Peaceful weekend

Friday March 27, 2009 was "Ugadi" here in Bangalore. We are told that it is a sort of "New Years Day" in the southern Indian culture. We were considering going to the Mysore area to see a temple and a few other things in either a day trip or an overnight trip. However, we both felt very tired Thursday and we decided to stay in the area. Our driver had Friday off, so we relaxed and worked on various chores- including income tax papers and bill paying. In the later afternoon we walked to a bookstore about a mile away and then had dinner at a hotel that is near the book store. There are several bookstors in bangalore that seem reasonably good, but none of them seems to have all the books we are looking for at any time. We walked back home after the dinner and went to sleep.
On Saturday the 28th we did more chores in th morning and then went separate ways for awhile. Janet had some errand that required the car, so she went one way and Jim walked to MG (Mahatma Gandhi) Road (most towns have an MG road- its like "Washington - something" in the US.) where they have a couple more book stores. MG road is a sort of shopping center for the city and most foreigners end up there at some point. There are also some government craft shops and lots of people on the streets trying to sell stuff to the foreigners. Those who live here and have no interest in the trinkets are assumed to be tourists who just have to have this thing or that thing that they are selling. Eventually, maybe they will recognize us and know we are not buying. Jim did not find the book he wanted and rather than look at the far flung shops, he found a used copy in the UK that can be shipped at a reasonable price.
Eventually Janet and the driver picked Jim up on Brigade road- one that connects to MG road and is loaded with more shops. We then went together to a framing shop that our driver found to get some small art works framed. It is another thing that is amazingly inexpensive here. We took in 10 items and the bill came to about $11 apiece! At home, one item would have cost about as much as this whole lot! Of course, we'll see how well it turns out. Things often don't end up the way we expect them to- though it so cheap to have it done again that it still seems OK as long as they don't damage anything in the process.
Janet had drapes made for the echoing living room here. the labor was about $15. When she didn't like the way they looked, initially, the guy said he'd change it. However, it now seems OK. It is difficult to understand a situation where someone does his work for $15 and is perfectly happy to re- do some of the work at no added cost! One has to keep in mind that a large fraction of the people in India earn only about $1 a day. So, the $15 the tailor and his assistant got must have seemed pretty good... and he was a very nice man too!
We had dinner at a very nice western restaurant on Saturday night and then walked home.
On Sunday we also relaxed a bit in the morning and also did some chores. Then some friends came by and we went to lunch at a vegetarian restaurant that seems good and is also air conditioned and only about 2 blocks from our apartment. The 4 of us had a good lunch with ice cream dessert and a generous tip for $20. It is quite warm now in Bangalore so we were happy to go back to the apartment and relax a little and do more chores. The income tax stuff is largely assembled now- that is a real accomplishment!
Overall it was a fairly relaxing long weekend. Ziggy and Zoe seem happy too!

A TRIP TO DELHI, RAJASTHAN AND AGRA part 5

We arrived in Agra in the afternoon and went to Agra Fort for a tour and some interesting history. The fort was built under the direction of Akbar and modified by Shah Jahan- who later had the Taj Mahal built as a tomb and memorial for his wife. We learned that she was his 2nd or 3rd wife and she bore 14 children, but only 7 lived to adulthood. Of those 7, 3 or 4 were sons and one of the sons took power and had the other brothers killed and he imprisoned his father in Agra Fort. We could imagine Shah Jahan looking out at the Taj, which is quite visible from the fort. We then moved to the area near the Taj Mahal. They currently try to exclude some vehicles which tend to put out more pollutants from about 1km range of the Taj, so we switched to a battery powered bus to go closer. Our guide was quite good and he led us slowly toward the Taj. We entered the grounds and were surprised by two things. One was how large the Taj Grounds are and then by how much it looks like the pictures we have seen! It was about 4PM as we walked around and got different views. We put shoe covers on and went closer to the main structure and then went inside. It was crowded and noisy inside, but we got a good view of the very detailed pietra-dura work. The guide said that the person responsible for the calligraphy on each side of the entry halls was paid as much as the chief architect. The workmanship is particularly stunning! We stayed at the Taj about 2 hours and were very pleased. We were a little annoyed by photographers who insisted on taking our pictures and selling us the pictures as we left. The guide mentioned the legend that Shah Jahan planned a similar structure on the opposite side of the river from the Taj Mahal. The other was to be for himself and made in black marble. The guide said that there were studies done a few years ago which show that there are no remnants of foundations on the other side. There are only gardens. He said that the origin of the legend is not clear, but they think it came through a French traveler who published the story at some time. Its a nice legend. We know about two such travelers- Tavernier and Bernier- perhaps it was one of them.
We later went to a shop that makes things out of marble - a craft that is alive and well around Agra. The train left later for Delhi and we arrived in the morning. we had to leave the train by 8am which seemed a bit early, but we went to our hotel and were allowed to check in. We visited the large government crafts store and were awed by the range and quality of items. In the next couple days we saw more of Delhi and were impressed by the size of the city. The traffic seemed more manageable than Bangalore- people told us that it is mainly because Delhi was planned to be a big city, while Bangalore was never planned that way and it has been a case of trying to catchup with the growth over the years.
We returned to Bangalore on Mar. 11, 2009 which is a national holiday in India- "Holi" - which is described as "the festival of colors". We saw many people who were splashed with colors, which seems like fun, until we heard that the colors may take weeks to come off again. We had some difficulty with our seats on the airline again, but the flight was not too full, so we got the empty seat between us that we paid for.
Ziggy and Zoe had company each day while we were away, but they seemed to appreciate having us back home. They stayed very close. We told them about the big cousin that we saw at Ranthambpore Park, but they were not impressed. We look forward to another visit to Rajasthan- after temperatures come down again and the monsoon season ends.

A TRIP TO DELHI, RAJASTHAN AND AGRA part 4

At Udaipur we first stopped at a very nice garden that was built for the women of the court. As we stood near the entrance the guide clapped his hands and the fountains came on! He explained that the people had long ago figured out how to make sensors that would respond to the clap of the hands. He then asked us if we could figure out how such sensors worked 200 or more years ago and we looked around a bit and saw the fellow in the picture operating a valve! The guide said that it worked the same way back then! We next visited a shop where artists paint finely detailed works on various materials- paper, silk, marble and other things. The work looked very nice. The shop sold lots of other Indian crafts from wood carving to marble inlay or pietra-dura, the prices seemed a bit high, but you always have to negotiate except at the government shops.
We then went to the city palace and saw only a small part of the huge complex. Part of it is now used as one or two hotels. It seems like a very nice place. We got some good views out over the lake and could clearly see the buildings out on the lake. One is run as a hotel by a very good outfit. However, this is dry season and the water level in the lake is low. The pictures one normally sees show the buildings appearing to be floating on the water, but with the water levels low, they seem much less magical.
We had a very good lunch in a huge dinning room that was reserved for guests of the Maharajas in times past. It was a beautiful room. Our small group was served at a huge round table near the middle. They provided live music that was, again, good and simple. After lunch we went to visit the "Crystal Room" which was upstairs from the dinning hall. We could not take pictures there, but the pieces were remarkable- mainly because of the quantity, but also for the quality. There beds, tables, chairs, lamps and all manner of furniture and decorative items made of glass! They used metal frames. We were told that all the pieces were ordered a long time ago- perhaps 1910 or so(?) from a dealer from Europe. It took about 10 years to make all the pieces. and by the time it was delivered, the Maharaja had died. The new leader did not like the stuff so it was put in storage. The current Maharaja found it in storage and had it brought out for display. For anyone who likes glass, it is worth seeing.
We next took a short boat ride around on the lake and ended up on one of the buildings out there. We got to look around and have tea and then returned.
The train moved to Bharatpur overnight and we got up early to visit the bird sanctuary there. The bus dropped us off and we road on bicycle rickshaws into the reserve. Like other reserves and parks, this was a hunting reserve for a Maharaja until taken over by the government. There are some old buildings and a wall of plaques giving a brief description of some of the hunting parties where over 4000 birds were shot. Now the birds are safer. This is apparently a stopover point for many migrating birds from northern Asia. Most of the rickshaw drivers are supposed to be licensed guides, but we found that 2 of the 3 we had were very difficult to understand. They seemed to know the names of most of the bird species, but could not communicate much else- except that they expected a large tip! It was an interesting place with lots of beautiful birds we could get closer to than usual, but we thought we might have preferred to sleep later too.
We returned to the train and had breakfast and rest while the train moved on to Agra.

A TRIP TO DELHI, RAJASTHAN AND AGRA part 3

We arrived in Jodhpur in the morning and went first to a crematorium site for past Maharajas. This was a very pretty site not far from the fort. It has become a sort of shrine. We went inside to hear about the building on the site where people hoping for good luck or some other wish to be fulfilled would come and leave a knotted string or some such thing. The building is very pretty and made of marble that is translucent in some pieces so that you can see the sunlight illuminates it inside. Our Railway board member on the trip joined us this day and had several guards following him around and there were several photographers taking his picture. We next went to the fort and road an elevator up instead of walking. We toured the inside and found it interesting, but we especially liked looking out over the town. The town is called the "blue city" because many people paint walls outside their house in blue and it is rather pretty to see from a distance. We learned more about architecture and also visited several displays in the fort museum. We were told that the painting style of the region is called "mewar" (though we also heard about marwar style later and wonder if they are the same.) In any case, there are very fine examples produced by local artists who sell them in the museum shop. The prices are high and they are not allowed to bargin, but they did give a second piece when paying for one.
We went to Bhawan Palace for lunch. This is a newer palace built in the 1930's partly to give work to local people. It is now mostly a very nice hotel. The inside is very large- surprisingly so considering when it was built. The lunch was very good. We left to head east.
Early in the morning of March 5 we arrived near Ranthambpore Park. This is a fairly well know place that has a very old fort on the hill top and ruins of a number of other structures in the valley. It was a hunting reserve for a Maharaja, but has been a national park for awhile. Visitors try to enter early in the morning- we went in right at 6:30AM as the sun was beginning to rise. It was very chilly. Our little group was in a large open vehicle intended to hold about 20 people, but there were 5 passengers from the train, one crew from the train, a driver and a guide. They limit the number of vehicles allowed. The main point of coming here is to see the tigers. The books say there are about 45 tigers, but the guide said he thought it is in the 30's. We drove in and the guide listened for sounds of tigers and we heard some roars. (We wondered if it might be made by speakers placed in the woods or people out there- especially when we later saw one of the part personell walk out of the woods with no obvious defense.) We drove some and stopped some. They said that the tigers move around soon after sunrise and look for cooler places as it gets hotter. They tried to convince us that a tiger was close by in the woods near the road, but the growth was so thick that we did not see anything clearly. The pictures do show some orange or yellow colors, but they may be leaves. We went further into the park and saw lots of deer and peacocks and one crocodile as well as many other birds. Then we started to head out of the park again when we heard the tigers roar again. The guide had us wait then some other people came to the same spot and we told them we saw a tiger. Then we drove to another spot that the guide knew and pulled close to a low stone wall where 2 other cars were sitting. Because our truck was tall we were able to see over the wall very well. After a little while a large tiger walked right past our group on the other side of the wall. We managed to catch it on video and one still photo. It was quite exciting to see it roaming free! We left the park and went back to the train feeling that it was worth getting up so early! We had breakfast and rested while the train rolled west again toward Chittogarh.
The countryside was quite pretty in many places and we saw several hills with old forts on them. At Chittogarh our bus met us and took us to the fort. This fort seemed huge from a distance and the guide said the walls around it are about 13km long. We road up what he said is the back entrance which goes through 7 old gates before being at the top. The fort is now only occupied on one end by about 5000 people while the middle third is historic preservation and the last 3rd is a nature preserve. There were not many people at this place and we liked this! We visited several places- including "Padmini's palace" and the "Victory tower". There are long stories attached to these places. Padmini was supposed to be exceptionally beautiful and a war was fought over her which was lost and she and hundreds of other women killed themselves by jumping into a fire. The fort was conquered 3 times, so the leaders eventually moved to Udaipur. Somewhere along the line, there was a victory and this caused the Victory Tower to be be built. It is a very attractive stone tower that is wider at the top than in the middle. There is also a very nice temple close by. There are also lots of monkeys around.
The evening ended with a sound and light show at the ruins of the main palace. This was fairly well done and fairly interesting though we had heard much of the story earlier. The bus took us back to our train for dinner and we moved to Udaipur overnight.

A TRIP TO DELHI, RAJASTHAN AND AGRA part 2

The train arrived in Jaipur early in the morning on Mar. 2 and we were awakened periodically by announcements of other train arrivals and departures. We had a nice breakfast and left for the city. Our first stop was a famous place where we are told that the royal Mughal women would be to watch ceremonies down below. They were not allowed to be seen. The place is pretty, but you are not told ahead of time that you do not go inside and the street outside is very congested and noisy. We stayed only a short time and then boarded our small bus to go off to Jaipur Fort. They called it the Amber Fort. Possibly because of the yellowish tint, but perhaps for another reason. This is a big place and we road elephants up to the fort- this seems to be a custom here, though many do not. The ride was not all that comfortable and while the ride was paid for, everyone expects tips too. We like to think the elephant got a bit more food. We road elephants in Thailand a bit more than a year ago, but there we road in the driver's seat and got our Mahout training certificates. We toured part of the fort and found it interesting at the time, but now we don't remember what we saw inside! We left the fort by riding in an old jeep that seemed more risky than the elephant, but it was fine. We found our bus, but while waiting there we were briefly entertained by a snake charmer who quickly put the basket lid back over his cobra after he got his tips.
We then went to the city palace of Jaipur. The Maharaja of Jaipur was apparently one of the wealthier ones, but the Maharajas no longer have much power, though they have some wealth and influence. Most palaces are now used partly or wholey as hotels, restaurants or tourist sites. The city palace has some good restaurants and we ate in one of the more private areas and had live music that was quite good. The RROW arranged for good and simple entertainment. After lunch we toured a bit of the city palace and saw the giant silver water vessels that the Maharaja took with him to England back in the early 1900's. In late afternoon we visited the Observatory. Here are a number of astronomical instrument of very grand scale that were built for the Maharaja long ago. They are very impressive. They include sundials that are supposed to be accurate to about 20 seconds and one that is basically 10 x larger that is supposed to be accurate to about 2 seconds. There are various instruments for each sign of the zodiac as well. This was interesting and we wanted to know more but the book shops charged an astronomical price for the astronomy books and we didn't have time to look at other places. These were two themes for this trip- not much time and too high prices! We did visit some shops, but not many. Jaipur is known as a huge center for crafts of various kinds, but we only had time to visit one place that specialized in rugs and hand printed fabrics and another place that made jewelry. Both were very nice but a bit expensive. We had dinner on the train as we left for Jaisalmer.
We liked Jaisalmer. The train arrived in the morning and we took a short ride on the small bus that drove overnight to meet us in order to visit an old man made lake- Gadisar Lake- that now has a number of shrines around it. The lwater level was low and we saw sands blowing in the wind on the far end of the lake- it made it clear that this is desert! The lake is full of catfish and when you throw in some bread as offerings to them, they swarm around the food. People apparently do not take the fish because this place is some sort of shrine, but it seems like it might not be a bad idea to lower the stock some. There is a nice view of the fort from close to this lake.
We then went to the fort which is heavily inhabited. We later heard that the fort is endangered due to some sort of drainage issues. We did not see a lot inside the fort. We did see a couple very nice Jain temples and then went to see some "Haveli's". These are rather nice homes made of stone where the facade is, normally, heavily carved to essentially turn the stone into screens that allow air to flow through while keeping birds and many insects out. The quality and quantity of workmanship is astounding! One place is partly a museum which was mildly interesting. Another place is owned by descendants of the original owner, but they have less money now so part of the place is a very nice craft shop. In this place we could feel the breeze coming through the house. We were also told that two men were responsible for building the place and they had free hand to do what they pleased in the way of decoration. The result is that one side of the place has a different style of decoration than the other and they two meet in some of the rooms. Both side are quite remarkable! In one book we read that a "Haveli" is, essentially, the large home of a merchant. One of our guides said that a group of Haveli's once belonged to some brothers who made their money in the Opium trade.
After we left the fort we went back to the train for lunch and rest during the hot afternoon. At 4PM we left in our bus to go out west of the city to see more desert and to take a camel ride. This was more fun than we expected it to be. The camels were well behaved and we just went for a short walk out on the sand dunes. We could see camels being ridden all over! After our little adventure we had tea and then roa dback to the train to clean up for dinner. We left the train for a very nice hotel and had some local musicians, singers and dancers perform. This was good and simple entertainment, though it was a little marred by complaints from a tour guide for a larger group of French tourists. We did not understand what the complaint was about the French were fine and seemed to enjoy the show, but the guide was obnoxious. We returned to the train after dinner at the hotel. The train left for Jodhpur.

A TRIP TO DELHI, RAJASTHAN AND AGRA part 1

Note that you can double click on images in the various postings and get a larger view.
As Ziggy and Zoe noted, we took a trip up north for about ten days at the beginning of March. We made plane, hotel and train reservations via the internet. The hotel reservations were with a very good hotel and those were perfect. The plane reservations were tricky. We tried calling the airline that most people say is the best in India, but after getting cut off a total of 7 times we tried the internet. The system there worked fine, so we thought- at least. We got round trip seats quite inexpensively. We paid for 3 seats in economy to give ourselves more leg room. Things first started to go wrong about a week before departure when we went to confirm the reservations. We found that our 3 seats had been separated to two together and one separate. We called the airline and got cut off a total of 5 times before finally getting the seat arrangement clear. They could not understand why we wanted 3 together and have one seat empty! We checked the reservation again the night before the flight and all was well. Oh, we did find that our original departure flight was canceled and they moved us to a later flight when we spoke to them the 5th time as well. We arrived at the Bangalore airport to find that it seemed a little chaotic outside. They have not be letting people inside who did not have tickets, but this was worse. It turned out that they were collecting a departure fee that had to be paid outside, but the guards did not communicate very well. Once inside we checked in to get our boarding passes and explained that we paid for 3 seats but only two people were flying. The woman at the counter just could not understand this and we had to explain several times and pointed out the extreme height of one of us. She finally went to a supervisor to get him to fix the fact that our seats had been changed again over night! The supervisor moved us around and said we were all set, but they only gave us passes for 2 seats and not 3. They claimed that they could not give a pass unless there was a passenger but they had "blocked" the middle seat. We boarded and took our seats. As the plane started to fill someone came up with a boarding pass for the middle seat! We complained again and they found a seat for the guy. The flight to Delhi was pleasant and the crew was pleasant, so once the seats were set, all was fine.
We arrived in Delhi airport about 1PM. The hotel had a car for us and we checked into the hotel effortlessly. We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant that was very good and then took a car to the Crafts Museum. This was very interesting, but we arrived at 4PM and they closed at 5PM. We then went to a crafts store or two- one was very familiar because they have branches in major cities. While there, we met the manager of the store- we knew him from their store in Bangalore!
We returned a bit late to the hotel and had dinner and then went to sleep.
On Sunday morning we had a city tour scheduled by the train. The train was The Royal Rajasthan On Wheels. We were going to take the Palace On Wheels to get a survey of Rajasthan, but it was booked up and this new train had just started in Jan. This train is supposed to be better- larger bathroom and some what more comfortable public cars for dinner and drinks. The new train is meant to travel the same route as the other but it leaves on Sunday instead of Wednesday. In any case, they had sent us an email saying they would pick us up at the hotel for the city tour at 10AM. We thought they might come in a large bus, but they implied it would be a car. By 10:15 we got concerned and then got a call from our guide. He had been sent to a different hotel of the same chain. We then proceeded to see the President's House and India Gate. India Gate was built about 1919 as a memorial to Indian soldiers who died fighting in WWI and Afghanistan from 1914- 1919. We then went to Humayon's Tomb where we learned that he was the second Mughal conquerer (ca 1535) who stayed in India. After he died his wife had the tomb designed and built. His wife was Persian because he was deposed at one time and fled to Persia where he married and then returned. The guide told us that it is best to see this tomb before going to Agra because you can see the similarities of the Taj Mahal to this one which was built about 100 years earlier. He also said the Taj is much nicer, so we would find this one disappointing after seeing that. The guide also said that the area around the tomb was inhabited by thousands of people after the 1947 partition that formed Pakistan. The people lived there for a full generation and were not moved out until about 1998. So the tomb has not really been so accessible until the past 10 years.
We next had lunch and then went to the Lotus Temple. This is a famous newer temple built by the Ba Hai's. Most people don't know much about the Ba Hai Faith and neither do we. We understand that the founder lived in Persia in the 1700's and he believed in equality of the sexes among other things. However, he was killed for his beliefs. The faith has little dogma and may be gaining support in places where other religions seem a bit too oppressive. The temple is very nice and there were many visitors on this Sunday. The guide left us a bit later and had the driver take us to the train station for the RROW. The guide seemed a bit put out having to deal with such a small group as us. He seemed a bit disinterested at times, but he seemed to know his subjects.
We arrived at the train station after a drive through a construction site that made us think we were about to be robbed in some out of the way place, but it was OK. At the station they had is sit in an air conditioned room to wait for other passengers. After awhile two others arrived along with their guide. This was Paul and Cecilia- he is German and she Indian by birth and they live in Dubai for half the year. We got to know them fairly well. No others arrived for some time. Then One Indian man, Then there was some commotion and another man arrived with his wife and daughter and an entourage that included a body guard. Eventually, we learned that he is a member of the railway board and is retiring in a few months. He said he was too busy to get on the train now and would be joining us later in the week, but this was some sort of photo- op. So, the train pulled in with all 21 cars plus locomotive and we 5 passengers got on. Janet, Jim, Paul and Cecilia and Ram. We got to know Ram a little better. He also works for Indian Railways in the financial side. He was with us most of the week, but he had to leave to work the last 2 days. He just paid us a short visit in Bangalore where he came for a day of work. We boarded the train and went to our compartment "Pearl" in the car named "Moti Mahal" We were all close to the dinning cars. The train pulled out about 6:30 PM and we had dinner at 8PM. We were surprised that they did not cancel the train, but they said that because it is new it will take time for people to know about the train and it is important to run so people see it and hear about it. We also thought that they want to give the staff more practice and the train more work to break it in. Thus began or journey to Rajasthan!
We do know that Ziggy and Zoe know how to use the camera and computer. Not so dumb!

Who are these guys?

It has been too peaceful here! We will need to make some messes to liven things up! We spend a lot of time here in our home and explore it over and over and look for anything that looks different.
We have a lot of interesting places to look, but a lot of things have been here awhile, but they seem to move around the place and we don't know why. Does anyone know who this big guy is? He has been here awhile now but he always stares down at us in the same way! He doesn't seem to be alive, but then all the sudden we find he has moved to a new place in our house here! He looks friendly, but scary too.
Then there is "big orange guy". Who is he? He never seems to move at all! He's been in the same spot for a long time now! He also looks friendly- at least he seems like no danger at all! He would be more fun if he moved around and especially if he played feather with us!
The other odd thing here is this giant water dish! Sometimes it is completely empty- not even water! Then, other times it has a lot of water in it, but we won't touch the water or drink it because it has these smelly pink and orange vegetable matter things in it. We really hate vegetable- especially smelly ones! What is this thing?
Our human companions left us for awhile, but they have come back now. We pretended that we missed them for a few days, but now, all is back to normal. We think they will write about where they were. We are well and happy enough.
The last picture shows one of Ziggy's favorite places to sit. He isn't there now because it takes both of us to make the camera work right! Our humans have not yet figured out that we know how to make pictures! They also don't seem to know that we know how to use the black box that makes these notes! Humans aren't very smart!