India (9) - Orchha to Kajuraho

Today our photography has rather a different focus - primarily people.  We had a late start to the day, as Major wasn't coming to collect us until 9.30.  We realized afterwards that we could have had a wander around Orchha village beforehand, but as it was, it was nice to have a bit of a lie-in and a relaxed breakfast.

We had 170km to travel to the town of Khajuraho, which as on previous days was split into two parts.  I have to admit that when we stopped at Alipura to see 'a nice palace', I didn't feel too enthusiastic about walking around in the midday sun.  As it happened, though, the palace was low-key, the main features being some paintings and the view over the village.  Our guide, from the palace (which is now a hotel/restaurant) also took us around the village, where we had fun photographing the children.  Getting the kids to pose was not so difficult, getting them to look natural, and not to leap in front of each other in desperate attempts to be in the picture, was!

After a short stop in the restaurant, for a small snack of pakora, samosas and french fries we continued our journey along the rapidly deteriorating road.  Not only a single track road, but one so full of potholes that we were weaving all over the place.  Come to think of it, we do that anyway, since Indian driving includes frequent overtaking on whichever side of the roads takes your fancy.

Despite the state of the road, we were making good progress until we hit a road closure.  First a small warning wall built across the road, which we drove around, followed by a more definitive wall a kilometre or two further along.  Defeated, we had to turn back and take detour.

We arrived in Khajuraho in the early afternoon and were looking forward to cooling off and relaxing a little.  Major had a suggestion for us - to take a bicycle ride up to a village 5km away.  Despite the heat, and the fact that after our bird sanctuary tour we'd sworn off bicycle riding for a while, we decided to go for it, and it turned out to be a good decision.  This time I was luckily enough that they found me a ladies' bike, albeit one built for giants, or more likely, the Dutch.  According to Bilal, our guide, all his clients are Dutch.  It figures, who else would be crazy enough to go cycling in over 40 C?

The trip took us along bumpy gravel roads, with frequent stops to see the work of the local villagers - digging wells, making bricks, etc.  We ended up spending quite some time touring the village, and again photographing the villagers, particularly the children, who loved seeing their images on the back of the camera screen.

Finally back at the hotel round 6pm, we wasted little time in heading for the swimming pool to cool off before doing some photo/blog work.  Dinner was a big improvement over the last couple nights, having turned down the extortionate 630 rupee buffet option, in favour of the cheaper and tastier a la carte menu.

India (8) - Agra to Orchha

There's been a recurring theme to the last few days, and it was repeated today - forts!  Spectacular as they are, they are beginning to blend a little into one, and when we sat down at the end of today, we had a hard time remembering anything at all about the first fort of the day.  Truly, we are becoming a little forted-out.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.  We left Agra this morning for the 240km drive down to Orchha where we'd be spending the night.  The morning took us as far as Gwalior, a city named after the holy man Gwalipa.  We picked up the guide for our (yes, you guessed it) fort tour at a hotel, and took advantage of the 5 minute delay to pick up the hotel's free wi-fi from the car... just long enough to download the emails, and most importantly blog comments.

Gwalior is quite a large city, and therefore yet again a driving eye-opener.  The bonus traffic item this time was a train line which runs through the middle of the narrow streets.  The line was originally set up by one maharaja or another to take him out to his hunting lodge, but is now heavily used by the locals.  We were luckily enough to see the train coming through, an interesting experience, as all the traffic had to shuffle to one side, to let the train through.  There was a level crossing, but it didn't actually cover the train tracks!

The fort itself was at the top of a 'very zigzagfully' road, and housed not only the palace, but a school and a couple temples.  It was interesting enough, with the highlights being the green/yellow/blue decorations on the outside walls, and two octagonal chambers in the basements, one was the queens' (all 8 of them) 'swinging room' (and later, the hanging room, when the fort was used as a prison), and the other was the queens' bathing room.

On the way back down the hill from the fort, we stopped to take a closer look at the statues carved into the rocks.  They look a little like Buddha's but are actually Jain statues.  Unfortunately many of the statues had been defaced (by the moghuls, if I have it correctly), although some were restored by the British (or Britishers, as told by the guide).

Lunch was taken in the same hotel where we met the guide.  The food itself was rather uninspiring, again a buffet with too much emphasis on the western, but we made good use of the wi-fi and updated our blogs whilst eating.  Granny would have been horrified at our manners!

Ever since Agra or thereabouts, the roads have been plastered with advertisements for both schools and tutors.  Some with some quite inventive study topics, such as the physics tutor offering lessons in 'thermodynamics and strongth of materials'.  I've been surprised to see so many children, even in the poorer areas wearing immaculate (very English looking) school uniforms.  Our guide this morning explained that the public schools not only offer free tuition, but also provide books, bags and uniforms to the children.

In the afternoon we continued on to Orchha along a road which was being repaired.  Short stretches of fresh tarmac, alternated with rather longer stretches of bone jarring gravel.  Finally arriving in Orchha we were hot and tired and ready for the hotel.  Alas, Major had other plans for us, and took us up to the fort for a visit.  I was quite pleased to hear that this visit would be guideless, but of course it didn't work out that way.  Before we knew it we'd been accosted by a guide and availed of his services.   He was keen, appeared to be knowledgeable, but was totally incomprehensible!

Having purchased our tickets, we confusingly left the fort and headed to the other side of town to visit the Laxmi temple, which was arguably more interesting than the fort itself, as it was decorated with fantastic paintings.  Back again at the fort, some more paintings, and the typical meeting halls and palaces.  No idea how many wives this chappy had - none of us could understand the guide.

The highlight was a walk around the top of the fort, giving a good view over the town and surrounding countryside as the sun was setting.  Finally, onto our hotel, and a much needed dip in the pool, before the mosquitoes drove us out.  Dinner, yet another buffet, was expensive (two/three times restaurant prices) and again a let-down, especially the rather bizarre deep-fried paneer which was served chinese style.  Not a good combination!

apologies for the small number of photos - taken a whi;le to get working internet, and what we have now is painfully slow

India (7) - Agra

We left our palatial residence in Bharatpur this morning, for the short ride onwards to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Along the way I practiced some car photography, trying to increase my collection of 'people on scooters' photos. This one is a clear winner, with the most folk we've seen on a single scooter... not only the 4 that you see, but also a baby on the mother's lap!

Halfway to Agra, we stopped to visit the palace 'Fatehpur Sikri'. We didn't know anything about the palace beforehand, and we were all impressed by the size and detail in the buildings. To reach the palace we had a choice of electric bus or tuk tuk. Eager to try another form of transport, we of course chose for the tuk tuk, quite a squash for the three of us in the back, though we've seen larger groups of people in them.

Fatehpur Sikri was build by the third Moghul emperor, to house himself, his three wives (one Hindu, one Musilim and one Christian) and his 500 odd concubines. Each of the three wives had their own palaces, which were not only different in scale but also 'different different' in architecture. Each of the palaces ornamentation contained symbols of the three religions, though confusingly, not necessarily corresponding to the wife in residence.

After we arrived in Agra, we had a brief stop at the hotel, before heading out for some lunch. After a couple days of uninspiring hotel buffet, we really enjoyed eating something with a little spice in it... not to mention the garlic naans, which have pretty much become compulsory with every restaurant meal.

In the afternoon we had guided tours of the Red Fort, and then of course the main reason to visit Agra, the Taj Mahal. After Fatehpur Sikri the red fort was a bit of a disappointment. Some interesting architecture, but the most attractive bits were behind railings and neither easy to view or photograph (especially for little people!)

On to the highlight, the Taj Mahal, which was unbelievably busy. No chance of getting a photograph of the Taj without people in it, but then we knew that before we arrived. On the plus side, the majority of the visitors were Indian, wearing traditional Indian dress, which is far more photogenic than Westerners in jeans and khakis. I also used it as an opportunity to try and focus on people photography, something I don't find particularly easy. Some were straight shots, others hip shots.

It was quickly clear that the best view of the Taj Mahal is also the one you see in every photograph. Up close, the building loses some of its charm, as the symmetry is lost. We also entered inside the mausoleum, but there wasn't much to see. My overriding impression was of the crush of sweaty people, and the smell of feet...

The guide had hoped to take us for a demonstration of marble inlaying, but we cried off on the grounds of exhaustion, and returned to the hotel to download our photos before dinner.

At the time of writing it's been exactly one week since we landed in Delhi, so we're halfway through our trip. Up until now we've managed to avoid our home 'cultures' pretty well - no Irish pubs spotted yet (surely a record!), and also no other Dutchies!

My companions' posts for the day: Arie & Marcel.

Tried to post this last night, but after an hour or so of fighting with the exorbitantly priced hotel internet (300 rupees for one hour - that's more than the price of a main course in a restaurant), we gave up.  Luckily managed to pick up an internet connection along the way today...

India (6) - Bharatpur and Keoladeo National Park

This morning we visited the Keoladeo nature reserve.  The original schedule included a rickshaw ride, but we decided that we preferred to travel with a little more independence, all the better for photography, and rented 3 bikes.  After some consideration we also hired a guide, which turned out to be a great decision, as he pointed out plenty of birds to us that we surely would have missed.

It was fun to be by bike, but definitely a challenge.  Not only because of the 40 degree heat, but also because, like conference t-shirts, the bikes came in one size only - men's extra large!  Fortunately I was just about able to get on and off, and pedal, though at time it was a bit precarious, particularly when I forgot about the crossbar.

This isn't the best time to visit the park as all the migratory birds have left for their next destinations.  Still, there is plenty of resident wildlife, and we saw quite a broad variety, including Rhesus monkey, jackal, a couple types of owl, herons, egrets, storks and cranes.  The park also has quite a python population, but we didn't see any.  Or at least, i saw a snake making a speedy exit, but I've no idea if it was a python or not.

We spent about 3 hours in the park, and were totally exhausted on our return to the hotel.  The first task we had was to try and upload our blog entries from yesterday, which turned out to be a challenge.  This hotel is certainly the most impressive looking, and has the nicest rooms and pool, but it has two things stopping it from being the all-round favourite on the trip so far - the disappointing food (no real improvement there today, nearly everything at lunch was western food) and the lack of wi-fi.  After a lot of fiddling around by one of the staff members (a continuation from about 1hr spent last night), we finally managed to achieve both internet connection on their pc, and get the usb working so that we could copy over our epic works from the laptop.

After lunch we recharged our batteries... I managed all of 13 pages of my new book before falling asleep.  Later, after some photo editing, we had a refreshing swim in the pool - dusk was falling, the pool was lit, and we were kept company by bats and birds flitting around us and drinking from the pool.

Tomorrow marks the halfway point of our trip, and we'll be heading off in the morning for Agra and the Taj Mahal.

Links to my fellow travellers' posts of the day: Arie (1), Arie (2), Marcel.

India (5) - Jaipur to Bharatpur

We left the hustle and bustle of Jaipur this morning, to head for Bharatpur and the nearby Koladeo national park. After the first long journey we had, this ride was a bit of a let down, as we travelled the whole way along a dual carriageway.  That being said, no dual carriageway as we know them at home.  The cars may have been driving 100km/h, but there were still camel carts, scooters carrying 3 or 4 people (the ladies always sitting side-saddle), and vans with people hanging off the back of them.  There were also a fair few occasions where we had oncoming traffic on our side of the central reservation... all part of the course here.

Along the way we stopped at a very colourful temple.  Like others we have seen, the decoration is only on the outside, with a very simple interior... the only adornments being about 80 strip lights on the ceiling.  After a short stop to take photographs of the temple, and a camel which happened to be stopped too, we continued on our way.

Bharatpur is a small town, which I guess no-one would visit if it weren't for the renowned Koladeo park - apparently the best bird park in India, and formerly a favourite hunting spot of the maharajas.  Our hotel is therefore a bit of a surprise.  Two huge buildings, each worthy of a maharaja and all his friends.  Since we had nothing planned for the afternoon, we decided to relax in our deliciously airconditioned room, did some reading and had a bit of a snooze.  This is the first night where I actually have a real bed, rather than a camp-bed.  Looking forward to it!

Before taking a pre-prandial swim, we took some photos of the hotel in the fading afternoon light, and the more adventurous/daft of us (ie. me), took a paddle in the ornamental water display to try and get a good reflection shot.  Unfortunately, it didn't really come off, thanks to the ripples I created.  After finishing with photography, we all took a dip, in the official swimming pool this time.  Very refreshing after the heat of the day.

Dinner and lunch are buffet-style.  The food was pleasant enough, but a little disappointing... Indian dishes, but with very little spicing, clearly dumbed-down for sensitive tourist taste buds.  For most of the meal, we were the only guests in the dining room, meaning that we were the sole focus of attention for all the waiters in the vicinity.  A little overwhelming.  Service here is very good, but usually a little overeager.