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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The scale of this palace is just decadent. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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".
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| We thought these two were just playing, but it got rather serious. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
