This morning’s 7 a.m. temperature was 26C, with a partly cloudy sky. The
region is just on the northern tip of a rain system, so far just cloud. Once
awake, we could hear the cooing of a dove outside our window. At breakfast, we sat with Myra, Gailene,
Helga and Deloria (her luggage finally arrived at the hotel, early in the
morning of the day we left Agra for Jaipur). Several of the ladies have bought
saris for as little as $60 Canadian.
Everyone’s luggage had to be out in the hallway by 9 a.m. to be loaded
onto the bus for the 10 a.m. departure.
Today we returned to Delhi, a trip of about 265 km which took about five
and a half hours of travelling. The expressway speed limit is only 60 km per
hour for trucks and buses but 80 km per hour for motorcycles and cars. The
highway is three lanes each way separated by a boulevard of four meters,
sometimes one side is a meter higher than the other. Just at the edge on the narrow shoulder,
several times we saw camels with loads being lead along, not seeming to mind as
the traffic zoomed past. There were not any sightseeing stops along the way. However, when we were about an hour north of
Jaipur there was a half kilometer section where there several dozen monkeys
scampering among a stand of trees.
When
we left Jaipur, bus number one had an extra passenger, the “Spiceman”. He was a middle-aged shopkeeper with several two
large bags packaged with spices and teas. He has a shop in Jaipur and does a
bus run about once a week. He rides out of Jaipur on tour buses and later in
the day returns home on a regular (non air conditioned) bus. Once the bus one passengers
had purchased tea and spices, the guide on bus one phoned our guide to arrange
a transfer then our bus was abuzz with excitement listening to the presentation
and buying much of his remaining stock. His stock included a combination
package containing separate packs of about 10 spices which was the “curry mix”
for $450 rupees ($9 Canadian); little packets of 50 saffron threads for 200
rupees ($4 Canadian); boxes of sandalwood dhoop sticks, used for meditation or
cleansing the air after yoga for 50 rupees ($1 Canadian) per box of 10; a 50
gram box of Tea Masala for 200 rupees ($4 Canadian) amongst others. The Tea
Masala is added to a cup of tea. It contains a mixture of black pepper, dry
ginger, cassia, cardamom, cassia leaf, nutmeg clove and black cardamom) for 200
rupees ($4 Canadian).
In
the morning, we watched the passing towns and farmland, where we saw herds of
goats and some farmers working in the fields.
Most farmers were bending over tending their crops, but a few had carts
where they were stacking crops. The carts were pulled, in two cases, by shiny basic
tractors while other carts had camels to pull them. During the drive Raj told
us about his family (Grandparents, his young father and his brothers) in 1956 becoming
refugees from Pakistan at the time of partition when the Pakistani government
gave the Hindu and Sikh citizens less than 24 hours to permanently leave the
Muslim country. His grandfather had been wealthy and was able to hire a bus to
transport the family to India’s border disguised in Muslim clothes taking a
trunk of family jewels. Within a few days of arriving in the refugee camp, the
trunk was stolen and the family ended up living there for almost 20 years.
Our lunch stop was at the Grand Hira resort hotel on the outskirts of
Neemrana. It had beautiful manicured
lawns bordered by hedge and flower bushes. Attached to the hotel was an Indian
fast food restaurant, Bikanervala. It served northern Indian, southern Indian,
Chinese and Thai food, which you ordered like at a McDonalds, before
automation. The sky was cloudy, with
grayish clouds and the temperature was about 30C.
There
was usually a bottle neck, of mostly trucks, at the toll stations. At the first
toll station just north of Neemrana, the wait was about 20 minutes to be
processed. A few impatient truckers were
honking their horns, which are much different sounding than on Canadian
trucks. At one point one of the drivers
played a very musical honking which made everyone laugh because it was
unexpected.
After lunch, while occasionally checking the
landscape, the time was used to assemble some information about India’s
capital, Delhi. About an hour after lunch the sides of the road and some
service roads had puddles of water. In
one dirt parking lot, all the pot holes were full of water.
As we entered Delhi from the south the highway branched into 11 lanes
and we swung over six lanes to a one-way road of four lanes. Gradually the
semi-trucks disappeared and were replaced by small cars like a Toyota Camry and
smaller. Many traffic lights for several kilometers of a main street were not
working but traffic just continued to merge into the lanes, or just cut off
other cars or scooters can kept honking the horns.
We checked into the Jaypee Vasant Continental hotel in Delhi. We needed
to surrender out passports again. As we entered the hotel our carryon and
purses needed to be scanned and we needed to walk through the security archway
as was done at each of the Indian hotels so far. There was a little confusion as the luggage
was unloaded from the buses and taken to the entrance, to also be scanned then
identified by the owner and having a staff member tag the luggage with the
proper room number to be take up to people’s room. The staff of eight was
running around, but not seeming to accomplish things efficiently. We found the
stairs to go up to the fourth floor. Our room is right across from the
stairway.
After the luggage was delivered, we wandered down the road about 200
meters to the bazaar, which is a few streets of shops and restaurants,
including McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Costa Coffee (a British coffee chain)
and Dunkin’ Donuts. Back at the hotel we
went for dinner in the café ordering a Greek pizza made with green and black
olives, red pepper, tomato, eggplant and feta cheese. It was delicious.
Delhi’s
latitude is 28.40 North, close to Orlando, Florida (latitude is 28.25 North),
or Tampa, Florida (latitude is 27.57 North). The site of the city has been
occupied by seven other cities over the centuries. Delhi is included in India's seismic zone-IV,
which means that it is an area where major damage could occur by an earthquake.
There is evidence that the land was inhabited since 1400 BC. Delhi was captured
by Muslims in 1193. Munghal marahaja
Shah Jahan (builder of Taj Mahal) erected a wall around the old city in 1638. At
the time, it was known as Shahjahanabad. Old Delhi today has more than 20
million people. Delhi has been captured and sacked by different occupiers
including Mughals (descendants of Ghenghis Khan of
Afghanistan), Khilji (invaders from Turkey and Afganistan) and Tuglaks.
Delhi is divided into two areas: Old Delhi and New Delhi and is situated
on the Yamuna River. The older part,
with its Muslim architecture, was the capital of Dehli’s Mughal (Muslim)
rulers, during much of the 17th to 19th centuries. When
the British moved the capital from Calcutta in 1911, they named the new
government city New Delhi. Calcutta was officially renamed Kolkata, it’s proper
Bengali name, in 2001. Bombay’s name changed to Mumbai in 1995 and Madras’ name
changed to Chennai in 1996. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated at his home in New
Delhi. A memorial to him is named Raj Ghat.
The city is bustling with traffic and it is hard to imagine getting
anywhere safely, as the driving seems chaotic. In Old Delhi you can find the
Jama Masjid, the Great Mosque, and nearby the Chandni Chowk bazaar beside the
imposing Red Fort where the Mughal marahajas lived and held their audiences. The
sandstone fort was built by Mughal Marahaja Shah Jahan. The British New Delhi was
designed by British architect Edwin Lutyens. It has Connaught Place with a grid
layout and monuments such as India Gate, a war memorial. The India President’s
residence, Parliament House and the Qutub Minar which dates to 1193 are all
located in New Dehli. We will drive past some of them tomorrow on our city town
of Dehli.
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