Feb 1 Bikaner

I did not sleep well last. I was apprehensive about today. I was hoping to take the train or a Volvo bus to Bikaner, but they both didn't leave Jaipur till supper time. I wasn't keen on arriving there after midnight. I also couldn't think of what to do in Jaipur for the day. There are frequent local buses, but they are not noted for their comfort. But I decided I could handle a 7 hour bus ride, so I went for the 7 am bus option.
Well, this morning I had another couple of what I call "India" moments.
I woke up at 5:30 to discover the lights in my room didn't work. Fortunately the bathroom lights did, and I had prepacked last night. So I finished packing in the semi-dark, and off I went, still in the dark.
The second "Indian" moment came as I walked up the side street from my hotel. One of the numerous stray dogs decided the carry-on I was pulling was its mortal enemy, and it attacked my bag, trying to bite it. Lots of barking, snarling, and bare teeth. I yelled and kicked at it, and it stepped back. By this time there were five others, all going crazy barking, but staying back. I was very happy to reach the main street. These dogs are not tiny.
Who says life isn't exciting.
When I got to the bus station some-one approached me and asked where I was going. He asked if I wanted a chair or a sleeper. I hadn't tried a sleeper, so I bought one. He took me to an older bus; actually they are all older.
The bus set-up was different. On the left was a row, two seats wide, on the right were bench seats, facing across the bus. On top there were sleeper compartments, the one above the seats were doubles, the one on the right singles. Mine was a single, and once I climbed up it was very comfortable. I could stretch out full length, and the mattress was very nice. The bus ride was just over 7 hours, and I have to say it was probably the most comfortable bus ride I have ever had. I actually slept part of the way.
We had one break, and we stopped for washroom, and chai. Chai is a drink, which is quite unique. It doesn't taste like tea, it is a mixture of milk, spices and sugar. It is served in very small cups, like a Dixie cup, and is sweet. I have grown to like it.
My hotel in Bikaner is very nice, hot water; they even gave me two towels.
I walked around the town, and even got a haircut.
Tomorrow I am sight seeing in the area.
Till then

Jan 31 Jaipur

This country is amazing. The cities are chaotic; the traffic is worse than Vietnam, the dominating smell is one of exhaust fumes, mixed in with raw sewage and urine. There is a continuous cacophony of tooting horns. The poverty is staggering.
And yet every day there is some wonder that just blows your mind.
Yesterday I was lucky to  get a cab ride to the old city with a cabbie who spoke good English, and was very well versed in the city. When he dropped me off at the City Palace he suggested several things to see.
I hired him today to take me to the Amber Fort, a few miles outside of Jaipur.
So, first thing this morning that's where we went. He advised me to hike up to the military fort above the Amber fort, and gave me directions to get there.
I have to admit I was a bit leery about hiking for 40 minutes up a fairly steep path, but I went for it. I did it and felt quite proud. The fort is on the highest point, and is 4 km by 1 km. There is a palace, with spectacular views. There is a fortified wall, 36 km long, stretching across the hills. Looks like the Great Wall of China. There is also the largest wheeled canon,. The barrel is 20 feet long, and it takes four elephants to move it. There is a foundry in this fort, and that's where the canon was built. It was fired only once, when it was tested. The canon ball went 35 miles, but the explosion and shock wave was so strong most of the people around the canon were killed.
After the military fort I walked down to the Amber Fort. One of the sights is a Hindu temple, which was beautiful. It is the size of a small chapel, but the doors are beautifully decorated silver, and everything inside is artistically carved marble. The Vatican has nothing on many of the temples I have seen.
These forts are huge, much bigger than any European ones, and each one has some feature which just is outstanding. The Amber Fort has one area which is a reception area, meant to impress visitors. Marble, silver, lots of mirrors. Beautiful.
On the way back into the city my cabbie took me to a couple of sites not mentioned in the guide book. They are sites where royalty are honoured with cenotaphs. There are two sites, one for male, one for female, and they are not  near each other, but have similar designs. Each royalty is honoured with his, or her, own temple like structure; again all beautifully carved marble.
The whole day, with a generous tip, came to ten dollars, not counting admissions. I even had a nice cappucino at the Amber Fort.
Tomorrow I say goodbye to Jaipur, and I am off to Bikaner, which is a much smaller town. So far, I have enjoyed the small towns more than the cities, so we shall see.
Adieu till then

Jan 30 Jaipur

This morning I visited a couple of the tourist attractions in Jaipur. Jaipur is called "The Pink City" because one of the rulers decided to paint all the buildings pink. The problem is that I don't think most of then have been repainted since, a couple of hundred years ago.
First was the City Palace, which served as the residence of the ruler for more than a hundred years. It is now a series of museums. There is a textile museum, and armory, a cariage museum, and a couple of smaller ones. I was really impressed. The displayes were beautiful. The textiles were exquisite. Unbelievable beautiful. The armoury was equally impressive. Very many ways to kill. One unique weapon, was a dagger, which, once it was inside the enemy actually opened up, like a pair of scissors, just to make sure.
The buildings themselves were beautiful on their own. There was a large reception hall, still furnished, with a huge oriental carpet, and gorgeous murals on the ceiling.
After the City Palace I went to see an astronomical garden. This was a hobby of one of the rulers, and is fantastic, not only for its accurace in measuring the position of the starts and planets, but in its size. The largest sun dial is about 20 m high, and measures time to the nearest minute. The whole thing looks like a modern sculpture garden.
The final building I saw was a 5 story house built to allow the women of the harem to observe life in the city, since they weren't allowed out. It is a beautiful building, 5 stories high, but only a room thick. It was strictly for looking out. It is pink, of course.
Jaipur is different than any Indian city I have seen so far. No cows, although I have seen a few camels pulling carts, and one elephant wandering down a main street. The streets are wider, it is a bit cleaner, although the poverty is very obvious.
Ta Ta

Jan 29 Agra

I spent the day touring Agra.
It has been another interesting day. I arrived in Agra yesterday evening, without a hotel reservation. I shared a taxi with a British lady to the hotel where she was staying, and got a room there. It was lovely. They had no vacancies for the next day, but the owner booked a room for me at the Sai Palace Hotel. Tracey had a room at the Radisson.
We went to the Taj Mahal for the sunrise. Another disappointing sunrise, jus like Varanasi, and Tikal in Guatemala. Getting into the Taj was also fun. The entry fee for Indian citizens is 40 cents, for foreign tourist 15 dollars. To add insult to injury there are 4 separate lines, One for Indian ladies, one for foreign ladies, the same for men. The lines for natives was much shorter. The security was tight, empty all the pockets, metal detectors.
The Taj Mahal is said to be the most beautiful building in the world, and if you count the exterior only I agree. The marble and inlaid precious stones are fantastic. The interior is small, filled with too many tourits, and not well lit. The Alhambra is much more beautiful on the inside.
The next job was to check into our hotels. Sai Palace only makes sense if Sai means "not a". It appeared like a dump from the outside, and in this case it fulfilled its promise. It was a dump inside. I would have looked for another place, but Tracey and the cabbie were waiting, so I thought I could handle it for one night
After Tracey checked into the Radisson, an entirely different experience, we visited the Agra Fort, which is outstanding. The largest fort I have seen before this was the one in Carcassone. This one is about 6 times larger, massive stone walls, surrounded by a moat, which used to contain crocodiles, to discourage swimming. Aftwr the fort was built local nobles built about a dozen palaces inside. One of the problems that the Indian government has is that it can't afford to restore these buildings, so all that remains are the walls and main structures. The marble is wonderful, but I wonder what it looked like when is was filled with carpets and furniture.Must have been something else.
After lunch we went to see the "Baby Taj", another mausoleum. I loved it. The stone work wasn't any less impressive than the Taj, but there was hardly anyone there. It was very peaceful, and lovely.
One thing I have to say the tourist sites are clean, no garbage, no animals. That is fairly standard.
Our cabbie then dropped me off at my "Palace". The water taps on the sink did not work at all, they didn't even pretend there was hot water, nothing came out. I was pleasantly surprised that the toilet flushed. The matresses were quite thin, so I stacked them from both beds, and actually slept well.
The next morning I took a bus to Jaipur. It was a "Deluxe" bus, and, ny In dian standards it probably is. To be honest it wasn't that bad. After about 3 hours the bus stopped at the side of the road, and I noticed some people getting off. I went to check and it was a bathroom stop. Everyone, men and women alike, just squatted or peed in a line. I think a lot of Canadian women couldn't do that.
I arived in Jaipur by 4, and went to find my hotel. One of the frustrating things is that there are no street signs anywhere, at least not in English, so I ended up taking a bicycle taxi. There is no way I would have found the hotel on my own.

Jan 27 Orccha

I am starting to really enjoy myself. Love Orccha.
Found a post office and mailed some postcards. I then had a very interesting experience; I was visiting a large temple, when a young man asked me if I wanted to go to the top. It was quite the climb. Very narrow steps, at least 20 inches high, and in the dark. He did have a flashlight. All I kept thinking about was how I was going to get down. When we did reach the top, the view was spectacular. In addition the tops of the temple were like a bird sanctuary. There were a couple of dozen parrots, some bats, and a family of vultures. They are big birds, and I even got to see some babies.
Rather amazing
I also visited a large Hindu temple, which was very clean, and had some colorful idols. This was a strict temple, no leather goods. No shoes I even had to take off my belt. No photos.
At noon I took a tuk-tuk to the train station. These are three-wheeled motorcycles that have a "cabin". I saw 11 people in one once.
On the way to the station we were stopped at a railway crossing. This is quite interesting, because what happens is that all the vehicles on one side line up across the entire road. Same on the other side. When the barrier is lifted it's a free-for-all the get across, and back into your own lane.
The train to Agra was like an airplane, not a lot of room.
In Agra I joined with a lovely British lady, an author, and we shared a taxi to the home stay where she had a room reserved. I was lucky to get a room there also. The place is beautiful, by far the nicest I have stayed on so far.
Tomorrow morning is Taj Mahal time.
I wish I had brought a sweater; this is like camping.
Ta ya till the next time.

Jan 26 Indian Independence Day

I have to say that the last two days have been the nicest so far.
Delhi and Varanasi wer just too busy, too dirty, too chaotic. The whole scene of watching dead bodies being burned, while cows, dogs and people wander around was not overly dignified. It's funny, they get upset when you try to take a photo, but you have all the animals around, while other people are sifting through the ashes to find any jewellry left over. A bit too much.
I had trouble getting a train to Khajuraho, so I splurged and took a plane.
Khajuraho is a small town that is the site of the most beautiful temples I have seen. The setting is very peaceful, there is an actual lovely park. It is gated , no animals!!
The carvings are absolutely gorgeous, and there are hundreds. The other interesting point is that many of the carvings are quite erotic and very graphic. If you get a chance check the internet.
There are several groups of temples around the town, and I used a cab to see them all.
In addition to cows and dogs, there were pigs and chickens joining the crowd. I have never seen so many stray dogs in all my life.
My cab driver convinced me to hire him to drive me to Orccha, my next stop, on the 26th. A 4 hour cab ride for 40 dollars. It saved me a 7 hour bus ride, on a local bus.
Driving here is a continuous game of Chicken. I was absolutely amazed I got to Orccha without messing myself.
Orccha is another small village, which is on a river, and has a great fort, in addition to some large beautiful temples. My room is quite large, and I have a sitting room which overlooks the fort. Another splurge, 20 dollars.
I have discovered that getting a train ticket is not as easy as I thought it would be. I am heading to Agra, and the Taj Mahal, tomoorow, and could only get a seat in one of the cheaper sections. It's only 4 hours, so I think I will survive.
The weather has been great, high of 20 and sunny, if you don't count the smog. It does get cool at night, and there is no heating in any hotel I have been in. Thank goodness for camping gear.
Till the next time

Jan 24 Varanasi

Varanasi is laid out along the Ganges River. There is a steep bank along the river, and the town is accessible by a series of steps, called Ghats. Over a stretch of several kilometers there are about 50 of these steps, leading from the town to the river. These steps are adjacent to each other, and you can walk along the river, crossing these steps.
Every day hundres of Hindus walk to the river for a ritual bath. After they take the bath they atten a service in one of the many temples along the shore.
One of the tourist attraction is to take a boat ride up and down the shore, in a row boat. It is quite a colourful sight to see all the various people taking a bath, while the sun is rising. In addition there are other activities, like doing laundry. I can't imagine washing anything in this water.
I also walked up and down the shore. Lots of steps, and they are steep. For example to get from my hotel down to the river is 50 steps, steep and narrow. It reminded me of the steps at the Mayan pyramids in Mexico.
There are buffalos everywhere. Each cow has an owner, who milks the cow each morning. After that the cows are free to roam the city. You will meet cows everywhere, streets, ghats, along the river, at the funeral pyres. In the evening they all return home, where they are fed, and tied up. One of the fun games is walking without stepping into one of the many cow patties. Especially in the dark. Some locals actually collect the patties, stick them to a wall, and use them as fuel when they dry.
In the afternoon I walked through the town. The area between the Ghats and the main town is a warren of narrow lanes, no cars. More confusing than any old European town.
The traffic in town is chaotic. If you imagine driving through Dundas at rush-hour, and then you add an equal number of biycle rickshaws, motorcycle rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians, there are no sidewalks, add the occasional buffalo, many dogs and a goat or so, and you have an idea what it's like. To add to the fun, everyone toots their horn every few seconds. It's actually worse than Vietnam. The only reason there aren't more accidents, is that evrything moves at a snail's pace.
In the evening I attended a Hindu ceremony at one of the Ghats. The ceremony is to pray to the gods so that Mother Ganges will always be there. It is very colorful, lots of singing, bells, and fires.
The river is quite magical at night; boats going up and down, and people floating candles in the water. From my balcony it looks like the night sky with all the twinkling lights.
Till the next time