Dear all, thanks to some heavy rain which restrains me at the institute until the shuttle bus can drive me dry and save home, I have some time t write finally an English short report of my one week trip to the north of India in the first week of August.
Joka, a visitor student from Munich, Jasna, a friend of her coming from Stuttgart, and me, we started the trip in Delhi, and continued after two days to Agra, and discovered then the Rajastan cities Jaipur, Bikaner and Jodhpur.
Day 1 and 2 (Delhi): The first day in Delhi, we were welcomed by very hot weather. Nevertheless, we started to discover the city per pedes, and went first to the observatory Janta Mantar. This complex of different buildings to measure declination, azimuth angles or the position of celestial objects was erected in 1724 by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur.
After that, we decided to take a car to visit some interesting sites of the city without being exposed to the sun all the time. We saw the India Gate (Indian version of a triomphal arc), the Lotus Temple (unfortunately closed on Monday), Al Mutuqb (the oldes site of a mosque in Delhi) and the Red-Fort.
The second day, we visited New Delhi, the modern center with the impressive government buildings and the National Gallery of Modern Art, which allowed me to learn a lot about Indian modern Artists. After that, I left the ladies alone and discovered the city on a larger scale using the brand new metro! Many parts of the city infrastructure were recently renewed due to the Commonwealth games 2010. To have a nice contrast to that, I visited also the old part of Delhi, with its buzzing bazaar around the mosque Jama Masjid.
Day 3 (Agra): After a pleasant 4h train trip, we arrived in Agra and went straight to the Taj Mahal. In contrast to my fears to find a crowded place, there was no waiting line at the ticket counter, ad only a few tourists (mainly Indians) populated the gardens of the Taj Mahal. The building is really beautiful and is worth the travel. In addition to that create the trees and plants in the garden a nice space to wander around and to enjoy this site. After a few hours and a tasty lunch in the old bazaar besides the Taj. Then, we took a cycle-riksha to get to the Red Fort, which is about 2km away. This huge fort contains some beautiful architectural highlights, especially the Harem's complex is very nice with its fountains and marble mosaic. At the end of the day, we had a short shopping in town and went to the train station. We met two very kind french travellers, and had together with them dinner in a nearby restaurant. The night train was sleeper class, i.e. the cheapest ticket, but it was surprisingly comfortable and not at all crowded, so that we could sleep quite well.
Day 4 (Jodhpur): We arrived in Jodhpur in the early morning and refreshed us in the restrooms in the train station. After a tasty breakfast, we headed into the city. Our first stop was the market place, where we entered a shawl shop with a superb salesman, who showed you a big variety of wonderful shawls of various qualities. Finally, we left the shop with 10 shawls! After this morning shopping, we took an auto riksha to get to the huge fort which surmounts the city. It is long time ago that I have seen such a nice and impressive complex, the audio guide was very well done, and as an additional "ingredient" there were musicians and guards in traditional costumes who created a special atmosphere. A few hours later, we were down in the city again and had lunch in an elegant restaurant, wandered through the market and visited another tissue shop (fortunately, they had only large sheets, nothing for us). At the end of this eventful day, we mounted on the train to Bikaner, where we were picked up at 2 am.
Day 5 (Bikaner): Bikaner, a city at the border of the Thar desert, was our starting place for a camel safari. Unfortunately, Joka was not feeling well, so that Jasna and me first went into the old part of the city, where we discovered narrow streets with spice, shawl and other traders. In the afternoon, we (this time with Joka) headed off to the camel safari organized by Vijay. Surprisingly, the desert was green, because it had rained a few days ago. The ride on the camel was really fun, with this up and down on top of this high animal. At home again, Joka and me were not feeling fine, so that we slept early.
Day 6 and 7 (Jaipur): Early in the morning (5am), we were driven to the train station by our lovely host Vijay, and took the train to our last stop of our trip, Jaipur. It was a trip through flat, dry land, sellers of coffee, tea, biscuit and small stuff offered their goods during the trip, and everyone was just hoping that the 6 hours travel time would rapidly go over...Arrived in Jaipur, we had lunch in our hostel, in our spacious room, and then visited the old center, called the pink city. Here we saw the Harem building Hava Mahal, which was nice, but not as impressive after our experience in Jodhpur. We could not visit the other sites like the palace, because it was already 5pm. But that was ok, because we discovered the small alleys and galleries of the bazaar area.
The next day, we visited the Janta Mantar, which was even bigger than the Delhi one, and had more instruments. Then we visited a jeweler shop, and found some nice ear rings, bracelets (ok, the ladies found it). time was running short, but with the auto riksha, we arrived at the hostel at time to catch the cab to the airport. In the airplane, I was thinking that a very nice week with many impressions goes over, but there will be more such trips, that's for sure...
No comments:
Post a Comment