T and U

Here are a few bits and pieces which were not written at the time.
“You need to understand the em-PHA-sis.” Indians use it differently from us. The word ‘Himalayas’ is very hard to understand when pronounced “Him-AL-yas”. Likewise with many other words from (particularly) our guides.
In Varanasi, Manoj 2 told us about cows. “They are smart. The people who own them feed them. The cows wander during the day, but always return for their feed. If they carry milk they will only release it for their owners.” Being holy to the Hindus, cows wander freely through the city. Sometimes we saw them happily browsing among the garbage. Charm told us they once found 10 kilos of plastic in the stomach of a cow that had died.
We bought power plug adapters for India. From Bunnings would you believe. Completely unnecessary in the genuine upmarket hotels. International plug sockets take Australian plugs with no problems. But, later on in the older hotels they came into their own, as well as double adaptors and an extension lead. One exception. In the Laxmi Vilas Palace hotel at Bharatpur our huge room had power points all around at waist height at about 2 metre intervals.
Tony was spooked by the extremely zealous security for internal flights in India. For years he has been putting aerosol shaving cream in his suitcase which goes into the hold. Not this time. He bought that stuff in a tube that is supposed to lather. Slightly inconvenient, but mostly worked. Shampoo is another dangerous liquid. We bought the ones that are like a bar of soap. Works ok but expensive and who wants their hair to smell strongly of coconut? The things we do! In almost all hotels they supplied “locally handcrafted hair cleaning lotion made from all-natural ingredients” or something similar.
Duty free: In Singapore Tony tried to buy some duty free gin to take home. Because our destination was Australia she wouldn’t sell it as we had to buy it more than 2 hours before departure. Too late. Any other destination, no problems. The lucky country. (Actually it was slightly cheaper on entry into Brisbane.)Read more

Pradeep collects us at 8am. Early start as we are going to Agra (202km – 3 hours says our itinerary – actually takes longer). Pradeep says we are to check in to our hotel at 1130. ITC Mughal Hotel. The hotel boasts a small view of the Taj Mahal from an eyrie reached by outside steps. “Check-in is at 3pm” we are informed at the reception desk. Oh no! We have a look around, and just as we are being given a temporary wifi code our room becomes available. 12 noon. Not too bad. Time for lunch and a small rest. Afternoon touring starts at 1:30pm.
We meet our new Agra guide, Dheerug. Shortish and sharply dressed, he is very enthusiastic. To his history degree he added tourist guide training, specialising in the local monuments. He took a couple of panoramas for us. He handles the phone cameras much better than we can. He showed us pictures of his family of which he is very proud. Main attraction this afternoon is Agra Fort, on the banks of the River Yamuna. For its construction we revisit Tony’s old friend Akbar (remember his very sensible attempts to combine 3 religions?). There was a ruined brick fort on the site, but he completely rebuilt it from red sandstone as a military fort in 1565. He actually ruled in India from 1556 to 1605 and was extremely powerful and successful. These Mughal emperors amaze Tony. Akbar was only about 3 generations after Genghis Khan. Back then, the Mongols were nomadic warriors. Kill, rape, burn, pillage! Then they moved into India, built up a large and prosperous empire, and provided us with the many examples of wonderful architecture we have been seeing throughout this tour.
We also visited Sikandra, also known as the crypt of Akbar. It was built by Akbar’s son, Jahangir, after his father’s death. It is made of red-coloured sandstone and has beautiful architecture and features lovely gardens.
Yes, we did manage dinner tonight in our hotel. Really nice, slightly different Indian food.Read more