India 2017

India - October/November 2017


Sunday October 22 - Tuesday, October 24
        We are finally off on our Indian adventure after so many months of planning and talking about it.  Peter picked us up and we were off to the airport.  It was a nice day in Edmonton and Toronto.  Zurich was rain and fog when we first arrived, but as the day progressed, it looked warmer.
        We arrived in Delhi after midnight.  It took us over an hour to walk to and and then to complete customs.  We had to be electronically fingerprinted, and that took a long time.  Once out, we were met by Harjeet who took us to our vehicle and we were off to our hotel - the Holiday Inn Mayur.  The ride was fairly long, at lest 30 minutes, but we drove past the India Gate and the President's Palace as well as Embassy Row.  There was lots of traffic, but it all flowed together with honks to warn of oncoming cars from behind.  The air smelled of coal smoke and smog and the hanging fog was a reminder of the poor air quality here in Delhi.  Twenty-eight million people live here in Delhi.
        We collapsed into bed and awoke for an amazing breakfast buffet before heading back to bed.
        Outside our 9th floor room, we can see a large field.  There have been packs of dogs, herds of cows and people playing cricket all day.  Motorcycles are parked along the road and cars are everywhere!  Tomorrow we will start to explore.

Everything stops for cattle here.

Wednesday, October 25
        This is another relax day before our tour begins tomorrow.
        The temperature for yesterday and today has been in the mid 30's.  There is no predicted rain, but we did see evidence this morning of wet ground.  The smog continues to be a haze over the city.
        The city is very security conscious, so we must go through metal detectors at the hotel, at the metro and our bags are either x-rayed or visually checked at temples, hotel and metro.  At the metro, there were two lines - one for men and one for women.  The men will not touch the women, so there are women security guards for the women's line.  There is also a "women only" car on each metro train and a "women only" waiting area on the platform.  Women may go into any car, but men may not go into the "women only"car and area.
        We walked to New Ashok Naga metro station to go to the Lotus Temple, a Ba'hai faith temple.  Cars and tuktuks were going everywhere, with people walking on the side of the road.  The river we crossed was full of litter.  At one intersection, there was traffic, people and a cow, all trying to go in different directions.  The metro was very easy to navigate.  Once out, we had difficulty finding the temple, so we started walking in a park,  We ended up at the ISKOT Temple before we were able to get directions to the Lotus Temple.
        The Lotus Temple was built in the shape of a lotus flower.  It is surrounded by beautiful gardens.  We were ushered into the sanctuary, after removing our shoes, to meditate and reflect.  The temple welcomes all faiths in unity and harmony.  The sanctuary was very plain, with many chairs for the people.  The top of the ceiling was fashioned into a star.  We were two of only a handful of Caucasian tourists at this temple, so we're the subject of many surreptitious selfies.

The 'Lotus Temple' in Delhi built by the Ba'hai faith.

      We then headed to a different, closer, metro station to return to our hotel.  We had planned to go to Connaught Place (the downtown area), but walking in the heat made us very tired, so we headed back to our hotel to relax.
        We enjoyed the Indian buffet for dinner.

Thursday, October 26
        Today was the first official day of our tour.  We met Suda at 9:15 this morning with our driver.  Our first stop was Jama Masjid.  This Muslim Mosque was built by the emperor Shah Jahan in 1658.  It is one of the largest mosques in India with a seating capacity of more than 25,000.  The bulbous domes and minarets were built of marble while the walls were made from red sandstone.  Marble slabs on the floor were to keep feet from burning as it is cool to the touch.
        We then walked through the market area of Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi.  This area had once been the living area for the wealthy families of Old Delhi, but is now shops and hotels.  We walked narrow alleys where cars could not go.  Some of the doors and building fonts were still from affluent times.  Suda said the house would have had the wall and door out front, opening onto a courtyard with rooms around it.  The second floor would have been for the women and family.  We saw spice stores filled with chills, cumin, tumeric, cinnamon, almonds, dates, raisins, walnuts, peppers, cardamom, and tea.  We saw beetle nut leaves that people chew and spit out like snuff.  We walked down the alley with wedding and party supplies before taking a rickshaw around the Red Fort.  We picked up our driver again and headed to Raj Ghat, the Mahatma Gandhi memorial.  This is the spot where he was cremated after his assignation In 1948.  From there we stopped at a carpet craft factory that is keeping the craft alive.  We saw many beautiful carpets that were made by families in the Kashmir region.
     Our final stop was the Akshardham Temple.  Built in 2005, this Hindu Temple was amazing.  Because it was built to look like traditional temples, every inch of the walls and columns was beautifully carved with animals, flowers, leaves and symbols of the Hindu way of life.  Elephants, important to the Indian people were carved on the base of the temple and then surrounded by ponds, filled with holy water from various sources.  Angkor Wat would have looked like this when it was new.  The difference is that this temple has modern conveniences like gift shops, restaurants and toilets.
     Driving here is interesting.  Lines to indicate lanes are looked upon as guidelines, and it was not uncommon to have 6 lanes of vehicles on a 3 lane road.  Most of them were going the same direction, too.  The trick to to keep easing ahead until you block someone and they have to give way.  Of course, honking the horn is important in case they don't know you are there.  One of our guides on the trip gave us some words of wisdom for driving in India:  You need Good brakes, a Good horn and Good luck!

Friday, October 27
     We headed out at 9 am to try and beat the traffic, however we were not successful.  It took us a while to arrive at our first stop, Qutub Minar.  As usual,  at some points there were 6 lanes of cars on the 3 lane road - all within inches of each other.  Add to this were tuktuks  (motorized rickshaws), motorcycles, buses, bicycles, people walking on the road, cows and dogs.  All gave way when needed and we got to our destination.
     Qutub Minar is a tower or minaret, built to commemorate the first Muslim rule in India in the 10th century.  The tower has five levels, each a little different in shape and decoration, with bands of writings from the Koran at periodic levels.  It is surrounded by a garden and mosque.  The mosque was a large open square with the screen that indicates the direction to Mecca, as did Jama Masjid yesterday, however, this mosque is so old it is not longer in use.  It was built of red sandstone.  In the center of the garden is a 4th century iron column.
     Our next stop was the government buildings.  Built in British times, the current Presidential Palace was once the home of the British Viceroy.  The last was Lord Mountbatten.  Around it are, wide, straight roads that resemble the Pall Mall in London.  The road is flanked by identical buildings on either side of the road, used now to house government offices.  There are several columns to commemorate the other British colonies (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.). This main road (called Ragpath Avenue), leads to the India Gate.  The gate looks like the Arc de Triumph in Paris, and was built to honour the British and Indian soldiers killed in WWI.  On January 26, India Day, parades and parties are held to celebrate Indian independence.  Today, the gate also houses the tomb to the unknown Soldier and the Eternal Flame.
    We moved on to Humayan's Tomb, a forerunner of the Taj Mahal and a love tomb.  This tomb was built by Humayan's wife to honour his memory as the 2nd mogul emperor.  It was started in 1562 and completed in 1565.  The tomb building is set in the centre of a geometrically arranged garden, divided by paths and streams of water.  Pools of water in either a square or octagon shape were strategically places to finish the symmetry.  The four parts of the garden are said to resemble paradise.
     Both Qutub Minar and Humayan's Tomb are world heritage sites.

Saturday, October 28
        We had an early start because of our 11:15 flight to Udaipur.  Flying in, we saw fields of wheat and hills.  Udaipur grows a lot of wheat, plus it mines marble and zinc.  There are two lakes here that were created by damming the river in the 15th century.
        The traffic was crazy because school had just been let out, tour buses were arriving, and people were out purchasing the supplies needed for their dinner, and all were vying for that quick route through the narrow streets.  Udaipur is a city of about 500,000 people.  After an aborted attempt at the shortcut to our hotel, we took the circuitous route and finally arrived at Fateh Niwas on the opposite side of the lake to the City Palace.  The hotel was once a colonial mansion and is now a property that celebrates the that period.  Kerry just could not keep his eyes off of a restored 1927 MGB that sat in a prominent place in the lobby. 

Drool, drool .....

There were beautiful carvings, both wooden and marble, on tables, and a lovely old world charm in the air.
        We didn't stop to admire the room, dropping off our luggage and then heading out to drive around Pochola Lake, on our way to meet our guide and take a boat ride on the lake.
        Deepak was or guide, and what a character he was.  Full of knowledge and language skills, he knew all of the tour guide tricks, and loved to talk politics and philosophy, so we really enjoyed our time with him.
        The boat ride was a one hour tour of the lake-side view of the City palace and the Lake Palace, before making a stop at Jag Mandir, the other Palace in the water.  The Royal Barge was in the water, so we got to enjoy watching her  float in state.  Some of the James Bond movie, "Octopussy" was filmed on this lake in and around the three palaces.

The scale of this palace is just decadent.

This a hotel today out on one of the islands in the lake.

        We ate dinner on the rooftop of our hotel.  The night was warm with no wind, and all of the other users had been delayed in transit, so we were the only ones there to enjoy the view of the City Palace across the lake, the Monsoon Palace in the hills, and the lights of the city.  It was Saturday night during wedding season, so we also enjoyed loud music and two sets of fireworks, set off to celebrate the nuptials.  While all of this was going on in the Hindu section of the city, we could also hear the call to worship in the neighbourhood mosque.

Sunday, October 29, 2017
        It was a busy day of touring today.  What was supposed to be a half day, ended up being a full day because Deepak was having so much fun with us.  We started at the City Palace Museum and saw how the Maharajas lived for many centuries.  There were the gardens and the courtyards.  The coloured glass from Italy, and the tiles from Holland and England adorned the walls of many rooms.  Beautiful glass from Murano was showcased in Windows where the light shown through to give colour.  We saw the coronation garden and the wall where the elephants would compete in games of tug-of-war as entertainment for the nobles.  The second floor contained the family area where the Maharaja and his Maharina and consorts lived.  You can always tell that area because the windows are covered with beautifully carved screen that allowed the ladies to look out, but the "lustful eyes of men" could not see them.  The Maharina's room had a steam-powered fan to cool her off on picnics and in the summer.  We also enjoyed a miniature art gallery that displayed the best of what Udaipur is famous for - pictures that depict amazing detail of stories, painted with the hairs from squirrel tales, and displaying individual hairs on beasts and beards.  The shading was amazing as was the colour and use of gold as a paint.  We finished off with the sculpture gallery and the silver gallery to admire the silver palanquins and cradles.
        At one point, we saw a line of Indian tourists, the men grouped together at one end of the line and the women at the other end.  They were resting against a wall.  Kerry got a quick picture, but the lighting was poor.  We moved to a better spot, but a security guard moved them along before we got the shot of the trip.  Oh well, next time.
        We walked from the Palace down to Jagdish Temple, a Hindu temple where the priests and the people were in the middle of the second service of the day.  Women were sitting in the centre courtyard, singing and dancing while the priests attended to the gods.  After we left the inner sanctum, we walked the outside courtyard, in a clockwise direction in order to bring our thoughts back down to earth and everyday life.  To do this we enjoyed the carvings of elephants, soldiers, flowers and trees.  We ended our visit to the Temple by admiring the intersection in front of the Temple where there was a big chase sequence in the Bond movie.
        On our way to lunch, we circled a statue of the horse made famous in a battle where he was disguised as an elephant in order to get close to the opposing maharajah.  The soldier on the horse injured the elephant and was able to slay the attacking Raj, and so saved the city from defeat.  The soldiers of Udaipur never gave up their city to attack.
        There is something about eating lunch in a garden, under a tent roof that is very civilized.
        We next toured Sahelion-ki-Bari or the Women's Garden.  Originally set up to house 28 young maidens who were given to the Raj as part of a dowrie, in 1734, it was made officially into a women-only garden until the late "80s when a flood made it imperative to open the garden for repair.  That was the first time any man had seen the garden.  Now, it is a lovely garden with a summer side and a winter side, plus a courtyard with a pool where the women used to bathe.
        Our next stop was a women's coop where they sold textile products.  Dame Judy Dench and the other stars of "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" had stopped in for photos and support during the filming of that movie in Udaipur.
        We finished the day at the vegetable market. 

This market is just so colourful!

What a colourful, noisy, bust, happy place.  We saw life as it is lived every day by the locals in that market as we wandered.  The village people gathered together after their shopping, waiting for their return ride in the back truck bed.  The trucks were jammed to the top with people and stuff.  They all had smiles and were so happy.  We saw women purchasing the spices and the sugar cane juice and the vegetables.  We saw women making baskets for sale.  We saw vegetables we had never seen before.  This market was the highlight of the day.

Monday, October 30
        Today is a traveling day.  We are headed to Jodhpur with a stop at the Jain Temple in Rankapur.
        Along the way, we stopped to admire the bats sleeping in the trees.  There were also several water wheels in use.

Irrigation.

  The energy used to operate the wheel is supplied by a team of bullocks and their driver.  They are attached to a spoke and walk in circles to turn the shaft that turns the wheel.  The wheel was a belt with paint cans attached.  The cans dipped into the pool of water and then rose to dump the water into a trough at the upper end.  This water was used to irrigate the fields behind it.
        The route we were taking was very scenic.  The road followed the contours of a deep valley between the mountains.  The vegetation was full of animal life - monkeys and parakeets were in abundance.  We stopped to enjoy a fruit break from the market yesterday, and were quickly joined by families of monkeys.

Black faced monkeys are found in the countryside, while red faced monkeys are found in the cities.

  We were luckily done when it got too busy as the big boys were starting to move in.  We continued on and saw camels hauling grass for the villagers to use to feed their cattle.  When the farmers did not have camels, they hauled the grass on their heads.  The interesting thing is that the farmers were all members of the family - men and women.  The women were dressed in their "work sarees" and looked very colourful as they toiled.
        The Rankapur Jain Temple is the pilgrimage temple for Jain devotees.  An offshoot of Hinduism, they are very earth-bound, and walk everywhere, not believing in using modern transportation.  They are also strict vegans.  Their priests are either dressed all in white or naked.  The priests we saw were clothed.  The temple is gorgeous.  It has 29 halls and 20 domes.  The roves are supported by 200 columns, all uniquely carved and aligned - with the exception of one.  It is slightly askew to symbolize man's imperfection.  This temple was built in the 15th century.

This Jain Temple was amazing!

        Our driver explained symbols of marriage to us as we drove the last stretch to Jodhpur.  In Dehi and and other cities, the married women wore a red streak in the centre part of their hair to show marriage.  In the villages we drove through, married women wore bangles - always a pair, one on each arm.  Unmarried women did not wear bangles.  Our Jodhpur guide explained that married women also wore a toe ring.  They believed that the toe is connected to the heart through the womb, so the ring gathered the energy to allow for healthy births and menstrual cycles.
        We finally arrived at our hotel, the Harem part of a palace, about 6 pm.  To make good use of the market time, we threw our luggage in the room and headed out to walk the market before it closed at 8 pm.
        The Sadar market is located in Old Jodhpur.  Narrow streets and jostling of cars, motorcycles and people made it a lively place.  You buy everything from soup to nuts and wedding supplies as well.  The entrance to the market has a beautiful clock tower that was purchased in London.  Dubbed "Little Ben", it was made by the same company as "Big Ben" and looked very similar.
        Dinner was in the restaurant in the courtyard of the hotel.  We enjoyed music form a group of men playing instruments and dancing as we ate.  What a great day.

Tuesday, October 31
        Our first stop of the day was at Mehrangarh Fort, the only fort that is still owned by the local Royal family.  The other forts were handed over to the government of India at the time of independence.  The fort is on the top of the hill, and looks like it grew from the granite.  Inside, we saw brightly decorated rooms, elephant carriers, cradles, swords and daggers and paintings.  From the back wall of the Fort, we looked down to see the blue-painted homes in the old part of the city.  These buildings were painted this colour to celebrate the god, Brahama, and are the reason Jodhpur is called the "Blue City".

Jodhpur, the blue city.

        We then toured Jaswant Thada, another love tomb built by the wife to memorialize the Raj in 1899.  The marble used is the same as the same marble used at the Taj Mahal.
        Our afternoon was spent in a jeep, driving the trails in the countryside looking for peacocks, blue bull antelope (the largest antelope in India.  They have a similar shape to horses).  We also saw Chikka (the smallest antelope) and grey pheasants.  After seeing the animal life, we headed to 3 small communes.  The first was a master potter who demonstrated his skill on a manually-turned potter's wheel.  The second was a guru who demonstrated how men made and drank optimized tea in days gone by.  The third was a master weaver who made rugs on floor looms.  All three lived in traditional Mud huts with thatched roofs and dung-hardened floors.

Wednesday, November 1
        We drove the four hours to Pushkar this morning, arriving at our tent hotel about noon.  The drive was uneventful until we had an altercation with a panicked cow on the highway.  Our vehicle was damaged, and the cow was all right.
        The tent hotel was interesting.  Very portable, it is used only at festival time in Pushkar when the population swells.  We were greeted with marigold garlands and a red forehead blessing.  We were assigned number 55, a tent near the fire ring and the dining tent.  The room was amazing.  Equipped with a king-seized bed and sitting area, with an air conditioner to keep it cool during the day when the Seders gets really hot.  We also had our own attached tent bathroom with toilet, sink and shower.
        We met our guide after a vegetarian lunch, and headed to the Fair.  We walked the streets of the bazaar and headed down to the holy lake to sit on the stairs of the ghat.  There are evening ceremonies every day here, as this is a holy city for the Brahmans.  We then headed back to the festival arena to pick up our camel and cart to tour the grounds and see the horse market, the camel market and so on.  Many nomads had set up camps on the outskirts of the area so we got to see those, as well.  We waited for the sunset on Sunset hill before returning to our hotel.
        We were entertained by a magician and a family of dancers before our vegetarian dinner and bed.

Thursday, November 2
        This was a much-needed rest day for us.

Friday, November 3
        We drove to Mandawa - a small town on the way to Jaihpur.  We checked in to our hotel - the old Mandawa Castle.  The integrity of this heritage building has been maintained in its renovation, so we really enjoyed wandering the grounds before we went it with our guide to explore some of the 55 haveli.  Haveli are houses that the rich had decorated with frescoes of stories, animals, flowers and gods.  The houses are now mostly empty, but plans are being made to restore some of them to revitalize the town and bring in more tourists.

Our hotel in Mandawa was amazing as it was an old fort on top of the hill.

Saturday, November 4
        Today was a driving day to Jaipur.

Sunday, November 5
        We started the day early by meeting our guide, Jittendra, at 8 am.  Our first stop was Hawa Mahal or the Wind Palace.

Wind Palace .... too cool.

  It is closed to visitors because it is being renovated, but we got to enjoy the outside facade. The building, built by Maharajah Pratap Singh, was designed to look like Lord Krishna's crown.  It looks like honeycomb because of the thousands of tiny windows.  The windows are covered in lattice work that allows the breeze to flow through and keep the palace cool.  Behind us was a snake charmer who played to the camera.

We learned the snake has had it's fangs removed.

        We then drove through Old Jaipur, where all of the buildings are painted oink and is listed as a world heritage site.  Our destination is the Amer (Amber) Fort.

Amber Fort

        The Amber Fort is a magnificent Palace and Fort on the top of the hills.  It is surrounded by big, thick walls and guarded by the Jargarth Fort which sits beside the Amber Fort and is connected by a secret tunnel.  Built by the Maharajah Sawai Man Singh, it depicts artistic Hindu architecture with its large entrances and cobbled pathways.  It is four stories high, and is built from red sand stone and marble.  Elephants have been carved at the tops of most of the columns, with each courtyard being uniquely decorated.  One courtyard has a garden with fountains designed to cool the area.  (Original air conditioning).  We rode an elephant up to the Fort entrance.  Her name was Goda, and she was a circus elephant that was put out to pasture before being retrained to carry passengers.  She said hello to us with her trunk and spoke a welcome.  To cool herself as she walked, she would take a big drink before the walk and spray herself and us periodically.  She was constantly waving her ears to help fan her body.  We sat on top in a carrier and rolled as she walked carefully, one foot at a time.  Her driver sat on her shoulders.

This was not the most comfortable ride we had ever been on.

        The Summer Palace, or Jal Mahal is located in the middle of Man Sagar Lake.
        Our next stop was Jantar Mantar.  This world heritage site is a place of science -astronomy specifically.  Built by Maharajah Jai Singh in 1727-1734, it is one of several observatories, but is the last to by built, so is the most accurate.  Singh was an educated man and loved astronomy, so he gathered together many experts in the world, at the time, to build him sun dials and sky maps to track latitude, longitude, position of the sun in all seasons, etc.  The dials were accurate to the minute!!
        Our final stop of the day was the City Palace.  This Palace is also the residence of the current Rajah.  This palace became the official residence of the Royal family after they moved from the Amber Fort during British rule.    Rajas, today, have the luxury of part of the palace, but none of the power.  It had the usual array of courtyards, buildings, temples and gardens.  It also houses the City Palace Museum where we saw Raja and Rini ceremonial clothing, polo equipment, billiards  and chess boards.  These sports and games were invented in India, and tweaked by the British to make then what we have today.  We also saw two gigantic silver urns, built to hold Ganges water for the Raja's trip to England.  The urns are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the larger silver objects.

Amazing architecture, this is not paint, but stone colours.

        We drove by Albert Hall on the way back to the hotel.  This museum houses pictures and sculpture.  It is named for Prince Albert, Victoria's son.

Monday, November 6
        We were on the road by 8 am to get to Ranthambour and the National Park to visit tigers.  Our first safari was in the afternoon.  The hotel, The Tigress, was situated outside town, and was a gorgeous complex.  We were forced to take an upgrade to a royal suite, so enjoyed a hotel room the size of a one-bedroom apartment, with 3 gardens.
        The jeep and guide arrived to pick us up about 2 pm.  We collected two other couples, and headed to zone 2.  We did not see a tiger, but we saw a sloth bear, 3 black-footed mongoose, money's, blue-bull antelope, samba antelope and spotted deer.  We also saw kingfishers, parakeets, peacocks, pond herons, cormorants, and 2 sets of owls sleeping in tree knots, plus crocodiles sunning in the water and on the banks of the water holes.

We thought these two were just playing, but it got rather serious.

Can you find the owls?

        The evening dinner was on the rooftop of the hotel with music and dancing from a troop who also had dancing puppets.

Tuesday, November 7
        Our second safari started very early - at the park by 7 am.  No tigers, again, but we saw the usual from yesterday.  We were more in the trees this time.  Our jeep-mates were 2 couples from England.

Driving around in the open jeep was fun!

        Our final safari was in the late afternoon.  We picked up one of the same couples from the morning, so really got to know them better.  Again, no tigers up close, but we did see a tiger on a cliff a ways away in the final minutes of the park.  We weren't the only ones to be robbed of a close view, judging by the reaction of the people in the vehicles who also saw the same tiger.  Those tigers are very good at the hide-and-seek game!
        So no tigers, but our sightings of 2 sloth bears and 6 black-footed mongoose was very rare.  Oh well - another reason to return to India.

Wednesday, November 8
        We are headed to Agra today.  On the road, we had been seeing children, dressed in brown uniforms, heading to government schools.  Our driver stopped at a school by the road and took us in.  We were welcomed by the teachers and students and enjoyed the tour.  The school is very poor, but supplies teachers, textbooks, notebooks, pencils, uniforms and lunch for every student, paid for by the government.  For some of these children, that lunch is the most substantial meal they will get that day.  Each classroom had no desks - the students sat on mats on the floor with their school bag as the desk top for their notebooks. They were so excited to show how much they had learned, and the teachers were equally pleased.  After, we spent a pleasant 30 minutes enjoying tea and conversation with the science teacher about teacher education, mutual education issues, hopes and dreams.
        We arrived mid-afternoon, picked up our guide, and toured Fatehpur Sikai - a world heritage site Fort built in the 16th century, built by Akbar, the third mogul King.  He inherited the crown after his father, Humayan, fell down a set of stairs in Delhi and died.
        Akbar built this Fort after making a trip here to see a holy man about blessing him and one of his 3 wives with a male child.  Shortly after the trip, his Hindu wife bore a son, so Akbar moved to this village and built the palace.  It was early in the mogul reign, so the design is quite plain, but the  Muslim wife's apartment was richly carved, but small.  His Christian wife's apartment had frescoes of Christ, but was very small.  HIs Hindu wife's apartment was gigantic - a full courtyard and apartments.  Akbar liked to play games with his concubines, so he had a human-sized parcheesi board built in his courtyard and the girls were the pawns.  He also played Hide-and-seek with them.  During his spare time, he meditated about religion with scholars of the time and took what liked of each religion to make his own with him as its supremes br=Ewing.  The religion, surprisingly, did not last after his death.

Thursday, November 9
        Because of the heavy pollution and smog, we were not up at dawn, but went mid morning to the Taj Mahal.  We walked up to the gate and got our first glimpse of the dome of the monument.  Mid gate, you see the dome and the minarets.  At the end of the gate, the view opens up to the full mausoleum and the garden.  The Taj does not disappoint.

Simply an amazing experience!

  It is of such a grand scale and is set with such accurate symmetry, that you are immediately impressed and awestruck.  Built by Shah Jahan, it houses the body of his beloved second wife, Mumtaz Mahal.  She died in childbirth after 19 years of marriage and several children.  Work started in 1631, and took 20,000 craftsmen, working 24/7, twenty-two years to complete it.  It is made from white marble brought from Jaipur, but cut and inlaid with semi-precious stones in Agra.  The tomb is decorated inside and out with beautiful carvings of flowers and vines.  There are also many inlaid flowers and vines done with lapis, mother of pearl and carcoscesae (an orange, opaque stone).  The mother of pearl twinkles in the light and looks like stars.  The Coffin of Mumtaz is in the exact centre of the dome and the garden.  Her husband, Shah Jahan, was later buried beside her, and is the only thing that is not symmetrical on the site.
        We then drove across the river to Agra Fort and the place where Shah Jahan spent the last 7 years of his life as a prisoner of his third son, an ambitious man who took the crown any murdering his 2 older brothers and imprisoning his father.  Built by Shah Jahan in 1565-1573, it has a moat that would have been filled with water, crocodiles and poisonous snakes.  If marauders made it passed that, there was the defensible entrance with high walls where arrows and boiling oil could be rained down.  Once inside, there were three small palaces for Jahan and his two daughters.  It was in one of those Palaces where Jahan spent his final days, gazing across at the Taj.  There is also a small mosque, called Moti Mahal inside the Fort.
        We drove back to Delhi in the afternoon, and were surprised how the air quality had deteriorated even more while we were away.  Schools were closed for at east a week, and the government was trying to mandate an even/odd driving schedule that many ignored.  Plus, the farmers in the are were burning stubble and the air was still because it was winter.

Friday, November 10
        We said our final goodbye to our driver of 2 weeks.  He was such a nice man.  We battled traffic and made it to the airport with lots of time to spare to catch our flight to Varanasi.
        Our guide met us and took us down to the Ganga (Ganges River) for the evening ceremony of celebration of Shiva and the sun.

  The ceremony takes place at Ganga Ghat and is called Ganga Aarti.
        Offered every day of the year, the seven priests give thanks to first Shiva, then the Ganga for life and all of its important elements - air, fire, earth, water and spirit. The priests acknowledged each of the elements by waiving fans (air), dipping their hands in water, waving lanterns and lamps (fire), sprinkling marigold petals (earth) and waiving incense (spirit) in total unison.  Bells rang and people chanted and sang during the complete ceremony.  It was a real party atmosphere.  On the river, some people experience the river on boats, and sent out wishes to the gods in the form of paper bowls that housed flower petals and candles lit onto the river.  Thousands of people were there to witness the end of the day.  Many of them were pilgrims who have traveled from all parts of India to purify themselves.

Saturday, November 11
        We met our guide and driver at 5:30 am to go back to the river for the start of the day.  This is an auspicious time for Hindus and so we witnessed many bathing or swimming in the river to purify their spirit.

Bathing in the Ganges.

  We were in a small boat, and were rowed up the river to see the Ghats and the rituals going on.  We could also see the various palaces that had been built over the centuries by the rich so they had their spot on the Ganga. We then turned and headed down river to the cremation area and witness three cremations at various stages, plus a body waiting.

Hindus believe that the soul can not be released until the body is burned.

        Once off the boat, we walked the streets to get out of the old city area, through wood sellers for the cremations, temples, stores, etc.  The city was starting to wake up and get on with the business of the day.  We stopped for masala tea and looked at the gold dome of the monkey temple before returning to the hotel for lunch and a rest.
        The final tour was to Sarnath and the place where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon to his 5 disciples.  We first toured the current Buddhist temple and saw the group of Japanese people who are staying oat our hotel.  They were taking part in religious teachings under the trees, just as Buddha would have done it.  We then went over to the ancient site where the ruins are located.  In the ruins is part of a large column that held a topper and wheel.  The topper is in the museum beside the ruins, and is dedicated to Buddha.  This topper is now the symbol of India and was chosen because it is so old and represents the long history of the country.  A picture of the topper is on the Indian money (rupee).  There was also a statue of Buddha from the first century.  Great treasures.

Sunday, November 12
        Today we fly home.  Our first flight is to Delhi, then a long wait until we board at 2 am for Zurich and then Toronto and home - another 36 hour travel time.  It has been an amazing trip - we will definitely  return.