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Archive for November, 2008

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Far from Mumbai

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

As word about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai filters in, I’m glad to say that we’re not in the city or anywhere close to it, but I’m pretty shocked nevertheless. We’re in Agra now, heading for Varanasi tonight, and then spending most of the rest of our time in India in two states – Sikkhim and Orissa – that don’t see many tourists and are unlikely to be targeted.

Meanwhile, life in India has been a bit of a mixed bag since we left Jaisailmer. I very much enjoyed our first two destinations, Ajmer and Chittor, but I didn’t think Bundi was the undiscovered gem that it’s made out to be, and in two safari excursions into a national park in Rajasthan we again failed to spot a tiger.

But to focus on the good things.

Indian Muslims consider Ajmer to be the second holiest place in the world after Mecca, and seven pilgrimages to Ajmer is said to equal one to the birthplace of the Prophet. (Since non-Muslims are not permitted to go to Mecca, I guess if I want to simulate the experience then I only have six more trips to Ajmer remaining…). The shrine to a sufi saint in Ajmer is almost like a tiny walled village and while the architecture was nothing great, I found the atmosphere and holiness of the place to be quite special. The peacefulness and order of the place is a stark contrast to the noise and chaos outside, and anytime you can find a sanctuary like that in India you must be thankful. Afterwards as an unexpected bonus, we virtually stumbled across an old and impressive mosque contemporary with the Qutb Minar complex in Delhi and with similarly impressive architectural features.

In Chittor, the fort is more like a fortified city, with impressive old palaces, temples and towers contained within. We had to hurry through to site to catch a bus, but spent nearly two hours wandering around and enjoying every minute of it – from the centuries-old temple sculptures still in excellent condition to the band of monkeys and their new-born babies jumping about the main palace complex.

Our current stay in Agra was unscheduled and came about because of transport connection difficulties that forced us to miss Gwalior and its famed fortress. To compensate, we got to see the Taj Mahal again instead, so it worked out OK in the end…

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Rajasthan revisited

Sunday, November 16th, 2008

Despite my feelings of semi-fondness towards Delhi that I mentioned in the previous post, the place is still a dump. It’s about as noisy, chaotic and polluted as India gets, and if you’re walking around the city and you reach a safe haven, like your guesthouse or even McDonald’s, you breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it’s a dump with quite a few interesting historical sights, and that makes it manageable.

The Beijing-style haze that had followed us ever since we left the blue skies of Kathmandu continued in Delhi, so we set off for the Qutb Minar under the type of sky that is neither cloudy nor blue and makes the sun look like the moon. In any case, the entire complex of ruins was quite impressive, so much so that by my reckoning the Qutb Minar itself is only the third most interesting building there. In the mosques and tombs that surrounded the great tower, we could see how the intricate carving work in red stone and white marble was a prelude to India’s greatest architectural age under the Mughals that began three centuries later and produced the beautiful buildings we saw on our last journey through the subcontinent, including the Jama Masjid in Delhi and the virtually identical Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, imposing fortresses in Delhi and Agra, the stunning city of Fatehpur Sikri and, of course, the Taj Mahal.

On our last day in Delhi, we wandered through Old Delhi, which could more accurately be described as ‘Second Newest Delhi’ or ‘Third Oldest at Best Delhi’, given how many incarnations of the city there have been over the years. Walking through the heart of Muslim Delhi, we came across a Sikh festival and followed it for a while, watching old men and young boys alike practicing sword-fighting, and seeing what happens when free food is handed out in India (in a word, madness).

Leaving Delhi behind that night, we headed west for that most romantic and evocative of Indian states: Rajasthan. We decided to first return briefly to our two favourite cities in the state – starting with the blue city of Jodhpur and continuing to the golden city of Jaisalmer – before branching out and experiencing some new places. Rather than describe Jodhpur all over again, I’ll just take the easy way out and copy and paste from last time:

It had taken more than two weeks, but in Jodhpur I finally found the Rajasthan I was looking for. The old city was a maze; it seemed even more so because so many of the houses were painted blue, which helps keep them cool in summer and is said to repel mosquitoes. The rickshaw ride from the bus station to our old city hotel was crazy; we sped down narrow lanes past cows, vegetable carts and policemen on horses, with beautiful havelis on both sides of the road. The old city was not at all touristy – which surprised me, because Jodhpur was among Rajasthan’s most popular destinations – and was instead a snapshot of daily life in India: old men sat on steps playing cards, keeping score on a small chalkboard; women haggled with the produce sellers, trying to get the best price for a cauliflower; and against the backdrop of centuries-old blue townhouses, white cows ate yesterday’s newspaper and pondered life in Rajasthan.

Amidst all this, the great Meherangarh Fort – which I still think is the most impressive in all of India, in its grandeur, location and the way it is presented – towers over the old city from its rocky perch. We climbed up to it for a second visit and were rewarded with fabulous views over Jodhpur and our first blue-sky day after a week in India.

Our somewhat dumb decision to take the train rather than the much faster bus to Jaisalmer yesterday was strangely vindicated because it was the most deserted – and subsequently roomy – train I can ever remember taking in this country.

For me, Jaisalmer, the honey-coloured sandstone city that rises out of the Thar Desert in the far west of Rajasthan, is still one of the most achingly beautiful places in the world; only Thula in Yemen is comparable as a complete city of pure beauty. For less than €3.50, we have a room in a 550-year-old sandstone haveli with beautiful carvings on our wall, inside the city’s sandcastle-like fort that is itself inside the walled city. We spent most of yesterday afternoon and today wandering around the fort and the old city, admiring the stunning carved balconies and windows of the havelis and enjoying the tranquil pace of life (relative, of course, to the rest of India).

Having now revisited three cities in a row, we’re going for the first time to the Muslim pilgrimage city of Ajmer tomorrow and will then continue to some other places in Rajasthan that are a bit off the beaten track.

Meanwhile, I’ve uploaded a bunch of photos here but don’t have the time to neatly insert them into the blog.

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India: unlike anything else

Monday, November 10th, 2008

It’s funny how the mind and the memory play tricks on you. When we arrived in Kathmandu in mid-September, we thought it was just like India. The colour, the activity, the chaos, the religious fervour - it all brought ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Mopping Up

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Perhaps the foreigner in Nepal just isn’t meant to understand the local mindset. Consider this example: a few days ago, an elephant at the breeding centre near Chitwan National Park unexpectedly calved twins, an extremely rare occurrence among elephants ... [Continue reading this entry]

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