India2020

Our guest house organised a guide to take us on a walking tour of the old city today.  We weaved our way through the narrow streets as our guide pointed out things that we would have otherwise walked straight by.  Like the little alcoves along the top of the houses for birds to nest in because birds bring good luck to the household.  Or the stepwell and surrounding area for women to bath that’s hidden behind a huge wooden gate, separate from the men’s bathing area. Or the community well that’s available to all if their home water supply runs dry.

I was surprised at the number of new buildings within the old city.  There are still plenty that are old, in varying stages of maintenance, but there are a number that have been built more recently with less ornate exteriors and presumably more mod-cons.

We walked our way into the retail area, past multiple shops selling items for the wedding season.  The wedding clothes on offer aren’t quite as elaborate as what we’d seen in Delhi but they’re beautiful none the less.

The shops are organised into areas that all sell the same, cookware, textiles, silver jewellery, fruit & vege and sweets.  We tried Gilab Jaman which are like a donut ball soaked in a sugar syrup.  They reminded me of the golden syrup pudding that my grandmother used to make.  Also a milk based sweet which I think was Kalakand.

We got taken to a textile wholesaler who did the hard sell on us, without success.  And then to an “antique” shop owned by the same family where it was difficult to tell what was old and what just needed a good dust.

We got back to our guest house mid-afternoon.

BJ had got up early and gone for a walk up the hill along from the fort.  As he left the guest house, I heard multiple dogs going nuts and I half expected to have him arrive back with a dog bite to his leg.  He did in fact have to double back a couple of times due to groups of vicious looking dogs.  The views were however worth it so, armed with a few stones (in case of dog encounters), we followed him back up the hill later in the afternoon.  By this time the sky had cleared and this was the first day of our trip that our photos haven’t had a foggy haze in the background.

We have a long drive to Udaipur tomorrow so we had a quiet evening at the guest house and tried out a few more curries from their restaurant menu.  BJ joined the cooks to see how they made the Rajasthani rice that we’d all enjoyed.  By the sounds of it some of the recipe and cooking technique was lost in translation so we might have to search online for a recipe.

During our wait at Delhi airport yesterday Bryce and BJ had found a bottle of Indian bubbly which we chilled overnight ready for our Christmas day.  Breakfast consisted of omelettes, pancakes, scorched almonds (that I’d brought with me from NZ) and bubbly.  During and after breakfast we called and messaged friends and family back home in NZ.

From the rooftop restaurant of our hotel we could see the red fort (one of the largest forts in Rajasthan), perched on the hill just behind us and we spent the morning exploring it.  The fort, Mehrangarh or Mehran Fort was build around 1459.  Beyond the thick, imposing walls and gates (at least 5 metres high with metal spikes to stop elephants ramming them down) there are several palaces although it is difficult to tell where one palace finishes and the next begins.  The palaces have delicate carvings including the carved lattice windows overlooking the courtyards so women can sit, out of sight, and watch the festivities below.

The fort museum houses a collection of royal palanquins (on which royals would sit and be carried around by 4-6 men) and howdah in which they’d ride on top elephants, each intricately decorated with textiles, carving and painting and a couple complete with parasol.

There was a collection of old paintings documenting the festivities of the time in detail.  Fun fact – their brushes were made from squirrel tail hair and some brushes were so fine they had only one hair!

Toni and I got lost in the gift shop and had to catch up with the guys further up the fort.  We had a wonderful morning, made even better by the warm weather (around 24 degrees) and clearer skies (compared to Delhi you actually feel like you’re breathing fresh air).

Out to the side of the fort is a valley with a small lake and overhead they’ve installed a zipline –  actually 6 ziplines – for the tourists.  From the rooftop of our guest house we’d watched people flying across from platform to platform and the boys couldn’t wait to have a go.  I decided I might as well join them.  It’s the perfect tourist activity. The lines and platforms can hardly be seen from the town so it’s not imposing on the scenery and it allows a view of the fort that you can’t get from elsewhere.  It’s also not as scary as I thought it might be.

By 3pm the eagles were starting to circle the fort waiting to be fed.  The guys walked back up the hill to watch while Toni and I enjoyed a quiet ale in the garden restaurant.

Back at the guest house we had an early dinner on the rooftop as we watched the sun set.  In the background we could hear the beeping of horns as tuk tuks weaved their way through the alleyways and the constant barking of the many dogs that wander the streets.  Every now and then the tone of the barking becomes fierce and you hear the yelping of a dog that you know is in trouble.

There are dogs everywhere, a few of them with little pups, most of them quietly wandering the streets, scavenging through the rubbish for food or curled up asleep on the side of the road or the seat of a parked motorbike, but some running in small packs looking for trouble.  They’re mostly pretty skinny but seem to be in reasonable health (although still not the type of dog you’d give a friendly pat).

After dinner we took tuk tuks into the clocktower market.  It amazes me how the tuk tuks make their way through the narrow streets.   The drivers leave each change in direction till the last minute and somehow manage to dance their way through the streets without hitting the oncoming tuk tuks/motorbikes, pedestrians, dogs and sometimes even missing the potholes.  They use their horns … a lot … but it’s mostly to let others know they’re there and rarely are they aggressive.  Instead they’re actually quite patient, slowing or stopping when others cut them off or pull out in front of them.  It’s chaos but it seems to work.

A lot of the stalls started to close soon after we got there so after a bit of a walk around we jumped in tuk tuks back to our (reasonably) quiet abode.

We’re staying at Singhvi’s Haveli a quaint guest house in the middle of the old city.  It was built over 500 years ago and has been in the family for over 3 centuries.  It’s been converted from a residence to a guest house and maintains a homely feeling.  If you’ve seen the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel …. it’s just like that.  Through the front gates you walk into a tiled courtyard with a three-tiered water feature filled with marigold petals and incense burning.  The walls of the rooms are thick sandstone, plastered and painted bright colours.

Our room comes off the courtyard, is painted pink with a black & white tiled floor, quirky light fittings and a low ceiling.   The guest house is split over multiple levels.  The kitchen and open dining room where we have breakfast is on level one with a combination of tables and chairs and low tables with floor cushions.  On the next level is a communal space with comfy chairs, a swing and several rooms are accessed from this area.  Up another level there’s a sheltered open courtyard from which you access the rooftop restaurant via steep stairs.  The staff are incredible friendly and restaurant food is delicious – especially the Rajasthani rice!

Mehrangarh Fort

Inside the Fort

Zip-line

Singhvi’s Haveli aka The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The indoor swing – Singhvi’s Haveli

 

A crazy early start to the day with a 4.30am pick up from the hotel for our flight to Jodhpur.  With a few hours stop over in Delhi plus a slight delay to our flight it was pretty much a day of travel.  But all worth it with this view from the roof top terrace of the place we’re staying.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The main event for today was to visit the Wagah Border crossing between India and Pakistan.  While the border between these two countries is one of the most volatile in the world, this particular crossing has become a tourist attraction with both armies facing off in a ceremony of silly walks that even John Cleese would be impressed with.

Crowds from both countries turn out to see the closing of the border gates and lowering of the flags each day.  They patriotically wave flags and their cheers get loader the higher the guards kick their legs.  If you haven’t heard of this before then just google “Wagah Border” – it’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

I was just as fascinated with the people actually crossing the border.  Most were rushing to get themselves and their luggage through the gates before the ceremony began.  Each had to lug their suitcases and boxes of possessions into no-mans-land between the two gates before being allowed to cross the border themselves and then lug everything through to the other country.

On the way home from the ceremony we settled on the first part of our ‘Team Carter’ travel uniform – a cap – I Love My India.  A quality item that cost just over one NZ dollar.

Earlier in the day we’d taken a tuk tuk into the town centre to walk around some of the markets.  I got a demonstration of how to make the local speciality Kulcha – absolutely delicious.

While the boys were buying knives, Bryce and I wandered around the corner and came upon the Community Kitchen from which nearly 100,000 people are feed at the Langar Hall in the Golden Temple each day.  Visitors to the Golden Temple are offered a free meal which comes from donations of cash or in kind and many hours of volunteer time.  The kitchen operates 24/7 and about 3 years ago it went completely organic in an effort to encourage local farmers to reduce the chemical products used.

We watched for a while as the Sikh men ferried the vessels full of rice pudding from the kitchen to the Temple.  BJ & Bryce took off their shoes and joined in.  One of the guys took off his scarf and wrapped it around Bryce’s head like a turban so he could enter the kitchen (heads must be covered, shoes off and hands cleaned).  The local men were so welcoming and friendly – something I’ll never forget.

On the way back to meet our tuk tuk driver we took some of the narrow alleyways we’d walked last night on the way to dinner.  In the light of day they were filled with textile stalls and many locals.  At one point we got trapped in a ‘traffic jam’ of people, most just calming working their way through the crowd but a few pushing and shoving.  It took us about 10 minutes to get through a matter of metres and I was starting to get a bit anxious – the locals however seemed to just take it in their stride.

Amritsar gets just a small mention in most tourist guides but in my books it’s a ‘must do’.  This is the India I wanted to see – busy, colourful, friendly but still gritty and a bit dirty – we’ve had an amazing time.

A few photos from the day …..

Checking out the kulcha cooking in the tandoori oven

Community Kitchen

Ministry of Silly Walks

It was an early start from the hotel.  We left plenty of time to get to the train station expecting it to be chaotic (and with memories of the stressful time we had catching our overnight train in Vietnam).  Turned out to be all very easy with the train even leaving on time.

As we rolled out of the city centre and into the suburbs you started to get a feel for the enormity of the poverty.  There is rubbish everywhere, everything is broken, half built or half falling down – it’s difficult to know which.  But every now and then there’s a field of crop/veges which wouldn’t look out of place on the outskirts of Christchurch.

The winter fog meant we couldn’t see far but it was nice to sit back and relax after the hustle of Delhi.

We found a tuk tuk driver as we left the train station at Amritsar and thought we’d need him to find another to fit all of us plus our luggage.  But no, the tuk tuks in Amritsar are a bit different.  Our luggage went in the back and on top, five of us piled into the back and Bryce, half hanging out the side, sat next to the driver.  The motor was a ‘pull-start’, kinda like starting your lawn mower and it sounded similar too.

There was a wedding on at our hotel and as we made our way to our rooms we caught glimpses of some of the women dressed in their colourful saris.  Then as we were leaving to go into town the bride was walking down the stairs, surrounded by what appeared to be her parents and her bridesmaids/girlfriends.  They let me take a photo but secretly I was hoping they’d invite me to the wedding reception.

We came to Amritsar on the recommendation of our friends Richard and Josie.  The two main attractions are the Golden Temple and the Wagah Border crossing between India and Pakistan.  We are so grateful for their recommendation – the Golden Temple , Harmandir Sahib was an absolutely highlight.

The Golden Temple is the most important pilgrimage site for Sikhs but it is also an open house of worship for people of all faiths.  The shrine is the most visited place in the world yet, even with the crowds of people, it felt calm and welcoming.

We were something of a novelty and had people constantly asking us where we were from or wanting to take their photos with us.  One guy even got me to hold his little boy for a photo – who knows where the snapshot will end up.

Beautiful hymns ring out around the temple and as we stood in line to enter the Temple the people around us joined in.  At the same time lights started to light up the buildings and the evening prayers began.  Without realising it we had timed it right to experience this spiritual place and I felt privileged to have the opportunity to be there.

I’d done a bit of research into places to eat and just about every street food website mentioned Kasar Da Dhaba in the Old City.  I’m not sure how we could have got there without google maps as it was down a few narrow, somewhat dodge, alleys that you won’t walk down on your own.  The food was worth the walk and by the time we finished there was a queue out the door and down the road.

Back at the hotel we thought we’d have a beer and found a bar right next door to the hotel.  Just one small problem…. men only!  I sometimes forget that not every country had a “Kate Shepherd” to help put things right.

Tuk Tuk from train station to hotel

Indian wedding party

The Golden Temple – Harmandir Sahib

Before you worry – we didn’t get caught up in any of the protests but, it turns out we weren’t far from them.

After the lack of success walking around Delhi yesterday, we decided to hire a driver for the day.  He would pick us up from our hotel at 9.30am, drive us wherever we wanted and drop us back to our hotel by 6.00pm, all for NZ50 (although we all suspected there was a catch and we’d be asked to pay more at some stage – this is India after all).

The driver was at our hotel right on time in a reasonably new 6 seater that would need to seat 7 for the day with three people squashed across the back seat.

Our driver took us to the Red Fort and parked there before negotiating with three tuk tuk drivers to take us into Old Delhi.  Only tuk tuk’s are allowed on the narrow streets of Old Delhi and we would later see why.

First stop on our tuk tuk tour was the Jama Masjid, one of the largest mosques in India.  Old Delhi has a very high Muslim community and on Fridays (which today is) anywhere from 15,000 to 25,000 come to pay at this mosque.  Preparations were underway as we walked around with people sweeping the area and laying out prayer mats.  Toni and I had to don a very stylish “dressing gown” to be allowed access (the joys of being a woman) and, while it is free to enter, if you want to take photos, or even take your cell phone inside, there was an extra charge.   We left most of our cell phones with our driver.

The mosque was amazing, set slightly elevated, there were views into Old Delhi, albeit very hazy views.

Back on the tuk tuks and into the heart of Old Delhi.  Each narrow street is dedicated to a different form of retail.  One street filled with wedding card shops – I’m not sure how many people are getting married in Delhi to keep these shops open but the cards looked elaborate and if I knew someone getting married soon I would have got the tuk tuk to stop.

Next stop, Khari Baoli – Asia’s largest spice market.  The streets surrounding the market are filled with spice shops, more for retail purchases than the wholesale market that’s behind them.  On the streets are hundreds of men, each with their wooden cart ready to transport purchases out of the narrow streets, there’s no room for a truck and trailer here.  Within the surrounding walls of the market are the wholesalers, with sacks of dried chillies, turmeric, chickpeas, coriander …… It was a photographers dream and BJ would have loved to go further into the market but we were being watched closely by the stallholders so didn’t get a chance to just wander around.

As we continued through the narrow streets by tuk tuk there was a clear police presence.  Many were in riot gear and in large groups.  Our tuk tuk driver said they would be heading to the mosque given the protests of the past week or so.  He promised he’d keep us well away from any trouble.

Back to the Red Fort we decided to walk along the outside but not go inside.  The Red Fort in Agra is supposed to be much better than this one and is on our list of places to visit.

It was a reasonable long drive to the Lotus temple  – a Bahai House of Worship which is open to all religions.  It is a beautiful building made of marble and with similarities to the Sydney Opera House.  The grounds around it are the best kept we’ve seen in India so far, possibly because they check all bags and don’t allow food to be eaten therefore minimising the possibility of rubbish.  The building is constructed of 27 marble-clad free standing petals surrounded by 9 water pools to represent the 9 major religions in the world.  The central hall is over 34 metres high and the complex construction has created a simplistic, peaceful space for the 3.5 million that visit here each year.

Our driver suggested we visit the India Gate – a war memorial commemorating all Indian military.  There were plenty of people inside but the police had shut the gates so we took a couple of photos then drove to Rashtrapati Bhavan – the presidential residence surrounded by parliamentary buildings.  The smog was so bad that we could only just make out the shape of the presidential residence but got a reasonably good view of the gates!

After finding somewhere to get SIM cards for a couple of our phones we were taken back to the driver’s office.  We knew there would be a catch as we were taken into the office, sat down by the business owner who proceeded to try to sell us travel everywhere else we were going in India and then asked for an extra 500 rupees.  While that may only be NZ12.50, a deal’s a deal and we refused to pay any more.  We were however quite happy giving our driver a tip when we finally made it through rush hour back to our hotel.

Now the reason I mentioned protests at the start of this post is because we woke the next day and found that there had been major protests  outside Jama Masjid in the afternoon with hundreds being arrested.  We’d seen signs of this on our drive back to the hotel with police cordons on some roads.  There were also fires lit overnight at the India Gate that we’d tried to visit.  It’s difficult to find much information about where the protests are being held but we’re planning to stay close to the hotel for our final day in Delhi and check out a market so hopefully we’ll be out of harms way.

Jama Masjid Mosque

Old Delhi

Lotus temple through the smog

We arrived in Delhi around 5.20am local time.  We’d all got a few hours of interrupted sleep on the floor of Singapore airport and a few more hours on the flight to Delhi.

The first thing that struck me as I walked from the plane to the airbridge was the smell – smog.

I was expecting slight chaos getting through customs and I was somewhat nervous about whether our luggage would have made it given we’d checked it in almost 30 hours before in Christchurch.

The queues for foreign nationals weren’t very long compared to those for the locals returning home.  Our queue would have moved a little faster if one of the guys wasn’t on his break  – which in this case means sleeping in his chair at his desk.  He woke up after about 15 minutes and powered through the passports – his nap must have done the trick.

I had no need to worry about the luggage and we were soon standing outside the terminal waiting for our driver.

The vehicle fitted 6 plus the driver … just.  Three of our bags had to be tied to the roof rack.  I’m not sure the driver was particularly impressed having a woman make sure he’d passed the rope through the handles of the bags but I’d rather that than to have had a bag fly off the roof of the car.

Check in wasn’t until mid-day so they wouldn’t give us access to our rooms without paying for another part day.  We decided to take just one of the rooms early and a few of us filed through the shower to freshen up before heading out.

We thought we’d walk.  Partly because we’d been sitting on planes for so long and partly because that’s how we’d explored cities in the past.  We quickly realised that walking in Delhi came with a few challenges.  Firstly the condition of the footpaths and roads, secondly the amount of rubbish and dog poo that needed to be dodged and thirdly the number of people who wanted to ‘help’ us by offering advice, rides in their tuk tuk, or wanted to sell us something.  It was a slow walk.  We met one tuk tuk driver who had just got his work visa to NZ and was heading to work on a dairy farm just out of Christchurch next month – such a small world.  And an older tuk tuk driver who just wouldn’t leave us along.  We’d cross the road and turn a corner but the next minute he’d appear again, out of his tuk tuk to try to convince us that walking wasn’t the best option.

We walked for a while with a guy who was on his way to his office (or so he said) and directed us toward the market we were looking for.  In the end I’m not convinced he was taking us in the right direction and eventually we gave in to the old guy and took 3 tuk tuks.  They were supposed to take us to a particular spice market but instead they took us to a shop which had everything from saris to silver but no sign of spices.  We didn’t stay long and when we walked out, their were our tuk tuk drivers waiting to take us somewhere else we didn’t want to go.

Eventually they got us to Connaught Place, a somewhat upmarket but rundown retail area where every second person wanted to sell us something.  We eventually took refuge in Starbucks for a coffee and some time to gather our thoughts.  We were all so tired it was difficult to make decisions and definitely difficult to deal with the constant people.

It’s amazing how a coffee and a clean toilet can make the world seem ok and we headed back out, this time with a more realistic plan for what can be achieved in a sleep deprived state.

1. Check out the park (in walking distance) we’d seen with a huge Indian flag
2. Find a 7/11 and pick up some bottled water and snacks
3. Have a beer at a craft brewery (also in walking distance) that BJ had found, MOB, Ministry of Beer
4. Get a taxi back to the hotel

Back at the hotel, we all had a couple of hours sleep or in the case of the boys – slept through the night.  Bryce, Toni, BJ and I headed for dinner at a restaurant close by.  Amazing food and cheap as chips. Aloo Shimla Mirch – potato & capcicum in mild spice gravy – NZD4.50, Channa Masala – chickpea lentils in Indian gravy – NZD4.50, Steamed rice NZD2.00.

We’d finished the day well.

A few photos from the day ….

Sleeping in Singapore airport

Smog in Delhi

 

For sometime now India has been on my ‘bucket list’.  After visiting Nepal in 2015, I felt incredibly confronted by the poverty that I saw and wondered if I really wanted to experience that again with a trip to India.  But there’s something about India that fascinates me so ….. here we go …..

We left Christchurch at 10am on Wednesday 18th and after a few hours in Auckland, boarded our flight to Singapore.  It is now 2.30am NZ time and we’ve just arrived in Singapore.  We have about a 5 hour wait, then a 6 hour flight to Delhi.  By the time we get to India it will have been over 27 hours since we left home – what were we thinking when we booked the flights!

I haven’t used this blog before so I’m hoping I’ve set it up right, you might have to bear with me as I work it out as I go.  It’s a free site so I suspect you’ll see lots of google ads – be careful what you click on.

Here’s the first group photo.  Christchurch airport.  BJ rocking his team uniform from our Vietnam trip two years ago.

A little bit of Christmas cheer on the Singapore flight