Day 8 Delhi

We disembarked the train at 7:30 am and said goodbye to our fellow travelers. At 11 am, we started a photo tour of old Delhi. The guide was a photographer very knowledgeable of the area. He not only took us on a narrated tour of the old Delhi, but also pointed out good places to photograph and made suggestions how. He was teaching Bo how to set the camera manually to take interesting pictures of moving objects, even slowly moving. The results have yet to be determined. After about an hour, we were joined by another photography enthusiast, Dennis from Brisbane. He was also a street food enthusiast because he booked a combined photography and street food tasting tour. Jaidev, our guide, offered the same combination to us at no extra cost, but we initially refused. We walked through numerous very small streets loaded with people, vendors, and motorcycles and pedicabs. One area was automotive. Men rebuilding everything by hand – clutch, alternator, brake, etc. Another area was many shops selling wedding supplies, jewelry, fruits and vegetables. Even though we had decided not to eat street food but our guide bought us an assortment and we could not resist. We tried a bunch of little appetizers and breads with different sauces, two kinds of sweets, then we stopped at another little place for an unusual fruit sandwich with an Indian masala tea with water buffalo milk, and after more walking, we stopped for ice cream, which was also very unusual – a mango was hollowed, stuffed with mango ice cream and then frozen. Then we went through a dried fruits and nuts street and a spice market, which had a chili room upstairs. We started to cough there and we noticed a lot of people were coughing, too. The chili in the air was irritating respiratory system. The crowds and number of shops was unbelievable. After about 4 hours we made our way back to the parking lot so we could be driven back to the hotel, shower, rest and go to the airport for our midnight flight. Getting to the airport was a trial. The hotel told us the travel agency had not paid the hotel for the room even though we paid the travel agency two weeks ago. Then the drive to the airport was harrowing. So much traffic, 3 lane road with 5 across vehicles constantly changing lanes. Fortunately, the two flights home were uneventful.

Day 7 Ghana Bird sanctuary and Agra

Up at 5:45 am to be ready to go to the Ghana Bird Sanctuary for bird watching. Unfortunately, the train was about an hour late so we didn’t leave until 7:15. We were a little miffed because we could have slept an hour longer. The sanctuary was worth it, though. We had an hour or so bicycle rickshaw ride through two bird habitats – the grasslands and the wetlands. We saw many species of birds and a few deer. A naturalist was following us on a bike and giving explanations. Then a short train ride to Agra to visit the Agra fort and the Taj Mahal. The fort or rather fortified palace was the main residence of the rules from the Mogul dynasty in the 16th and 17th centuries. It is spectacular. It was built by the grandfather of the maharaja who built Taj Mahal. Both monuments are amazing, of the two, we thought the fort was more interesting. After visiting the fort and a nice lunch in a hotel overlooking Taj Mahal, we went to see this legendary building. We were afraid that there would be huge crowds, but we were pleasantly surprised. We used the VIP entrance and once we were inside the complex, it was very spacious and uncrowded. We spent a lot of time admiring it from the outside and taking pictures, and then got out booties so we don’t dirty the white marble floors, and we went inside. You move in single file around the central tombs of the maharaja and his beloved wife, and admire the inlay work made of colorful semi-precious stones in the white marble. Photos are prohibited inside and so is talking. Lights are dim…After Taj Mahal, an obligatory shopping stop – this time for marble/inlay goods. We bought 2 coasters. Then back on the train for the farewell dinner and the night ride to Delhi.

Day 6 Jodhpur

With 2.5 million people, Jodhpur is the second largest city in Rajasthan. It was founded by maharaja Jodha in 1459. It’s often called “the blue city” because many buildings are painted light blue. As we drove to our first stop, the fort, we noticed the city was far more cleaner than other cities we visited. The immense and very impressive Mehrangarh fort includes several palaces and a very good museum, the best we have seen so far. The architecture is also amazing – both outside plasterwork and carvings, and interior opulence with gold, silver and lavish ornaments. They also had a very high class museum store. From there, it was a very short ride to the maharaja’s cremation complex, which consists of a palace-like white structure used for prayer and meditation, and another small structure where the actual cremation takes place. Both are made of white marble. Nearby is a cremation complex for ordinary people – this one built of sandstone. From there we were obliged to go to a shopping venue, and then to the Palace Hotel for lunch inside. A really nice hotel, and a very good lunch. Almost all the meals we have both on the train and in outside venues include some western dishes and many Indian dishes. The last stop of the day was the Umaid Bhawan palace, which is the palace, in which the current maharaja of Jodhpur resides. Bo was particularly interested in this palace because it has a Polish connection. A Polish artist Stefan Norblin (http://culture.pl/en/article/rediscovering-norblin-the-pole-who-filled-indian-palaces-with-art ), who escaped from Poland at the beginning of World War II and ended up in India, was commissioned by the maharaja to decorate this newly built palace in the 1940s. He not only painted many murals there in the art deco style, but also designed furniture and layout. It was great to see that his work is acknowledged in the palace museum, but only two murals are on public view, The rest is in the private residence section of the palace. Bo wanted to negotiate her way in to see at least a few, but there was no time. Then back to the train for an early departure.

Day 5 Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer is medieval city on the edge of the Thor desert, about 100 miles from the Pakistani border. When we got off the train, we were greeted by a row of festively adorned camels. First the bus took us to an artificial lake built in the 16th century to supply water to the town. Nice ornate archway entry built by prostitute led to the lake, but some would not go under it, so she added a temple on top. From there we bussed to the fort. This 800-year old fort is the only inhabited fort in India and one of very few in the world. It’s a very large complex built of sandstone on top of a hill. Very narrow cobblestone alleyways and several angled gates lead inside, but they are jammed with motorcycles, small 3 wheeled taxis, and pedestrians. We only visited two jain temples there. Then we walked back down to the town through insanely crowded streets, with people, motorbikes, cars and a multitude of cows obstructing traffic. It was a madhouse. The purpose was to see two havelis, a beautifully ornate mansions of local aristocrats. The stonework on these mansions is truly amazing. Unfortunately, we again wasted too much time by having an obligatory shopping stop at a place that makes ornate textiles. After a demonstration, a sales pitch… Since we were not interested, and we ran out of cash, we decided to go look for an ATM. A person took us to one a few blocks away, but it didn’t work. Someone pointed us to another one so we went, but this one didn’t work either so we decided to go back. At that point, we were on our own in a maze of little streets that looked alike, and we had no idea, which one to take. After a few turns we were lost. Luckily at some point we spotted a little taxi with 4 people from our group. They not only took us on, but also stopped at a working ATM. We made it to the bus just in time. After lunch we took a 30 minute bus ride to the desert. Many, many camels. Two persons per camel and we had a 30 minute camel ride. After changing in the train we went to a dinner at swanky Palace hotel. Dinner outside in garden but food was not as good as food on the train.

Day 4 Udaipur

Left train at nine and started our tour of Udaipur, a city created by maharaja Udai Singh in 1559. It’s the prettiest city we saw so far, largely due to its picturesque location with several lakes surrounded by hills. First stop was a walled-in garden created by maharaja for the ladies. Lots of fountains (actually small jets squirting water}. Since the garden is lower elevation than the lake, gravity propels all the water. Next stop was art school where they teach and produce miniature paintings, which Udaipur is known for. Supposedly, the skills are passed on from generation to generation, and descendants of the painters who painted for maharaja’s family 400 years ago are still involved. They produce their own pigments from natural stones that they grind to a powder and mix with resin. They use two types of brushes – very fine from the hair from the tail of squirrels and coarse from the eyelashes of camels. (no joke). They no longer use ivory to paint on but now use camel bones. Next we went to the City Palace, the main residence of the maharaja (who has at least 3 other palaces in the city, including a palace on the lake, which was used to film the Bond film Octopussy). The movie The Best Marigold Hotel was filmed in a town about near Udaipur, and Judy Dench stayed in a hotel near the city Palace, which our guide pointed out to us. The City Palace is very large complex and it was extremely crowded with tourists. It’s divided into 3 parts – a museum, a luxury hotel and the private residence. We opted not to go to museum but shopped instead. Later, our fellow travelers told us that it was a very smart decision because the museum was so crowded that they couldn’t see anything and were very uncomfortable. Then we also saw an exhibition of maharaja’s crystals with furniture made of crystal and ridiculous amounts of crystal everything. It was a relief to get on a boat to go to a little island on the lake for a quick stop. We had to be back on the train by 4 pm to start our way to Jaisalmer.

Day 3 Mar 2

Today we had to get up at an ungodly hour of 5:45 am. Wake-up coffee served by our steward made it bearable. We boarded jeeps at 6:10 am and drove for about 30 min to Ranthambore National Park. The park is nature preserve for tigers. There are about 70 tigers living in the area and we were hoping to see at least one. After a 90+ minutes of very bumpy and dusty drive through park looking for tigers, we found none. We did see a lot of deer and antelope, monkeys, pheasants, wild pig. Then the jeeps took us to a small hotel for Holi celebration. Holi is called the Festival of Color, and it celebrates the beginning of spring, new life and letting go of old grievances. The celebration starts the night before with lighting bonfires made of bundles of straw to burn the bad stuff. There is even an official bonfire in front of the maharaja’s city palace, which he himself lights. We saw the preparations for it yesterday. The following morning, people go around throwing fistfuls of powdered colors/dyes at each other. Supposedly there is also a lot of drinking going on. It’s all over by 1 pm. Our Holi was fun, with food, music and Indian dancers. Then we got back on the train to take a shower and change from the white (no longer) pajamas provided by POW. Then the train left for Chittaurgarh. At 4 pm, we left for Chittaurgarh fort from the 7th century, which one of the largest forts in India. It is now more popular with tourist than ever because of a controversial recent Indian movie about the 14th century queen Padmini who lived in the fort/castle and committed jauhar (burned herself up) together with her ladies of the court so they don’t fall into the hands of the Muslim invaders. We visited just a fraction of the fort, including its most famous structure – the tower of victory, a temple and Padmini’s summer palace. Then we had to sit through an hour of what was advertised as a “light and sound show” at the ruins of the main palace, but turned out to be a detailed narrated history lesson with occasional lighting here and there.

Day 2

Day 2 Day started at 6:30 with coffee and biscuits in bed served by our steward. Bo liked the service so much she said maybe we should take an Indian home with us. This was a long. hot and tiring day. After the 7 am breakfast we boarded a bus for sightseeing in Jaipur, and didn’t get back on the train until after 7 pm. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, and a UNESCO-designated city because of the multitude of its historical sites. It’s also called a pink city because of the color of buildings in the historical core, which is really not pink, more like terracotta. We visited many interesting (some more , some less) places, including the Albert museum (less – beautiful building, but exhibits not so great), the astronomical observatory built by the maharaja in the 17th century, the maharaja’s city palace, which is partly a museum of the family’s personal artifacts, and partly still their main residence, Hawal Mahal also called the Palace of Winds, which is a 5 story edifice with about a 1000 windows, just a wall with tons of windows behind which women could sit and observe what was going on. The most interesting site by far was the Amber Fort built in the 12th century by the maharaja, both as his residence and defense against aggressors. It’s a magnificent structure high on a hill. It’s been a setting for many Bolliwood movies, and the most spectacular room is the hall of mirrors with walls and ceilings covered with silver and gold. To get there we rode elephants. Our elephant’s name was Maya. The ride was about 15 minutes, but not very smooth. After lunch and touring the fort we rode down in a jeep. My (Bo’s) biggest disappointment was that this very long day of touring, with several (in my opinion) unnecessary stops, including two for predetermined shopping, we had zero free time to explore the city on our own. I had a list of about 5 places I really wanted to get to, and wasn’t able to see any of them. Another comment is about the maharajas. They had to give up their political power under Indira Ghandi, but not their wealth. Many converted some of their palaces to museums, which brings income and shelter them from paying taxes. Other palaces became very expensive, luxury hotels (more income!). Our impression so far is that the most beautiful buildings were either built by the British or by the maharajas.