India
2-16 September
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NOTE: All comments and opinions contained herein are anecdotal in nature, the thoughts and observations of the authors and results of interviews with guides and citizens. All of the Indian citizens we have met have shown us warm hospitality and friendship.
We flew from Johannesburg to Bombay, where we spent the night at the Courtyard by Marriott, which was close to the airport and more like a 4 star hotel than the vanilla US Courtyard’s. The next day, we flew to Delhi. All the flights were backed up that day (ours was an hour and a half late) due to a Turkish Airlines plane which skidded off the runway and into the soft mud hours earlier. As I write, it is 2 days later, and the plane still has not been extricated, forcing the runway adjacent to remain closed.
Delhi—2 -4 SEP
One of the best surprises of the trip so far has been the city of Delhi. Its avenues are wide, tree-lined and clean with upscale homes and buildings behind walls and gates. Admittedly, I had expected upon arrival in India to be thrown into something like the movie set of “Slumdog Millionaire”, but that didn’t happen. There may well be areas like those in the movie, but we haven’t seen them (yet). Our hotel, Le Meridien, had a beautifully appointed room waiting for us to rival any other 5 star hotel. It’s easy to see why India is one of the up and coming world economies. The middle class is large and growing.
A Tour of Old Delhi
We toured the Red Fort, a massive structure so called because the walls were built of red sandstone. It was completed in 1648 by order of Shah Jihan, mogul emperor. Inside the walls, one can see a complex of the remains of several “palaces”, including the harem, emperor’s quarters and a mosque. After the fort visit, we boarded a rickshaw propelled by a man on a bicycle. We wove our way through the narrow alleys of Old Delhi, passing several markets displaying fruits, vegetables, spices, sari fabrics, silver, and other decorative items. We pedaled our way through a morass of stalls, people pushing carts loaded with heavy sacks, other rickshaws and motor bikes. Overhead, hundreds of electric power lines crisscrossed the narrow opening to bring power to the stalls and buildings nearby. One part of this market area that can’t be appreciated on paper is the scents. The aroma of exotic spices and perfumes permeated the air. The rickshaw ride ended at the largest mosque in India, which can accommodate 25,000 Muslims in the courtyard for worship. We rounded out the tour with a visit to Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial. It is in a quiet, serene park and is simply designed and tasteful. Comparisons have been made with JFK’s grave in Arlington Cemetery. It is important to point out that this memorial is just that; he was not buried here. As Hindu custom dictates, he was cremated.
The next day we toured New Delhi. First on the agenda was a tour of India’s version of Washington DC’s Capitol Hill. The government buildings were built in the early 1900’s by the British. They are made of stone and are stately, tasteful and well laid out, set in the midst of emerald green lawns and tropical landscaping. There’s even a green area similar to the national mall in DC, but it’s much greener and appears larger. Set at the end of this complex is the India Gate, a memorial to the 90,000 Indian soldiers who lost their lives fighting for the British in World War I. As an aside, we’ve always heard the expression, “The sun never sets on the British Empire,” referring to the peak of British colonialism. Was that saying true! Of course, the U.S. belonged to Britain. So did South Africa, Uganda, India, Australia and other countries all around the world. After visiting so many places that belonged to Britain, one wonders how one small island could control so much of the world! Apparently, their maritime power combined with all the riches they took from all of these countries just kept piling money into the government and private merchants.
Next, we toured some ancient monuments. Humayun’s Tomb is a sort of predecessor of the Taj Mahal. The Qutub Minar is a minaret over 200 feet tall dating to the 12th century which exists alongside the remains of a mosque from the same era.
Agra—5 SEP
We left Delhi at 8:00AM, expecting the 120 mile trip to Agra to take about 4 hours. Instead, there was traffic gridlock in an industrial area outside Delhi, which lengthened the trip to 6 ½ hours. We shared the road with trucks, busses, horse, cow, and donkey carts, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians, not very compatibly. There’s a special kind of taxi here called a “tuk-tuk”. It’s a small motorized cart (about the size of a golf cart), and they’re everywhere. Imagine a golf cart with about 20 people crammed in it driving down the road. About the only positive thing to be said for them is that they run on natural gas which reduces emissions. They provide cheap transport for the populace of the countryside. Not to be outdone, there are also cars, truck and buses made by an Indian company called a Tata. Laugh if you will, but this company recently bought Jaguar.
After finally arriving in Agra and checking into the hotel, we toured the Agra fort and the Taj Mahal. The fort is the second largest in India, built by the Mogul emperor, Shah Jihan in the 1600’s. It is so massive that 50% of the area is still used by the Indian Army and the other 50% is open to visitors. The emperor’s palace is enclosed within the fort. It is built from white Indian marble, heavily carved with inlaid work showing many semi-precious stones original to the structure. It is truly overwhelming to comprehend the magnificence of the artistry involved in building and decorating this palace.
From the palace windows is a view of the Taj Mahal, which rests on the banks of the Yamuna river. Of course, this landmark was next on our itinerary. When gazing at the Taj Mahal, a realization comes over you that you’re having an experience that comes once in a life time. Words can’t describe the beauty of perfection that one sees. None of the photos we have ever seen truly shows the detail of the carvings and inlay in the marble of this tomb. The same Shah Jihan who built the Agra Fort had this memorial constructed to his third wife after her death. She bore him 17 children and died in childbirth at age 39. His first 2 wives had been childless, so number 3 was the favorite. His son was so enraged at the huge cost of the Taj Mahal that he had his father put under house arrest in the fort, where he could gaze upon his wife’s tomb everyday of his remaining life, but he couldn’t visit the grave. When he died, his daughter had him entombed next to his wife.
Holy Cow!—6 SEP
Cows have the right of way on all of India’s roads. They are considered holy by Hindus, and it would be a serious sin to injure or kill one. But the owners of these bovines allow them to roam at will in the villages, towns and cities, as well as on the roads and even in the grassy median strips. I asked one of the guides if this reverence for the cow was extended to other animals. The answer was “no”. It’s ok to hit and kill any of the hundreds of stray dogs which inhabit the same spaces as the cows.
Non-Smoking Hotel Rooms
We arrived in Jaipur, our next adventure, in the afternoon. It turned out just getting a room was an adventure. The hotel we’re staying in is being renovated. We were offered a very nice room, problem was it had just been painted and smelled strongly of paint fumes. To counteract the fumes, they had sprayed room freshener all over, making it even worse. Since we didn’t want to be overcome with paint fumes, we asked for another room. Same thing—paint fumes. So, then we were offered a third room that didn’t smell of paint, but cigarette smoke. Dave tried to explain that we requested a non-smoking room. We were told that it was a non-smoking room. He pointed to an ashtray on a table, and said that ashtrays were only in smoking rooms. The representative then explained that she would take out the ashtray, thus making it a non-smoking room. It was perfectly logical to her that the presence or absence of an ashtray was the definition of smoking vs. nonsmoking room. We take it out—it’s nonsmoking. We put it in—then the guest can smoke. Evidently, there’s no concept of smoke being absorbed into the very fabric of the room. In addition to the smoke issue, the renovation is occurring just upstairs from us and the pounding is constant. It’s now after 6:00PM, and they’re still going strong up there. But at least we now know the proper definition of a non-smoking room!
PS. We did switch rooms tonight after complaining again about the construction noise and other issues.
Jaipur—7 SEP
This morning we toured Jaipur. It’s called the “Pink City”, but yesterday when we drove in, we wondered why the name. Today, we found out. The old city is walled in and everything—all the walls and every building inside are pink. It is all built of red sandstone, but instead of red, everything is pink. One can’t help thinking that this national treasure should be more properly cared for. The trash needs to be cleaned from the streets, and the buildings are in dire need of cleaning and maintenance. Then it would truly be a jewel in the crown.
We visited the amber fort, which is another beautiful complex of palaces walled in by a fort. Instead of walking up the hill to the fort, we took an elephant ride. Sitting high, swinging from side to side, we rode up the hill on the paunchy pachederm. Renee was holding on tight; Dave was videoing the experience. It was an elephant parade up and down the hill, tourists riding up and passengerless elephants coming down. There is a fort wall encircling a gigantic area of Jaipur, which we could only liken to the Great Wall of China (although we haven’t seen it yet). After the fort, we visited a museum on the grounds of the royal maharaja’s palace. Exquisite!
While having lunch, we learned of a terrorist attack in Delhi at the high court. We had just toured the government center a couple of days ago. It seems each country we visit has more security than the last. India shares a not so friendly border with Pakistan, and there is a dispute over Kashmir about who should own the territory. Consequently, every vehicle going into a hotel or tourist sight is searched carefully, and the hotel guests go through a scanning device and a pat down (just as at the airport) before going inside. All bags and even cameras are put through the scanner. Before we left home, we registered our entire itinerary with the state department, so we get regular email updates of problems occurring anywhere in the world.
From Hovel to Palace
In India, a 19th century mansion, sometimes painted with beautiful scenes on the exterior and courtyards, is called a haveli. I have to wonder whether the word hovel comes from haveli; they sound so similar but yet have a very different meaning. Some of these old mansions (havelis) have been converted into small hotels. We stayed in one in a small city called Mandawa. I have to say I was a little taken aback when shown the room. It was a small room with no window, rather claustrophobic, not nice at all. But, I was not sure whether I had selected this hotel or whether it was suggested by the tour company, since it was booked quite awhile ago. We turned on the air conditioning, which was a wall unit. Everything was marginally acceptable in this hovel/haveli until the power kept going off and on. Indian power isn’t very reliable anywhere, and when it cuts off, establishments start up their generators. Problem was, with no windows, you were thrust completely in blackness until someone ran outside and turned on the generator. The room opened to an outside courtyard, but the door going to the room didn’t exactly close.. I’m sure it was the original 19th century door that had 2 parts with a center opening, but it just didn’t come together in the middle. The bathroom door didn’t close either, or if you got it closed, you would be stuck inside. Then, we found out the bedside lamps didn’t work well either; they kept turning off. Sometime after the a/c had been working for a few hours, water started dripping out of it, onto an electrical box underneath and then onto the floor. We called the hovel manager(?) and his favorite answer to everything was “no problem”. Excuse me, but water dripping onto electricity is a big problem in our book. So, they had a “technician” come in and apparently fix the problem while we were at dinner. There was no restaurant at this place; you went to the rooftop and sat at a table (one of only 2), were given a menu, and the manager now became the waiter and ran down the street to give the order to someone, maybe in a restaurant(?) and pick up the food. So, we got through dinner with a couple of Indian beers and 2 orders of vegetarian fare. We should mention that vegetarian doesn’t necessarily mean vegetables, such as one sees in the markets. Vegetarian means ‘no meat’, but typically you will be served something unrecognizable in ‘gravy’. It could be potatoes and cheese, or there could be tomatoes and onions ground up somehow. Anyway, we got through the meal and went back to the room. About midnight, the a/c started leaking again. We decided just to shut it off, worried it would be a fire hazard. This meant spending the night in a stuffy, hot room with just a ceiling fan (when the power was on).
We had requested breakfast at 7:00AM the next morning. We went to the so-called breakfast room (more hovelish than the room). When nothing appeared, we went outside and saw a sort of room next to the breakfast room with a refrigerator that someone was getting some things out of. The whole situation was so unappealing and unsanitary looking, that Renee went back to the room and had a granola bar from her stash. Dave really wanted some coffee, so he stayed and had coffee and toast. All we really wanted was to leave this place, so we called our driver and asked him to come pick us up early. We informed him that in the future, his company shouldn’t send any more clients to this place.
So we left for a city called Bikaner, toured the usual fort and palace and went to the next hotel, the Gajner Palace Hotel. We were approaching the hotel with some trepidation, not knowing what would await us next. We needn’t have worried. It was a real maharajah’s palace that had been converted to a hotel. The grounds were beautifully set on a lake, and the room was very nice. The a/c had been turned on, so the room was comfortable. We looked at the unit, sitting over the bed on the wall, thinking this would be a much better experience. So we went for a walk for about an hour. Upon returning, what did we find? The bed and pillows soaked with water leaking from the a/c!! We called the staff, someone was sent to blow out the line, and the bed was changed and all is well, for now. But who knows what will happen overnight? It is so hot and humid here that these wall units have difficulty functioning well. And the buildings are too old to run central air.
Cultural Tidbits
A couple of days ago, we toured an observatory from the 16th century. It was a large outdoor complex which featured very accurate sundials. Another part of it had all the astrological signs with sundials on those, too. Astrology is a big part of life, here. When marriages are being arranged (that’s part of the culture), the young couple’s astrological signs are still even now analyzed by an astrologist to see if they will be a good match. If not, they won’t marry. We asked our driver, Vadav, if his marriage was arranged. He said, yes. His parents selected a girl for him, then they visited her family. In turn, the girl’s family visited his home. He wasn’t allowed to see his wife until the actual wedding. He indicated that this is the way things are still done in the countryside. Later, one of the guides told us that marriage has nothing to do with love here, and a lot of couples stay together through the years only because of social pressures, not because they are happy. Also, if a bride is selected for a young man, and he doesn’t agree to marry her, he is cast out of the parents’ home for all time, and the bride (who isn’t a bride) goes to live with the man’s family as an honored family member. But, she is free to marry someone else later. In the larger cities, couples might meet, date and develop relationships more as we do in the west, or they can follow tradition, if they wish.
We also asked about Vadav’s religious beliefs. The majority of Indians are Hindu, but a reasonable number are also Moslem. Our driver is Hindu. He explained that at a certain age, a Hindu will decide which god he would like to follow and worship. Then, he will go to a temple that is dedicated to that god. Vadav chose the elephant god, Ganesh, the god of good luck. His father may very well go to a different temple that is dedicated to another god. It’s a matter of personal choice. Vadav is also a vegetarian. We can tell that when he thinks of meat or eggs, he gets somewhat queasy. He does drink milk, however, because you don’t have to kill the cow to get it.
We also noticed at a market selling grain, there were hundreds of pigeons crowding in the square. We were told that pigeons garner much respect, similar to the cows, and the vendors are obligated to feed them. But, it’s ok to kill other birds, except it is bad luck to injure (wild) peacocks. There are some here, and they are really beautiful.
When a Hindu dies, he or she is cremated. This was explained to us as the custom, not because the Indian population is so large that it would be hard to find space to bury people (a popular belief), but because they believe that in cremation, elements in the body are released back into the atmosphere. Many years ago, tradition dictated that when a husband died, his widow would throw herself onto the funeral pyre with his body and be burned alive. Fortunately, the practice was discontinued in the 1960’s. The ashes of the cremated are then taken to the Ganges River on the 4th day following death and poured into the river. A bottle of the holy Ganges River is then purchased to bring home to sprinkle around the house after several days have passed.
There are two questions we are always asked: “What is your profession?” And “How much did your camera cost?” Renee learned early to respond that she was a teacher (speech therapist). The caste system is still in place to some extent, and teachers are regarded as being in a very high caste. Dave, as military, is also well regarded, although a little below Renee. Within the 4 castes, there are many subcastes. We usually answer the camera question with--we don’t really remember, since it’s been awhile since we bought them.
Jaiselmer—10-11 SEP
We drove to the next city, Jaiselmer, in the Thar desert. The roads were good, and we arrived mid afternoon. We had booked another Haveli, this one was owned by a maharaja and was a bit nicer than the other one where we had stayed. The staff showed us all the available rooms, and we chose the “villa”, a bit more spacious than the others, with a bigger bathroom. Among the greeters at the hotel was our tour guide for the following day as nothing was on the itinerary for the afternoon. Before he departed, he asked us if we would like a walk in the town later in the afternoon. Since we didn’t have anything else to do, we agreed.
Whoa, Nelly! India just caught up with us. We started walking through old, narrow streets in a market area. Ok, so far, although we had to side step cows and cow dung pretty much everywhere. Yes, even in the middle of a city. After reaching the fort, we took another series of narrow streets back to the hotel. There were some street side businesses and some middle class multistory homes with beautiful decorative stone work. This was not the ghetto. But the streets! If you’ve heard the expression, “Enough to gag a maggot”, this was it. Open sewers, cow dung and fly invested cows were everywhere; a dog lay dying in the gutter (which only Renee noticed), children played in all of this mess with bare feet, people whizzed by on motorcycles, and people were going about their business in a usual way. The stench was unbelievable. The guide told us there was an award winning goldsmith in the middle of all of this mayhem, and he wanted us to visit his house. We have so far successfully fended off all attempts to get us to buy souvenirs, and we made it clear we weren’t interested. But as we passed his house, the goldsmith came out and wanted us to come in. Renee’s resolve remained strong, and there was no visit. But there will always be a lingering memory of the stench, the utter filth, and respect for the human body’s immune system, as we viewed so called healthy children living in this muck.
We got back to the ‘haveli/hovel’, and guess what? The a/c is leaking. “No problem”, is our philosophy. We put a bucket under the drip and all is well!
Camels in the Sunset
We were scheduled for a camel ride in the desert in the early evening. It was about a 30 minute drive from Jaiselmer toward the west to the camel depot, not far from the Pakistani border (probably not the best place to be on Sept. 11 anniversary). We arrived, chose our camels, and climbed aboard. Renee got Mr. Rocket, who turned out not to live up to his name, thanfully. Dave’s camel name is unknown. We followed a trail toward the dunes. A few minutes into the ride, the man leading the camel handed Renee the reins. She wasn’t comfortable with this situation, but he wouldn’t take them back. Luckily, Mr. Rocket was a calm, docile camel who knew where to go, so “no problem”. We made our way to the sand dunes and beheld a lovely sunset with camels silhouetted against the red-gold orb. All was well, we even picked up speed to a trot on the way back. We’re still intact and had a good time.
Jodphur—12 SEP
Jodphur is known for 2 reasons. The first is that it gave an English name to riding trousers—jodphurs. The other claim to fame, besides the massive maharaja’s fort and palace, is the preponderance of blue painted houses. It is believed that there is something in blue paint that repels mosquitoes, so people paint their houses blue. From the fort high atop the hill, the blue houses lend a particular personality to the city. The hotel we’re staying in here is very much like a maharaja’s palace. It is beautiful!
Udaipur—13-15 SEP
It took a day to drive from Jaipur to Udaipur. We drove through mountains, which was a nice change of scenery. We even stopped to visit an ancient Hindu (Jain) temple, built around the 15th or 16th century.
Next day, we took a day trip to another fort called Chittorgarh, the most massive maharaja’s fort we’ve seen yet. The fort was begun in the 8th century, but the ruins are from the 16th century. It’s mind boggling to witness these massive constructions on the tops of hills when you think about how everything had to be transported and built by hand.
A Tour of Rajasthan
To sum up our India Rajasthan experience is difficult. Next to the absolute massive riches of the maharajas as seen in their forts and palaces, exists another world—the real world. India does have a large middle class, and it does have its very poor. People do what people do everywhere in the world. They work to produce an income; they bring up their families, and they mostly hope for a better world for their children. By western standards, the unsanitary conditions with large amounts of trash and animal dung in the streets are very distressing. We’ve had discussions with guides and our driver about the cows, pigs and goats lounging in the town streets, eating garbage, cardboard and plastic and defecating everywhere. There seems to be a dawning realization that this situation needs changing, but change comes slowly. As the world’s largest democracy, we can only wish India and its people well in the future.
Pictures: Due to the additional number of pictures we wanted to post for India, view them at our photo website: http://reneecapouya.zenfolio.com/
Two Elderly MenTaj Mahal
Two Working Women
