasthan. And I found it on Friday afternoon. And it was only 6 minutes walk from my hotel. Perhaps Lord Brahma directed me home!
Very early night - getting near to the end of the J D Laing book and looking forward to starting Rohinton Mistry's book on India - A Fine Balance - which I found at the bookshop in Udaipur.
Saturday back to shul for the morning service and was called up Levi - one of the most interesting places to have been called up - on par with the Altneu Synagogue in Prague. Then Shabbat lunch and back to the hotel for the relatively short drive to Jaipur. With all the shul going I missed seeing Ajmer which has a lot of interesting mosque and fort buildings. But it was good to re-connect and be with a crowd of Israelis. Finished Kamran Nazeer's book "Send in the Idiots" which Jean Shaoul lent me. Really interesting story about a group of autistic children who had all recovered enough to have successful careers. Kamran is one of them and he interviews the others and his teachers for the book. He is now a policy advisor in Whitehall.
Sunday was for Jaipur.
The famous pink town so painted for the visit of the Prince of Wales in the nineteenth century by order of the welcoming Maharajah and compulsorily repainted by each householder in the old city every two years. I you don't do it the city council will and send you the bill!
The photo is of the palace where the women who were all in Purdah and not allowed to show their faces or even be seen could watch the processions and men only celebrations.
The main event in town is the Amber Fort which seems to have been designed especially for some particularly sexually voracious Maharajah with identical quarters for each of his twelve wives, and secret passages so no-one knew where he was bestowing his favours. There was another area for the multitude of concubines.
Apparently the tradition was that he would be with wife number one when he left for and returned from war. While he was away the wives all came out and partied together in the central courtyard. There was one particularly clever, warlike, cultured and forward looking Maharajah who made peace with the Moghul Emperor in Delhi Jai Singh 11 and was called One and a Quarter for his intelligence. The flag of Jaipur is one and a quarter flags. The quarter flag flying below the full flag. You can go up by elephant but the queue was too long so you are spared the photo of me on an elephant. Here are some other tourists
Jai Singh 11 built an amazing astronomical and astrological observatory where you could tell the time, the position of the sun in the zodiac, the azimuth (look it up)! And other clever and incomprehensible things.
After lunch set off to find the temple at Balaji where apparently they do exorcisms. The photo above is the temple at the wrong Balaji just 3km from Jaipur. Worth seeing anyway. The next morning we set out for Agra determined to find the right Balaji which we had identified about 80 km on the way to Agra but off the main road. This is a very famous and powerful temple which had hordes of people chanting and pressing through cattle pens to get face to face with the priest and God. I was the only European face. This was a serious shoes and socks off temple with no photography - not even of the outside. But no sign of any mad people or exorcisms. Perhaps I did not know how to ask, perhaps it only happens on certain days or perhaps the whole thing is a myth. Who knows but it was a temple and experience well worth the detour.
Next stop was the Keoladeo Nature reserve where you cycled with a naturalist to see the mainly bird wildlife. I was lucky to get one with a telescope who took photos through the lens.
This is a sixty year old turtle
Beautiful ducks - who said "crispy Peking please"?
A Stork - and a rare Peregrine Falcon
Arrived in Agra in time for dinner and the Taj Mahal tomorrow
Tuesday morning up early to get there before the crowds. The Taj is breathtakingly beautiful and as Gillian said the photos do not prepare you for the experience. My first view was of the white marble monument against a nearly white sky. Not very good for my photos but ethereally beautiful.
I was alone without a guide and I am beginning to prefer this or at least for the guide to give me the history and then to let me wander on my own. Part of the poignancy is the story of the Emperor Shah Jehan who built it as a monument to his beautiful and intelligent wife who died on the battlefield giving birth to their twelfth child. He built with the finest materials and craftsmen from around the world and when it was finished he was deposed by his youngest son Aurangzeb, who killed his elder brothers, poisoned the fort's water supply and when his father surrendered, locked up the defeated and still grieving Emperor in the Agra Fort with only a remote view of his lovingly built and beautiful shrine. The East India Company tried to sell the Taj Mahal for its marble but fortunately was stopped.
Afternoon at Agra Fort and then back to Delhi. Have seen a few overturned lorries on the road, many abandoned dead dogs who are left to be eaten by crows or jackals, but on this drive passed the dead body of a man, just lying there with the traffic weaving around him. Hopefully the police or ambulance service will beat the crows.
So what are my thoughts on this adventure. I have been lonely at times and missed sharing the experience with Ruth. Mark will remember well our travels around Thailand and how she enjoyed the temple and hill village visits and relished all the new and strange experiences. And so in her prime would she have loved India and we had always planned to do it together. So sad she did not make it.
So I am travelling alone and this way you certainly meet and talk to more people and can make more spur of the moment decisions based on a suggestion over breakfast or dinner with some other traveller.
India is incredible. It is crowded, colourful, exciting, dusty, dirty, chaotic, teeming, sumptuous, spiritual, mountainous, poverty stricken, burgeoning middle classed, educated, illiterate, democratic, corrupt, cruel and wild. The people are charming and quaintly old fashioned in their English. "Super" is the word of praise and the papers are full of phrases such as "bang-on" "topsy-turvy" and others which struck me at the time and now forget, which left our lexicon 50 years ago. Tourism has of course encouraged the begging. The discrepancy between rich and poor must seem and is so unfair. Religion is worn on the sleeve with praying before the shrines being done by all generations and all classes. The school children are just lovely. All so happy to talk, ask your name or your country and jump up and down to be in the photos. There is new building everywhere, House prices are rising, home loans escalating and I get the feeling that there is a real middle class growing and that unlike China which is industrialising, the Indians are moving straight into a knowledge based economy.
I have just put a toe into the most interesting tourist area and hope to return many times over the next few years to see Kashmir, The Himalayas, the South - Kerala, Goa etc and perhaps some areas not yet overrun with busloads of European and Asian tourists. This morning I even met a family from Kazakhstan!
The truly spiritual India is somewhere else. Perhaps in the Ashrams, perhaps in the mountains, perhaps in the minds of those who grew up in the days of the Beatles' Gurus and the Haight Ashbury. Not yet in my more practical nature
And in another hour there would have been an azure blue sky. But you have all seen those photos. To finish - Here is the future hope of India
as they sang for me in English "we love our India". I love it too!
© Walter Solomon Nov 5-30th 2007
