After driving through for a few hours we stopped at a road side motel which was appropriately named Rajasthan Motel. We were almost on the border of Delhi and Rajasthan. By this stage of course we were hungry. Rakesh-ji drove us right into the car park under the shade of a nice big Banyan tree. Any shade in summer in India is God sent. We opened the car door to step out and the first thing that hit us was the gust of hot air. Just like when you open the over door after you’ve been baking for an hour! Luckily we were getting more and more used to the hot weather. There was no escaping!
Looks much more than a motel doesn’t it? Thats the entrance to the motel, through the narrow hallway it leads on to a massive big dining room all of which was non-air conditioned. Then we walked through that onto the left which had a nice sized air-conditioned room where we sat. The window to the left is where we had our lunch while the earth scorched outside.
Looking at the greenery you wouldn’t quite think it was about 46° centigrade here would you? And yes I often pondered how they keep these places green in such extreme climate! There ought to be some method to this madness other than just plain watering.
We’re seated inside in the nicely air-conditioned part of the Motel. Meals have just arrived. The garlic Nan bread was really nice even though the photo looks rather pedestrian.
The Rajasthan Motel Motif on their plates
And some more shots while we waited for our food to arrive. The food was quite good even for a roadside motel and we didn’t feel unwell or otherwise. We rushed back in the car for the rest of the journey with baited breath for Jaipur.
Yes we got snap happy as you do when you waiting for food 
The Road to Jaipur is pitted with hardware shops almost every small town or village we passed had at least 5 to 20 Ball Bearings shops or dealers on ether side of the highway. It was later we learnt that the biggest manufacturer for Ball Bearings right from the smallest machinery to the big tanks and ships are made right here in the most arid of all places. We were passing through the Ball Bearing export area of northern India and didn’t have a clue. Had I known this at the time I surely would have taken a photo or two of the Ball Bearings shops.
You’d notice a Ball Bearings shop here, and a make shift school for kids in a village we were passing by
We had finally arrived at the pink city — Jaipur. We were going to stay at Mandawa Haveli Hotel. This is a haveli, hindi for Mansion, built in typical Jaipur architecture with lots of pillars and arches right in the heart of Jaipur City.
This was one of the water features in the Mandawa Haveli Hotel. A little bed of fountain that lit up at night along with the fountain on the marble floor.
Our Delhi sojourn was soon coming to an end. We had survived the 45°C plus heat and now on our 3rd day of the trip. We were acclimatising a little and had realised by this that stage that two litre of water intake was just not enough for the day! Our bags were packed as we waited at the reception to check out. When the guy at the reception asked where we were headed next — we chimed JAIPUR with excitement! He looked at us both and said it’d be about 3 to 4 degrees hotter than Delhi!! Of course in that excitement what was a mere 4degrees! We braved the biggest smile and said YES bring it on! Our Travel Inn guide who had checked us in at the Delhi hotel was there to see us off and we rolled off on our Innova with Rakesh-ji(the driver) behind the wheel. He was such an excellent driver.
It took almost an hour and half just to get out of Delhi. Probably because we headed out at 9am and on a Monday morning. We took a road that goes via Gurgoan and pretty wide and in great condition, except with little sense of sticking to their own lanes. About forty minutes later we came to a grinding halt. There were 18 lanes on one side of the road all leaving out of Delhi. I did count them there was not much else to do. In the meantime someone came and dropped off a copy of the local magazine (like our MX in Sydney) through the car window on to our driver. He passed it on to us. The first write up was about dealing with ‘Homophobia in Schools and with your peers’ I sank back into my seat reading a bit of that goss thinking to myself whatever happened to the so called sexually repressed orthodox society! My! Things HAVE changed in the 12 years I haven’t been around! Rest of the magazine was interesting too but just one of those flick and go kinds. You wouldn’t miss a beat if you didn’t read it. I remember D having a quick glance at it but he was more keen to see what was going on outside, taking it all in. We were truly leaving Delhi. We had seen the throng of the old pulsating Delhi, the energy and the maze of colours and the narrow lanes where you get poked and prodded to buy handicraft, you think of the sights and smells and the sights of an incredibly old city and yet in just half hour away here we are sitting in a bumper to bumper traffic jam of mostly four-wheel drives, a lot of air-conditioned cars, heading towards the toll booth where one side of the motorway can handle 18 lanes in a go! Did I say India is a land of contrasts? Huge contrasts!
I craned my neck up to see if I could count the number of incoming lanes on the other side of the Motorway. Alas in vain. It was a massive w-i-d-e road. Nothing I’ve seen anywhere else, not yet anyway! We crawled — bumper to bumper till we got to the toll booth. Just before we made it to the tool both we noticed a huge signboard telling us who exactly qualifies an exemption. The list was long and dare I say — hilarious!! We had a giggle and then D said: “Well the President and Prime Minister of India are Exempt too. Well I sure would hope so ” Do they really need to put that on a giant billboard?
We were racing through scorching hot earth. If the warm colours in the photo is anything to go by. The air-conditioning in the car was running at full throttle and we were still a bit sweaty. The landscape was parched and partly burnt, we were going through small patches of heat tornadoes. The burnt yellow dry soil and sand from the fields would form a mini-tornado and gyrate going over the piles of hay-stack on the fields and toss everything around… these were little localised heat waves. Great to watch from the comfort of zooming air-conditioned car. There was a constant haze of hot air and if you looked up ahead in the distance you could see the shimmering vehicle registrations numbers rising in a curve as we sat in anticipation thinking what was to come next. It felt a bit like we were travelling through a tunnel of fire and everything around us was a bit burnt and brown. Beautiful yet very unique and somewhat unnerving. Passing though miles of empty space at times with not a soul in sight and yet with 5 solid bars of signal on our iPhones. Vodafone seemed to look after India well.
The India Gate is the national monument of India. It is one of the largest war memorials in India. Situated in the heart of New Delhi, India Gate was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Originally known as All India War Memorial, it is a prominent landmark in Delhi and commemorates the 90,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who lost their lives while fighting for the British Indian Empire, or more correctly the British Empire in India British Raj in World War I and the Afghan Wars. It is composed of red sand stone and granite.
Rajpath, leading up to the Presidents Estate
Soon we were passing India Gate on our way back to the Hotel. These is a lot of construction going on in Delhi at the moment due to the upcoming Commonwealth Games in October 2010. We couldn’t park and go for a stroll as the nearby parking area had been turned into a tow away zone to facilitate some make-shift construction. After a quick hurried photo we hopped back in the Innova and went up the Rajpath also known as Vijay Chowk Road towards the Presidents Estate known as Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
On the way we passed many architectural façades some of these were the building of the National Archives of India, Nirman Bhavan, Vayu Bhavan. We took a detour on Mother Teresa Crescent which circumnavigates the Presidents Estate and then left the area after we went past a few High Commissions dotted in the Chanakyapuri Enclave also known as the Diplomatic Enclave due to the number of embassies found in this particular suburb, and yes we had a little glimpse of the Australian high commission in New Delhi
The view towards India Gate
The view towards India Gate
It was a great day out, we got back to our Kingston Park Hotel(don’t fall for the name) probably about 5pm that afternoon. Still about 40 degree C. Exhausted would have been a major understatement! This was our second day in the real heat. We got home thinking we’d shower and rest up a bit and the make dinner plans… by 6:30pm we had succumbed to the exhaustion of the day. Totally! We had no energy to get out in the still nearly 40 degree heat. D plundered the snack-bar in our room. There were some Indian snacks — Masala chips!! They were yummy. We slept a solid 14 hours dead to the hustle and bustle of Karol Bag Delhi!
D in front of Kingston Park Hotel in Karol Bag, New Delhi
Attribution: India Gate, Wikipedia
The Qutb Minar (also spelled Qutab or Qutub, Urdu: قطب منار), a tower in Delhi, India, is at 72.5 meters (237.8 ft) the world’s tallest brick minaret. Construction commenced in 1193 under the orders of India’s first Muslim ruler Qutb-ud-din Aibak, and the topmost storey of the minaret was completed in 1386 by Firuz Shah Tughluq. The Qutb Minar is notable for being one of the earliest and most prominent examples of Indo-Islamic architecture.
The Qutb Minar was our next stop after The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial at Rajghat. Unfortunately by this stage the sky was very overcast and the heat…. well lets not talk about it. This was the last stop of the day and we were quite exhausted merely out of the stifling heat. The airport must be close by or Qutb Minar must be on the flight path of most flights we could see. There were commercial planes taking off almost every 5 – 10 minutes.
Continue reading ‘Qutb Minar, Delhi’
We were now entering Rajghat (राज घाट). Its located on the banks of river Yamuna in Delhi and right on Ring Road which is also known as Mahatma Gandhi Road. It has stone paved footpath with large green lawns all around it. And they were lush in the scorching heat. We did see some gardeners maintaining the lawns. What a job in the middle of a sizzle — but it certainly pays off. The place is practically a carpet of green as far as your eyes go. Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial was erected here on a black marble platform which marks the spot of his cremation on 31 January 1948. It is left open to the sky while an eternal flame burns perpetually at one end. A stone footpath leads to the walled enclosure that houses the memorial.
View of the Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial from the walkway on top.
Continue reading ‘Raj Ghat, Delhi’
Humayun’s Tomb was really great and a good break & leisurely walk after a very filling lunch. We then wandered back through Connaught Place and stopped at an Emporium right next to the Deutsche Bank. We went in for a little wander.
Of course soon we entered the shop a smily slithery salesmen, dull as dishwater and with a monotonal voice like Meryl Streep’s stuck right onto us. I wonder if he’d ever realise that this actually upsets potential customers and this ‘in the face’, pushy, dry as dust technique doesn’t really work! Its stupid & annoying. And am sure we weren’t the only ones he has peeved off.
D of course doesn’t loose his temper at the most trying of times. I’m a whole different kettle of fish. My temperature was rising rapidly, worst of all this ‘salesman’ would neither take a hint nor accept no for an answer. He followed every pace we took, every direction we turned, every pause we paused and noted every trail of our eyes — mine and D’s as well all at the same time. I was loosing my calm exponentially. All of this in a nicely laid out air-conditioned shop where its meant to be nice and peaceful.
Continue reading ‘The Emporeum experience in Delhi’
One of my favourites of the Humayun’s Tomb
View of Humayun’s tomb up close from the base plinth. The architecture is quite impressive even though its only a tomb. The Moghuls obviously had a huge belief system in afterlife. For a lot of northern India is dotted with their architectural influence and of their cuisines and handicraft and gardens.
It took us a while to get back out in the heat again especially after a good meal and the copious amounts of absolutely chilled beer we had had at that stage. But driving through Delhi normally isn’t that bad… you are mostly surrounded in tree lines streets and even in the middle of a hot bright day it feel very comforting driving down a little boulevard. We were at the entrance of Humayun’s Tomb. Now for a little bit of history.
Humayun’s Tomb was built by his wife Hamida Banu Begum in 1562 AD and designed by Mirak Mirza Ghiyath, a Persian architect. It was the first garden-tomb on the Indian subcontinent, and is located in Nizamuddin East, Delhi, India, close to the Dina-panah citadel also known as Purana Qila, that Humayun founded in 1533. The complex was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, and since then has undergone extensive restoration work, which is still underway.
I do like Humayun’s Tomb its laid back, not overly touristy and have some Taj elements about it one major difference being this is built in Red Stone. The entrance that a sequence of three elaborate façades and the walk into the majestic site is rather peaceful even in a middle of a scorching afternoon. Its quite a green place and the trees and little shrubs are well maintained. They must use recycled water around here cause a part of the garden smelt putrid but hey it was green as! While walking down the paved entrance we spotted a Jacaranda tree. No one would expect to see flowers on a Jacaranda tree in summer, not in Indian summer anyway — but it had a few about. Aren’t Jacaranda trees gorgeous? I sound like an old lady I’d be very much at home at Grafton*.
Continue reading ‘Humayun’s Tomb at Nizamuddin, Delhi’
When we got back in our Toyota Innova after Jama Masjid it felt like going into a baking oven. And the air-conditioning at its full throttle couldn’t handle the heat even after a good half hour. Our tour guide mentioned as we were exiting Old Delhi. We were heading back to the real Delhi, the beautiful Delhi I like, tree line boulevards all around. We were taken to a lovely little, well not so little Restaurant in Chanakyapuri called the Lazeez Affaire. Tarun, the tour guide later also explained that this was his favourite family Restaurant. We went upstairs to a cosy booth and drank ourselves merry and ate till we couldn’t anymore. The Dal Makhani was to die for. The Biriyani was served in the traditional claypot and had me scraping for more. The Tandoori dish we ordered came on a sizzling plate and is making my mouth water as I write this. This was the second time D said how lunch he was loving Indian food.
The mood lighting inside was rather cool and the bar was all lit up in quasi 80′s retro. We had a chilled Kingfisher to quench our thirst down and cool down from the intense heat. We were soon to visit a more little things around Delhi: Hold on tight
After our visit to the Red Fort we got on a cycle rickshaw and headed through the narrow pulsating laneways and thronged bazaars of Old Delhi. This trip through the myriad lanes and colourful sights and smells of old Delhi was fascinating just as much as the rickshaw ride itself. To make matters even more interesting the cycle-rickshaw rider happened to be from the same state as I was born in, the erstwhile Bihar (now Jharkhand) and he felt the need not only to take us through the maze of narrow laced old lanes but also narrating every bit of history he knew thereof. That was nice. The old lanes are abuzz with a lot of life even in the middle of the hot afternoon.
Continue reading ‘Jama Masjid, Old Delhi’
So there you have it we were in the thick of Old Delhi with our guide for the day Tarun and walking into big Red Fort. It was about ten in the morning but it was scorching near 40°C. We were prepared.
Red Fort was constructed in the 17th century which served as the capital of the Mughals until 1857. The British later demolished some of the Moghul construction here and built garrison that has also left some english signature in a predominantly Moghul Fort. Inside the Red Fort was a Military camp until India’s independence in 1947. Unfortunately only 30% of this fort is available for viewing as a big chunk of it is still used by the indian Military safe-keeping forces. It now of course is a popular tourist site and a sign of Indian’s sovereignty. The Prime Minister of India raises the flag of India on the ramparts of the Lahori Gate of the Red Fort every day on Indian Independence Day.
Red fort lies along the banks of Yamuna river and took ten long years to finish (1638 AD – 1648 AD). The artwork in the Fort is a synthesis of Persian, European and Indian art which resulted in the development of unique Shahjahani style which is very rich in form, expression and colour. Red Fort, Delhi is one of the important building complexes of India which encapsulates a long period of Indian history and its arts. There are six important architectures inside the fort that are noteworthy. These are:
Continue reading ‘Red Fort, Old Delhi’
We had a good sleep last night and started off the next day(Day 3) with a visit to Old Delhi. For those not in the know: Old Delhi is not very far from New Delhi but once there it does take getting used to — its not for the faint hearted. To be fair, Old Delhi has its own unique charm. It was the heart of ‘Hindustan’ for a while during the Mughal regime. This was the centre of the universe for many a Mughal ruler and home to some great great cuisines and grand architecture. But in a nut shell this place is extremely frantic, hot, busy, fly infested, flocked with hawkers, pick-pockets and persistent touts and countless shops.
Red Fort
Continue reading ‘Day 3 – Old Delhi’
D found these the next morning in our Delhi local newspaper. Need I say more? We’re drinking lots of water. Its all good.
Continue reading ‘The heat is on!’
D had found this amazingly cute place when we were doing our research on India and particularly Delhi, Its called The Delhi Manor. Its looked gorgeous from the website. We tried our level best to stay there when in Delhi but for some reason Intrepid Travel or probably Travel Inn their Indian counterpart wanted us to stay in Kingston Park in Karol Baug, Delhi! Well all was not lost yet D and I found that The Delhi Manor also had an outstanding restaurant called — ‘Indian Accent‘. This place has won a good few awards and also featured in the Qantas in-flight magazine. I had made a booking for us at the Indian Accent for tonight.
Indian Accent which is the Restaurant of The Manor is cocooned in a very leafy part of Friends Colony in South Delhi. Rakesh-ji took us there on time and we so felt like home the moment we stepped in. This place is just gorgeous! It is so secluded by a thick belt of tropical trees and tree lined streets and lane ways all along… and far-far away from the hustle and bustle of the Delhi streets. It is a sanctuary in the bliss of emerald green. Very unassuming from outside but soon the gate opens and the guard throws in a big salute to you, all you notice is a big carpet of green, the soft glow of diffused lighting, flower petals strewn along your pathway, blossoms of Marigold and Frangipani in ornate bowls and a very plush elegant inside sporting a cozy bar and an rather intimate restaurant overlooking the green.
Continue reading ‘Indian Accent, The Delhi Manor’
Our room is on the 3rd floor of the Hotel. The outside temperature was 37°C still close to midnight. Of course we didn’t much feel the heat as we were mostly in air-conditioning, until we got to our room of course. It felt like we had entered a baking room! Luckily the air conditioning cooled it down to a decent temperature in no time. And after a quick shower we were dead to the world.
In Delhi Intrepid Travel operates through Travel Inn. We have found Travel Inn very helpful, rather courteous and punctual even just in the first two day. We had initially kept this as a free day just in case we were tired or unwell from the long flight or if we took time to adjust coming into the nearly 40 degree heat. But as it turns out we were only too keen to go out and not waste even a single day. We called Travel Inn and D spoke to a lady who in the next half hour arranged a taxi for the day. Earlier that morning we went down and had our very indian breakfast — Puri with sabzi and a cup of tea. It was yummy. D liked it too. This was his first time having an all traditional indian breakfast. Little did I know at this stage he’d be pining for more.
Continue reading ‘Day 2 – New Delhi’
The flight from Sydney to Delhi was great. It really was but I got frisked at the Sydney Airport. Ha Ha! Bambini Trust has a new outlet in the Airport. Our feet naturally wandered that way. Ten in the morning was a bit early for a wine (though I had 4 glasses of red wine between Sydney and Singapore alone, yes OMG I know!) so we settled in for a toasted banana bread and coffee both of which were rather nice. Soon we boarded the aircraft and were airborne. We’re really going to India and while very excited were also getting more and more conscious of the 44°C heat.
We landed early in Singapore and while making a transit from T3 to T2 saw a whole lot of passengers grounded sleeping on the floor… with all flights cancelled to Europe due to the volcanic eruptions in Iceland. After a little browsing around the shops in T2 we were boarding the aircraft for New Delhi. Excited as ever! The real journey begins now We had a new Singapore Airbus, nice new carpet, bigger screens and friendlier staff. The meals were yummy – a gorgeous butter chicken! Soon we were descending into Delhi.
Continue reading ‘Flight to New Delhi’
Beyond the fact that the reminiscing of the Taj Mahal was real there perhaps also is a very good reason why this is happening now & if you haven’t figured it out, well in less than 2 sleeps we are off to incredible India. D and I are so wide-eyed about it that I can’t even begin to tell you.
The major towns we are going through are: Delhi(Old and New), Jaipur, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Varanasi, Dhanbad and Kolkata. Drag/zoom the map below to see more details.
View Delhi to Kolkata in a larger map
Truth be told this is my second trip to India this year but when I did visit earlier it was just a quick visit to my parents! This forthcoming trip however, is very special in many ways…its going to be D’s first time in India. Its my first trip to many places I’ve only visited as a child… and though I remember most of those place… as a teenager one doesn’t pay the same attention to life and history around them as an adult would.
Continue reading ‘Visiting India soon’
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