Late start today and we left the hostel around 11:15 by Uber. Uber seems to work well in Hyderabad as the roads are better and more cars than scooters or tuk-tuks. The family energy level is low, and the day promises to be warm, around 26’C, which is a shock to our system.
Into the old city, and view Mecca Masjid, a mosque where some of the soil came from Mecca, hence the name, and the iconic mosque next door, the Charminar, with four minarets and arches, at the junction of four laneways, with clocks in each face. Some scaffolding, so you can’t see the full glory, but it looks impressive. Becky has to put on a scarf to enter Mecca Masjid, which she likes, but feels that all the people are staring at her, which she doesn’t like. She’d like to shop, but doesn’t want any personal service, so we don’t.
Then tuk-tuk to the Osmangunj flower market, where we had more selfies, and interesting to see the sewing flower petals together with a big needed.
We thought about lunch, but wary of Indian food before the flight, so decide to buy some fruit and wait for western food at the airport, which is about 50 minutes (35 km) from the city.
Back at the hostel, so writing quickly before we leave for the airport. It’s been an interesting holiday full of new sights, sounds, smells, tastes and interesting discussions, but not relaxing. Everyone will be pleased to be home, richer for the experience.
The day started early, and Alan prepared porridge for Becky and Alan, whilst Jamie wanted to wait and buy something en route. We left the hostel at 6:30 and for once struggled to find a tuk-tuk, and then were not sure he knew where he was going. But he dropped us at the bus station, so we thought all good, until we showed the drivers our ticket. This was the government bus station. Google said the office we needed was nearby, so we walked, but Google was wrong. I asked another bus driver and conductor, and one pointed one way, and one the opposite. Eventually a nice English student helped us and phoned the driver to collect us where we were. By this stage we were 15 minutes late, but luckily the bus hadn’t arrived, so it was all good. Jamie slept most of the journey, and we started on a good toll road at about 70 – 80 km/h, but later it was a single lane windy road. 315 km in 7 hours with one toilet/food stop, where we only bought biscuits. It was a sleeper bus, but we’d booked upright seats. Many people sat cross legged on the beds, which we would have found uncomfortable. We were all glad to hop off that bus.
Then a local tuk-tuk who dropped us down the hill from our hostel, and the hostel doesn’t have a kitchen, and we are up a couple of floors, but it has a lovely view over the lake. Out to a late lunch and Jamie and Becky have chips, and Alan has pullou, which today is just rice and peas, with no spice. We all have a third, and feel better. Sometimes the portions here are large.
The usual what to do question, but Becky’s legs are tired from the bus, so we take a tuk-tuk, then mandatory government taxi up a very windy hill to the local palace, which turns out to be a run down, ramshackle building. It is freezing cold from the wind, and the view, whilst nice, is very smoggy. We were there for sunset, but go early. At A$10 each, it is a surprising expensive lookout entry fee and overall disappointing. We did have tea there at the restaurant, which was pleasantly hot.
Jamie wants western dinner, so he chooses the restaurant, but the meal is still spicy. Jamie and Becky have chips as starter and a watery milkshake and then a burger, whilst Alan’s korma is good and not too spicy.
On the way home, Jamie stops for a shave, and the barber upsells a hair cut too, and then only “shaves” with an electric trimmer, rather than the cut throat razor we expected, and the cost was then A$6, so not cheap and disappointing.
Tomorrow we are going to Jaisamand, the nearby lake recommended by the man on the train, which he said was a lovely drive, so Alan is excited for the day ahead.
New today: donkeys on the streets in the old city narrow lanes transporting rubble; Q: how to “tow” a motor scooter? A: ride behind on another scooter with your foot on the back bar of the broken scooter. And another instance of showing your ticket to be allowed to leave – why?
Another Rajasthan city, another fort and this one is a beauty. Never conquered with interesting spikes to repel elephant battering, well above our head height. We’ve got a few student discounts here, and the fort was one, and included a free audio guide, which was fantastic. Better than any of the human guides we’ve had. The tour pointed out many interesting elements, and the collection of artifacts, paintings and craft was really interesting. As an example, they decorated bamboo horizontal screens, not by painting, but by wrapping coloured thread around parts of the bamboo to create an image that looks like a painting.
The women’s quarters were interesting and fully screened so no-one could see in, but they could see out a little. But no males could enter (except the King and close male relatives), and there were no internal partitions so no privacy. Once the woman went in to the quarters, she only left when her husband/consort died, to be burned alive on his pier. Has a lot of the same characteristics of a jail, but they sound well treated.
Then we walked out the back exit (had to show your ticket here) to the old, blue city and through lots of narrow alleys and a traffic jam. We got some directions around the jam, and found ourselves near our hostel so stopped for lunch. Becky only had some roti, but Alan had cashew tissula (luckily not spicy) or similar, and Jamie said his dish was nice. We also had a snack at the fort. Back at the hostel for a couple of hours rest before the sunset tour. Also picked up some milk for tomorrow breakfast, as the local shops don’t open till 10:30 or so, so Alan had to walk a long way this morning for milk.
The sunset tour organised by the hostel (A$3 each) was nice, though the smog means you don’t get spectacular cloud colours like Australia, and then we went to the clock tower, nicely lit up, and had local lassi made on buttermilk, which tasted like our yoghurt, which Becky didn’t like.
Then dinner, which was a saga. The guide said we’d get dinner cheaper if we used Uber eats than going out, so we tried, but the restaurant I’d picked didn’t make a plain dish like biryani, so the guide said pullou was the same, but then the payment failed, and in the end, Alan just walked to the restaurant and got take-away. Oh boy, it was spicy, but jumping forward, the next pullou we tried had no spice.
The hostel had organised a party, which we declined, but they smoked on the rooftop, which flowed straight into our room, so a pretty uncomfortable night prior to an early morning.
Steep stairs in the hostel, converted from an old home
Jodhpur palace
Kids up late after last night’s train, but Jamie said the girl that had the overnight bus slept almost all the day, so we are not too bad. Alan went and bought some oats and long life milk today to make porridge – yippee – as the restaurant only sometimes have porridge and the quality varies. So Becky and Alan enjoyed banana porridge today at the hostel and then went out with Jamie for his breakfast at a local restaurant. That also allows Alan to have a normal instant coffee, hot with no sugar, which at this stage is a real treat.
After booking the bus to Udaipur through the hostel, and enquiring unsuccessfully about horse riding here, we took a Tuk-Tuk to the local palace, which was built during World War 2 as a poverty relief effort by the local maharajah before Indian independence in the art deco style, and whilst designed by a English architect, most of the internal paintings and fit-out were created in India after the originals were sunk by the Germans en route. The palace now serves three purposes as a museum that we saw, a very up-market hotel, and still the maharajah’s residence. The air was clean and the traffic is not a problem here, so it is much more pleasant than Jaipur.
The Maharajah also built a dam in the same period (still the city’s main water supply), led a polo team to England, and established an international airport before Delhi, so he was an interesting character.
We went back to the same restaurant for dinner, and Becky had fries again as she is still a bit sensitive, and Alan had chow-mein off the Chinese menu thinking they would not be as spicy as the Indian food, but that was an incorrect assumption! An early night in the hostel, ready for another easy day tomorrow.
Can’t believe we only have four more days of sight seeing left in India.
Lazy start today (5 Feb 2019), as I’m writing this at 11 am and the kids are still sleeping because of last night’s train <sigh>. We rushed to the train last night to find it was 30 minutes late, which eventually became 2 hours. We waited on the platform, which had no spare seats, but Becky was so exhausted she just sat on the platform. Anyway eventually a train pulled in with the wrong number, and much confusion, but I spoke to someone with good English who explained he also was going to Jodhpur in our train carriage, so after a change of platform we boarded. So we booked three tickets together, and the configuration is 3+ 2, so our allocated seats were two on one side of the carriage, and Alan was on the other window, and coincidentally next to the man on the platform.
He was travelling to Jodhpur by train for a court case in the Rajasthan (an Indian state) high court hearing tomorrow. We had a long and interesting talk, starting with audio books (he has a subscription he describes as expensive at A$4/month, whilst I get mine free from the Brisbane library), to the places to visit in India (he recommended we have a half day in Udaipur to Jai Samand lake, the largest man made lake in Asia (Lake Kariba on the Zambezi is the largest in the world), as it is a beautiful natural spot. He showed me pictures of his family and he has one nephew who will travel with him, so he plans to backpack in Africa. I asked about why the high court is in Jodhpur, as it is not the capital, and when the states were being set up by the English, the various original prince states vied for the capital, and the politics meant that the losers, like Jodhpur, got some of the institutions, in this case the High Court.
He has two daughters, so I asked about the girl-boy imbalance, and he said he wouldn’t provide dowries for his girls. Even now, in some places in India there is a shortage of brides. He has defended some doctors accused of revealing the sex of the foetus, as that is illegal in India. The reason the Indians prefer boys enough to kill the girls is two reasons: one is the dowry system, where the girl’s parents pay the husband’s family, but the other important one is the Hindu belief that to reach the after-life, you need a son to light the fire that burns your body. He wasn’t worried about that however, so cultural attitudes are changing.
I also asked about the constitution and who managed telecoms, as our Vodafone service has to roam between states. But telecom is a federal responsibility, but the government auctioned off the radio allocation “spectrum” in different states at different times, so not every operator got a network in all the states – crazy. So there is only one carrier that serves most of India, and that is Reliance owned Jio. Good to know before you buy a SIM. However I seem to have got the Vodafone SIM working again today after changing the settings.
Becky and Jamie tried to sleep on the train, and ate some of the snacks we had bought from Australia – the nuts and Becky liked the “spicy” jerky, so hopefully she is well today.
The hostel is close to the train station and we walked here last night. They didn’t have our booking, and the check in process here requires copying the passports, etc, so that it took almost an hour, till 2 am, to get to bed, and then I had trouble falling asleep. Go figure. The dorm was quiet last night, but it is on a main road and a bit noisy this morning. No cafe, but there is a kitchen, so we might be able to buy some breakfast to make porridge.
Lazy day at hostel as late in last night on the train around 2 am. Washing two loads, which take an hour each, with the hostel having to buy more detergent between loads, so nothing happens fast. A$4 per load for small machine so surprisingly expensive at hostel, but per piece rates would have been more. Alan unwell, but much improved. Jamie and Becky talked about doing a walk around the hostel but didn’t.
In the photos today is the “Unicornetto” for Lexie, and the toilet roll comparison – the rolls provided in the rooms are tiny, and even the ones Alan bought at the shops are much smaller than Australia – don’t know why!
Dinner at local restaurant for A$13. I had vegetable biryani as still unwell.
Now at movies at historic large theatre “Rajima Madir” to see a Hindi film “Manikarina” about the war between English and Indian emperor. We’ve been told that it is a cultural sensation to see an Indian movie, so there is much anticipation. Interestingly we usually have to queue by sex – and the box office here is no exception with males to the left and women to the right. So the show was good and Becky wants it translated so she knows what happens, although the basic plot was understandable. The large crowd cheered as the heroine appeared, and at several critical points in the movie, and clapped at times, so it was very different to Australia. The theatre itself reminds me of Her Majesties in the mall, and has a capacity of 1200. There were all in the foyer, until the many doors opened and then everyone surged in, and the same at the end, where we spilled straight out into a back alley, thence walked onto the street stopping all the traffic. Another iconic Indian experience is that they use whistles, eg for traffic and again in the theatre to direct people to the exit. The kids ate chocolate and soft drinks during the intermission. The movie was 3 hours, so after queuing for 30 minutes for the tickets (only Indian credit cards accepted for online bookings, as is typical here), it was 10 pm before we got home.
The hostel has great beds, curtains, and lights, but the kitchen is only a microwave and even getting two cups is a challenge. The in house cafe is expensive. as most are.
Jaipur day 2.
Traffic jam city.
Dogs, cows, rickshaws, bikes are common in streets, but today we added elephants and camels (near the fort, so 8 km from city) and a bullock dray. The smog was so bad in two traffic jams that I felt sick. Becky is sicker today, but I’m a bit better but still on porridge and rice.
Over breakfast, as I again was first up at the cafe at 8 am opening time, I met two English girls, Grace, a midwife and Emma, a financial planner, that were touring for 5 months after quitting their jobs. One had an inheritance from a grandfather that encouraged her travels, but her parents thought she should settle down and save for a house. They had travelled last year through SE Asia, and loved Philippines so much that they want to go back due to friendly people and beautiful locations. Grace interestingly said that some London boroughs don’t tell parents their foetus’s sex at 20 weeks due to concerns about terminating girls in the Indian community. They also used the micro filter water bottles and saved buying bottled water, which is interesting, as there are lots of places offering drinking water for free (most cafes, train stations, on the street), but we’ve avoided as the quality is unknown, but they’ve been drinking OK.
Took a Tuk-tuk for the day for A$12, as that saves negotiating each time, etc. and he probably saved us that by telling us the first sight was not worth the admission price, so just view from the outside. That first sight was Hawa Mahal. A very tall imposing dying in the cities signature pink sandstone.
Then to Amer (Amber) fort, a truly huge complex with surrounding walls on the hill, a sister fort and a tunnel between the forts. Becky was quite unwell here, but Jamie went ahead to explore, whilst she and Alan just took 100 meters at a time with a sit and rest and then she felt better and we saw it all.
Then the first of two traffic jams just after stopping for a photo near the water palace, which would have been a cool respite in the scorching summer here.
On to the city palace, built in the 19th century, with an interesting armoury, clothes collection and fancy reception hall.
Went back to last night’s restaurant for lunch. Becky had plain rice, I had a very plain vegetable biryani, but Jamie’s appetite is good and he had half a chicken, fried, which he reports as very nice.
Quick turnaround at
the hostel for toilet, bags and water, then 5 minutes to the train station,
where the Tuk-tuk finally stopped, after stalling many times today.
Train is late, first 30 minutes, but eventually 2 hours, so our hoped for midnight bedtime is a forlorn dream. It’s our last train ride in India and we are trying “chair class” tonight, which is like airline seats, with a 3+2 configuration. Next one bus and one flight. Kids are keen to get home now.
New today. People were taking photos of us whilst we were sitting in our Tuk-tuk in the traffic jam.
I wouldn’t come back to Jaipur due to the traffic, as it was sickening. The fort was impressive, but the Agra fort was also very impressive, and how many forts do you need to see?
On the train, we met Cindy Dubois, tour guide in Paris, and friend Thomas, and also a French couple from between Marseille and Lyons. Cindy created a tie of prostitute houses in Paris that got her some notoriety. Look her up on the Web.
At the station, which is 8 km from the town, we accepted an offer of a hotel room (at Yogi hotel, recommended for the charming host) to freshen up and store our luggage for the day, and a car to use as a transfer rather than a tuk-tuk. Great choice as we went to a local national park “Raneh Falls” about 20 km from town. Had a guide (compulsory).
Canyon spectacular. Volcanic crater too. Five different types of rock next to each other in spectacular contrast: basalt; granite; ?felspar, quartz and one I’ve forgotten…
Animals were interesting in the national park. Antelope (surprisingly big), spotted deer, baby antelope, monkeys with baby, crocodiles from afar, wild boar, grand peacocks. It made a lovely contrast and respite from the bustling cities. Khajuraho itself was quiet, which was also nice.
The photos show the
canyon, which becomes completely full in the monsoon.
India reminds me and Becky of the Ekka. Animals everywhere. Have to be careful where you step. People shooting at you with their wares, and the wonderful smell of a mass of people and animals.
Lots of people
drawing water from roadside communal water hand pumps, washing their clothes
and vehicles at the river ford.
The temples were
amazing, though to note, only a few of the carvings were erotic. But the number
and detail of the cabins and the temple were truly impressive.
Back on the train less than 12 hours later. Train carriage is split into two and rooms with a door and either 4 or 2 beds, bunk style in each room in 1AC. Further down, where we are in 2AC, the rooms are more compact with no doors and extra beds across the aisle.
Update: the next few paras were caught in a draft, so not sure I’ve written about these. Anyway, here they are:
Yesterday we chatted to a young German girl at our lunch spot when she helpfully started the conversation by explaining one of the menu items was. She was a single girl (boyfriend she met in Peru, still there) travelling in a gap year through South America and now India. I asked about personal safety. Her experience was that she never felt unsafe in either place, though there were lots of stares (Becky, and even Jamie and I get those) and questions for her whether she has a boyfriend, but not unsafe. Her observation was that the Indians are always interested in your money, so travelling is hard here, but easy in South America where they leave you alone, which is mostly good except when you need some help and it can be hard to engage with the locals.
Another point of interest here and in Nepal is the electrical plugs. Most have a multi set of pins, but it is a game as to which of our electrical adapters will fit. Some take the Aussie plug which is a firm fit, or the UK plug, also good. A lot take the US two parallel pins which is a bit wobbly sometimes, and worst is the two round European pins which hardly support the adapter. It is interesting how the world got so many plugs, and most exist here.
The beds are really firm here, which has given us side sleepers sore hips.
We had planned to go to Bodh Gaya today, as my earlier research said a 2 hour train ride, with trains hourly. But when I went to book, the journey is 5 hours, and only a few trains a day. The car distance is 277 km, so must be 4 hours each way, so too long. So we’ll have a quieter day in Varanasi today. Jamie and Becky are still asleep as I write this (8:15). In fact, India wakes up late – the hostel staff who sleep in the common room are not yet up, and at the last hostel, breakfast didn’t start till 8:30 am.
Gender observations : Plenty of urinals around the streets. Typically just two urinals in a indent in the wall, with minimal screening. Often good toilets at bus stations and the like, but not around where we are staying. The tuk-tuk drivers are all men, as are the shopkeepers. There might be an occasional women. There are definitely female security guards at the train metro and the historical monuments were they search men and women, but otherwise women are not working. We did see plenty of women washing clothes, and some women in Khajuraho weeding the lawn. Interesting.
Serendipity: We researched the Bodh Gaya side trip (have I written about this?) but found that the trains took a lot longer than I had found earlier, and the road distance is 277 km. Given the low speed that everyone travels at, it was not possible to visit. So we went to Sarnath instead. Fantastic. Huge Buddha with fountains and dahlias made for some great photos.
Sarnath is where Buddha made his first sermon, so is considered the birth place of Buddhism, even though he achieved enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. Then up the road a little to a British built museum on the archaeological treasures of the site. The displays were good and the toilets smelt of Pine-O-Clean. Then we tried to find the park, but ended up wandering into a little village that we got shoed out of. They were digging up the road with one digger, and maybe 30 people, and motor bikes and pedestrians were just walking through the site.
Then Becky wasn’t feeling well and ended up vomiting. Argh! But she recovered well after that and we took a Tuk-Tuk back to the hostel, walked to the train station, had a basic meal at the refreshment rooms and on to the platform in time. Off to Khajuraho tonight.
Rushed dinner. Packed train. American Chinese. Big tour. Chaos as they didn’t have seat allocation and mostly had big bags and didn’t have blankets.
Up bright and early, which is more than you could say for the weather. Cold, foggy, but we thought it would warm up like yesterday, which was shorts and t-shirt weather. Alas, the day remained foggy and cloudy. A tuk tuk driver appeared as we left our 1 star hotel at 5:30. Amazing. We were at the Taj entrance gate at 6 am, which was the official opening time (fee A$25 each). Actually, they started letting people in at 6:40. We had a reasonable view as we went in, and then spent a long time in the mausoleum (Alan went around twice) because we thought the fog would lift with some time. It wasn’t crowded, but did get busy after we left. However, it didn’t, and cold, hungry, we left around 9:30. The Taj was magnificent, and the gardens impressive.
A local breakfast, OK at A$10 total, then walked to the Taj protected forest, A$2 each but didn’t stay long as Alan was feeling unwell. Bought a couple of souvenirs. Back to the cloak room where Alan had lost his ticket and had to look through all the lockers, twice, to find his bag. The Taj security was very thorough, looking through all the bags, pockets (eg my toilet paper, notebook, etc). Shower at the hotel, after an electric tuk-tuk for some clean up before the train at 6 pm.
Alan was sick with diarrhoea, and the kids were excellent. Becky ordered and paid for dinner, which is uncomfortable for her, and Jamie sorted the trains, carried the bags and both were very caring. We couldn’t sort the tickets online, but got to the station early where a very kind railway man sorted everything for us. He was based in the tourist office, but took us personally to the ticket office, sorted the tickets and we paid for an upgrade to first class, which was very good for us, as we had a four berth cabin to ourselves, and I went straight to sleep.
Jamie kept an eye on the train position. One confusing part of train travel here is to figure out when to get off. The stations are not well signed, and the trains often run late, so it is tricky. We got off in a suburb of Jaipur, but luckily asked on the platform for “Jaipur junction” and someone said, in broken English “next station”. So quickly back on for another 10 minutes. Phew!
Moustache hostel in Jaipur is nice – we are in a 4 bed dorm with ensuite. Basic washing facility, and only microwave, so hard to make a coffee.
Models: compact, 3 across, plus driver andco-pilot. Maximum capacity 15.
Deluxe model: two rows of seats; 2 per row.Slightly longer.
Powered by: old ones are petrol powered motorcycle derived and often polluting.
New ones are electric and almost silent,apart from the near continuous sounding of the horn. But they don’t go as fastas the petrol ones.
We arrived on time from the train at 02:20 amand got a “government” taxi for A$7 to our hotel. We had planned toget an Uber, but have had little success with them here, and Alan’s phone haslost internet access inexplicably, so Uber is difficult. The hotel had left aworker sleeping outside for us to wake up the internal person to let us in. Wehave a private room – very nice with three beds and two blankets. Alan wascold. In the morning we breakfasted in the hotel, and it transpired that we hadtwo rooms booked, so Jamie is in his own room tonight.
After a slow start, we went to the Agra Fort- a huge complex, of which 75% is still used by the army, but the pretty 25%that was the palaces is open for display. We hired a guide A$20, waste ofmoney, who showed us around for an hour, but was interested in arranging alater tour, lunch, shopping, etc for us. That is a common experience here. Thefort was truly impressive, particularly since the rock was transported 40 km,and the inside palace, upgraded to limestone, was quarried 160 km away andtransported by elephant, horse, camel, etc.
We had a filling lunch opposite the busstation, but surprisingly expensive in Agra at A$8 or so. Then tuk-tuk home forrest for the kids whilst Alan did a lap or three of the local blocks lookingfirst for the Vodafone store (success) and a mini-market – as expensive asAustralia for toilet paper, tissues, tea bags, powdered milk (only availablewith sugar) and two “large” chocolate bars about the size of twoFreddos.
Off to the viewing point opposite the TajMahal for sunset, which was nice, but as always in India, smoggy frompollution. The Tuk Tuk driver tried to stop at his friend’s art shop, etc, muchto our annoyance. Lovely dinner, albeit a bit spicy for Becky, but we noticedone of the locals was sweating profusely with his dinner so we felt we did OK.Ice cream for dessert (A$0.80 for cornetto), and see photo for Lexie of a”unicornetto”.
Brake Family Adventures 