Heading Back

Today was our last day in India. We stayed in Bandra. We had street food at a great place called Echo Market. Usually you can’t risk eating street food, but here the food is supposed to be ok. It was delicious. We took a tuk-tuk to the restaurant, then called Kashmera. We handed the cell phone to the waiter and she ordered for us. It was great. We really enjoyed eating what the local Bombay folks would eat.

We returned to the Hotel and walked along the sea shore. It was to us extremely hot and humid. We were drenched. The locals said it was winter in they were cold. Everything is relative I guess.

We drank a lot of wine at sunset, and then headed out to a local restaurant: Spice Tree. It was delicious. It was our final dinner in India, and a great choice. Shrimp, Pomfret, Gobi, rice, Crab and garlic naan. This was our final dinner in India and a great one.

Our flight for Germany then LA leaves at 3:30am so hopefully we will remain awake to get on the plane. This has been a great trip. We will miss India although we are anxious to get back home to our cats and our house.

Going Native

We have enjoyed watching them destroy the old hotel across the street from the Taj. For one thing it blocks the view from some reasons. But the tearing down of the hotel is being done very differently from the way it would happen in America. We would use explosives and implode the building. Here they just use muscle power. There must be men on the roof, only equipped with a sledge hammer, banging away. Labor is very cheap in India. That is a view of SRK’s house from our window. You are looking at the top 3 floors of his 7 story house, his curtains are drawn.

In the morning we had massages then headed back shopping in Bandra, jewelry capital of the world - I think. Bandra has more jewelry stores then I have ever seen in one place. It was very hot and humid as we walked the streets of Bandra. It is very strange Bandra is supposed to be a rich city, but to us there were a lot of very poor people living very close to a lot of very rich people. Like all of India, the streets are very crowded.

When we returned to the Taj, a new store in the hotel had a grand opening. It sells a lot of textiles from places in India that we have visited. We were very surprised to see a whole display of clothes from Darshan Shah who we met in Calcutta.

We really went native for dinner. We took a tuk-tuk to a local seafood restaurant that had been recommended to us. We had Crab, Shrimp, Bombay Duck (a fried fish dish) and Vegetable rice. The whole dinner cost less than 500 rupees or 10 dollars. We ate it with our fingers in true Indian style. Tuk-Tuked back to our Hotel. Tomorrow is our last full day in Bandra and then we take a 3:30am flight home to LA, ending our time in India.

Looking Down on Shahrukh Khan

We checked out of the Intercontinental Hotel overlooking Marine Drive and the Arabian Sea and headed to Northern Mumbai to Bandra. Before we left we took one last taxi ride to the bazaar looking for Antique Gold Jewelry. There was none. We are staying at the Taj Lands End in Bandra. Our room on the 21st floor overlooks the Arabian Sea and Shahrukh Khan’s house. Kashmera had obtained a driver for us, and after checking in we drove to the Bandra Shopping Area. Bandra must mean jewelry store in Hindi, because there are enormous jewelry stores on every block. Once again we didn’t buy anything.

It was very hot and humid as we walked around Bandra. We returned to the hotel cleaned up had some wine and headed to a movie theater in Juhu. Our driver dropped us off and we met Kash and Krushna. Good news and bad news about the theater. First the Good News: There is no movie theater in the US that is as nice as the one we went to. The chairs have electric controls and recline like a first class sleeper seat on an airplane! You can actually lie flat and watch the movie. They issue everyone blankets I did sneak a bottle of wine in the theater. Now the bad news: the movie was 2012. An American Special Effects movie, we would never see in the US. The theater made it worthwhile going.

We then drove to a local non-touristy South Indian Restaurant and had great sea food. Kash and Krushna like the place and we could understand why. The food is served on banana leaves like they do in the south and you eat with your fingers. The food was great. Have you ever eaten rice with your fingers? Lick Lick!

Mubai: Ghandhi to Ear Cleaning

After our 5 hour delay, we finally arrived at the Intercontinental Hotel on Marine Drive. The hotel overlooks the Arabian Sea and has a rooftop bar / restaurant that has a spectacular view. We had drinks and dinner and then retired to very high-tech room. It was so high-tech we couldn’t figure out how to turn the lights on and off and had to call for assistance.

In the morning we were met by our driver and a guide who we had hired for the day. Basically we saw all of the key Mumbai sights we had missed on our previous visits to the city. Yesterday Mumbai dodged a bullet as the Cyclone missed the city, although it had heavy rains. Today it was perfect with a blue sky.
We were expecting rain, so we were lucky.

We started by visiting the Dhobi Ghats, where they do the laundry for the city. Hundreds of men clean and wash clothes by beating them against concrete. They then lay the clothes out to dry in the warm sun. it is quite amazing to see human labor used instead of our traditional washing machines. The richest man in India is Mukesh Ambani he is building a 2 billion dollar house that will be 60 floor high rise with a helicopter deck on the roof. We had great fun guessing which one of the many high-rises being built in Mumbai was his home.

Malabar Hill is the highest point in Mumbai and also the richest area. It is the home of many Jains and Parsees. There are not many Parsees left in India, maybe 60,000. They worship fire and were originally from Persia. The religion is also called Zoroastrianism, Many are fabulously wealthy, including Rashon Tata who owns the Taj Group and Tata Motors. The conductor Zuben Metha is the most famous Parsee in the west. Among other things they are famous for the Towers of Silence in Mumbai. When a Parsee dies, instead of being buried like a Muslim or cremated like a Hindu, the body is placed atop the Towers of Silence and devoured by vultures. We saw the vultures circling above us, you can not visit the Parsee the Fire Temple or the Towers of Silence.

We especially wanted to see the Tank and Ghats atop Malabar Hill. The tank is a very large and ancient pool the size of a football field that is lined with steps leading down to it. These steps or Ghats is how the Hindus could descend into the lake to take their ritualistic bathes. There are several Shiva Temples around the Ghats. The whole area felt like a village community in the middle of the city.

From there we walked over to a Jain Temple. Removing our shoes we walked thru. It is very rich, lots of gold, silver and jewels. We saw priests wearing masks for Jains are such extreme vegetarians that many wear masks to prevent them from accidentally swallowing and killing an insect. In Hindu, Buddhist and Jain Temples there is always a bell that you ring. Cathy rang with gusto. If we had bells in Jewish services I might have enjoyed them more.

After a short walk through the hanging gardens we went to Gandhi’s House. Gandhi is big in India. We have no comparable figure. Think of Lincoln, Washington and Martin Luther King rolled into one. He was a driving force behind freedom from British rule, he fought for equality and he had a very religious aura. Ironically, this man who had few possessions picture is on every denomination of Indian money. As a young lawyer he left India and moved to South Africa. He championed the cause of anti-discrimination in South Africa and when 21 years later he returned to India, he was already regarded as a hero. The rest of his life was devoted to non-violence and the Indian Freedom Struggle. The house, where he stayed when in Bombay is now a museum. It was very touching to go thru it. We have been to several different Gandhi museums in various cities and each one is very moving, he was a remarkable man.

We then drove through the incredibly busy traffic of Mumbai to Crawford Market and the Chor Bizarre. Traffic is so dense it barely moves in this predominately Muslim area. Crawford market is the central food market for Bombay, Chor Bizarre and the streets surrounding it sell everything else, from tools to movie posters. I had heard about men that as a profession clean other people’s ears. Finally saw one.

We returned to our hotel and had a bottle of wine on the roof and then a massage (each of us got a free 20 minute massage – a nice touch by the hotel).
We then went to Trishna, our favorite restaurant in Mumbai for the 2nd time on this trip. They serve fantastic sea food.

Tomorrow we leave this hotel and head north to the suburb of Bandra, near the
Bollywood Studios and close to where Kashmera and Krushna live.

Cyclone!

We drove to Old Goa, the original Portuguese capital of Goa. It is a World Heritage Site filled with old churches. We didn’t go in any. I think our driver was scandalized that we didn’t want to see the parts of the relics of St. Thomas that are in the main church.

It drizzled off and on. To us that was a good thing, It kept the temperature down. To the people that came to Goa to lie on the beach I assume it was a bummer. We then went to the new capital (that is still old) and drove around looking at the charming homes.

Once again we got into an accident as a motorcycle tried to squeeze between our van and the curb. It scratched our van, but after a few words between our driver and the motorcyclist, the incident was over. Our driver told us that the police are so corrupt and crowds gather that no one would bother to call the police or stop unless it is a major incident. We are glad we live in the USA.

We returned to our lodging and I had a massage.

At the hotel the rain continued to get heaver. To us it was a monsoon. To the Goans it was a strange time for a heavy rain but not a monsoon. We ate outdoors under an open sided veranda at the hotel. It actually was fun listening and watching the rain as we ate. We finally got to drink some Feni the strong alcohol made from cashews. We had lobster and shrimp again.
Goan is big on seafood!

The internet is unusable here, that is why there has been no posts. The electricity is spotty. I imagine that the rain makes it even worse. There are power failures about every 2 hours or so, then there is a wait of about a minute and generators kick in. When the electricity finally returns things go dark again as the power is switched.

We found out there was a cyclone approaching Goa. The rains got heavier, all of sudden we started to wonder, what are we doing in Goa if a Cyclone is on the way? The rains got very heavy, the electricity went out for the night. Our roof leaked over our bed. Not a great night for sleeping.

We awakened wondering if we would get out before the cyclone hit. The rain continued, actually the rain was nice straight down and heavy.

We left our historic house and headed for the airport, hoping our flight would be reasonably on time. Bottom line, glad we got to Goa, enjoyed the rain, if you want a tropical exotic experience I think Bali is more interesting.

We got to the airport and realized that the cyclone was now headed for Bombay, which is where we are flying to. We were following the cyclone. Our flight was delayed for over 5 hours, but we finally made it. The cyclone missed Mumbai, although there were heavy rains.

I had an interesting experience while waiting for the plane. I carry a small man’s travel bag, and I left it when we went to a different location at the airport to wait for our flight. I finally realized I didn’t have it, and went searching for it. It had a lot of money, credit cards, cell phone etc. in it. I went to where we had been sitting and their was a guard with my bag. I followed him into the office and everything was intact, all the money was there etc. I was fined 1000 rupees, for leaving an unattended bag. But I was happy to pay it and get my stuff back.

So even though there is a lot of corruption with the police, I tip my hat to the honorable guards at the Goa Airport.

We are now in Mumbai at the Intercontinental Hotel, where the roof doesn’t leak, the air-conditioning works, and I have Internet!

At the airport we said goodbye to Ferris and Courtney who are leaving tonight to return to the States. We will continue our adventures in Mumbai!

Kashmera's Show

We awoke and had breakfast in the courtyard of the old mansion. We were staying at the extreme North End of Goa. Kashmera was staying and performing at the very Southern tip of Goa, at the Intercontinental hotel. We decided to leave with our driver Alex for the day, drive towards the South and eventually arrive at the Intercontinental. We brought our best clothes with us so that we could take shower in Kash’s room and change before the show.

Goa is beautiful. It has lots of beaches, very quaint homes, lush jungles and mountains. On our drive towards the south we stopped in the capital city to buy some CD’s. Alex’s had a very nice jeep like vehicle with a great sound system and we listened to lots of Indian Music on our way. The journey took us through village after village.

We finally stopped at Historical Portuguese Museum. It was comprised of about 10 houses that have been restored. An apparently quite rich Goan not only sponsored the restoration but also has donated a huge collection of antique everyday items to the museum, which fills the homes with interesting items. The houses varied from a large mansion with a private chapel to home of a Brahman Priest. They all lived together in harmony.

Our guide was a very pretty Goan woman. She was excellent and was a delight to be with. At one point she showed us a wooden doll like wooden toy. It simulated two people having sex. This is the way that sex was explained to children. Our guide was probably about 25 years old. She was Christian yet she had an arranged marriage. The custom is for not only Hindus to have arranged marriages in Goa. She said that parents are very conservative and her mother had never had a discussion with her about sex. She had no idea what was happening on her wedding night. She now has a 5 year old daughter and plans to explain the facts of live to her. Progress is being made. She also said she divorced her husband who, she said drank too much. She would like to remarry but needs to find a man that will accept her daughter.

We continued our drive down toward the south of Goa. It was a several hour drive but very interesting. We finally arrived at the southern tip and the Intercontinental Hotel. We went to Kashmera’s room. She was about to have a rehearsal for her show, and we chatted for awhile until she left. We then showered and changed into our good clothes. Kash returned from the rehearsal and started to get ready for the show. She brought with her from Mumbai, a manager, a makeup artist and a woman that does her hair. We watched her get prepared. It was fascinating to watch as they applied her makeup. She has beautiful features to begin with and the object was to make her up so that under the glare of lights, her makeup won’t run and her features can be seen from the farthest table. It was fun to watch as different cosmetics were applied and glitter was attached to her eyelids. Finally a “Fix It Spray” was applied. While this was happening her hair was being worked upon. She was to have several changes of clothes and wigs in the show.

We all left her room, like an entourage heading to the venue and backstage with her. The show was outdoors with the audience at tables eating and drinking. The show was the highlight of a Bridgestone Tire rewards event. We got to see the Japanese Manager award the regional stores for the best performance. We cheered with the rest of the crowd as the Ahemdabad Good Fit Tyre won the championship and came to the stage accompanied by the ever popular hit: Jai Ho. It is amazing what some wine will do for you. We had lots of food to eat and watched the show.

Kashmera was the star of the show. She started out, as a disguised as a man in a review sort of looking like a worker in overhauls. She then took off the overhauls showing the real Kash. The audience (mostly men) went crazy as she danced her Bollywood numbers. She is a great dancer and everyone was taking pictures and movies of her. She did several numbers and at the end went into the audience dancing with the happy Bridgestone group. She definitely brought the audience to their feet. During the show it began to rain. We were in our nice clothes and just stayed outside and enjoyed the warm rain. In Bollywood movies there are always dance numbers where they are singing and dancing in the rain as their clothes get soaked. Here we were doing the same. It was like we were extras in a movie. Because it was warm we didn’t get chilled. After the show we thanked Kashmera, changed our clothes and headed back to Northern Goa, to our heritage accommodations. It was raining all the way, and our driver Alex was exceptional – no way would I drive at night in the rain in India. In fact I wouldn’t drive in the daytime if it was dry.

At night many cars and trucks don’t use their lights and the roads are narrow. It was quite the trip. We made it. Great day!

Goa

We flew to Goa from Aurangabad. Unfortunately there are no direct flights, so we had to fly back to Mumbai, and then catch a flight to Goa. Goa is a very thin and long state located on the Arabian Sea. It was colonized by Vasco da Gama in 1497 for the Portuguese and when India became a country it remained a possession of Portugal. It was only in 1961 that the Indian Army essentially took the state over making it a part of India.

Unusually for India the population is about 45 Percent Catholic, 45 Percent Hindu, 10 Percent Muslim and others. In the 60’s it was a hippy paradise, lots of pot, beautiful beaches, laid back life style, extremely picturesque villages and jungles. There are lots of old houses with Portuguese architecture and historic churches. We aren’t big on historic churches. Apparently nothing has changed much. It still is laid back, partying kind of place. We were met by our guide, who was so laid back he didn’t help us with our luggage. He started to explain what we were to do, and was totally inflexible. All of our previous guides have been great. We were very disappointed and knew it wouldn’t work out with him.

We arrived at a historic mansion that has been restored. They took us upstairs to two gigantic suites. Huge rooms with high ceilings, antique furniture and immense bathroom. It was a perfect restoration of a 400 year old house, so perfect that apparently 400 years ago they didn’t have air-conditioning. Our rooms were very hot. It was nearly 100 and the humidity was very high. We were drenched with sweat. There was no way we could stay in these charming, historic and insanely hot rooms. We called our contact for the tour and basically said, enough with charming historic, we want air-conditioning. Roughing it wasn’t in our plan. The internet is very spotty here and I won’t be able to blog. The windows were interesting, they stack mother of pearl from abalone or oyster shells between slats, if makes a translucent water proof barrier. We also contacted Kashmera, who said she would try and find us someplace to stay.

A coupe of minutes later the woman who runs the place, came up to us and said what if I moved you into air-conditioned rooms? We checked it out, and they did have two nice rooms with AC. We had no idea that they did. It was just the front suites that didn’t have AC. All is well that ends well. They have a general purpose, driver and man that knows Goa extremely well, as one of their many employees. (the staff to guest ratio must be about 4 to 1). His name is Alex and he is great. He makes anything happen, like a bottle of cold wine and the best cashews we have ever eaten. Speaking of cashews they grow all over Goa. Bizarre nut, the cashew tree grows a fruit that is the size of a pair, at the bottom of the fruit is the cashew nut, it is on the outside of the fruit not like a pit. They also make a very strong liqueur from it called Feni.

Alex drove us to a seafood restaurant by one of the beaches. Everywhere there are seafood restaurants. Goa reminds us of a tropical island, in fact we keep thinking we are on an island. It is very tropical with tons of beaches. At the restaurant we ate on an open veranda eating lobster, shrimp and other dishes cooked in typical Goan fashion. After dinner we took a walk on the beach. It was lightly raining and yet it was fun to walk in the warm rain, I forgot what that was like. When it rains in LA you don’t want to be out in it, it is very cold not like Goa. We returned to our air-conditioned rooms. Tomorrow we see Kashmera perform.

Ellora

Today we headed out for Ajanta. It is approximately 100 Kilometers from Aurangabad by our van. That equates to about 55 miles. It took about 2 ½ hours to get there. These are also called caves, but like Ellora they are not natural, but man made. These are all dug out of the lava flow, unlike Ellora where many of the structures are created by cutting out from the top to create the monoliths.

After driving on our van for 2 ½ hours, we left the van and then walked thru a small area of hawkers and vendors to arrive at a different set of special buses that would drive us to the foot of the Ajanta Caves. We then hired porters, who carried us in sedan stairs up the steep mountain side to where the caves are actually located. We have often read about people being transported in sedan chairs or palanquins, this was a first for us. As you can see in the picture, the chair is supported by two poles, and carried by 4 men, 2 front, 2 in the back, resting the poles on their shoulder. They carried us up steep stairs and inclines until we reached the caves, far above the floor of the canyon.

Ellora is shaped like a giant horse shoe, with a very narrow gorge at the bottom, and high volcanic mountains on either side. The caves are quite far up the mountain and were lost for over 1000 years. They were rediscovered in the early 1800’s.

Unlike Ajanta, which have caves that are Hindu, Buddhist and Jain, all of Ellora is Buddhist. The caves date back to 200 BC and you can see the paintings from those early times.

Some of the caves are as recent as 300AD. The paintings are extremely modern in feel, showing emotion, depth of field, amazing use of color, etc. It truly is an amazing experience to be among these paintings and sculptures.

Our guide was fabulous, constantly explaining Buddhism and the stories told in the paintings and sculptures. I have previously experienced much Indian Art as an extreme conglomeration of deities, covering every square inch of a wall or ceiling. He explained to us the story and showed how in many cases it was portrayed linearly, but rather it was all there, scrambled like a puzzle to be figured out. The ordinary people who would observe the sculpture or paintings would know the story and be able to figure it out. In addition, he went into great depth explaining the very strict Indian rules for painting and sculpture that would be the constraints within which the artisans would work. We enjoyed it immensely. The guide walked took us to various caves that explained the life, incarnations, and enlightenment of The Buddha. We ended at a fabulous reclining Buddha sculpture showing his death. It was extremely moving to follow his path in these caves.

The caves are very dark and I had my favorite LED Flashlight that we used to illuminate the art. He was amazed at my flashlight, and I wound up trading it to him for his. He was very touched.

We were very aware that unlike the Taj Mahal, there were very few foreign tourists at Ajanta & Ellora. It was being visited by probably 90% Indians. It is difficult to get here, but we really felt it was one of the highlights of our visits to India.

We returned to the Taj Hotel, had a great dinner, packed, and prepared to fly tomorrow to the Indian State of Goa. It is a thin state hugging the Arabian Sea south of Maharashtra (The state Bombay is in). It is thought of as the Hawaii of India because of its weather and beaches. We plan to Kash perform at The Intercontental Hotel in Goa, the day after tomorrow.

Ellora

We made our 4am wake up call and headed to the Mumbai Airport for our flight to Aurangabad. We were going to Aurangabad to visit to sites: Ajanta and Ellora.

It will take two days to see the two sites. We checked into the Taj in Aurangabad and headed out with our exceptional guide Amod to see Ellora, tomorrow we will visit Ajanta.

World Heritage Sites are places that UN has listed as so exceptional that they must be protected at all costs. These are the most sensitive and important archeological sites in the world. These are where we want to visit. The critical point is that when the World Heritage Sites in India were first announced they chose Ajanta and Ellora before they chose the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is fabulous beyond belief, we loved visiting it. Yet Ajanta and Ellora were chosen first. What are they and why were they chosen before the Taj Mahal. The answer to that is why we were in Aurangabad.

I can only speak about Ellora for that is where we spent the day. Ellora is thought of as ancient caves. They aren’t caves, for caves are made by nature. These are carved in solid rock formation by man.

There are two techniques in carving into rock. Start from the front, carve into the rock, create a sanctuary and carve some statues into the walls. This is called naturally enough “Cutting in”. We visited a cutting in series of caves and were very impressed.

We then had our minds blown by seeing the complex of Kailash. No picture can do it justice (by the way the same is true of the Taj Mahal – no matter how many pictures of it you have seen, you must see it in person to appreciate it). Kalish is a gigantic temple carved from the side of the mountain into the lava rock. This is known as “Cut out Monolith”. The critical point is they started from the to of the mountain and simply removed stone leaving a multistoried huge complex. No statues our walls or roofs or statuary were brought here, this is one gigantic structure built by cutting away rock. It is impossible to imagine how this was done. It is unbelievable! These complexes were originally Jain Religion, Buddhist, or Hindu depending upon who was using them at the time. We had a fabulous guide who discusses at length the Jain Religion (which is only in India and predates Buddhism). Our guide was a delight and incredibly intelligent. It was like a college seminar in comparative religion and philosophy.

Once again he used the sculptures to explain the Hindu Epics. We loved it!

We then went to a cave that topped our day. It was a Buddhist Chaitya or meditation of prayer hall. When you walk into this cave you think you are in Gothic Church with a gigantic Buddha. It is a serene environment with perfect acoustics. Our guide chanted a Buddhist Prayer and it sounded like a choir as reverberated in the cave.

Ellora is one of those places you must go to experience the magic of India. These structures are from 500 AD, it is truly amazing!

Tomorrow we visit Aganta, a very different World Heritage Site.

No Hurry, No Worry

We spent a lot of the day in Coloba, the area surrounding the Taj Hotel. It is the oldest part of Mumbai and very colorful. First, however, we taxied over to a Kahdi Store. These stores sell fabric that is hand made in the villages. The fabric can then be stitched into shirts, pants, saris, etc. No one in this group bought a sari.

When we returned to the hotel we went back to a lot of the stores we knew from previous visits. It was lots of fun checking out the Indian fashions. Bombay is very hot about 95 degrees. They call this season winter. I would hate to be here in summer.

Kash and Krushna had provided a driver for us, but we actually never used him. We planned to drive to Bandra to meet them for dinner, but time got away from us. Instead, they drove to the Taj to pick us up and go out to dinner.

We went to one of our favorite seafood restaurants: Trishna. Johnny Apple of the The New York Times wrote it was one of his top 10 restaurants in the world. We think it is. It turns out that Kash and Krushna have never been there.

As soon as we entered, all heads turned towards us. Kash said that it is like that where ever they go. One person came up said what a fan he was and recommended a dish that we should get. Krushna got up to go the bathroom, and when someone came out they took his picture. It is amazing to be around stars. In reality, they crave the attention. The most amazing thing is that when a camera turns on them, they light up with smiles that are fabulous. I feel I never have a good picture taken of me, they almost never have a bad picture taken.
The fan suggested we get Bombay Duck. Turns out that Bombay Duck is a white fish. The food at the restaurant is very peppery and delicious. They served us fantastic Crab with Pepper sauce and a calamari dish. Krushna who is quite the cook and gourmand said it was some of the best fish he has ever had! That is quite a complement coming from him. We ate the entire dinner Indian Style, using just our right hand and no cutlery. It was a fun way to eat. We owe Kash and Krushna some great dinners when they return to Los Angeles. When we left the owner came over and wanted their autographs.

We were up early for a walking tour of historic Coloba. Our guide was great and explained the architecture and history of the area. Because it was a walking tour we had to cross many streets. We got to experience Indian driving from the pedestrians point of view. Unless you are a cow (no one would ever hit a cow in India) you have to have nerves of steel just to cross the street. Our guides motto was: No hurry, No Worry. Not a bad motto. We will use her upon our return to Bombay to discover areas that we want to see. In the afternoon we visited the Art Museums in the area. We also picked up the local paper where there was a paparazzi shot of Kash and Krushna from the Bollywood party we went to with them the previous night.

We packed and ate dinner at the hotel, for tomorrow we get up at 4:00am to leave for the airport to fly to Aurangabad, the gateway to the World Heritage Sites of Ajanta and Ellora. Hope there is Internet Connectivity in Aurangabad. Hope I can get up at 4:00am

On to Bollywood

Our flight to Bombay was delayed but we finally reached the city. Kashmera and Krushna were there to meet us at the airport. We sent our bags on to The Taj and we joined Kash and Krushna. They had an additional car and driver, so we caravanned to Juhu.

Being close to Film City where the most of the Bollywood Films are made, Juhu is the home for many of the stars. We were driving with Kash and she pointed out Big “B’s” bungalow (as they call their mansions) Aishwarya Rai’s, etc.

We were headed for the Marriott in Juhu. The hotel is where a lot of stars go, because the have security and won’t be hassled. Most hotels are gated and cars are checked upon arrival. Here the security was intense. A bomb sniffing dog pranced around us, aside from opening the trunk they checked the engine compartment of the car. . In front of us were solid steel car barriers which, once we were inspected, hydraulically retracted into the payment so that the car could proceed. It is amazing being with glamorous stars, heads all turn to look at Kash and Krushna. We all commented that it was a shame Timmy wasn’t here. He would have loved it.

There are many restaurants in the hotel, but the Buffet is the star. This is a huge with excellent food. The chef came over to say hello. He could be a movie star, huge buff man with an incredible deep voice.

We probably spent 3 hours talking and drinking. K & K planned to take us to a private Bollywood Party at a nearby club for an actress friend of hers. We caravanned over and entered the party which was help at a club right on the Juhu beach. We don’t go to Hollywood parties and here we were halfway around the world at a Bollywood one.

There were paparazzi and TV reporters everywhere. The most interesting thing was that when we entered the party, the paparazzi turned towards us. It is amazing being on the other end of the camera. Kash and Krush light up when a camera is turned towards them. There probably were 15 photographers taking our picture (bet that wouldn’t have happened it K & K didn’t have their arms around us). Because of the flashes coming from all of the cameras you can’t see anything. You just stand there and smile. Glad I had brushed my teeth.

Cathy was introduced to a woman TV director and spent a lot of time talking to her. We met a gay couple that has invited us to a dinner and party for tomorrow night. Every time a new star entered the room, air kisses were a plenty, cameras clicked and the buzz continued. The people were dressed very casual, designer jeans, baseball caps, open shirts for the men etc. This was Bombay it was 95 degrees at 1am. What were doing up at 1am?

We left the party and caravanned down to the beach, for a short visit and to look at the Arabian Sea. Juhu is very nice! Especially when you are escorted by movie stars!

Their driver then drove us to the Taj, where we arrived about 2am. This glamorous life can be hard on your sleep.

The Lesson is Learned

We learned a lesson about India over the last two days. Perhaps it can be summed up by a saying repeated in a Bollywood Movie that we like: Fanaa.
In the movie they repeat the phrase: “It is easy to choose between good and evil, it is hard to choose between the lesser of two evils.”

We went out to dinner after drinking a bottle of wine in our room. We asked several different people where we should eat, they all suggested the same restaurant: “On The Rocks”. Courtney decided to stay back at the hotel. We decided to give our van drive the night off, so we took a hotel car.

It turns out the restaurant is located where we had the accident. Talk about returning to the scene of the crime. The staff of the restaurantat the restaurant was dressed in army uniforms, which was weird.

The next morning the ramifications of the accident still haunted us, and we were contacted by various representatives from our touring company to discuss our reactions. There were lots of calls back and forth. Our chief concerns were for the motorbike drive and passenger and for the continued employment of our driver.

We then went shopping at a real find. When our driver pulled up and I saw the collection of crafts in front of the store, I told our driver, we won’t be long. I was wrong. They took us downstairs thru a warren of rooms until we were in a room filled with textiles. The owner of the store is the 4th generation of his family to run the store.. He told us stories of the famous who had shopped there, he showed us pictures, he never stopped selling in the most melodious way. He told us he was of the Jain Religion. Jains are extremely devout, and their other distinguishing characteristic is that they NEVER negotiate on price. All of my bargaining skills were for naught in this place.

He showed us a wide variety of bedspreads, scarves and other textiles at amazingly low prices. We purchased several. After our purchases were wrapped up but not paid for, he said since we obviously liked textiles he would show us some rare and special pieces. He brought several vicuna scarves that were incredible in design, color, workmanship, and cost. We told him to forget the already packaged scarves we want these special ones.

We then went to another store, left quickly (we decided to limit ourselves to one Jain shopping experience per day). We decided to have a bite to eat and to have massages, While Cathy and I were getting a massage, the head of the local tour company came to our hotel and talked to Courtney. He assured her that they would take care of the motorcyclist, and that our driver would be ok. He also explained they have a duty to protect us from the Indian Police and Courts that are notoriously corrupt and from the potential of a violent attack from those who witnessed the accident.


Later that evening, I received long email from the head of our tour company in India. We have met him, been to his house, like and respect him. He is very devout. Here is a portion of the email.

Regrettably India is notorious for its hostile Law and Order (police and courts). People with best intentions would not like to get involved with any policeman or lawyer. There are innumerable cases when people have carried injured persons off the roads to hospitals and have suffered the wrath of our brainless law which implicates the carrier even if this carrier is not involved in that incident, being a good samaritan is a crime in India. For us your safety is paramount, under no circumstances we would let any of our clients be in the harms way. Nevertheless, we are conscious of our duty to our fellow citizens. Please trust me, we do whatever we can in order to provide a better life not only for our colleagues but we give back to our society in what ever way that we are capable of. Next time you are in Delhi I would like to show you a few things that we are doing, not only for the upliftment of our fellow citizens but also for our nature. Coming back to this incident, I am told that the biker and his pillion rider had driven off by the time our other rep arrived at that spot, which was instant. He inquired about them and was told that everything was fine and that, they had driven off. We took you away immediately as we were afraid that harassment by the bystanders and eventually by the local police, particularly to foreigners, would be tormenting for you. However, I am not absolving ourselves of our immediate reaction which is unacceptable in any civilised society but we had no better choice.

We had dinner at the hotel, and over dinner we decided how much to tip our driver. There are guidelines for tipping provided for us by our tour operator. Given all that happened, and our concern for our driver, we decided to be overly generous for the 10 days he drove us thru Rajasthan. The dinner bill arrived, and we realized our dinner was costing almost as much as we planned to tip him. We decided once again to up our tip. It is just an indication of the disparity between our two cultures.

Tomorrow we return to Mumbai (Bombay) and the Taj Mahal Hotel, where we stayed last year. The terrorists attacked the hotel 10 days after we left. We love the hotel and are happy it has reopened. We will be met at the airport by our Bollywood Actress friend Kashmera Shah and her actor boyfriend Krushna. They have promised to show us Bombay like we have never seen it! We are ready!

The Real India

We left our Palace in Nimaj and headed for Jodhpur. The drive was an easy one, little traffic and it was daylight. We had a couple of potential hotels to stay at, the first being the Balsamand Lake Palace, a Heritage property that resembled a gothic castle or the house lived in by the Adams Family. We rejected it and asked our driver to take us to a Taj Hotel Property. On the way we picked up the local representative of our tour operator.
He joined us in the van and we headed towards the Taj Hari Mahal. It was on this short journey that we met the Real India, unvarnished and in your face. If you have read the blog this far, you know that we think that India driving is unbelievable. We entered a round-about (circular intersection) and I heard a crash as our van hit a motorcycle. I looked to the left and saw a motorcycle with two riders, on the ground, one of the riders was getting up, the motorcycle was severely damaged and the driver of the motorcycle was still on the ground, but I think he was moving. This accident all happened in maybe 5 seconds.
I can not attest to the exact order of the subsequent events, but our driver started to pull over to the left to stop, we all said, we must stop, the tour guide told the driver to continue on, not to stop. When we insisted upon stopping, the tour operator said “not to worry” his man was on the way to take care of things. He got on the phone. It was inconceivable to us, we were part of a hit-and-run accident and we couldn’t get the driver to stop.
As we continued along the tour operator kept trying to re-assure us things were under control, we were flabbergasted, and perplexed as what to do. We repeatedly asked them to go back, they didn’t. This was the Real India. Many people have great issues with the filth, the cripples, the maimed, the lack of sanitization, but this was different. This was about caring for others. This was our Western Values vs. Eastern Values.
We had no idea who was at fault in the accident; we don’t understand Indian road etiquette and laws. To us it is all chaos. My instinct was the motorcycle tried to speed in-front of the van, but maybe our van driver’s eyes were diverted. Who knows?
But it wasn’t about accident fault; it was about two people lying in the middle of the road and us driving away. There were lots of other cars, so someone would stop and assist them, but why not us? Our tour operator said he called his associate to come to the aid of the downed motorcyclist, but would you believe someone who would order our driver to leave the scene?
On the other hand, maybe the tour operator was protecting us from the possible consequences of being “rich” Americans traveling in a van that hit a motorcyclist. We have read of stories of people stopping at the scene of accidents and being attached by crowds, of the police extorting money or “baksheesh” to avoid arrest. The vagaries of India are so foreign to the Western mind that we cannot begin to comprehend exactly what was going on.
We later talked about Indian sense of Karma and Western sense of Responsibility. Perhaps the driver, tour operator and two downed motorcyclist all saw it as Karma. It was written that this accident would take place.
We were Westerners seeing THE REAL INDIA, and realizing that we couldn’t understand what was happening. We knew what our Western Values were and how we would react, but we were in India and here they didn’t apply.
The gulf between what we would do and what they did is insurmountable to us. It is about Karma, the value of Life, and responsibility. We see these giant temples and other constructions in India and marvel at the artwork. We don’t think about the suffering of artisans, and slaves that created them. We see the crippled and maimed and will never know what happened to them, how did they loose a limb?
This event was real to us, and we saw how different our two cultures are. It was very unsettling.
To add to the absurdity of the day, we eventually arrived at the Taj Hari Mahal. An elegant hotel, as all Taj Hotels are. We saw the property, looked at the room and knew we wanted to stay there. We told the young turbaned man behind the counter we wanted to stay there, if we could afford it. I asked how much the rooms were. He replied “What would you be willing to pay?” How to answer? I thought of other properties we had stayed at, and not knowing what to say, said $250 night, Courtney said $225. He said ok, $225. This wasn’t a negotiation, he just accepted her price. Who ever has that experience at a luxury hotel? Of course we are kicking ourselves we didn’t say $ 150. We never will know what he would have said. Amazingly he had the authority to say yes to our offer. He didn’t have to ask anyone.
We were all still in shock about the accident, and didn’t know what to do. Courtney did notify higher ups in the Tour Agency that we thought the tour operator in the van was wrong telling our driver to go on and not stop.
We talked endlessly about it, and then went shopping (sounds callous, but at that point there was nothing more that we could do). We have developed a kinship with our driver over these last few days, and feel we need to protect him. We get the impression that he will have to pay for any damages out of his own pocket, no matter who was at fault.
Late tonight he will meet with someone who will cover the whole thing up. Bribes will be paid to the police; the injured parties will be indemnified. This is apparently the way it is done. We have told the driver that we will pay any costs that come out of his pocket, all though we really don’t know what we are signing up for.
This has been a horrible day, yet an enlightening day. I think we were witnesses to the other side of India. We are trying hard to not see it through Western Eyes, to us, it is all wrong, and shouldn’t be settled in this way. To the Indians or at least the ones we are dealing with (and who we like and respect) it appears to be the way things are done. Karma and Responsibility for Others are two polar concepts and that delineate the difference between East and West,
This is the part of India that we have a very hard time accepting.


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From a Tent to a Palace

We froze during the night. The temperature dropped to 45 degrees and the tents are unheated! We got up shivering and decided we couldn’t take a shower in the tent. In fact, we didn’t know how to take a shower in the tent. They brought in a warm bucket of water and there was a hose connected to a nozzle to rinse you off. We couldn’t exactly understand where the water was supposed to go once you started spraying yourself.

We then remembered that we were at a Camel Festival. If we could stand the smell of the camels, they should be able to stand our smell. So we washed a little bit and headed over to the food tent. The entire city of Pushkar is Vegetarian and they had a veg (as they call it in India) buffet..

The male help at the Tent Village wear a single 3 meter long piece of cloth that they can fold and shape into pants. It is amazing. I wanted to try, so they dressed me. It is very complicated, but we took pictures at every stage and I plan to show Billy and Kevin so they can try it.

We then hopped in our van and were driven as close to the center of Pushkar as the police would allow. Because of terrorism, at all large gatherings there are a lot of police presence. We started walking, trying to find the only Brahman Temple in India. A whole lot of other people were also trying to find the Temple. We joined the crowd, ever alert for pickpockets, and fake priests. We had been warned!

The narrow streets were lined on both sides by cheap stalls selling food and other items. In the streets were tourists, most with outrageously large cameras, pilgrims coming for a holy bath and poor and maimed people begging. We finally found our way to the famed temple. An Indian man speaking in English said we had to remove our shoes before entering the temple (mandatory in all Hindu, Moslem, and Buddhist Temples) and leave our cameras, cell phones and purses behind before entering the holy temple. Ferris and Courtney went first, we held all their belongings. They returned with a guide they had picked up in the Temple. The guide took us into the temple. He spoke fast, we learned nothing. The one thing we he made clear was that lots of people give lots of money to the temple.

He then took us to the Holy Lake of Pushkar. This is the highlight of the Pushkar festival if you are a Hindu. A bath in the sacred waters of Pushkar is a special ritual, but the lake had been drained and not yet refilled. Like much of India’s infrastructure, the project was running late. So now the sacred lake was a big mud hole with some tiny tanks in which the pilgrims could take their ritual bath.

Our guide directed us down to stairs leading to the fake lake. All of a sudden he split us up, instructing us to sit on different levels of the ghat with our own private priest who started chanting, and throwing flowers, and dotting our heads with colors. He said he was speaking the ancient language of Sanskrit, blessing my dead parents, in-laws and I think Barack Obama. As he chanted in Sanskrit he made me repeat the words. Some think I can’t speak English well, you can imagine how my Sanskrit was. At last the prayers ended, and he asked for money. Now I was on familiar ground, bargaining with an Indian. He said I should pay 2000 Rupees, feed a family for a week earn good Karma. I suggested 500 Rupees, put the family on a diet. He came down to 1500 Rupees, families were Veg, didn’t eat expensive meat. I was ready to counter with 500 rupees, rice was a fine staple. Then I wondered why is a priest bargaining? Was he speaking Sanskrit or chanting a popular song? I then started to wonder: was he a priest? The bargain was struck, I paid less than I wanted, I left. Group consensus - Indian hucksters 1 American tourists 0.

When I went to pay him, my wallet was missing from the man-purse I was carrying. This was getting ugly. When did someone have an opportunity to pinch my wallet? Oh the troubles I foresaw. The loss of a lot of money - it was the least of my worries, It was the credit cards, how would they be replaced in India?

Well, nothing to do, so we walked over to the fairgrounds to watch the camels and the horses and look at people selling stuff we wouldn’t ever want to buy. We were now almost at noon on the 1st of our 3 days in dusty, grimy, ugly Pushkar, sleeping in a freezing tent at night, sweating during the day, and not being able to take a shower. We returned to our tents to plot our next move. Our tent had been cleaned, and sitting on the table was my wallet, with all its cards and money, nothing was touched. This is what restores your faith in India. The people who were running the Tent Village were honorable and extremely nice. In fact, in spite of it all we decided we liked the Tent Village more than Pushkar. However, we do like our daily showers, so we decided it was time to leave Pushkar and find somewhere else in Rajasthan to visit.

Here is a short note about our tour operator. This is the first private tour we have ever taken. We worked out our own itinerary, they provide, drivers, tickets, hotels, etc. The joy of it is we can change our mind and they are exceptional in accommodating us. We told them we want out of the tent village and get us to Jodhpur. Turns out it is too long to drive so they suggest we drive and spend the night at a Heritage Hotel in Nimaj called the Nimaj Palace.

I am not sure how what happened next happened, but somehow Cliff and Cathy had a fantastic 1 ½ massage while we were waiting in our Tent Village to leave.
We thought it was a short massage, but it seemed to never end, finally Courtney and Ferris, came into the massage room and suggested we get moving. At that point Cathy and I both thought of spending a few more days in the tent village, as long as we could get continual massages might not be that bad.

At any rate, we got in our van and left at 4pm for the Nimaj Palace. I have a very detailed map of India with me and we couldn’t find Nimaj on it. Warning sign? We drove into the biggest traffic jam we have ever been in. If Indian driving is crazy, and it is, this was insanity. Trucks stopped for miles, cars driving on all sides of the roads, cows, an occasional ambulance, people walking across the stopped the traffic. It was a nightmare. People are driving around the stopped trucks, they have left the highway, and are driving on dirt, throwing dust everywhere. Our driver, drives on, constantly getting cell calls, occasionally stopping to ask questions. 4 hours latter we are in the middle of nowhere and he takes a tiny dirt turnoff, and we drive for a while, until we reach a village. More stopping and asking questions, the villagers point him up a narrow lane, we think it is impossible for the van to travel on, it is so narrow. We go thru archways that have a clearance of less than an inch on each side. We are forced to make a right hand turn into a driveway that we think can not be navigated..

We go thru an archway, and there is a Palace in front of us. We made it! We check in, wash up and head to the dining room for drinks and dinner. The man that checks us into the Palace comes by and starts telling us about the palace. It has been in the same family for 300 years. The royalty stills lives there. He is their first cousin there will be 45 guests tomorrow night. Tonight there are 4 guests: us. The Palace is ours, alone.

He then regales us with stories of Rajasthan warriors and the kingdoms that formed the state. Cathy and I have read many novels and histories of this area and his stories were true. From the fake mumbo-jumbo in Pushkar, a real Royal was telling us of his family’s history.

Then to top it off, they served us, unquestionably the best dinner we have had in India prepared by the family’s personal cooks. No menu, the food was served family style, in unending portions. We each had our favorites; mine was the Gobi (Cauliflower) and an incredible desert. He promised me the recipe for the Cauliflower tomorrow.

We started walking towards our palace rooms and heard music, it turns out there is Sikh Temple nearby and we were hearing the live beautiful music.

Somehow this day that started out so miserably in Pushkar, ended up magically in a Palace in the village of Namaj.

On to Pushkar

We left our Haveli in Jaipur and headed for the Camel Festival in Pushkar.
The drive to Pushkar is across very dry land, reminding me of the desert Southwest. The road was crammed with trucks, busses and camels.
It is hard to believe, yet true, that camels are still used to transport people and goods in this part of India. We also passed many marble stores, for this is where much of the marble that is used in India comes from.

We arrived at our little tent village. We have been staying at Heritage Hotels. This is a heritage tent, which means, primitive showers, no heat, electric lanterns, and no safes for valuables. In addition, the sand on which the tents were pitched was peppered with camel thorns, a needle like thorn that embeds itself into your shoes, clothing, piercing your skin with little daggers. We knew we were heading out to the middle of no where, so we brought lots of wine.

They showed us twice how to take a shower in the tent, we will probably sponge bath and hope for the best.

We ate dinner at our camp, and have retired to our tent. It is cold at night here in Rajasthan and scorching hot during the day. Our plan is to be out by 8:30am and return by noon for lunch, and then wait out the heat and return to the festival about 4pm. During the downtime, maybe I will find either an internet café or a place for a massage and a real shower.

Tomorrow we discover Pushkar.

Weddings and Elephants

I stayed back at the hotel for the day while Cathy, Ferris and Courtney went shopping. My voice had started to return. Now it is all back. I had an Ayurvedic massage (this is an ancient healing massage from Southern India). It involves lots of oil,

About 4:30 they picked me up to drive to the top a nearby mountain to visit the Nahargarh (Tiger) Fort. The fort has a view of all of Jaipur. It is only inhabited now by monkeys. It is like a giant jungle gym for them, as they scamper around it. Although it is called a fort, and is surrounded by massive walls, it is actually a collection of palaces,that are being rehabilitated.

Our guide, Vikram, told us about his life. He comes from a village about 200 kilometers from Jaipur. He is from minor nobility and the Maharaja of his domain is a wastrel, who has not kept up with the times. Vikram is from the Warrior Caste, and very proud of it. Vikram will one day be the Thakur (one level down from a Maharaja) with authority over several villages.

We walked along the walls of the fort, and it is impossible to understand how so much could be built in such difficult terrain. I have this image in my mind of the Raj (King) saying “I think we will build a new fort with massive walls up on top of that mountain” and 100,000 workers shaking their heads at their bad luck.

We then drove to dinner. Today was an auspicious day for weddings and there supposedly 1500 weddings yesterday. There were weddings palaces set up all over the city for elaborate buffets, complete with groom arriving on White Horse, Elephants, and fireworks. Weddings are a big part of Indian life and they really do it up. We crashed one for a bit that was next to where we ate, (they didn’t seem to mind).

India has over 1 billion people (I have no idea how they can accurately count them). On this trip I think we have seen them all. We are overwhelmed by the sheer number of people we see everywhere we go. It is projected in about 10 years India will have more people than China. How they will create the infrastructure to support that many people is beyond me.

Today we head for the city of Pushkar. We will be staying in a luxury tent. That is our version of roughing it. People visit Pushkar as a pilgrimage site, but for 7 days a year it is where all of Rajasthan comes to trade camels. There will be loads of camels, but will there be wifi so I can post to the blog? We will find out!

Indian Medical System

Jaipur is a shopper’s town. There are lots of textile and jewelry stores. It is all about the bargaining. It is part of the culture, but difficult for Americans to do. They usually beat us! We had hired two women that live in Jaipur to be our guides to their favorite stores. They were interesting, both British, One lives here with her husband and has a tour company, the other is a vet, that comes to Jaipur to work for a charity that assists with helping street dogs (there are many in India).

Cathy spilled some food on her white Kurta, the staff used fresh limes to remove the stain. It was a good trick to learn.

The traffic here is terrible; the city was a planned city from the 1700’s. They obviously didn’t’ plan on cars, busses, trucks, bicycles, motorbikes, pedestrians and rickshaws. The narrow gates to fortified city get unbelievably congested.

Sitting in our van, it fun watching the congestion. It is complete chaos to our eyes. We constantly think we are going to be in an accident! I have developed laryngitis and can’t talk, which makes everyone happy I am sure. They took me to a Doctor yesterday. He had a 15 minute appointment with me looked in my throat, etc. Then he prescribed some anti-histamine. The cost of the doctor visit was 200 rupees (about $ 4.00). The medicine cost 20 rupees.

Our Haveli is located in the Muslim area of Jaipur and we are surrounded by Mosques. We seem to always be having a bottle of wine outside by the pool when the Call to Prayer is issues from the Mosques loud speakers. Each call sounds different and we have our favorites. The call to prayer is one of the most special things about being in a Muslim area. We really enjoy it!

Sharpen Your Pencil

We sadly left our Palace on the hill, and headed towards Jaipur. The pink city. The walls of most of the buildings are painted a pinkish tone. The city is very crowded and noisy. It is famous for its jewelry stores. Need I say more?

On the way our travels had been slowed by a new road hazard, camels carts. There are lots of camel carts in Rajasthan. Because the camels are brown, I think of the camel carts as UPS of India!

In a lot of Bollywood movies you see people on top of a bus as it drives down the road singing songs. People really do ride on top of the busses. We first went to the village of Kala Dera where they do Hand Block Printing using a resist process called Dabu that uses mud to create the designs.

We finally got t drive o the Anokhi Museum near the magnificent Amber Fort. The fort is situated high on a mountain. The museum is situated in a run down little village that is slowly being restored. I was amazed that the van we were in could navigate thru the narrow streets. The Museum is in a restored Haveli (mansion). It is very informative. We were the only people in the museum.

We finally arrived in Jaipur and after a quick snack, went jewelry shopping. The Indians live to bargain. I used my best “Sharpen Your Pencil Skills”, and was pleased with the outcome.

We are staying in the Samode Haveli in the center of Old Jaipur, amazingly it is very quiet, with a beautiful pool area and gardens. Cocktails, We had cocktails by the pool and then had dinner in the interior courtyard, while listening to a small Indian group play Sitar music.

I think there are two more days of shopping in our future.

A Day in the Village of Samode

We woke up in our palace (nice way to start a blog entry, no?) and had breakfast. Our plan was to visit the small village right outside the Palace gates and down the mountainside a bit. At breakfast two of the waiters invited us to come to their home in the village. You can read about the Palace by clicking HERE.

A jeep drove us down the hill, to the center of the village. We got out and the waiters were there to greet us. We went to his house where they make and sell bangles. The bangles are all made by hand. The use the sap of trees heating the mixture so they can work with it. This is all done with primitive tools. The women then decorate the bangles. The house is very Spartan, it has been in the family since at least the 1800’s. Multiple generations of bangle artisans have lived there. It is a multigenerational home and he took us to his room, where he lives with his wife and two small children. It is there only private space, the children sleep with them in the same bed. He showed us his wedding pictures. Indians have very elaborate and expensive weddings. He had 400 – 500 guests. There were pictures of the dowry he received. He had not met his wife until the wedding night. She was from a village approximately 100 kilometers away. All marriages here are arranged, no love marriages. His wife is very pretty. We met her, she speaks no English. The women and men live separate lives. The men eat with the men, the women with the women. It appears to work!

While we were shopping for bangles a young pretty girl came and swept the street in front of the house. They explained to us that she was from a sweeper caste. They were employed by the families to keep the street clean in front of their house. They could not touch the people or let them into their home. They paid them one roti (piece of bread) per day. On a festival day they might give them some clothes or money. This is the first time I personally seen that the “Untouchable Class” now called dalits, really still exists in India.

We then went to another small house front that served as a store for a cobbler that makes shoes and slippers. Because he is working with leather, I assume he is also of a lower cast or possibly a Muslim.

Finally we went to another house where a jeweler displayed his wares. He had many gem stones and had created necklaces, rings, bracelets, etc. Rubies and sapphires were aplenty. The three women had great fun sifting thru the jewelry and trying things on. At the end I was the chief negotiator as we bargained. The young jeweler was leaving next month on a Haj to Mecca. We talked briefly about the fact that in this village there is no inter-communal problems and the Hindus and Muslims get along just fine. They invite each other to their festivals and are friends.

Goats, Pigs, and monkeys roamed the few small streets. Everyone knows everyone it this village. We have been using our small but ever growing vocabulary of Hindi words. Everyone likes the fact that we try and are always trying to assist us. Even when I know the word, the way that I pronounce it can be misinterpreted. I found out that one of the words that I had been using was similar to describing a sex act the way that I pronounced it. The villager suggested I don’t try to pronounce it at all and speak the word in English.

We went for a late afternoon massage, then relaxed for before dinner. Once again we ate at the Palace outside on a deck. Rajasthan food is delicious. It is less spicy then some other regional foods of India. Several bottles of wine later we retreated to our room. We heard and saw lots of fireworks exploding over the Palace. Tomorrow we check out and leave our Palace to drive the hour and half off the mountain and back to Jaipur. It has been really exciting living like a Maharaja in this Palace. The staff has been amazingly nice to us. We know their names and treat them like friends.

We love Mumbai and Delhi, but there is an entirely different experience visiting and making friends with people in Indian Villages. There is an honesty and simplicity about their lives that is so foreign to us. They are very poor and our money definitely helps them, but you feel the relationship between the villagers and us is more than a financial transaction. They are genuinely nice and striving to better themselves but holding on the ways and the traditions of the village.

Tomorrow we check-in to a Havali that has been renovated to be a guest house. Haveli is the name for a large mansion. It will be an adventure to stay in one. I don’t know If it will have Internet, so we may or may not be blogging!

Living the Life of a Maharajah

Don’t Show it to me if I can’t buy it!

We woke up and had breakfast outside at our hotel. After checking out Ferris joined us for the remainder of the trip. She had flown in from New Jersey, arriving last night. We didn’t know how jet lagged she would be but, she was up and ready to go.

We headed off to the National Art Museum of India. It is arranged chronologically from the most ancient Indian civilizations to the modern period. It is encyclopedic in nature. They have an excellent audio guide that not only explained the art object that you were looking at, but gave historical background. To me the highlights were two. The Buddhist Statuary that reminds us that at one time India was Buddhist and it is where he lived much of his life. Buddhism was eventually driven out of India, with the re-emergence of Hinduism (some say it was absorbed into Hinduism). The other highlight was the extensive collection of Mughal miniature paintings. There were hundreds of them at the museum. There is no way you can take them all in, rather you simply pick a few read the captions and marvel at the details.

We then drove to the Crafts Museum. It is an entire complex, with collections of many different types of Indian crafts and folk arts. Cathy and I had been there before and Ferris and Courtney wanted to see it. It has absolutely the most comprehensive collection of Indian textiles any of has ever seen. They occupy an entire floor. There are hundreds of saris, rugs, dresses, etc. It is amazing to see all of the different designs and weaving techniques. Outside of the museum there are stalls set up by Indian State selling the type of crafts created in each state. At the museum store Courtney spotted a beautiful representation of the God Jagannath. She asked the salesperson to show it to her. When she asked how much it costs, he said it isn’t for sale, it was his personal idol as he was a devote of the God Jagannath.

We then drove to the airport to fly to Jaipur. Upon arrival we were packed into a van and driven thru the dark for an hour and half. We drove up a very narrow dirt mountain road. We passed thru several huge stone gates and then arrived at our destination: Samode Palace. We left our van in front of the darkened palace and walked into a courtyard. The guide told us to close our eyes. When we opened them the palace was lit up like a giant toy doll house. It was beautiful. The palace is huge. The service people are amazing. Our suite is huge. I have to leave lights on so that Cathy can find her way to the bathroom!

We had a late dinner outside in a courtyard and started to walk back to our room. One of the attendants stopped us and asked us if we wanted to see something special. He took us into a wing of the palace that is called the hall of mirrors. It is comprised of several rooms in pristine condition that are ornately decorated in Mughal style. The Maharajah still lives visits here. Tomorrow we stay in our hill top palace and visit the very small adjacent village of Samode. We really haven’t heard the story of this palace and the Maharajah who owns it, but tomorrow I am sure that we will. For a couple of days we will be in a different world from the chaos and poverty of India.

Delhi then on to Jaipur

We flew to Delhi today from Bhubaneshwar. Delhi, of course, is the capital of India. Originally under the Raj Calcutta was. Delhi is an ancient city. In the early 20th century they built New Delhi directly next to Delhi. Delhi is now a shadow of what it was under the Mughal emperors. Its twisted lanes are mostly filled with small stores, its streets amazingly crowded. It is Muslim in character. New Delhi is vast and spread out. It is where the government buildings and embassies are located. It has broad boulevards and tree line streets. It has lots of parks. What it doesn’t have is many stop lights. New Delhi was designed with round-a-bouts and these circular intersections eliminate the need for stop lights.

After checking into our hotel we took a cab to Connaught Place. It is one of the central shopping and business areas of Delhi. Think of it as Times Square / 42nd Street before there was any reservation. It has an amazing amount of people, cars, vendors, a cacophony of noise. We went to an underground shopping arcade that was a tacky as you can possibly imagine. Cathy had read of store that we wanted to visit, and to our amazement we found it. After some shopping we returned to the hotel for drinks. Courtney stayed at the hotel and Cathy and I went out for a VERY spicy Punjabi dinner. Ferris arrived tonight in Delhi and will be joining us. The four of us head off for Jaipur tomorrow.

I took no pictures today, so I am posting some from the last few days.

Where we are going there might not be Internet so Blogging will be intermittent.

Ashoka

We decided that we actually had planned an extra day in Orissa that wasn’t needed, so we worked with our local operators to change our itinerary. They were amazingly cooperative and fast in executing our changes.

We started off in Puri going to a potting village. We almost cut this out of our itinerary. We are thankful that we didn’t. It was a wonderful experience. The village was actually in the city of Puri. I expected them to be selling all kinds of pots to tourists. I was happily mistaken. We walked down narrow dirt streets, with potters working in almost every small house. The pots, however, were not meant for tourists, but in fact were being made for Hindu Temple services. No one tried to sell us anything.

The dirt street was too narrow for a car to drive down, and we walked quite a distance. It appeared there was a small temple almost every 50 yards. They were dedicated to various Gods: Shiva, Vishnu, Kali and especially Jagannath, the reason we were in Puri.

Puri is one of the 4 most holy cities in India. At the end of their lives many Indians try to make a pilgrimage to all 4 of the cities, spread across the vast sub-continent. If they can only go to one Puri would be it. The God Jagannath is one of the cutest Gods going. He is an incarnation of Vishnu and is always shown with his sister and brother. He is the one on the right, in black face. They are always shown smiling. A fun God.

We drove towards the giant Jagannath Temple complex. Eventually we couldn’t drive any farther and we got out of our van and joined the hoards of people walking towards the Temple. It was extremely hot, and we stopped occasionally in the shade. We were surrounded by beggars, lots of people with leprosy and other diseases heading towards the immense towers of the walled in Temple. Non-Hindus could not enter, all we could do was approach it and observe the crush of people. It is from the constant crush of people that the word juggernaut was derived. There is a private very old library overlooking the temple complex and our guide had secured for us the ability to climb to its roof overlooking the temple complex. He was issued a large stick to scare away any monkey’s that would come to bother us. Luckily none did, although we saw many monkey’s climbing over the temple and the surrounding houses.

It was truly was a seen out of a Cecil B. DeMille Production as we watched the hoards of devotees streaming down the very noisy street. We left our vantage point and walked around the complex. When we returned from where we started we hired rickshaws to take us back to our van. We were exhausted from the sights, sounds, people, heat and experience.

We then drove to a village where they paint on canvas typical Indian Images and stories. The paintings were wonderful. As we walked through the village everyone wanted us to go into their house to see their paintings. It was very hard to say no, but you really didn’t know which one to enter. We visited a few, and then got lucky. We found wonderful pieces including a palm leaf painting. It looks like a venetion blind, and is created from palm leaves that are engraved and then painted. It is amazing. They said it took 6 months to make, we don’t doubt it. Somehow we will find room for it. It is wonderful to visit these various craft villages where these arts are maintained from generation to generation. I only hope it continues.

We then went to one of the highlights of our trip to Orissa. We visited the Buddhist Peace Pagoda. We could see it from the highway - a giant Buddhist Stupa. It shinned white and dominated the land from the top of a hill. It was here in 260 BC that one of bloodiest and most important wars of India was fought. Ashoka the Great, a fierce and ruthless Indian King fought and defeated the Kingdom of Kalinga (now Orissa) on the plains below the hill we were now standing upon. Over 100,000 warriors were killed. Hundreds of thousand were injured. The toll was staggering. Ashoka, who was feared by all, amazingly was horrified by the destruction that he had created. He adopted Buddhism and became a believer in non-violence. He spread Buddhism all over India. He built 85,000 Ashoka towers proclaiming his principles of non-violence. We knew all about Ashoka from both our reading about Indian history and the Bollywood movie Ashoka, starring Shah Rukh Khan – a fictionalized but enjoyable account.

It turned out this giant Peace Pagoda was not built eons ago, but rather built in the 1960’s. It was crawling with tourists.

We descended from the hill in our van, and then one of the most amazing events of our trip happened. The van stopped and the four of us got out. We walked down a small path; we were the only people there. No other tourists were to be seen. Our guide then walked us to a very large rock formation where there was the front half of an elephant carved into the stone. It was carved on Ashoka’s order right after the battle. The Elephant is the symbol of Buddhism. At the base of the rock formation was a small locked room. It was unlocked for us and we entered. One side of the room was the rock formation. On the rocks were inscribed the original Edicts from Ashoka, to bring non-violence to the land. We were looking at the actual writings from 260 BC that established Buddhism in India. Somehow the hoards of people looking at the huge white Stupa had missed the real basis for why Orissa is so important in Indian Spiritual Life. All they had to do was look down and not up.

We then returned to our Hotel for our last night in the State of Orissa. At the hotel each night after dinner we listened in the courtyard to an amazing woman singer. We loved the music that she and her group performed. I tried to find out her name and I am sure she has never recorded any music. I finally simply left my card and hope she emails me. If she does, somehow I hope to get some of her music. We shall see, if it is in my future. Tomorrow we return to Delhi.

Sun Temple is Hot

When we had breakfast at the hotel the hostess asked us where we were from. We replied the US, she asked what does your money look like? She had never seen American money and asked the relative value. She was so appreciative that I had two simultaneous thoughts: 1. I should give her a $5.00 bill. 2. This was a con job to get me to feel guilty and give her a bill. So after some deliberations I decided to give her a $5.00 bill. She said she wouldn’t take it. Glad to be able to eliminate the con job thought.

We drove to the town of Puri. It is located on the Bay of Bengal. We are staying at a resort directly on the beach. The ride to Puri was becoming routine for us. We knew we wouldn’t be killed or hit a cow. We have become at one with Indian driving.

We stopped at a village that makes appliqué items. It was definitely in the folk art tradition. Like most artistic villages, everyone does the same thing, so there were lots of stalls selling similar items.

We then went to Konark to see the spectacular Sun Temple, which is one of the chief attractions of Orissa. It once was a huge temple surrounded by the sea, but now it is a monument. The temple built in the 13th century, has 12 huge stone wheels to give the appearance of a giant chariot. There are sculptures of the Sun God that looked amazingly Egyptian. You can climb stairs around the outside of the structure but the entrances were sealed by the British in 1907 because of fear of structural failure.

The sides of the temples are carved with statuary, much of it pornographic in nature. Our guide said that modern day Indian males in this area are so sexually repressed that on the day before their wedding they visit the Sun Temple to get a sexual education of the possibilities awaiting them.

Talking about Marriage and Sex in Bhubaneshwar here are two links to the local newspaper: The Bhubaneshwar Statesman.

One article is about a gay married couple living in a village, the other about
a marriage that can’t happen because a herd of elephants have inhabited the forest between two villages, preventing the respective bride and groom, who live on opposite sides of the forest, from seeing each other. Because the couple is afraid of crossing the forest, the marriage has been called off.

Click HERE to read about Gay Married Couple.

Click HERE to read about the elephants.

Getting There is Half the Fun!

Today was one of those days in India that transport you back hundreds of years. We drove out to visit two remote villages. Although they weren’t that far away from Bhubaneshwar it took us hours. The roads are terrible and the farther away from the city and the deeper into the countryside they get worse and worse. Narrow, pot holed and crowded with trucks, busses, wagons pulled by bullocks, cows meandering, sheep walking, goats playing in the middle of the road, bicycles, and people walking. We were enthralled. We constantly were stopping our van, getting out and taking pictures. The Indians who appear truly dirt poor are happy to have you take their picture. After we take the picture we show them on the camera their likeness. They give a nod or head wobble and appear pleased. They don’t ask for money to have their picture taken. The villages have no running water, women fill jugs from the pump and carry the water back to their houses. They bathe in nearby streams or ponds.

The driving is beyond comprehension. Everyone is honking their horns, and plowing ahead. Motorbikes which are the principal transportation are fearless. They often have an entire family on their bike, Mom, dad and two kids. We are amazed that people aren’t being killed constantly!

The heavy trucks are amazing. There are far more on the road than we see in Los Angeles, and they are travelling works of art. I would like to get a book of photos of Indian trucks. They are over-the-top in their decorations. Not only are they painted, but they have custom tin art work. Almost every truck is decorated. It is a movable art exhibit.

Adult women all wear saris, no matter how poor they are. Some women wear Salwar Kameez. You would never see a woman in jeans and a tee-shirt. Probably half of the men wear dhoti which are sarongs. They can be worn long or tucked up almost making them into shorts.

We first visited an ikat weaving village. As we were walking down the dirt lane there were women weaving textiles. We visited several of their shops and bought some items at ridiculously low prices. We bought something for Ferris. We guessed as to what she would like. A group of women of all ages were standing near a shrine making offerings of coconuts and bananas. There were maybe 30 of them. They would then make a clicking sound with their tongue that westerners could never replicate. We asked what was going on. We found out it one the once a year offering and prayer to keep the King Cobra away. We hoped it worked, and were much more conscious of what was slithering on the ground near us.

We were told we need to bring food for lunch because there was no place to buy food in the village. Naïve that we can sometimes be, we should have realized that there were also no bathrooms in the village. As we drove to the next village we stopped the van and found some tall bushes to shelter us.

The second village we drove to was a brass making village. They made small objects. It is amazing to be among these people; to us they appear to have nothing. Yet they live with a strong sense of family, community and religion. Most people that live in the villages stay in the villages. It is amazing to visit people so different from ourselves.

Sell Your Stocks!

We started off by going to see the Jain Caves near Bhubaneswar. Jainism is a very interesting Indian Religion. It was founded about the same time as Buddhism, sometime in the 6th century BC. The religion still survives in India. The adherents of the Jain religion are totally non-violent. They often wear white clothing and masks so they don’t inadvertently breathe in and kill and insect. Near Bhubaneshwar the Jain monks created a series of caves to live and meditate in. The Caves have been dated to 150 BC. We climbed up the rocky hills and entered the caves. Many had markings of Jain symbols and other deities.

There are lots of monkeys living on the hill and I was especially on guard after being attached by a monkey in Bali. No encounters this time, I am happy to report.
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After visiting the caves we drove to the Museum of Tribal Art & Artifacts. The State of Orissa has about 30 million residents. Approximately 20% are Tribal. That means they are not Hindu but animalistic worshipers, living in very primitive remote villages. The Orissa government protects them and documents their life style. This is an anthropologists dream. The museum stood in stark contrast to the State Museum that we visited on our first day in Orissa. The building is new, the items well documented and the staff very helpful. We really enjoyed the museum.

The library of the museum reminded me of something out of a novel about Indian Archives. Musty books, stacked to the ceiling, researchers drinking tea, documents literally falling apart from decay caused by the weather. It was amazing to see. You could smell the history of India. Not the sort of library that Ferris is used to working in, I am sure.

We returned to our hotel for lunch and rest. It is so hot that you really don’t want to be out from noon – 2pm or so.

In the afternoon we drove to the city Cuttack. Until 1950 it was the state capital. It is over 2000 years old. It is definitely run down, but charming. We walked around and had a great time just observing the people. The people of Cuttack also were enjoying observing us. They don’t get a lot of western tourists that is for sure!
They have many shrines to the Goddess Kali. This is an avatar of Shiva’s consort Parvoti, or Durga. She is depicted as black and is associated with destruction. We are living in the Age of Kali according to Hindu Mythology. Our guide explained that the Age of Kali ends, on Dec. 21st, 2012. It will be a BIG day. It is best to sell your stocks on Dec. 20, 2012. You have been warned!

Through out the day we continued our discussion with our guide of the Gods and Goddesses of Hindu Mythology. It is very complex with gods having avatars and multiple names. They are certain visual clues that help one identify the gods. For example Shiva has a trident, Laxshmi sits on a lotus flower, etc. However each time you think you have it figured out, you find a different name or incarnation. It is fun to try to understand the mythology.

We walked around the town, everywhere vendors selling food, and silver items, jewelry, brass utensils, etc. I saw a vendor that sells the colors used to create decorative drawings at the doorway of a house.. We then drove back to Bhubaneshwar.

Never have I seen such traffic. There are a million people living in Bhubaneshwar and they all want to walk, drive, or cross the road at the same time. I am sure there is a method to how they drive, but to me, it appears they simply never yield to anyone in a smaller vehicle and barge through honking their horn all the time. It is amazing there aren’t more accidents. The concept of driving is obviously completely different from how we do view it, yet it appears to work. We did eventually get back to our Hotel, had dinner and talked about tomorrow’s adventure. All I really know is where we are going there is NO food / drink available. Eat a big breakfast and bring lots of water.

Crowded Roads and Ancient Temples

We started off the day visiting a series of Hindu Temples. Most of the Temples in this area are Shiva Temples. You can tell they are Shiva Temples because they will have a trident; Vishnu Temples have a wheel; an active temple has a flag. If it is a Brahman Temple you are in the city of Pushkar because there is only one Brahman Temple in India. Confused? Don’t worry - there are millions of Hindu Gods and we have a very difficult time keeping track of them. In fact, Indians don’t keep track of them. Most Indian families adopt a single God and worship through him or her.

No matter, the temples we visited are fabulous. The oldest was from the 6th century. When you enter them you smell hundreds of years of incense. The Hindu religion is beyond my comprehension but it clearly holds the Indian people together. Interestingly, you hear many complaints about the priests (here they can marry, so it isn’t about sex, it is about money). In every area of India that we have visited the temples are different. Here in Orissa, they are elaborately carved beehive looking structures with stories of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the epic stories of India, carved in stone. Although we have been to India several times now, we still can’t keep the story straight. We did buy a children’s comic book rendition of the story that might assist us!

By noon, the weather here was extremely hot, and we went back to our hotel to cool off. There appears to be two kinds of people in the city of Bhubaneswar: those driving crazily on the roads which are unbelievably congested, and those who seem to sit by the side of the road, or in front of their shops doing nothing. The regions tourist industry has been devastated by killings that have occurred in the Tribal Areas. Basically, Christian missionaries have tried to convert the indigenous tribes that are animistic, and extremely religions Hindus have been killing the Christian Missionaries. Speaking of the joys of religion, notice in the picture the Lion on top of the Elephant. Lion = Hindu, Elephant = Buddhism, a reminder that although Buddhism flourished in India, Hinduism prevails.

There are 7000 temples here in Orissa. We won’t see them all! The afternoon was devoted to shopping and walking around in the market. Ever see Teeth Cleaning for 10 Rupees? That is 25 cents. That would put some Beverly Hills Dentists out of business. Cathy and Courtney both had Salwar Kameez custom tailored for them. A Salwar Kameez is the Indian women’s wear that isn’t a saree. They picked out ikat textiles, a specialty of Orissa, which cost about $20.00 and then had their measurements taken. Each outfit, which includes pants and a top will cost them, $ 4.00 dollars to be made and will be ready in two days. That gives you some idea of the relative cost of living.

Did I mention it is hot?

We had Indian food at the Hotel, and sat outside listening to a live performance of music in the courtyard while we continued to drink. Great day.

Orissa

When we checked out of the Imperial Hotel in Delhi, the woman at the desk asked me where we were going. I said the state of Orissa. She responded No one who stays here goes to Orissa. Why are you going? This was a good sign that we were heading off the tourist path into a different part of India.

The State of Orissa is located south of Calcutta on the Bay of Bengal. The flight south and east from Delhi took two hours. We landed at the Capital of Orissa, Bhubaneshwar. Bet you never heard of that city! It was HOT! It is tropical, palm trees were growing everywhere.

The two national languages of India are Hindi and English. Many states in India have there own language and alphabet, as does Orissa. If an alphabet can be cute, Oriya the name of Orissa’s language qualifies. To our eyes it looks like it is made up of circles and kids drawings of elephants. All of our Hindi lessons are for naught here.

We went directly to the National Museum from the airport. It was a good introduction to the history of the arts and culture of Orissa. The museum is very run down. No air-conditioning, bad preservation, stale air. The contents on the other hand are fascinating. There are many tribal areas in the state. These are protected indigenous people that have their own language, traditions and animistic religions. They dress and live in distinctive ways. We saw a photo of a man living in a tribal village where EVERYONE dresses as a woman. The only way to tell if someone is a man or a woman is to look at their nose rings, 2 for a man, 3 for a woman. The 3 gods you see in the painting are images we see everywhere. Orissa is rich in arts and crafts.

We all felt that yesterday the prime exhibit at the museum was 3 western tourists. We were followed by curious people who starred at us, while we were looking at the paintings and objects (and sweating profusely). I think they were saying in Oriya “Someone has come to Bhubaneswar” .

Orissa was originally known as The Kingdom of Kalinga. The Indian Ruler Ashoka was a fierce warrior king who unified much of Northern India in bloody battles. He eventually went to war against the people of Kalinga and in the huge and terrible battle that ensued, thousands were killed. Ashoka was horrified of the deaths he had caused, and renounced violence. He became a Buddhist and spread the religion across South East Asia. Few rulers in the world have had such a profound personal change. He is remembered as a hero in India. To see the story in all of its Bollywood Splendor, rent the movie: Ashoka staring Shahrukh Khan from Netflix.

We then drove to our hotel and checked in. It is a gigantic complex covering 20 acres. It reminded us of San Simeon meets Las Vegas. We appear to be the only non-Indians staying at the hotel. We like that. I went to put our valuables (such as they are) in the room safe. The safe moved. I lifted the safe up and carried it to show Cathy. We laughed hysterically. Safes are supposed to be attached and not portable. We used it anyway and hope that no one walks off with it. After resting, cleaning up and having drinks at the bar we went to one of the many restaurants in the hotel. We had to be guided to it. It served Orissa food. It was very good! During the meal a magician came by and entertained us. We are talking tourist experience. However, the guy was damn good. We are not sure how he performed his tricks so it was a fun experience.

Diwali

Today Diwali (the festival of lights) finally arrived. This is one of the biggest festivals in India. It is celebrated at home with family and LOTS of fireworks.
All of the museums are closed, and many of the stores.

We decided to go to Old Delhi. The Delhi of the Mughal Emperors, is now an amazingly congested area of winding streets and tiny stores and stalls. We had previously been to Chandni Chowk (the main commercial area) but did not have a chance to really explore it. The area is so congested, that it’s very easy to get lost. Most tourists rent a rickshaw and sit back and enjoy the ride. You never get off the rickshaw so you never get a chance to go in the stores or mingle with the people. It does guarantee that you will get back to where you started however.

We had purchased an Indian Cell Phone, and figured we could just walk into Chandni Chawk and call our driver when we were done. As soon as we started to walk, several people came up to us and were offering to guide us through the maze. We refused all, and continued to walk. A young Indian man with a crutch, (he was missing a leg) pointed us in the direction we wanted to go, and helped us cross the street. He became our guide, and we were all the luckier for it. He never asked to be a guide, never quoted a price, he just led us through the maze of streets, understood what we were looking for and took us to some interesting vendors.

It was hard for us to keep up with this one legged man and he practically sprinted ahead of us with his one crutch and good leg. He spoke perfect English and was always watching out for us. We spent many hours as we navigated the Muslim area of Delhi. We eventually took a rickshaw ride back towards the general direction we had entered the maze. Everywhere they were selling fireworks for the big night. When we finally were finished, I called our driver and Abdullah, our guide, explained to our driver where we were and we were promptly picked up. He never asked us for money, but we tipped him enough that I am sure that this was his happiest Diwali ever!

We then drove from the congested, old Delhi to Kahn Market. Many of the stores had closed for Diwali, so walked around for awhile and then had a late lunch. We returned to the hotel and got dressed for our Diwali night.

We were driven by our driver to a suburb of Delhi named Gurgaon. It is called Little Singapore. It could be anywhere in the world. It was generic high-rises being built everywhere. There was building after building of very flashy architecture, without at hint of India. There used to be a rural village, but now modern high rise buildings occupy most of the old farmland. Delhi is out of room and India is growing.

We were driven to a part of Gurgaon that had survived - tree line streets with typical Indian multistory multi-generational houses. This being Diwali and India the homes were decorated with lots of lights. We had been invited to celebrate Diwali with our tour operator’s family. The house had a large living room with a marble floor. In the middle of the floor a complex alter had been laid out with pictures of Ganesha (the Elephant Headed God – remover of obstacles), and Lakshmi (the Goddess of wealth). Surrounding them were all kinds of flowers, bananas, coconuts, vessels of water and unlit candles. A young priest was also in attendance..

The bad news is they don’t serve wine; the good news is they do serve Scotch. So we sat around met the members of family drank the scotch and talked. It was then time for some serious puja (prayer ceremony).

I was selected to do the offerings. The Priest chanted away in ancient Sanskrit and I was directed to light candles, shake water, throw rice, throw flowers, decorate statues, etc. I did my best to make these offerings at the appropriate god, goddess, coconut or fire at the appropriate time. The ceremony went on for what must have been nearly 20 minutes. I had never thrown offerings for that long before and one time one of my flower pitch landed on a candle and extinguished it. All of a sudden I worried I had offended the goddess of wealth and the stock market was going to drop 500 points. We relit the candle and hopefully Lakshmi’s attention was elsewhere and the stock market will continue its drive.

After all of the ceremonies we went outside and lit fireworks and sparkers in the street. The whole neighborhood (in fact all of India) was ablaze with fireworks this night. The sound of the explosions of fireworks surrounded us. We then had dinner with the family. They both cooked food and brought in food. After dinner we were driven back to our hotel. The whole drive into Delhi the sky was constantly illuminated by fireworks from seemingly every household. We completed our packing in preparation for our departure tomorrow to the state of Orissa.


Click the YouTube above to see Cathy light up the night!

Little Diwali

Today is Little Diwali. Tomorrow is the main event. This is a BIG holiday in India. It is the celebration of lights, going back to the Ramayana stories of Ram’s return from the forest after being banished there. Apparently they had fireworks then and so…

At any rate we had breakfast at the hotel. It is a very luxurious hotel and the breakfast was delicious. It was served buffet style and you could choose from many treats. We especially liked the yogurt that was flavored with fresh fruits.

Our driver Vijay picked us up and we left for a day of shopping and sightseeing. He remembered us from last year and it was fun traveling with him. Cliff and Cathy had been taking Hindi lessons for the last few months and got to practice with Vijay as we drove thru the traffic. He would make a good teacher and we called him guruji in honor!

Ferris, here in spirit only, (she joins us next week) would have loved our mad dash from store to store as we tried on outfits rejecting some and buying others.
We went mainly to stores we had previously been to: Ogaan, Attire, Pratap. We are soon going to have serious luggage space problems. Oh well, we have overcome that is issue in the past.

We then were driven to Lodhi Gardens. These beautiful gardens are filled with walking paths, lily ponds and ancient monuments. The city of Delhi has had 7 different rulers over the millenniums. Each has left their mark in the form of monuments that are scattered throughout this beautiful city. Well at least New Delhi is beautiful, Old Delhi, being far older and congested would more appropriately be called charming. It is where most of the tourists go because of the Red Fort, the gigantic mosque and the lanes that twist this way and that under telephone and power cables that are attached like cobwebs above you.

After walking the park and climbing in and out of some old monuments we returned to the Hotel where they were preparing for Little Diwali (the day before the real one). On the large back lawn they had arranged free sweets (the traditional Diwali gift – if you don’t count bottles of scotch exchanged) and fireworks. We ordered a bottle of wine and sat back and enjoyed the pyrotechnics. The world over people like to view fireworks. I guess it fills some primitive need to know gunpowder is going off and not being shot at them!

We then had dinner at the hotel and went to sleep. Tomorrow is the big Diwali.

Day in Delhi - Keep me awake!

Our first day in Delhi on this trip was a prefect rest and restore from the arduous flights. We had been on planes for 24 hours and even though we took pills and slept, it still isn’t quality sleep. We flew business class on Lufthansa Airlines and even though the chairs make up into individual lay flat beds, it is not the same as sleeping in or beds at home. We arrived in Delhi about 7:00am and after clearing customs and converting our dollars into Rupees left the relative tranquility of the airport for the hustling, jostling noisy, drive to our hotel. There is a vibrancy everywhere of people on the move, people hanging out, rich people being driven in Mercedes, politicians in convoys preceded by white Ambassador Cars with lights flashing on their roofs. Poor and maimed stood by the side of the road selling trinkets or just begging. People are walking, cycling on bikes, motorbikes and other contraptions. Construction is everywhere as the city is preparing for the Common Wealth Games next year.

As we drove down a main street by Connaught Place (a central circular park in Lytton’s planned New Delhi) we drove past all kinds of hawkers selling shirts, saris, and everything else you could think of arranged on the sidewalk. They would be occasional rousted by the police and have to move,

We came across several guards standing in front of very heavy steel gates. The gate swung open, our car was examined for explosives, and we driven into The Hotel Imperial, isolated in splendor like you would have seen in the 1920’s during the British Raj. The place is magnificent with a giant pool, vast lawns, many bars, and phenomenal service. We knew immediately we would like our stay here!

We were still a little jet lagged so after unpacking, I went for a great massage in the hotel. The massage used lots of warm almond oil. That was refreshing. After the massage Cathy and I explored the hotel (huge pool). It is all marble and not a nick or scratch anywhere. Courtney arrived and after a short stop and chat Cathy and I headed out through the gates to the real India. We walked several blocks constantly being asked to buy things until we found our goal, a Kadhi store. Kadhi which is clothing that is made from hand spun cotton was founded and lives by principles set up by Gandhi. He is a great brand ambassador! You buy home spun cloth (silk or cotton) or prepared pieces. I purchased fabric to be made into a shirt. Cathy purchased premade shirts. I then asked where the tailors were, the salesman explained they do no tailoring but said there was a tailor around the corner. This being Dehli, I knew there was no way to find a shop given those directions, so I asked him to show me. He walked me all the way over to the store which was around the block. I never would have found it on my own. I returned to the Kadhi shop, I paid for my purchases, and Cathy and I went to the very good tailors. They are making the shirt for me, in addition a bought material for two linen pants that they are also making up for me. They will ship the pants when completed to The Taj hotel in Mumbai, and there I will receive my new clothes with pants that fit! The shop dealer suggested that we buy an Indian Phone and SIM card and use it while we are in India. Rates are very low (less than a penny a minute. So we walked back through our gates out of the masses into the refinement of our hotel. Cathy went for a massage and went to by a phone. I went into one of those warren of stalls and saw a guy whose whole office was about 5 square feet. I told him a wanted a cheap basic phone, and Airtell SIM Card for Airtell SIM service. I also wanted 350 Rupees of talk time. Usage is calculated differently in India. You choose a served by choosing the Sim Card. You then load Rupees on to the card. There are thousand of stores through out India that can load Rupees on to your card. As you talk Rupees are subtracted from the available Rupees on your phone. They are subtracted at various rates depending if you are calling to another Airtell caller, a different cell carrier, to a land line or overseas. All in all, the entire phone is far cheaper than roaming with my domestic Iphone. I thanked him, got back to the hotel and waited for activation. 3 hours later, nothing, I still had a dead phone. I decided to walk back to the market and find his little stall. His very unhelpful assistant was there, but eventually the owner arrived and explained that they couldn’t activate because people weren’t working because of the Diwali festival. But he could connect me with a Vodafone SIM Card. He exchanged the SIM card and the phone activated. All the while, a cute Muslim guy from an adjacent stand was hovering over us and assisting us in teaching us how to use the phone. It was very communal. Very India. Courtney then bought an identical phone, (I suspect we will be constantly grabbing the wrong phone – we need a way to differentiate them. The total cost of a mobile phone, SIM card and 350 Rupees of calling was only 2000 rupees or about $ 43.00. It should be worth it!

We returned to our hotel and had drinks before dinner. We all had plans to clean up before dinner, but the more we drank the less critical that seemed; instead we did a typical tourist quick bath, bringing out the Purell Hand Sanitizer at the table and generously using it.

We ate at the hotel in and the excitement was to see if Cliff, who was very tired at this point could keep from falling asleep at the table. We managed to complete the dinner and return to our room where we took a long lasting sleeping pill and fell right to sleep.

This was a very good first day in Delhi. We are in the swing!

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