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India

November - December 2018
A 14-day adventure by Barry Read more
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  • TravelerIndia
    Day 2

    Doha Layover

    November 19, 2018 in Qatar ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    We survived our first long flight of the trip with the help of 4 movies, decent meals, and intermittent sleep. Luckily the lounge has a shower and we can freshen up some. Thanks Priority Pass!

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 3

    New Delhi, India

    November 20, 2018 in India ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    We finally landed in Delhi at around 2am local time. Going through immigration was surprisingly challenging. They fingerprint all visa entrants, and Tina's fingers just would not register on the machine (maybe too skinny?) And then the guy wrote Jan 2018 as the expiration on Barry's visa instead of 2019. After we made it through, we just headed to the lounge and slept for a few hours... Had lots of time to kill before our train to Agra.

    In order to get to the train, we had to catch a cab. Our first experience with Indian traffic. It's tempting to say that the lane markings are strictly optional, but that would imply that anyone followed them at all. It was sheer madness. A random walk of cars, tuktuks, motorbikes, bicycles, people just walking across pi lanes of that kind of traffic, busses, dogs, and of course the occasional cow. I do not understand how we have not yet witnessed a single accident...

    But we made it to the train station and caught our train to Agra.

    All it took was a 14 hour flight, a 3 hour layover, a 4 hour flight, 3 hours in the airport, 40 minutes of something resembling a cab ride, a 2 hour train, and another 30 minutes of cab ride to finally make it to our first hotel.    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 3

    The Taj Mahal

    November 20, 2018 in India ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    After successfully making it to our hotel, we had to figure out transportation once again to go sightseeing. We booked a car for 4hours and traffic was even more chaotic midday thru the city. We started at the Itimad-Ud-Daulah, or "Baby Taj", which was the tomb of the grandfather of Mumtaz Mahal and model for the Taj Mahal. The artwork , inlays , carvings, and reliefs were intricate and beautiful. Next we stopped at the Mahtab Bagh, "Moon Gardens", on the north bank of the river across from the Taj. The first instant that we saw the palace rising thru the trees, we were awestruck. Its massive white domes and spires are gorgeous, the way it floats above the river and gardens is iconic. The Moon Garden itself wasn't much of a site unfortunately since they are just restoring it and replanting. But the view across the river was fantastic.

    We made it to the palace grounds around 3 pm, plenty of time before sunset (525pm). The closest that vehicles can get to the gates is like 1.3km so we got some exercise in instead of taking the shuttle busses. There were mobs of both hawkers and tourists, and plenty of street dogs. We got tired of saying no and being polite to the peddlers, so Barry started yelling at them in Russian and it worked! We should always do that when we travel from now on. There's some extreme price discrimination for locals vs foreigners - 50 rupees vs 1100 rupees. But we did get free water, shoe covers, and shorter lines.

    We entered at the East Gate and then passed thru the main palace gates. This was made of beautifully carved red limestone and clay bricks. Our next view of the Taj was even more wonderful. The symmetric gardens and turquoise tiled pools leading up to it lends to the experience and beauty. We fought thru crowds to get just the right photo and took off our shoes to go up to the building itself. It's even more spectacular up close where you can see the all of the details on the bright white marble. Unfortunately no photos inside the tomb. Sunset lit up the building with lovely shades of gold and orange, which we sat and watched a bit after browsing the small museum. We didn't stay thru the whole sunset since we didn't want to be late for our driver/guide.

    Once back at our hotel,we finally met up with the rest of the group! Grabbed some beers, had a lovely dinner with the best deal ever, and caught up on the first half of their trip. Jet lag was catching up to us and we had to get up early for a sunrise trip to the Taj Mahal so we called it a night around 9. Day 1 success!    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 4

    Touring Agra

    November 21, 2018 in India ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We woke up well before dawn today to go as a group to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise - supposedly the best time to go see it. A car picked us up at 545a and away we went.

    Yesterday, while there were a lot of people overall, the queue to get in was quite short. Maybe 2 min. But for sunrise, it was massive. And the women's queue moved far slower than the men's. Ani and Barry made it through in 10 min, maybe 15, but the Tina and the other women must have been there for close to an hour. The sun was basically up by the time they got through.

    Early in the morning, it was quite hazy. Ended up being a very different view of the Taj Mahal than we saw yesterday. Eerie almost. Was very cool to see it in different light.

    And also, Christian Bale was there.

    After the Taj Mahal, we grabbed breakfast at the hotel and packed our things. We had our driver for the whole day, our train back to Delhi wasn't until 9pm but we had to check out at noon. It was nice to be able to just throw all our collective luggage into the bus and go see more sites.

    First stop (or really second) was the Agra Fort. Built by Akbar in the 16th century, it was an enormous, red sandstone enclosure - encompassing a wide variety of buildings. It was very well preserved, and we spent a couple hours wandering around the grounds exploring. The fort contained multiple mosques, the remnants of the apartments for Akbar's harem (housing 5000 women... as you do), a beautiful glass/mirror hall (which unfortunately we were not allowed entry), a large black, basaltic rock used as a throne, and a terrace overlooking the Yamana River with a beautiful view of the Taj Mahal in the distance. Shah Jehan (the emperor who built the Taj Mahal) was also imprisoned here by his own son.

    After the Agra Fort, we went to see the Baby Taj. Or at least the group did - we saw it the day before so we just stayed in the van and read.

    Unfortunately, once again, we were denied the chance to see Akbar's Tomb for traffic reasons. Sad face.

    The sun sets super early here. Like 530. And then it's gets very dark very fast... so we're a bit limited. After the Baby Taj, we went shopping. Our driver took us to an artisan shop where they did marble decorations - they etched into marble and inserted semiprecious stones (like lapis lazuli, turquoise, mother of pearl, malachite, etc.). The craftsmanship was excellent.

    We found a plate we really liked - white marble with intricate lotus flower designs of lapis lazuli, so Barry got to haggling. The list price was $600. Barry's opening bid was $250. After about 30 minutes, we walked out of there with the plate and another small piece (listed at $45) for a combined $440. Was that a good deal? Who knows. But the plate is truly a work of art, and thankfully we can send it to Chicago with our friends on Saturday so we dont have to schlep around India with it. Pictures to follow at some point.

    After this shop, we moved onto a different shop which had substantially lower quality work, so we didnt spend too much time looking at anything.

    A small dinner followed, and then we just headed to the train station and then off to Delhi. We got to our hotel around midnight and passed out.    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    1
    Day 5

    Qutab Minar and the Lotus Temple

    November 22, 2018 in India ⋅ 🌫 16 °C

    After enjoying a fancy buffet breakfast at the hotel, we met up with our tour guide Akram for a full day of sights. It took us an hour in traffic to reach Qutab Minar, an archeological site from the time of the first sultans of Delhi of the Mamluk Dynasty. Qutab was a general of the invading king from Uzbekistan who conquered Delhi, and who became the first Muslim ruler of Northern India, or Hindustan colloquially. He built a monument to his victory at this location, a large column of 5 distinct levels that was not exactly like an obelisk and a mosque. The column is 73m tall and 14m wide at the base, and has close to 400 steps to the top. Unfortunately, they no longer allow guests to climb the steps due to a deadly accident in the 1980s. The red sandstone was carved with intricate designs, Arabic calligraphy, and flowered shapes.

    Interesting fact about the mosque was that because they were in a hurry to build it, they pillaged the conquered areas for the columns and stone work to make the structure rather than carve it themselves. So all of the columns had different designs, idols, heights, and shapes, which made for a very neat aesthetic.

    Qutab died before he was able to complete the tower, but his successor, Shams, finished it. There was a lovely tomb honoring Shams on the grounds as well. There was also a separate, quite lame tomb honoring a ruler from a later dynasty named Allaudin. He supposedly killed his father for the throne and was plagued by bad luck after that. He started a tower that was supposed to be larger than Qutab Minar but never finished it. He wasn't very popular with the people either. Kharma is real!

    The next stop was the Baha'i Lotus Temple. It's a huge nine sided lotus flower of white concrete surrounded by clear blue pools and manicured gardens. The temple was modern, beautiful, and perfectly serene inside. You could even hear the eagles crying out while flying above it.

    Post 1 of 2 for day 1 in Delhi.    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 5

    Humayun's Tomb

    November 22, 2018 in India ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    After the Lotus Temple, we grabbed lunch at a small restaurant in an alley and then headed to Humayan's Tomb - what would be our last attraction of the day (the traffic unfortunately limits our site seeing).

    Humayan was the 2nd Moghul emperor, son of Babar (Babur?) and father of Akbar. The Moghuls ruled India from the time Babar conquered it in the early 16th century through the arrival of the British in the mid 19th. Despite the long reign, many places cite "the five Mughal emperors" - just the first five, even through there were closer to 30. I asked our tour guide about this and he said it's because the rest were good for nothing, didn't accomplish much of anything worth remembering. Brutal.

    Back to Humayan. He was actually forced to withdraw from India due to the conquering force of Sher Shah (the Lion King), and fled to Iran. For 15 years until Sher Shah died, and then came back and reconquered India. He died 6 months later, falling down some stairs. Akbar built him a glorious tomb - oddly immediately next to the already existing tomb of Sher Shah's top general, Isa Khan. This was very strange, been buried next to your enemy? But it's because they are both proximal to the shrine of Nizamuddin, who was a very revered Sufi saint.

    Humayan's tomb was clearly one of the models for the Taj Mahal, you see a lot of the main elements beginning to take form there. It's quite huge, and in the middle of a very large walled garden. As a side note, walled garden in Persian is pairi daeza - whence the English word paradise. And it turns out, not just Humayun is buried there - but also about 100 members of the Mughal family. One of the placards referred to it as the Dormitory of the Mughals.

    The sun was rapidly coming down, so after that, we just went back to our hotel. A little recovery later, we all enjoyed some drinks at the bar, where Ani continued to try hard to get Barry into cricket (on TV in the background) followed by a large Friendsgiving meal.

    For everyone else, tomorrow is their last day in India... but we're just getting started. One more day in Delhi and then off to Ani's home in Mysore.    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    1
    Day 6

    Old Delhi and Religion

    November 23, 2018 in India ⋅ 🌫 24 °C

    We had a late start and left our hotel around 1130 for day 2 of touring Delhi. The first stop was a local step well hidden a short drive from our hotel. It was narrow, maybe 50ft wide, about 5 stories deep, and lined with large rocks and bricks. According to our guide, this specific step well was featured in a movie and is pretty polar with locals, especially for young people to hang out. He even went there while studying at the nearby German language school.

    Next stop was Mahatma Gandhi's tomb at Raj Ghat. His statue and tomb were appropriately simple, as was the surrounding grounds. Known as the Father of the Nation, he led the movement for Indian independence and protest thru non-violence. The tomb is always open to the public unless there is a government official paying their respects.

    After this, we stopped at the Akshardham Temple, a Hindu temple and sort of huge cultural campus. The temple itself was a masterwork of carvings depicting the gods, ideals, flowers, animals, and geometric patterns. It seemed a bit like Disneyland though with exhibits, shows, souvenir photos, and even an Imax movie and a boat ride. Our guide didn't think we'd want to do any of that, and was right, so we just wandered thru the grounds while he told us stories about the gods and facts about Hinduism. Unfortunately no electronics were allowed in the complex so the only pictures were from far away along the highway.

    We headed to Old Delhi after the temple and went to the Red Fort. Similar to the one in Agra, it was built by the Mughals (Shah Jehan) as the seat of their power. This fort surrounded the historic city at the time and is now partially used as a garrison for the Indian Army. We didn't go in here either since we didn't have time.

    Interestingly, across and down the street from the fort are several religious buildings - Jain, Sikh, Hindu, Protestant, and Islam. Missing Judaism though... We took tuk-tuks thru the neighborhood to the Jama Masjid or mosque. We paid to take in 1 phone for pictures and the women donned colored smocks. Oddly, the smocks didn't have a head covering. They also gave Barry a wrap to cover his scandalously exposed calves. It's hard to compare it with the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. From the front steps we could see Chandni Chowk, a historically renowned street for shopping in Old Delhi.

    And that was a wrap for Delhi sightseeing.    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 7

    Heading South

    November 24, 2018 in India ⋅ 🌫 19 °C

    On our last day in Delhi, we had a super late lunch at 4pm, our last meal as a large group. Our guide and bus toom us to a transit hotel near the airport. We napped, freshened up some, and got ready for the next leg of the trip - Mysore, Ani's hometown. The original ladies were headed home to the States and we said our sad goodbyes just after midnight.

    We caught a 3am flight to Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore), which landed just before 6. Ani arranged a driver for us, and we were off on the long drive to Mysore.    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 7

    In the Jungle

    November 24, 2018 in India ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    Ani arranged for a car to pick us up from Bengaluru to drive us the 3.5 hours to Mysore. After a stop for coffee at his usual rest stop, we got to his parent's house at a little after 10am. We met his parents and brother and got to see the place where he grew up.

    After a short rest, the five of us (everyone but Ani's brother) headed for the jungle. The Nagarahole Tiger Reserve was about a 90 minute drive away, and we were going to go on safari. Ani and his dad were very insistent that we get a jeep - with fewer people, there would be less noise to startle the wildlife. But when we got there, the jeeps were taken - leaving a packed bus. So they called around and found a free jeep at a nearby lodge, so we hightailed it there. Unfortunately, by the time we got there (like 5 min later), the jeep had been booked! Sounds shady. So we ended up in the lodge's open-air bus without about 6 other people.

    At 330, we set off into the reserve to find some animals. And we had amazing luck. Also, it helps that Ani basically has eagle eyes - he spotted several animals from so far away that I had trouble seeing them even with binoculars!

    We first saw some blackface monkeys and spotted deer. Then a crested eagle - its crest made it look like it was wearing a fez! We also saw two other animals in the deer family: a barking deer (they apparently bark) and a sambhur. We saw a giant squirrel called a Malabar, as it scurried through the trees. Ani spotted a sloth bear - super rare to see - as it was casually walking away. Then we got to see a monitor lizard! It was enormous! And some terrapins sunning themselves nearby. And then we got to see an elephant in the distance, deep in the trees.

    At this point, amazing safari, and the sun had set so I thought we were basically done and just driving back to the entrance. And then we saw a huge cow called a gaur, aka an Indian bison. The largest cow. It was just standing there staring at us as if it was contemplating attacking us - and then just walked away. After that, we saw four more elephants right at the side of the road! When we drove past, one of them even trumpeted right at us! And then we saw a whole mini-herd of gaur, maybe 8 of them, including a small calf.

    The only thing we didn't see was a tiger.

    Whole experience was amazing. Got to observe lots and lots of wild animals in their natural habitat. So much better and more exciting than a zoo. We didn't even know if we would see anything, so seeing as much as we did? Super lucky. Ani was super thrilled too. Great start to our Southern India trip.    Read more

  • TravelerIndia
    Day 8

    Mysore's Finest, Part 1

    November 25, 2018 in India ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Today we explored Mysore with Ani. We started the day with some serious stair climbing, 1000 steps up Chamundi Hill. You can see all of Mysore from near the top, visit the Temple of Chamund, and see the statue of the demon, Mahishasura. Myth says that Chamund killed the demon to save the city. Oddly enough, the city is named after the demon - not its killer? We drank fresh coconut juice and ate some tender coconut flesh as a reward. It was a good way to wake us up and start the morning!

    After a well deserved breakfast, we drove out 30km to the Kesava Temple. The temple dates back to the 13th century and is in the Hoysala style of architecture. It looks like a scene from Legends of the Hidden Temple! The colonnade consisted of 64 small shrines to various gods. The temple was covered in carvings of the gods, numerous animals, and celebratory scenes. Inside the temple were 3 shrines honoring Kesava, Vishnu, and Mahishasura. Surprisingly, the style used lots of sharp corners and pointy shapes. Unfortunately there were several massive groups visiting at the same time, which made it hard to walk around and take pictures.

    The next stop was the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary. It's along the Kauvery River and home to numerous species of migratory birds, as well as marsh crocodiles. We took a short boat ride and saw storks, comorants, bats, a darter, ibises, lots of pelicans, and many sunbathing crocs. On the nature walk, we saw a hornbill and a few species of finches that we didn't know the names of. It was a peaceful and beautiful to see, a bird watchers paradise    Read more

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