Passage through India – Homeward Bound and Top Ten Highlights (Part One)

So, a second enjoyable evening and an excellent meal in Shimla and then a drive back to Chandigarh for a final train journey back to Delhi.  It was going to be a full day of travel so I thought that I would put it to good use and make an assessment of the tour and come up with a top ten.  I took out my notebook and pen.

This proved to be very optimistic because it soon became clear that it was completely and absolutely impossible to write anything down due to the topography, a slalom like decent down the mountain and the driving.  A fifty mile journey by road but only twenty miles as the crow flies. The mini-bus rolled from side to side, swaying and lurching and avoiding obstacles  as it negotiated hairpin bends, rock slides, pot holes, road works and impatient drivers sometimes prepared to take really reckless risks in order to shave a second or two off their journey time.

It was all rather entertaining and there were some fabulous views on the way down, in fact in some respects it was better than the train journey from Kalka to Shimla as we passed through a succession of vibrant and chaotic towns and villages and the views were not obscured by track side vegetation.

I couldn’t use the notebook but I didn’t really need it because in my head I made my first three top ten selections and they weren’t going to change.

No difficulty coming up with Number One –  The Taj Mahal…

Poet Rabindranath Tagore described the Taj Mahal as ‘a teardrop on the cheek of eternity’, Rudyard Kipling as ‘the embodiment of all things pure’ while its creator, Emperor Shah Jahan, said it made ‘the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes’.

Every visitor wants a first important picture…

I imagine everyone knows the Taj Mahal, it is most likely the most famous building in the World (along with the Leaning Tower of Pisa perhaps or the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona) but to be there and see it is really something special. It is huge, much bigger than I imagined that it would be and the dome is magnificent.  It is ephemeral, it seems to float as it merges seamlessly into the sky.  I was disappointed that the sky was overcast and obscure but in retrospect that seemed to add to the experience as it melted and  dissolved seamlessly into the clouds.

To be fair the Number Two in my selection almost squeaked into first place but eventually Taj Mahal just edged it out – The Golden Temple at Amritsar

If almost everyone is aware of the Taj Mahal then it is almost certain that they will know about the Golden Temple as well.

Not as grand, not as architecturally stunning but almost equally important.  I liked it immediately and there was a difference; Taj Mahal is a tourist attraction, Golden Temple is a religious site and it was possible to connect with that immediately.  To absorb it, to feel it, another impact site but for a different reason.

I enjoyed this day above all others.  Nothing eclipses the Talj Mahal of course but  the Golden Temple was something special, mystical, spiritual, emotional and whilst the Taj Mahal remains in the memory the Golden Temple remains in the soul.  I will never forget it.

Number Three for in my list is the Amber Fort close to Jaipur…

Stepping through the gates of the Amber Fort was truly memorable, the marble stone shimmered and dazzled in the sunlight.  Apparently it was once even more beautiful, once adorned with art and precious stones but another Mughal Prince even more important than the owner of this place was rather concerned that it was even more splendid than his own Palace so ordered that the decoration be painted over and so it became Amber.

Most of us would happily have stayed longer at the Amber Fort but after an hour or so the visit was over, we were through the exit, pestered again by persistent vendors who rather good-naturedly take rejection without offence and back to the jeeps.   We were going shopping at a carpet warehouse.

Back to the journey….

… After two hours or so we left the frantic helter-skelter and crawled through the final few miles of traffic through Chandigrah to the railway station where we left the two buses and waited for station porters to pick up our luggage in the car park amidst madness, chaos, revving, shouting, snarling and bad manners.

Once on the train, the Delhi Shatabi Express there was a two hour ride to New Delhi and this time on a straight and direct line between the two cities and I was able to get my notebook out and consider my remaining Top Ten selections.

What will they be?

Passage through India – An Early Start in Agra

Another early start from Ranthambore and we leave for a six mile taxi ride over the rutted track and the horribly pot holed road to the railway station as the sun begins to rise over the forest.  Our luggage has gone on ahead with D P Sharma and the coach. Early because we have to catch the morning express train to Agra.

Sawai Madhopur Railway Station was surprisingly calm, quite unlike the madness of Delhi and Jaipur, a lot more relaxed and laid-back, it doesn’t resemble a refugee camp, passengers waiting for trains are very casual, we are the ones showing unnecessary impatience as we wait for the approaching train and listen for the hoot of the horn that sounds like a roaring tiger and which announces its arrival from a mile or so away.

Soon it is here, it seems to limp into the station, a little late but we have our allocated seats and settle in for the ride.  A proper carriage this time.  Only a shortish journey again today, just two hours or so, so no travel catering but there is a constant flow of vendors.  In the UK there is a drinks trolley on wheels but in India they carry baskets on their heads, news vendors, tea sellers, water sellers, English snickers sellers, snack sellers and after them the rubbish collectors.  It should be chaotic but it all seems to run very smoothly.

Indian Railways, under the ownership of the Ministry of Railways operates the national railway system. It manages the World’s  fourth largest national railway system with a running track length of sixty-five thousand miles.  With more than 1.2 million employees, it is the world’s largest railway employer.  It operates nearly fourteen thousand trains a day, carries eight and a half billion passengers a year and achieves 95% punctuality.

I wish these guys could run the hopelessly inefficient Trans-Pennine railway line in the UK.

Except for the on-board lavatories that is which are well worth avoiding at all costs.  I was never able to work out just what might require an emergency flush.  Best not to think about it I guess.

On account of the early start we arrived mid-morning in Agra.  D P and Chandu were there to meet us, get us onto the coach and straight off for a visit.  The Red Fort of Agra and another inevitable UNESCO World Heritage Site.

There is an interesting entry system in many of these places in India.  An overseas tourist pays about ten times more than a visitor from India but the compensation is that they get to use a fast lane system which is about ten times quicker to get through the gate so that seems very fair.

Agra fort was completed in 1573 and served as the main residence of the rulers of the Mughal dynasty until 1638, when the capital was shifted from Agra to Delhi.  More than a fort, a walled city once full of magnificent palaces and fine buildings but later demolished by the British when it became an army garrison.  When a place like this gets used as an army garrison there is inevitably a lot of looting and damage and Red Fort is no exception.

During WW2 a lot of stately homes were requisitioned by the UK government for use by the Allied armies and suffered vandalism and damage.

Sadly this is a familiar story about misbehaving troops in requisitioned big houses and country estates and many suffered the same fate. No need for the Luftwaffe to get involved. just leave it to the army and the GI’s.  Apparently owners in general didn’t mind their properties being borrowed for schools or hospitals but dreaded the armed forces being moved in because this guaranteed damage and huge expense.

We liked the Red Fort, especially the top with views over the Taj Mahal, some refused to look because they didn’t want to take away from the actual visit tomorrow but I didn’t think that it would especially spoil anything so looked regardless.  It was rather misty so not a great view anyway.

After the Red Fort it was lunch-time and we dined in a splendid restaurant and enjoyed a thali, which is a sort of taster plate with ten or so varieties of food to sample and the really good thing that there were seconds available of those we liked the best.  My favourite was the lamb curry as it almost always was.  And the naan bread because as everywhere it was fabulous, so fabulous that it will be sometime before I can buy a packaged naan bread in a supermarket in the UK again.  Even in UK restaurants I swear that I have never tasted naan like in India,

I am happy to declare it the best lunchtime meal in the whole two weeks…

After lunch we moved on to the ‘Mini Taj’, a Mughul mausoleum,  the Tomb of I’timad-Ud-Daulah and considered a masterpiece of the domeless style of Mughal tombs.  It was the first building finished in white marble and marks the transitional phase from red stone to marble.  The Mughals had got to spend all that money on something I guess.  It was worth a visit I suppose but everyone was waiting for the visit to Taj Mahal but that would have to wait until tomorrow.

Tonight we stayed in a very nice hotel close to the city centre and we found a liquor store only a hundred yards away so stocked up with reasonably priced wine.  It was on a busy main road and for some bizarre reason Kim decided to cross.  What absolute madness but somehow she made it across two manic carriageways.  I got stuck half way and Kim got stranded on the other side.  Eventually a local man noticed her predicament, took her arm and guided her across safely.

A local is always useful in these situations, advice in Italy for example is to find nuns crossing a road and join them because whilst Italian drivers will happily run down pedestrians they draw the line at nuns.

A Passage through India – How it Happened and Preparation

“I had a girlfriend once Fawlty, must have liked her, I took her to see India”

“Really Major?”

“Yes, at the Oval”

I will stop there as the following dialogue is sometimes considered offensive.  Not many other nations have the satisfying ability to be so self deprecating and enjoy being laughed at as the English, not even the Scots or the Welsh.

An explainer.  It is an English joke about cricket.

Anyway, moving on, it was just about a year ago when the SAGA holiday brochure dropped with a thud through the letterbox, Kim picked it up and showed immediate interest in the exotic holidays on offer.

By way of explanation, SAGA is a company that specialises in services in the UK for those aged over 55, insurance, holidays and burials.

I have to confess that I did not immediately share the enthusiasm and hoped that the  interest would soon pass.  I like to travel but I like to go to Europe.  I still have so much of Europe to explore and there are places that I liked so much that I want to go back to.

There is also a long list of places that I have no desire to go to.  I start with  Africa, I have been to Morocco and that is enough, I have no interest in Safaris, if I want to see wild animals there is a wildlife park in Doncaster, less than fifty miles away from where I live and the adult entrance ticket costs only £25.  Nowhere in South America appeals to me in the slightest although I may consider Mexico, I have a fancy to visit cities in Mexico that have the same names that I have visited In Spain, Leon, Guadalajara, Merida, Zamora, Trujillo and so on.

I have already travelled extensively at Walt Disney EPCOT Word Showcase…

I have been to the USA and don’t especially want to go again, I don’t want to be shot dead in a shopping mall by a crazy person with an automatic rifle but I could be persuaded to go to Canada, I have been to the Caribbean but once was enough, there is only so much sunbathing I can do without getting thoroughly bored.  Ten years ago I went to Russia but there is no chance of ever going there again thanks to the criminal President Vladimir Putin.

So where else?  New Zealand for certain and maybe Australia although it seems an awful long way to go, China, no thanks but maybe Japan.

I shared all of my travel prejudices with Kim and left her to it.  She didn’t forget about the brochure and came up with two that she liked the look of.  Egypt or India.  I don’t want to go to Egypt, that is in Africa so that left only India.

An oversight on my part but I hadn’t included India in my list of no visit places.  So India it was.

I caved in and exploiting my temporary wavering Kim booked it in a flash and that is why in  few days time we are on a flight from London to New Delhi and we are booked on a tour of the Golden Triangle, Rajasthan, Amritsa, Agra, Jaipur, the Taj Mahal and a bloody safari in search of Bengal tigers (no chance of that of course) on a guided tour called the Great Indian Railway Journeys.

Hopefully it is not quite like this…

This was a year ago and anything can happen in a year so I thought no more about it but nothing happened to scupper the plan and now we are counting down the days.

I like going to Europe, even with the inconvenience of BREXIT and all of its illusionary benefits it is very easy.  Check passport is up to date and book a cheap flight.  Going to India is not so straightforward. 

First up is inoculations, typhoid, tetanus, hepatitis, polio and diphtheria.  I attended the surgery several times where the nurse used my arm as a pin-cushion.  No charges by the way which surprised me.  Happily there were no side effects.  I worried about other medical issues, especially rabies, dogs don’t like me and will attack without warning but I have no protection against that.  I took out special medical insurance just in case.

Getting the vaccinations was relatively easy I have to say compared to applying for the visitor visa which was a nightmare.

The Indian Ministry for Home Affairs claims to have simplified the process for visa applications but if that is so then I dread to think how difficult it was previously.  It took two whole days to make our applications but to be fair only about twenty minutes for them to approve it and it only cost £25 each.  Bit of a bargain really.

Then the preparations really got frantic which included stripping the local pharmacy of drugs and potions and purchasing an extra travel bag to carry them all  in.  Sorting through the drawers and wardrobes for suitable clothes and checking and double checking all of our travel requirements.

Anyway, I am fully prepared now, I have a guide book and I have watched this movie a couple of times and I think that should do it…

To be absolutely certain I have watched one of my favourite Kenneth More films – Northwest Frontier so I know all about rail journeys in India..

But hold on, here is an interesting fact.  Although some scenes were shot in India, in Rajasthan, the palaces and such like, the train journey itself was filmed in Andalusia in Southern Spain.  Not a lot of people know that.

We go soon and if I survive the dangers, food poisoning, rabies, run-over by tut-tut, crushed by a rampaging elephant, bitten by a cobra or mauled to death by a man-eating Bengal Tiger I will write it up when I return.

This one is from Yorkshire Wildlife Park at Doncaster by the way…