Recovering back in Delhi

After the excitements of Jaipur (including a certain controversial incident involving Rob and a rickshaw that I have sadly been banned from describing in this blog) the last two weeks have been a lot quieter. The weeks have mainly been spent working and organising travel for the end of March and April. The temperature has got a lot hotter in the last few weeks, with 30°C upwards becoming the norm and so this has reduced our activity at weekends.

A rickshaw

Last Saturday we visited Akshardham Temple. This building is fairly recent, with it being finished in 2005 and has attracted controversy as to whether it was the best use of resources as it was built in an area of the city without proper access to hospitals and other amenities. The temple is genuinely impressive, built in a style similar to the older temples in India, but so much more recently. In a way that is the problem with it. Whilst buildings like the Taj Mahal are justifiable in the context of their time, it seems more difficult to understand why such a richly decorated building is really necessary today. Of course it will attract tourists, but the commercialisation that goes with that means that the temple loses something in terms of spirituality. There are also no pictures to show you because cameras were not allowed in. In fact, you were only allowed your wallet and a bottle of water, which all seemed a bit ridiculous given that the site was clearly more of a tourist destination than valuable as religious site. So overall, whilst the building was very impressive, it did not feel quite right and so my emotions were more mixed than if it had been an older building.

Akshardham Temple- from Google as no cameras allowed

On that evening we went to the Sound and Light show at the Red Fort in Old Delhi. This was advertised as being state of the art, while the reviews on Trip Advisor said that it is one of the best things to do in Delhi. I’ve no idea what I expected, but it was certainly not what we got. In effect the show was an audio history of Delhi, while they would occasionally light up a different building. I had not really considered the light bulb to be ‘state of the art’. The highlight, and this is stretching the definition of the word, was when the audio history described one of the emperor’s wives as being a ‘common slut’. I can only think that this bit was included to wake the audience up. Not only was the tour dull, but there were also major gaps missing (but this may have been an advantage as at least that reduced the length). For example, they managed to skip through the struggle for independence (while pronouncing ‘English’ with the same level of disgust that James May uses when pronouncing ‘Germans’) without mentioning partition or Pakistan, which I thought was fairly impressive. Overall, if you are in Delhi avoid the Sound and Light show at the Red Fort.

On the Sunday I went to see the Gandhi Smriti. This was one of the places that I visited as part of my whirl wind visit to Delhi in 2011, but as the place where Gandhi was assassinated it was nice to see it properly without being rushed. The garden is one of the most peaceful places in Delhi and there is also a museum about his life. Part of the museum is interactive, with flashing lights and sounds, which seems a bit unnecessary given what the museum is dedicated to. But apart from that it is a good museum and was certainly worth visiting.

At work this week I was told by one of my colleagues at Sannam S4 that there was going to be an international jazz festival going on this weekend. So on Friday, after work, we decided to go. I knew it was in Nehru Park so expected that when I found that it would be easy to find the jazz festival. Walking round the park we came across a police station, a temple and a dark unlit path that did not seem to lead anywhere. It was only after we had walked round the entire parameter of the park and were close to where we had started, that we found it. It would have been much easier to find had we walked the other way, but for a reasonably big event it was really badly signposted. I’m not exactly a jazz connoisseur, but it did seem to be reasonably good to listen to. The only issue was that by the time we had found it there was only one act left before it finished for the night and we had to go home.

I think we have now pretty much got used to living in Delhi and found most of the amenities that we need in the local area. In the local shopping mall there is a little store, lots of food places, an amazing bakery that we are now using very regularly and two ice cream shops so we are very well catered for. We have also found a vegetable shop round the corner which makes it easier for us to get food. At work I am now writing newsletters on each sector in India to encourage foreign companies to enter the Indian market. From the research that I have done for this I will leave you with some interesting (or otherwise) food related facts;

•        India is the second largest producer of potatoes
•          Approximately 90% of Indians buy biscuits (and so I’m in good company with my biscuit obsession)
•         The Indian ice cream market is worth US$ 199 million per annum (and that was even before I arrived)

The Long Road to Jaipur (and Even Longer One Back)

Jaipur, as one of the places on the so called Golden Triangle, was always going to be one of our first destinations in India. Otherwise known as The Pink City, Jaipur is a tourist hotspot with a number of forts and palaces for foreign and local tourists alike to enjoy. Compared to Delhi, Jaipur is a pollution free zone, while the warmth of Rajasthan sun and the cloudless skies made a change from the overbearing smog that we have become accustomed to.  It is easy to see why Jaipur is such an attractive destination for those living in the capital.

Getting to Jaipur, however, had not been so easy. At the start of the week I thought I had booked the train tickets. It was Thursday before I found out that I was mistaken. The train booking system accepts your reservation even if the trains are full and puts you on a waiting list. As I did not understand the system I assumed that we were fully booked, but actually our place on the train was dependent on several cancellations. Cue a stressful day at work trying to find alternative methods of transport. There was an earlier train with availability, but that depended on everyone getting their employers to agree for them to leave early which might have been possible with one or two, but was unrealistic with all five of us. So instead we opted to take the bus. 

After the stress of organising new transport the journey to Jaipur was reasonably stress free, especially compared to what we would have to endure later on in our trip. The next morning we arranged taxi for Rs.1600 between the five of us (less than £20) to take us round the sights of Jaipur for the day. The first stop was Amber Fort, which is 11km outside Jaipur, but we thought it was worth going out and working our way back in. Constructed in 1592, the fort is elaborately decorated with carvings, precious stones and mirrors. I’m not convinced that the expensive interior would have added to the defensive capability of the fort and so can only assume that the fort was more a display of power, than a practical structure to prevent attacks. The fort is vast, with corridors and passageways that seemingly go on for ever. It was discussed that it would be a great place to play hide and seek, but I fear that it would take several hours to find anyone hiding.

We took the taxi down the hill from Amber Fort to the Jal Mahal. This is otherwise known as the ‘water palace’, as it is positioned in the middle of a lake. It was built in the mid-18^th century, but exact details about its construction or original purpose are unclear. We could not go inside, but viewed it from the shore of the lake. They seemed to be filming a movie there and it was quite crowded with people trying to see what was going on. We did not stay long, but managed to get a few touristy pictures of the palace without people in the way.

From the Jal Mahal we travelled to the centre of Jaipur and the City Palace. The palace was finished in 1732 and reflects a combination of Mughal and European styles. There were a number of different sections to the palace, with rooms dedicated to the history of Jaipur. After this we took the taxi on to the Albert Hall Museum. This is a grand building and Rudyard Kipling once described the museum as being on par with the best museums he had seen in Calcutta. Perhaps the most interesting items in the museum were the Hindu statues which, considering some of them were over a 1000 years old, were in remarkable condition.

On Sunday morning we visited the bazars. Jaipur is famous for shopping and a large percentage of souvenirs sold throughout India originally come from. I think the owner of the shop saw us coming and between us we contributed heavily to his profits for the week. Even I bought a couple of shirts for Rs.600, which just shows how good a salesman he was.

After the shopping we visited the world heritage site of Jantar Mantar. This is an 18^th century astronomical observatory features a number of ginormous instruments built because the only other instruments available at the time had been too small to take accurate measurements. It was 30 degrees outside and the area was very exposed, so we did not stay long. After this we visited Hawa Mantar, otherwise known as the Palace of the Winds. This was built in 1799, a little later than the other sites in the Pink City. The impressive entrance was rather ruined by the scaffolding as they were clearly doing refurbishments. Inside you could walk to the top and there was a great view of the surrounding area, including the astronomical instruments of Jantar Mantar.

In Jaipur we stayed at the Hotel Banipark which had good reviews on Hostel Bookers. Millie had agreed with them beforehand that they would put an extra bed in the rooms so that we would not have to share. When we arrived we found that had happened with one room, but not the other two. Fortunately I was in the room with separate beds, but it was not exactly ideal for the girls who had to share. It has also been advertised that breakfast was included, but they told us it was extra only after we had eaten it. We refused to pay and they eventually agreed, but it was a bit cheeky of them to try. Overall the hotel was ok and they did pick us up from the coach station, but I do not think it deserved the good reviews it had been getting.

The journey back to Delhi was a nightmare. The bus was supposed to leave at 5pm, but did not arrive until 5.50pm. That was annoying, but not too bad. We then hit the overnight traffic from Jaipur to Delhi. There were 40 minute spells when we were only moving a few hundred metres. We had been supposed to get in 9.30pm. We ended up getting to the half way stop at 10.30pm. I fell asleep on the bus and was shocked to wake at 1am to find we were still a very long way from Delhi. We eventually got into the bus station in North Delhi at 3.30am, but then had to get a taxi back to Jasola. We ended up getting back to the hotel at 4.30am and so I had little more than 2 hours sleep before I had to get up for work in the morning.