Pushkar – 31 December 2010

On the way through Jaipur this morning we made a short detour for a photo stop outside the Palace of the Four Winds, supposedly the second most iconic sight in India after the Taj Mahal.

This imposing edifice is just a facade one room deep and was built in 1799 to provide 800 windows, on various levels, for the women from the palace to sit and watch parades that passed without being seen by the general public.

Pushkar was about 23km off the route we were taking between Jaipur and Nimaj, but it was a convenient location to break the trip and have lunch. Pushkar is one of the holy sites in India as it has the only temple to the number one Hindu God, Bhrama. It also had a holy lake that is completely surrounded by steps down to the water, called Ghat, where the faithful go to bathe in the water.

The coach left us just outside the town and we walked through the bazaar to the temple. At this point we had divest ourselves of handbags, cameras, cellphones, etc, etc and, naturally, our shoes, so that we could join the throngs circulating through the temple.

After retrieving all from our patient Tour Manager,we walked the length of the main street bazaar to the hotel where lunch was available. After visiting the roof top restaurant for a great view over the lake we decided to forego easting and instead spend the time exploring the town a little more leisurely.

Whether the holy vibes rub off on the populace or not I don't know but the bazaar is fairly laid back in terms of the vendor-hassle factor. The most persistent people in the area are those attempting to press a flower into your hand the minute you make any move towards the lake. We never discovered their end-game as we were well warned by our guide to simply ignore them. Undoubtedly the acceptance of a flower to throw into the lake to bring good fortune to your family would not come without some monetary compensation.

We still had another 150km to cover to our hotel for the night in Nimaj and this was not without interest as we waited for trains at level crossings. One, in the country, was fairly civilized with only a few queue jumpers on the hard shoulder. The second one in a town was much more exciting with the queue jumpers driving down the wrong side of the road thereby creating a traffic jam when the opposing traffic was allowed across the rails.

In the UK this would, no doubt, have resulted in road rage and violence but in India it is all dealt with quite calmly and, surprisingly, quietly. As it was explained to us earlier, the rules are largely ignored so no one gets upset when someone breaks them and thus our driver was totally sanguine about a bullock cart meeting us in the fast lane of a dual-carriageway, likewise the car, the motorbike and the tuk-tuk, all of which we have seen so far. Similarly, yesterday morning at a busy roundabout in the middle of some roadworks in Jaipur, no seemed the slightest bit bothered by the commuter bus going against the flow on our left-hand side.

Over-taking, under-taking, fitting four lanes of traffic happily into a three lane road are particular Indian art-forms and if there is a designated slow/fast lane arrangement, it was decidedly hard to deduce, even on a three-lane motorway. Anything goes; even a fully ladened bicycle with its rider holding on to a equally loaded motorbike using a three lane expressway.

With all the traffic hold-ups it was a 12-hour day by the time we disembarked from our coach at the Nimaj Palace Hotel. This property has been in the same family since 1426 and is now a heritage hotel. Once again our suite was palatial in size with a bedroom , bathroom and an ante-room where the fan-whallah used to sit, pulling the rope to move the fan above the bed. The hole in the wall and wooden pulley are still in-situ.

The structure is obviously designed to keep the occupants cool in the hot Indian summers and the next morning our entire party complained about how cold they had been overnight as the area was apparently experiencing record low temperatures for this time of the year, something that we had hoped to leave behind in the UK. Given the effort that has gone into converting this property into a hotel it is a real shame that they did not put a bit more efforts into the the food as it is the easiest and cheapest way to make a guest happy.

Because we were so late arriving we only had time for a quick freshen-up before the New Year's Eve entertainment began. Indian dancing girls, and Indian bagpiper and what could be described as Indian Morris dancers entertained us until dinner was served. Then there was an Indian disco to occupy us until fireworks marked the change of year. Fortunately one of our party had an Ipod with some more familiar music that could be interfaced to the sound system so that we Westerners could also enjoy the disco.

Jaipur – 30 December 2010

An early morning start got most of us to the parking lot for Amber Fort (pronounced Ameer) in good time before the queue for the elephant ride to the fort was too long. The queue at least doubled in length in the short time we were in it. Unfortunately two of the party had succumbed to the Indian travellers curse and elected to stay behind at the hotel.

Although tour manager had strenuously attempted to dissuade the party from taking the elephant ride, 6 of us were not to be put off and so we ascended the hill to the fort, lurchingly swaying from side to side on the backs of the elephants. It is just one of those things one has to do.

The forts were getting rather repetitious in their style and layout, but this one had a room that was inlaid inside and out with mirrors. Unfortunately tourists are no longer allowed inside and can only view through the doorways but the effect outside is to give the area a bluish tinge; an attempt to make the place feel cooler on the hot summer days.


From there we were taken to the obligatory “tour operator and government approved” jewellery manufacturing and selling establishment and on to the City Palace where there was a textile museum and an art gallery that had basically been stripped of its art works. After lunch at the cafe there, we crossed the road to the Observatory, completed in 1734.

The observatory is an incredibly fascinating place with a massive sundial accurate to 2 seconds; built after the smaller one, accurate to 20 seconds, was deemed insufficient. A well as huge structures to measure the inclination of the sun, there are a range of structures used for astrology as this is very important in Hindu culture. All of these were reliant on the sun to work and for the brief time we were there the sun was shining, enabling us to see them in operation.

Besides these, there were many other “instruments” for celestial observations and since the stars were not out we could only read about them and imagine it.

The afternoon was rounded off with a visit to the Bapu Bazaar to try our hand at bargaining for trinkets.

The Magical Mystery Tour – 29 December 2010

Shortly after leaving Agra we stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, another Mughal palace built in 1569, that was only occupied for 16 years. Akbar met a holy man here who predicted he would have a son, which he duly did and so he moved his capital here along with 60000 people from Agra. He was a bit of a radical in that he had a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian as his three main wives, He had a goodly number of others, as well as concubines; but for these three favourite wives he built a house each, in the palace complex.

Although he was very enlightened with regard to religious tolerance, he had one peculiar fascination; he liked to to watch people die in front of him so he had a raised stone in the courtyard upon which his favourite elephant would crush the unfortunate victim's head underfoot.

After this stop, today's programme was to be a fairly boring trip to Jaipur but the reality was far from that. About a hour before our scheduled lunch stop we pulled to the side of the dual carriageway in a small village in the middle of nowhere.

We were told that a local farming caste protest group had barricaded the main highway and that we were thus going to take a detour to our designated lunch break stop. All we needed was a guide to escort us along the detour and that he would be with us in about 5 minutes. Five became 30 without any escort appearing but we did provide great amusement for the local kids who came to stare and wave at the foreigners in their midst.

Eventually the driver decided to simply go against the flow of obviously detoured traffic that was coming the other way out off the side road that we were waiting by, a simple and obvious decision that could have been taken much earlier. So, in convoy with some other buses that had joined us and about a dozen cars, we set off down the back road. Whilst it was nominally sealed all the way it was more suited to 4x4 vehicles for significant stretches, It was also not well suited to pass oncoming buses but our driver always managed to squeeze past.

The upside was a fantastic, unscheduled tour through rural India and the locals were obviously as unaccustomed to us as we were to them as they turned out in significant numbers all along the route to cheer and wave as we passed. At one village we saw a number of tractors towing trailers jam-packed with locals and discovered that it was their intention to blockade the detour as well, They graciously allowed our convoy through before completing their plan. A couple of kilometres further on there was a small fire in the middle of road which the bus simply drove over, Whether it was part of the protest or not was not clear.

Having finally met our escort we eventually made it back to the main road and the lunch place but wondered at the end of the meal, why we had bothered, the place, the food and the service all being less than inspiring. After lunch we once again left the main road, this time at an official police detour to venture north around the second protest barricade. Once again it was a wonderful tour through villages and rural towns where life is very much lived on the street, and sights that we would never have seen otherwise. Clearly this extra time taken rather upset the programme for the day but the additional optional-extra scheduled for the evening was one that we had already decided to forgo anyway so no great loss for us.

The hotel for the night was described as 'heritage' with all rooms different. We were welcomed with a hot towel & a coke – interesting mix, and a power outage! The entry room looked fascinating with old family black and white portraits, but we were blown away when shown to our room – really a suite of rooms with marble floors throughout, and about twice the size of our London apartment. Unlike the Clarks Shiraz in Agra, which tried to look like quality, this was the real thing in a rural type of way. Castle Kanota Hotel is down a rural side road in the township of Kanota. The rural setting meant we all had to dine there and because it was a set menu we did not have to decide what we would eat, Fortunately it was all quite delicious.

Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal – 28 December 2010

Visiting the Taj Mahal for sunrise was not an option as the winter fog meant that it would be an exercise in futility. The guides even suggested that we did not make the Taj Mahal our first visit as it would be too crowded with “all the other tour groups there”. What logic drew them to that conclusion, and whether or not it was correct, we will never know but because they were in charge we followed the plan and set off for the Agra Fort.

This imposing structure was built in 1565 and ended up as the location where Mughal Emperor Shahjahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal spent his last 8 years, under house arrest, gazing down the river to his beautiful creation in honour of his favourite wife: The fog prevented us from enjoying that view.

Finally, we arrived at India's crown jewel; the Taj Mahal, which translates to Crown Palace. Regardless of the fact that you may have seen hundreds of photos or documentaries of this building, to walk through the gate and catch your first glimpse of this place is breathtaking.

Naturally everyone is jockeying for the central spot to take the symmetrical photo and everywhere you think there may be an interesting angle or reflection to exploit there is someone standing there ready to point it out to you in return for rupees: A most annoying feature.

Also totally crowded is the “Diana bench” with every man, women and child ready to adopt the pose for family or professional photographers. And there are always those using perspective to pose with them holding up the dome between finger and thumb. Snapped, a little off-centre, they appear quite stupid.

It is a great shame that Shahjahan's son arrested him and prevented him from building his matching black Taj on the opposite bank for his own mausoleum, they would have made an exquisitely stunning pair. But one is certainly better than none and the Taj Mahal truly ranks as one of the world's great sights.

The designers left nothing to chance, even canting out the four minarets by 8” so that they would fall outwards in the case of an earthquake rather than inwards and disturb the tomb.

Reluctantly dragging ourselves away we fought off the trinket sellers and made our way back to our bus for the short ride back to the hotel and lunch. Our (Italian) Tour Manager confirmed what we had read on the web that the cafe in the hotel foyer serve fantastic coffee so we waited an inordinately long time for some coffee to be delivered; one of the worst cups of, supposedly, cappuccino we have ever been served, anywhere.

Still, the waiting filled in the time until we set off for the afternoon excursion to Itmad-Ud-Daulah.
This mausoleum, completed in 1635, three years before the Taj Mahal, was the first building in India built completely in marble. While exquisitely detailed it is considerably smaller than the Taj Mahal, earning it the nickname “Baby Taj” and is thought to be the inspiration for the second and more well known marble building.

Off to Agra – 27 December 2010

The first scheduled stop in Delhi at the ruins of an old mosque was abandoned at the gate because of the thick fog, so we settled in for the 6-hour coach trip to Agra. The first stop was a rather smart restaurant where we enjoyed a light lunch.

As compensation for missing out on the fog-shrouded Qutub Minar, we stopped instead at Sikandra, the mausoleum for Emperor Akbar, built by his son. It has an interesting mix of Hindu (flowers) and Muslim (geometric designs) architecture. The water features no longer contain water, but considering it was completed in 1613, it is a remarkably well preserved monument. It is very dominated by the number 4 or multiples thereof in the towers, gates, rooms and so on. The only exception being that it has 5 floors,

Agra was only a short distance away, but soon after leaving Sikandra, the traffic jams began in earnest. The population here is 2.5 million compared to Delhi's 18 million, but they also can create serious traffic jams.

Our Hotel was the pleasant Clarks Shiraz, and after an tasty Indian meal, we could still hear the car horns tooting outside on one of the 'quiet' streets in Agra. I suspect they may go all night!