Site Feed (Atom)
To The Taj....
Rajasthan really is the India of postcards, the spectacular forts and magnificent palaces have survived colonialism and demonstrate the power and wealth that once existed across this land. It was an India vastly different to today. Probably one of the most striking elements of Rajasthan is comportment of the men. Even the smallest dustiest villages are full of proud moustached gentlemen wearing vividly coloured turbans and baggy jodhpur trousers. Different chaste, status and occasions call for different coloured turbans creating a fantastic multicolour spectacle.
Our next stop was the old city of Jodhpur, surrounded by old city walls and dominated by the restored Mehrangarh Fort. It is an ancient castle of the Rajputs, the princely clans who are native to the state of Rajasthan, and claim to have descended from the sun. The fort is awesomely perched over the town looking like something straight out of a story book. Many of the buildings in the old city are blue, a holdover from the old days when residents of the Brahmin caste distinguished themselves from their lower-caste brethren by painting their buildings a distinctive color. Now it no longer denotes caste status, but it lends the city a romantic hue when you view it from the ramparts of the fort.
Merenghar Castle is set up like a living museum and a visit there is made worthwhile by the excellent audio tour, narrated in parts by the current Maharajah himself, which explains the odds and ends of the castle and relates stories behind all the important rooms and artifacts. The complete presentation allows visitors to get good insight to how life within the fort was many years ago from how it was defended during attacks to the sad little hand prints of all the widows of Maharajah Man Singh, who committed "sati" upon his death. This was common Rajput practice where the wives accompanied the funeral procession out of the castle and sat on the pyre with their dead husband and were burned alive in silence. Suffice to say we left very impressed with the castle and the tour.
After spending four hours standing waiting for the Jodphur train booking system to recover after a system crash we secured tickets onwards to Delhi. We were queuing at the "Foreigners, Senior Citizens and Ladies" window and so were entertained by a couple of elderly gentleman who happily discussed everything from soccer to President Sarkozy's new wife. As expected once the system recovered the mood of the queue rapidly deteriorated as a cut throat push to get to the front ensued. Some things never change!
Delhi became our base for about a week as we sorted out visas for the next leg of the trip. We took a side trip to Agra for a couple of day to tick the big box of the Taj Mahal. People in the past who have been to Agra warned me that the Taj Mahal is fantastic but the surrounds leave a lot to be desired. Our experience was quite the opposite, perhaps there has been some huge effort to clean up rubbish in the surrounding area. The approach to the Taj Mahal is breathtaking you don't actually see the building until you pass through an arch and it suddenly comes into view.
We returned to Delhi to get ready for our trip to Australia .... talk for the last few days was centred upon all the things we were looking forward to eating when we got there. Murphys Law worked against us and we managed to pick up a nasty bug somewhere between Delhi airport and Melbourne that knocked us out of eating action for a while. We've since recovered and made up for it!
We've spend a few weeks here in Melbourne enjoying 40 degree weather followed by a sudden drop down to 10 degrees that saw us searching through boxes for some winter layers. It's been a hectic few weeks catching up with family and friends. The Nance's threw a big homecoming/ engagement party for us. Thanks Julian & Daina.
Melburnians - good to see you all again. Thanks for all the good wishes. See you soon.
We fly back to Delhi tomorrow morning to begin our travels north, across Pakistan and on into the Middle East. Stay Tuned for more....
Our next stop was the old city of Jodhpur, surrounded by old city walls and dominated by the restored Mehrangarh Fort. It is an ancient castle of the Rajputs, the princely clans who are native to the state of Rajasthan, and claim to have descended from the sun. The fort is awesomely perched over the town looking like something straight out of a story book. Many of the buildings in the old city are blue, a holdover from the old days when residents of the Brahmin caste distinguished themselves from their lower-caste brethren by painting their buildings a distinctive color. Now it no longer denotes caste status, but it lends the city a romantic hue when you view it from the ramparts of the fort.
Merenghar Castle is set up like a living museum and a visit there is made worthwhile by the excellent audio tour, narrated in parts by the current Maharajah himself, which explains the odds and ends of the castle and relates stories behind all the important rooms and artifacts. The complete presentation allows visitors to get good insight to how life within the fort was many years ago from how it was defended during attacks to the sad little hand prints of all the widows of Maharajah Man Singh, who committed "sati" upon his death. This was common Rajput practice where the wives accompanied the funeral procession out of the castle and sat on the pyre with their dead husband and were burned alive in silence. Suffice to say we left very impressed with the castle and the tour.
After spending four hours standing waiting for the Jodphur train booking system to recover after a system crash we secured tickets onwards to Delhi. We were queuing at the "Foreigners, Senior Citizens and Ladies" window and so were entertained by a couple of elderly gentleman who happily discussed everything from soccer to President Sarkozy's new wife. As expected once the system recovered the mood of the queue rapidly deteriorated as a cut throat push to get to the front ensued. Some things never change!
Delhi became our base for about a week as we sorted out visas for the next leg of the trip. We took a side trip to Agra for a couple of day to tick the big box of the Taj Mahal. People in the past who have been to Agra warned me that the Taj Mahal is fantastic but the surrounds leave a lot to be desired. Our experience was quite the opposite, perhaps there has been some huge effort to clean up rubbish in the surrounding area. The approach to the Taj Mahal is breathtaking you don't actually see the building until you pass through an arch and it suddenly comes into view.
We returned to Delhi to get ready for our trip to Australia .... talk for the last few days was centred upon all the things we were looking forward to eating when we got there. Murphys Law worked against us and we managed to pick up a nasty bug somewhere between Delhi airport and Melbourne that knocked us out of eating action for a while. We've since recovered and made up for it!
We've spend a few weeks here in Melbourne enjoying 40 degree weather followed by a sudden drop down to 10 degrees that saw us searching through boxes for some winter layers. It's been a hectic few weeks catching up with family and friends. The Nance's threw a big homecoming/ engagement party for us. Thanks Julian & Daina.
Melburnians - good to see you all again. Thanks for all the good wishes. See you soon.
We fly back to Delhi tomorrow morning to begin our travels north, across Pakistan and on into the Middle East. Stay Tuned for more....
0 comments:
Post a Comment