INDIA TRAVELOGUE

DELHI

I have wanted to visit India for as long as I can remember. Richard was always more interested in Africa, and after travelling round Africa for more than a year we were finally visiting India. I was really looking forward to going to India, and considering how much flying disagrees with me, I was even looking forward to the flight. I guess I should have known better. The flight was fine, as far as the mechanics of it went, but I was not. By the time we finally landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, I was feeling so unwell that Richard had to practically carry me off of the plane, through customs, and into the bar. I really needed to sit still and drink some water. It was about 3am, and as we had not booked any accommodation, we thought we would wait for a while before leaving the airport, and hopefully I would begin to feel better. After getting me some cool water to drink, Richard rang the hotel where we hoped to stay, unfortunately as it was so early the phone just rang and rang. I guess the receptionist was enjoying a nap. I was not a happy bunny, I just wanted to go to bed, or die, by this time I didn’t really care which! I was moaning so much I think Richard would probably have been happy with the latter too! The bar was quite busy considering the time, not with passengers, but with local people and friends of the bar staff happily sitting eating and drinking. The staff were very good to me, and at one point I thought I was beginning to feel a little better. So we went outside to get some fresh air, but the air was far from fresh. It was unbelievably hot, there were people sleeping everywhere, sprawled all over the ground. The warm sticky air did little to revive me, so we went back to the bar. I was feeling very hot and then shivering with cold. I have had food poisoning before and this felt the same. Richard kept ringing the hotel until eventually someone answered. He booked a room for a couple of nights, and we prepared to leave the bar. Suddenly, without any warning, I threw up everywhere. I have heard of projectile vomiting but never experienced it, until now. Richard comforted me and then went to ask for a mop and some cleaning cloths. Obviously the bar staff knew I had been ill, it was pretty hard to miss. I felt so bad for the mess I had made, but at the same time I was feeling so much better. They wouldn’t let us clean it up, so once I was feeling able, we went out to get a taxi to our hotel. We had chosen to stay at the Claridges Hotel, 12 Aurangzeb Road, New Delhi, which was considered to be in the luxury category. I don’t remember much of the taxi journey, but I remember checking in and how helpful the staff were. They asked if I needed a doctor, which I didn’t, I don’t have a high opinion of doctors. We just wanted to get to our room, and we ordered some water. Claridges Hotel exists because apparently in 1950 a Dutch hotel manager convinced an Indian family to build a hotel with British decor and a British name. Claridges was born, and to this day it is visited by a loyal group of guests, many of whom stay there long term. The reception was very British with its Victorian decor, and yet there was also a feeling of India. Our room was nice, clean and fully equipped with everything you would expect. There was carpet on the floor which surprised me, I guess it was part of the British decor. After a lovely warm shower I went straight to bed, I told Richard to go out. It was silly both of us being stuck inside, and there was nothing he could do for me, sleep was the best medicine. So he reluctantly went out, I slept for a while and woke feeling much better. Richard had taken a taxi to the centre of town and enjoyed a walk round. I was eager to go out too, but still felt far too weak to venture far. So we wandered round the hotel to see what was on offer. There were what looked like some good restaurants and a nice bar. The Dhaba restaurant was modelled on the famous highway restaurants in North India. It served traditional wholesome food such as curry, and kebabs cooked in the Tandoor with tandoori breads. The Jade Garden restaurant served Far Eastern cuisine, specialising in Thai and foods from the Schezuan province of China. We ate in there one evening and the food was nice, although nowhere near as good as the local food, we love spicy foods. Pickwick’s was the place to get food 24 hours a day, the decor was Olde English, but the cuisine was more continental with some delicious dishes from other areas of India. We ordered a lot of meals from room service, unusual for us, but I was feeling rough most days and this meant I could eat in bed! The food we were served was excellent, and always very quick to arrive. Then there was the most important place, the bar! The Viceroy Bar was in a good position overlooking the hotel gardens. Food was available there too, in the form of snacks. We spent quite a lot of time in the bar chatting with the bar staff who were very friendly. We also sat out the front at the tables on the grass, but usually the heat got the better of us and it wasn’t long before we headed back inside to the comfort of the air conditioned bar. There was a swimming pool at the rear of the hotel, which was usually in use with children who were residing at the hotel. Obviously India is a warm country, and this would not have been a problem for us as we both hate being cold and love being very very warm, the warmer the better. But at the time of our trip to India it was at the height of a major heat wave. Sadly thousands of people lost their lives because of the extreme heat that year. Even we were feeling the heat, which meant that whenever possible we would go into the bars of the five star hotels for refreshment, and to enjoy the air conditioning. Claridges Hotel was in an excellent position right in the middle of an exclusive peaceful residential district near to Connaught Place, and near enough to the hustle and bustle at the heart of Delhi. Feeling a little better, later that day we took a taxi to town and walked round, taking everything in. After spending so much time travelling in African countries this felt so different. It was still busy and noisy and full of people but there seemed to be an underlying calmness to it. Walking round Delhi was a very uplifting experience, there were lots of delicious aromas from the many street vendors selling food, and our eyes were transfixed by the beautiful women wearing the most gorgeous bright colourful saris. Although most people were rushing here and there, there were lots of others who took the time to say hello, Delhi was very friendly. As we walked past the shops, many of the shop owners invited us in to look round and have a drink with them. We declined, we were happy just walking and looking for now. On days when I was feeling a little better, we were able to go out properly and enjoy the many sights Delhi had to offer. Delhi was the ‘capital of seven empires’ in Indian history, and has over 60,000 recognised monuments built over several millennia. So we were always going to be able to find something to interest us. We liked Delhi a lot, it was very cosmopolitan like London with a strong multi ethnic and multi cultural society. As it was so warm we usually took a taxi or an auto rickshaw wherever we went.

RED FORT ~ LAL QILA

We visited the Red Fort in Delhi, which is situated on the western bank of the river Yamuna. The Red Fort forms the centrepiece of Mughal Emperor Shahajahan’s medieval walled city Shah Jahanabad ~ Old Delhi. Building begun in 1639 and was completed in 1648, the name comes from the huge red sandstone walls that surround the fort. The fort is enclosed by almost 2 1/2km of battlement walls of varying height from 18.5m (60ft) at the highest watch towers to 33m, all surrounded by a 9m deep moat. It was here that on 15 August 1947 the first Prime Minister of India unfurled the Indian flag commemorating the end of the British colonial rule. Since then every year on Independence day, the Prime Minister addresses the huge crowd who gather in the Maidan ~ ground overlooking the fort. We had taken several bottles of water with us to the fort which didn’t last long. It was hot thirsty work walking round, the Red Fort is huge, apparently it is the largest of Old Delhi’s Monuments. It covers a semi - octagonal area of about 2km. The city of Shajahanabad was laid out with wide roads, and housed all of the expected trappings of the centre of Moghul government, domed marble palaces, halls of public and private audience, a mosque, lavish private apartments, and spectacular gardens. Unfortunately the Yamuna river no longer flows along the east wall, the ‘Stream of Paradise’ no longer trickles through the palaces, and the copper domes have been replaced with less bright plainer marble domes, and the precious stones and gems that once nestled into the marble walls are no more. Those precious stones were probably removed when the Persian emperor Nadir Shah attacked in 1739, or by the British soldiers during the battles of 1857, with any that remained being worn away by the constant rubbing and touching by the thousands of tourists who have visited the fort. There were few other tourists at the fort when we visited, I think most people were sensibly keeping out of the heat. At one point we felt as though we were as interesting as the fort itself. There was one large family group who followed us everywhere we walked, wanting to take our photo and to have their photo taken with us.

During our brief time in India we noticed that this seemed to be quite common, Indian families wanting to have photos of and with us funny looking white fellas! I wonder what becomes of the photographs they take of complete strangers when they return to their homes? We were both hot and sticky after walking round the fort for a few hours, so we got a taxi back to the hotel for a refreshing shower. We have never had so many showers, each one felt better than the one before, but the fresh feeling didn’t last for long.

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Shopping in Delhi was good, there were so many shops to browse. The Bazaars of Old Delhi were also very interesting, you could easily spend days walking round them. The streets that lead off of Chandni Chowk, running south of the mosque are home to the liveliest markets, each one dedicated to a particular trade. The bazaars are all huddled together in open houses or underneath awnings, where you can buy everything from fresh fish to huge candles. Chor Bazaar is behind the old ramparts of the Red Fort, on Sundays it springs to life selling second-hand and apparently stolen goods! Kinari Bazaar, called 'the street of incomparable pearl' is the place for jewellers. The shops there are full of bright wedding finery, grooms turbans, and garlands that are made using rupee notes. In October, the month of Ram Lila, the shop also sells props for the annual theatre productions, bows, arrows, swords, and fake heads depicting the evil nine headed King Ravana. Naya Bazaar on Khari Baoli, near Fatehpuri Masjid, is the sweetest smelling of the bazaars, selling spices and nuts, and dried fruits, delicious. Gadodia Market off of Khari Baoli, is where the wholesalers gather to weigh their various goods on huge old fashioned scales. We love spice, and the smells and colours there of the aniseed, turmeric, pomegranate, ginger, saffron, lotus seeds, and various pickles and chutneys made us want to buy everything. It all looked so good, it got our appetites going too. Other bazaars worth a look are the Chawri Bazaar, where years ago ‘dancing girls’ would look down to the streets below from the balconies and windows of the huge mansions, enticing the men to join them. Now the girls have been moved, there are shops selling copper and brass Buddhas, Vishnus, Krishnas, bells, lamps, ashtrays, masks and boxes, all typical souvenirs of India. The Kalan Mahal Bazaar is the place to go for intricate carved necklaces made using bone. Unfortunately as I was not feeling too well most days, we didn’t get to see all that Delhi has to offer. It wasn’t the usual culprit ~ Delhi Belly, that made me so unwell, it was the drugs I was taking. When we visited Kenya the anti malarial drugs we were prescribed had made me very ill, physically. We were taking them again on this trip, and unfortunately I was unwell again. But this time it was not so much being physically ill as feeling mentally unwell. This may sound severe, but we have read of several cases where members of the British armed forces, whilst taking the same medication, became so unwell that they committed suicide. So it wasn’t just me being weak, if the big tough guys of Britain's armed forces found it hard to cope, I guess it wasn’t surprising that I was so seriously affected. Apparently since this trip there is a replacement drug for the one we took that is supposed to be just as effective, but with the added bonus of far less side effects. I wish it had been available for me to take. The very first time I took this drug I had not had any side effects, I guess it’s just the luck of the draw, Richard was not really effected any of the times we took it. We did go out and about whenever I was feeling well though. After enjoying our visit to the Red Fort, we were ready for something else, we went to the Rail Museum.

The National Rail Museum

We visited the National Rail Museum, Shanti Path, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, and had a surprisingly good time. Obviously the Rail Museum would be a must see for train spotters. We are not train spotters or particularly interested in trains, but we had a really good time at the museum. The Rail Museum chronicles 144 years of the history of Indian Railways. One of its most popular attractions is the four wheeled saloon of Maharaja of Mysore, which is carved out of teak, gold and ivory. Once again because India was having a serious heat wave at the time of our visit, the Rail Museum was not exactly swamped with tourists. In fact apart from us two, we only saw two other visitors, a father and his daughter. The grounds at the museum were massive, sprawled over 11 acres, with an indoor gallery which houses various displays, exhibits, models, photographs, coats of arms and documents etc. There were over 100 life size exhibits displaying the glory of a bygone era. The Rail Museum was formally inaugurated on the 1st February 1977. In 1855 the majestic Fairy Queen rolled out for the East Indian Railway. The Fairy Queen is the oldest working steam engine in the World. It is credited in the Guinness Book of World Records, and also has a National Tourism Award. The train engines and carriages are all displayed outside in the open. We were free to wander round the grounds looking at everything close up. It was interesting to think that we were seeing so many years of the history of railways in India. Another interesting piece was the Vice regal Dining Car 1889, still in working order. Also on display was the Prince of Wales Saloon 1875, the Maharaja of Mysore’s Saloon 1899, and the Maharaja of Baroda’s Saloon 1886. The interior of these royal saloons were definitely worth a look, to see the splendid elaborate interior design. There was a toy train that ran around the grounds on a miniature rail track. The father and daughter we saw, were sitting on it at one point, and the driver tried to get us to go for a ride, but without having a child with us it didn’t feel right! I wouldn’t have thought we would have enjoyed visiting a train museum, but we both thought it was a good day out. We didn’t want to stay too long in Delhi, as we were both looking forward to visiting the Taj Mahal. So we caught a train to Agra.

AGRA

We had booked our tickets for the train to Agra. We arrived at the station early and tried to figure out which platform we needed. It wasn’t really obvious where we would be departing from. Eventually we asked a member of staff, he asked for our tickets and then he consulted the huge pile of papers he was holding, which contained hundreds of names. We had booked second class seats, these were the best available, there were no first class seats on this train. Eventually after lots of conversations with several of his colleagues, the man told us which platform we needed, and roughly where to stand. The platform was fairly busy but not packed. Most of the people were squatting down happily waiting for the train. The other passengers were mainly families who were travelling with large bags and overflowing boxes. There were a couple of young boys walking up and down the platform selling steaming hot cups of thick sweet Chai. We didn’t want any, nor did we buy any of the various fried snacks available, although they smelt lovely. The roof of the station had seen better days, most of it was missing, with just the metal frame remaining high up over the tracks. Climbing up on the frame were dozens of monkeys, occasionally they would come down on to the tracks looking for scraps of food. Our train was on time, each carriage had a piece of paper stuck onto the outside, with the names of the passengers listed on it. We scanned the list for our name, found our seat number, and boarded the train. We located our seats and settled in. The seats were surprisingly comfortable, with good thick, springy bases. The train was not as dirty as we thought it would be, it wasn’t clean, but then neither are the trains in the U.K. Agra is about 200km from Delhi, so we tried to get some sleep, hoping the journey would pass quickly. I don’t remember much about the view as we travelled to Agra, as thankfully we did manage to sleep for most of the way. We arrived at Agra Cantonment Station, one of the six railway stations in Agra. As we expected, the station was very busy, we made our way out to the front of the station and were immediately approached by a couple of auto rickshaw drivers. We picked the best looking one, rickshaw not driver! We told him where we wanted to go and agreed a price. We sat in the back together with our bags squashed between us. The driver was in front of us, as he set off he suddenly stopped and shouted at a couple of young girls, they were reaching in behind us trying to take our bag! They ran off smiling and waving to us. The driver sped off into the fumes of the traffic. As the auto rickshaw was open sided it was a rather smelly journey, although we enjoyed whizzing in and out of the traffic watching Agra flash past before our eyes. Eventually we arrived at our accommodation. We had chosen the cheap and cheerful Hotel Sheela, East Gate, Taj Ganj, Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Apart from being excellent value, the main reason we had picked this hotel was its location, it was practically next door to the Taj Mahal. We had also heard that it served good food too, mainly vegetarian, and delicious fruit and nut lassis. The hotel was busy and we hadn’t booked ahead, but thankfully they had a room for us. The garden at the Sheela was very pretty and the restaurant/cafe looked clean.

The staff were very friendly and our room was quite large. We had taken a room with an electric water cooling fan, similar to air conditioning but nowhere near as powerful. We had to keep it full of water by opening the back of it, which was outside our room, and topping it up. Unfortunately, it was very noisy, and as it didn’t hold much water Richard had to get up a a lot during the night to top it up, as it was way too warm to sleep without it on. The room was clean and the beds comfortable, there was warm water in the bathroom. We did eat there a couple of times and the food was really good, as was the company of the gorgeous Alsatian dog called Tiger. I think the garden was the best thing about this hotel, it was a lovely calm sanctuary away from the stresses of Agra. There was plenty of outside seating surrounded by pretty bougainvillea bushes and other flowers and plants. As the hotel was so close to the Taj Mahal, we thought we would be harassed by the souvenir sellers and rickshaw drivers whenever we left the hotel but we were not bothered at all. We were left alone to walk from the hotel to the Taj Mahal, which was a very pleasant surprise.

TAJ MAHAL

The Taj Mahal was why we had come to Agra, and we wasted no time in going to see it. I was slightly concerned that it might not live up to our expectations. I needn’t have worried, it was everything we imagined it would be. The poet Rabindranath Tagore described the Taj Mahal as a ‘tear on the face of eternity’, I would say that it is one of the world’s most beautiful buildings. The day we visited the Taj Mahal we were actually pleased that it was so incredibly hot. It meant that there were hardly any other visitors walking round, we were able to really take our time and take lots of photographs of this amazing monument. The layout of the Taj Mahal does follow a distinct Islamic theme representing paradise, and yet the fact that it is a monument to love shines through. It was interesting watching how the changing light effected the marble, as the early morning passed to midday, and then into late afternoon, and then into evening. Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a shrine to his favourite wife, Arjumand Bann Begum, also known as Mumtaz Mahal. She died after giving birth to her fourteenth child in 1631. One can only imagine how devastated the Shah must have felt to have built this monument to her memory. Building commenced in 1632, with a workforce of 20,000 men, the mausoleum was completed in 1653. Apparently it cost 32 Million Rupees to build. The marble came from Makrana near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. The precious stones, used as decoration, were carried to Agra from all over the world, Afghanistan, China, Persia, Russia, Tibet and the Indian Ocean. We had seen many pictures and photographs of the Taj Mahal before we went to India, as have most people, but none of them compared to seeing the real thing, it is a masterpiece of architecture. It was truly overwhelming. I don’t think there are any words I can write to express the experience, that would do justice to the Taj Mahal. We spent practically all day walking round admiring it from every angle. The gardens at the Taj Mahal are very pleasant too, as is the view over the Jamuna river. At one point we sat down to rest and drink some water, we were soon joined by a large group of young children. The younger ones in the family came and stood right next to us. We knew what was coming next, they wanted to take photos and have their photo taken with us. We were happy to oblige, a couple of the young girls wanted to touch my face and my skin. I have very pale skin, I guess they found it interesting, they gently touched my face and hands, which resulted in them falling about giggling! Although we spent hours walking round the complex the time went so fast, we were both very happy, we had finally seen the Taj Mahal, and it was absolutely stunning.

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We left the Taj Mahal and walked back to our hotel for a drink. After a perfect day we slept very well that night. The next day we wanted to visit Agra Fort, so we took an auto rickshaw.

AGRA FORT

Agra Fort is only about 2km from our hotel so it didn’t take too long to get there. The fort was built between 1565 and 1573, in the form of a half moon, on top of the remains of earlier Rajput fortifications. The construction was a family affair, Akbar built the walls and gates, Shah Jahan his grandson, constructed most of the principal buildings, and Aurangzeb, the last great emperor, constructed the red sandstone ramparts, which dominate a bend in the River Yamuna. The fort was massive with huge gates, although most of them are closed to the public. Every surface of the fort is engraved or decorated in various ways, some of which looked like piped icing. There were no areas left plain, on some parts the red sandstone was decorated with white detail which really stood out against its darker background. Most of the ornate details on the stone were in amazing condition, it all looked very fresh. We spent a long time walking round Agra Fort, which like the Taj Mahal was not very busy with tourists. Once again though, whilst we were sitting in the shade admiring the view, we were approached by some children who wanted their photo taken with us. They also wanted to practice their English with us too. Everywhere we went the people were so warm and welcoming.

ITMAD-UD-DAULAH

Itmad-Ud-Daulah is sometimes referred to as the ‘Baby Taj’. It is the beautiful tomb of Mirza Ghiyath Beg, who was a member of Akbar’s court and father-in-law of Emperor Jahangir. Itmad-Ud-Daulah sits on the east bank of the Yamuna, surrounded by gardens that seem popular with monkeys. It was designed by Nur Jahan, Ghiyath Beg’s daughter, the most powerful women in Moghul history and favourite queen of Jahangir. He respected her so much so that he had coins minted in her name, and by the time her father died in 1622 she had immense control over the empire. Like the Taj Mahal, Itmad-Ud-Daulah is constructed using beautiful white marble, but it is substantially smaller and has a pavilion on its roof and not a dome. Sadly poor quality restoration has left clumps of plaster covering the exquisite detail, and the semiprecious stones that were embedded into the marble have been stolen. The grave of Ghiyath Beg is underground next to his wife’s sarcophagus. A wall in front of the entrance to the grave has been intricately carved, casting a hazy light over the symbols of paradise, paintings of flowers, cypresses, vases and wine vessels in the inner chamber.

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We were loving every minute of our time in India, and now we had seen the Taj Mahal and lots of other interesting sites in Agra we were ready to move on. We got another auto rickshaw from Agra Fort to the Taj View Hotel, Taj Ganj. We wanted a nice cool drink in five star surroundings. We agreed a price with the rickshaw driver and set off. It wasn’t too long before we realised that he had absolutely no idea where he was going! I guess most people don’t arrive at the Taj View Hotel by rickshaw, maybe he hadn’t been there before? Anyway, he had to stop and ask someone for directions, and then we were on our way again. As soon as we walked through the doors of the Taj View, we were hit full in the face by the wonderfully cold air conditioning. It was bliss and not long before we were cold all over. We found the bar, where we settled in for the next few hours. The staff were friendly and brought us lots of snacks which were very tasty. We are not usually big fans of air conditioning, but in this heat wave it was much appreciated. We were so comfortable lounging on the huge soft sofas in the bar that we didn’t want to leave. Eventually we dragged ourselves out to a waiting taxi which took us back to the Sheela Hotel. We would be up early the following morning to catch a train to Jaipur.

JAIPUR

The train journey from Agra to Jaipur was not the most pleasant train ride we have ever experienced. We were unable to secure any seats, which meant we had to stand for the whole journey. We stood at one end of a carriage by the door, along with about six men. There were rough wooden beds inside the carriages, and we were invited to lay on them, but it was even hotter in there than where we were standing. At least the door remained open for the journey, so we did get the odd bit of breeze, although it was not exactly a cool breeze. After a while we managed to perch our bottoms on some metal trunks, which gave our legs a bit of a rest. There were lots of cockroaches crawling on the floor by our feet, but they didn’t seem to bother anyone, and we weren’t hungry, so we left them to it! The train was overloaded with passengers, which did not help with the heat. We were both pleased when the train pulled into the station in Jaipur.

We couldn’t wait to get off of the train, get to our hotel and have a shower. All of our clothes were completely wet, it was so hot on the train. They say horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow, well in that case ... Neigh! We practically ran off of the train and out to the front of the station, to get a taxi to where we wanted to stay. Thankfully the driver was also in a rush, we were soon at our destination. We had chosen the Arya Niwas Hotel, Sansar Chandra Road, behind Amber Complex. It looked nice, we went in and spoke to the receptionist, they had a vacancy. We went up to look at the room, it was much nicer than we thought it would be, especially for the price. It was massive, with a lovely en-suite, cool tiled floor, and there was a much appreciated air conditioning unit in the bedroom, and a large private balcony enclosed by huge curtains. We were home for the next few days. Perfect. The Arya Niwas is located in the heart of Jaipur, the pink city of India, it is an old haveli building, and everywhere was impeccably clean. The Arya Niwas is a family run and award winning hotel. The staff were very friendly but there were lots of rules to follow, the main rule that concerned us was the strict no alcohol rule. There was no alcohol served at the hotel, and absolutely no alcohol to be bought elsewhere and consumed at the hotel. We had heard that the food was good though, the restaurant was said to be excellent. The hotel had a very relaxed feel to it, it was very busy with guests and people eating at the restaurant. All along the front of the hotel, overlooking the lush green lawn, there were wicker chairs and tables, perfect for relaxing with a drink ~ a soft drink! A lot of the other guests were older than us, many of them were there to ‘find themselves’, whatever than means, and to practise yoga. We ate lunch at the hotel restaurant, the Chitra Cafe, on our first day there and it was excellent. When we were staying there the restaurant only served vegetarian meals, and Richard loves his meat, but even he enjoyed the food there. The Chitra Cafe was a self service place that was always busy, queues were often quite long. As the food was so good we ate there a lot, for lunch and dinner. We planned to stay in Jaipur for quite a while, we felt at home at the Arya Niwas, so we started exploring the local area. We were sitting in the back of a taxi on our way back to the hotel one day when Richard saw a bottle shop. Our driver pulled up outside and Richard went in, a few minutes later he came out smiling. He had bought some Vodka. Back at the hotel we decanted the Vodka into an empty mineral water bottle. We carried this bottle of ‘water’ down to the restaurant with us every time we ate there. We often sat outside after dinner playing cards, chatting and drinking our Vodka.

HAWA MAHAL ~ Palace of Winds

We walked out of our hotel into the stifling heat of the day. We wandered toward the Hawa Mahal, the walk was very pleasant. The roads were busy with cars, hgv’s, rickshaws, mopeds, bicycles, and wooden carts, some of which were pulled along by ox, and some by men. The pavements were busy too, but we were not bothered by any of the shop owners trying to sell us their goods. We did stop off at the occasional shop to browse and once again we were not harassed. Hawa Mahal is one of Jaipur’s most famous monuments along with the Jantar Mantar, both of them lie within the City Palace Complex at the heart of the Pink City. The streets of this quarter are all laid out at right angles in accordance with the Vastu Shastras, ancient Hindu architectural manuals. The local maraharaja adapted and applied these architectural teachings in the eighteenth century. The buildings have not always been pink, originally they were yellow. It was during the preparations for the visit of Prince Albert from England in 1856, that the buildings were given a wash of pink, as pink is the traditional colour of hospitality in Rajasthan. Since then the pink colour has been compulsory with regular applications to the buildings. Each quarter in the Pink City is home to a different commerce or activity. Suraj Pole Bazaar houses the elephants and their owners. Nehru Bazaar and Bapu Bazaar are special centres for perfumes, textiles, and the locally styled pointy toed camel skin shoes. Tripolia Bazaar and Chaura Rasta is the place to buy textiles and household utensils. We arrived at the Hawa Mahal, and stood on the opposite side of the road looking up at the intricate detail of the facade. Hawa Mahal was built in 1799 to enable the women of the court to be able to look out and enjoy the street processions and not be seen, while remaining in a strict state of purdah. From the outside it looks huge, its facade has five storeys, there are 593 finely screened windows and balconies, but in most parts it is just one room deep. The most interesting part of this building is the facade, but it is possible to go inside and see where the women used to sit, and to see up close the detail of the stonework. We went in and walked round, admiring the views of the street below. It was nice and peaceful being behind the huge pink facade peering through the carved windows to the bustling noisy road below.

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Feeling tired from the walking and the heat, we took a rickshaw back to our hotel. After another delicious vegetable curry at the hotel restaurant, we spent the rest of the evening sitting outside playing cards. There was a small shop at the hotel which sold lots of different things. There were some lovely pictures of Indian scenes on silk backgrounds, beautiful notebooks with flowers pressed into the pages, jewellery, and much more. The first time I went in, I bought a couple of the silk pictures. I couldn’t believe how reasonable they were, no doubt they would have been even cheaper out on the street, but this shop was so cool and calm. As we sat outside drinking, playing cards and chatting most days, it wasn’t long before I wanted to have another look. This time Richard gave me a bundle of notes, he stayed outside. I bought lots of everything, the beautiful notebooks, lots more silk paintings, and a little present for myself, a really ornate heavy silver necklace. The man who worked in the shop took great care wrapping all of my purchases in tissue paper. He found some stiff card to help keep the silk paintings safe too. I wanted to buy the whole shop, everything was so lovely and it was all excellent quality. As we were only travelling with hand luggage, I thought I might have to throw some of my stuff away to make room for my new purchases on the plane, but somehow I managed to squeeze it all in.

CITY PALACE ~ SAWAI MAN SINGH MUSEUM

We walked to the City Palace, as it was near to our hotel and next to the Hawa Mahal. The magnificent City Palace is enclosed by a high wall in the centre of the city among gardens and courtyards. The royal family still occupies part of the palace, on formal occasions they advance through the very grand Tripolia Gate. The palace was built by Jai Singh, with many of the apartments and halls added by his successors. The interior has lost none of its original splendour. The doors and gateways are all incredibly decorative, the chandeliers are in perfect condition, and to help keep things that way there are turbaned retainers dressed in full royal livery on guard, reminding you of the presence of the royal family. In the first courtyard stands the solid marble Mubarak Mahal. This palace was built in 1890 and houses the textile section. There are antique pashmina shawls from Kashmir, throne carpets, and a pink padded jacket once worn by Madho Singh I, who apparently stood at 2m tall. Also on display are the musical instruments that used to entertain the rulers, and decorated ritual objects. The most interesting item on display was the former maharani’s Diwali outfit, which was a beautifully gilded black outfit covered in gota appliqu». The royal arsenal is housed on the first floor of the building next to the Mubarak Mahal. Originally the harem, with mirrors twinkling on the ceilings and wall paintings, there was a display of swords, spears, shields, carved jade handled daggers, silver, crystal, and gold. The largest crafted silver objects in the world, as listed in the Guinness Book of Records, are housed in the raised Diwan-i Khas, the Hall of Private Audience, in the second courtyard. Built using marble and sandstone, open sided with a raised roof resting on marble pillars, the two huge silver urns ~ gangajalis, are a spectacular sight. Each urn is more than 1.5m high with a capacity of 8182 litres. Apparently these urns were once filled with water from the Ganges and taken to England, when Madho Singh II attended the coronation of King Edward VII in 1901, as he did not trust the safety of western water! These urns were very popular with all of the visitors, and whilst we were admiring them there were lots of young children looking at their reflections on the gleaming surface. The largest section of the museum is housed in the Diwan-i-Am, the intricately painted walls are the perfect background for huge medieval Afghan and Persian carpets. In glass display cases you can see the miniatures from the Moghul and Jaipur schools, and Jai Singh’s translations of the astronomical treaties of ancient scientists such as Euclid and Ptolemy, in Arabic and Sanskrit.

Chandra Mahal is where the royal family reside, it sits on the centre of the compound. You can get a look at the balconies and windows, on its seven storey facade, from Pritam Niwas Chowk, the Peacock Courtyard. There are so many good photographic opportunities in the Peacock Courtyard, so many beautiful images of peacocks, and patterns, and lovely shades of red, blue, and gold. Everywhere we looked there were fantastic ornate embossed doors and heavily detailed paintings surrounding the doorways. It was so vast, we felt quite small and insignificant walking round admiring the artwork. There was such a richness to every surface, we loved it and thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

JANTAR MANTAR OBSERVATORY

The Jantar Mantar is situated next to the Hawa Mahal and the City Palace, three great sites all in one place. The jantar Mantar was Jai Singh’s astronomical observatory. There were eighteen instruments erected between 1728 and 1734 by Jai Singh. He was influenced by foreign astrologers and his mother who was one of his teachers, but many of the devices were his own inventions. A guide can help explain the workings of the observatory. The instruments are built so that shadows falling onto the marked surfaces identify the position and movement of the stars and planets, telling the time, and even predicting the monsoons intensity. Interestingly the time is completely unique to Jaipur, anywhere between ten and forty one minutes behind Indian standard time, depending on the time of year, but is used to calculate the Hindu lunar calendar. The most impressive construction is probably the sundial, Samrat Yantra. Its centrepiece is 27m high, and casts shadows over the curved stone faces that are graduated in hours. Each hour is divided into thirty parts, making the time accurate to within two minutes. The Jaiprakash Yantra is a more original device, two hemispheres laid in the ground, each with six curving marble slabs with a suspended centre ring, the shadow marks the day, time, and zodiac symbol. This is used for calculating the auspicious days for marriage. There were so many interesting places to visit in Jaipur, and all of our senses were constantly on full alert.

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We were pleased to get back to the air conditioning of our room, and enjoy a lovely refreshing shower. I remember one day in particular, when I was feeling a bit rough, I had seven showers in just a few hours. The bedroom was lovely and cool with the air conditioning, but the bathroom didn’t have air conditioning so it was very hot in there. We felt so hot, we just couldn’t get cool, thankfully as the hours passed so did the heat, a little anyway. As the weather was unusually hot, we thought that it might be a good idea to arrange for a car and driver to take us out to the other sites we wanted to see. We arranged this through the hotel, a car was booked for first thing the following morning.

AMBER FORT

Our driver was already waiting in reception when we went down. We had decided on an early start, hopefully we could see a lot of Amber Fort before it got too warm. We could see the fort long before we arrived there. It is about 11kms from Jaipur, situated high up on the hill behind Amber. Our driver parked up near to the elephant booking office. We had seen lots of elephants, with tourists sitting happily on top, slowly plodding up the winding road to the top. Initially I didn’t fancy doing this, and Richard wanted to walk. But then I thought I might not get the opportunity to ride on an elephant again, and I changed my mind. We spoke to the young men who looked after the elephants and agreed a fee, we didn’t use the booking office. Most of the elephants had their faces coloured with pretty designs of flowers, and some had the words ‘I Love You’ on their heads. To enable us to get on to the elephant we had to walk up some stairs and wait on top of a big concrete platform. Then the elephant walked over to us, and we had to step from the platform and sit on the elephant. Our elephant had a huge metal framed bed on his back, which had a big soft mattress on it. Richard helped me climb across, which wasn’t easy as I don’t like heights. This was all beginning to feel like a really bad idea. Once we were both finally settled on the bed, the young man, who was sitting right behind the elephants huge ears, shouted something and the elephant began to walk. It was much higher up there than I thought it would be, and our elephant didn’t seem too happy. He kept making loud noises and the man was shouting at him. We said we didn’t want the elephant to be upset, and we would get off. But his owner seemed to calm him down. It was not that pleasant going up to the top of the fort. I felt bad for the elephant and wished we had walked, I think the elephant wished we had too! All of the other elephants that passed us going up and down seemed very calm. Our elephant was crazy, I think he was trying to shake us off! I was very pleased when we reached the top. I practically jumped off of the poor elephant and ran to the shade, ready to explore the fort. Never again! Amber Fort was the ancient citadel of the Kuchwahas Rajputs clan of Amber. The fort itself is an interesting mix of Hindu and Mughal architecture. Its construction was started in 1592 by Raja Man Singh I and completed by Mirza Raja Jai Singh and Sawai Jai Singh I. Made from red sand stone and white marble, the rugged exterior belies an inner paradise fusing art and architecture. The interior walls of the palace have painted scenes with carvings, precious stones and mirrored designs. The Jai Mandir ~ hall of victory, has the most beautiful ceiling, with mirror pieces on stucco and elegant inlaid panels. This area was very popular whilst we were there, with a large Indian family taking lots of photos. The Diwan-E-Khas ~ hall of private audience, was also very popular and busy as it is as impressive as the hall of victory. Thousands of tiny pieces of mirror and coloured glass of odd shapes and sizes, adorn the walls and ceiling, with the slightest amount of light hitting them and making them sparkle and shine, illuminating the whole room. It was so beautiful, just standing still and admiring the walls and ceiling. The Sukh Niwas ~ hall of pleasure, has a beautiful door carved in sandalwood and inlaid with ivory. There is a channel running through which used to carry water acting as an air cooler. The Amber Fort and palace made a very interesting visit, we enjoyed walking round the gardens, and looking at the gateways, halls, palaces, pillared pavilions, and temples. Apparently the Kuchwahas’ famous lost treasure is thought to be hidden at Amber Fort. After Independence, a huge collection of gemstones, and jewellery disappeared, most likely to prevent the government confiscating it. In 1977, income tax officials searched the building using metal detectors,they found nothing, maybe it’s hidden inside the cannon!

JAIGARH FORT

Jaigarh Fort also called the Fort of Victory was constructed in 1726 by Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur. There is a massive cannon or Jaivan at the fort, the largest wheeled cannon in Asia, which needed one hundred kilos of gunpowder for just one shot, which could send a ball an amazing 35km. There are amazing views from the fort of Jaipur and the nearby Amber Fort, which is within walking distance. The battlements at Jaigarh Fort have inner walkways. It is considered to be one of the best fortified structures in all of India. The fort could withstand long drawn out sieges without problems, due to its ingenious water supply and storage reservoirs, which are a marvel of engineering. There are lots of interesting historic artefacts in the museum worth looking at as well as taking time to appreciate the gardens.

NAHARGARH FORT ~ TIGER FORT

The Nahargarh Fort was built in 1734 by Jai Singh II as a retreat from his wives. It is about 3km from Jaipur. Its unique design stands in contrast from Jaipur’s other royal accommodation. It has amazing views of the surrounding area and of the Pink City below and of the Man Sagar Lake in particular. Circling the central courtyard are the queen’s apartments, which are all completely identical and complete with a room for the maidservant. The floor above has more apartments built by Ram Singh in 1868. These rooms follow the identical theme of the rooms below, and have faint traces of paintings and some damaged stained glass windows. Some paintings at the fort were in excellent condition, almost as bright and vibrant as the day they were painted. There were some particularly striking paintings of people riding on the backs of elephants and horses, the colours were so punchy and crisp. According to legend the fort got its name after being haunted by the spirit of a Rathore prince, Nahar Singh. Apparently his spirit would cause lots of mischief hoping to delay construction of the fort. But after a Tantrik prayer the spirit agreed to leave, so long as the fort was named after him.

Padao Cafe is a nice spot to sit and relax with a cool drink, whilst admiring the panoramic view of the city, and more importantly enjoy a bottle of Godfather Beer ... Delicious!

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It had definitely been a good decision to have the services of a car and driver at our disposal for the day, as it was so hot. Being driven everywhere, in the relative comfort of a car, was much more pleasurable than using public transport or walking. Although we must have walked a fair distance just wandering round inside these forts and palaces. We did do some walking on the day we went out to buy some material. We have always liked the beautiful colours and intricate designs of the sari. Living in London, we often saw women wearing the sari, and we liked the idea of buying some of these exquisite pieces of material, but we never did. But now we were in Jaipur, and where better to purchase a sari or two than in India. Obviously there were lots of sari shops, but we saw one that looked a little larger inside, which we hoped would be a little cooler than some of the more cramped shops. As soon as we set foot in the door, we were invited to sit down on top of piles of materials. The floor was completely covered with different saris and other materials, it was very comfortable. We were offered some tea, and then asked what we would like to see. We told the store owner what colours we liked, and he told a young boy to start bringing us some material to look at. There was so much choice, and I am incredibly indecisive, so I more or less left it up to Richard. The owner was very helpful, telling us what the colours meant traditionally, and which materials would wash well, and what they were made of. This shop had everything anyone could possibly wish for from the most basic sari to the most intricate, hand beaded, beautiful saris you could imagine. It wasn’t long before we were beginning to feel swamped by piles and piles of unfolded sari material all around us. The shop owner was more than happy to unfold every sari we expressed an interest in, and he didn’t try to rush us or even make a sale. It was a very relaxed no pressure experience. In the end we bought three saris, all completely different from each other. We knew that they would be packed away in boxes along with all of our purchases from our many years of travelling, waiting until the day we finally settled somewhere. It was hard to imagine that we would ever use these beautiful saris, but now we are settled in France, they are all in use and look amazing. As well as the beautiful saris I bought a pair of shoes. They are orange leather with hundreds of sparkling beads and sequins sewn on to the top of them, sounds horrible, but they are very pretty. I also bought a pair of camel skin shoes that curl up at the toe. We also bought a huge picture of a young Indian couple dancing under the moonlight. It is made using hand sewn bead work on a cotton background. When we moved to France, we had it mounted and it looks great, the picture only cost £1, but as it is so large the frame cost over £100 ... ouch! We had been very happy staying at the Arya Niwas Hotel, the location was excellent, the staff were friendly, and the food was delicious, some of the best we tasted in India, but we decided to move to a different hotel. By now I was quite unwell, suffering from the side effects of the anti malarial drugs. We had planned to see a lot more of India, and were both really looking forward to going south to Kerala. Sadly this looked less likely with each passing day. For this trip to India we had booked return flights, which was very unusual for us. We only bought return flights this time because we had booked a couple of nights at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai for our homeward journey. We decided to cut short our Indian travels and go home to London. We were both disappointed to be going home so soon, we needed cheering up, hence the change of hotel. Richard tried to change our flights over the phone, he was told it was unlikely, we would probably have to book new flights, and they were all pretty much full for the next few days. So we decided to get a taxi to the offices to speak to them in person. When we arrived at the airline, it was packed with people all trying to change their tickets. This was probably because the Foreign Office had suggested that British subjects should leave India, because of building tensions between India and Pakistan at that time. We were not going to leave India because of this, we were more than happy to stay. We thought the tensions between India and Pakistan would probably not come to much, which they didn’t. However we still needed to leave, because I was so unwell. Anyway, we sat and waited to speak to one of the airline reps, for what felt like hours, but was in reality only about half an hour. We were in luck, our tickets could be changed, for three days time, flying direct to London. This was good news for me, I just wanted to get home and get the drugs out of my system. Feeling cheeky, I told Richard that I would still like to go to Dubai and stay at the Burj Al Arab if possible. We were not sure if they would have any vacancies, so Richard phoned them to ask. They were not fully booked, and they were happy to change our reservation. Excellent. So now we needed to make sure that it was possible for us to fly via Dubai instead of direct to London. After a few taps on the keyboard, we were told that it was possible to change our tickets and have our Dubai stopover, but we still had to wait for three days. So now we needed to find somewhere nice to stay for the last few days of our trip. Richard arranged for a taxi to take us to The Rambagh Palace Hotel. As we pulled up at the reception, we immediately liked the look of the hotel. It was very large with pristine lush green lawns. We went in and were greeted by the receptionist, we asked about room availability and rates. He called the manager for us, who arrived promptly and took us on a tour of the hotel. The manager was very friendly and really funny. He showed us an assortment of suites and rooms. Prince Charles and Princess Diana had stayed at The Rambagh Palace, and if it was good enough for them, then it would do just fine for us! Finally after seeing half a dozen suites or more, we were shown a suite that we loved, we didn’t love the price though. I told the manager that it was our wedding anniversary, and that we really loved the suite and wanted to stay there. Then feeling very cheeky, I said that it would be great if he could lower the price further still. I didn’t think it was very likely, he had already offered us a large discount. Oh well, we were still going to stay there, even if it meant staying in a more basic room. But thankfully the manager decided that as we were celebrating our wedding anniversary, he would let us have the suite at the price we had suggested. We couldn’t believe it, I guess it’s always worth asking for what you want, if you don’t ask, you don’t get! I think the hotel was almost empty too, which probably helped us get such a great deal. So we shook hands on the deal, and looked forward to the next day, when we would check in to our fabulous suite. For now though, it was back to the Arya Niwas Hotel for one last night. Before we left the Rambagh Palace Hotel, we went to the bar for a quick drink. Well, we thought it would be a good idea to get a feel for the place before we returned in the morning. After a drink, we got a taxi back to the Arya Niwas. Bright and early the next morning we checked out and took a taxi to our new home. As we had arrived so early our suite was not ready for us, we waited with a drink. The Rambagh Palace Hotel is a magnificent building, situated in over 47 acres of beautiful gardens. It is a former residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur, and is in an excellent location near to the Pink City and historical monuments and central shopping area. It was originally built in 1835 as a hunting lodge, converted to the palace in 1925, and finally converted as India’s first palace hotel in 1957. It is a beautiful mix of Rajput and Mughal architecture. It belongs to the Taj group of hotels, and was restored sensitively, with rooms overlooking lovely courtyards, fountains, and gardens. The suites at the hotel include, Royal suite, Prince’s suite, Maharaja Suite, and Maharani Suite. There’s a choice of dining options, including Neel Mahal, which serves light meals and refreshments 24 hours a day. Suvarna Mahal, is the place to go for lunch and dinner. The Polo Bar is there to provide all of your liquid libations. We were sitting chatting and enjoying our drinks when the manager arrived. He told us that as our room may not be ready, for anywhere between half an hour and a couple of hours, he would like to offer us a temporary room where we could relax. We were happy with this as we were both already feeling quite tired, even though we had only been up an hour or two! We were shown to a newly refurbished room. It was nice enough, much like any hotel room you would find in a large chain hotel. We were brought a huge bowl of fruit and more drinks, and left to relax. We decided to have a nap for a while. We had just nodded off when the phone rang, it was the manager, our room was ready. Well, that was a lot quicker than we thought. We were shown over to our suite, and it was even nicer than I remembered. It was absolutely huge, it was more like an apartment than a hotel room. Everything was excellent quality, and it all felt very luxurious. All of the suites at the hotel had a unique theme to them, with lots of character. The bathroom was spacious, the shower and bath were made from thick black marble, and the walls were covered in white marble. There were four dressing gowns, two beautiful gold embroidered silk ones, two thick towelling ones, and some lovely soft slippers.

The fitted wardrobes, of which there were several, lined the hallway. They were made of such thick solid wood that I could barely open the heavy doors. The bedroom was my favourite room, the bed was a sumptuous four poster. I don’t usually like four poster beds, they feel too claustrophobic for me. But this bed was so huge that it didn’t feel like sleeping in a four poster. The top end had slim wooden posts that were draped in thick brocade material. The foot end of the bed had ornately carved wooden posts, that were about twice the circumference of our bodies. The bed was so high too, it was a struggle to get up on to it, but in a good way. The lounge was very comfortable with lots of sofas and arm chairs, a huge television, bar etc. Off of the lounge was a huge terrace, overlooking an abundance of beautiful plants. The terrace had a large dining table, and two heavy loungers with soft comfortable cushions. We ordered most of our meals from room service, which were served to us outside on the terrace. We walked round the grounds of the hotel, which were fabulous, everything was perfect and so neat. The hotel had everything you could want, from barber shop, beauty salon, to a gym and indoor and outdoor swimming pools. The service was always excellent, and we could easily imagine what life was like for the Maharajas of yesteryear. We were treated like royalty, our every whim was catered for, nothing was too much trouble, which is how it should be at a hotel of this calibre. As the heat of the day passed, we would sit outside the bar on the terrace overlooking the immaculate grounds, where peacocks happily roamed. There were quite a few different varieties of birds, singing from the trees in the hotel grounds, as well as lots of squirrel like animals. One day we had just woken from our afternoon sleep when the doorbell rang. Richard answered it, and in walked two waiters carrying two large silver platters. They placed them on a table in the lounge and left. Richard lifted up the silver dome of the first platter, to reveal a selection of delicious looking savoury snacks. Underneath the second dome was a square cake, it was covered with icing and the words ‘Happy Anniversary’ were piped on top of it. It was the extra thoughtful touches like this that made our stay at The Rambagh Palace Hotel so special. The cake was delicious, lovely and moist, and very unexpected. One evening when we came out on to the terrace at the front of the hotel, there were a few markets stalls there. They were mainly selling jewellery with one offering henna tattoos. There were also a couple of camels in the grounds, for guests to ride. It explained the terrace being busier than usual, there were quite a few people sitting round various tables. We were happy sitting drinking too, lots of cold Golden Peacock Lager, and it was fun to watch everyone, although the market and camels were a bit tacky! I was still feeling very unwell, but being in such perfect surroundings definitely made me feel a little better! We loved The Rambagh Palace Hotel, our suite was definitely one of the best hotel accommodations we have had the pleasure of staying in. Even after staying at the seven star, Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai on the way home, we would highly recommend The Rambagh Palace Hotel, Jaipur, India. Perfect. All too soon our time in India came to an end. We checked out of The Rambagh Palace Hotel, took a taxi to the train station, and boarded an overnight train back to Delhi. The train journey was surprisingly comfortable, we had two berths, Richard on top, me underneath. We managed to sleep most of the way, waking up in Delhi feeling quite refreshed. We were very sad to be leaving India so soon, and I really should have gone straight home as I was so unwell, but we were excited to be heading to the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai.