baoli – Page 2 – Travels

Delicious Delhi

Posted on October 17, 2015 by Steve

The first four and a half weeks of my trip all had one purpose. To be in Delhi to meet The Sheila when she arrived from the US. We then get to spend a couple of weeks travelling together before heading home,

My timing had been perfect, I managed to arrive in Delhi on the 12th, determined that the hotel was of adequate standard for entry into India and re-entry into relationship, I even booked a car and driver to get to and from the airport. The incredibleness of Google technology* – did you know you can just type a flight number into search and it will give you the arrival time? – informed me that the plane was 30 minutes early and I arrived at the airport and was in position at the arrivals barrier just after the plane landed . *Conditions apply, as you will see^.

Why is it that India (and other places) try to make life so hard for people. Planes full of passengers are arriving and everyone needs to go through customs and immigration and then out to the world, usually with someone waiting to meet them. Instead of a single exit door where it is impossible to miss the arrivee, adding to the excitement of welcoming your loved one there is the tension of three exit doors and a desperate hope that you are standing at the right one. After watching for a few minutes I notice that 80% of people come out of one door so I find myself a spot and wait. And wait. And wait. After an hour of waiting I am not the slightest bit anxious (kidding), after 90 minutes I ask someone who comes out how long it takes to get through and he said about 30 minutes. I keep reminding myself “India time” but am going through scenarios of what to do next.

Of course, there is more than one happy ending that night and eventually, having had to deal with a malfunctioning fingerprint scanner, The Sheila emerged to something rare in India, a public display of affection. The ride home wasn’t too crazy (it was 2300hrs), the hotel was deemed perfect. Off to a great start.

Next day it was time to be tourists, in a different way for me a) I am not alone any more and b) where I am happy to rough it and be adventurous, The Sheila is likely to not be quite the same. I have a day planned, show her the baoli I have discovered and a temple I have heard about. I have used Google maps to work out the buses to catch, what can possibly go wrong^~? There is sufficient awe at architecture, fear at getting on and off buses that don’t quite come to a full stop and admonishment for walking along the road like the rest of the population, but fun is being had.

Off to the Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib Sikh shrine (not quite the right word) I heard about from a couple of Americans the previous day. I have the bus stop name, we are approaching and the vagueness of whether the conductor and people meant “this stop” or “next stop” meant we miss the stop. Meh, not far to walk back. Serendipity time #1 for The Sheila.

We get off the bus and there is a line of people being handed a plate of food. I suggest we get some, “no it is for poor people” Sheila has already figured out. Some people notice our reluctance and invite us to have some food. A plate of curry and a couple of too hot to hold puris and we are ushered to the only two chairs (they kick a couple of guys off) and while I am kind of used to Honoured Guest status, Sheila gets initiated.

Honoured guest after less than 24hrs.

Best I could figure out was this was something to do with a current festival Navratri and the food was not for the poor, it was for everyone and it was really tasty. Again there is a request for a posing for photos, lots of laughter and we walk off shaking our heads in disbelief at our good fortune missing our bus stop.

HOT! puris, straight from oil to hand.

The yummy curry and a bloke who doesn’t mind being in a photo.

There are lots of temples and shrines in India. I mean LOTS. Just about every block will have a temple of some sort and there are smaller shrines all over the place. Approaching we can hear chanting and we take off our shoes a long way from the doors because no one else is wearing shoes. Up the stairs, I cover my head with provided ‘bandana’ and into a not huge space where the floor is covered by a soft carpet. No words are adequate and like most of these places, the photos don’t do justice. A steady stream of pilgrims come in and kneels before the shrine (you read the links above, right?) to do devotion. Meanwhile there is this small group of musicians alternating with a preacher every five minutes. We sat for quite a while, I found the place mesmerising, trying to work out the subtleties of the rituals (I didn’t), people watching and observing the protocols of the “guards”, bit they weren’t really guarding, it appeared more ceremonial.

Dammit, if someone can figure an easy way to upload videos I will add it here…grrr…

On the way out of the grounds there was quite a bit of coming and going from a hall. We asked what was going on, a wedding! If you ask to go in and look is it technically gate-crashing? We were invited to have our photo taken with the bride and groom and it seemed so bizarre we said no. I now regret breaking my “say yes” rule.

She looked soooo excited by what can only be described as an ordeal, a photo shoot with hundreds of people.

Again I am a few days behind and am considering declaring blog bankruptcy i.e. just skip a few days to catch up. But so much happens. I will instead use more photos than words.

Don’t know the story, they were outside the temple. Maybe associated with the wedding…to remain a mystery

^ We had spent the day hopping around on buses and crossed town, heading back a bus that Google maps and the sign at the bus stop said existed didn’t. Beware the mythical 536! We were a bit stuck, people tried to help us, a storm came through, we caught a bus in the wrong direction at a big intersection, got caught in Delhi rush hour traffic (why is it called rush hour when it is so slow?) and after taking 3 hours to complete a 45min trip we collapsed in our hotel.

Chandni Chowk spice market Delhi

While Sheila relaxed in a warm bath, I did a food run for Rs50 ($1) of street momos that was almost too much for us both to eat. Am I a good husband or what?

Not finished. More to write. 7℅ battery left. Publish!

6 score pachyderms

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Steve

Played the tourist again, hired an auto and did the major haunts. It is the best way to get around a big unfamiliar city where the sights are spread out. Welcome to Jaipur.

It was a nice slow auto ride, not part of the plan, but, when the throttle cable breaks, it is part of the adventure. Poor Yash had to hold the end of the cable with a rag until he could make temporary repairs, then later we stopped at the auto repair workshop…actually it was just a spot by the side of the road more than any sort of workshop, but it was fixed.

There is a weird gene in the Indian population where some people have grey/green eyes, it is a very attractive look…seriously. This guard was a photo favourite

First stop was Amber Fort. I hate to sound blasé, but it is your pretty standard Indian Fort meaning it is big, spectacular, beautiful and quite amazing. This one is also crowded, I am now in the golden tourist triangle – Delhi, Jaipur, Agra – and there were lots of groups of European tourists.

More amazing carved sandstone screens so that people could discreetly watch the goings on below.

But as usual there are surprises. In a corner of a crowded square is a sign explaining about underground water tanks. Nearby is a bored looking guard next to an iron gate. I go to peer through the bars on the gate and bored guard is suddenly as animated as the guards get (not very) and opens the gate for me. Down down down, all alone to the underground water tank, too dark for a photo.

I love this shot looking down onto the main path up from the top of the Fort.

Later I see a half hidden sign pointing to the secret tunnel. The tour guides lead the packs past a doorway, I venture in and alone again I head down down down to a tunnel that was an escape route from the castle if the hordes were attacking…or paparazzi are waiting at the front gate.

All this is great, but no one told me about the elephants. There are 120 of them carrying people in a steady procession up the mountain to the main courtyard past hordes of touts selling textiles, carvings, umbrellas and photos – maybe they should use the tunnel.

I can imagine the same scene in Australia. People would be wearing seatbelts and helmets, the elephants would walk behind a big fence, everything would be so safe. But this is India and you walk with the elephants, mahouts will shout at you if you get in the way.

You really walk with the elephants, close enough to touch them (if they aren’t moving). It was so awesome being so close to an elephant, but being surrounded by so many of them was indescribable.

All this and more during the day plus the fun of tracking down another baoli (stepwell). Not as big or spectacular as the one in Jodhpur, but still remarkable. I have found 3 to visit in Delhi.

Meena ka kund Baoli at Amber Fort Jaipur

Meena ka kund Baoli near the Amber Fort Jaipur

In Pushkar a couple from Argentina had told me about the Hotel Hathroi Palace in Jaipur. A couple of young guys took over the lease in mid 2015 and are turning it into what will be a cool and popular hangout. They already have a great chill space on the roof, are decorating and renovating and if you toss in great personalities it will rock in a year or so. This is an unashamed plug for the place that will hopefully increase their internet profile.

One of the residents around the Monkey Temple

I asked about a concert of some sort, I hadn’t seen any music yet. Yes, there is something on tomorrow night I am vaguely told. Yash to the rescue in his auto, we head off to somewhere, I have no idea where or what.

Turns out to be the very flash Hotel Diggi Palace, very flash indeed. Hmmm…. I am directed down a side street to the servants entrance and a sign announces that on a beautifully warm Jaipur night, the very flash back courtyard has been taken over by the Sufi Music Festival. I can’t believe my luck…again.

I got to see four vastly different performances. The first, with only about 10 other people was very devotional and everyone had to have their heads covered. The words to the “songs” were displayed using PowerPoint – good to see PP is just as bad everywhere in the world. The tabla player was incredible.

Crappy photo but I missed my opportunities, this guy was what I guessed is some sort of poet or performance artist. He certainly dresses well.

One great thing about the event that puzzled me was that all the announcements and banter by musicians was bilingual. First in Hindi, then in English. I was delighted, but being the only westerner there I wondered who the English was for.

The woman was the lead of this trio and had an extraordinary voice. The instrument, I have no idea of the name, rests on her shoulder as you see and is essentially a drone, it is strummed without any work on the neck at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnSk_YnxIjQ

I didn’t want to mid another photo op, so I went down the front, in the VIP area, having earlier expressed my dismay at being turned back when I boldly tried to walk in at the beginning of the night. “But I am a VIP” I huffed and puffed to much laughter. This time I simply went to the other end of the fence where it was completely open. Down to the front, I sit on an empty VIP couch in row two, but is effectively the front row at this spot, a couple of photos, perfect. Great music, I make myself comfortable. I have the whole couch to myself, a bit further down some real VIPs including government ministers are being fawned over and photographed.

I am very comfortable now and regret leaving my bag and sandles back in the cheap seats. I consider going and getting them and making the move permanent, but have learned in the past that when you are scamming, it is good to not draw attention to yourself. Eventually a group of real VIPs join me on my couch, completely spoiling my premium experience by talking, using their phones, not clapping and just being on my couch. I think I may appear in a photo in a newspaper and have half of India speculating about who I am.

The headliner was great. An apparently well known young woman who performed contemporary rock Sufi music and the crowd went off…in an Indian way. I can’t speak for where you live, but had this been in Australia the audience would have been on their feet about half way through the set, dancing, clapping, singing. Not in India.

The video is early in her show, I got caught up in the event and as well as crowd watching forgot to shoot more video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1WglOOM5uo

Despite bursting with joy and excitement cheering and singing, people would jump up, dance for about 5 seconds then reluctantly sit down again. This was happening all over the audience. Despite all the fantastic energy, there weren’t even people dancing around the sides or back of the crowd. I was truly hoping she would invite everyone to get up so it would really go off. Unfortunately I didn’t think to video towards the end, so this will have to do.

Eventually as the final song built to the usual concert crescendo they couldn’t hold back and for the last 30 seconds the place erupted. At every other similar concert you and I have been to there are then screams and claps and whoops for an encore and of course the act obliges with their 3 pre planned encore songs.

But this is India, we just went home.

Footnote: never buy a tablet if you plan on producing content, they are for consumption. This post has been particularly painful to edit and has taken 2 days to (hopefully) get right.

Deep fort

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Steve

Despite my policy of saying Yes, there is a time I tend to say No. Getting off a train and being confronted by auto drivers and various other touts and hasslers. I brush past them saying No, acting like I know what I am doing and where I am going even though I usually have absolutely no idea.

Similarly in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Out of the station and headed off in an arbitrary direction to find a hotel. I didn’t do very well and had walked for about half an hour when an auto driver approached me. Being away from the hustle of the station I asked if he knew a hotel and of course he did.

Rooftop next door to hotel, I think these were Papagena drying

Rooftop next door to hotel, I think these were Papadams drying

Perhaps it is owned by his uncle, who cares, if it is a decent place that is all that matters. We head off down the main road, turn down a smaller road, into a dusty laneway and into a smaller dustier laneway if that is possible. I am not optimistic that this will turn out well…but based on my past experiences you already have an idea of the outcome.

Clock Tower Jodhpur

He leads me into the Discovery Hotel, a hole in the wall, the foyer is nothing special. Raj the manager is a good doppelganger for my friend Giri, a big smile, friendly, welcoming. He leads me 3 floors up a narrow, steep flight of stairs, 2 days after my Palitana climb this is torture.

But it is well worth the pain. The quaintest, cutest, best maintained hotel I have seen and just outside my room, a stunning view of Jodhpur Fort, just Rs500 ($10). I say I will take it.

It was small, but it was beautifully decorated, and that view…

Raj is a smart bastard. In a classic “would you like fries with that?” manoeuvre he says “let me show you another room”, we go up a couple more painful steps, around a corner and the room is more or less the same until he throws open a window and there, looming over the hotel is the fort. For an extra Rs300 I am a sucker and upgrade before I have even signed in.

View from my window

To cap it, there is a roof top restaurant that has 360° views over the Blue City and all the major tourist points Jodhpur has to offer. Not that I have been doing it tough, but this is bliss.

There is something about Jodhpur that elevated it to Favourite City So Far status. The local bazaar is crazy busy, the city is relatively clean, the architecture visually compelling, incredible historical stuff. Bliss.

Tour guide whose services I declined, despite taking his photo (with permission of course)

My first tourist indulgence I hire an auto for a few hours at 1/3 the price quoted on the street the previous day. He takes me to Meheganar Palace,

The Maharajah’s palace, I wasn’t invited upstairs for tea

Maharajahs’ cremation place and tombs

Tombs of the Maharajahs

and of course the Meheganar Fort where as usual, foreign tourists pay 10x the entry fee of locals.

But it does included an audio guide, exactly the sort of thing I usually resist and in another surprise, it turns out to be pretty good. Some great background and pointing out features that the average punter would have missed e.g. at the approach to the huge iron main gate there is a right angle turn so that attacking elephants couldn’t get a good run at it, they wouldn’t have wanted to anyway, at elephant head height it was studded with very nasty looking spikes.

This is all carved sandstone in Meheganar Fort

On the way back to the hotel my attention was caught by an open space that I couldn’t see into because of a low wall. Open space is pretty unusual in india and I was a bit intrigued by whether it might be a baoli or stepwell. See this post for background. I still don’t understand what made me curious, some sort of intuition? There was nothing at all to indicate anything special. I kept track of the route the auto took and it was effectively one straight street and not far.

A 10 minute walk back, as I approached I noticed a couple of tourists and a guide leaving, now I was very curious. Up 2 or 3 steps and my breath was taken away by the first full on baoli I have seen.

Jodhpur baoli or stepwell

Read the article linked to in the last post for more about these incredible structures. This was just awesome and now I am more determined to hunt them down, I have heard of one in Jaipur, where I am heading tomorrow.

Tricky to photograph and capture properly

Off to Pushkar on a 0700 train meant being vigilant about getting enough sleep and waking early enough. I had just dozed off when there was some thumping music in the street below and a peek out the window showed a crowd forming.

I’m sure this happens at 10PM every night on every street

That’s enough for me, clothes on, grab camera and into the throng. I had no idea, but it wasn’t hard to work out that this rather wooden looking guy was getting married.

My bucks night was never this much fun.

The procession continued, I tried to get back to sleep.

And the post title? A hat tip to HHGTTG (no spoilers in comments!)

I’m listening…

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Steve

I have received plenty of advice and I appreciate it. Especially from those who have ventured to the Indian subcontinent before me.

Information is best shared so this is a collection of advice offered to me *.

Travel by train whenever possible and take Sleeper Class
Eat vegetarian cooked food , avoid salad.
Street food is fine
Visit the Taj Mahal as early as possible in the morning. Do this by staying in Agra the night before
You will get sick , you will get better.
Try not to get bitten by a rabid dog
Get over it and stop being such a wuss. What happened to the spirit of Crocodile Dundee?
Don’t leave Chaitrali Mahanwar hanging! Let her know if you still want to stay. (Auto response from CouchSurfing)
You can basically buy anything in the world at an Indian pharmacy
Travelling light – did you hear about the guy a few weeks ago who fainted at the airport because he had like 4 layers on, trying to avoid being overweight with his carry-on?!
Allow 1 more working day for receipt of your visa
Take care!
Remember – the worst experiences at the time, make the best stories later
Wash your hands at every opportunity
Don’t forget to view our handy travel insurance claims guide
Don’t forget every bank-note is contaminated with all sorts of lurgies. Think about BUYING food then eating it without implements
from 18 Nov to 25 Nov there is India‘s biggest tribal fair near to Jaipur at Pushkar. it would be your life time opportunity to experience this fair.. I am planning to attend this fair. Can help and guide you If you’re interested in it
Varanasi has one of my favorite stepwells, hidden in the city, you’ll probably need to keep asking, it’s surrounded by temples: LOLARKA KUND also known as CHARAN GANGA…really amazing.
Go to the Red Fort (in Delhi) and hunt for the baoli

This is all very useful information that I have taken to heart. No doubt you have some advice that isn’t on the list yet. Please add it as a comment.

I hope this list will benefit not only me, but any one else who stumbles on this blog. I found the writing of other people useful, I can only do my best to keep the information flowing.

I will add this advice of my own: Do not pay much attention to the guru in the image

* These are all genuine.