Feb 12 & 13 Varanasi

One of the reasons that we had arranged so much through Kapil’s company was because we needed to be driven from Agra to Delhi to catch the plane to Varanasi. This is a 4 to 5 hour drive. Adrian (our travel agent) said that she could arrange for a car and driver, but the reality was that it never worked. We would be much better off making the arrangement in India.

The car picked us up promptly at 9 am. (The Indians are really on time. I don’t think that we have ever waited beyond the time that they said someone would meet us. Since we are pathologically early, we really appreciate this.)

The drive took every minute of the 5 hours and then some. The traffic was horrendous. It is hard to believe that this was a really main highway.

We did get the half way bathroom break. There was also the only mailbox that I saw on the trip. I usually send postcards – but it was really hard to do here.

One thing that I wasn’t able to get a picture of was the cow pat storage. Cow pats are collected and dried here and then used for fuel. Often you will see them on a wall. After they are dried, some people build little structures that look like playhouses with them. Some are arranged quite decoratively.

We did make our plane, but didn’t have to wait too long. It is quite incredible – they manage to serve a hot meal in an hour. It is impressive.

In Varanasi, we stayed at the Taj Ganges. Chuck was surprised to hear that we would be picked up at 6:30 to go to the river. Varanasi is a very holy spot on the holy river Ganges. If you die and are cremated here, you then are off the reincarnation wheel, so lots of old people come here to die. Dawn is the time to see people washing in the river and burning the bodies.

We (and hundreds of other tourists) were picked up and taken to the river side. We were very lucky. Our boat had just us and one other person. Some of the other boats looked like they were going to sink with the weight of the people on them.

It was dark and COLD when we arrived.

We were on the water, when the sun peeped over the horizon:

We had bought flower offerings to give to the river:

There were little candles in the center.

We were rowed up the river and saw the people bathing and washing clothes:

Over and over again we were told that no one gets sick because this is such a purifying experience:

No, that isn’t a body – it is a mud statue from a celebration the day before. We saw a group getting ready to cremate someone. The gold cloth and flowers are around the body. When they are ready, it will be placed on top of the pile of wood on the right.

At the end of the ride, we walked through the lanes and alleys behind the buildings closest to the river. Cows and people are living cheek to jowl. People are sleeping in their shops (which are smaller than my dining room table.)

We went back to the hotel for breakfast and to sign out. We went to see the university and a Muslim weaving community. The weavers did everything from bleaching and dying the silk, to weaving brocades. They proudly told me that the education of each child was to do the job of his father. (Obviously, we were only interested in the boys here.) When I asked what would happen if a dyer’s child turned out to be a fabulous designer? The guide looked at me with such a strange expression. That could never happen. He couldn’t even imagine it, in order to answer the question.

We then went to the airport for the trip back to Delhi. I had called the hotel there to make arrangements to be picked up. The plane was 2 hours late, so we were a little worried. When we exited the baggage area, there were only 4 guys with names – none of them ours. I walked over to a door and the guard asked me where I was going. I explained the problem. He said to exit by the other door. There were about 1000 guys there, all waving names. Now, we had the opposite problem. We slowly walked down this gauntlet. YES, there was our name!! The guy was just as happy to see us, as we were to see him.

This hotel had a really good restaurant so we were all set for dinner. Since we had been up since before dawn, we were really ready for bed too.

Sunday Feb 10 & Monday Feb 11 On to Agra

The 2^nd conference is over and we are really moving through India. We caught a plane to Agra right after the last session on Sunday. Kapil’s plan worked very well. We were met and taken to the hotel. Kapil met us at the hotel and checked in for us. Having “servants” is easy to get used to. Instead of lining up at a desk, we are seated in comfy chairs in the lobby and all of the paper work is brought over to us. At airports, someone takes our suitcases and escorts us through the whole checking in process.

We are in the Taj View hotel. We do have a view of the Taj Mahal at a distance. It isn’t lit at night, so we really don’t see much of it.

Monday morning we visited the Taj Mahal. It truly is spectacular and very beautiful. The fabulous love story doesn’t hurt either. Our guide made sure that I stood in exactly the right spots to get the best pictures:

Now, walk forward 7 bricks and you see 2 more towers:

Now, another 7 bricks and you see 4 towers (They really loved symmetry!)

Now, you must stand here and I will take your picture:

He made people get out of the way, so that we would have wonderful pictures. It was nice, he took someone else's picture also in this spot.

We spent a long time just wandering around and seeing it from every angle. The guide left us on our own so that we didn’t feel rushed. When we met him again, he had another good viewpoint:

The Taj is really the ONLY pretty thing that we saw in India. Most of the rest looks like it was partially demolished 100 years ago and people are still living in the rubble. Almost every brick wall has a bite out of it.

Rubbish is everywhere. I often saw little piles of rubbish that had been swept together – but then there were cows and pigs eating parts of it and scattering it around again.

After lunch, we went to the Red Fort. This was where the builder of the Taj was imprisoned by his son. He could look at the Taj and see where his beloved was buried (and where he joined her.) His plan was to build a black building to match the Taj across the river for his mausoleum – but his son was tired of him wasting so much money. This is where he could sit and see the Taj:

Kapil met us for tea in the late afternoon. He wanted to propose that we hire his company to guide us through Varanasi also. Since they had done such a good job already, we agreed.

He said that he had started his career working at our hotel, so everyone knew him there.

We ate dinner both nights in the hotel. We have thoroughly enjoyed all of the Indian food.

Saturday February 9 The banquet

Lucille and I had hired Raj for another day. When we went into the parking lot, an older man came up to us and introduced himself as Raj’s uncle. He dialed Raj on his phone so that we could talk to him and make sure that we had been officially handed off. Raj said that his Tuk tuk had a problem, so his uncle would be driving us. Everyone has brothers, cousins, and uncles so a live client is always passed to a family member.

Our first stop was the Anokhi coffee shop. All of the girls were meeting there. The shops don’t open until 11 am and our husbands start off at about 8:15, so we are all ready to go – this gave us something to do. It was very pleasant to sit around and sip coffee and tea and chat. They also had fabulous pomegranate juice.

Our main topic of conversation was how we were going to be able to dress warmly enough for the banquet. It is cold here (about 43 degrees at night) and the banquet is going to be outside. Even with heaters, it is going to be a problem. The Anokhi shop had really nice scarves – so they were a popular item.

After coffee, we went to the conference site to pick up our tickets. (These had been supposed to be in the guy’s packages. They hadn’t been. Then we were told that our name tag would be sufficient – but the latest story is that we need official tickets. As it turned out – we didn’t need anything.)

Deena. Lucille and I went back to our hotel so that I could copy Deena’s pictures to my computer. Then we separated. Deena went shopping and Lucille and I went to the doll museum. It was on the campus of the school for the “blind, deaf and dumb.” It was a funny little museum. There were a lot of dolls that were dressed in the various native costumes of India. There were also dolls dressed in modern day school uniforms. Then there were the foreign dolls. Very strange national dress. Norway was a white blond girl dressed in a pink mini dress from the 60’s with a little white fur beret. It looked like every time someone from the school went on a trip, they picked up a doll from a toy store.

Lucille had clipped an ad for a Mall from the newspaper. We made that our next stop. Raj’s uncle told us it was very expensive. He would have preferred to take us to yet another craft shop. The mall had a food court – so we had Chinese food for a change. Then we just wandered through the more modern stores to see the kinds of things that are available.

Back to the hotel to rest before layering for dinner. Chuck and Art came back early so that we could all go over together in a taxi. Art was worried because there weren’t going to be enough chairs for everyone and he needed to have a seat. We were the first ones there and staked out places near heaters.

The organizers had gone all out. The venue was really pretty with flowers and fairy lights.

There were camels, elephants, a band and dancers to greet the guests:

We each had a necklace of marigolds and some of us got red dots. (I don’t know the criterion. At first we thought that it was only the women, but then some of the men had them too.

They had both gas heaters (like in restaurants here) and braziers. After dinner, gathering around the brazier was a good activity.

The food was tasty. They made fresh naan in tandori ovens

They also have a dessert which is very like our funnel cake. Theirs is thinner and is dipped in a sugar syrup.

Here we are with some friends from Hefei:

There were fireworks, a tightrope walker at the party next door and dancing to Indian folk music after dinner.

Chuck and I took a taxi back. We didn’t want to have to wait for the buses to be loaded. We were probably in bed before the party really broke up.

Friday Feb 8 Lucille and I are really getting brave

My chills are gone, but I now have what we are all calling “tuk-tuk cough.” It is probably caused by a combination of driving around in horrible congested traffic, in a little open 3 wheeler, a very dusty city and the weather being really chilly.

Our first stop was the Anokhi Fabric museum. We didn’t realize that it was past the Amber fort. This was a loooong tuk-tuk ride. Raj said that it would cost a little more than the normal 50 Rs an hour.

As we got to the fort, I made Raj stop so that I could take pictures of the elephant caravan.

The fabric museum was really great. I can now see what the block print fabric is supposed to look like. We were very interested to see that the print, color and trim were used to denote occupation, age, caste, & marital status. Much of it was timeless.

One thing that we have noticed here. The helmet law seems to be that the motorcycle driver must were one, but that passengers are on their own.

After visiting the Anokhi museum, we went to the Anokhi store. We have found heaven in Jaipur. There was a real coffee shop. They guarantee that they have “safe salad.” They grow their own organically and wash it in bottled water. We both had soup, a really great sandwich with hummus, tomatoes & basil and a real salad.

The store was really good too, lovely things that were a really good price. Downstairs was a good bookstore. I think that we met everyone we knew there.

We went out for dinner with Felicia and Gary to Spice Court. They had kebabs (lamb that was a little pink) and other tasty stuff. They also had dancing girls:

This girl finally had 7 pots balanced on her head. It is hard to balance a tall stack of pots and wiggle your butt at the same time!

An enjoyable evening and home to bed.

Thursday Feb 7 Excursion to the Amber Fort

Every conference has an excursion. With over 800 attendees, organizing any kind of trip is a major undertaking. We chose to visit the Amber Fort (along with 4 bus loads of our friends.)

Our trip started in the late morning. You don’t think that Physicists were going to take a whole day off to play, do you? If one gets to the fort early, an elephant is the means of transportation from the bus to the fort. We were late, so used jeeps. (Supposedly, there have been some problems with the elephant transport – fights between elephants etc. People have been hurt – even killed, so the guides don’t really encourage using them. I must admit I was a little disappointed.)

Here are some of the elephants going home after their work shift. They are only allowed to do 5 round trips in a day, but they have to walk from the elephant barns near Jaipur and back each day.

Here is Art in our more mundane transport: The fort is large and impressive sitting on a hill.

The façade inside the fort was obviously the inspiration for the front of the conference venue. (Actually, a direct rip-off.)

We saw where the 12 wives (and 400 concubines) lived. Each had their own apartment – but they could only talk to each other in a central pavilion:

The wives bathed by standing in a square pool. Servants poured scented water over her (for 2 hours) while the Maharaja looked on from a balcony.

They had an ingenious method of air conditioning. It worked like a swamp cooler, but on a larger scale. When asked how the water was brought up to the top, the guide said that they had a Persian screw pump, but also multitudes of people.

A very special room was done with mirrors imported from Belgium. Just one candle would reflect from all of the surfaces to create a well lit room. At the present time, this can no longer be part of the tour, but we did see examples of the mirror work.

We left the fort and proceeded to 2 restaurants for lunch. It is really hard to find places that can feed busloads of people very quickly. In truth, the ones we were at were really dismal.

After lunch we stopped at the water palace for a photo op. THEN THEY TOOK US TO 2 FACTORY TOURS!! One of which I had already been to for way too long. (They call them factory tours. Really they are a quick demonstration of some craft and then a hard sell. This was not what we had signed up for. We were supposed to go to the Observatory. Everyone was really upset. Because tuk-tuks seemed to be off limits at these places, it was impossible to escape. Chuck just stayed on the bus.

Back at the hotel, I developed a fever and chills. Too bad, we were entertaining all of our Chinese friends. I took two Tylenol and hoped for the best. It seemed to do the trick. I think that everyone enjoyed themselves. They only had to choose a drink and Veg or Non Veg. Everything else was fixed. We reminisced and told each other of our travel adventures. (Some of them had taken the train in India.)

Fell into bed and was asleep immediately.

Wednesday Feb 6 I’m turning into a memsahib

Two nights ago we met a nice tuk-tuk driver named Raj. He gave me his card and told me to call him whenever I wanted to go around the city. He quoted what we thought was a fair rate of 50 Rs an hour.

Yesterday we went to Pushkar, so I didn’t call him. He saw Chuck at the conference and asked why I hadn’t phoned.

So at 10 am he met Lucille and me outside of the hotel for a day of exploring. He took us to an ATM, so that we would be prepared for shopping.

First we went to the Hawa Mahal, aka Palace of the winds. We see pictures of it all over and could see it from the Observatory. This is a model of it. The real thing is covered in scaffolding and not too photogenic at this point.

Its purpose in life seemed to be as a giant reviewing stand for the ladies in purdah. All of the windows are screened with the slots looking down at the street. All processions went down the street in front of this building. It is very tall and narrow. It has 7 floors, but is only one room wide. Instead of steps, there is a ramp that goes from floor to floor. Supposedly, the women wore very elaborate holiday dresses that were very heavy - so they were pushed in chairs by their servants.

A close up of the screen:

The view of the street:

This is a part of the palace that has been finished. You can see how lovely it is and why this is called the pink city, although I would call it more a coral.

Then Raj took us all over the city. The first bazaar we wanted to stop at was right in front of this Palace. He warned us that we would find it difficult, because the shopkeepers are very aggressive and would try to pull us into their stores. We managed 1 block and decided to cross the street and work our way back. Crossing the street is truly an adventure. There was a man standing next to us and we decided that when he moved, we would move with him. Unfortunately, when he moved, he jumped onto a moving bus. Not a good person to follow. Finally we just bit the bullet and worked our way across. We admitted to Raj that he had been right.

Then we went to a cheaper bazaar, but since it doesn’t get as many tourists, the shopkeepers are a little more laid back.

On our way, we passed the milk store:

All of these guys are there to fill up their milk cans. I think that they resell it.

Lucille and I aren’t really dedicated shoppers, so we would look for awhile and move on to the next place - another FACTORY! We were really fast there. Then we went to a shop that is owned by a friend of Raj’s. It had nicer things. Lucille was tempted by a scarf but decided to sleep on it.

This really was an errand day. Lucille and Art are going to an Indian friend’s home for dinner – so she had to buy a bottle of something to take. We stopped at a bottle shop and after much dithering chose a bottle of Indian whiskey. Who knows what it will taste like?

Then, a stop at the phone store, to see why her phone wasn’t working properly. She bought a sim chip in Mumbai and now, it doesn’t seem to work in Jaipur.

We went back to the hotel to rest before the “cultural extravaganza”. Raj was right on time when we headed back out to go to conference. He even agreed to find another tuk-tuk to take us all back to the hotel after it was over.

This evening turned out to be a big deal – a musical performance by one of the really famous musicians in India and then a dinner provide by the Prime Minister.

I’m not very musical – but this performance was wonderful. I hadn’t known that Ragas are all improvised within a set of rules.

After the dinner buffet, Art, Lucille, Chuck and I headed out hoping that Raj would be dependable. There he was – with a cousin in tow. We really didn’t want to have to sit and wait until the buses decided to depart.

I have been trying to find a nice Parcheesi set. I can’t even find an ordinary one. The people who know what they are, are astonished that I even know about it. One of the people who knew what I was talking about runs the jewelry shop in the hotel. He said that his company/family could make one. They could even make one with little carved and painted elephants for the pieces. Chuck and I went and ordered it. While we were working on the paper work, I asked what one looked for in an emerald. Chuck decided to go to bed. Yogi (my new friend’s name) showed me every emerald he had in stock and showed me how to compare them. I ended up choosing a stone that he will set into a ring.

A grand finish to a fun day

Tuesday Feb 5 Pushkar – town of the camel fair

Pushkar was one of the suggested tour possibilities. 6 of us decided to go. I think that we are destined to have long car rides wherever we go in India. City or country – everything is a far piece. In October, Pushkar is the site of an enormous camel fair. They have races, beauty contests (of camels) and auctions. During that time, most of the visitors sleep in tents.

Pushkar is a 3 hour drive from Jaipur. Most of the way is a 6 lane toll road, but there are tractors, tuk-tuks, and heavily laden small trucks sharing the lanes. On the way we stopped to pick up a friend of the driver. He wanted to make a pilgrimage to Puskar and took advantage of the ride.

They are building rest stops that look very much like the ones in the States, but they aren’t open yet. We stopped at this one. The driver said, “Very clean bathrooms.” He was right, so we were happy. They also had very good coffee.

This part of India is a desert region that looks remarkably like New Mexico. When there are no people or houses, you can’t tell the difference.

We did get to see many more camels: (There have been a bunch pulling carts around in downtown Jaipur, but they are too hard to get pictures of.)

We were supposed to pick up our guide at the outskirts of the town. He wasn’t there. Our driver got a little worried, because no one was answering their phones. He finally was told where the new pickup point was, so all was well.

Our first stop in Pushkar was the Brahma Temple. Brahma doesn’t have too many temples in India, because he played around on his wife and she cursed him. We had to take off our shoes and walk up a flight of stairs to the temple proper. Marble is slippery with socks – but I wouldn’t have liked to do it in bare feet. (Ick)

It has the same kind of dedication plaques that the English church in Mumbai had, except that these were for Indians.

The back of it was the most extraordinary color.

We walked further through the village. A small boy followed us all the way playing Frere Jacques on a stringed instrument. We had put our shoes back on.

We were going to the sacred lake. Every Hindu is supposed to make at least one pilgrimage here to bath at a holy ghat. Ghats are steps down to the water.

About 30 feet from the lake, we had to take our shoes off again. We were each given a tray with red and yellow powder, rice, sugar and flowers. We added the flower that we had been given at the Brahma temple.

Each of these substances represented an important element of our lives. Then we all traipsed over to a ghat and down the stairs.

We were each assigned our very own spiritual guide. He explained the significance of each item on the tray again and had us say a prayer in Hindi. Then we repeated for each item, “I pray for myself, for my family and for my country” good health, good education, good life, etc. It was weird and very moving. Knee-jerk crier that I am, I shed a few tears. He marked my forehead with a mixture of the red powder and rice. We tossed the things on our tray into the lake and the flower behind us. We were shedding our bad karma and getting good karma. Then the giant scam started. The “spiritual guide” asked for, and then demanded money for the charities in the area. They really argued about what one chose to give. It turned a good experience very nasty.

But here I am with my red mark:

We said good-by to our Pushkar guide and went to a very nice hotel for lunch. We ate in the garden and took pictures of the room next to the ladies room. Another 3 hours back to Jaipur, with a bathroom break at another place with "very nice bathrooms."

Chuck and I had dinner at the Indian restaurant in the hotel. They had a very good tasting menu. The only choices were Veg or Non-Veg. Just as we got to the soup, we were joined by Art & Lucille. We paused so they could catch up – and we all tasted everything. We are going to take all of our Chinese friends from Hefei out to dinner and decided that this place would be a good choice. We made reservations for 10 for Thursday.