Part 17 – February 22, 2015.   

News flash:       

• It's our daughter Jennifer's birthday.  Happy birthday Jen, and to Gene Hamlow and George Washington too.
• Delhi has the most polluted air of any city in the world.
• And, on another note, in a city that is predominantly Hindu and Muslim, all drivers are Christians.

How do we know these assertions to be true? 

First, we have a copy of Jen's birth certificate, and Gene told us so, and the calendar tells us about George..

And, from the February 7, 2015 edition of The Economist, “The lorries are a chief reason why Delhi’s air is now more toxic than any other city’s on earth. Admittedly Beijing has a worse reputation, with its visible smog from particulates of 10 microns or smaller, known as PM10. Delhi’s grim distinction is that it has even higher levels of PM10, as well as of the smaller particulates, PM2.5, that are more likely to kill because they go deeper into the lungs. Levels of PM2.5 in Delhi are routinely 15 times above levels considered safe by the World Health Organisation. New data suggest that, on this score, Delhi’s air has been 45% more polluted than that of the Chinese capital for the past couple of years.”

Believe me, you can smell and see it most in the morning but it’s bad all day.  Here is a photo of a passenger jet flying low over the 73 meter tall Qutab Minar in Delhi just after noon today.  The plane was invisible until directly overhead.  This is a direct shot into the sun - see it?

With regard drivers being Christians in a non-Christian country, it’s just logical.  Every driver honks his horn constantly from the time he start his vehicle until he turns it off.  There must be bumper stickers on each vehicle in Hindi that say, “Honk if you love Jesus.”  There certainly are signs on the backs of trucks in plain English that say, “Honk please.”

Here are some more pictures of Qutab (or Qutb or Qutub) Minar.  It used to be taller but they took the top layer (Smith's folly) off the cake because it did not look right.  It now sits on the ground just a little way away.

Terry and Sandy

Part 16 – February 22, 2015.   Cliff Notes: Another train station, same old challenges and we never quite get them all right.

Our final train ride – the Sunday overnight train from Udaipur to Delhi, 12 hours, 6:15 PM departure.  Udaipur station is calm and relaxed.  Again we need to find platform, train, car, and cabin.  Sign at station entrance says train is on platform 1.  Find bench and wait there for train to arrive.  Train arrives on schedule and we hike to front of it to look for our car – wrong way, it’s at the rear.  Now what cabin?  No passenger list is on car so we sit in cabin A (the one we had last time) and are joined by a Korean woman and her Indian husband who teaches Korean history in Korea.  Oops, wrong cabin.  Move to cabin B.  We team up with Benji, an American whose “home“ is in London but who spends almost all of his time riding Mewar horses in Rajasthan (that’s where we are).  Mewar horses are what the Mewar Maharanas of Rajasthan and their warriors rode into battle.  We check the list that is now posted on the outside of the car and find that we are now in the right cabin.  Benji got to the cabin first and staked his claim for one to the two large lower berths – he’s 77.  Sandy has the other large lower berth and I have a tiny upper berth – it’s not fair, but I guess that with age comes privilege.  Our fourth cabin mate is scheduled to join us in 6 hours.  He gets the other upper.

Sandy making the bed in her comfy, large lower berth

Last night, Saturday,  we spent some leisure time on our roof terrace where Sandy sketched and I watched kites being flown from the rooftops.

Today, Sunday, it was HOT in Udaipur – 95 degrees.  We spent the day staying cool in anticipation of our train ride to Delhi at night.  In the morning we had a leisurely breakfast with our host, Akshay, and his sister, Tina, saw an art exhibition, walked the market streets of the city in the shade, and visited a beautiful small Hindu temple not in the guide books.  There were so many small mirrored surfaces that the autofocus on the camera worked only 1/3 of the time.

At one o’clock we called it a day, fetched our bags from the homestay, and set up camp at our favorite little restaurant, The Whistling Teal, down the street.  

We had lunch, did some reading, and had tandoori chicken prepared to take away for our dinner later on the train.

We are now back in Delhi on Monday and ready to do a last day of sight seeing.

Terry and Sandy

Part 15 – February 21, 2015.   Cliff Notes: New train station, new challenges.

Thursday morning train from Jaipur to Udaipur, six hours.  Jaipur station is in full hustle bustle mode.  Must find platform, train, car, and seats.  Sign overhead on platform 1 says train is on platform D2. Hike to 2, look for D.  No D section, wrong train too.  Hike back to Enquiry desk on platform 1.  No Enquiry desk but Station Master’s office is open.  We’re told it’s simple, walk to the far end of platform 1, go down a ramp to the tracks, cross them, take a right and find platform A2.   A2?  Where did A2 come from?  We check again, now the overhead sign says D A2.  It did not say that before.  And what’s the D mean?

Beyond the end of platform 1 we find A2 and our train in the dark and out of what appears to be the station.  We find our car, chair car C1, and seats, 39 and 40.  39 and 40 are not together, we sit next to each other in 40 and 41 and pray we can negotiate for 41.  But first somebody comes in and sits in 39.  His seat is really 17.  A family of three takes seats 42, 43, and 44 and gives us 40.  People are very accommodating.

Comfortable seats, very old car, AC on full blast for the entire journey, cold.  2 tickets, 350 km, 700 rupees total, less than $12.

On our first afternoon and evening in Udaipur we walked to the Jagdish Mandir (temple) right down the street from our lovely 6 room homestay..  Later we took a cable car ride to the top of a hill south of city center..At night we went to the Museum, also very close, for an hour of traditional dance.

The next day, Friday, we hired a car and driver to take us on a day trip to Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh fort some three hours north of Udaipur through dry but interesting territory and villages.  We left at 9:30 and were back by 6:30.  Kumbhalgarh is huge and sits on a mountain top surrounded by a 36 km long wall.  Ranakpur is the home of famous Jain temples.  A great day.

Saturday was spent touring the Udaipur City Palace, taking a leisurely walk through the old city, and taking a short boat ride on Lake Pichola.  It’s HOT here

.

Terry and Sandy