Our First Rajasthani Fort - Junagarh

Saturday, June 16, 2012. Bikaner, Rajasthan, India.
Distance driven: 982 KM/ 614 miles.

Our itinerary put us in  Bikaner as we are traveling from Amritsar to Jaisalmer which is too far to go in one shot, so we’re spending two nights here in the Thar desert in Western Rajasthan, just east of the Pakistan.

This morning we went to Junaragh Fort, which dates from 1589 and was occupied until well into the twentieth century by the Rathore rulers of Bikaner. 

Bikaner, along with Jodphur and Jaisalmer, was one of the three great desert kingdoms of Rajasthan.The fort balances medieval military might and the artistic aesthetic of the pleasure palace. 

The first thing one encounters is the extra large doors into the palace which were built to allow elephants through, but studded with spikes to deter ramming by enemy elephants when the doors were closed. Elephants also figure in some of the decorative work inside the fort.

To visit the fort one takes a guided tour that takes in various throne rooms, bedrooms, palace chambers, the women’s courtyard, palace roof, etc.  As can be seen by the variety of images here, there is a lot to see!

The women’s courtyard was designed to prevent visitors from seeing the women and provided privacy and segregation for the maharajas wives and consorts.

Reaching the rooftop terraces we found a nice cooling breeze, and some great views of the city below.

Each room was sumptuously and uniquely decorated with inlay, painting, and other decorative arts.

The boys of course enjoyed the armory which included decorative arrangements of armaments such as guns, swords, and knives. Aaron’s favorite piece was a four barreled rotating flintlock. Other unusual items included camel and elephant mounted canons. There was even a star of David made out of powder horns!

One large hall contained a WWI biplane presented by the British in appreciation for the Maharaja’s service, as well as howdahs and palanquins, including some made of silver.

The Maharaja was clearly an influential and powerful person.  One of the photos on display showed him participating in the Treaty of Versailles after WWI.

One of the last rooms had artifacts from the last Maharaja including a half spoon custom designed so he could sip his soup without getting any on his ornate moustache.

Once the regular tour was over we got escorted to two locked rooms as we had paid an extra $2 to see the special bed chamber and ante room that were particularly finely decorated. 

There is a separate museum on site that has a collection of everyday items, housewares, decorative pieces, artwork, and beautiful textiles from the Maharaja’s collection, including some very impressive dresses that must have been very hot to wear in the sweltering summer heat.

In order to make ends meet, the current Maharajas or their descendants have converted selected palaces into high end hotels which at the same time preserves their heritage.  One of these is the Lallgarh Palace which is a beautiful and very fancy hotel.  We checked out the menu for lunch, but the prices were more like an expensive US restaurant.  Still we got to see a little of the hotel on our way in and out.

Also on the grounds is a small museum dedicated to the last Maharaja and his daughter, which had an eclectic variety of mostly 20th century items and photographs.  One of my favorite pieces was a military trophy that was a lamp – the light bulbs were the engine cowls.

Back to the hotel for a rest before our afternoon expedition to a rather unique temple which you can read about in my next post.

Visiting the Ministry of Silly Walks

Thursday, June 14.  Wagah, Punjab, India.

After an afternoon nap to recover my energy, we drove the 30KM from Amritsar to Wagah on the India-Pakistan border, and the only crossing for foreigners between the two countries.  Since partition in 1947 there has been tension between the two countries,  Starting in the early 1950s a kind of strange spectacle developed that today draws some 15,000 – 20,000 spectators each evening as the border is closed.

The experience is a bit surreal and probably one of the best pieces of public theater we’ve seen anywhere, even if at times it seemed like theater of the absurd.

Locals and foreigners alike stream into the border area.  After passing through a security check (no bags allowed), the regular Indians go one way, while foreigners and VIPs go another way to special seating.  There is outdoor theater like seating on both sides of the border and on the Indian side this was completely filled.  The Pakistanis were clearly outnumbered tonight.

Things kick off with a loud “jam off” as each side blasts music through speakers.  Next a cheerleader shows up and gets the crowd riled up.  This is quickly followed by the production of several flags that people run up and down in front of the crowd.  Ben and Aaron got in on the action and had a run themselves, generating an approving roar from the assembled masses.

At some point, popular Hindi music began to play, including “Jai Ho” from the movie Slumdog Millionaire, and women came out of the crowd and spontaneously began to dance. It all had a carnival like atmosphere.  Even afterwards, on the way back to our car, there were vendors selling food, drinks, sweets, and souvenirs.

Eventually the guards show up in their peacock like finery.  We especially liked the plumes in their headwear.  Then begins a coordinated series of maneuvers such as fast marching up to the gate, flicking hat plumes at the other side, and the most exaggerated goose stepping you’ve ever seen, unless you are a Monty Python fan, in which case, you’ll know that you’ve found what surely must have been the inspiration for the Ministry of Silly Walks. 

My understanding is that all these movements are paralleled on the Pakistani side, but since you can’t really see across the border until the gates get opened, I’ll just have to take their word for this.

At last the gates are opened and with malicious fanfare, the flag ropes get tossed around until both sides lower their flags at exactly the same time.  Then the gates get slammed shut in the face of the Pakistanis and everyone gets up and goes home.

Highly recommended if you are ever anywhere near!  Unfortunately, since Pakistan is west of India, it is very difficult to take photos from the Indian side as one is shooting towards the setting sun.  Well at least the Pakistanis get one thing in their favor.

Swooning with the Sikhs

Thursday, June 14, 2012. Amritsar, Punjab, India.
Distance driven: 467 KM/292 miles.

The Golden Temple in Amritsar is the holiest places for Sikhs, yet another Indian minority religion. The place was founded in 1577 by the fourth guru Ram Das.  Sikhs are known as fierce warriors, and during the first World War represented about 60% of the Indian who served on the allied side. 

Visiting the Temple is a process.  First off, you have to cover your head, but are not allowed to wear a hat (!), so you have to get a handkerchief like piece of fabric to put on your head. 

Next you have to remove your shoes and socks.  There are cloakroom like places that take of this, run by volunteers, which means your shoes are safe and can be found again easily.  However, it also means you are now barefoot.  If you are a germ-a-phobe, you won’t like that you have to walk about 100 yards over the street, although most of it is covered with matting, which in the heat of the day they dampen to keep it cooler.  As you enter the temple you wash your feet and it is strictly forbidden to take any tobacco, narcotics, or alcohol into the temple.

Because we got in so late last night, we got going a little late this morning, so it was about 11am and already very hot by the time we got here.  Walking on any pavement or marble exposed to the sun burned our feet, so we did our best to stay on the matting or under any awnings.  Still, we found ourselves “walking on coals” from time to time where there was no other option but to hot foot it.

Before entering the Temple proper we went into the Sikh museum that is part of the complex.  There were a few artifacts such as weapons, holy books, and so on, but mostly it consisted of annotated paintings showing important people in the Sikh faith and often the grisly way that they were martyred.  For example one picture showed how the Murghals sawed one of their gurus in half from the head downwards.

The Temple is really stunning – the Golden dome shines brightly amid all the white marble.  Thousands of worshippers and visitors spread out throughout the temple – some bathing in the waters, some meditating, others praying, and still more resting in the shade.  One circumambulates the temple clockwise and eventually you reach the causeway which takes you to the central temple.  Along the outer walls are numerous stops that represent Hindu sacred places.  One of the Gurus declared that it was sufficient for Sikhs to visit these stops (kind of reminds me of the stations of the cross in Jerusalem) rather than the original Hindu sacred spots. 

Sikhs read their holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib from before dawn to after dusk.  At the Golden Temple, this is done under the Golden roofed Harmandir Sahib (the Golden part of the Temple), topped with 100Kg/220Lbs of gold. 

The pilgrims walking across the causeway carry food and money placed in bowls or plates made from leaves as offerings. On their way back they are given a dollop of sweet nectar.

The Temple is actually a city within a city.  It has its own gates, feeding halls where 10,000 people are fed a free simple daily meal, assembly halls, shrines, hostels, etc.  The Harmandir Sahib is surrounded by a pool where Sikhs are “baptized” and the structure is reached by the 60M long causeway.  Kelly decided to sit the visit to the Harnandir Sahib out, so the boys and I stood in line for about an hour until we reached the entrance.  Although it is under canopies and fans are blowing, you can’t bring water to this spot, so after being packed like a human sardine for over an hour in 40+C/108F heat, I fainted just as we got to the front of the line.  Luckily the guards there have water and I was able to rehydrate and have a lie down.  Unfortunately it also meant that I didn’t have the energy to go upstairs where the main areas of interest are – the Guru Granth Sahib in the Durbar Sahib (Court of the Lord) or the Sheesh Mahal Court of Mirrors, but at least the boys got to go.

Once we found Kelly, I drank a whole lot more water, threw up and felt a bit better.  We headed back to the hotel so I could rest and continue to rehydrate.  I felt well enough to go on our afternoon expedition to the border at Wagah, but that’s another post.

The next day I got up before 5am and made a return trip to the temple on my own.  What a different experience.  For one thing, I now knew what to expect and brought only what I needed.  Once I checked my shoes I walked into the temple and although the temperature was still on the warm side, the flooring was cool on my feet.  Also there were far fewer people here today (I later found out that yesterday was the first of the Sikh month and so an especially busy time).  The light was great, and the experience was much more serene. 

I even decided to see if I could make it to the Harmandir Sahib and got in line, which was about half the length of yesterday.  Remembering something that I had read on the Ventimiglias blog about how there always seems to be a VIP option in India, and recalling yesterday that one of the lines was basically an express lane, I got out of line and sought out a guard, who found another official that spoke English.  I explained how I had waited in line yesterday, but fainted when I got to the entrance and asked if there was any way to go quicker.  After he found out that I would be leaving Amritsar in just a few hours, he took me to the VIP entrance and let me in, so I was able to walk right up to the main sanctuary and got to climb the stairs and see the 2nd and 3rd stories which were richly decorated and populated by men reading their holy book.

Being there at sunrise also afforded me dim, but better quality light, so I was able to get some nice photos, like this one of a member of the “crocodile” sect who carry daggers and swords.  What do you do with your dagger when you bathe?  Look at the photo for the answer.

Now I’ll just need to snooze on our long drive to Bikaner in Rajasthan later.

467 KM in 10 hours = 29 MPH average

Wednesday, June 13, 2012.  Hyderabad – Delhi – Amritsar

We took a 12:20 PM flight on SpiceJet from Hyderabad to Delhi.  SpiceJet is one of the local low cost airlines and along with Jet Airways and IndiGo is one of the few Indian airlines we were recommended to fly.  Air India has a bad safety record and maybe about to strike.  Kingfisher hasn’t paid their pilots in a while.

The flight was uneventful, but delayed by about 20 minutes, so we arrived in Delhi around 2:40 PM.  This time our bags arrived quickly and we exited the airport to be met by the Delhi manager of Four Wheel Drive and our driver Sury, who will be with us for the next couple of weeks. 

We set off immediately for Amritsar in Punjab province close to the border with Pakistan.  This a major road, and in parts it was a decent highway (although nothing like as good at the Hyderabad superhighways).  But at least half of it was under construction, so we were diverted to the access road for much of the drive, which ended up taking ten hours with a short stop for tea and another for a quick, tasty dinner at a roadside Dhabba, 

The drive was excruciatingly slow – just as it looked like we were getting up to speed on the highway, there would be another diversion sign that took us through yet another heavily populated access road.  Then there are all the different kinds of vehicles and animate objects that have to be avoided.  An incomplete list includes:

• Bicycles
• Bicycle rickshaws
• Bicycle goods carriers
• Scooters
• Motorcycles
• Autos/Tuk Tuks – 3 wheeled motorcycle taxis
• 3 Wheeled motorcycle goods carriers
• Cars
• Vans
• Trucks of all sizes
• Humans crossing every kind of road, including major highways
• Dogs
• Goats
• Sheep
• Cows
• Oxen pulling carts
• Buffalo
• And likely many more that I can’t remember

Plus, if the road was even halfway decent, you could guarantee that it was a toll road, so we had to stop often to pay the tolls.

We eventually made it to our hotel at 1am, tired but still in one piece! 

Golconda Fort and the Qutb Shahi Tombs

Tuesday, June 12, 2012.  Hyderabad, India

Frances drove us to the Golconda Fort, which is the largest in southern India, originally built of mud in the 14th Century, but rebuilt in stone in the 17th Century.   Its outer walls, which are still intact, extend for 5 miles.

Today Golconda is mostly ruins of the fortifications and palace complexes, but you can still get some idea of the scope of the place and a hint at how decorative it may have been in its heyday.

About 1Km down the road are the Qutb Shahi Tombs which consist of a series of large, onion domed tombs and their adjacent mosques.  There is also a building that was a bath house with hot and cold water where the corpses were prepared for burial. 

The structures are mostly in tact, but a bit run down and most of the grounds are not well kept.  With a little effort, this place could be stunning.  As it is, it is still an interesting place to visit.  The buildings are very impressive and in places you can see hints of the colored paint and tile that must have been very attractive when these were in their prime. This is the burial place of a whole line of royalty that ruled this area in the 17th and 18th centuries.

At the largest tomb there was a camera crew and a bunch of people in costume with some thrones set out on the veranda of the tomb.  Presumably they were shooting a movie or a TV show.  They seemed to have one very fancy camera and instead of powered lighting like we might see on the streets of LA or New York, they were equipped with large reflectors to bounce sunlight onto the set.

One odd thing as we walked through both locales was that lots of locals kept asking to have a picture taken with us.  Most of the time we obliged.  We were even asked by some of the school kids on the street for a photo.  Laura reckoned that they might be doing this so that if they put in a visa application to the States, they can show a picture of their supposed US sponsors along with a fake letter of introduction.  I doubt this would be too successful, and maybe this was the primary motivation, but it seemed that some of the people just wanted a photo with a foreign visitor.

A Visit to Paradise

Monday, June 11, 2012, Hyderabad, India.

We started our day by going to the NCR office with Phil and getting a quick tour.  Apart from seeing what an Indian development office and lab looks like (seeing an ATM cracked open is always fun!), they have a cafeteria on site that seemed to have a very interesting juice offering about half way down the menu:

Unfortunately Aaron was feeling a bit under the weather so he rested for a few hours while the rest of us headed towards the center of old Hyderabad to the Salar Jung Museum.  The Salar Jung was the Prime Minister of the rulers (or Nizzams) of Hyderabad, at one time the wealthiest people on the planet.  Consider that the Koh-i-Noor diamond and many others were mined locally and safeguarded in the Golconda Fort for many years. 

The Salar Jung museum is the largest museum of just one person’s collection and includes a vast variety of arms, ivory, jade, toys, furniture, wood carvings, paintings, etc., etc.   The building was nothing special, but the artifacts were fascinating.  Perhaps my favorite was a full sized intricately carved ivory sword. The level of craftsmanship was amazing.  Unfortunately no photography was allowed.

We would have liked to have stayed a bit longer, but needed to leave to meet Phil and Laura for lunch, so we grabbed a Tuk Tuk for the 15KM ride and had a more visceral experience of Hyderabadi street life. You get to see some crazy stuff on the streets, like people transporting car windscreens on a scooter. 

Paradise restaurant is famous throughout India for its biryanis (rice dishes) and is supposedly the largest restaurant in the country.  It is huge and has multiple levels and hundreds of clients at any one time.  The took the orders on smart phones to transmit them to the kitchen.

Post lunch Laura took us to a few of her favorite stores and Kelly and I each bought Kurtas (long shirts), then we headed to the mall to pick up the Ventimiglia kids who went to the movies for their last day of school to see Men In Black III.