Lucknow

Drove to Ayodhya. About 150km. About 3 hours. Ayodhya is the birthplace of the Hindu god Lord Rama. Main feature is the Hindu temple, which is under construction. Completion due in Jan 2024. It will be amazing if they finish on time, but it is based on a political promise so could happen as there is an election due. The building looks pretty messy at the moment. No photos allowed.
The whole site has been disputed land for hundreds of years. In 2010 the High Court ruled that the site be split equally between Muslims, Hindus and the God Rama himself, the third claimant. This judgement has been appealed. Previously on the site of the new temple there was a Moslem mosque, but the Hindus rioted in 2002 and destroyed it.
To get there, we are put into tuktuks as no buses can get into the narrow streets. Security nightmare. “Please give me your passports” says Sandeep, our local guide. Chorus of dissent. NONE of us had brought them. We do have digital copies on our phones. The guard diligently used his phone to photograph the phone pictures. For the first 5 of us. Then he got sick of it, (and someone suggested that wasn’t working either) and in we all went.
There are long heaving queues. These people are pilgrims. They are so enthusiastic as this is a holy place and they are not prepared to wait, so will pray at the temporary temple. Shudder to think how many there will be when the temple is finished. We bypassed the queues, but all had to be frisked.
The models of the new temple look superb. The starting blockworks less so.
There are lots of monkeys around, adding to the general confusion.
We escaped then rode our tuktuks to another temple. Just a quick look here.
Then we boarded the bus through the town to the banks of the Sarayu River. It feeds into the Ganges and is wide (and a bit cleaner). We were taken in 2 boats on a cruise around the area. There are lots of boats and lots of people washing and splashing. There are lovely waterside gardens. The highlight was a big brawl that broke out on the shore soon after we landed. Lots of sticks and bashing. All done by slapping. No closed fists. Peter photographed one woman holding a man back from joining in. Police finally broke it up.
A little girl tried to tempt us with a live snake in a basket. Do we stroke it, eat it, or photograph it?
Later we enjoyed a really tasty lunch in Makhan-Malai restaurant. The toilets out in the back yard featured monkeys and frisky cows.
The drive home only took 2½ hours. This provided quality siesta time after the filling lunch.
T & U went for an evening passeggiata. This area has pavements upon which one can mostly walk in comfort.Read more