Bruce and Marija go to India
Apr 15th, 2008, 06:04 PM
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Interesting report so far. I am glad you read Gayatri Devi‘s book before your trip, so you could appreciate the hotel, which even though it may not have all the comforts, still has a really lovely ambience IMO. Hope you saw the little folly of a fort up on the hill which her husband had done for her so that could take picnics up there….man, that was the way to live!
As for the Park Hotel, you should have gone to the bar when you arrived, it’s one of the hottest clubs in Delhi! Would have definitely still been going at 3 am. They also have two good restaurants. I have not stayed at this hotel, but do eat (and drink) there on a somewhat regular basis. It has a good location. I like the Imperial a lot, but do recco the Park for lower prices and a modern Indian décor – the Raj it aint’, but lots of Indians prefer the modern to the old (and while the Raj was fun for the Brits, it was not so much fun for the locals). I’d say it’s a good represenatation of the new India.
As for the Park Hotel, you should have gone to the bar when you arrived, it’s one of the hottest clubs in Delhi! Would have definitely still been going at 3 am. They also have two good restaurants. I have not stayed at this hotel, but do eat (and drink) there on a somewhat regular basis. It has a good location. I like the Imperial a lot, but do recco the Park for lower prices and a modern Indian décor – the Raj it aint’, but lots of Indians prefer the modern to the old (and while the Raj was fun for the Brits, it was not so much fun for the locals). I’d say it’s a good represenatation of the new India.
Apr 16th, 2008, 06:43 PM
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Udaipur
There were ten people on the flight from Jaisalmer to Udaipur, by way of Jodhpur. Security was extremely tight; batteries from the camera, camcorder and flashlight were seized but returned at the Udaipur airport. It was probably a half hour ride from the airport to the Oberoi Udaivilas, including a stop at a camcorder repair shop. The brains of the repair shop was at lunch so we gave up on a quickie camcorder repair.
The Oberoi was stunning, as it should be for the money it charges. We were told that the Lake Palace had discontinued lunch and dinner visits two months earlier for nonresidents. Only residents were allowed on the premises, so our request for dinner reservations at the Lake Palace was denied. The two restaurants at Udaivilas were somehow merged into one so we were unable to make reservations for dinner at the Indian restaurant, we made reservations for the sole restaurant.
We had a leisurely lunch outside at the Oberoi restaurant and then met our guide for a boat ride around Lake Pichola. The guide was great and we were pleased that he would be accompanying us for the next two days. He explained what we were seeing as we slowly made our way around the lake. He told us to tip the boatman well since he is not a hotel employee and makes little money. We’re good at following instructions and did so. We discussed the plans for the next day. Although it was very tempting to forego any excursions and just lounge at the pool, we had agreed that we didn’t come to India to lounge. We wanted to go see the Jain temples in Ranakpur. The guide offered us several alternative trips, shorter in length, but we persevered. He told us that the road to Ranakpur was under construction but that didn’t sway us, we were determined to see those remarkable temples.
After an early breakfast we (sadly) left Udaivilas and started on the road to Ranakpur. The guide wasn’t kidding, the road was a mess; major construction was underway. The sides of the road were empty, villagers had been moved elsewhere, all that was left were huge clouds of dust. Fortunately, at about the half way mark the road again became a wonderful Indian road with lots of people and activity. Ranakpur is not to be missed. The temple is indeed incredible and we spent several hours marveling at the 1444 astounding pillars and witnessing the prayer ceremonies taking place. Although the road was difficult and took two and a half hours each way, the destination was certainly “worth it.” Together with our guide, we had lunch at the Hotel Maharani Bagh not far from Ranakpur. Other than breakfast this was the only buffet we ate at. Our guide assured us that it was “safe” and all of the tour groups stop there. The food was quite good and it was pleasant to sit outside in the sunshine.
The guide recommended a stop at a local dhurrie maker. We were concerned that this was another buying opportunity that we should skip, but the guide prevailed. We ended up buying a small dhurrie from a very pleasant man who demonstrated his craft. It was one of those awkward situations where you feel you can’t bargain but just have to accept the price and buy. That’s what we did.
We returned to the Udaivilas fairly late in the afternoon and spent the remaining moments of sunlight sitting at the pool, sipping cold drinks. Dinner was outside overlooking the lake. The evening was chilly but the hotel had set up many heat lamps, braziers and had shawls on hand. Our kebabs and soufflés were excellent and we again enjoyed watching the evening’s entertainment.
The next morning Bruce was intent on visiting the “Wildlife Conservatory” at Udaivilas. Dutifully I accompanied him on this little expedition during which we saw two boars. The rest of the morning was spent at the City Palace, an interesting destination even for those who had seen many palaces in a short period of time. The City Palace complex embraces a “mini-mall”, including an Anokhi store, where we picked up some more gifts. Our flight to Aurangabad left at 14:40 so we didn’t have much time to explore Udaipur proper.
The new Udaipur airport had opened in the two days between our arrival and departure. As is the case with new airports all of the kinks had not been worked out and check in was a very laborious process, though nothing compared to the stories of the new terminal 5 at Heathrow. Even with the problems, the Kingfisher flight to Aurangabad left 20 minutes early.
There were ten people on the flight from Jaisalmer to Udaipur, by way of Jodhpur. Security was extremely tight; batteries from the camera, camcorder and flashlight were seized but returned at the Udaipur airport. It was probably a half hour ride from the airport to the Oberoi Udaivilas, including a stop at a camcorder repair shop. The brains of the repair shop was at lunch so we gave up on a quickie camcorder repair.
The Oberoi was stunning, as it should be for the money it charges. We were told that the Lake Palace had discontinued lunch and dinner visits two months earlier for nonresidents. Only residents were allowed on the premises, so our request for dinner reservations at the Lake Palace was denied. The two restaurants at Udaivilas were somehow merged into one so we were unable to make reservations for dinner at the Indian restaurant, we made reservations for the sole restaurant.
We had a leisurely lunch outside at the Oberoi restaurant and then met our guide for a boat ride around Lake Pichola. The guide was great and we were pleased that he would be accompanying us for the next two days. He explained what we were seeing as we slowly made our way around the lake. He told us to tip the boatman well since he is not a hotel employee and makes little money. We’re good at following instructions and did so. We discussed the plans for the next day. Although it was very tempting to forego any excursions and just lounge at the pool, we had agreed that we didn’t come to India to lounge. We wanted to go see the Jain temples in Ranakpur. The guide offered us several alternative trips, shorter in length, but we persevered. He told us that the road to Ranakpur was under construction but that didn’t sway us, we were determined to see those remarkable temples.
After an early breakfast we (sadly) left Udaivilas and started on the road to Ranakpur. The guide wasn’t kidding, the road was a mess; major construction was underway. The sides of the road were empty, villagers had been moved elsewhere, all that was left were huge clouds of dust. Fortunately, at about the half way mark the road again became a wonderful Indian road with lots of people and activity. Ranakpur is not to be missed. The temple is indeed incredible and we spent several hours marveling at the 1444 astounding pillars and witnessing the prayer ceremonies taking place. Although the road was difficult and took two and a half hours each way, the destination was certainly “worth it.” Together with our guide, we had lunch at the Hotel Maharani Bagh not far from Ranakpur. Other than breakfast this was the only buffet we ate at. Our guide assured us that it was “safe” and all of the tour groups stop there. The food was quite good and it was pleasant to sit outside in the sunshine.
The guide recommended a stop at a local dhurrie maker. We were concerned that this was another buying opportunity that we should skip, but the guide prevailed. We ended up buying a small dhurrie from a very pleasant man who demonstrated his craft. It was one of those awkward situations where you feel you can’t bargain but just have to accept the price and buy. That’s what we did.
We returned to the Udaivilas fairly late in the afternoon and spent the remaining moments of sunlight sitting at the pool, sipping cold drinks. Dinner was outside overlooking the lake. The evening was chilly but the hotel had set up many heat lamps, braziers and had shawls on hand. Our kebabs and soufflés were excellent and we again enjoyed watching the evening’s entertainment.
The next morning Bruce was intent on visiting the “Wildlife Conservatory” at Udaivilas. Dutifully I accompanied him on this little expedition during which we saw two boars. The rest of the morning was spent at the City Palace, an interesting destination even for those who had seen many palaces in a short period of time. The City Palace complex embraces a “mini-mall”, including an Anokhi store, where we picked up some more gifts. Our flight to Aurangabad left at 14:40 so we didn’t have much time to explore Udaipur proper.
The new Udaipur airport had opened in the two days between our arrival and departure. As is the case with new airports all of the kinks had not been worked out and check in was a very laborious process, though nothing compared to the stories of the new terminal 5 at Heathrow. Even with the problems, the Kingfisher flight to Aurangabad left 20 minutes early.
Apr 22nd, 2008, 04:55 AM
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AURANGABAD
The flight between Udaipur and Aurangabad on Kingfisher took a little less than 2 hours. We were really lucky that all of our flights were close to on-time or even early. I was less enthusiastic than Bruce about including the Ellora and Ajanta caves in our itinerary since I was concerned that we would be exhausted by that point and sick of airports, since the flight to Aurangabad was our sixth flight within India. But on the other hand we figured that even if we were traveled-out we could manage one more “final” destination.
We considered trying to see both sights in the same day or skipping Ajanta, but settled on spending two nights in Aurangabad and seeing them both at a leisurely pace. It was much warmer in Aurangabad than anywhere else we had been on the trip so rushing from place to place would have been unpleasant. We were able to visit the caves in the mornings when it was cooler. Make sure to take hats to the caves since there’s quite a bit of walking involved in the blazing sun.
Hotel choices are severely limited in Aurangabad with the Taj Residency as the “best.” It’s a large modern hotel with sprawling grounds and a pool surrounded by very hard plastic lounges of which only four sported cushions. Our room was shabby, and though we had both a balcony and a terrace, both were without any furniture. From our brief glimpses of Aurangabad it seemed to be a relatively prosperous town, home to pharmaceutical manufacturing. We ate all of our meals at the Taj, though we didn’t eat the packed lunch they proved for our trip to Ajanta, fearful that the beating sun might have unleashed some undesirable microbes…
Since we arrived on Sunday afternoon the order of our visit was set: we had to go to Ellora on Monday and Ajanta on Tuesday, since Ajanta is closed on Monday and Ellora is closed on Tuesday. (It was the wrong order to see the caves if you have a choice, since the Ajanta caves are much older and not as “flashy” as the Ellora caves. ) Our guide for Ellora was the only woman guide we had during the entire trip. She was excellent and gave us a good introduction to the caves even chanting in one of them so we could hear how sound was amplified. She indicated that it was customary to have the same guide for both sets of caves but due to scheduling difficulties we would have a different guide the next day.
The drive to Ellora was fairly quick since it’s fewer than 20 miles from Aurangabad. The road was in good condition and there was a lot of roadside activity for our viewing pleasure. In Ellora the driver let us off quite close to the different sets of caves we were visiting. We started with the Jain caves, then worked our way to the Buddhist and Hindu groups. The spectacular ending was the Kailash temple (cave 16) an extraordinary monument of staggering scale. The caves were absolutely incredible. You don’t have to be an archaeologist or some other “-ologist” to be wowed by them. We were both very glad that we hauled ourselves to Maharashtra state to visit them.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Paithani Silk Weaving Center to see himroo being made. I had read that Aurangabad is the only place that still makes himroo--a combination of silk and cotton yarn woven into a satin like fabric. I wasn’t taken with the himroo products so I bought a couple of pillow covers and made a quick escape.
After a late lunch we sat around the pool waiting to snatch two of the cushioned lounges. We wandered down to the street to see if there was someplace to walk to but were absolutely mobbed at the gate by rickshaw drivers and decided, since we didn’t have a destination in mind, to give it up and return to the pool. For dinner we tried some of the Maharashtra specialties which were excellent. After dinner we had to pack everything up for the trip home since the schedule for the next day was a trip to Ajanta followed by a flight to Mumbai and then a flight back home. Although we knew we could take a generous amount of carryon on the international leg, our first leg was domestic on Jet Airways so we had to restrict our carryons to essentials but bearing in mind that British Airways was very likely to lose our checked backage.
The drive to Ajanta was considerably longer than to Ellora taking a couple of hours. Of course we didn’t mind. We were both sad that our time on those magnificent Indian roads was coming to an end. Our driver had to park our car in a remote parking lot and we fought our way through the shopping district before catching the bus to the entry point for the caves. This wasn’t a typical Indian bus since no one rode on the roof but it was packed to the gills and hot.
The Ajanta caves which feature remarkable colored paintings sit on a horseshoe-shaped ravine. They are much older than the caves at Ellora and less glamorous but certainly equally fascinating . Visiting Ajanta requires a reasonable amount of climbing and walking, even if you don’t go to the overlook point from which the British soldiers “rediscovered” the caves in 1819. There are sedan-chair porters for hire and we saw elderly visitors being carried around by groups of men. It sure didn’t seem very safe--a misstep and everyone goes crashing into the ravine…
We spent several hours wandering through the caves which were very crowded with tourists and school children. The crowds and heat discouraged us from lingering. We declined the guides offer for additional free-time to explore on our own and retraced our steps back to the bus and the car. While the driver and guide ate at some local eatery we stayed in the air-conditioned car and munched our granola bars, even though we did have a packed lunch which we turned over to the driver.
The game plan was for us to return to the hotel where we had checked out but left our luggage. The guide even managed to get the hotel to let us shower in an empty room. The hotel was all decked out for an Indian wedding: flowers were everywhere, staff were painting doors, polishing the hallways. The room we showered in was much nicer than our room--it had a modern bathroom, fresh paint and even flowers. We had to evacuate quickly since we were in the part of the hotel that had been fixed up for the wedding guests who were arriving. It was amusing to sit in the lobby and watch the wedding guests assemble. I still had some rupees left so I employed all of my carefully honed bargaining skills to make one last purchase from the shop--a beautifully embroidered shawl.
Our Jet Airways flight to Mumbai was somewhat late, but we had a six hour layover in Mumbai so I wasn’t concerned. Our airport transfer agent managed to check our bags in Aurangabad all the way through to Chicago, even though we were switching airlines in Mumbai. That made our transfer from the domestic to the international terminal in Mumbai much easier. Our tour company had arranged for a transfer between the two terminals and we appreciated not having to deal with buses and taxis. The transfer between the terminals probably took a good half hour by car.
An agent accompanied us into the international terminal to make sure we successfully checked in. Although British Airways claimed that they allowed check-in three hours before flight time and the business class agents were standing at their counters, they refused to check us in. First they told us they were all going to have a meeting and could begin accepting passengers only after the meeting. Come back in 20 minutes was the instruction. When we returned in 20 minutes we were told that it was still too early (even though it was now 2 hours before departure) and to return in half an hour. In between visits to the check-in desks we stood in an incredibly long security line which was also inoperative. This was our first taste of the legendary Indian run around that we had read about but had failed to experience in almost four weeks. After two more futile visits to the check-in desk we were finally allowed to check-in and go to the business class lounge. Finally the driver and agent could go home. The agent refused to leave us unattended even though we were reasonably confident that we could get ourselves on that plane.
The departure lounge was adequate. There was hot food and drinks and comfortable couches. Staying awake was the hard part. We probably went through five security checks before we were finally allowed to board the plane. As expected, BA lost one of our suitcases but we didn’t really care since we were carrying our most important purchases. Seems we were passing through Heathrow on one of the days when all baggage transfer between planes was halted. That explained the mountains of luggage we saw on the ground at Heathrow.
India was certainly one of the most interesting places we’ve ever experienced. Don’t hesitate. Don't be discouraged by the negatives. GO!
The End
The flight between Udaipur and Aurangabad on Kingfisher took a little less than 2 hours. We were really lucky that all of our flights were close to on-time or even early. I was less enthusiastic than Bruce about including the Ellora and Ajanta caves in our itinerary since I was concerned that we would be exhausted by that point and sick of airports, since the flight to Aurangabad was our sixth flight within India. But on the other hand we figured that even if we were traveled-out we could manage one more “final” destination.
We considered trying to see both sights in the same day or skipping Ajanta, but settled on spending two nights in Aurangabad and seeing them both at a leisurely pace. It was much warmer in Aurangabad than anywhere else we had been on the trip so rushing from place to place would have been unpleasant. We were able to visit the caves in the mornings when it was cooler. Make sure to take hats to the caves since there’s quite a bit of walking involved in the blazing sun.
Hotel choices are severely limited in Aurangabad with the Taj Residency as the “best.” It’s a large modern hotel with sprawling grounds and a pool surrounded by very hard plastic lounges of which only four sported cushions. Our room was shabby, and though we had both a balcony and a terrace, both were without any furniture. From our brief glimpses of Aurangabad it seemed to be a relatively prosperous town, home to pharmaceutical manufacturing. We ate all of our meals at the Taj, though we didn’t eat the packed lunch they proved for our trip to Ajanta, fearful that the beating sun might have unleashed some undesirable microbes…
Since we arrived on Sunday afternoon the order of our visit was set: we had to go to Ellora on Monday and Ajanta on Tuesday, since Ajanta is closed on Monday and Ellora is closed on Tuesday. (It was the wrong order to see the caves if you have a choice, since the Ajanta caves are much older and not as “flashy” as the Ellora caves. ) Our guide for Ellora was the only woman guide we had during the entire trip. She was excellent and gave us a good introduction to the caves even chanting in one of them so we could hear how sound was amplified. She indicated that it was customary to have the same guide for both sets of caves but due to scheduling difficulties we would have a different guide the next day.
The drive to Ellora was fairly quick since it’s fewer than 20 miles from Aurangabad. The road was in good condition and there was a lot of roadside activity for our viewing pleasure. In Ellora the driver let us off quite close to the different sets of caves we were visiting. We started with the Jain caves, then worked our way to the Buddhist and Hindu groups. The spectacular ending was the Kailash temple (cave 16) an extraordinary monument of staggering scale. The caves were absolutely incredible. You don’t have to be an archaeologist or some other “-ologist” to be wowed by them. We were both very glad that we hauled ourselves to Maharashtra state to visit them.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Paithani Silk Weaving Center to see himroo being made. I had read that Aurangabad is the only place that still makes himroo--a combination of silk and cotton yarn woven into a satin like fabric. I wasn’t taken with the himroo products so I bought a couple of pillow covers and made a quick escape.
After a late lunch we sat around the pool waiting to snatch two of the cushioned lounges. We wandered down to the street to see if there was someplace to walk to but were absolutely mobbed at the gate by rickshaw drivers and decided, since we didn’t have a destination in mind, to give it up and return to the pool. For dinner we tried some of the Maharashtra specialties which were excellent. After dinner we had to pack everything up for the trip home since the schedule for the next day was a trip to Ajanta followed by a flight to Mumbai and then a flight back home. Although we knew we could take a generous amount of carryon on the international leg, our first leg was domestic on Jet Airways so we had to restrict our carryons to essentials but bearing in mind that British Airways was very likely to lose our checked backage.
The drive to Ajanta was considerably longer than to Ellora taking a couple of hours. Of course we didn’t mind. We were both sad that our time on those magnificent Indian roads was coming to an end. Our driver had to park our car in a remote parking lot and we fought our way through the shopping district before catching the bus to the entry point for the caves. This wasn’t a typical Indian bus since no one rode on the roof but it was packed to the gills and hot.
The Ajanta caves which feature remarkable colored paintings sit on a horseshoe-shaped ravine. They are much older than the caves at Ellora and less glamorous but certainly equally fascinating . Visiting Ajanta requires a reasonable amount of climbing and walking, even if you don’t go to the overlook point from which the British soldiers “rediscovered” the caves in 1819. There are sedan-chair porters for hire and we saw elderly visitors being carried around by groups of men. It sure didn’t seem very safe--a misstep and everyone goes crashing into the ravine…
We spent several hours wandering through the caves which were very crowded with tourists and school children. The crowds and heat discouraged us from lingering. We declined the guides offer for additional free-time to explore on our own and retraced our steps back to the bus and the car. While the driver and guide ate at some local eatery we stayed in the air-conditioned car and munched our granola bars, even though we did have a packed lunch which we turned over to the driver.
The game plan was for us to return to the hotel where we had checked out but left our luggage. The guide even managed to get the hotel to let us shower in an empty room. The hotel was all decked out for an Indian wedding: flowers were everywhere, staff were painting doors, polishing the hallways. The room we showered in was much nicer than our room--it had a modern bathroom, fresh paint and even flowers. We had to evacuate quickly since we were in the part of the hotel that had been fixed up for the wedding guests who were arriving. It was amusing to sit in the lobby and watch the wedding guests assemble. I still had some rupees left so I employed all of my carefully honed bargaining skills to make one last purchase from the shop--a beautifully embroidered shawl.
Our Jet Airways flight to Mumbai was somewhat late, but we had a six hour layover in Mumbai so I wasn’t concerned. Our airport transfer agent managed to check our bags in Aurangabad all the way through to Chicago, even though we were switching airlines in Mumbai. That made our transfer from the domestic to the international terminal in Mumbai much easier. Our tour company had arranged for a transfer between the two terminals and we appreciated not having to deal with buses and taxis. The transfer between the terminals probably took a good half hour by car.
An agent accompanied us into the international terminal to make sure we successfully checked in. Although British Airways claimed that they allowed check-in three hours before flight time and the business class agents were standing at their counters, they refused to check us in. First they told us they were all going to have a meeting and could begin accepting passengers only after the meeting. Come back in 20 minutes was the instruction. When we returned in 20 minutes we were told that it was still too early (even though it was now 2 hours before departure) and to return in half an hour. In between visits to the check-in desks we stood in an incredibly long security line which was also inoperative. This was our first taste of the legendary Indian run around that we had read about but had failed to experience in almost four weeks. After two more futile visits to the check-in desk we were finally allowed to check-in and go to the business class lounge. Finally the driver and agent could go home. The agent refused to leave us unattended even though we were reasonably confident that we could get ourselves on that plane.
The departure lounge was adequate. There was hot food and drinks and comfortable couches. Staying awake was the hard part. We probably went through five security checks before we were finally allowed to board the plane. As expected, BA lost one of our suitcases but we didn’t really care since we were carrying our most important purchases. Seems we were passing through Heathrow on one of the days when all baggage transfer between planes was halted. That explained the mountains of luggage we saw on the ground at Heathrow.
India was certainly one of the most interesting places we’ve ever experienced. Don’t hesitate. Don't be discouraged by the negatives. GO!
The End
Jul 5th, 2009, 11:54 AM
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Excellent report! I'm working my way through as many Fodorite reports as possible before we leave for India in November. I noticed the following quote in your report and was curious as to why old women had real need more than others. Did your Danish companions explain that?
"We enjoyed their stories about their days in Delhi but remained unbelieving as they assured us that traffic progressed following well understood rules. When discussing beggars, the woman recommended that we only give to old women because if they were begging they had real need. To minimize crowds forming, she said to give rupees to the last woman lined up in front of a temple. When convenient that’s what we did."
"We enjoyed their stories about their days in Delhi but remained unbelieving as they assured us that traffic progressed following well understood rules. When discussing beggars, the woman recommended that we only give to old women because if they were begging they had real need. To minimize crowds forming, she said to give rupees to the last woman lined up in front of a temple. When convenient that’s what we did."
Jul 5th, 2009, 02:43 PM
#68
Widows in India (who used to be expected to commit suttee (or sati)) may have very difficult lives. See, e.g., news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1795564.stm At the very least they are supposed to wear white, give up wearing jewelry, and not remarry, but it seems that many become destitute.
Jul 5th, 2009, 04:40 PM
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I assume that's the issue, although I hope not.
Have you seen Deepa Mehta's film "Water"? It's about widows in present-day India. When she tried to film in India, she was attacked by Hindu religious types and had to move shooting to Sri Lanka.
Have you seen Deepa Mehta's film "Water"? It's about widows in present-day India. When she tried to film in India, she was attacked by Hindu religious types and had to move shooting to Sri Lanka.
Jul 7th, 2009, 01:08 PM
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Thanks, retired. I must admit India was not high on our destination list but somehow we ended up there and found it fascinating. Just do it!
Indy, thanks for reading. My interpretation of the Danes comment was that old women had to be in desperate need before they would beg. It's their last resort.
Indy, thanks for reading. My interpretation of the Danes comment was that old women had to be in desperate need before they would beg. It's their last resort.
Jul 7th, 2009, 02:42 PM
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live--it was unseasonably cold when we were there, for India that is. Temperatures were in the 60s. That's all the newspapers wrote about. Some days we wore fleece jackets in the morning and evening. It was very cold at 5:00 in the morning on safari drives but we had brought coats, gloves and hats and were reasonably toasty. We never encountered fog. Have a great trip.
