Jan 3, by Donna
We’re back in Delhi now. I’m in the hotel with a touch of the famous (infamous?) “Delhi-belly”, while the others are out visiting the National Museum. I thought I would use the opportunity to catch up the blog.
On Sunday, December 31, the POW threw us a unique New Year’s Party. They summoned us to the party around 11:00pm, telling us to walk outside with them. At that point we were located at the railway station of one of the poorest cities on our tour. In our dressiest clothes, we walked down the platform, past rows of sleeping bodies, wrapped in blankets. It was quite surreal. At the end of the railway platform, the POW staff had laid down a large rectangle of green mats, surrounded by some small fires. There was an Indian musical group at one end, and a flower petal arrangement on the ground at the other end, wishing us a happy new year. Then several Indian dance performers arrived, and we gathered around to watch the show. Little by little the locals woke up and started gathering to join our party – held back by the many POW staff and local police. By the end, there was the POW staff and tourists in the center, and a mass of locals looking on from the equivalent of the bleachers.
On Monday our tour continued in the town of Udaipur. This was my favorite town of the trip. Relatively speaking, it was much nicer than the other cities – cleaner, fewer emaciated animals wandering around, fewer beggars and fewer hawkers. Hawkers – the young men who hound you to try to sell you stuff (postcards, jewelry, books, camera batteries, toys, pictures, hats, etc.) – are persistent and seem to travel in throngs. Sometimes you need to go through what feels like a reception line, except both sides are crammed with such men, and all you see are miles of hands stretched out in front of you holding random goods. They even spill out from the road into the bus sometimes, with outstretched arms like an octopus’ tentacles.
In Udaipur, we first saw some lovely gardens, then a demonstration (and sale!) of miniature paintings. The miniatures are pretty amazing … little, teeny, tiny figures and scenes, done with brushes made from the eyelashes of camels (I’m not making this up). Then we went on a tour of the city palace, which was one of the most elaborate and best preserved on the trip. The palace is located right next to an artificial lake, and there are mountains all around, making Udaipur more green and cool than the other cities.
We could see from a distance the famous Lake Palace, a hotel in the middle of the lake. Having heard this was one of the finest hotels in the world, we desperately wanted to see it. POW used to do the lunch there, but the contract hadn’t been renewed, so unfortunately we were not scheduled to go there. Instead we were to take a boat ride around the lake, to a pavilion called Jasmandir.
Well, not to be deterred, we approached the helpful POW staff to see if we could go to the Lake Palace on our own instead of the alternate boat tour, perhaps for tea. They checked into this for us, and let us know that we could … but Lake Palace would charge us $30/person. And I don’t think this was including the tea. The $150 price for a peek inside was too much, even for us, so we ended up bagging the idea and going to Jasmandir anyway, which turned out to be a delightful island with an elegant open pavilion, where we enjoyed a nice tea, staring longingly over the water towards the Lake Palace.
Yesterday, Tuesday, we had another early wake up to go to the Ghana bird sanctuary at Bharatpur. This excursion involved being ridden on a bicycle rickshaw through a nature preserve. The preserve has less water than normal because of a light monsoon season, which meant that wildlife viewing was less than optimal. However, we did see a magnificent group of Indian cranes, along with a kingfisher and a few other interesting birds, so we felt it was worth it. Both this trip and the tiger trip were very cold! Fortunately we had brought with us hats, gloves and sweaters since our friend, Yogen, who had recommended POW, instructed us to do so (thanks, Yogen!).
The train continued for a few hours to Agra, where we arrived a bit late because of the fog. You probably wonder why fog would delay a train, but apparently they must go a lot slower in the fog, and since there is only one track, that means that everybody gets backed up. The fog also was creating havoc at the airport, where over 80 flights were cancelled, which makes us nervous about our return voyage tomorrow.
The fog had lifted a bit when we got to Agra, so the POW staff elected to change our tour and go straight to the Taj Mahal in order to see it in good light. I must say that I was impressed by their ability to improvise, ensuring that the guests are having the best possible tourist experience.
The Taj Mahal (pronounced ma-hail, not ma-haul) is truly one of the most magnificent buildings on earth. It has symmetry and proportions that are totally harmonious. It is made of luminescent, white marble, and it is decorated with simple, elegant inlays of semi-precious stones. The scale is much larger than you expect … the throngs of visitors looked like a crowd of ants around it from a distance. One can only admire how much Shahzahan loved his wife to create this wonder in her memory!
After lunch, we visited the Agra Red Fort, barely making it inside before closing time. This fort seemed like a True Fort, with all the right corner entrances, spiked walls, and moats that you would want your fort to have. The various Moghul kings lived here over a period of several hundred years, and they had quite a nice life style going, including a vast women’s quarters where the king was the only man allowed, and where he lounged with his bevy of concubines and wives, a soaking tub, and even a private vineyard.
Our final stop was to a marble inlay shop, where they demonstrated their art, and we saw their showroom of spectacular – and quite expensive – inlay marble pieces.
We returned for our final evening on the POW, where they served ChocoLoco for dessert – a chocolate cake made in the shape of a steam engine.
This morning, Wednesday, we woke up, packed, and bid Umesh farewell (Padam, our second-in-command, had left earlier in the week to participate in a Bollywood movie!!). We felt like we were leaving a member of our family at that point. Okay, we also knew that we were going to miss being spoiled. For example, if you wanted, the staff would wake you up in the morning with your coffee delivered to your room. They would greet you after a hard day of touring with hot towels. The “assistants” would be waiting at the bus drop-off for their charges (the people from their coaches), to escort them to the train. They helped in every way they could – offering their cell phone, getting medicine, lending a warm hat.
I want to emphasize that the POW excursions were very well organized. Nice, air-conditioned buses were always waiting for us at the right time in the right place. Once, our bus broke down, and the staff quickly improvised a solution. They break you up into four color-coded groups (we were the “royal” blue) for touring and dining. You get to know these people a bit better than the others.
The tourists are from everywhere. There were a few other Americans, of course, but we also met people from Australia, England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, South Africa, Kuwait, Lebanon, Congo. The Lebanese were three couples who were perpetually late, and always grumbling about something, either the program or the amenities. They actually left the train early, clearly dissatisfied. We realized that this trip wouldn’t be for everybody – these couples would have been better off at the luxury hotels. But we felt it was perfect for us. It was comfortable, high service, well organized, and convenient (travel during night, tour during day).
After a few hours lounging at the hotel, the rest of the group took off for the hotel, while I nursed my Delhi-belly. Fortunately, a little medicine goes a long way, and I’m feeling fine now. This afternoon we visited the Lotus Temple of the Ba’Hai faith, which is a spectacular modern building made of marble, shaped like a lotus, reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House. It seemed like a perfect counterpart to the Taj Mahal in that it also was white, elegant, symmetrical, and full of throngs of tourists. To balance off our visits to temples of Hindus, Muslims and Ba’hai, we also stopped briefly at the one synagogue in Delhi, where the mother of the synagogue’s leader was very happy to show us the single-roomed Sephardic congregation.
We went back to our oasis, the Imperial, where we took a walk to the craft shops on the block, finding many of the items we had purchased throughout the trip for roughly half the price!! We five had our final dinner at Buckhara, a marvelous northern Indian restaurant (recommended by Yogen), and a fitting end to a great vacation. Joan and Missy just headed for the airport, relieved that the fog has not continued, and we head out tomorrow morning.
We spoke at dinner about some of the highlights of the trip …and have embellished it a bit here with Marina’s help:
- Umesh, the captain of our coach (both the girls mentioned him first!)
- Umesh’s omelets and “special” eggs
- Padam (Umesh’s assistant)
- the Taj Mahal
- Chilleran, the shoeshine boy
- being handed tissues to wipe your hands in elegant hotel bathrooms
- the monkey shit incident (Lenny does not support this choice)
- gossiping about the other guests (like the Lebanese, and “mutton and lamb”)
- a monkey grabbing Marina’s leg (one of Marina’s favorites)
- playing “spoons” with the other kids on the train (one of Missy’s favorites)
- meeting Tracey and Andy, the Aussies who shared our coach
Here are a few tips if you ever decide to go on POW:
- you don’t need a lot of clothes because you can do laundry several times, and they do quite a good job if it
- you do need hat/gloves/sweater for the two cold morning excursions
- you needs lot of small rupee bills for lots of tips
- a good guidebook is helpful since many of the local guides are a bit hard to understand
- some games, books or movies are great to have for the few days where you travel during the day
- wear socks during the day, or bring them in a handbag, because you often have to take off your shoes to tour a mosque, and these are often places that you really don’t want to be walking barefoot!
We’re back in Delhi now. I’m in the hotel with a touch of the famous (infamous?) “Delhi-belly”, while the others are out visiting the National Museum. I thought I would use the opportunity to catch up the blog.
On Sunday, December 31, the POW threw us a unique New Year’s Party. They summoned us to the party around 11:00pm, telling us to walk outside with them. At that point we were located at the railway station of one of the poorest cities on our tour. In our dressiest clothes, we walked down the platform, past rows of sleeping bodies, wrapped in blankets. It was quite surreal. At the end of the railway platform, the POW staff had laid down a large rectangle of green mats, surrounded by some small fires. There was an Indian musical group at one end, and a flower petal arrangement on the ground at the other end, wishing us a happy new year. Then several Indian dance performers arrived, and we gathered around to watch the show. Little by little the locals woke up and started gathering to join our party – held back by the many POW staff and local police. By the end, there was the POW staff and tourists in the center, and a mass of locals looking on from the equivalent of the bleachers.
On Monday our tour continued in the town of Udaipur. This was my favorite town of the trip. Relatively speaking, it was much nicer than the other cities – cleaner, fewer emaciated animals wandering around, fewer beggars and fewer hawkers. Hawkers – the young men who hound you to try to sell you stuff (postcards, jewelry, books, camera batteries, toys, pictures, hats, etc.) – are persistent and seem to travel in throngs. Sometimes you need to go through what feels like a reception line, except both sides are crammed with such men, and all you see are miles of hands stretched out in front of you holding random goods. They even spill out from the road into the bus sometimes, with outstretched arms like an octopus’ tentacles.
In Udaipur, we first saw some lovely gardens, then a demonstration (and sale!) of miniature paintings. The miniatures are pretty amazing … little, teeny, tiny figures and scenes, done with brushes made from the eyelashes of camels (I’m not making this up). Then we went on a tour of the city palace, which was one of the most elaborate and best preserved on the trip. The palace is located right next to an artificial lake, and there are mountains all around, making Udaipur more green and cool than the other cities.
We could see from a distance the famous Lake Palace, a hotel in the middle of the lake. Having heard this was one of the finest hotels in the world, we desperately wanted to see it. POW used to do the lunch there, but the contract hadn’t been renewed, so unfortunately we were not scheduled to go there. Instead we were to take a boat ride around the lake, to a pavilion called Jasmandir.
Well, not to be deterred, we approached the helpful POW staff to see if we could go to the Lake Palace on our own instead of the alternate boat tour, perhaps for tea. They checked into this for us, and let us know that we could … but Lake Palace would charge us $30/person. And I don’t think this was including the tea. The $150 price for a peek inside was too much, even for us, so we ended up bagging the idea and going to Jasmandir anyway, which turned out to be a delightful island with an elegant open pavilion, where we enjoyed a nice tea, staring longingly over the water towards the Lake Palace.
Yesterday, Tuesday, we had another early wake up to go to the Ghana bird sanctuary at Bharatpur. This excursion involved being ridden on a bicycle rickshaw through a nature preserve. The preserve has less water than normal because of a light monsoon season, which meant that wildlife viewing was less than optimal. However, we did see a magnificent group of Indian cranes, along with a kingfisher and a few other interesting birds, so we felt it was worth it. Both this trip and the tiger trip were very cold! Fortunately we had brought with us hats, gloves and sweaters since our friend, Yogen, who had recommended POW, instructed us to do so (thanks, Yogen!).
The train continued for a few hours to Agra, where we arrived a bit late because of the fog. You probably wonder why fog would delay a train, but apparently they must go a lot slower in the fog, and since there is only one track, that means that everybody gets backed up. The fog also was creating havoc at the airport, where over 80 flights were cancelled, which makes us nervous about our return voyage tomorrow.
The fog had lifted a bit when we got to Agra, so the POW staff elected to change our tour and go straight to the Taj Mahal in order to see it in good light. I must say that I was impressed by their ability to improvise, ensuring that the guests are having the best possible tourist experience.
The Taj Mahal (pronounced ma-hail, not ma-haul) is truly one of the most magnificent buildings on earth. It has symmetry and proportions that are totally harmonious. It is made of luminescent, white marble, and it is decorated with simple, elegant inlays of semi-precious stones. The scale is much larger than you expect … the throngs of visitors looked like a crowd of ants around it from a distance. One can only admire how much Shahzahan loved his wife to create this wonder in her memory!
After lunch, we visited the Agra Red Fort, barely making it inside before closing time. This fort seemed like a True Fort, with all the right corner entrances, spiked walls, and moats that you would want your fort to have. The various Moghul kings lived here over a period of several hundred years, and they had quite a nice life style going, including a vast women’s quarters where the king was the only man allowed, and where he lounged with his bevy of concubines and wives, a soaking tub, and even a private vineyard.
Our final stop was to a marble inlay shop, where they demonstrated their art, and we saw their showroom of spectacular – and quite expensive – inlay marble pieces.
We returned for our final evening on the POW, where they served ChocoLoco for dessert – a chocolate cake made in the shape of a steam engine.
This morning, Wednesday, we woke up, packed, and bid Umesh farewell (Padam, our second-in-command, had left earlier in the week to participate in a Bollywood movie!!). We felt like we were leaving a member of our family at that point. Okay, we also knew that we were going to miss being spoiled. For example, if you wanted, the staff would wake you up in the morning with your coffee delivered to your room. They would greet you after a hard day of touring with hot towels. The “assistants” would be waiting at the bus drop-off for their charges (the people from their coaches), to escort them to the train. They helped in every way they could – offering their cell phone, getting medicine, lending a warm hat.
I want to emphasize that the POW excursions were very well organized. Nice, air-conditioned buses were always waiting for us at the right time in the right place. Once, our bus broke down, and the staff quickly improvised a solution. They break you up into four color-coded groups (we were the “royal” blue) for touring and dining. You get to know these people a bit better than the others.
The tourists are from everywhere. There were a few other Americans, of course, but we also met people from Australia, England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, South Africa, Kuwait, Lebanon, Congo. The Lebanese were three couples who were perpetually late, and always grumbling about something, either the program or the amenities. They actually left the train early, clearly dissatisfied. We realized that this trip wouldn’t be for everybody – these couples would have been better off at the luxury hotels. But we felt it was perfect for us. It was comfortable, high service, well organized, and convenient (travel during night, tour during day).
After a few hours lounging at the hotel, the rest of the group took off for the hotel, while I nursed my Delhi-belly. Fortunately, a little medicine goes a long way, and I’m feeling fine now. This afternoon we visited the Lotus Temple of the Ba’Hai faith, which is a spectacular modern building made of marble, shaped like a lotus, reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House. It seemed like a perfect counterpart to the Taj Mahal in that it also was white, elegant, symmetrical, and full of throngs of tourists. To balance off our visits to temples of Hindus, Muslims and Ba’hai, we also stopped briefly at the one synagogue in Delhi, where the mother of the synagogue’s leader was very happy to show us the single-roomed Sephardic congregation.
We went back to our oasis, the Imperial, where we took a walk to the craft shops on the block, finding many of the items we had purchased throughout the trip for roughly half the price!! We five had our final dinner at Buckhara, a marvelous northern Indian restaurant (recommended by Yogen), and a fitting end to a great vacation. Joan and Missy just headed for the airport, relieved that the fog has not continued, and we head out tomorrow morning.
We spoke at dinner about some of the highlights of the trip …and have embellished it a bit here with Marina’s help:
- Umesh, the captain of our coach (both the girls mentioned him first!)
- Umesh’s omelets and “special” eggs
- Padam (Umesh’s assistant)
- the Taj Mahal
- Chilleran, the shoeshine boy
- being handed tissues to wipe your hands in elegant hotel bathrooms
- the monkey shit incident (Lenny does not support this choice)
- gossiping about the other guests (like the Lebanese, and “mutton and lamb”)
- a monkey grabbing Marina’s leg (one of Marina’s favorites)
- playing “spoons” with the other kids on the train (one of Missy’s favorites)
- meeting Tracey and Andy, the Aussies who shared our coach
Here are a few tips if you ever decide to go on POW:
- you don’t need a lot of clothes because you can do laundry several times, and they do quite a good job if it
- you do need hat/gloves/sweater for the two cold morning excursions
- you needs lot of small rupee bills for lots of tips
- a good guidebook is helpful since many of the local guides are a bit hard to understand
- some games, books or movies are great to have for the few days where you travel during the day
- wear socks during the day, or bring them in a handbag, because you often have to take off your shoes to tour a mosque, and these are often places that you really don’t want to be walking barefoot!
posted by SawMillLodge at 8:46 AM
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