India 3 - Delhi and the Taj Mahal

Delhi, India - 17^th - 21st Oct 2011

Sham Nath Homestay, Delhi

Flew down to Delhi from Srinagar – its so cheap, quick and comfortable! Staying in a brilliant homestay called Sham Nath Villas in the Civil Lines near the old city next to a large park where they are so helpful and the food is home cooked and fantastic.

We are going to Agra for the day tomorrow on the tourist train to see the Taj Mahal.

Detail of the Day: Went to the Post Office today at Kashmere Gate - just the same as 25 years ago! Find the counter selling stamps, buy the stamps, go the glue pot and glue them to the post cards, find the counter to hand them in and then insist that they stamp them in front of you so that they do not take the stamps and re-sell them. Then take your parcel and get a customs slip to fill in and then take your parcel outside and get the men outside to sew it up in linen and seal it with sealing wax they heat up over a candle. Then take it back in and queue up to get it sent. It only took about 1.5 hours - not bad. It was a parcel with Katie's birthday present so we had to get it done.

Taj Mahal, Agra, India

What is that?

Taj

And so to Agra on 18 October. We got the 6.30 train, booked for us by our lovely hostess Shalini at Sham Nath Villas. Very comfortable AC including breakfast and papers. Arriving in Agra is a bit on the racy side if you are not being met or already on a tour. Touts are everywhere, however, we sharpened our elbows and got tto he front of the scrum at the pre-paid taxi stand and got a taxi to the Taj Mahal – some strange old bloke got in with us to see if he could get us to pay him as our guide, but we managed to off load him at the gates. 

There is a lovely walk up to the Taj itself with monkeys and gardens. We arrived nice and early before the main crowds and it really is a magnificent site, shimmering in the early morning sun, more immense than you can imagine, and then when you get up close the detail of workmanship and artistry is incredible. Behind is the Yamuna river, slow, stately, vast, and of course very sacred.

Fatepur Sikri, near Agra

Our car then took us to Fatepur Sikri – a city built by one of the Moghul emperors in the 17^th century as his new capital. It was abandoned after only ten years because the water supply failed. As a result it is in remarkably good condition – a huge number of buildings that show you how the rich lived their lives, rather comfortably you can tell!

All this necessitated a visit to a 5 star hotel (Clark's Shiraz)for some air con and tea, beer and sandwiches until it was time to go back to the station and await our train back to Delhi.

White Rabbit?

Agra station has all of Indian life on each and every platform. The Chai sellers who all went to the same voice coach “Chai Wallai” they call incessantly. The snack sellers – everything fried and wrapped in little twists of newspaper. The business men with their laptops and phones. Families on long journeys eating their food they have brought with them. The children who live on the station, running nimbly between platforms across the tracks with total confidence. They range in age from around 4 to perhaps 10 or 11. There is a strict pecking order dependant on size and fleet of foot, coupled with how much bravado they have. They collect anything that can be recycled or sold. Disputes that cannot be settled between them are taken to one of the traders, who listen with great seriousness and then pronounce their decision and everyone is satisfied. In between the serious business of making enough to eat, the children play chase and tease each other, laughing all the time, as children do everywhere. It's just that these children are filthy and dressed in rags, however they are part of their community and have their place in life. 

Agra Monkeys

 Then there are the old ladies who carefully select a spot on the platform for the night, sweeping the area and laying down a piece of plastic or cloth to lie on, chatting away to each other, completely ignoring the whirl of activity around them. Then they lie down with a little piece of cloth over them and make sure that each other are comfortable before dozing off, lying close to one another. Then, of course, there are the dogs on the platform and rats on the tracks, the rubbish and the smells – some good, some not so good. Of course everywhere there is the colour of saris and lights that dazzle and silence your conversation – until later when one of us may say to the other “Did you see …..” answered with “Yes” which pretty much sums up the sensory overload that is the railway. As my brother Pat would say 'Fantastic!'.

Arrived back in Delhi to the sanctuary of our Homestay and clean sheets – we are very privileged people.

We are now off to the deserts of Rajahstan

India 2 - Kashmir

Srinagar, Kashmir, India - 11^th - 16^th Oct 2011

We had a driver take us from Dalhousie to Jammu airport. It took around 4.5 hours and we passed through beautiful countryside, dipping into the Punjab on the way – at one point were only 10 Ks from the Pakistan border. Security was very tight everywhere with lots of guns everywhere along the way and especially in Jammu. Our luggage was x rayed twice at the airport and then once when it was checked through. We then had to go and identify it on the tarmac before they would load it. We were also screened 4 times and our hand luggage searched each time. It was a very safe flight.

Arrived in Srinagar to a bit of a hotel shortage as it was a Benali holiday and lots of tourists were visiting. However, we found a rather faded 70s style hotel for one night that was near the polo ground, but too much money. Then we went the opposite way and booked somewhere on line that looked nice but was truly gruesome round the other side of Dal lake – with mice and worse in a garish room, a hard bed with thin covers which meant we were cold at night, plus a strange pushy old owner who wanted to take us to all these places we didn't want to go and part us from our money – we ended up as his status trophy white people shown off to a house full of 300 men for some philanthropic feast or something. 


 We slipped away early next morning and found a nice laid back place just back from the lake for a few nights and could then start to enjoy the Mughal gardens, mountains and lakes. It was sanctuary from the hubbub with a large garden and lawn full of assorted dragonflies, and lots of eagles and kites overhead. 

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Kashmir has suffered badly from its 20 odd years of political troubles and, although many Indian tourists visit and some westerners are starting to venture there, the houseboats, hotels and attractions have a dilapidated, suspended-in-time air in need of a spring clean. The magnificent mountain and lake scenery does not change, however, and it is well worth the struggles.

India 1 - Delhi, Macleod Ganj, Palampur, Dalhousie, Jammu

Delhi

29^th Sept - 2^nd Oct 2011

We arrived in Delhi from Heathrow at 6 am after a relatively easy flight overnight. We were picked up at the airport by a driver and whisked to where we were staying, viewing all that early morning Delhi has to offer through the safe portal of the car window. However, the antics of the traffic, our driver, and everyone else, necessitated not looking forward . . . or looking at all. The Lutchens Bungalow guest house is a gated compound in the Defence Colony area and a sanctuary of calm and peace in this lively and noisy city of extremes, in which we hid for a day and so before encountering the delights of Delhi. We were made comfortable and welcome which helped us to acclimatise and take stock.

Our first foray was to get some rupees and book a train to Macleod Gangj up in the hills. The nearest bank with an ATM was closed for yearly accounting so we jumped in an Autorickshaw (Tuk Tuk) and he took us to another. When we got within sight of the Railway Station however, he said it was not the place to get tickets and deposited us into to a large noisy shed where nothing made sense. A Railway official sent to another place, again wrong, whilst the whole world tried to help us buy into all sorts of weird and wonderful opportunities that were too good to be true. Fortunately, we happened upon the Kingfisher Airlines office and escaped inside and bought cheap tickets north.

Macleod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh

2^nd - 5^th Oct 2011

After a 2 hour flight from Delhi to Dharamsala, which would have taken 8 hours by train and 12 hours by bumpy dangerous roads, we made our way to Macleod Ganj. 

This is one of the hill stations built by the Raj where people escape the heat of the plains in the cooler climate of the foothills of the Himalayas, and the one where the Dalai Lama is based. 

Sadly, although the views are spectacular, the town itself must have seen better days for it is dirty and squalid. It is like a run down damp festival full of stalls and characters, with the sanitation to boot. 

It is full of monks, tourists, cattle, hawkers, monkeys and cars with horns, plus hippies looking to get stoned and laid, and searchers of a certain age looking for enlightenment amongst the many meditation, massage, and reiki parlours. There were many good things . . . but it is hard work.

Everybody just adds to the garbage and grime and cheerfully accepts everyone else's. The traffic, bikes, cows, goats, hawkers, beggars, parents and children, and tourists all jostle and compete for space in the steep and narrow streets . . . plus other smaller inhabitants. Somehow it works, just. 


Whilst there we bought some rugs, beads and bags from a Tibetan Co-operative and they happily sent  them send them home for us. Just as well as the post office was an organisational and hygienic nightmare.

Darang Tea Estate, Palampur

5^th - 8^th Oct 2011

We escaped from Macleod Grunge and headed down from the hills to an Indian homestay on a working tea estate. 

This was an idyllic, lush rural group of bungalows where we lived the life of guests of plantation owners with our own cottage and scrumptious and sumptuous meals with the very hospitable family. The grounds abounded with wildlife and there were leopards in the hills and eagles in the skies, and we fell asleep each night to a symphony of cicardas, mantises, frogs, nightjars and many other mysterious exotic noises safe behind our screened doors. 

Our hosts Neera and Naveen made us part of their family and spoilt us rotten – you can Google them on Mahindra Homestays.

Whilst there we spent a day's excursion to Kangra driving through fascinating towns and villages all of whom were celebrating the Dasara festival of the mother goddess Durga where they paraded and displayed many colourful deities at temples, roadside shrines and bridges.

Kangra Fort is in a perfect defensive position, bounded on 3 sides by huge cliffs and rivers. There was hardly anyone there – which made it even better. The numerous gates as you enter the fort and gradually walk up to the very top show you why it was ruled by the same people for many centuries. 

 There were eagles and kites in abundance. At the top are the ruins of a magnificent and ancient Hindu temple that had stood until a huge earthquake in 1905. You can still see the wonderful carving. There is a Jain shrine there with a beautiful statue of a goddess and a further Hindu shrine that the family of the ancient rulers still come to worship once a year. The views across the Kangra valley take your breath away.

We then visited the rather quaint museum created by the Maharajah – beautifully set out but containing little of interest.

Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh

8^th - 11^th Oct 2011

5 hour journey by road to Dalhousie. The road rises up before you in twists and turns that you think cannot get any higher and then you see yet more hills – quite hair raising in places and bumpy too – however we had a great driver. The journey was worth the time because the setting for the town gives you great views of the Himalayas with their snow capped peaks. It was sleepy and uncrowded with a friendly atmosphere and plenty of lovely walks along the malls laid out by the British. Much cleaner than McLeod Gange. The hotel had a modern block we slept in but the old part was built in the 1930s and the dining room was all faded grandeur with a strange painted tin ceiling and far too many staff for the small number of guests so we got a lot of attention along with the 2 other Brits we met there. We met a couple of Canadians and hooked up for a day trip to Chamba 50K away where the life is different again as a centre for the shepherding people who use it as their market town. Visited a set of 10^th century temples there which were all beautiful – not templed out yet! The colour, sound, smells and feeling of this place cannot be described except to say it almost overwhelms the senses.