Week 1 & 2 - The Golden Triangle - Agra

The drive from Delhi to Agra was incredible and one of the biggest eye openers of our trip.  Once out of the city we found that the countryside was also full of people.  Here, just a couple of hours outside a massive modern city was a mishmash of Indians living in large houses or straw huts smaller than a garden shed and anything in between.  The land is very fertile and we passed all kinds of cereals, vegetables and fruit farms along with the odd goat or buffalo herd.

The poorer people live with their animals sometimes in what appears to be terrible conditions.  There were small huts made of straw where whole families lived.  Shingara showed us round discs that were drying in the fields.  This was cow dung mixed with straw and left to go solid.  Once dried it is brought into the huts and burned for cooking.  Apparently there is no smell when it has set.  These huts were occasionally painted with Coca Cola logos as advertising/planning controls don’t seem to have taken hold in India yet.  My favourite adverts were for milk which talked in Hollywood sized billboards about the “KWALITY” of their product.

We also encountered our first cow issue.  A truck had spilled some grain on the highway and a cow had wandered out to clean up.  Thousands of cars and bikes just drove around him, no beeping, no fuss.

The sacred cow

Then it was time to stop and discover a new religion.  A wise old man had set up a temple on the road and his followers were apparently 5 million strong.  The temple that these 5 million had paid to build was very impressive but kitsch at the same time.  The beautiful marble was covered in fairy lights and they had flashy machines that looked like the stuff you see in a Las Vegas slot area all over the place.  We were given a tour from a lovely and eager young chap and it certainly was an experience you wouldn’t have every day.  Apparently they were having a big gathering in July where all the 5 million were going to show up – I wouldn’t want to be travelling to Agra then!

Jaigurudeo Temple Gates

Inside Jaigurudeo Basement

By the time we arrived in Agra we had seen every way of living and shop-keeping imaginable.  This city, itself, is absolutely nothing to write home about and all of the tourist hotels are compounded at the edge of the city.  We went through the security check and got ourselves off to bed for the sunrise start to see the Taj Mahal.

Unfortunately, for Taj Mahal viewing, the following day was cloudy so there was no beautiful sunrise to witness.  This was probably a blessing as it made things a few degrees cooler and gave us a more relaxed approach to the day.  Honestly I can’t imagine how the Taj Mahal can look more impressive than it did when we got there.  It was built by an emperor for his dead wife – he must have been very fond of her. 

Taking some advice we got before leaving we just found a quiet spot in the garden and sat there looking at it for a couple of hours (before the heat got too much).  Did we get the princess Diana photograph (I never heard of this btw)?  Of course we did – we’ll just have to Photoshop out some of the gawkers when we get back.

Aye, get your own!

Ah, that's better

 

Stunning

From there we went to Agra Fort which is a collection of 14 palaces that were built over time by the local Raj and family.  These were very impressive and offered beautiful views of the Taj Mahal, the Ganges and the fertile plains as far as the horizon.  Two things stuck out for me here. 

One was the king’s bath that was a 12 ton rock carved like a bowl.  Apparently he liked his bath so much that he took it with him everywhere he went, battles, foreign trips, etc. (I wouldn’t want to have been on that detail).  The other was the particularly large family that wanted a photo taken with Claire (this turned into a photo shoot with each individual member).

Only 13 forts to go...

Claire has a new family

Next stop, Jaipur..

Week 1 & 2 - The Golden Triangle - New Delhi

After our beautiful Mumbai experience we were excited to hop on to New Delhi in Rajasthan.  The heat here was turned up a notch - it's like we were in a hot kitchen in Mumbai and then we got to New Delhi and decided to open the oven door.  We got a taxi straight from the airport to our hotel (Palace Heights) - the top recommendation from the Lonely Planet.  We had decided to treat ourselves on our first night to get our bearings; unfortunately this was a huge mistake.

First, on asking a question at reception about our train tickets, the staff tricked us into visiting a Tour office two blocks from the hotel (that was pretending to be a train ticket shop).  These guys told us that we didn't have seats on the train; a lie as we later managed to figure out using the internet.  They persistently tried to sell us a car & driver but they also got a lot of information on our itinerary before we figured out what was going on which was very unsettling.  Then, that evening exhausted from our travel, we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant (also recommended by Lonely Planet).  Within 30 minutes of that meal we both came down with the most violent food poisoning, the details of which I will not recount here.

With no sleep that night and no chance of us getting on a train the following day we used the last of our strength to relocate away from the hotel that had tricked and poisoned us to a place I found online (called The Manor) that was in the leafy suburbs, had gardens and was well reviewed.  We spent 3 days in that room recovering physically but a dark mood with regard to India had fallen on our spirits (note: calling home cheered us up no end).  Also, having lost 3 days and missed 2 trains our itinerary was in tatters.

So, on day 4 of recovery we decided to try out the tour of Delhi offered by the hotel and this really saved our holiday in northern India.  The man who drove us around Delhi was a gentleman named Shingara who had a kind spirit, great knowledge of the sights, decent English and an air-conditioned car.  He made us an offer to spend a week driving us around the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur), we accepted, and just like that, things were on track again.

Our Hero - Shingara

Delhi has a lot of great sights and we spent a couple of days taking in as many as we could.  The first place we went to was called Qutr Minab which was a series of tombs built by a succession of Muslim rulers (including some female ones).  As our first sight they were impressive but based on what was to follow it was 'just another tomb'.

Qutr Minab - outer passages

After some tomb-seeing we changed tack completely and went to Iskcon in Delhi, a Hare Krishna temple in the midday sun.  My initial feeling was that I didn't really want to go in as I have no idea what Buddism or this particular branch of it is all about and I didn't want to offend anyone's deity.  The searing heat and the friendliness of the staff pushed us forward.  Inside, everybody was pleasant and we generated a few gawks.  We sat listening to the Krishna song for a while (it didn't leave our heads for days afterward) and took it in the ambiance.  Our favourite temple was yet to come.



Idol at Iskcon Temple

With catchy chants still running around our heads it was time for Tomb of the Day.  Humayans Tomb is a huge and beautiful symmetrical structure set in the middle of some wonderful gardens in the heart of Delhi.  A Mughal emperor in life, his wife built it for him after his death.  It was apparently the inspiration for the Taj Mahal and the pictures do it more justice than I can.

Humayan's Tomb - side

Humayan's tomb - front

Humayun's Tomb - gardens

In a cooler afternoon setting we went to another Hindu temple that was my Indian favourite.  I felt so worn down going in and refreshed coming out, it was bizarre.  The temple was called the Laikshmi Shinab temple and contained a number of shrines to various Hindu deities in both the temple and the accompanying garden. For starters there were monkeys, a cow and a few stray dogs in the car park and on coming up the steps we were greeted by a bunch of monuments containing Swastika symbols.

That Swastikas were Hindu religious symbols was news to me but apparently the symbol has been in use for about 6,000 years and it is the sign for perfection.  The other thing I picked up roaming around was that this religion seems to remove the middle man.  You just go in, make your offering to your preferred deity and have some contemplation time etc.  Given the insane nature of the streets of Delhi this is probably some much needed solace. 



Laikshme temple view from temple gardens

Hindu Swastika symbols at the Laikshmi temple

As with so many large and important nation states India's capital has an area devoted to the grandness of government.  This is called the Raj Path and it's really similar in concept to Washington's Mall or Paris's Champs Elysees.  You've got all of the government buildings at one end - including the President's house and the Parliament.  The various ministries have buildings running the length of the path and bang in the middle there's a big arch (called India Gate) which is a monument to Indian war veterans.

One interesting feature was that the 1970's model Austin Ambassador appears to be the height of luxury in government vehicles and they are parked everywhere in this district.  I'm guessing India Inc. bought the factory that makes these cars at some point.  Overall my feeling was that this area made absolutely no sense in a city where everywhere else there are hundreds of thousands of people living under plastic sheets on the side of the road but it is impressive and you'd struggle to get any form of protest to look big there (probably desirable).

The headlines in the newspapers contain protest articles every day.  This usually takes the form of groups of people going on hunger strike until their demands are met.  The biggest domestic topic in India appears to be corruption (and it is disgustingly corrupt).  They are trying to set up an agency called the Lokpal (and a bloke called Anna Hazare) to tackle it.  If you've got a few hours to kill it makes for fascinating reading - they've got government ministers tapping activist phones and all kinds of crazy stuff going on around it.  The newspapers are blazonly partisan so you really need to read a couple of them to get a sense of what's going on.   

Parliament Buildings

India Gate - Unknown Soldier's tomb

Delhi has some lovely gardens that allow you to get away from the chaos for a while.  We visited Lodi Gardens in the late afternoon and took a very refreshing stroll among the tropical vegetation and wildlife with beautifully colourful parrots apparently being the "common" bird of the park.

Rob's ghost at Lodi Gardens

Claire found some more temples in the garden



The parrots in the gardens

Aside from the above, our Delhi trip also included a visit to the Red Fort (the old Imperial families home) and the Indian National Museum.  Both of these were major disappointments.  Red Fort is a dirty mess of hawkers and touts.  On our way out I saw a man who looked like a goat begging and trying to sell photos of himself for money (no I didn't).  I've also seen better school projects than what the National Museum was serving up.

Maybe that's a bit harsh but their paintings and coin collections and Shiva sculptures were just so bland and boringly displayed.  There was a mildly exciting armory exhibition but there was much better to come on that front also.  So that was our Delhi experience, next stop Agra where the journey was as interesting as the destination.

Red Fort Garden Palace