It was a night train from Amritsar to the holy city of Haridwar. Haridwar is regarded as one of the seven holiest places to Hindus. According to the Samudra manthan Haridwar along with Ujjain, Nasik, and Allahabad is one of four sites where drops of Amrit, the elixir of immortality, accidentally spilled over from the pitcher while being carried by the celestial bird Garuda. Our pick-up met us promptly and we piled into a taxi for the 25 KM drive north to the Yoga and Meditation town of Rishikesh. In Sanskrit the root words Hrishik and ish join together to make Hrishikesh. Hrishik means Senses and ish means master or Lord. Hence the word means Lord of Senses or Lord Vishnu. The place gets its name after Lord Vishnu appeared to 'Raibhya Rishi' as a result of his tapasya (austerities), as Lord Hrishikesh. Rishikesh, sometimes nicknamed "the world capital of Yoga", has numerous yoga centres that also attract tourists. It is believed that meditation in Rishikesh brings one closer to attainment of moksha, as does a dip in the holy river that flows through it. The Beatles came and stayed here in 1968 to visit a now closed ashram.
We were slated to spend a few days here to soak in the contemplative environs and enjoy the pleasant climate in the area. Unfortunately, we both came down with a flu of sorts. We believe it was a result of being up in the chilly Himalayas, then moving to sweaty Amritsar, and being a little stressed about travel. We did manage to take a walk across one of the bridges over the Ganges to check out the Swarg Ashram and the left overs of a large yoga conference. We also lucked out and found a restaurant in the backpacker area that served meat... we visited them frequently. Janet happened to fall ill a day earlier than I did, so as she rested I did a little side hike up the valley to a small waterfall where I had a refreshing shower before heading back to the hotel. Aside from a few excursions through the bazaars and up to that restaurant, we didn't do too much in Rishikesh. Three days later we climbed into a taxi around 5am to make it back to the train station in Haridwar and begin our journey to another of India's holy cities... Varanasi.
Our train dropped us off in New Delhi for a few hours before we had to make a connecting train to get us all the way to Varanasi. We basically hung out at the tour office and enjoyed endless cups of free chai tea, air conditioning, and free internet. The tour office got us a tuk-tuk to get back to the train station in time for our night train south. We arrived with about 30 minutes to spare... but, alas, that wasn't enough. For some reason our train's number wasn't showing up on the electronic boards, so we began wandering around the massive station asking random people who looked like they might work there. We met with limited success as no one seemed to speak enough English to help us out. We ended up on a platform with a train headed to Varanasi on it, but we couldn't find our coach number. As the scheduled time for the train's departure came and passed, this train remained stationary, and a bit too quiet for a train about to leave. So we wandered some more and discovered that the train we had found was indeed going to Varanasi... in a few hours and that OUR train to Varanasi had already left. GAH!
Janet seemed to remain completely calm while I proceeded to experience a minor meltdown... Varanasi was a place I REALLY wanted to see and the rest of our time in India was more or less all booked and planned out. Miss this and it's missed for good. We proceeded to burn a good deal of time waiting to get served at the foreigner ticket office (foreigners usually have to buy their tickets from a different office than locals) only to find out that because the train we wanted left in less than 2 hours, we would have to go to the local ticket window. Once there we had little choice but to shell out the money for the only coach they would let us buy onto... the first class coach. With tickets in hand we promptly made it to the correct platform and set up camp directly outside our coach... no way we were going to miss this one! We also called up our contact who would be waiting for us on the other end and warned him that we would be a couple hours later than he expected us... we made it... phew!
We still managed to arrive in Varanasi fairly early in the day and we were met promptly by our pick-up... quite a relief after our train debacle the previous evening. Varanasi is one of the seven holy cities of India... some might say it is THE holiest. It is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world with people living there for 3,000 years. Some believe it to be THE oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, but Jericho competes for this title. Some locals told us they believe there have been people living there for up to 6,000 years. Regardless, it is the oldest city in India. Varanasi is not only a holy city to Hindus but also to Buddhists (Gautama Buddha founded Buddhism in the nearby suburb of Sarnath - Buddhists also call it Isipatana), and Jains because three Jain Tirthankars were born there.
The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganges bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Assi, with the Ganges being to its south. Another speculation about the origin of the name is that the river Varuna itself was called Varanasi in olden times, from which the city got its name. This is generally disregarded by historians, though there may be some earlier texts suggesting it to be so. According to legend, the city was founded by the Hindu deity Lord Shiva, several thousand years ago, thus making it one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in the country. It is also a general belief that it stands on the weapon "The Trishool" (Trident) of Lord Shiva. It is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus. Many Hindu scriptures, including the Rigveda, Skanda Purana, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata, mention the city.
We decided to freshen up at the hotel before venturing to the famous Buddhist sites in the area. On the way to the suburb of Sarnath (Isipatana) we stopped at the Chaukhandi Stupa. This large ruined stupa dates back to the 5th century C.E., and marks the spot where Buddha met his first disciples. The tower on top of the stupa is Mughal and was constructed there in the 16th century to commemorate the visit of Emperor Humayun (we saw his tomb in Delhi). After a brief wander around the ruins we headed into Sarnath proper where we checked out the Archaeological museum housing many of the carvings originally found around the Dhamekh Stupa and Monestary ruins across the street where Buddha gave his first sermon. Then we took a relaxing stroll through the ruins and contemplated some of Buddha's teachings while sitting where he first preached. Not quite templed out yet, we decided to check out the Mulagandhakuti Vihara Buddhist Temple which backs onto the deer park Buddha hung out in, and then to satisfy Janet's Chinese Buddhist inclinations we dropped by the Chinese Buddhist temple a few doors down the road. The day was VERY hot... over 40 degrees celcius, so we were quite ready to chill out in the hotel room until the sun went away and things cooled down a bit. Later in the evening we went for a walk down to the Ganges river and the burning ghats where we sat down and watched human bodies in various stages of cremation for an hour or so... a very grounding experience. A local fellow hung out with us and explained some of the specifics about cremation in Varanasi.
Although there were a few bodies at various stages of cremation, there was one gathering where the group was placing the body on a kind of raft. So I asked about this. Apparently there are 5 kinds of corpses Hindus do not cremate: 1) Corpses of pregnant women 2) Corpses of children 3) Corpses of people who die from Leprosy 4) Corpses of people who die from cobra bite 5) Corpses of holy people. The corpses of dead lepers get floated out into the middle of the Ganges river and then sunk with a large stone on their chest. The bodies are left at the bottom of the river. The rest are typically wrapped and placed on banana tree logs and floated about 300 kms down the river to a spot where people sit and wait for such bodies and retrieve them. They then perform special rites over the bodies before cremating them there. The reason cobra bite is a special situation is because Cobras (like cows) are thought to have been a form Shiva or Vishnu took on earth at one time or another. This being the case, people dieing from cobra bite are thought have been touched by god and so are treated differently.
The next day we got a sunrise boat ride along the ghats on the Ganges. To be honest... it was more interesting to walk amongst them instead. However, the boat ride did afford us the opportunity the witness the many other activities which take place on the ghats along the Ganges river. There were clothes washers, pilgrims performing prayers, people bathing, people cooking, people working on their boats, and people drinking from the holy Ganga. To my mind it's a wonder how half the population in Varanasi isn't dead from some sort of water-born illness... I suppose the Ganga really is blessed... go figure. After the boat ride we went back to the hotel to get some breakfast in us and prepare for our tour that day.
First off was a visit to the new Vishwanath temple at the Banaras Hindu University. At this point we were pretty templed out and tired of paying entrance fees, so we just wandered around outside for a bit. It was built by and industrialist family as a replica of the original Vishwanath temple dedicated to Shiva. Next up was a drive by of the Durga Temple, a.k.a. the Red temple. The Durga temple is a temple to the goddess Durga and is also called the Monkey temple due to the monkeys which sometimes hang around there. In Hinduism, Durga is represented as the embodiment of shakti or female power, clad in red, riding a tiger and fully armed with Shiva's trident, Vishnu's discus and a sword. Non-Hindus can enter the courtyard of the Durga temple but not the inner sanctum. Next up was the Bharat Mata Temple of Varanasi. The idol of Bharat Mata is built in marble and is a model of undivided India, depicting the mountains, plains and oceans. The temple also houses a relief map of India, carved out of marble.
Next up was a brief tour of the Muslim quarter in Varanasi where they make hand-made rugs of various types. Like the ones in Kashmir, some of these rugs can take up to 2 months to complete and sell for a few hundred US dollars... more if they export them to foreign markets. After we de-sweated at the hotel we decided to go for a daytime meander to the other burning ghats we had missed the night before. Apparently, these were the REAL burning ghats. There were 4 tiers of cremation fires for 4 different social levels of people. The lowest was for the lowest caste members, next for the mid level caste members, the highest was for the high level caste members, and a special place was reserved for burning some types of holy people. They told us they burn 200-300 bodies per day there, year round and they use special kinds of wood to cover up the smell of burning flesh, the most expensive of which is sandalwood. In order to follow tradition it can be quite expensive to purchase wood for burning loved ones, so there is an on-going collection of donations for cremation wood for pooer families.
After spending some time observing the ceremonies at this major burning ghat where female relatives of the deceased are forbidden, we wandered a little further up river to check out some of the awesome architecture before heading back for some food and rest. We had another night train to catch to our next destination so we packed up our stuff and relaxed before our midnight departure. Next stop, Khajuraho and the Western Temple group also known as the Kama Sutra Temples.
Once again we were greatful that our pick-up was there and on time in Satna. We had about an hour drive to get to Khajuraho and were glad it was something we didn't really have to think about. Once there we checked into our hotel on the outskirts of the small town and decided to get to the temples as soon as possible. Built between 900-1050 C.E., these temples exhibit some truly amazing rock sculptures and carvings, many of which are of a highly erotic nature, hence the reference as the Kama Sutra Temples. There is simply just too much to write about this group of temples, so I will just share some of the amazing photos I took.
We explored the temples for a few hours, but it was HOT... another 40 plus degree day. So we decided to hide out in our air conditioned hotel room and nurse our on-going colds with some cheap Indian medicine we scored at the local pharmacy. The next day we had some more temples to check out, but Janet's camera had died the previous day, so she wanted to redo the Western Group of temples before checking out other stuff. We split up and I went to explore the nearby Chausath Yogini Temple ruins. These ruins are of the oldest temple in the area dating back to the late 9th century. The temple's name means "64" as it once had 64 cells for the yoginis (female attendants) of Kali, while the 65th sheltered the goddess herself. While checking out the ruins a local guy who spoke good English chatted me up. We got to talking and he invited me to his nearby village to share a meal with him and his friend's family. His friend was a practitioner of Ayurvedic medicinne and gave me a bunch of seeds to plant back home as well as some local medicines for the colds Janet and I were working through. Pretty cool experience.
I met up with Janet a couple hours later and we grabbed some food before hopping a tuk-tuk to the nearby Jain temples. Jainism is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liveration. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state of supreme being is called a jina("conqueror" or "victor"). The ultimate status of these perfect souls is called siddha. Ancient texts also refer to Jainism as shramana dharma (self-reliant) or the "path of the niganthas" (those without attachments or aversions). Jain doctrine teaches that Jainism has always existed and will always exist, although historians date the foundation of the organized or present form of Jainism to sometime between the 9th and the 6th century BCE. Like most ancient Indian religions, Jainism may have its roots in the Indus Valley Civilization, reflecting native spirituality prior to the Indo-aryan migration in India.
The name "Taj Mahal" means "crown of palaces" and is a white marble mausoleum. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage." Taj Mahal is the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Turkish, and Indian architectural styles. On arrival we were immediately bombarded with tour guide offers and "special deals". We soldiered through the melee and discovered that there was a special foreigner (aka high-value ticket holder) entrance which by-passed the immense line-up of locals to get in. After going through a bag search where my deck of playing cards and a flash-light were removed, we entered the Taj Mahal complex. I still find it amazing that coutries with such obvious poverty as India contain these architectural behemoths in memory of a single person... seems a bit ludicrous, but who am I to judge other cultures. The grounds were quite amaying, although from all the pictures and media I have seen of the Taj Mahal, it seemed smaller than I imagined... but still a massive place nonetheless.
After wandering around for a couple of hours in the once again stifling heat, we walked the couple kilometres to the Agra Fort. From around 1000-1600 C.E. Agra Fort was a central location of government for much of the country around it. It changed hands several times from Hindus to Mughals and back and then the fort was the site of a battle during the Indian rebellion of 1857, which caused the end of the British East India Company's rule in India, and led to a century of direct rule of India by Britain. After more wandering... we were more or less done with temples and forts and architecture. We had seen so much in the previous 2 weeks that we were definitely ready for something different. Thank goodness our next stop didn't involve temples and ruins!
We were slated to spend a few days here to soak in the contemplative environs and enjoy the pleasant climate in the area. Unfortunately, we both came down with a flu of sorts. We believe it was a result of being up in the chilly Himalayas, then moving to sweaty Amritsar, and being a little stressed about travel. We did manage to take a walk across one of the bridges over the Ganges to check out the Swarg Ashram and the left overs of a large yoga conference. We also lucked out and found a restaurant in the backpacker area that served meat... we visited them frequently. Janet happened to fall ill a day earlier than I did, so as she rested I did a little side hike up the valley to a small waterfall where I had a refreshing shower before heading back to the hotel. Aside from a few excursions through the bazaars and up to that restaurant, we didn't do too much in Rishikesh. Three days later we climbed into a taxi around 5am to make it back to the train station in Haridwar and begin our journey to another of India's holy cities... Varanasi.
Our train dropped us off in New Delhi for a few hours before we had to make a connecting train to get us all the way to Varanasi. We basically hung out at the tour office and enjoyed endless cups of free chai tea, air conditioning, and free internet. The tour office got us a tuk-tuk to get back to the train station in time for our night train south. We arrived with about 30 minutes to spare... but, alas, that wasn't enough. For some reason our train's number wasn't showing up on the electronic boards, so we began wandering around the massive station asking random people who looked like they might work there. We met with limited success as no one seemed to speak enough English to help us out. We ended up on a platform with a train headed to Varanasi on it, but we couldn't find our coach number. As the scheduled time for the train's departure came and passed, this train remained stationary, and a bit too quiet for a train about to leave. So we wandered some more and discovered that the train we had found was indeed going to Varanasi... in a few hours and that OUR train to Varanasi had already left. GAH!
Janet seemed to remain completely calm while I proceeded to experience a minor meltdown... Varanasi was a place I REALLY wanted to see and the rest of our time in India was more or less all booked and planned out. Miss this and it's missed for good. We proceeded to burn a good deal of time waiting to get served at the foreigner ticket office (foreigners usually have to buy their tickets from a different office than locals) only to find out that because the train we wanted left in less than 2 hours, we would have to go to the local ticket window. Once there we had little choice but to shell out the money for the only coach they would let us buy onto... the first class coach. With tickets in hand we promptly made it to the correct platform and set up camp directly outside our coach... no way we were going to miss this one! We also called up our contact who would be waiting for us on the other end and warned him that we would be a couple hours later than he expected us... we made it... phew!
We still managed to arrive in Varanasi fairly early in the day and we were met promptly by our pick-up... quite a relief after our train debacle the previous evening. Varanasi is one of the seven holy cities of India... some might say it is THE holiest. It is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world with people living there for 3,000 years. Some believe it to be THE oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, but Jericho competes for this title. Some locals told us they believe there have been people living there for up to 6,000 years. Regardless, it is the oldest city in India. Varanasi is not only a holy city to Hindus but also to Buddhists (Gautama Buddha founded Buddhism in the nearby suburb of Sarnath - Buddhists also call it Isipatana), and Jains because three Jain Tirthankars were born there.
The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganges bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Assi, with the Ganges being to its south. Another speculation about the origin of the name is that the river Varuna itself was called Varanasi in olden times, from which the city got its name. This is generally disregarded by historians, though there may be some earlier texts suggesting it to be so. According to legend, the city was founded by the Hindu deity Lord Shiva, several thousand years ago, thus making it one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in the country. It is also a general belief that it stands on the weapon "The Trishool" (Trident) of Lord Shiva. It is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus. Many Hindu scriptures, including the Rigveda, Skanda Purana, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata, mention the city.
We decided to freshen up at the hotel before venturing to the famous Buddhist sites in the area. On the way to the suburb of Sarnath (Isipatana) we stopped at the Chaukhandi Stupa. This large ruined stupa dates back to the 5th century C.E., and marks the spot where Buddha met his first disciples. The tower on top of the stupa is Mughal and was constructed there in the 16th century to commemorate the visit of Emperor Humayun (we saw his tomb in Delhi). After a brief wander around the ruins we headed into Sarnath proper where we checked out the Archaeological museum housing many of the carvings originally found around the Dhamekh Stupa and Monestary ruins across the street where Buddha gave his first sermon. Then we took a relaxing stroll through the ruins and contemplated some of Buddha's teachings while sitting where he first preached. Not quite templed out yet, we decided to check out the Mulagandhakuti Vihara Buddhist Temple which backs onto the deer park Buddha hung out in, and then to satisfy Janet's Chinese Buddhist inclinations we dropped by the Chinese Buddhist temple a few doors down the road. The day was VERY hot... over 40 degrees celcius, so we were quite ready to chill out in the hotel room until the sun went away and things cooled down a bit. Later in the evening we went for a walk down to the Ganges river and the burning ghats where we sat down and watched human bodies in various stages of cremation for an hour or so... a very grounding experience. A local fellow hung out with us and explained some of the specifics about cremation in Varanasi.
Although there were a few bodies at various stages of cremation, there was one gathering where the group was placing the body on a kind of raft. So I asked about this. Apparently there are 5 kinds of corpses Hindus do not cremate: 1) Corpses of pregnant women 2) Corpses of children 3) Corpses of people who die from Leprosy 4) Corpses of people who die from cobra bite 5) Corpses of holy people. The corpses of dead lepers get floated out into the middle of the Ganges river and then sunk with a large stone on their chest. The bodies are left at the bottom of the river. The rest are typically wrapped and placed on banana tree logs and floated about 300 kms down the river to a spot where people sit and wait for such bodies and retrieve them. They then perform special rites over the bodies before cremating them there. The reason cobra bite is a special situation is because Cobras (like cows) are thought to have been a form Shiva or Vishnu took on earth at one time or another. This being the case, people dieing from cobra bite are thought have been touched by god and so are treated differently.
The next day we got a sunrise boat ride along the ghats on the Ganges. To be honest... it was more interesting to walk amongst them instead. However, the boat ride did afford us the opportunity the witness the many other activities which take place on the ghats along the Ganges river. There were clothes washers, pilgrims performing prayers, people bathing, people cooking, people working on their boats, and people drinking from the holy Ganga. To my mind it's a wonder how half the population in Varanasi isn't dead from some sort of water-born illness... I suppose the Ganga really is blessed... go figure. After the boat ride we went back to the hotel to get some breakfast in us and prepare for our tour that day.
First off was a visit to the new Vishwanath temple at the Banaras Hindu University. At this point we were pretty templed out and tired of paying entrance fees, so we just wandered around outside for a bit. It was built by and industrialist family as a replica of the original Vishwanath temple dedicated to Shiva. Next up was a drive by of the Durga Temple, a.k.a. the Red temple. The Durga temple is a temple to the goddess Durga and is also called the Monkey temple due to the monkeys which sometimes hang around there. In Hinduism, Durga is represented as the embodiment of shakti or female power, clad in red, riding a tiger and fully armed with Shiva's trident, Vishnu's discus and a sword. Non-Hindus can enter the courtyard of the Durga temple but not the inner sanctum. Next up was the Bharat Mata Temple of Varanasi. The idol of Bharat Mata is built in marble and is a model of undivided India, depicting the mountains, plains and oceans. The temple also houses a relief map of India, carved out of marble.
After another long day of checking out temples, we were pretty templed out. Back to the hotel where we chilled out until we had to catch our evening train to our next destination... Agra. The train dropped us off at around 3am and there was no pick-up to be seen anywhere. Fortunately we had the name of the hotel we were supposed to be staying at, so we hired a tuk-tuk to get us there. Quite tired from the train ride, we crashed out and slept like babies. In the morning it was off to the two big sights in this city... the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort.
The name "Taj Mahal" means "crown of palaces" and is a white marble mausoleum. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage." Taj Mahal is the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Turkish, and Indian architectural styles. On arrival we were immediately bombarded with tour guide offers and "special deals". We soldiered through the melee and discovered that there was a special foreigner (aka high-value ticket holder) entrance which by-passed the immense line-up of locals to get in. After going through a bag search where my deck of playing cards and a flash-light were removed, we entered the Taj Mahal complex. I still find it amazing that coutries with such obvious poverty as India contain these architectural behemoths in memory of a single person... seems a bit ludicrous, but who am I to judge other cultures. The grounds were quite amaying, although from all the pictures and media I have seen of the Taj Mahal, it seemed smaller than I imagined... but still a massive place nonetheless.
After wandering around for a couple of hours in the once again stifling heat, we walked the couple kilometres to the Agra Fort. From around 1000-1600 C.E. Agra Fort was a central location of government for much of the country around it. It changed hands several times from Hindus to Mughals and back and then the fort was the site of a battle during the Indian rebellion of 1857, which caused the end of the British East India Company's rule in India, and led to a century of direct rule of India by Britain. After more wandering... we were more or less done with temples and forts and architecture. We had seen so much in the previous 2 weeks that we were definitely ready for something different. Thank goodness our next stop didn't involve temples and ruins!
A cab ride from Agra to Mathura (another of India's holy cities) and a short evening train ride got us to the town of Sawai Madhopur. Once again... no pick-up. Luckily we once again had the name of the hotel we were staying in, so got a tuk-tuk there and were ready to split heads... until we saw the piece of paradise we would be calling home for the next few days. Wow. Sawai Madhopur is best known for its proximity to the Ranthambhore National Park. Ranthambhore is one of the largest national parks in Northern India. It was established as the Sawai Madhopur Game Sanctuary in 1955 by the Government of India, and was declared one of the Project Tiger reserves in 1973. Ranthambore became a national park in 1980. In 1984, the adjacent forests were declared the Sawai Man Singh Sanctuary and Keladevi Sanctuary, and in 1991 the tiger reserve was enlarged to include Sawai Man Singh and Keladevi sanctuaries. Originally it was a hunting reserve for one of the former Rajas of India.
Our off-road tour bus picked us up early before stopping to pick up other tourists checking out the park that day. We were told that there was -a chance- to spot a wild tiger, but that even if we didn't there was plenty of other wildlife to view. Our guide was very informative about everything from history to zoology and geography. We got to see some local deer, monkeys, antelopes, and some other critters... but, alas, no tigers. Thank goodness I got to play with them back in Thailand. After about 3 hours of touring through the Rajasthan bush, we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed one of the only pools we had had access to throughout our India journey. The next day we had an afternoon train to our last destination in India, so we relaxed until it was time to go, taking advantage of the superb service at this hotel.
A few hours later we were in Jaipur... once again... no pick-up at the train station. So we made our way to the hotel... this time... no hot water for showers. I suppose that is't as bad as the no COLD water we experienced in Khajuraho... or the complete lack of water in the Agra hotal. Ahhh India. By this time we were both pretty tired and dazed from the hectic travel schedule we had been following, so we decided to lay low for the first day and enjoy some respite from all the touts and scam artists continuously hounding us everywhere we went. At least the room service was decent.
After a nice sleep in we decided to check out some of Jaipur. Jaipur was founded by Jai Singh II in the 1700's. It was Northern India's first planned city and Singh's grounding in the sciences is reflected in teh precises symmetry of the (now) old city. The Old City is also known as the Pink City because in 1876 Maharaja Ram Singh had the entire city painted pink (traditionally the colour of hospitality) to welcome the Prince of Whales (later King Edward VII). Today all residents of the Old City are compelled by law to preserve the pink facade. The Old City is divided into sections where only particular things may be sold. For example there is the clothing district, jewelry district, electronics district, food district, etc. After a bit of a walk through the Old City we entered the old palace area which contained a few sights that looked to be worth seeing.
The one we chose to enter was the Jantar Mantar. The name of the place is derived from the sanskrit yanta mantr which means 'instrument of calculation'. And indeed this place was full of such instruments. It was originally an observatory begun by Jai Singh in 1728. Before constructing this place, Singh sent scholars abroad to study foreign constructs of astronomical observatories so that he could duplicate and improve upon them here. Each construction within Jantar Mantar has a specific purpose, for example measuring the positions of the stars, altitude snd azimuth, and calculating eclipses. It was a very impressive collection of curiousities... one solar clock continues to be accurate to within 10 seconds, although it was the size of a building to accomplish such accuracy.
Once again the heat got the better of us and we retired back to the hotel to relax, chill out, and have cold showers. We were officially DONE being tourists in India. The next day we caught our train back to New Delhi where we spent the next day hiding out in our hotel room waiting for our late night departure to Turkey. Just as we thought we had avoided more scams and touts by staying in for a day, just as we were leaving the hotel, the staff attempted to charge us an extra 900 Rupees for various phantom services. Both Janet and I more or less lost it at this point and told them where they could put the alleged bill and that they could also give us $500 US each if their scam made us miss our plane. They were happy to send us off at that point. Sheesh! But India had one more in store for us before she let us go... as we were entering the airport terminal we were stopped by an armed guard who demanded that we not only show our passports, but proof of flight ticket. Now, to me this is ridiculous in the age of e-tickets. Neither of us had one printed out as usually we would simply present our passport at the check-in counter and they would print off a boarding pass. I thought quickly and pulled out an old itinerary printout that didn't even have acurate information on it regarding our current flight. The guard let me in with this, but Janet had to wait outside the main building while I went and got a boarding pass printed out for her. Gah! As much as I found India to be intriguing, beautiful, amazing, and mystical... I was happy to be done with the farce of travel in the country. Maybe I'll come back... in a decade or two. Goodbye India! Hello Turkey!!
Our off-road tour bus picked us up early before stopping to pick up other tourists checking out the park that day. We were told that there was -a chance- to spot a wild tiger, but that even if we didn't there was plenty of other wildlife to view. Our guide was very informative about everything from history to zoology and geography. We got to see some local deer, monkeys, antelopes, and some other critters... but, alas, no tigers. Thank goodness I got to play with them back in Thailand. After about 3 hours of touring through the Rajasthan bush, we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed one of the only pools we had had access to throughout our India journey. The next day we had an afternoon train to our last destination in India, so we relaxed until it was time to go, taking advantage of the superb service at this hotel.
After a nice sleep in we decided to check out some of Jaipur. Jaipur was founded by Jai Singh II in the 1700's. It was Northern India's first planned city and Singh's grounding in the sciences is reflected in teh precises symmetry of the (now) old city. The Old City is also known as the Pink City because in 1876 Maharaja Ram Singh had the entire city painted pink (traditionally the colour of hospitality) to welcome the Prince of Whales (later King Edward VII). Today all residents of the Old City are compelled by law to preserve the pink facade. The Old City is divided into sections where only particular things may be sold. For example there is the clothing district, jewelry district, electronics district, food district, etc. After a bit of a walk through the Old City we entered the old palace area which contained a few sights that looked to be worth seeing.
The one we chose to enter was the Jantar Mantar. The name of the place is derived from the sanskrit yanta mantr which means 'instrument of calculation'. And indeed this place was full of such instruments. It was originally an observatory begun by Jai Singh in 1728. Before constructing this place, Singh sent scholars abroad to study foreign constructs of astronomical observatories so that he could duplicate and improve upon them here. Each construction within Jantar Mantar has a specific purpose, for example measuring the positions of the stars, altitude snd azimuth, and calculating eclipses. It was a very impressive collection of curiousities... one solar clock continues to be accurate to within 10 seconds, although it was the size of a building to accomplish such accuracy.
Once again the heat got the better of us and we retired back to the hotel to relax, chill out, and have cold showers. We were officially DONE being tourists in India. The next day we caught our train back to New Delhi where we spent the next day hiding out in our hotel room waiting for our late night departure to Turkey. Just as we thought we had avoided more scams and touts by staying in for a day, just as we were leaving the hotel, the staff attempted to charge us an extra 900 Rupees for various phantom services. Both Janet and I more or less lost it at this point and told them where they could put the alleged bill and that they could also give us $500 US each if their scam made us miss our plane. They were happy to send us off at that point. Sheesh! But India had one more in store for us before she let us go... as we were entering the airport terminal we were stopped by an armed guard who demanded that we not only show our passports, but proof of flight ticket. Now, to me this is ridiculous in the age of e-tickets. Neither of us had one printed out as usually we would simply present our passport at the check-in counter and they would print off a boarding pass. I thought quickly and pulled out an old itinerary printout that didn't even have acurate information on it regarding our current flight. The guard let me in with this, but Janet had to wait outside the main building while I went and got a boarding pass printed out for her. Gah! As much as I found India to be intriguing, beautiful, amazing, and mystical... I was happy to be done with the farce of travel in the country. Maybe I'll come back... in a decade or two. Goodbye India! Hello Turkey!!
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