To Delhi

Travel Dates 19-22 March 2008.
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I left Jaipur and headed towards Delhi with no particular plan, just the thought of a leisurely day heading in that direction.

It turned out to be interesting, but a little frustrating because of the lack of appropriate hotels along the way. The road was the best so far. My impressions were probably improved because I had become blasé about the drivers and hardly noticed when we crossed to the wrong side of the road to play chicken with large trucks or slowed to avoid camels, elephants or women wandering across the road with improbable loads on their heads. We saw lots of "work in progress" signs but very few road workers.

The scenery was fairly similar for most of the day, nothing really spectacular but always changing. There were long stretches of farmland, fairly dry, with occasional villages. Some of those villages looked abjectly poor, but the people seemed cheerful and industrious with the women wearing bright saris regardless of the squalor surrounding them.

I had intended staying at a hotel en-route and stopped at several motel-style hotels to check tariffs. All were surprisingly expensive, obviously geared to the well-heeled Western traveller, and most were miles from the nearest town or village. Often they called themselves a "Resort"; the qualification for this term seemed to be a swimming pool, sometimes with water in it. I moved on.

I had read of the Fort Palace Hotel Neemrana on the web, so I dropped in to check it out. It was in a marvellous location with views over the surrounding plain, but the only room available seemed to be a converted pantry, judging by the size, with the strangest en-suite arrangements I have ever come across. Up several steps and bend over to enter the bathroom. The price was definitely not related to the quality in that particular room. I declined.

Before lunch I decided to get some cash out, ready to pay the driver the next day. This ATM was at the gate of a large building which appeared to be a bank; we had to get the building guard down to switch on the power. The photo shows why they don’t leave it on all the time. Work in progress. I was surprised that it not only worked, but also worked without any glitches. The other photo illustrates typical electrical wiring for the shops in Karol Bagh.

I don’t know what these ruined walls were from, about 40km south of Delhi, but they created an eerie avenue to drive through; even the locals seemed subdued and quiet until we emerged from them.

Eventually, we arrived in Delhi. I had not arranged a hotel for that night and we could not find the right street for the Grand Park Inn, which I had booked for my final two nights. When I did stay later the first room allocated was smelly but an acceptable room was found. I would not stay there again. While searching for it I saw the Hotel Florence sign and remembered good reviews on tripadvisor. The bed was comfortable, the night was pleasant and the breakfast was good, but it was a little expensive for an interior windowless room.

As soon as I had settled in I went for a long walk around the local streets at night. I was in the Karol Bagh markets district.

It seemed safe at night, well lit and bustling with people of all castes, from mutilated beggars lying in the street, strategically placed for you to trip over them, to incredibly wealthy shoppers alighting from a Mercedes or a Rolls Royce to buy wedding outfits or luxury items.

There were several shops like this one selling wonderfully elaborate outfits for the groom. Aparently photographs from the street were not allowed, as this burly guard proceeded to inform me. He failed.

The prices of items like clothing and shoes were very cheap by my standards. I bought an excellent long-sleeved business shirt for 75 rupees (AU$2.00) and a Lucknow hand-made blouse as a gift for considerably more. Shoes were less than a quarter of the prices back home, but some of the traders could do with some advice on the way company names translate to foreign eyes.

I eventually spent three nights in Delhi and my entertainment every night was to wander the streets of the Karol Bagh district, looking at the shops and stalls, eating the local foods, chatting to people in tortured English and Hindi and extravagant gestures.

The next day was my final day with Raj. While I still had the car I took the opportunity to see the Delhi Mosque, which seemed fairly basic after some I had seen, Gandhi’s memorial and the Indian Museum.

I found the Samadhis park, which is a vast park for the memorials to the founders of the modern Indian State, to be sombre, impressive and humbling. Gandhi would probably not have approved at the size of the place, but I found the quiet, simple memorial to be very fitting for that astonishing, fascinating and world-changing man.

The museum was worth the visit, with some very interesting exhibits on Indian history.

21st March 2008 was Good Friday but in Delhi it was more important as the first day of Holi. The big day is apparently Saturday, but in Delhi many of the citizens start early and dye powders and coloured water were being flung around indiscriminately by mid-day Friday. Unfortunately Holi has degenerated in some areas and has become a day when it can be unwise for non-Hindus to be wandering among the revellers. That is particularly true for young women, or for travellers like me trying to circle the world with two pairs of trousers and four shirts that I did not want to become like Joseph’s coat of many colours. This thread on the India Mike forum gives more detail on that problem. I decided discretion was wiser and spent that afternoon in the hotel, catching up on some housekeeping, writing and planning.

Things had settled by the evening so I had dinner at the Sandoz restaurant a few blocks up the road and wandered the markets again, retiring early to get some sleep before my 2am call to get ready to go to the airport. I’ve mentioned that airport departure a few pages ago, so I won’t repeat it all.

Looking back, India was, as advertised, incredible. Some day I may be lucky enough to go again. It is a country of contrasts, rich and abjectly poor, fertile and desert, incredibly modern in some ways, incredibly ancient in others. An enduring memory, un-photographed, is of a camel plodding it’s dusty way along the Delhi road with a wide-screen plasma TV strapped to it’s back.

Next stop, Jordan.

Cheers, Alan

Drivers, Stepped Wells and Baolis

Travel date 16 March 2008
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When I was planning the Indian section of my trip I did a lot of research into the various methods of travel. There is an excellent train service in India and I spent some time poring over timetables and asking questions on http://www.indiamike.com/ about that option, but eventually it was advice from the knowledgeable people on that site that convinced me to use a car with driver.

I am so glad I did. I eventually booked with Gajraj Travel, (or http://www.gajrajtravels.com/). Not only did I see the country at the pace and route that I chose, there were so many other benefits. Raj, my driver, was not just a nice guy who could survive on Indian roads but he was also an invaluable interpreter and advisor. His presence made the awkward things that could have been hassles into simple things – finding an ATM, knowing the restaurants, shops and markets, interpreting when needed, and answers to all the small questions that occurred to me as we travelled along. The sort of questions that aren’t important enough to appear in guide books but provide insights into the real India.



No matter how much research you do for a trip you always miss something. I had never heard of India’s stepped wells. On the way from Fatehpur Sikri to Jaipur, Raj asked if I would like to see something unusual. Of course I said yes. He turned off the main road onto a bumpy, narrow, rutted dirt road winding through arid farmland sparsely dotted with occasional dwellings. Eventually we came to a small village next to a low, very old, stone building. Raj introduced me to a guide and after paying a small fee the guide took me inside.

Later I saw the pyramids of Egypt. Imagine a giant picking up a pyramid, inverting it, and thrusting it into the ground, then pulling it out again to leave a pyramid-shaped hole in the ground. That is what a stepped well, or baoli, is like.

This particular one, the Chand Baori, is one of the deepest. There are 13 flights of steps and it is over 100 feet or 30 meters deep. It apparently dates back to the 9th century and was only re-discovered recently. I’m sure the locals knew about it, but no-one else seemed to be aware of it until the late 20th century.



In this hot, arid region there were significant benefits to controlling the local water supply; the baoli was also a cooler place to be in summer. Consequently the local ruler used the buildings on one side as his summer palace, with rooms for wives and concubines. Inside the palace there are many rooms cut deep into the rock.



I saw no-one else there apart from my guide and a couple of beggars. This is not a place that most tour buses would reach. However, there were signs that archeologists are working on the many carved stone sections that have been salvaged from the site.

The lower levels were used in drier times but became submerged as water levels rose in the monsoon. Within the buildings there were aqueducts and pipes cut in the stone for a water supply system. It’s not clear how the palace servants raised the water from the well to the upper areas, possibly there were pumps of some sort. The local peasant ladies used pitchers balanced on their heads as they descended the steps, filled the pitchers at the bottom then climbed again. I must admit I wouldn’t drink the green stuff sitting in the bottom now, but it would have looked very different 11 centuries ago.



Cheers, Alan

Indian Forts and Palaces

Travel dates 16-19 March 2008

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I’ve included pictures from several sites interleaved with the text; the names in bold font relate to the pictures.

Jaipur City Palace

Indian History has interested me since my teen years, when my High School Library sold some old unwanted books in 1961 and I became the proud purchaser of Cassell’s Illustrated History of India, Vol 1 for the princely sum of 3d.

Fatehpur Sikri

There is no publication date noted, but there is a pencilled inscription on the inside cover page by a student "A Boyd, 1/2/1909". The introduction page mentions that India has a "population of more than 150 million souls" and there is a note in the same hand beside that sentence "1909, now 400,000,000".

That book, somewhat battered, is sitting in front of me now. I did not do well in my final year of history at school but that fascinating book had me reading into the wee small hours, when I should have been studying other things. I have been interested in history ever since. It covered the period from Ancient times to 1824 and I learned about Alexander, and Clive, and John Company, and the Black Hole of Calcutta and many other things from the incredibly biased, racist, paternalistic and totally fascinating viewpoint of the British Raj. This was the India of fabulously wealthy Maharajas and even wealthier British traders, diplomacy and deceit, bravery and battles, subadars and sepoys.

Amber Fort



Later I discovered the books of John Masters, an officer in the Gurkha Rifles between WWI and WWII who writes about India from the unique view of a man who loves the country and understands it, while having to leave it after independance and partition.

With that background I should not have been surprised by the magnificence of the Forts and Palaces of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, but I was. I visited several. I’ve included some photos here taken in Fatehpur Sikri, Amber, and Jaipur as examples. I’ve culled them to show the quality of the architecture, the detailed workmanship, their beauty or simply their sheer size, because there is not space to include all of the photos here.

Pictures can only show what the eye can see, but I hope these convey a small part of the atmosphere and my feelings as I gazed on these ancient places and wandered through their corridors and crannies.

Cheers, Alan