Earlier in 2017 we found two trips with the Metropolitan Museum of Art that appealed to us. One to India that went to several places we had made plans to visit and the other to Japan where we both have been wanting to go. We considered doing both of these but thought it would be too long away from Ziggy and Zoe. The two trips were separated by about 3 days so it seemed possible- indeed, as it turned out the same travel guide was to cover both ot these! However we finally decided that Janet would go to Japan- mid to late Oct. and Jim would go to India Late Oct. to Mid Nov. with the MET group and then spend another 2 weeks In Gujarat and Delhi. As it worked out we were both able to use frequent flyer miles in business class for our flights. This has been difficult to do in the past. As it worked out Janet arrived back in the USA just about the time Jim headed to the airport! We passed somewhere on the road, but it would have been nice to spend a few days catching up before Jim went off for 4 weeks. What follows are Jim's reports on India- maybe we can have Janet add some on Japan. The good thing about these arrangements was that Ziggy and Zoe got to stay home and did not have to be boarded! They would be very happy about that if they understood!
Jim's trip started with the trip to JFK airport. The first leg of the flight was on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong in first class (all that could be gotten with miles)- and it was fabulously comfortable. He got to sleep and watch movies and walk around a bit too! The second leg from Hong Kong to Kolkata was not such a good experience on Cathay Dragon. The flight ended up leaving 3.5 hours late! It started as an electrical problem that took awhile to fix, but turned out NOT to be fixed and by the time it was fixed, apparently, they concluded that the flight crew would have been on duty too long so we had to wait while a second crew boarded who would take over the plane in Kolkata! so, around 2 hours for 2 fixes of the electronics and another hour plus for the second crew to arrive. As Jim was in Business class this was not horrible, but the folks in economy must have been suffering!
On arrival in Kolkata (Calcutta is still how it is often pronounced) was, of course late but the driver Jim had booked was there and took him to the Oberoi Hotel. This is a fine hotel. Janet and Jim had lunch there in Sept. 2010 when we spent 2 days in Kolkata and then went on to Darjeeling and Sikkim. Jim Slept a bit and then got up for breakfast later in the morning. He wondered who else might have been there for the upcoming tour of Buddhist sites and art? (probably no one until a day or so later.)
Jim tried to see a couple sites we missed in 2010 like the train museum, Tagore's House and Ashutosh Museum on a couple days but kept finding them unexpectedly closed despite the Hotel and driver thinking they would be open! Finally got to the train museum but was disappointed in it. Tagore's house was finally open on the day that others from the group were to arrive.
This was worth the visit though the fees just to take pictures on the grounds but not inside seemed silly since there is not that much to see outside anyway. Tagore had a large international network and many of the displays in the house are connected to the rest of the world. Jim found it interesting that Tagore sent his son to the University of Illinois to study agriculture.
The next day Jim joined the MET group to start the next 12 days of touring. In Kolkata we visited the India Museum which was started long ago by the British. Calcutta was the British India Capitol for a long time until New Delhi was built and occupied around 1911. There are lots of colonial era
buildings all around Kolkata today- most in various states of dis-repair, but some in good condition. The picture above is of the building in which Bourne and Shepard had their business- they were early photographers in India- in the mid- late 1800's.
The India Museum is an old style museum but with many very nice displays. We spent awhile viewing the partial stone railings that were once around an early Buddhist stupa. These early Stupas were buily over some remain of the Buddha who was creamated, but some ashes, bits of bone and teeth probably remained. The point of seeing this was that we will see other similar ones later. This rail is curved to go around the large stupa, but all carved out of stones carefully fit together- huge amount of work and careful planning and execution!
Another popular place to visit in Kolkata is the Victoria Memorial. This is quite a magnificent structure that we also saw in 2010.
The sky was a bit gray this time as well as in 2010, so the cream/white marble was a bit dull compared to what it may look like on a sunny day. It is a beautiful building but it was built to celebrate a foreign ruler, and so, seems a little out of place... and time.
In the morning of our last day in Kolkata we visited a neighborhood where they specialize in constructing (mainly) inexpensive sculptures of gods, goddesses, and supporting characters for use at festivals.
These are not intended to exist for very long and are usually made of materials that dissolve in water to a large extent as many of these are put into rivers or lakes at the end of the festival. They are made with a lot of care to make them look good and many copies might be made.
We also visited the Ashutosh Museum that Jim was not able to get into earlier. This is also an old style museum and felt a bit sterile but had many fine stone carvings from 1000-2000 years ago!
We visited the Mahabodhi Society in Kolkata- they are partly responsible for keeping Buddhist history in India alive.
We went to the airport and suffered through long lines at security and boarded our plane immediately. It was a short flight to Patna and they were able to get Jim an exit row seat with more leg room.
Sleep was a problem most nights up to this point- and most later for that matter, but Jim was able to get enough hours in one time or another!
In Patna we arrived at the planned time at the Patna Museum but the staff had not been told to expect us so we were not let in until the keys arrived an hour later!
The museum is another old one- rather dark and dreary but we soon learned that much of the collection was being moved to the new Bihar Museum where went then went.
The Bihar Museum is a beautiful new complex - very well done with large galleries- somewhat sparsely populated and well lit. It was clear that many areas are still to be occupied, but it offered real hope that it could be a great display of the many ancient artifacts in the state of Bihar.
We left Bihar with a plan to make a stop or two on the way to Bodhgaya. However, this plan was foiled when our big bus of people was stopped in a HUGE traffic jam on top of a dike that extends many miles across low lands. The dike was too narrow for the bus to turn around so we waited. Our overall Indian guide hitched a ride on a motor bike to go ahead to see what the problem was. He came back after awhile and said that he did not get to the end but was told that earlier in the day a child was killed by a state run bus in a village so the people closed the road. (For India this is quite believable but may not be true.) Our guides decided to rent 5-6 SUV's and have us take our overnight bags and a change of clothes and get into the SUV's to take another road to a different hotel for the night and hope the bus would catch up to us the next day. The 5-6 cars came in on the wrong side of the road (typical in India- and they were able to turn around and point in the correct direction) and we all got in and took a rough ride over to back roads to an acceptable hotel with a Buddhist shrine at its center. The bus arrived later that night and we were told that traffic started to move a little while after we left in the SUV's. It was probably good we did not have to sit longer and crawl in traffic and it was good that our hosts were so resourceful!
Jim's trip started with the trip to JFK airport. The first leg of the flight was on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong in first class (all that could be gotten with miles)- and it was fabulously comfortable. He got to sleep and watch movies and walk around a bit too! The second leg from Hong Kong to Kolkata was not such a good experience on Cathay Dragon. The flight ended up leaving 3.5 hours late! It started as an electrical problem that took awhile to fix, but turned out NOT to be fixed and by the time it was fixed, apparently, they concluded that the flight crew would have been on duty too long so we had to wait while a second crew boarded who would take over the plane in Kolkata! so, around 2 hours for 2 fixes of the electronics and another hour plus for the second crew to arrive. As Jim was in Business class this was not horrible, but the folks in economy must have been suffering!
On arrival in Kolkata (Calcutta is still how it is often pronounced) was, of course late but the driver Jim had booked was there and took him to the Oberoi Hotel. This is a fine hotel. Janet and Jim had lunch there in Sept. 2010 when we spent 2 days in Kolkata and then went on to Darjeeling and Sikkim. Jim Slept a bit and then got up for breakfast later in the morning. He wondered who else might have been there for the upcoming tour of Buddhist sites and art? (probably no one until a day or so later.)
Jim tried to see a couple sites we missed in 2010 like the train museum, Tagore's House and Ashutosh Museum on a couple days but kept finding them unexpectedly closed despite the Hotel and driver thinking they would be open! Finally got to the train museum but was disappointed in it. Tagore's house was finally open on the day that others from the group were to arrive.
The next day Jim joined the MET group to start the next 12 days of touring. In Kolkata we visited the India Museum which was started long ago by the British. Calcutta was the British India Capitol for a long time until New Delhi was built and occupied around 1911. There are lots of colonial era
The India Museum is an old style museum but with many very nice displays. We spent awhile viewing the partial stone railings that were once around an early Buddhist stupa. These early Stupas were buily over some remain of the Buddha who was creamated, but some ashes, bits of bone and teeth probably remained. The point of seeing this was that we will see other similar ones later. This rail is curved to go around the large stupa, but all carved out of stones carefully fit together- huge amount of work and careful planning and execution!
Another popular place to visit in Kolkata is the Victoria Memorial. This is quite a magnificent structure that we also saw in 2010.
In the morning of our last day in Kolkata we visited a neighborhood where they specialize in constructing (mainly) inexpensive sculptures of gods, goddesses, and supporting characters for use at festivals.
We also visited the Ashutosh Museum that Jim was not able to get into earlier. This is also an old style museum and felt a bit sterile but had many fine stone carvings from 1000-2000 years ago!
We visited the Mahabodhi Society in Kolkata- they are partly responsible for keeping Buddhist history in India alive.
We went to the airport and suffered through long lines at security and boarded our plane immediately. It was a short flight to Patna and they were able to get Jim an exit row seat with more leg room.
Sleep was a problem most nights up to this point- and most later for that matter, but Jim was able to get enough hours in one time or another!
In Patna we arrived at the planned time at the Patna Museum but the staff had not been told to expect us so we were not let in until the keys arrived an hour later!
The Bihar Museum is a beautiful new complex - very well done with large galleries- somewhat sparsely populated and well lit. It was clear that many areas are still to be occupied, but it offered real hope that it could be a great display of the many ancient artifacts in the state of Bihar.
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