Bruisin’ for some Cruisin?

 

Often people ask if we have ever been on a cruise.  Having done lots of travel, we’ve been on most types of conveyance, including many watercraft.  We’ve done our fair share of ferries from big slow ships to state of the art high speed catamarans.  We’ve rented river cruisers on the Shannon in Ireland and even stayed on a permanently moored decommissioned cruise liner in St. Petersburg, Russia.

At the other end of the spectrum, we’ve travelled by motor canoe for hours to get to the heart of the Amazon jungle in Ecuador. We’ve even spent a couple of days on a boat plying the Mekong river from Thailand to Laos.

We have actually “cruised” a few times before - In the Galapagos we spent a week sailing the islands, but on a 16 passenger yacht.  We’ve also cruised the Yangtze River, but a Chinese cruise vessel is a lot different than what most people think of when they hear “cruise ship”.

For a long time we’ve talked about taking a trip to Alaska and realized we’d probably end up on a cruise when we went there.  For various reasons, we didn’t have a ton of time to plan our travels this year and so ended up booking passage on a Princess cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage.  We’ll spend a week in Vancouver on our own beforehand and see some of the Alaskan interior via a land package to Denali after the sailing.

Had we had more time, I suspect we might have booked our own passage on Alaska’s Marine Highway ferry system and made plans to explore various parts of the state at our own schedule.  Part of the issue with our decision for this year was that we really wanted to get to Denali and accommodations are scarce and inexpensive there, so booking with the cruise line gave us more options.  Perhaps if we really like Alaska we’ll go back at our own pace, but for this year we are in the hands of Princess Cruise lines for much of the way.

I have a natural aversion to of the general concept of a typical cruise, although I know many people that love them.  I thought it might be interesting to explore and document some of my preconceived notions/prejudices and then later look back to see how far off base, or how on target they are.

So, here goes:

1. Lack of control.  One thing we like about traveling independently is choosing where we go, when we go, and for how long we stay.  if we like a place, we might stay longer than originally planned. On a cruise, we have to give up almost all of that control.  Once you choose a cruise with its itinerary, the cruise will arrive and depart as scheduled.  Too bad if you’d like to stay longer.  Of course you do get choices in the shore excursions, but even then you don’t have complete control over when you can get on and off the boat.
2. Being in a floating resort.  My expectation is that the ship we will be on will be large, and impersonal, like a floating 5 star hotel. Even though the Alaskan ships aren’t the largest cruise vessels, I expect them to seem huge. Normally when we travel, a hotel is just a place for us to sleep and what we like is some place that is safe, convenient, clean, comfortable and reasonably priced.  The hotel is just a base for us to get out and see the places we want to see and do the things we want to do.  On a cruise we will be spending a lot of time on the ship and from the marketing information, they seem to go out of their way to try to out-glitz themselves. I’ve heard stories about all the creative ways towels can be folded, but bathware origami just doesn’t seem that important to me!
3. Corpulent people stuffing themselves with food 24 hours a day.  Having good food is important to us, but unlimited quantities of fattening or unhealthful food will likely be a test of will.  There is something to be said for having to pay for a meal. 
4. A much older traveling population that we are used to. Although I understand that Alaska cruises tend to have a younger average age and are more popular with families than many other cruises.   I suppose the “fear” is that the entertainment, etc. isn’t ideally suited to us.
5. Ports of call flooded with businesses ready to take your money and offering quite a bit of schlock.  A friend recently told me that most of the main street shops in the Alaskan ports of call are owned by the cruise lines themselves, which makes business sense, but if true, sounds like a Disney/EPCOT ersatz experience rather than an authentic encounter.  We have travelled independently to many places that are popular cruise ports of call, such as Belize City, Helsinki, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.  Spending several days (or longer) in these places one gets a sense of the people, the food, the vibe, what’s available in local markets, etc.  Being there on days when a cruise ship arrives and discharges its passengers for a few hours is a totally different experience.  Understandably it is not possible for the cruise passengers to get beyond a certain radius of the port in a limited time, but I know that many places we have visited would seem very different if we only had the chance to see what those serving the cruise industry were offering.
6. Regimentation and formality.  We are casual travelers.  Our goal is to travel light and we usually have one small carry on backpack and a modest sized rolling case each, even on the longest journeys.  One thing we’re not especially looking forward to is “formal nights” on the cruise, which necessitates us bringing clothing and items we otherwise would not take with us.  Helpfully the cruise lines do offer to rent cocktail dresses and tuxes.  Really, the cruise lines could have taught Henry Ford a thing or two about vertical integration.  This regimentation also applies to scheduling.  Thankfully we chose anytime dining and so have flexibility in when and with whom we eat, but I wonder with fixed times for entertainment, port calls, eating, etc. will this seem like a luxury adult summer camp at times?

Doubtless some of these will prove to be off base and I suspect that some of this will not be black and white, but shades of gray.   Who knows, perhaps we’ll come back as cruise converts and much of that which I think we might dislike, could turn out to be something we love.

We’ll see!

Warsaw Walk Sore

Today I did a ton of walking around the city. When I got back to my hotel, I calculated that I must have walked at least 11 miles, not including walking through museum galleries. No wonder my legs are sore!
Places I got to included:

The 13th century Old Town, with its castle. More interesting to me were the building decorations and shop signs that make the Old Town quite distinct.
   
Warsaw also has large sections of its original walls, including an impressive Barbican, leading out into the “New Town”, which was built around the end of the 14th century.
Since Warsaw was almost completely destroyed during the second world war, all of the contemporary buildings are renovations done in the post war years.

One of the first buildings of interest in the New Town is Marie Curie's birthplace; now a museum dedicated to her. The exterior is a traditional building, but is decorated with the symbols for Radium and Polonium, the two elements she helped discover.
 
There are only a few artifacts inside, but lots of photos with Polish, French and English captions. Not much information on her actual work or science though.
 
Several blocks away is The Memorial of the Warsaw Uprising, in traditional Socialist Realist style. Note that the Warsaw Uprising was not the same as the Ghetto Uprising, which happened in 1943. The Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis began in 1944, and although the Soviets were at the outskirts of the city, they sat back and basically watched as the partisans got slaughtered. Worst still, the surviving Polish  leaders were imprisoned and sometimes killed shortly after the war, because their participation indicated " Western sympathies".
 
One of my friends had told me that a trip to Cafe Blikle was a must, where I got talked into having one of their signature rose doughnuts as well as some chocolate cake. Good thing I walked so far today! Yummy.  Actually Warsaw has quite a number of “Chocolate Cafes” and they take their chocolate very seriously.
 
The National museum is mostly an art gallery, with some very fine paintings and, as you might expect, is particular strong in Polish artists. A few notable images include an 1874 painted portrait indistinguishable from a modern color photograph.

I also liked an older painting of Noah and animals - Noah has a tallit ( prayer shawl) wrapped around his waist! 

Next door is the Military museum, whose best part is outside and free - military hardware from Napoleonic times to the present including many Russian made tanks, planes and helicopters I had not seen in person before. 

A lloooong walk got me to the Warsaw Uprising Museum, one of the city's signature new museums which tells the story of the uprising with artifacts, innovative displays, and well presented information. Something that caught my eye was a German Goliath remote controlled mine - it looks like a tiny tank, but was packed with explosives and controlled by wire.  However, it wasn’t very effective. One defense was to just detonate a grenade on the control wire. Another was to built small walls in front of key defensive positions which the tank could not cross. The Poles called these walls "Davids".
 
On the recommendation of my new friend, I ate dinner at a restaurant called Opasty Tom where I had an excellent 4 course meal, but costing more like what fine dining goes for at home.
Boy are my legs going to be sore tomorrow!

Warsaw - Pact and ready.

Since I was coming to the UK on miles for a family event, I thought I'd take a few days to go somewhere else in Europe, since the award would cover the flight. Didn't want to go somewhere Kelly might want to visit, since she is not with me on this trip. She was here many moons ago and although I've been to Poland before, I had not been to it's capital. I also have done some work involving Warsaw, and have a few contacts, so here I am.

I ended up with a day flight to London via Chicago, which meant I needed to overnight at Heathrow before flying on to Warsaw. Chopin airport is very modern, and connected to the city by a new, fast, convenient, and cheap light rail system.

Once I got to my hotel, I met up with Zybyszek, who grew up in the US, graduated UT, then emigrated to the country of his parent's birth.

For dinner we went to a local milk bar,a hangover from the communist era. These are sort of cheap local cafeteria that serve simple, authentic Polish meals very cheap. Not everything is dairy, and there was no  "bar" in sight. The one we went to was surprisingly decorated in a very trendy fashion. The food was indeed simple and inexpensive, but tasty and excellent value none the less. I had hot borscht ( beet soup), which was zesty ( maybe had a little horseradish in it), carrot slaw, and kasha ( buckwheat) with mushrooms. All for less than a cup of Starbucks at home.

My hotel room is nice enough, but I don't think I've ever stayed in a room with only one single bed in it before, even though there is plenty of room for a king sized bed in the room. I suppose it makes no difference since I am on my own, but it made me realize that every other hotel room I've seen had at least two singles or a queen or larger.

My first New York Times credit

As part of the celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Austin Jewish Film Festival we had a great concert featuring an amazing musician by the name of David Amram.  Amram plays all sorts of instruments and plays many styles of music.  He has also collaborated with an incredible array of musicians including Dizzie Gilespie, Pete Seeger, etc.  The tie in with our film festival was that a documentary had recently been made about him, which we showed on the opening night of the festival and had David in attendance to answer questions.

I am the techie guy on the AJFF committee and ended up helping organize the technical part of the concert.  In addition, I typically photograph most of the important events, usually for our local Jewish newspaper, the Outlook, as well as to document the event for our archives.   The concert took place at Congregation Agudas Achim and the with the theatrical lighting we brought in, I was able to get some really strong images.  I made the photos available to Mr. Amram and his publicist and evidently they included a few in the portfolio that is part of his press packet.

Last week the New York Times was running a article and needed a photo of David.  The one they liked best was one of mine and so they licensed it from me.  Unfortunately this only appeared in the local New York edition and not the national edition as the article refers to a local New York event.  

Still this is my first official NY Times photo credit.  I look forward to receiving the check!

 

The Longest Day.

Thursday, July 5th, 2012.  Delhi, India.
Friday, July 6th, 2012.  Brussels, Belgium; New York, and Austin.

Today we mostly packed and had a look around some of the local markets.  Turns out that the area where we are staying, Karol Bagh, is one of the largest markets in Asia, but mostly just for clothing. 

So we headed over to Connaught Place to check out the underground Palika bazaar and the nearby over ground Janpath bazaar where we bought some t-shirts and  a few other souvenirs.  To get there we used the Metro again, which has a lot of commuters.

We also stopped by the state emporiums.  The Indian government setup an area where each state has a fixed price shop to showcase their handicrafts.  We’d heard the quality and prices were good, although for the most part we were disappointed.  There wasn’t as much variety between the shops as I’d expected and I didn’t see a big quality difference in their goods versus the regular markets, but the prices were much higher.  Still we ended up buying a small marble box for Kelly to add to her collection. 

As an example of what to expect when buying in Delhi, Aaron was interested in some unusual padlocks, which are available at  a number of shops here, even some of the State Emporia. The starting price at regular shops can be as high as RP1,250. In the fixed price State Emporium, the price was RP1,000.  But at many of the stores they would start at something like RP700-800.  To cut a long story short, the end deal I was able to negotiate was RP580 for two, i.e at RP290 each basically 1/4 - 1/5 the highest asking price.  Similarly Ben got some t-shirts that the vendor initially wanted to charge us RP750 each.  Final price RP150. 

But not everything is like this.  Some stores and most branded goods are indeed fixed price.  As the consumer, it really is caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”) and the only real price is what you and the vendor can agree on.

After a late lunch and some more market browsing, we took the Metro south to visit one last site, the Lotus Temple, which is the center of the B’hai Faith in South Asia.  The B’hais believe in trying to bring all religions together, so their temple is devoid of traditional rituals, symbols, and iconography.  Instead they have short services that feature readings and chanting from different faiths.  Quite inspiring.

Unfortunately our timing for going to and from the Lotus Temple seemed to coincide with very busy times on the Metro, much more so than we had previously experienced and actually, quite scary.  Getting into the Metro is a bit of a cattle crush and at each stop only a few people get out and more and more push their way in until you are left standing feeling like a sardine in a can.  Then you find out that your can fits 33% more than you thought it did!

When the train reaches a terminus, it vomits out its passengers in convulsive waves in an experience that is uncomfortably close to that of a mad panic. Having traveled on the subways in major large cities including New York, London, Paris, Bangkok, Tokyo and others, I’m used to having to deal with crowds and a bit of a crush.  In Tokyo, the subway is famous for having white gloved conductors pushing people into the trains to get everyone to fit during rush hours, but even that seemed comfortable compared to the mad crush of the Delhi Metro peak travel period.

Another thing puzzled and bugged me.  When I would stand in line with Indians to get our Metro tokens invariably someone would  come along and walk up to the front of the line and just lean over and push in to buy their token.  Behavior that would cause a homicide in New York and likely elicit a “stiff word or two” in London. 

Indians do not do well with lines or waiting, whether it is the subway or walking down the street.  Pushing and shoving just seem to be considered acceptable behavior, along with spitting, coughing without covering your mouth, public urination, and any number of other behaviors we probably won’t miss on our return to the US!

After a last meal near our hotel we changed clothes then headed to Indira Ghandi International airport a little earlier than I would have chosen, but we were advised to allow plenty of time, so for an 02:35 flight, we left the hotel about 5 hours earlier, although it is only about 40 minutes or less to get there.

Once at the airport, we had to deal with a  lot of unnecessary rigmarole.  For starters, there are many well spaced doors into the modern airport.  We were dropped off between doors 1 and 2 which were labeled Jet Airways, but they would not let us in at these and sent us to doors 5 and 6 about 200 meters away.  When we got there, they wanted our documentation.  For some reason the itinerary I had printed out only listed my name on it and the door nazi guard would not let us in with this paperwork.  Ergo, I had to go back beyond door 1 to the Jet Airways counter to get another piece of paper that listed all our names, then come back so we could just get in the front door.

Next we needed to go to our check in counter.  Guess where?  Right between doors 1 and 2, so we walked back again.  Getting in line at the “All International Flights” counters, we were told that we could not check in yet because it was 4 hours before the flight, and we needed to answer the some security questions at a nearby desk. 

Once we got past check in and were rid of our bags, it was time to go through Indian Immigration departure formalities.  One nice thing about leaving the US, is that you don’t deal with US immigration, but rather have any outbound security  formalities done by the airlines as you check in.  Unfortunately in India this is an entirely separate process, somewhat similar to what you encounter when you enter the country. 

It starts by filling out a departure form which has to be presented along with your passport to an immigration officer.  I presume the principal reason for this is that the Indian government can try to catch people who may have exceeded the terms of their visas and fine them. Otherwise I can’t figure out what possible value this process could add.  Regardless, it involves standing it line for at least half an hour before you can proceed to the usual x-ray, magnetometer, and pat down.

Our departure at 2:35am on Friday translates to just after 3pm on Thursday Austin time and we should arrive home in Austin around 8:30pm, so about nearly 30 hours later after flying through Brussels, and New York.  Serious jet lag is in the forecast!

The connection in Brussels was tolerable, but not good.  For starters, after we exited the plane, the departures board did not list American Airlines’ New York flight, even though the Jet Airways flight from Delhi to Brussels was an American Airlines code share.  Fortunately we found the gate number listed on our Jet Airways issued boarding passes, but once we got to the gate, there was a line.  I asked if we had to recheck, and they said yes, because of security.  Normally when I check in for any American flight, I can do so quickly because of my priority standing with the airline, but they had no separate facility for this at American’s Brussels gate.  So we waited in line for another half hour while variously one or two agents slowly rechecked everyone and reissued the boarding passes. 

When it was our turn, in addition to the usual inane questions, the agent wanted to know why our tickets had us fly into Bombay and leave from Delhi.  Answer: “because we were traveling in India”. Then, how did we get from one city to another? “Via ground and air transportation”.  Really?  What answer would have been wrong?  We couldn’t have left the country – that would have shown up on our passports.  We didn’t teleport between the cities.  And what difference does it make how we got from Mumbai to Delhi?  Seems like a complete waste of time to me.

Oh well.  hopefully we will soon be done with all this.  At least for another year.

From Gateway of India to the India Gate

Wednesday, July 4th, 2012.  Delhi, India

Another full day of sightseeing, this time in New Delhi, and South Delhi.

New Delhi was designed by British architects Lutyens and Baker starting in 1931 after King George V confirmed that the city would be the new capital.  All sorts of arguments about whether the architecture should be Indian or European in design ensued and in the end, it is a combination of both.  New Delhi has wide, tree lined avenues and grand buildings in the European tradition.  The main “drag” is called Rajpath, as it is still used for major processions.  It reminded me of the National Mall in Washington DC.

At the end of Rajpath, on top of Raisina Hill is the Great Palace, originally the Viceroy’s house and now the President’s house.

Since the Mumbai terror attacks, you can’t visit any of these buildings so the best we could do was peek from the car.  Although human visitors aren’t allowed, we spotted monkeys freely hopping the fence.

Humayun was the second Mughal emperor, after Barbur. He was forced into exile before being able to recapture India with the help of the Persian king, taking Delhi in 1555. Although he may not have been the most successful emperor, we was the father of Akbar, and in fact Humayun’s tomb was built by his mother, the senior widow, Hamida Begum, who was Persian.

The tomb is very beautiful, and it has a very nice small interpretive center that illustrated information about the history of the Mughals, the building of the tomb, etc.

One of these panels related a story about the prophet Mohammed. When he was fleeing from Mecca to Medina, he and his party hid in a cave while being pursued. A spider built a web over the entrance the cave and when the pursuers reached it, they assumed no one was inside. Apparently this is the inspiration for the jallis, or lattices that are so prominent a part of Mughal architecture.

Another unusual thing about this tomb is that it isn’t just for Humayun. Something like 160 different Mughals are buried at the site.

In fact, each of the Mughal emperor’s tombs is unique and distinct, although one can definitely trace some lineage in the design from tomb to tomb.

One other element of most of these tombs is that it was considered auspicious to be buried close to a Muslim saint, as we found with Akbar’s tomb. Here at Humayun’s tomb there is also a similar saint’s tomb, but it was closed for renovation.

To complete our Mughal tomb collection, we next went to Safdarjung’s Tomb.  Safdarjung was the last of the Mughal Emperors and died in 1754.

Perhaps the most beautiful part of this tomb is the art work seen on the entrance gate, which resembles a peacock in its design.

The tomb itself is rather overstated, and if one can trace a progression in the designs of the tombs, they reached their zenith in the Taj Mahal, and it is no surprise that this is one of the world’s great buildings.  From there, the tomb designs sort of decline in one way or another.

After we finished the tombs, we went to the nearby INA market, which has all sorts of stalls and is more varied than the other markets we’ve visited.  This one has food (wet and dry markets), spices, clothing, cooking items, electronics, and so forth.  We ended up buying a bunch of spices for us and the boys to set up their own Indian spice kits for when they start to make their own Indian food back home.

Our last major outdoor site of the day was the Qutb Minar, which is very impressive.  Actually the Qutb Minar complex is a whole park full of different buildings, including palaces, tombs, and mosques.

The Qutb Minar itself is a magnificent victory tower, erected by Qutb ud din Aibak, the first Sultan of Delhi in 1199.

He was a slave that rose to the rank of general, so this dynasty is sometimes called the Slave Dynasty (1026 – 1290).

The other remarkable item, that is almost lost in the maze of buildings is actually even more impressive if you know a little about it.  It is the iron pillar known as the Gupta pillar, which is over 1,600 years old and virtually without blemish, because the wrought iron in 98% pure.

Considering this was made around the year 400, the technology was far in advance of anything else to be found in the world at that time.  There is a tradition that anyone who can encircle it with their hands behind their back will have good fortune, but you’d better find another way to try for good luck, as the pillar is now fenced off.

The detailed decorative work on the Qutb Minar is truly impressive, as is its height and stature.

Believe it or not, Alludin Khalji (the guy who caused so much trouble in Rajasthan by looking at the princess’s reflection) tried to build a bigger tower about 100 years later, but died before it could be finished  The ruins of the base of the tower, about 30 feet high and twice the circumference still remain on the grounds.

It had become very hot, so we took refuge in a nearby restaurant and had some lunch and enjoyed their air conditioning.

In the afternoon we went to the National Museum, which has a superb collection of items from the country’s history.  Entrance is RP300 per person, but we were able to get student rates for the boys – just RP1 each!  Our foreigner tickets included the excellent audio guide, which we got for the boys, so in the end they were about 1/2 price.  If you come to India, bring your student card if you have one – you’ll save a lot.

The guide picks out about 55 of the collection’s top items, but unfortunately about 1/3 of the galleries were closed for renovation so we had to miss some items.

It was now the late afternoon and we headed over to the India Gate, at the other end of Rajpath from the Presidential Palace.  It commemorates more than 70,000 Indian soldiers who died during the first world war.

India Gate is usually the first place that most visitors (who usually arrive in Delhi) are taken.  But in our case, this was effectively the last place our driver and erstwhile guide Sury took us. 

Which is oddly fitting as we began our journey in Mumbai at the Gateway of India, and we now  wrap it up in Delhi at the India Gate, a fitting set of bookends for the trip.

From here it was back to the hotel and time to say goodbye to Sury, who has driven us around for the past 3 weeks and somehow managed to avoid having any fender benders, an impressive feat indeed.

Tomorrow we will visit a few local markets and maybe do something else on our own before heading to the airport for our 2:35am flight home.

Kelly Delhi Birthday.

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012.  New Delhi, India

Today is Kelly’s birthday.  Often on her birthday we are travelling and sometimes we are in a place where we can’t (or don’t!) get any decent food.  But this year we are in Delhi and there are lots of great opportunities for a nice meal.  Unfortunately, this year, whatever has been ailing Kelly has left her with no appetite, so we weren’t able to do anything great gastronomically.

To start our day, we went to the Red Fort or Lal Qila, a large and imposing bastion which was begun in 1639 and completed in 1648 when Shan Jahan decided to move the capital back to Delhi from Agra in 1638. 

The fort is said to have cost RP10,000,000 to build, much of it spent on the opulent marble within.

There is a story that the Emperor Aurangzeb build the Lahore Gate (now the main entrance) to save his nobles and visiting dignitaries from having to walk the whole length of the approaching road called Chandni Chowk while bowing, as there was a law that no one could ride (horse or elephant) in the presence of the Emperor. They would have to get down and bow. Because of the placement of Aurangzeb’s throne he could see the whole length of Chandni Chowk. The Lahore Gate hid his view and therefore people could ride all the way up to the fort.

And what a throne is was. Called the Peacock Throne it was commissioned by Shah Jahan on his accession in 1627 and took seven years to make.  The throne was designed with two peacocks standing behind with a parrot carved out of a single emerald between them. It was inlaid with a vast number of sapphires, rubes, emeralds, pearls, and diamonds. Over the top was a gem encrusted gold canopy edged with pearls and supported by 12 pillars.  The throne also included the Koh-i-Noor diamond, now in the British crown jewels. It came into the possession of Queen Victoria when she became Empress of India.

How the Koh-i-Noor escaped the fate of the rest of the throne, I don’t know, but in 1739 the Turk Nadir Shah plundered Delhi, massacring 30,000 people and amongst other booty, rode off with the Peacock Throne.  This was broken up just eight years later after he was assassinated  Some of the jewels are rumored to have ended up on the late Shah of Iran’s throne.

Beautiful marble and inlay work are to be found in the inner courtyard which also had waterfalls that went over niches that were filled with perfume and candles.  In places the marble is so fine that it is translucent, as can be seen in the above right photo.

Nearby is the Jammi Masjid, or Friday Mosque, reached via a walk through various markets.  There was not a lot of visual interest inside the mosque, the largest extant mosque in India.  One of my pet peeves is that places have camera charges that are separate from any entry fees.  At the Jammi Masjid, entrance is free, but the camera charge is RP300, or about US$6.  When we first walked up to the mosque, an attendant tried to extract this from each of us.  We knew that entrance was free and I didn’t have any interest in taking photos here, so one of us sat outside while the others went inside, then we switched out.  When Kelly went in, already with her arms and legs covered (she knew we would be visiting a mosque) they tried to put a skirt on her, just to extract another fee, but I told her to just refuse and go in.  I had already seen dozens of women with standard pants or jeans on.  The only people who needed their skirt were those wearing shorts.  To cap it off, one of the men wanted a tip for watching our shoes, even though we had been watching them ourselves.  Unfortunately, this kind of thing seems pretty common in Delhi, much more so than we’ve experienced in other places on our trip.

There is a wholesale spice Market about 1.5KM into Chandni Chowk and since it was so hot, I arrange for two pedicabs to take us there. Cinnamon is one of Kelly’s favorite spices and we use a lot of it.  Most of what we get sold as cinnamon is actually cassia, which has a hotter taste.  True cinnamon is harder to find and more expensive in the US and Europe, so for her birthday Kelly got 1Kg of good quality whole Indian cinnamon bark.  The cost was about the same as one small jar back home.

For lunch, we rode back to the area beside the Jammi Mosque and when to Karim’s, a renowned Mughal restaurant that had fabulous simple food in a very simple setting.  Very tasty, and very reasonable.

We got back to the car and then drove to Raj Ghat, the cremation point and memorial to Mahatma Ghandi.  The location is very simple and austere, in keeping with the main himself.  The Hindi words at the front are “Oh God”, his last utterance.  An eternal flame and the fresh marigolds placed at the told are the only real ornamentation.

From Raj Ghat, which is also close to the memorials for Nehru, Indira Ghandi, Rajiv Ghandi, and others we drove to the Craft Museum – a free visit.  Inside were lots of craft items from all over the country.  A few that particularly interested me were a huge chariot used in South Indian religious processions and an 18th century hair dryer from Bengal.  I think it worked by having a fan inside the “blower” unit which presumably was human powered.

After returning to hotel for a rest we set out for dinner at Connaught Place, traveling via Delhi’s Metro.  Unlike most things in this city, the Metro is clean, modern, air-conditioned, and efficient.  And cheap – our ride cost only RP10 each, or about 20 cents.

Kelly had noticed yesterday that the carriage at the end of the train seemed much less crowded, so we boarded there.  After a few minutes, I noticed that indeed this was less crowded and everyone was seated. Furthermore, they were all women, and on closer inspection, the men in adjoining carriage came up to the entrance of this carriage, but not into to it.  It dawned on me that this much be a women’s only car and so the boys and I retired to the adjoining car.  Indeed once we got off, we could see a sign on the ground (in pink no less!) marking this as a women’s only area of the train.

Our destination was Haldirams, an Indian all veg. fast food chain.  We had read about this location in the Times of India food guide we had previously seen.  The main attraction here is the ability to sample different street food and snacks in hygienic conditions. They also have fuller meals, western food, desserts, and even an ice cream bar.

The process is pretty alien to any European or American fast food shopper.  First you go to a counter up front and order your food and pay for it.  They give you a master receipt and a series of mini receipts for each counter from which your food will come.  Next you go to each of these counters, give them the ticket, and find out how long it will take before your food will be ready.  At some counters, (e.g. desserts, but not ice cream!) you have to order and pay separately.  “Fast” may not be the operative word. Once you have your food, you can sit at a table and enjoy.

Since Kelly’s appetite was still off she only had some Chinese vegetable noodles.  Aaron had a south Indian Thali, Ben dahl and rice, and I tried a couple of different snack foods – Bhalla Papri Chaat, and Aloo Tikki.  The former was a mixture of sweet and savory, and the latter was like an Indian hash brown with spicy sauce.  What was fun was trying food that we just don’t see in US Indian restaurants.  Aaron and I had some ice cream later, mine being rose water and pistachio flavored.