A Trip to the north- Mar. 6 - 16

Jim's niece was here in India for a week starting March 4, 2010. She arrived in the morning and had only a short stay in Bangalore as we left 2 days later on Saturday the 6th for Mumbai. We left Ziggy and Zoe in reasonably good hands as they had at least 2 visitors each day to feed them and keep them company while we traveled.
We flew to Mumbai in the morning of the 6th and took a hotel car into the city. We stayed at the Taj hotel that was attacked on 11/26/08. The older part of the hotel that was badly damaged has not yet reopened, but the newer building was quite nice. Security there was fairly tight.
After check in and some lunch we walked to the Prince of Wales Museum and took the audio tour there. It was not bad, except that some exhibits were closed so it was hard to navigate through the tour. It was also hot and humid.
Mumbai is noted for being hot and humid pretty much year round. It is the financial capitol of India and we could see that the roads were in better shape than Bangalore and the drivers seemed to be a bit more disciplined about staying in their lane. The traffic signals also seemed to be working. We walked back to our hotel via some shops and looked but did not buy. We had dinner at the hotel too.
On Sunday the 7th we took a boat to Elephanta Island. Our primary reason for this short trip to Mumbai was to visit this island and the cave temples. The boat ride was fairly pleasant though the boat itself was not. We sat in the shade and the breeze felt good. It takes an hour to reach the island and then there is a fairly long walk up a lot of steps to see the cave temples there. This walk was not very pleasant though it was shaded some by plastic over the walkway because the entire route is lined with hawkers selling a variety of trinkets. Some not bad, others, bad.
The cave temples were a bit disappointing, but ok. There were quite a few people and a lot of monkeys around. The monkeys took drinks from several people and probably would take anything they could get their hands on! They are amusing when it is other people's stuff!
We walked back to the ferry boats which were 4 or 5 deep from the dock when we left. When a new boat comes in the people have to walk through all the other boats to get to the dock. We waited awhile as the boat filled up and then road back to the Gateway Of India- built to honor a visit by the Prince of Wales about a century ago. We had lunch and then visited some shops.
On Monday we road to the airport and caught a plane to Jodhpur. Back in November, Janet's photo won second prize in a contest and the prize was a 2 night stay at a very nice resort hotel in Jodhpur. We stayed 3 nights. We had Lunch and then went off to the fort. You can check back at our posts of just over a year ago about our trip to Rajasthan. We visited Jodhpur then and liked it, so we liked coming back. The fort was still very nice, but late in the day it seemed a little quieter, though there was a large and loud group of European tourists getting a show of some sort. We saw the many Blue houses which give the city the name "Blue City". We road back to the hotel for dinner outside. They had live entertainment in the form of a puppet show and singers and dancers. The next day we road outside the city to visit some small villages. In one they make pottery items- they had a few larger items that were rather nice, but too fragile to take, so we bought a few small items. We also visited a dhurrie maker. There are flat weave rugs that are essentially the same idea as the more famous Persian Kilims, but generally cheaper. We did not see any fabulous examples, but saw some very nice rugs.
We had lunch in a small town heritage hotel that was ok. We visited the house of a man and his daughter who are members of the "bishnoi" people. We don't know much about them, but know that they don't kill any of the wild animals around. Women wear very colorful clothes while men wear white. They have some sort of ceremony that involves a small amount of crude opium, though we are not sure what it is about. Anyway, it was a pleasant short visit. One picture shows a group of women working on a dirt road. We drove up and saw them resting, but our driver said we could not pass as the road was too rough. He asked the women to lower the height of the dirt so we could drive through. While they worked Janet and Carrie helped them a bit and they women enjoyed the company. We gave the women a small amount of money for being such fun and they seemed very happy.
Our driver also spotted some small deer and "blackbuck" which live on the bishnoi lands. We got some pictures of a few of them.
We very much enjoyed the hotel- it was quiet and comfortable, though on our last night a large group of European tourists were there and it seemed a little crowded then. In general, temperatures were ok in Jodhpur. The sun was intense, but it was still early enough in the year that it was not painfully hot.
On Thursday March 11 we flew to New Delhi. We checked into our hotel and then took a hotel car to Old Delhi. When we were there a year ago we did not quite get into Old Delhi. We went to see the outside of the Red Fort (it was late afternoon so we would not have had much time inside before it closed). We then walked to Jama Masjid- this is the largest mosque in India and was built by Shah Jahan, who also had the fort built as well as the Taj Mahal. That was all done in the 1630- 1650 period. The fort is huge. Jim did not want to go into the mosque, so Janet, and Carrie went. While Jim waited outside and took some pictures our driver came up the steps. He found us because the only good place to park was near the mosque, so he saw us! (We had his phone number so we could call him anyway.) We returned to the hotel and had some dinner before Carrie had to go off to the airport for the next leg of her journey.
On the 12th, we walked to the national museum in Delhi from our hotel. The museum was fairly well done, but with small collections of things in a wide variety of areas. In general, money is not spent on making nice museums in India. It is typical that foreigners have to pay more to get into museums and archeological sites in India. We have been told several times that, as residents of India (who pay taxes here) we can get in for the Indian rate. As mentioned in our Hampi experience, this has always failed to get us in at the India rate. So, we have generally given up trying. However, at the national museum, they told use we could pay the Indian rate- at least for Jim, who has his taxpayer ID card- similar to a SS card in the US. Inconsistency, in the application of these rules is very annoying.
After the museum, we went to another part of the city and had lunch and then visited an art gallery and a tea shop that we had visited a year earlier.
On the 13th we mostly relaxed and then went to the airport for our flight to Ahmedabad.
While in Jodhpur, Janet bought a wood ball that is covered with pieces of camel bone that are nicely painted. Unfortunately, the airlines won't allow it to be carried on (why?) and when it is in checked bags they insist on opening the bag to see it. This caused several delays.
In Ahmedabad we stayed at the same hotel as last time in Jan.- a nice place with good A/C as it was very hot! (about 98F in daytime). Our plan was to make a couple day trips outside the city to see places we missed last time. Unfortunately, Janet got some sort of intestinal bug (that is still bothering her) after our dinner of the first night in Ahmedabad.
Our trip the next morning was to the Modhera Sun Temple, then a famous stepwell at Patan called "Rani- ki- vav". It was hot, but we had an A/C'd car. Our friend, Chota, came along.
The Sun Temple was very nice and not too crowded. It has a nice stepwell too. "Stepwells" are pretty easy to understand. They are big holes in the ground with numerous steps going down. After rainy season they might be full or nearly so, then as the water dries up the people have to walk further and further down the steps to get water. The stepwell- Rani- ki- vav (Queen's Stepwell) Is very elaborate with 7 levels of structures on the way down with hundreds of beautifully carved stone sculptures on each level. It was built in the 11th century and was only excavated around 1985. It was filled in with silt for who knows how many centuries, which is why many of the sculptures are in such fine shape! It was very interesting but they had the lower parts blocked off, so we could not see it all. Fortunately Jim has a good book on the subject! We left the stepwell and went to see a Patola maker. Patolas are very special and highly prized ($$) Saris. There are only a few people making them these days, and they have back orders of a few years of production. Each one is hand made. The process is complex and takes great skill to do well. Perhaps we will describe it more in another posting. (At our hotel in Delhi had just received 5 examples and they were priced at about $5000 each.) We looked and listened to the explanation of how they were made. They had only some small samples for sale- at high prices.
Janet did not feel well, so we went back to the hotel and rested that night. On the drive back to the city we passed a group of people who appeared to be from Rajasthan. They walked along the side road with a lot of goats munching on the grasses. We saw the older man in one picture with a camel and noticed that riding on top of the camel's load were 3 or 4 young goats! Apparently they tend to wander too much, so the are given a free ride, but they are probably tied down!
On the 15th we road south of the city to Lothal. This is an ancient city. The earliest parts dating to about 2500BC ! There is not really that much to see at Lothal, but there is a decent little museum. The town was built next to the river that has since shifted miles away, so the place looks odd in the middle of large flat tracts of land used for farming. This was related to the Indus River Valley civilization of perhaps 4500BC. This area has apparently been "geologically active" for a long long time. The shifting of rivers and the amount of water in them has spelled disaster many times- apparently.
We next road over a rough road to Nal Sarovar- a huge lake that is fairly dry now- before monsoon. It is very hot. There is so little water that the boatmen found it easier just to walk in the water and push our boat along rather than use the poles they normally use. We insisted on a covered boat- our driver had to point out that it would be silly to expect pale people to be out in the direct sun. We saw some nice birds- including flamingoes.
On returning to the city we visited an art school where Chota met a friend who makes tapestries. We went to his home and saw some nice examples. We also visited a few buildings around the city with interesting architecture. One picture shows an art gallery that is underground. Unfortunately it was closed.
Our last day was spent visiting a couple museums in Ahmedabad and a few shops. We found some very nice textiles. The Museum of Indology had some nice art works on display too. This was probably the best arranged museum we have seen in India.
We left to come back to Bangalore in the late afternoon after a fun trip. It could have been a little shorter, but we would have missed a lot in Ahmedabad. Its a big country- with lots of historical sites!