Let me share with you the best and worst of India

The best of India would have to be the amazing temples, palaces and the River Ganges, the tour that we chose to do was aptly named. For in doing this tour we got to see a great deal of what North India had to offer tourists in the way of history and architecture. We were also fortunate to be in India during Diwali, Festival of Lights.

Doing the decorations for the 3 day celebration, Diwali.

One of many paintings that I admired!

Our trip left from Dehli, where you get to visit the Red Fort and Old Dehli. Dehli has a population of 23,000,000 people, the pollution is so bad that a person dies every 23seconds from pollution.

The noise and traffic is hard to handle, along with the pollution and you usually end up with a headache.

The tour group we picked was On the Go and we had a great tour guide named Samrind Singh, who we could not fault, he was excellent and dealt with the 20 people on our tour very well.

After Dehli where we spent 3 days we set of for a 6hr road trip to Jaipur, we spent 2 days in Jaipur the pink city where I managed to buy a camel wool carpet, a kantha quilt and a jacket made.

Jaipur 's population is 5,000,000, pollution is no better in Jaipur.

Thick smog in Jaipur, hard to see the floating palace

After we left Jaipur we drove another 5hrs to Bharatpur for one night so that we may visit the bird sanctuary, which holds a lot of wildlife and covers 29square miles. We all spent the afternoon being peddled about on rickshaws, a great way to travel through the park.

The next day was to drive to Agra, this would be our highlight of the trip to visit the Taj Mahal, on offer and for a fee of 650rupees you could go to a local poor family's home and get dressed in Sari's to vist the Taj, about 7 girls and 2 men got dressed, me included, a pity it was so hot, but comforted in the thought that this money will help a family in India.

Entry into the Taj Mahal

After Agra we travelled to Orchha for an overnight stay to visit the Jehanlgir Mahal palace and see the sunset over the Betwa river.

This is the narrow bridge we stood on the Betwa river

Raj Mahal

Leaving Orchha we then travelled to Khajuraho for one night, here was the option to go on a safari to see more wildlife and hopefully a tiger, a tiger was seen so money well spent by those of our group who chose to go. We then flew to Varanasi for 2 days then a train trip to Dehli and the completion of our tour.

The best of India as mentioned was the history, temples, palaces and Granges. Textiles, fabric and art is amazing as well.

Food was a great treat, we only ate in reputable hotels or restaurants and did not get sick.

The worst of India, is the pollution, rubbish, filth and the poor animals. Most Indians are vegetarians and do not eat beef or pork, they do eat goat and chicken.

The cows are supposedly sacred, but when seeing them in the streets they are eating plastic and garbage, not a pleasant sight. The cows are used for milking, and as long as they produce milk, they have value, if a calf is born and is male, it is just left to roam the streets. The cattle just sit in the middle of the roads, and on the verge, in most of the cities, there is no grass for them to eat.

Their are also pigs wandering the streets as well. The streets are littered with mounds of plastic bags and rubbish, and no one is seen cleaning the streets.

The poor beg on the streets and children are sent to beg and if they do not come back with anything, they are maltreated, 

The dogs are mangey, flea bitten and in poor health.

Although we did see some dogs that were pets and well looked after.

Not many cats were seen, monkeys were often sighted.

Women weeding in Khajuraho 

A local village women

Even the cow pats are sold and used for fuel

The trucks are very ornate with decorations.

All in all my experience of India was a good one except for what I have just mentioned, but we need to look past the pollution, filth, the poor animals and enjoy the experience of another culture and architecture, we do plan to visit the south in the near future.

India continued, Dehli onto Jaipur, Bharatpur, Agra, Orchha

We After our exploration of Old Dehli, we went to visit Humayan tomb, in a gorgeous setting, such a contrast to Dehli. Humayans tomb, India's largest mosque Jama Masjid.

After this visit we proceeded to visit the crematorium where Mahhatma Ghandi is laid to rest, after he was assinated in 1948.

The same evening we all went out to dinner to a spice restaurant, and were entertained by musicians and dancers.

One pot on the head,many more to follow

The next morning we departed for Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, the bus ride was 4-6 hours, quite a long day.

After arrival into Jaipur, we all did a tour of Jaipur, aptly named the pink city. Jaipur's population is 5,000,000, the city is surrounded by pink walls, as in the 15-16th century was a fort.

We had an afternoon visit to the city palace, our tour company does not use elephants to get tourists up to the top, as it is not good for the elephants backs, we were ferried up to the top in jeeps.

Photos were not great due to the heavy pollution.

Dinner was at a spice court restaurant, quite nice food, our group is enjoying the naan bread and curries.

Elephant rides

The next morning we visited Jantar Mantar, an observatory of astronomy, built by Jai Singh in 1728.

Each structure has a specific purpose, some measures the position of stars, whilst others calculate eclipses, the lunar calendar and simply the time of day.

This observatory was mind blowing to say the least.

I forwent the market Brazzar to go to a textile shop to get another kantha quilt and kantha jacket. 

Being Diwali, most shops are closed, so to get my jacket, I purchased a vintage quilt and had one made in 5 hours, I am very impressed with my jacket.

All in all Jaipur, although being filthy with rubbish and heavy pollution, has a certain charm.

My other purchase in Jaipur was a camel rug, a gorgeous burgundy and gold.

My effort with block printing.

Camel wool rug being made.

Day 5, after Jaipur we travel to Abhaneri, on our way we stop and visit Chand BaorI, which is the largest and deepest step well in the world, this incredible well has a staggering 3,500 steps and is 13 stories deep.

We continue onto Bharatpur, we visit Fatehpur Sikri,which was once a magnificent fortified city and the capital of the murghal empire from 1571 until 1585.

Our hotel in Bharatpur is out of town, so a quite night, had by all.

We visited the bird and animal sanctuary in Bharatpur 

The next morning we travelled to Agra, a short drive. On our arrival we visit Agra fort, which was built during the rein of Emperor Akbar.

In the afternoon the girls and two guys from the group, dressed up in sari's and off we went to the Taj Mahal. I must say the experience of going to a poor family's home and being dressed in sari's for $15 was quite and experience. It was also quite hot as I had my clothes on underneath and no makeup, all in all the visit to the Taj Mahal was an experience and such amazing architecture.

45,000 people a day visit the Taj Mahal, thank god we had the fast past.

The line to get to see the tombs were very long and very crowded.

The Taj Mahal is one of the most extravagant monument ever built for love,Mathis fine example of murghal architecture was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in memory is f his beloved second wife Mumtaz-Mahal, who died tragically during childbirth.

Built entirely of white marble, construction began in 1631, the year in which Mumtaz died and was not completed until 1653. A staggering total of 20,000 workers contributed their skills, in the construction of this unique monument.

The next day we travelled to Orchha, which is a small village and situated on the Betwa river. The palace Jehangir Mahal, a 17th century palace, a stunning and rambling complex. 

We watched the sunset on the Betwa river setting over the temples, a majestic site, not so much all the fecal matter on the rocks.

Our India adventure will be continued in more posts.

India,adventures and travel

Off we set on our India adventure on the 28th October, we were advised to fly Singapore airlines due to India air not having good reviews, it was a nice 71/2hr flight to Singapore with a 3 1/2hr stop over in Singapore and then a 5 1/2hr flight to Delhi. Needless to say after leaving home at 0500hrs in am and arriving in Delhi at 0400hrs, we were pretty exhausted.

We arrived in Delhi at 8pm at night, so straight to bed for a good nights rest to get up and explore Delhi.

We are fortunate to be in India at Diwali time, the Festival of Lights 

A lot of celebrating is enjoyed by all, with millions of firecrackers being being let of, as this is not bad enough to add to the dense pollution already in Dehli.

Delhi has 25,000,000 people, traffic noise and pollution does not make for an enjoyable time.

Amazing to watch bumper to bumper traffic with horn blowing, cars, buses tuttut's making their own lanes.

On our first day we hired a taxi for 4 hours to take us to Dilli Haat which was a recommended craft, textile market, my very special finds and purchases on the first day, set me up for what could be some unique little finds.

DIlli Haat

My first purchases, a Kantha quilt and some vintage trim off saris.

Our 2nd day in Delhi was the commencement of our tour, we visited the Red Fort, went for a rickshaw ride around Old Delhi.

Entry to the Red Fort.

Elephant statue in Red Fort 

Our rickshaw ride, one of many.

Street scenes of Old Delhi.

To be continued!