I can’t say that I like Delhi. It’s exhausting. I’m ready to go home.
Something positive: the Metro works. In 2 years it should go out to the airport too (they are expanding the system for the 2010 Commonwealth Games here).
While food is expensive here (and a 12.5% VAT on top), rooms are cheap for a capital city – I snagged a small budget room for Rs250/$6.25 for today (from 8:00 to 22:00, where checkout is normally at 12:00).
I can get a taxi to the airport tonight for Rs200/$5 (1 hour!).
Arrived in Amritsar late yesterday afternoon after a 5 hour bus ride from Chandigarh.
The Golden Temple complex is impressive (some liken it to the Taj Mahal in grandeur, but since I didn’t see the latter up close, I can’t comment). The walkway around the sacred pond is all marble with inlaid patterns.
Plus the little touches are nice: no fee to keep shoes (and no tip allowed!), and free simple meals (donation accepted) in the Langar, or community kitchen.
Off to the Pakistan border ceremony now…
Photos: Golden Temple at sunset; what time is it? (clocktower at the Golden Temple complex)
Top 5 reasons why the train is better than the bus:
It’s hard to believe I’m flying home tomorrow night already! (after my night train to Delhi, and a day, but not night, in Delhi)
Surprisingly, my night train from Bikaner to Delhi was virtually on time (only 20 min late), and, after an auto-rickshaw transfer between railway stations, my fast train to Chandigarh was exactly on time!
I’m staying with a friend’s parents here in a leafy suburb of this modern, grid-like, clean, green city.
Will do sight-seeing mainly tomorrow (there are only a handful of sights here; it’s more about the visit).
I’m finalizing my last bit of travel as follows:
Mon – will take a 6-hour bus to Amritsar to see the (Sikh) Golden Temple and the nearby Pakistan-India border ceremony;
Tue night – will take the night train to Delhi
late Wed night – flying home!
No photo of my hosts yet, but here is the amazingly tasty home cooked lunch:
clockwise from top: rice, chana/chickpea masala, mutter gobi (peas & cauliflower), chicken curry, salad; not pictured: spinach/cilantro raita, chapati
(sorry, power outage kept it short; now at my next stop, there is no USB port and the Internet is slow)
Surprisingly the 6-hour day train from Jodhpur to Bikaner was on time (within 3 minutes, which is as “on time” as can be).
Through scrubby desert from one desert town to another. Hot and dusty.
The 1-day, 1-night camel safari was very good – Rs1300/$32.50 (inc. food/water/tent) with www.camelman.com
I don’t think I could have handled a second day on the camel (bruises!). Dinner under the stars, campfire with live music, excellent food!
More details later when I do the “highlights” entry…
Photos: me on a camel; Nicole on a camel, plus the camel cart in background; musicians by campfire (note the accordion-like instrument on the left)
While I’m glad I went, the rat temple was a little disappointing because I was expecting hundreds if not thousands of rats – more like 100 if that.
It’s a 40 minute bus ride (Rs10/$0.25 on private bus; Rs15/$0.38 on gov’t bus) south of Bikaner.
It’s supposed to be good luck to see a white rat (we didn’t) but a Belgian couple at the guest house did – it was more of a whitish-brown colour, not lab-rat white.
Also, a rat running over your foot is good luck too, which also didn’t happen – though a few rats came up and sniffed my sock!
Tip: bring socks you can throw away (e.g. those free socks on the trans-oceanic flights), since the floor of the temple is filthy with rat and pigeon turds.
Photos: Front of Rat Temple; rats drinking milk inside
Red carrots in the market in Bikaner (all over India, really; they are a little sweeter than back home):
Sigh. The last three night trains have all been 4-6 hours late, which really cuts into the arrival day!
Tardiness seems to be a bigger problem in North India (at least in my experience).
So be forewarned – don’t count on swooping into a city in the early morning on a night train, then sneaking out again that night on the next one!
Update: my last (6-hour day) train left and arrived on time! (within 3 minutes)
Sometimes Internet cafes will block the http://www.irctc.co.in/ website (presumably to make you book through their related agent!)
You can get around this by typing in the IP address for the web site, i.e. http://203.94.240.82/ which will bring up the same website and you can then use it as normal.
(IP address may change over time; if it’s wrong, type “ping www.irctc.co.in” in a command window to get the right IP address).
Well, my 12-hour night train was 4 hours late this morning, so I didn’t arrive in time for sunrise (one of the better, less crowded times to see the Taj Majal).
More importantly, as a group of Korean women on the train (who gave me some of their dinner last night, as they had too much food) pointed out, it’s “off” today. i.e. Closed. On a Friday! Oops, I missed that. In fact, I didn’t think to check it after my scare about Ellora and Ajanta caves being closed (the latter on Mon, the former on Tue – luckily I visited them the right way, or they would have both been closed on me!)
Oh well. I can’t say I was that incredibly keen to visit the Taj Majal (a World Heritage site) – it seemed like I “had” to. It does indeed look just like in the postcards (which is what a few travellers told me. Though to really appreciate it you have to see the intricate marble work up close.
Tip: Don’t expect the train to arrive on time. Very rare. Especially if you are counting on a pre-sunset arrival to view sunset somewhere special!
Tip: Double-check opening and closing times and days for major monuments or things you absolutely want to see, to avoid only being here when closed!
So I visited the Red Fort (also a World Heritage site), which was OK – two of the more interesting bits I wanted to see there were closed for renovations.
It’s one of the finest Mughal forts in India, from the 17th C. All red sandstone and white marble:
I did have a great view of the Taj Majal from the rooftop Shanti Lodge resto at lunchtime (in the Taj Ganj district immediately south of the Taj Mahal).
But I can’t get any closer to it, as I leave on a night train again tonight, for Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
In the photo with me in it, the structure on the left is the (main) south gate to the Taj Majal compound.
I spent 4 nights in Arambol (Harmal) beach, which is the northernmost main beach in Goa, keeping in mind that Goa is about 100km long from north to south, as the crow flies. Plus, if you want to leave by long-distance train or plane, you have to back to/near Margao/Madgaon anyways (originally I wanted to go to northern beaches because I though it would be a little more “on my way” to Mumbai, but no).
My (24 hour ride) train arrived at 1:30 (am), over 6 hours late (i.e. 30 hours long). They gave my room away, so I weaseled a cot with fresh sheets in the staff room (they sleep on mats in the lobby) for free (I tipped him this morning), and was able to use the common shower/toilet (for some of the rooms) this morning, since I had been in the same clothes for 48 hours! I got up at 5:30 for boat tour on river, but weather is poor (foggy) so it was a little disappointing. And cold. Well, 19°C with fog/haze and wind and no sun felt mighty cold without a real sweater on! I was told the weather was quite unusual and it had been nice in the morning all week (plus, it didn’t get sunny until mid-afternoon!) I’m leaving Varanasi for Agra in a few hours – a 12 hour night train! Unfortunately this means I will miss the Shiva festival tonight (and tomorrow night), but I didn’t know about that. Tip: don’t schedule just one day in a town if it is important, esp. if you want sunshine for good photos! Too much travel, will cut Jaisalmer out of that itinerary…
Update: I did watch some cremations at Manikarnika Ghat, the main one with continual cremations (24 hours a day, a good dozen at once). More on that when I do the highlights. Inhaling that smoke didn’t help my lungs any (I started coughing again on the long train ride coming here).
From Aurangabad on Tue I take a 2 hour bus to see the Ajanta caves, then a 2 hour bus further to a train station for a 24-hour train to Varanasi, arriving Wed Mar 5 at 19:15
and stay one night
Then a night train to Agra, arriving Fri Mar 7 at 6:10
Then a night train to Jodhpur, arriving Sat Mar 8 at 7:20,
and stay one night at the guest house.
Then a night train to Jaisalmer, arriving Mon Mar 10 at 5:30
Then a night train to Bikaner, arriving Tue Mar 11 at 4:40
and stay 2 nights in Bikaner, inc. 1 night camel safari
On the evening of Thu Mar 13 I take a night train to Delhi and on north to Chandigarh to visit a friend’s friend’s Sikh parents (arriving Fri Mar 14).
Which will probably only leave 2 days in Delhi at the end.