Tahoe Johnson’s Journey to Southeast Asia

India Gate – built by the British – it is down from this gate and through the “concourse” where the funeral march scene in the movie Ghandi took place.  

Delhi:  “encapsulates two different worlds, the old and the new”.  The Old Delhi served as the capital of Islamic India, while New Delhi was built as the imperial capital of India by the British.  Delhi has not always been the capital.  During the British rule, Calcutta was, but due to the championing of independence by the West Bengal people, the British moved the capital to Delhi.  There have actually been eight cities founded in and around Delhi, starting back as early as 2500 years ago.  Different rulers throughout its history have imposed either Hindu or Islamic rule.

Most of the backpacker hotels are in Old Delhi, where we stayed.  Our stay was only basically one day.  We had planned for more, but the day we arrived, we spent most of the afternoon trying to figure out our “India stay”.  The kids didn’t mind it because they just crashed in the room.  Kolkatta and Veranasi had wiped them out.  Looking back we should have stayed two nights in Delhi, rather than get up see the sights and move on to Agra. Hindsight is always easier.

Our plans for India had now changed to doing just the “Golden Triangle” trip, which is your typical tourist trip of Delhi: the Red Fort, National Mosque, Tombs, bazaars; Agra: the Fort and the Taj Mahal; and Jaipur:  in the state of Rajasthan and known for its palaces and forts.  We cancelled out south India, and knew we wanted to finish with the Himalayas and cooler weather. 

To accomplish this “triangle” tour, we had two options:  try and figure it out as we go (ie train, hotel, etc), or a more popular option is to hire a car/driver.  We opted for this to make it easier on all of us the car takes you to the sites, you get back in and move to the next one – no hassles, no touts. Looking back, this is the biggest advantage; however, train rides are a much more comfortable way to travel in India, once you have gotten through the ticket purchasing and finding your way through the crowds and which track to end up on.  The downside of car travel was the incessant honking of vehicles as you travel.  The roads are better than they were 30 years ago, and sometimes now include 4 lanes, therefore, making one feel safer.  Another advantage of taking the car was you got to see the country side and way of life as you traveled.  It was usually a 5 hour drive between cities.

Jama Majid:  built by Shah Jahan (same ruler that built the Taj Mahal).  Construction began in 1644 and was completed 14 years later.   It is made from red sandstone and marble.  The courtyard can hold a mind blowing 25,000 people. We really enjoyed climbing to the top of the minarets, where you could look out over the whole city. It made all the honking and traffic and crowds below you look like you were watching a movie, even though you knew you had to jump back into it in a little while. It was interesting too, to see all the security in place to get into the mosque – scanners, no bags, etc.  We had to “dress” down for the event.

We climbed up the minaret – great views of city from above – incredible craftsmanship of tower and mosque.

You will notice the Red Fort in the background

Red Fort:  built again by Shah Jahan when he wanted to move his capital from Agra to Delhi.  Construction was completed in 1648.  It was built for a grandiose display of pomp and power (parading on an elephant through the gates to the city).  Shah Jahan was one of the last great Moghul rulers.  He never completely saw the capital move to Delhi, because his son overthrew and imprisoned him (nice son!?).  Over the centuries it has been occupied by different powers including the British and Indian armies.  Many military buildings now stand on the premises and the Indian army still has a post here. It is a little more run down than I would have thought being a major piece of architecture and Indian history. 

The moat that surrounds the fort – had tunnels dug to bring water in from the river

Tight security – nice to know an AK 47 is facing you when you walk in.

The royal meeting area where the king met the “people”.

Kings residence – where the “Peacok Throne” was until Iran stole it and where the Shah of Iran  used to use it during his reign.  The throne still resides in Iran.  The following slides show the intricate marble carvings with inlaid stone and precious jems were.  Between the different “residence places” they have a water way that goes under the residences to allow for “cooling” effect (like evaporative cooling) – very ingenious

All Marble – incredible carvings – grate work

Where precious stones were cut out and stolen

Humayan’s Tomb:    World Heritage Sight – another example of incredible Moghul architecture built in the 16^th century by the wife of the second Moghul emperor Humayan.  Both she and her husband and other tombs are on the grounds.  Ten years ago this was a run-down tourist site.  Thanks to the Agha Khan Foundation sponsorship and money and it being declared a World Heritage site,  the restoration is incredible and magnificent.  

It always amazes me the grill work from either red sandtone or marble that is done – always one piece of marble – to carve the openings without making a mistake or breaking the marble

The six sided star intrigued me in Muslim architecture

Koranic sayings carved in marble.  The tomb is made from red sandstone.  Black marble is also inlaid with Koranic sayings etc.

Old Delhi shot from the minaret – New Delhi and all its modern structures and freeways looks like any other big city.

Maybe the problem with all the horn blowing is that all the trucks and taxi’s have this saying on the back of their vehicles.  It is basically to let you know that I am on your tail and want to pass you.  This is because no one follows any rules of the road – or so as it  seems.  After the sights, we hopped in the car for our drive to Agra. 

Interesting site – a Hindu temple but it seems to have Islamic architecture.

VARANASI:  (above – hotel we stayed at – inside old pictures of maharajas, the british, etc)

Leaving Kolkata, we took a 12 hour overnight train to Varanasi. This time, we had two sets of three-tiered bunks. It was more of a communal train car, rather than separate “rooms” like Vietnam.  It was real comfortable and we made friends real quickly with those around us.  We were a hit again, because we had a white guy who spoke Hindi!

Varanasi  is THE place for Hindu religious pilgrimages, as it is along the banks of the Ganges River, which was ordained by Shiva to be the holiest place to die, because if you died here, you would go directly to heaven, bypassing coming back to earth for another life. We stayed a ways out of town here, and enjoyed an old colonial hotel. It was an extra surprise, because we reserved it ahead of time sight unseen, and in India, you just don’t know what you might find. But we’ve found having a place reserved when you get off the train saves the gigantic hassle of being besieged by touts trying to get you into their taxi and to the hotel that pays them commission. As we pulled into the street where our hotel was, our hearts sank, because it was the typical dusty street, with trash along the sides and crumbling walls. We pulled up to a rusty old gate, the doors opened, and voila…there was a beautiful, whitewashed colonial building surrounded by green lawns! We arranged a tour here in Varanasi to save us the hassle factor. We went down to the river “ghats” (sort of like stone piers) one evening to see a ritual fire dance that takes place every night, and we got up at 4:30 the next morning to go back down to the river to see the ritual bathing in the river at sunrise and the cremation ghats. Two things hit us here: one was that the rituals we saw taking place happen every day of the year. This is not Disneyland and it’s not something like Christmas and Easter. This is a way of life that goes on every day. The other thing we noticed is that here, death is not something that’s hidden away and spoken of in soft tones. Entire families will bring their deceased loved one hundreds of miles on a train, in order to have them cremated and their ashes spread in the Ganges. Or, if people know they are dying, they may come and stay in a care home in Varanasi so that they are close to the river when they die. We also saw processions through the city where the body is carried by several family members on their way to the river.

After a brief 2 nights in Varanasi, we caught the night train to Delhi. We had looked forward to this trip because it’s somewhat relaxing to be on the train and you have a little of your own space. However, this was one of those times when all went wrong. The only train we were able to find seats on left at 11:00 pm.  from an outlying station about 45 minutes away from the city. We caught a taxi from the hotel with plenty of time to spare, but got caught in a horrendous traffic jam. It’s hard to describe the trip to the station, but I’ll try! There are no street lights, and in some places, no electricity, so it’s very dark, but full of honking trunks and cars. There are cows wandering around and the always pervasive smell of dung and urine) both human and animal! The road is paved but barely, so it’s very bumpy and all along the road, it just looks like rubble.  Even many of the buildings look like they’re being demolished – they’re just falling apart.  It’s so hot, you have to have the windows open, but since so much is unpaved and there are so many trucks, the dust just billows in. We then crossed a bridge that had construction going on, and there were huge piles of concrete and metal just lying in the road, and everybody, including cars, trucks, taxis, cows, rickshaws, are trying to get by and it’s utter chaos! We finally arrived at the train station, but the nightmare wasn’t over. We got out of the taxi and were immediately surrounded by folks trying to carry our bags. There were several people just sitting on the ground where we got out – some begging, some selling things, but all looking a little scary to 3 kids from a little mountain town in California. We made our way through hundreds of people sleeping on the station floor, looking very obvious as the only white people around. We sort of wandered around for awhile trying to find out which track our train was on. At this point, everyone was just ready to get on the train and hide! We finally found our track, only to find out that the train was an hour late. It was now about 11:00 pm and we had been up since 4:30 am (bad planning on our part!) We found a place to sit and wait, and it was decidedly unpleasant. Tim and I are pretty seasoned travelers, but sitting in a train station close to midnight, surrounding by staring people and the smell of human waste (to try to put it more pleasantly), was pretty hard to take. I had the girls on each side of me alternating between anger and tears, and asking to please go home! The only comfort was that it could only get better! Fortunately, Tim found a man who just happened to be travelling on the same train and even in the same car, and he became our sort of guardian angel. Between that, and Tim speaking Hindi, we managed to find our car and eventually chugged towards Delhi, 10 hours away.

Night boat trip – narrow streets – easily can get lost

on boat – candles are lit and then you make a prayer put into the river Ganges

The night boat trip was to see a holy ceremony called Pujay.  – Thousands in the “stands” and on boats in the river.  A very interesting exerience.  Didn’t understand any of it, but it was quite the specatacle

A Maharaja’s “ghat”  – a palace is built for his end days where he will then be cremated on the steps leading to the river

A cremation taking place. 

The religion is Hindu and the cow is sacred and holy.  Check this bull out.  These cows are just wandering around the city.  We saw a picture of a bull hanging out in a jewelry store.

4:00 am wake up to take a river boat trip on sunrise to see the bathing etc that goes on in the river.  Definately a great experience with all its ceremony, prayers, bathings, cloth washing etc.   To get to the ghat you walk through these narrow passages from the main street.

Looking down at one of the ghats (place of bathing, prayers,cremation).  A yoga (kishna) class taking place below.

This sign says it all for the river Ganges

River side views

Prayers taking place

Ladies shaved their heads to gain some kind or reward for themselves and those that have gone on before them

We look a little tired

The cremation – burning “ghats” – different woods are used – the higher ones econmic status the choice of wood changes.

“Ghats” – different pictures of different ghats from different maharajas over the centuries

BAthing – washing scenes

you will notice the garbage and sewer in the pictures that fill the sides of the river  – that doesn’t include the dead bodies and ashes that enter the river.   You can just imagine what type of bacteria etc is in the river.  The guide books talk about it – basically take your toilet with its usage every day – that is what the river is like – however, the people still bath, drink, wash their cloths every day their for blessings and purification from the river.   

Hindu temple – our guide gave us a “sermon” on the Hindu religion.  We learned alot – this temple did not have all the erotic carvings that you see on other temples.