Bikaner

Day 4 was a long day that started from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm, but it was a great day with lots of pics. Here are the pics of the hotel which was an old fort at one time, and the local Raja still visits and stays at the fort during summer. Raja's don't have any governmental power, but they are still very rich as their money was never taken away from them. Most Raja's still own old forts and palaces which they may convert into hotels or tourist attractions.

Here is a link desrcribing the term Raja - which is just a king:

Raja Definition

Her e is a link on Mandawa:

Mandawa Info

Since I had to wake up early for the long day, I was able to get some sunrise shots.

When I went into the restaurant to eat breakfast, I was confronted with stunning paintings on the wall.

The intricate painting on the ceiling has to be seen to believe.

I asked the guy at reception if he would mind showing me to the top of the fort for picture taking, and he said he would get someone to do that, but I had to take his picture first.

Again, the paintings on the walls are great with lots of detail of gods and their stories. Then the receptionist asked someone to get me to the top. Here is a pic of where I was trying to get too - it's the look out room in white at the top of the fort.

This is a small city. I think I read there were only about 30,000 people here. I was also able to get some city shots from a turret location.

Here is the main courtyard. As I blogged in the previous post, you drive in through some ancient gates, a drummer starts to play, flowers are put around your neck and a red dot is placed on your forehead to please the gods.

I was also shown the area where the Raja stayed. This is a balcony area and the entry.

This is the living room and dining area.

While wandering around, I found the temple area which is part of the Raja's area, but the priest was kind enough to let me in. He then did a prayer for me, and wrapped a red threaded bracelet around my wrist. It took about 5 minutes to go through the entire procedure, and then we talked for a while after. He was very pleased that I was in India training people, and I think I got a good prayer in my behalf because of my good deeds.

Just before I was about to leave the fort to start the days touring, a male peacock started dancing, and the locals said I should take a picture because it doesn't happen very often. You will notice another peacock is looking over the hedge to checkout the moves.

The first touring stop for the day was a quick stop at another fort\hotel combo.

We kept moving to another temple location that was nearby. I call this the goat temple because this is where all the goats gathered to pray to the gods for health, prosperity and warm milking hands.

The next stop was at some nearby Haveli's. If you don't know what these are, then click the link below. The link will describe the fresco paintings you will see in the pics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havelis

 

 

 

There were lots of buildings around with paintings, and we could have gotten tours for going inside, but I would be doing that later in the trip. So, we moved on toward the hotel which was still a couple hours away. You can see from the pics below that I'm in a very desert like environment.

 

 

 

We mad a quick stop past a small temple. I call this temple the pigeon temple as it is where pigeons pray for light winds, electrical lines that don't shock the feet, and clear shots of quick moving foreigners for the occasional bombing raid.

 

Now on to the Hotel which was also a Fort\Hotel combo of another Raja. This was a really nice hotel, but once I got my stuff into my room it was time to head to MikanerFort with a guide. So I didn't have to look around yet.

The guide was very nice and very informative. If you need a guide for Bikaner (French or English), I highly recommend him. Here is his contact info:

            Dalip Jadiwal, dalip_jontybkn@yahoo.co.in

Here is a link to the Junagarh fort in Bikaner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junagarh_Fort

If you want to see more pics or find out more information about this fort, just do an internet search for "Junagarh Fort India", and you will lots of pics and history. Here are some pics to give you an idea.

This is the main outer fort walls.

This is one of the entry gate areas. There are normally multiple gate areas and courtyards to make invading armies have to work their way through. There can be narrow turns and steep inclines to prevent elephants from reaching ramming spead to knock down city gates. Also, spikes and things are put on gates to keep elephants from pushing the gates down. You will find hot oil spouts and areas for archers to make the invading army very miserable as they are now much easier to pick off as the move down these narrow passages to get to the Raja. Again, I really recommend a guide or at least doing a lot of reading on the site before visiting because there is a lot of history and culture which is being preserved.

For example, in the pic below, new Raja's would expand the forts which means old meets new as the centuries pass. In this case the 3 archways have gates which were all built by one of the later Raja's along side older architecture. There is a lot of detail and carvings which all have meaning and significance. Above the archway is where the queens could look out to see the Raja coming or going. It is traditional for the queens to see out of of a palace or fort, but nobody was allowed to see them to prevent other males, including relatives to the Raja, from wanting to become intimate with a queen which could create a baby that was not the Raja's. Also, since the first born male would be the next Raja, a Raja was not supposed to get other queens until he had a male child because a male child from another sub-queen would cause much tension.

After these gates and a narrow passage, one of many courtyards are in view.

There is a very nice inner courtyard where the celebration of colors would take place. In the pic below, the Raja would sit in the shrine area and around him a pool of water with red flower petals covered the surface of the water. You will also need to use your imagination in all these photos to add carpets and wall coverings. What you see now is like a room that has not been decorated, and that leaves a very blank looking area where only the architecture is revealed.

In the picture below, each column was made out of a single block of stone, and there are elephants carved out of the top from that same piece of stone. You can also see tiles from China as the Raja showed he had contacts from around the world.

The ceiling blow is made out of real gold which is why it is still vibrant today. There was a technique for painting with gold, and it was used a lot.

Here is a large garden area that the queens used. It also gives a good idea of the size of the fort. In general, the Raja's and queens would live in a palace where other government officials would reside, but in times of war, everyone moved to the fort. So, the palaces were not protected as everything would be taken to the fort leaving the palace completely abandoned and barren.

So, the palace was a location where the Raja ran the government in times of peace, and the fort was the location to run the government in times of war.

Below is a pic of restoration work being done.

Here is a golden baby rocker. A god's picture would be placed in the rocker for good fertility luck.

The next location was to a camel farm. Camels are used like horses in this part of the country. There were a number of camels hauling goods up and down roads as we traveled around the area. We were in a desert like area, and horses don't work well in that environment.

I happened to get at the farm during dinner. So, these camels were saying, "Butt out, I'm eating".

There is a part on the farm that is for camels who are pregnant, and here is a pic of a baby camel. It's sitting under the mother.

Here are some male camels which are kept in a different location. There are 3 types of camels you will see. The darker camel, dark brown color camel and the light brown camel...I don't remember their names, but they are different species.

At the farm, they serve you camels milk. It tasted like non-fat milk. So, it tasted like milk from a cow, but a very lean and healthy cow.

I then stopped at some shops. We did stop at one shop of the guy who owns the world record for minture paintings. These are paintings done with a single squirrel hair...that right...only one hair is used. It is beautiful work. Here is his contact info and web site.

Shiv Swami - www.bikanerminiaturearts.com

The painting below is 11.5 X 16 centimeters. This is truly amazing work, and the prices are very cheap given the labor involved. You have to use a magnifying glass to appreciate the work because the beard you see on the man's face below was created one squirrel hair stroke at a time. The paint that is used is made from traditional stones for centuries of long lasting color. These miniature painters are in many places practicing an ancient art form, and I encourage you to check out his and others sites.

You can also get carpets and fabric from nearby shops for great prices. I should have more contacts on those places in future blogs.

It was starting to get dark, and the guide said there was a special festival going on for foreigners, and he asked if I would like to see it. Since there wasn't any boiling of foreigners at the event, I thought I would go because I had had not had dinner, and I didn't want to spoil my appetite with a foreigner stew...of which I would, of course, not participate in.

The evenings festival turned out to be the Indian Air Force Symphony Orchestra. They played some foriegn and local tunes, and it was a really nice show with fire works at the end.

I thought this would be the end of the day, but I had to eat dinner. So, the guide, the driver Anil and myself went to the top of a hotel roof top within the city where they had local dancers and musicians performing while you ate. What people didn't realize is that your price of the meal included a free dance lesson. So, we would go up in two's with the dancer and try to dance the local steps. Everyone had a good time with lots of laughs, mostly laughing at each other dancing, and after a good meal, I was able to finally get back to the hotel room and get some much needed rest.

Mandawa

Day 3 is the trip from New Delhi to Mandawa. It’s mainly a travel day with a few sightseeing stops, but travel days can be very interesting too when going to a new place.

I noticed a few more differences between Kochi and New Delhi as getting out of Delhi takes a while because it’s so big. New Delhi has special bus lanes which helps keep them out of main stream traffic this helps a lot. The New Delhi bus drivers don’t drive “road warrior” style attempting to leave their tread marks on unsuspecting passengers back sides like Kochi bus drivers.

The New Delhi buses private and government both have green and yellow lines painted all the way around the bus. The government bus has the green line on the top, and the private bus has the yellow line on the top. In Kochi the tan lined bus is the government bus and the other busses are private. The Rajasthan busses are white with a blue stripe. All of this may not sound very interesting given I’m never going to be taking a bus as it is hazardous to a foreigners sense of personal space, but it only shows how different states in India have their own personalities and way of doing things just like in the U.S.

In my last post, I mentioned how nice the driving was here in New Delhi, and Lal mentioned it still gets crazy during office commutes. While trying to get out of Delhi around 10:00 in the morning, we did hit a number of traffic congestion points where 8 lane highways were used like 10 lane highways as the 25 million people living in New Delhi tried to get to the office. There were points where new highways were in construction and we had to use older more narrow roads which means 8 lanes worth of traffic in 4 lanes where dirt shoulder areas were used by motorcycles.

Here is a pic of the new highway bridge under construction…I have not seen any highway system in India that compares to the U.S. multi bridge and clover systems you might see in L.A. for instance.

I passed a lot of business construction on the way out of Delhi. There was a large mall under contruction called Ambi mall which had 1 square kilometer of space on each floor, and there were at least 6 floors. I don’t know when it will be completed, but it looked about 30 percent done.

Other business parks had companies like Convergesys, DLF, Nestle, Alcatel, Eli Lilly, HCL, Rites, Delphi and much much more. I passed the Honda factory for cars, and then 10 kilometers down the road I passed the Honda factory for motorcycles.

Once I was out of Delhi and away from office commuters the highway went to a 4 lane with very light traffic, and generally everyone stayed in their lanes. My driver still could not help driving in the middle of the road at times to create a 6 lane highway…I guess old habits are hard to break.

Further down the road a Best Western Hotel popped up out of nowhere. I’m not sure why it was there.

A few kilometers away the hwy turned into a toll highway. For the next 200 kilometers we hit 3 of these toll booths and we paid around 50Rs for each (1 dollar). In Kochi, the toll roads are much cheaper, but they are still in bad shape. We were easily cruising at 90kmh on these roads which were straight. One reason for the nice roads is probably the climate difference. Kochi gets monsoon rains which can easily breakdown roads if they are not drained properly. But as we headed into Rajasthan, a desert type climate started to appear which allowed for much easier maintenance of roads. I was told that in July and August, the temperature could get to 40-50 degrees Celsius. On top of the uninhabitable heat, heavy rains would come turning the landscape into a giant sauna. The climate right now, January, is perfect during the day, and fairly cool at night.

Since it can get fairly hot here, and there are desert like conditions, I started seeing locals using camels everywhere instead of horses or mules. Since petrol price is 45Rs per liter, a camel is not a bad idea as it was built for living in the desert. I don’t know what a camel eats but there was a mainstay farming plant that seemed like 100’s of square kilometers.

Below is a pics of a yellow wild flower used to make cooking oil. There are Kansas like fields of this stuff which is watered to grow. If you look at the sides of the roads which are barren and desert, that is what the area would look like if it wasn’t watered to grow these yellow flowered plants. If you know the name of the plant, please add a comment on this. The Kochi difference is obvious. There are no coconut trees here. I did see a number of vendors selling roasted peanuts, but I don’t know what a peanut tree looks like. So, I can only guess they are grown locally.

Another staple business in the area are brick and tile plants. The brick backing stacks bellowing smoke from the top were scattered across 100’s of kilometers. Tile plants were located in the area of geological outcrops. I saw one foot by on foot tiles all cut and loaded on trucks for delivery as well has larger tiles. I also saw a few honey bee farms.

Based on the pics the area is generally flat with a few small mountainous out crops. The mountain range is called Aravily (not sure of spelling) and there is a giant monkey god statue if you keep a look out for it. If you don't see it, it will see you.

In one of the small towns we passed through, there were 2 guys and boy making peda which is a sweet that reminds me of raw cookie dough. Here are some pics of them making it – it was an interesting process which I watched for several minutes.

Toward the end of the day, we stopped by a local temple. Here are some pics of that. I asked if I could go inside, and they said it was not a problem. When I entered the inner courtyard, there were 4 other people sitting in a semi-circle facing toward an alter under one of the temple spires. I was asked to take off my shoes, and the younger priest took me to the small alter to show me figurines of 3 gods they are worshipping at the temple along with a few other side gods which are in the family tree somewhere. I said thank you for letting me into the temple and showing me around, and I proceeded to leave. Then the priest asked if I would like to sit and have tea with the other members. I was honored by the request, and accepted the invitation. I sat down on the ornate rug, and they asked me the standard question I always get from locals – where are you from, are you in India alone, where is your family, what do you do for a living, do you think Elvis is still alive, etc… Finally, after the 3^rd degree grilling, which I’m getting used too, I was served a spicy tea. I asked how old the temple was and the younger priest said it was 35 years old, and another older guy said it was 700 years old. Since the older person had spent many years praying to monkey and elephant gods with some odd family tree intermingling, I assumed the younger person’s logical and time perceptions were more intact. Thus, I assume the temple was built 35 years ago. Once I finished the tea, I said thank you, and they thanked me for stopping by, and the younger priest gave me his business card which was in Hindi with 2 mobile phone numbers. Here is a pic of the business card. If you are looking for a hip techno friendly priest, this is your guy.

It was now getting late, and I headed for the Hotel Mukandgarh Fort. When I arrived, we drove though some old fortress doors, and a drummer started playing. I got out of the car and walked up some steps toward reception. On my way, a girl put a dot on my forehead and a necklace of flowers were placed around my neck. It appears I had to convert to Hindu before I could stay in the hotel. I have to admit it is a novel way of getting more converts. At this point, I’m wondering if permanent red ink was used, or if I can wash the dot off my forehead, will they throw me out of the hotel.

Here are some pics of the room. It’s a nice place and very interesting. There is a curtain in front of the door to allow the doors to be open, but still have privacy during those very hot days. I will have pics of the place in the morning.

Link for more info: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukandgarh

My next stop tomorrow is Jaisalmer. It’s another travel day, but it appears travel days can be fairly interesting if you are willing to pay attention to meaningless factoids about your environment and convert your religion.

New Delhi

Day 2 went much better than day 1. It was only a travel day to get back to where I should have been yesterday, but I did arrive in Delhi on schedule. When the plane touched ground in New Delhi, a number of people clapped, and I’m sure a lot of other people were relieved. Flights to New Delhi were still being rescheduled due to fog, but it was not as dense. I also dumped Go Air, and went with Jet Air which is the No. 1 airline in India. Jet Air also had to reschedule other flights, but my flight left on time, and we flew in circles for about 15 minutes before landing. Other Jet Air flights also ended up making their destinations. Go Air and other airlines were still having problems getting planes through.

When I arrived at baggage claim, Lal found me and gave me a hug. Lal is part of the tour agency that setup my trip around North India (Sohan Lal Bajaj of Welcome Travels – www.welcometravels.com for study, cultural and adventure tours). He couldn’t track me down because of the previous days canceled flights, and when he saw me he said, “Thank God you are here.” I guess that is enough sentiment to be worth a hug.

I saw some yelling and “palm hammering” (hitting your palm hard on a surface) around the Spice Airlines booth. A number of folks apparently lost their luggage. I heard one person in the growing crowd yell, “we will beat you up.”, and the Spice Airline manager in the middle of the crowd had a very scared look on his face with his eyes very wide open as if someone might attack. The security forces all took glances that direction occasionally along with their blankness expressions. Lal told me that was going on all night yesterday at all of the booths because a huge number of flights were canceled. Once again, I have a lot of sympathy for airline crews, but there is no question Jet Air was more organized and passenger satisfaction was much higher. So if you are coming to India, go with Jet Airlines…especially if you are coming to New Delhi after 4:00pm in the winter when the fog rolls in. Jet Air also serves the best meals, with candies and mango ice cream. The negative is that Jet Air is a little more expensive, but you get what you pay for. For me, peace of mind is priceless.

Lal took me to the vehicle I would be driving in for the next 16 days, and he then introduced me to Anil who would be my driver for the next 16 days. I think it will be a good idea for all of us to enjoy our company in the days that are to pass – a good driver can’t go anywhere without a dependable vehicle.

When we drove to the hotel, I noticed one thing instantly….the roads are really nice. We were on a 6 lane highway and people were keeping their lanes. When I asked Lal about the “rule sensitive” driving, he said they patrol these areas, and people have to obey the rules – most of the time. Lal said even the trucks are not allowed on the road during rush hour traffic morning and night. The word “civilized” came to mind. There is still a flavor of India driving, but it is much more subdued. The driving in Mubai was still the same craziness as in Kochi. It makes me wonder if New Delhi is ahead of the other cities in India. Lal mentioned to me that Delhi is the gateway to India. So, it’s not surprising more “civilized” driving would come to Delhi first.

As we headed toward my hotel, Lal pointed out that President Bush stayed at a hotel only half a kilometer away. So, we were in the center of Delhi which is mostly Hindu. We passed a temple where there were lots of people praying to a monkey god this month, and sweet treats were all around. I think I may be inclined to pray to a monkey god too if it meant I could get free sweet treats with every prayer. Having multiple gods has an advantage, you can choose the flavor of the month to what appeals to you – this seems modernly convenient.

The hotel was called “The Connaught”, and it was very nice. It even had a bathtub with a stopper in it – very high class. There is a soccer stadium next to the hotel which is unusual – here are some pics.

The menu prices are a lot more – this is an indication of type of hotel you are staying at. If it’s a 2\3 star hotel, you will pay a little over 20Rs (50 cents) for a bottle of mineral water. Connaught hotel is charging 85Rs which is almost 2 dollars, or 4 times as much for the same bottle of water. Therefore, Connaught is a 4\5 star hotel. So, if you want to know how nice a hotel is in India, all you need to know is how much the mineral water cost – travel tip one. I can get the same bottle of water for 20Rs in a Mithra grocery store. So, if you go to a hotel, and a bottled mineral water is less than 20Rs, you should not drink the water or stay in the hotel – travel tip two. If you are with a native, he can get the bottle of water for 15Rs which means foreigners should never buy anything if they want to get the most for their money – travel tip three.

At this point, I’m back on schedule. So, tomorrow I’m headed for Manadawa. New Delhi sightseeing has been moved to the end of the trip “due to Delhi fog” as the airline folks say.

Mumbai

After attempting to dance at a News Years party at Riverdale Resort, I was quickly escorted to the airport, and sent to North India. Now, I wanted to see North India, but I had no idea that bad dancing would put me on the fast track to New Dehli. I barely had time to say goodbye to the nice people I worked with at IdentityMine India for 7 months. I wondered if I was going to get kicked out of the country for bad dancing, but instead, I was sent to live with the North India people, who were perhaps more tolerant of foreigners who did not know the native steps to local music.

I had heard that North India was much different culturally than South India. So, going to North India was an opportunity to investigate the differences.

Before I could get to New Delhi, I had a connection at Mumbai. When I arrived at Mumbai, I waited to get through the security check, but nobody was allowed through because the gate number was not known. So, I waited, and waited, and waited. I was talking to another passenger, Raaj, who was also booked for New Dehli but with another airline, and he was waiting too. Finally, they declared fog in New Dehli and all planes in or out were canceled. At that point, there was the typical “information chaos” where people circle the wagons around the check-in counter to get desperate scraps of information that might help them figure out what to do. The check-in girls were surrounded by “information vultures”, and I felt sorry for them. I’ve never been involved with a canceled flight, but I just sat down and waited for the vultures to fly away after getting their fill of information. After 2 hours of pecking at raw minute by minute information, the crowd finally dispersed. I walked up to the exhausted check-in girl and got some quick coherent information scraps within 2 minutes. The only difference between my approach and the crowd approach is that for 2 hours, I was sitting watching them in amusement, while the crowd stood and pecked at each other to see if someone knew something they did not. I believe “Information vultures” swarming check-in girls after a canceled flight is standard behavior across all cultures, and not limited to north Indian culture as there were a number foreigners from France, Asia, England, and Russia who were also part of the flock.

Each person finds themselves in a unique situation depending on their circumstance. For me, my airline was Go Air, and they had no seats available for at least 2 days. They could not schedule a new plane into the system either. There were only 2 options. Wait at the airport until morning, and try to get on an open seat on the next flight or find another ticket for the next day. So, I got on the internet via my lap top by way of a King Fisher airline wireless access point that was not encrypted; I could have also paid to get access, but King Fisher’s was open. I went to expedia.com, and checked for other available flights to New Delhi on Jan 2 – the next day. I found a reasonable fair on Jet Air at 7:00pm. So, I got a refund from Go Air, and then went to terminal B and bought a Jet Air ticket to New Delhi. There was a guy standing near the ticket counter, and he asked if I needed a hotel room. I said yes, and he told me I would get free transport to and from the airport if I went to the Hotel Jewel Palace. It sounded like a good deal, and I accepted his offer. When the taxi came, it was a small minivan, and there was a couple in the back seat who were also going to the same hotel because their flight to New Delhi was also cancelled.

Here is a pic of the room at the Hotel Jewel Palace. It looks like a 2 star type hotel. It is neither a Jewel or a Palace, but it was clean. The “Foreigner Rates” were reasonable, and there was a small restaurant. So now I will get a good night’s sleep, and see if my flight is canceled again, and I have to do this all over again.

What has impressed me so far, is the English skills of all the people I’ve met so far. They are great. Hindi is the main language, and it sounds very different from Malayalam. I found one person who knew the Malayalam numbers 1 through 10, and that was about it. So, now I hear Hindi and English as the mainstay of day to day discussions, which gives me the feeling I’m in a very different place – before it was Malayalam\English. The environment still looks similar though – buildings, traffic, and population density. I have not seen a man in a mundo – they are all wearing shirt and pants. The women are very mixed, but most have colorful pants and bright to dull colored long flowing shirts that hang below the knee with a slit on both sides.

Here are some pics outside the room.

So, my first experience in North India was a canceled flight due to fog. I didn't know fog could make life so interesting.