Wednesday, July 29, 2009

This is the final installment of the India trip. Our last stop was Delhi, the seat of the National Government in India. Again, amazing contrasts; here between New Delhi, built by the British and Old Delhi, which is ancient part of the city. The history of Old Delhi goes back over 3000 years, and New Delhi. King George V decided to move the capital from Calcutta to Delhi and the new city was officially inaugurated in 1931. It is a place any westerner could recognize with broad avenues and beautiful stately homes, some of which are Embassies of foreign governments. An important site for citizens and visitors alike is Raj Ghat, the monument ot Mahatma Gandhi, erected on the site of his funeral pyre. In the old city, we visited yet another Mosque, but different in that it had a very large open courtyard where the worshipers congregated for services. Subsequent to that, we mounted bicycle rickshaws for a ride through the Chandni Chowk bazaar. This is an old market area of winding streets which are extremely narrow. Here entire streets are devoted to the sale of a particular item, such one for silver, one for gemstones, one for fabrics, et. seq. It is impossible to get even the smallest car down these streets. It is pedestrians, the bicycles, rickshaws, and the ever present motor scooters. I remember seeing monkeys running along the massive jumble of electrical power lines and wondering about the catastrophic results of a fire in this neighborhood. Also, while riding, I passed a small shop (there are thousands of them) that had fruits and vegetables on the ground that had been placed on what appeared to be a very dirty towel. The thought came to mind of how many rats must thrive in this environment.

Our stay again was at the Oberoi New Delhi Hotel. This was not a resort type property as some of the other, but a very elegant big city hotel. While we were there, the King of Belgium was in town and he and his entourage dominated the hotel, and frankly inconvenienced the other guests. At dinner one night, I ordered New Zealand lamb chops which were the best I've had in a long time. I've a very good friend who is a native of Rotorua, New Zealand and he puts up some lovely lamb chops, but it seemed so incongruous to find wonderful New Zealand lamb in India of all places.

All good things must come to an end, and we boarded an American Airlines flight from Delhi to Chicago (ORD) for the long flight back over the N.Pole to connect to another flight to our home in San Diego. This trip was one of incredible contrasts in cultures and lifestyles and ostentatious wealth and mind numbing poverty. Even for all the precautions you must take and the shots and inoculations and the food and water precautions, I am very glad I made this trip. It was a wonderful cultural and educational experience. Everyone should experience the Taj Mahal once in their lifetime!

Shortly after our return home, I heard the news flash about terror attacks taking place in Mumbai. Ellie and I turned on the TV and lo and behold we see the aforementioned doorman from the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai carrying a casualty out to an ambulance. He then turned around and ran back into the hotel. The camera panned up one floor to the lobby level and we could see broken windows and flames and the doorman running back into the hotel to help other victims of the attack. Ellie also has a picture she took of the Taj Hotel when we were on our way to the dock for our visit to the island I talked about in the first episode of my blog of this trip. We were simply lucky. We were close to being victims of the attack and the attack was obviously being planned while we were in Mumbai.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Installment # four of our trip to India last November. We arrived in the "town" of Agra, home of the Taj Majal. It is only a town because the population is only three million! To be classified as a city, you must have a population in excess of five million!! Unbelievable numbers of souls. Once again we stayed at the opulent and beautiful Oberei Amervilas. There is an awesome view of the Taj from the huge windows in the lobby. Our room was on the second floor with a huge balcony facing the Taj from about 600 yds distance. We visited the Taj twice; once in the morning before the heat of the day, and again for sunset, which was incredible. The Taj Mahal is the mausoleum of Empress Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1630. Her husband built this "monument to love", which took 22 years to complete. The marble was quarried 250 miles away and was brought to the site by elephants. The complex comprises a forecourt, a lofty entrance, a formal Mughal garden with canals, and a central tank with a series of fountains, the tomb proper, and an attached mosque to the west, and a symmetrical counterpart to the east, which is not used. As the location is East of Mecca, the western mosque which faces Mecca is the one used. The Taj is remarkable for its perfect proportions and details of inlaid black marble executed with great skill by the craftsmen who constructed the complex.

We returned again at sunset to watch the colors change to a rosy pink as the sun went down. A very beautiful sight and Ellie got some great pictures. We traveled from the hotel to the gates via small electric buses. The purpose is to cut down on the air pollution which is quite bad in Agra and Delhi.

Agra is also home of the Agra Fort, which lies almost in the heart of the town on the River Yamuna. the Fort was built by Emperor Akbar as his citadel over the years 1565-1573. The fort has imposing gates, walls of red sandstone and a moat, and some lovely views of the Taj Mahal in the distance.

Next installment; Delhi and overall observations and the Mumbai terrorist attack.

Monday, July 27, 2009

This is the third installment blogging on our trip to India in November 2008. Our next stop was Jodphur, the second largest city of the state of Rajasthan. I was founded in 1459 AD. It grew around the towering Mehrangarh Fort. This is the only fortress or Palace we visited which fortunately has an elevator! This is very helpful as the fort sits high on a hill commanding the local countryside and is huge with many floors. The City was situated on the ancient "Silk Road" that linked Central Asia to norther India. As a result, Johphur became a mojor trading center and is still the leading center for cattle, camels, wood, salt and agricultural products.

Our hotel was the Taj Umaid Bhawan Palace. This place is huge and the lobby is monstrously large with a huge dome. It could serve as a state house in most states in America. The rooms were truly magnificent; very large and extremely comfortable. Despite the age of the facility, all the modern amenities you would expect in a luxury hotel were there, including flat screen TVs and modern bath facilities. Breakfast was served on a beautiful patio off the lobby facing east into the sunrise. There were stunning views over countryside and the city with the Fort in the distance. Peacocks strolled the grounds in the cool of the early morning as the finishing touch.

Our next stop was the "Pink City" - Jaipur. Begun in 1699, it still retains its character and history despite the city growing into a bustling metropolis way beyond the gates of the old city. It is called the Pink City because of the extensive use of the locally abundant pink plastered stone. We stopped in the old city to take in the snake charmers, elephants beautifully painted foreheads, and mass of humanity that calls this place home.

Probably the most famous building in the old city is the Hawa Mahal. It is a pink sandstone facade of a palace built for the ladies of the harem of Swai Pratap Singh. It contains 953 small casements under a huge curve, each with a balcony and crowning arch.

One of the highlights of Jaipur was an absolutely fascinating visit to the Jantar Mantar Observatory. The observatory, built between 1728 and 1734, sits outside and houses precise instruments for measuring the "harmony of the heavens". Some of the amazing instruments are the Samrat Yantra (sun dial), Dhruva Yantra, (locates the position of the Pole star and swelve signs of the Zodiac), Nari Valya Yantra (sun dial for the Southern hemisphere), and the Raj Yantra (used once a year to calculate the Hindu calendar).

After another exquisite hotel stay in the Oberoi Rajvilas, we visited the Amber Fort. This is a beautiful, fortified palace which was once the capital of the state of Jaipur (until 1728 AD).

In the afternoon we transferred to cars for a journey to a local village where we experienced an interactive elephant ride. Of course it was very hot, but a great experience. These are Asian or Indian elephants (Not African - they have the large ears and are more difficult to train. I'll tell you about our day with African elephant in Botswana in an upcoming blog). These elephants have a "saddle" which is really a small platform on which you sit sideways to the direction of travel. Not the preferred mode of transport for long distances!

The next day and next installment takes us to Agra, home of one of the wonders of the world - the Taj Mahal.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Continuing with the India trip of last November, we flew from Mumbai to Udaipur, founded in 1568 and on the shores of Lake Pichola. We stayed at the Ober0i Udaivilas, a magnificent property on the shore of the lake. We spent one morning touring the City Palace which towers over the lake and is covered with balconies, towers and cupolas and terraces which offer some superb views of the lake and old palace in the center of the lake. Bring good walking shoes, water, a wide brim hat and sun screen. Lots of walking and climbing of stairs at this place!

In the evening, we did a cocktail cruise on the lake on a traditional Gangaur boat for wonderful views of the City Palace lit at night. Very lovely evening here, where we got to know some of our fellow tour members, several of whom were from Brazil and were very good travel companions.

We traveled to the Jag Mandir Palace, an unforgettable palace in the middle of the lake, built by a Maharana in 1622 AF as a pleasure palace for royal parties and functions. There is a special approach of a row of marble elephants that seem to be guarding the island.

The next day we were on the road to Jodhpur with the major stop en route at the Jain pilgrimage center nestled in the Aravali Hills. These temples date back to the 15th century. The Jains are only one of several ancient religions in India. The majority of the 18 billion people are Hindus, and the biggest minority are Muslim. The Hindus are vegetarians, and do not eat most meat, and beef is essentially unavailable for consumption except for westernized hotels in the major cities. For example, in the Oberoi chain of hotels, you can eat traditional Indian dishes or they have a Continental menu from which you can order all the foods eaten in Europe and the West. But in Delhi Airport at the McDonalds, you can get a fishburger, chicken burger, or veggie burger; no beef on the menu. The cultural contrasts are stark. There are the old palaces of the ancient rulers, and then the stark poverty of much of modern India. While we were there, India launched a rocket to the moon, but the country has not elimanated polio, and you see beggers with grotesquely misformed legs beggin on streets. Numerous times on the bus as we traveled the countryside we saw women harvesting grain in their beautiful saris, and carrying the hand cut grain stalks out of the fields bundled in their heads. And, in the middle of the field, a cell phone tower. Incredible contrasts.

By the way, the Oberoi hotels are fabulous; I would rate them six-star. Magnificent properties with beautiful grounds and beautiful accommodations with all the amenities. A word of caution here regarding the water. There was information in the hotel to the effect that the hotel had its own water purification system and was safe to drink. A member of our group asked the guide about this and he emphatically said that you never drink water out of a tap anywhere in India! Of course the inquiring guest had to try the tap water and got a bad case of "Delhi Belly". Moral of story; always drink bottled or boiled water. Bottled water is readily available and we never had a problem.

By the way, the guide was excellent, an Indian native, himself a Hindu, and very knowledgeable about his country. He explained to us that because of the caste system which still is adhered to (although officially outlawed) in the rural areas, the people accepted their lot and lived in poverty and some pretty bad sanitation conditions. Cows are sacred and roam the streets. You see garbage in the streets, sometimes burning, and the cow dung is abundant and used to fuel after it is dried in the sun. Because the Hindus believe in reincarnation, they are kind and very helpful and they do this in the hope that as a result of their good deeds, they will come back in a higher caste in the next life.

Unfortunately, there is a great deal of extreme poverty in India, and the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" gives you some idea of the conditions of the poor in the major cities.

I'll continue to relate some of the incredible experiences we had on this trip in the next blog

Thursday, July 16, 2009

At the tender age of 68, I'm starting a travel blog to share some of my experiences traveling the world for 50 years. I'm retired and my wife and I have been to all the continents, and are still going strong. I'll relate stories about our travels in no particular order, but here is a start.

Last November, we traveled through India for the first time. We'd wanted to do this for a long time and there were many highlights. We landed in Delhi on an American Airlines flight from Chicago (ORD) - a long one of about 16 hours over the Pole. We spent the night in Delhi and flew on to Mumbai (Bombay) the next morning to join our tour group. It is one of the main cities of India with about 18 million population. It is sometimes called Bollywood because of the many movies made here each year. It is also the main financial center of the country.

We like to travel independently most of the time, but for China, India, SE Asia, and some other areas of the world, we would recommend group travel. You have guides which speak the local language, know the customs and taboos and they can be indispensable is some areas of the world.

We stayed at the opulent Oberoi Hotel, not far the Taj Hotel. The doorman at the Oberoi was a handsome man; a Sikh with an impeccably trimmed beard and his Turban and an immaculate white uniform with a very colorful sash around his waist. He was very courteous and friendly and is important to my story which I'll get to shortly. We visited all the icons of the colonial period like the Prince of Wales Museum, the Train Station, and the Gateway of India, a monument near the Taj Hotel which was built in 1911 to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary.

We also visited a very interesting museum called Mani Bhavan, which is a two story home in which Gandhi stayed when in Bombay. It is dedicated to his life and works and contains some very interesting photographs and history.

A visit to India is one of culture shock to most Americans or westerners in general. One of the unique things in Mumbai is the unique and colorful outdoor laundry, Dhobi Ghat, which words simply cannot describe. An incredible place with masses of workers and it works. Thousands get their laundry done here and it is amazing.

The next day we took a cruise to Elephanta Island to visit the 6th to 8th Century caves carved into the hillsides. They are up high and the stairway climb is difficult and you can ride a sedan chair for a small price. The stairway is lined with merchants with small shops selling a wide variety of souvenirs. These caves were inspired to be carved by the worshipers of the Hindu Sun God, Shiva. On our return, we disembarked at the pier near the Gateway to India, and departed that afternoon for a flight to Udaipur, the "City of Sunrise".

Remember the two hotels and Gateway to India; they are important and I'll tell you why at the conclusion of the upcoming blogs on this trip.