Agra, India - April 27 part 2

Fatehpūr Sikrī

After the Taj Mahal visit and a quick breakfast we are off again this time to a place called Fatehpūr Sikrī. Although this site is only 35K from Agra is takes about an hour to get there. Fatehpūr Sikrī our third UNESCO heritage site for the day is the site of what the Mughal emperor, Akbar built in 1601 as the capital of the area until the water from the lake nearby dried up and the capital was moved to the Agra Fort. Although the drive takes much longer than it would at home, there is much, much more to look at along the way than there would be at home.

Taj from the fort

monkeys at the fort

Agra is 200K south of Delhi on the Yamuna River with 80% of its sewage ending up in the river. Agra is home to 1.6 million inhabitants. Agra and the area around it, is based on agriculture and most of what there is to look at is based on that. There were dung patties all along the way…women (only women do this) making patties, drying patties, piled patties. There was also cows, goats, and crazy traffic to watch to make the time pass.

ceiling carving at the fort

water buffalo crossing the river

We were also able to visit the Agra Fort today. This, as is the Taj Mahal, is a UNESCO heritage site. This fort built in 1565 was where the Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son – the most told story was that the Shah while a prisoner could still see the Taj he built from across the river. There are a series of buildings which really resemble a palace with beautiful views of the Taj Mahal.

random cow

bushel of patties

This was probably our hottest day yet. Thankfully it wasn’t totally humid as the temperatures were well over 40 degrees. We had a temperature gauge in our hotel room (a very cool feature) that at one point read 44 degrees! We were able to cool off a bit for about an hour at our hotel before we were off again for our sunset visit to the Taj Mahal.

more random cows



outside wall of fort

 There was really not much to this visit that was different from our morning’s visit other than the fact that there were significantly more people – these people being Indian tourists. As I said in my last post the majority of visitors to the Taj are Indian tourists and this was obvious from looking around.

Agra, India - April 27 part 1

carving on the outside of the Taj

Today was the day for the Taj Mahal.  It is even more spectacular in person.  The plan was to visit for sunrise and then again or sunset which meant we were on the bus at 5:15 this morning.  We transferred from the coach bus to electric powered vehicles apparently to reduce pollution near the Taj, but I think it is because there is no room for the coaches to dump people nearer to the Taj.  The security line to get in is one of the first times EVER that the line for women is shorter than the line for men.  It was hard to tell really why – at the end of the day the men’s line was even longer perhaps because it seems as though Indian men are ‘out’ more than women are.  Although we were told to bring nothing except for water and a camera people of course had to bring giant bags.  This significantly slowed things down.

mosque

  




more Taj visitors

However, once we were in it was well worth it.  The Taj Mahal ‘gates’ (which are more accurately described as structures) were intended to mask the view of the Taj until an exact moment.  There is a little bit of it that can be seen from outside the gates, but it really isn’t until you are standing at the opening of the gate that the entire Taj can be seen.  It is truly spectacular.  Seeing it was a bit like when I saw the Eifel tower…both are structures that I have seen so many times in pictures that once I saw them in person it was an amazing experience.  The biggest benefit of being there at sunrise was the lack of crowds.  Aside from a few other people the 100 of us on this tour were about the only visitors there.  The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum the Shah Jahan built for his third wife due to his extraordinary love for her.  We were able to visit inside the actual mausoleum to see where both the Shah Jahan and his third wife were buried.  It is amazing that this extraordinary building was never built for anyone to actually live in!  In addition to the Taj there is also a mosque on the grounds.

woman working at the Taj

monkeys

Apparently 80% of the visitors to the Taj are Indians from around the country.  Although at a touristic spot we were still a visible minority.  There are also monkeys that visit the Taj.



Agra, India - April 26

evidence of our welcome to Agra

Today is the start of our 3 day land tour to the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. We are flying to Agra with about 100 other ship passengers on a charter flight. Agra only has a military airport so a charter flight is the only way to fly here. The other option is a flight to Delhi and then a 4 hour drive. Our morning drive to the airport began with a second trip to the sights we saw yesterday which was a bit of a pain as we weren’t super impressed with them the first time. Our guide today was quite excellent, so our initial impressions of Cochin may have been a bit inaccurate – but not too inaccurate.

The flight was an uneventful 3 hours and then we arrived at our hotel. There was no wine with our lunches as it is unlawful to drink on the airplane. I don’t know if that is all Indian planes, just this airline or one just out of Cochin which our guide today told us was in dry province. We were given a lovely welcome with marigold and roses around our necks a red spot applied to our foreheads and a delicious melon and cucumber drink.
The ITC Mughal Agra is a lovely hotel that is more like a complex on large grounds. After dinner at the hotel we retire early as we are heading to the Taj for sunrise!

Cochin, India - April 25

fishing nets



huge sacks of spices

Today, sadly, was the lowlight of our vacation so far.  Nothing unfortunate happened, but Cochin, India was terribly underwhelming.  One thing that was kind of interesting to see was a truck full of huge sacks of spices.  Our tour included driving through the city which was much cleaner than Madras and less thick with people and traffic.  We also visited a palace, a church (the first church in Asia), a small fishing area (which was basically a tourist trap) and we finished with a harbour cruise.  The harbour cruise was not great as we had just seen the shipyards of Cochin as we sailed into the port.  Too bad about toady, but it got us that much more excited about the next few days at the Taj Mahal!

 

Colombo, Sri Lanka - April 24

THE SHIP IS HAVING SOME SERIOUS INTERNET ISSUES. HOPEFULLY I'LL BE ABLE TO POST SOON.


reclining Buddah



temple



monk at the temple

Although we were worried about the weather today after yesterday’s downpour, we woke up to relatively clear skies. We visited a Buddhist temple today and although we have visited many Buddhist temples in the last month this one was unique. There seemed to be more actual Buddhist worshipers here than there had been in other temples. The Buddhist temples are more like complexes than just stand-alone buildings and this one was no different. There is a main temple but this main building is the centre of an outdoor worship space. The worshipers here offer water, flowers, burn incense and pray. As usual we have to take our shoes off. This temple is different from the Thai temples as shoes have to come off outside the entire outdoor complex rather than just the temple. The complex has sand throughout.

Buddah at temple



monks



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Our main destination for the day is Sri Lanka’s elephant orphanage. Although this is 80K down the road, it takes about 2.5 hours to get to with a 10 min ‘comfort’ stop. There isn’t exactly what you’d call a highway here. By the time we approach the elephant orphanage we are in the thick of the jungle. This jungle is full giant thick lush vegetation – exactly what I think of when I think of jungle. Plus this area of Sri Lanka is very hilly which makes the jungle seem to go on forever when you look into the distance.

Apparently Sri Lanka’s elephant population in the 70s had dropped to less than 1000 when this orphanage was established. This orphanage is for elephants that have lost habitat, been injured mostly from farmers shooting them or have lost their parents.  Now Sri Lanka’s elephants number around 6000. As we arrived at the orphanage we walked down to the river where we are told the elephants are bathing. What that meant was that there were about 60 elephants hanging out in a river with a handful of mahout handlers. Then the handlers started shepherding them up the river bank and straight up a main street of the small village – unbelievable. It ended up being a bit more zoo-ish than I had hoped, but not really that much. Just as we made it back to the bus at the end of our visit the skies opened up and it just poured.

Galle, Sri Lanka - April 23

Last night the sea was rumblin’ stumblin’ and bumblin’! It wasn’t a surprise as the captain told us we would be looking at 2 meter swells as the night approached. I have to say I was a bit excited at the prospect of high seas (as high as 2 meters are.) I don’t know how high they ended up being, but things were pretty rocky all night long. This didn’t stop me from logging a full 11 hours of sleep! We were scheduled to anchor and to get to shore via to tender today at about 10 with our a excursion scheduled for noon. Just before 10 as I was in the shower the captain announced that the sea swells were just too rough to send the tenders in to port and therefore our call at Galle was cancelled. This of course was a disappointment, but not a huge one - Galle, Sri Lanka wasn’t even on this itinerary originally. We were supposed to be going on a river safari today which would be a change of pace for us, but instead we were forced to open a bottle of Champagne and hunker down.

The sea seemed roughish until we actually saw a tug boat and then a fishing boat trying to manoeuvre through the swells; it was then that we knew the captain knew what he was talking about. Not that we questioned him, but there is no way getting to shore in the little tender boats would have been pleasant at all. Life on the balcony with a glass of Champagne and a book was heavenly. The wind and light rain along with the swells made it delightful. The cool air coupled with the crashing waves against the ship certainly made for a different balcony experience. For what I think is the first time since arriving in Asia, I was cool outdoors!

The afternoon was filled with Malibu and pineapple juice, Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, naps and trying to get an internet signal.

Trincomalee, Sri Lanka - April 22



Trincomalee with ship in the distance

We visited Trincomalee, Sri Lanka today. This is another rarely visited tourist stop and is on our itinerary due to a few originally scheduled days in Myanmar that were pulled a few months ago. That means there aren’t very tourist friendly sites to visit.  That is just fine – and we are well experienced with stops not frequented by many tourists.  Not that the people aren't friendly - they are very, but the stop doesn't have much for tourists.  Apparently we were the third cruise ship they have seen in the last 3 years and they hadn't seen any for 30 years brfore that due their civil war.  There were also quite a few people to see the ship off as we sailed away.



Hindu temple



ancient Buddah

What we did visit was a Hindu temple which unfortunately paled in comparison to the one we saw in India, but interesting nonetheless. We also saw the ruins of a Buddhist temple from the 3rd century B.C. Visiting these 2 sites took us about 4 hours, but could have taken about an hour had it not been for the roads. WOW – these were in rough shape. The Indian roads (which I thought were pretty rough themselves) compared to these, were glorious. At one point I saw a sign that said 8K back to town – that took us at least 30 minutes, probably more. At another point a boy on a bicycle overtook us! 




Sri Lankan send-off





view of the bay





I tryed a sugar-type substance that comes from the coconut tree called jaggery.  Very tasty and sweet. 

It was an interesting place to visit to get a glimpse of Sri Lanka, but I’m glad we only signed up for a 4 hour tour.


the many free roaming goats

 We did see about 8 monkeys today - that was a huge thrill. Both times they just scampered across the road in front of the bus and up a tree.

at sea...April 21

After a hectic day in India we are at sea today.  We take a typical sea day leisurely reading, napping, eating, drinking and relaxing.

Chennai (Madras), India - April 20 part 2



bas relief

huge granite carving

 After the temple we head to Mahabalipuram, another city to visit 7th century monuments. This entire area is a World Heritage site dotted with huge granite sculptures or ‘bas relief’. These depict stories from Hindu mythology called `Arjuna's Penance' and `Descent of the Ganges'. These are very detailed and it is unbelievable that they were made in the 7th century with very basic tools! All along the road as we drove into this area were tiny workshops with sculptures carved out of the granite – some completed and for sale and some still in progress. I would have LOVED to stop and bought one, but we were on a tight time schedule and even the smallest of them would definitely put me over the airline weight restriction!

one of the many watermelon stands

We had a late lunch of local food at the ‘Taj Fisherman's Cove Resort’ on the Bay of Bengal. Used their western facilities and headed back to the ship.




another fruit stand

 The ride to the ship took about an hour and a half, but probably was only about 20K. The drivers here don’t appear to follow any sort of rules of the road. India like all of the other countries we’ve visited so far drive on the left side of the road, but here they only are on the left side some of the time. Most of the time they are in the middle and move over slightly when passing an oncoming vehicle. The roads are very bumpy and I was pleasantly surprised at how fine my stomach stayed.

Indian traffic

One thing that did meet my expectations in India was the garbage. It is absolutely EVERYWHERE! People seem to clean in front of their homes or businesses, but basically just sweep the garbage to the side and there it is for eternity. What you see mostly are plastic bags and shards of plastic bags, but there is pretty much any type of garbage you can imagine.




public bus



Something else everywhere you look are watermelons. It must be watermelon season. There are other melons also, but watermelons are the most common melons. There are huge piles of watermelons for sale almost on every corner.

I have to say I felt a bit stared at today. Not creepy stared at, but stared at like they had never seen anything like me before – I think some of them hadn’t. At one point a local asked a woman on our tour to pose for a photo. It was the weirdest thing…the area is very un-touristy and according to our guide many of the locals have never seen foreigners before.

more traffic

The first day we arrived here all of the areas directly leading to outside areas were covered in plastic. Apparently this is to keep the coal dust from seeping into every nook and cranny. This didn’t extent to our balcony which is filthy – we’ve set down the ship’s brown beach towels until it gets hosed down.

Chennai (Madras), India - April 20 part 1

silk weaving

feet cleaning

Incredible and amazing are the first 2 things I can say about India. It’s been about a day since we made our first full-day excursion into India and now back on the boat without the very pronounced smell of coal surrounding me I don’t actually think it met my expectations in every way. Although it was VERY crowded, I think I expected it to be more obviously dense with people. There definitely were many, many people for as far as I could see, but I think I expected the amount of people to impact me more. I couldn’t tell you how much distance we travelled yesterday and it may not have actually boiled down to a whole lot, but we were certainly on the road for a huge chunk of time (I’m talking hours) and really never left ‘civilization’. There were a few moments when we were in rural areas, but the vast, vast majority of the time we were either in a city or a town.


women in saris at the temple

Before we got to India we heard from the ship’s tour people repeatedly how the standards of the buses etc will not be up to ours – I didn’t come to India with that expectation, but was pleasantly surprised last night as we journeyed to our dinner on the town how cool the bus was and how well the A/C worked. Well…I learned that when the sun was blazing that the bus was marginally cooler than outside. There was A/C, but it was mostly blowing air. However, there are fans on the bus – actual fans like a desk-top one at home attached to the wall of the bus at each seat that actually did a pretty good job.

meals provided by temple

We drove for at least 2 hours before we actually were outside of the city of Chennai (Madras). While it was thick with traffic and the public buses were absolutely packed with people actually hanging out of the doors the people on the streets had room to move. I think I expected people to be a bit more tightly packed together on the streets. Normally the prospect of a 2 hour drive just to get out of a city would not have interested me, but as we drove I never tired of looking out the window – thankful that I was on my side of the window, regardless of the weak A/C.

packed public bus



temple

 The first thing I saw were the women in saris. This is where India didn’t meet my expectation. I obviously had the wrong expectation of India. I knew I would see women wearing saris, but didn’t expect to see ALL of them wearing them. As the day progressed I didn’t see one Indian woman in western clothing – not one. These saris are stunning – really each and every one of them. Our first stop was to a silk factory to see saris being made. They are made by punch cards and each one takes about a month to produce. This stop also gave me my first non-western toilet experience of this trip. I certainly have experienced them before, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to them.

one of MANY fruit stalls

crowded street

Our next stop was Kanchipuram – they call this city the city of a thousand temples. This city is one of the seven most sacred pilgrim centers for the Hindus – we saw some pilgrims. We visited Ekambareswarar Temple which is a temple for the god Siva (one of the 3 incarnations of the Hindu god.) This temple is on 20-acre of land, and its tallest structure is almost 200 feet. Apparently non-Hindus are not permitted into all temples, but this one was OK. We had to take our shoes off and compared to Thailand temples, this one was pretty dirty – I was glad I brought along my wet-wipes. This was an amazing visit. Our guide was excellent – her information and English taught me a lot. I knew next to nothing about Hinduism and certainly had never seen anything like this site before – I have said that a lot this trip.


I must mention the heat at this point. It has been hot this trip – you know the kind of heat where the sweat rolls down your back and down your pants? That’s hot! I know I’ve been hotter before – Ephesus was hotter and we were in the heat for longer, but this was pretty hot and it was cloudy.