Nads talking now

Now a word from NAD
Namaste gang,
Oct 22. 6:30 am, ole man still sleeping of course, sitting on the rooftop of my hotel, just watched the sunrise, listening to the chanting in the distance from the Hindu temple, ah, India! But also had to step over the monkey doods as I walked up the stairs, on the lookout for attacking monkeys. We can’t have our breakfasts here on the rooftop, the guy says”monkey problem”, but dinners we eat up here. Mark, you’d enjoy it, the guy has a high powered pellet gun at the ready for monkeys!

Last I wrote we were in Udaipur. Finally got a lakeview rm, was beautiful. This is where they filmed the Bond movie Octopussy, a hotel right on the lake, so magical. Couldn’t go to the hotel, only for the $500/nite guests. But still the other sites were awesome, ancient palace, fort, Jain temple. It was as huge as a city block, all carved in white marble, 144 columns, no 2 alike.

We stayed there 4 nites, then on to Bundi by nite train. We heard on the news that a couple hrs after we got off the train it had a crash w/ another train! I guess if it’s not your time, you get off the train beforethings go wrong! Sure glad it wasn’t our time, would have made for a lot of paperwork for the family. 23 dead, I’m sure many more injured. We keep thinking of the family we shared the compartment with, Mom, Dad, 2 sweet little boys.
I pray they got out safely. We were sitting towards the back of the trainwhich was stopped and that’s where it got hit by the other train. The guy that was responsible, probably had fallen asleep and ran away so they were looking to arrest him. I think the police are still looking for him. Hard to believe, we got off about 1am, and there was one lone man responsible for the lives of thousands of people, I guess no computer system in the railways. Riding the trains at nite I’ve seen one lone guy with a dim kerosene lamp to signal the trains.

We were supposed to stay here in Bundi for 5 nites hanging out waiting to see if Kris is going to to meet us here, but that’s not going to happen. It’s a very small town, picturesque , with many homes painted a bright purple/blue. But dirty, no trash cleanup, as everywhere,open sewers. I guess I got spoiled w/ Shimla cause it was so clean there. We saw the fort yesterday, not much else here in the town. And especially no shopping! Of course that’s not John’s criteria for a good town or not, but it is mine! Last night was our second night, we’ve decided to leave this eve and go to a Ranthambore National Park a tiger refuge a 4 hr train ride away(train again!).
Should be something different, probably won’t see any tigers, they’re pretty rare. But the jeep safari should be fun.

The place we’re staying here is real funky, about $13/nite. We arrived about 1am, the hotel guy Chintu, was there to meet our train. He came on motorcycle but wanted to make sure we didn’t get ripped off by the tuk tuk (motorcycle taxi) drivers, which is a real problem anytime you arrive at a new place. His place was real hard to find, in the middle of the old city. I guess I got spoiled, this is the first place w/ no AC except Shimla where we didn’t need it. The rm was real dark, felt unclean, very stuffy even w/ fan, squat toilet, but also western one beside it. First time we used our sleeping bag liners on top the sheets. But actually in the light of day felt much better. This is a family run haveli, 450 yrs old. The family is so gracious, mother awesome cook, we didn’t have the heart to switch. We would have stayed here the whole time but I’m kinda glad we’re leaving. Feel bad, since we booked for 5 nites, we’re going to pay them for an extra day (remember, that’s $13!) In the 70’s when we were last here we never paid that much, we would have felt like we were in a 5 star hotel if we had, I’m sure. Today Chintu has booked a tuk tuk for us to go out of town to see a waterfall and these ancient water tanks they call baoris, should be able to get back b/4 our 5pm train.

As for Kris, he’s still having a great time in Menali. We’ve been able to chat w/ him online every couple days. He said he’s in a great hotel (I’m sure real cheap), the family there invited him to spend the Dewali festival w/ them (very big holiday, happy time, beginning of their new year. Other Hindu significance but don’t know what). The town is a real hangout for young westerners (guess they would be called hippies in our day). He’s made friends there so enjoying himself.
Today he starts a 3-4 day trek w/ 2 british girls. We’re going to extend our stay at Pushkar from 2 to 4 nites so he can meet us there, since he was the one who really wanted to go to the camel fair. That means we’ll stay 3 nites in Kanpur instead of 5 nites trying to track down Joh’ns old house, his grandmother’s grave. It should be enough time, and it’s just a big industrial city, not much to do or see. It’s not even in any of our guide books as not a tourist spot.
Don’t know how we’re going to find a hotel ahead of time, oh well.



Oct. 23
Holy moly, what a change this place is from Bundi! But let me first finish off my Bundi narrative. Before going to the waterfalls we stopped at another hotel we had lunch at the day b/4 to change money. We got our rupees, started talking about being on the train that crashed, and both of us walked out of there without our passports a guy had taken away to make copies of. Can’t believe it, two supposedly “seasoned travelers”doing something so stupid like that! Patti, as you say, veeery nar nars! We spent the day going to the countryside , never realizing. When we got back to our hotel we had only a couple hrs b/4 we had to leave for the train station. Fortunately, as we had our lunch the day b/4 in conversation we told the wife of that hotel that we were staying at Chintu’s place.
She remembered that, so called our place to tell them they had our passports, along w/ a $100 travelers check in John’s passport. We had just enough time to retrieve them!
I tell you, Bundi was a blessed place for us. Wasn’t too happy w/ the rm, but that was absolutely insignificant in the whole scheme of things. The people there were beautiful, so helpful and honest. Even at the train station there was this railway police guy, loaded machine gun and all, who started talking to us, no angle to hustle us for anything, just friendly and curious. He made sure when we got on the train that we got our proper seats, and came back b/4 his stop to say goodbye and wish us well. Bundi was definitely Kharmic for us.

1st class AC, that, that was the way to go man! So far we had only ridden 2nd class AC(cause the arrangements were made by our budget traveler son). Had a complete compartment to ourselves, seats that make into 2 berth, unlike 4 berth in 2nd class. But of course then we don’t get to meet other people.

A driver had been sent by hotel guy, Vishnu, to fetch us. Arrived about 11pm.Really nice rm, separate cottage, AC, although much cooler here. Green lawns, manicured gardens all around compound, first time for us since arriving in India! This is a whole diff Indian experience, feel like an English lady in british raj era, coming to view the tigers, 1 spectrum to the other. We’re going this afternoon for our 1st jeep safari, 3 hrs, $31 for both of us. Can you imagine how much something like this would cost stateside? Will close now and finish off after 1st safari. Boy’s bringing me lunch to my veranda, ho hum.

Oct 24. Ranthambore National Park is 1334 sq. km of wild jungle scrub, in the center is the 10th. century Ranthambore fort, the park was a maharajas’ hunting grounds until 1970. We did the jeep trip last evening but didn’t see a tiger but many spotted deer, Samba a large Indian deer, wild boars and crocodiles. This morning up at 5am and did a morning safari, this time on a “cantor” a truck like vehicle that held about 15 people, lots of kids aboard so not as quiet as I wished. Towards the end of the trip we saw jeeps in front of us stopped, there were apparently 4 tigers on the road and sure enough we did see one of them us they returned to the bush. It’s too bad we didn’t arrive just a minute sooner. A few kilometers on down the road another jeep had stopped, this time they had spotted two leopards, a rare sighting. Again we were a few seconds late, but at least now I’m a believer that these animals must be making a come-back from all the mismanagement I’ve read about.
Tommorow we have tickets for the night train to Jaipur where we will connect to Ajmeer and then on to Pushkar

Lucky to be in Bundi

Oct. 17-20.. Spent most of the day at the imposing City Palace museum, Rajasthan’s largest palace with balconies, towers and cupolas, towering over the lake. Our hotel has a comfortable feel, Escher like stairways with friendly staff, even if we did have to change rooms 3 times in 4 nights with each night improving on the room Uadipur has its usual charm of buildings and monuments, however to just observe the street life is entertaing beyond any movie or TV documentary can impress. A two hr.drive to Kumbalgarth fort, the world’s second longest wall after the Great Wall of China. Also Ranakpur a Jain temple supported by 1444 pillars of white marble, no two alike; I gave up comparing after 3 or 4. The village life seen on the way there and back had timelessness about it, the same scenes as my mothers old faded Kodachrome slides from almost 50 years ago.

Tonight we catch the Mewar Express bound for Bundy, a small village where Kipling moved to write.

Oct.21. We are in the Hadee Rani Guesthouse an Indian house with 3 rooms for rent, the place is 450 yrs old, but lucky for us they have up-graded the plumbing since then. The mother of the family is the cook and it’s the best Indian food yet, all for $12 a night.
Bundi is a truly Indian town, no tourist section but great street scenes.

Udaipur

Oct. 16. Ok, after a 9 ½ hr bus ride to Delhi, taxi to airport and flight to Udaipur. We got lucky and got a room at the Jagat Niwas Hotel, a heritage building. Lots of fireworks tonight but tomorrow Diwali begins and the main intersection in the old city is ready to go.

Shimla and back again.

Oct. 15. Nadine, the brave soul that she is and myself are leaving for Rajasthan tonight and Kris leaves for Manalli tomorrow morning. Outside they are hanging lights and preparing for Diwali.

Oct 13. Road blocked above Nako, the had been working a week on trying to move a boulder 40-50 feet high that had slid onto the road along with a continuing slide of rubble. We walked up the 6 k to watch as they finished drilling the rock, but just as they were doing this another slide came down the hill, as the 3-4 workers scrambled for cover the drill and hydraulic cables were bent and buried. As the dynamite crew, a guy with a rolled up red fuse and another guy carrying a beat up cardboard box. One guy threw the sticks up to the others feet as he stuffed the sticks into the drill holes. They had the boulder drilled on three sides, attached the fuse and actually lit it with a match, then ran like hell for cover, about 2 minutes later the explosion was impressive but only 1/3 of the rock cracked off and slid down the face of the cliff. So the road was still blocked and we were out of luck! We decided to return to Shimla and hoped Nadine was still kicking.

Oct. 12. An overturned Tata truck on a hairpin blocked all traffic including the school bus, so all the uniformed kids, walking up hill added to the color of the morning. The military type tow truck, using a big pine tree as a pulley to pull the truck back onto its wheels so we could finally pass. Met the Spiti river and up the valley and following the cutouts in the mountain for the road until we reached Nako. A nice Buddhist goat herder village, prayer flags on every roof, next to the satellite dish and solar panels! Watched while the locals gathered and the young girls brought the goats down from the high country, this area is famous for the Pashmina wool.

Oct. 11. Kalpa and a great lunch of egg curry. Again music and laughter, this time women threshing the grain with long sticks and having what looked like a great time. Not unlike our group effort of pounding mochi at home at new years, only without the Saki!

Oct. 10. Great hotel in Sangla, overlooking the river and the locals humping the straw down from the higher valleys for the winter animal feed. Up to Chitkul at 12, 000 ft. More dancing and drums in the village, this time 15-20 women dancing in a celebrating the “Phulech “festival or flower harvest festival.

Oct 9. Sangla valley, deep gorges, apple orchards. If you ever see apples from Himachal Pradesh try them, great red and juicy.

Oct 9. Sangla valley, deep gorges, apple orchards. If you ever see apples from Himachal Pradesh try them, great red and juicy.

Oct 5-7. Stayed in Shimla and Nadine has decided to stay, Kris & I have a jeep with driver for $12/day. We will go for 10 days follow the Sutlej River, into the Lingti, Pin & Spiti valleys. We left Nadine at the Willow Banks hotel just as a bout of Delhi belly hit her. She told us to go so off we went with “Bobby” our driver, the next 7 days while on the road reminded me of Mr. Toads ride. This guy had competed the last few years in the “Raid de Himalaya” Rally from Shimla to Srinagar and no cars ever passed us. Tata trucks and sheer drops with no guardrails were just another day in the office for him.

Oct. 4. We left Delhi 7:40 am going AC second class changed trains onto the narrow gauge railway (Toy Train) at Kalta and arrived Simla at 7pm. We met an Indian family on the train into Simla Sam the father was in his late 30 and very bright and informed in regards to politics, religion and finance, his wife is a teacher, he works for the government in defense, he has worked for the UN in four African countries. He was very interested in the “west” and how the family unit is perceived and how we take care of our elders. He is a Christian and a true believer in his faith. His wife’s brother is a software engineer for Microsoft. Narrow cliff hugging roads in the dark so unable to get a feel for the place. There is a definite vertical feeling to Shimla.

Catching up in Delhi....

Sept. 27. Breakfast and the a taxi, bags thrown on top luggage rack, to Victoria Terminus, Sleeper train to Aurangabad, arrived 11 pm. Driver waiting.

Sept 28. Tourist office in hotel made reservations to fly to Delhi on Jet Lite, good for us because India Airlines just went on strike cancelling all flights from Delhi. Hired a driver to take us to Daultabad Fort & Ellora caves, I hope I can send some pictures but they won’t do them justice. Returned for dinner in the hotel restaurant, dark and quiet, we were the only ones in the place, it looked a little sketchy at first and we cautiously ordered from the only menu in the place. What a treat, the best sweet corn soup in the world, garlic nan, tandori chicken, chicken kentuki and iced Kingfisher beer. All served to us by 2 guys lurking around our table.

Sept 29. Decided not to do the 3 hr. one way drive to Ajunta caves, instead visited Panchakki (water wheel/pools. Ghrishneshwar Temple (Jyotirlinga Shiva Temple), Bibi-Ka-Maqbara (Mini Taj Mahal). Aurangabad is a really Indian town, very dusty, dry but not as uncomfortable as Mumbai. No high-rise buildings and no actual downtown area.

Sept 30. Up early and to the airport, modern, clean, huge for the amount of people there. Jet Lite flight to Delhi took 2 hrs. No driver waiting for us, so a pstood in line and pre-paid for a cab. A little confusion waiting at curbside then finally a driver who spoke English gave us another wild taxi ride to the Hotel Grand Godwin, (Arakashan Rd., Ram nagar, Pahargani 91-11-23546891). The confusion and chaotic scenes of the streets gave away to the quiet, air conditioned lobby. Water on a silver tray while we checked-in hit the spot. The circular stairway, marble floors, Mahogany doors and beautiful jeweled miniature paintings on the wall; all were a surprise for $25 a night each.

Oct 1. To the Red Fort in the morning, impressive outer walls but signs of ageing and lack of upkeep. An aging palace and royal gardens within, at one time housed the Peacock throne which we saw in Teheran in 1978. Walked down Chandni Chowk street, what once must have been an easy going avenue is now a scene to behold: Sikhs carrying swords, knives and spears walking in the neighborhood of a temple. A gaggle of cycle rickshaws with a large blue box instead of a seat, on the side is painted Bishop Church School. Six children inside the boxes with their schoolbags thrown on top. Bullock carts unloading grain and flour. All of this with crumbling British landmark buildings peeking through the noise and moving flow of traffic and humans.

Oct 2. Mahatma’s birthday today, a national holiday. So when we arrived at the Gandhi museum we discovered that the gates were robed in garlands and closed! As were the museums, so much for our culture day, at least the traffic was a little subdued.
Tomorrow we are catching a train and then bus to Shimla, it’s the high season there and we had to call 4-5 places before finding a room. It’s at the top of the town which is on the side of a hill, the walk up will be interesting but the view should be great, I’ll let you know.