Are We There Yet?

We said goodbye to Bandhavgarb and its hidden tigers and again drove in a convoy of eight SUVs and the Queen Mary to the Jabalpur airport. It was a four-hour trip, just as bumpy as the trip into Bandhavgarb, but slightly less exciting. Either that or we were getting used to the kamikaze driving style of Indians. The Jabalpur airport is quite modern. After several hours there we boarded our IndiGo flight to the city of Mumbai. (All our flights within India and between India and Nepal were on this airline. The two flights within Nepal were on an airline called Buddha.)

Mumbai

During our coach ride into the city the local guide gave us a continuing dialogue about the city. Our first impression is this city of 23 million people was all skyscrapers and slums from horizon to horizon. Nearly a quarter of the population live in abodes classified as slums. This is not a derogatory term, if I understood the guide correctly, just an honest description of the living conditions.  A surprising number of the slum dwellings have satellite dishes, which cost (again, if I heard correctly) about $4 a month for service. And virtually all of them have electricity. In fact, nearly every urban dwelling and small village in India is now connected to the electrical grid, a major initiative of the prime minister, Modi. Further, in Mumbai, the electricity bill is paid on time and in full by everyone, as registration for this service provides proof of legal residence.

We had one stop in route to our hotel. This was to view the city’s laundry industry, which employs 7,000 workers. (I wanted to but failed to ask what happened when the monsoons arrived.)

Our lodging for the next day and a half was in another Oberoi property. A modern, very Western hotel, the Oberoi Mumbai was the least interesting of our hotels during this visit to India and Nepal. No matter, as we would be spending but one full night here.

Our next morning was a mixed walking and coach tour of the heart of Mumbai. The city is quite different from Delhi (which has 33 million residents!). Mumbai is a prosperous seacoast town and is the financial, commercial and entertainment (think Bollywood) capital of India. The city has the most billionaires of any city in Asia.

And unlike our impression of Delhi and Agra, Mumbai has embraced its British era history, preserving and using the structures and facilities built in those times. The speed of the pitch is impressive. We passed more than one cricket field and exclusive club in our tour.

Mumbai, by the way, was the historical name in the local Marathi language for the city before its occupation by the Portuguese in 1534. Bombay was given to the English in 1661 as a dowry gift when Charles II married Catherine of Braganza of Portugal. Bombay, the city’s name, was derived from Portuguese for “good little bay”, as it has a fine harbor. In 1996, the city was officially renamed Mumbai, although Bombay is still frequently used.

Home

After our tour the tour group met for a final party. It was a good group to travel with, on time and friendly. Then it was off to the airport for our 2:15 a.m. flight home. All but the McKennas left that evening/early morning. Seven, in fact, were on our British Airlines flight to London Heathrow. Brain and Karen left the next evening. The elapsed time from departing our hotel to arriving home was 32 hours. Not fun, especially as we were not flying business class. If at all possible, this is the last time Frances and I fly in a lesser class than business for any overseas trip. It’s just too hard on our bodies.

We had one surprise on our return. Our kitchen and hallway floors were flooded. Life stays interesting.

Closing Comments

As should be obvious from all my postings, the pace of this trip was demanding. We’re glad we did it, of course. The Himalayas, the Taj Mahal, the mass cremations, the Hindu temples, the national parks—it all was an exceptional experience. (We really wish we had spotted a tiger, though.) So, if you are considering such a trip, do it while you have health and energy.

This was our first trip with Tauck, a travel company with a deservedly good reputation. The trip was well organized, the lodging mostly exceptional, and the itinerary excellent. We would certainly travel with Tauck again, although, as you may surmise, we might consider a slightly less aggressive schedule.

Future Trips

We were going to fly to Sacramento this weekend, both to visit our grandchildren and attend a dedication for my sister Jane, who passed away two years ago and is much missed by family and the community, but we need to find the water leak and start mitigation. In May we are going to Ft. Worth to again attend part of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

But two significant trips await us this summer and fall, trips I’ll likely blog. The first is a return to Australia, where we will both explore the Kimberley by excursion ship and zodiac. The Kimberley is the northwest coastline of Australia that we have not yet been able to visit. Then we will be taking a train trip on the Indian-Pacific from Perth to Sydney. We’ll again travel with Brian and Karen McKenna. (You can join in the debate: Is it "the Kimberley", "the Kimberleys", "Kimberly"?)

Barely two weeks after returning from Australia, we head to Mongolia, then China, with a few days in Tibet! This will be a thirty-day affair that will again test our stamina.

Until then, thanks for reading. Be well and see you in Australia!

We have arrived at Mauna Kothi, near the village of Tala in the district of Umbria, our home for the next three nights. It’s located on the edge of the Bandhavgarh National Park. We’re scheduled for five safaris, each lasting four or more hours in duration. The first was the afternoon of our arrival. There are two more scheduled for each of the following days, beginning at 6:00 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. We’re to see many of India’s animals, but mostly we hope to spot the India tiger, the star of the forest. The previous tour had nine sightings.

But first some words on our lodging. the Mahua Kothi is an excellent accommodation with twelve large, roomy cabins, of which we occupied ten. (There are eight couples in our tour group plus two single women.) All our meals are served in the main facility which is open to the fields and forest adjacent. The meals are excellent if, as always, way too plentiful. When will I ever learn moderation in eating? Never, while the food is so good, I suspect. On the other hand, when we return we’ll skip having chicken for a while. With no beef or pork on the menus, only an occasional fish or lamb offering breaks the consistency of chicken as the only alternative to a vegetarian diet—for which we often opted. (Oops, while writing this in a car we swerved around a herd of cattle, most of whom are lying in the road. Being sacred has given the cattle a sense of entitlement. The monkeys in the road, by contrast, jump out of the way.)

So on to the safaris and our search for tigers.

Safari 1

The park is divided into three sections. This first afternoon, we travel section 1. The terrain is a mix of forest, hills and occasional open fields, many of which were village areas before their removal when the national park was established. We passed watering holes often visited by the animals. The park has rough-hewn trails of dirt and rock that are often a challenge even for the four-wheel drive safari vehicles that are our transports.

We were told that the odds of viewing a tiger any single four-hour safari was 25%. That means (using my ancient math training) we have a 76% probability of spotting a tiger at least once in the five scheduled safaris.

Getting into the park is a great example of the petty bureaucracy that infuses Indian officialdom. We had to show our passports to enter the park and details from the passports are carefully recorded. Everything is manual and recorded on paper, even to the point that our safari vehicle driver hands the lodge gate guard a slip of paper when we return. (This is in contrast to the street venders, all of whom accept electronic payment.)

We’re assigned a vehicle for the duration of our stay, driven by a lodge naturalist. Ours was Kul. For each safari, we were also assigned a park “spotter” who, as far as we could tell, spotted nothing. Of our four vehicles, two were assigned to six of us each, one to a group of four and one to a single couple, dictated by the national park administrators. Changing vehicles or even dismounting a vehicle at any time was forbidden. With the roads and lack of toilet facilities, it was a challenge for those with small bladders. (There was one rest stop each safari, but none with western toilets.)

Our safari ended with a downpour worthy of being labeled a monsoon. We found out our rain jackets are water resistant and not waterproof. As it is not yet (officially) monsoon season, I surely understand why safaris end when the  monsoons arrive. There were rumored sightings of tigers, but none were seen by us.

Instead, that evening before dinner we viewed a film on tigers.

Tigers 1; Visiting Team Yankees 0. (OK, we have one Canadian in our group.)

Safari 2

With flashlights we made our way to breakfast and then to our safari vehicle, number 191. Kul was ready to go. Our search this morning was in area 3.

There was one rumor of a tiger spotting, but again no one in our tour group saw one. (Our four vehicles would go in different directions but we’d often encounter one another.)

Tigers 2; Yankees 0

Safari 3

It was the turn of area 2 to be visited. It is the largest of the three areas, with some beautiful scenery. On the far side of the park boundary were agricultural fields. We were told these areas would eventually be incorporated into the park.

Oddly, tiger sighting rumors were for fields just outside the park entrance. We stopped to look for a while, but were unsuccessful in our search.

Tigers 3; Yankees 0

The return to our lodge passes through the village. All the drivers speed as fast as they can even through the busy main street. (It’s a one-street village.) Thanks to the previous day’s downpour, the facility that was to be used for the evening’s entertainment was water-soaked, so the venue was moved to the parking lot area.

Safari 4

It was back to area 1 for our morning safari. The sun rose a bright red as we traveled to it. We observed a few new animals and birds, but no tigers. 

We were getting a bit anxious about the odds of spotting a tiger. We’ve one more chance.

Tigers 4; Yankees 0

Safari 5

Kul worked hard to maximize our chances in this revisit to area 3. We did get to view a couple of animals new to us, but a sense of fatalism slowly enveloped us. We didn’t leave the park until precisely its closing time, 6:30 p.m., and even in the dusk, as we drove back to our lodge, Kul kept scanning the fields for a possible tiger sighting, even while driving and ducking cattle. But we mighty Casey’s had struck out.

Tigers 5; Yankees 0

T’was not to be, not for us or any in our tour group. We were told the “problem” was the rain of the first afternoon. Following a downpour, tigers have less inclination to wander or to visit watering holes. I won’t claim to not be disappointed, but in the greater scheme of things, it’s a minor setback.

We are now on our way to Mumbai (Bombay to the old-timers). It’s four hours of ducking cattle and motorbikes in the SUVs followed by a two-hour flight from Jabalpur to Mumbai. During the security screening at the Jabalpur airport, for the first time ever, the wand wielder picked up the titanium on my back.

This trip is nearing its end.

Our train trip lasted five hours. The cabin was comfortable and the knee room generous. We were at the opposite end of the car from the crying child, so all was well. For the first two-thirds of the trip we averaged a speed in the high 70’s mph. The last third was slightly slower with the more familiar clickity-clack we associate with the U.S. rail system. Both breakfast and lunch service were offered, but on the advice of our tour leader we stuck with the box lunches provided to us by the hotel at departure. The landscape for most of the trip was rural, reminding me that much of India remains rural (nearly 2/3rds the population) with most of people dedicated to agriculture. There was no internet unless one wanted to try a movie.

We were on a limited express train with only two stops between Agra and our destination, the small town (by India standards) of Khajuraho. In Khajuraho, we were greeted by eight SUVs with drivers, with two or three of us assigned to each SUV. We had two. This was our transport for the next 24 hours, but the first leg, from the station to our hotel was a short ride.

The hotel is the most modest of our lodging so far, but adequate for the night. The shower worked fine, so we were happy. From our room we could see the top of one of the temples, our reason for this stop. That afternoon we visited the site of many if the temples.

The Temples of Khajuraho

In a word, the temples are spectacular in architecture and detail. A Wikipedia search will give a great overview, but I’ll add a few comments to go along with the photos. Built between 885 and 1029, these Hindu (and a few Jain) temples once numbered 85 structures. Time and destruction have reduced that number to twenty five, or twenty-two by some counts. The saving grace for the temples is that Khajuraho is in a remote area. In the 13th century, the Delhi-based Mughal dynasty conquered the area and destroyed and defaced many of the temples. Yet, thanks to the remoteness of the region, many survived only to be swallowed up by the jungle. Other than by locals, the temples were forgotten and not rediscovered until 1838 by a British engineer.

I’ll show a few more of the temples. Wikipedia has all their names.

Back at the hotel, our dinner was a buffet. Frances took green beans from the salad buffet—except they weren’t green beans, they were hot peppers, very hot peppers. She but a forkful in her mouth and chewed. Let’s just say that this was it for her dinner. 

After a quick night’s sleep, it was bags out at 6:00 a.m. We loaded into our respective SUVs and started our wild five and a half hour ride to our next destination, Bandhavgarh National Park. And wild is a a modest term for the experience, a 250 minute long “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”, with constant games of chicken by the entire convoy with on-coming traffic, passing cattle, goats and people in the middle of the roadway, navigating roads under construction, passing vehicles that were themselves in the act of passing, and, well, you get the point. Nevertheless, we all arrived intact. One novelty? There are no restrooms to stop at in route, so a toilet van followed us and was used by the women during the two stops. The van has the nickname of the Queen Mary. The men, of course, watered a nearby tree.

So here were are at the Taj Safari resort, ready to look for tigers. 

We’re on a five-hour train trip from Agra to an intermediate stop-over at Khajuraho. This will be a one-night stay but we’ll get to tour the temples of Khajuraho, a UNESCO world heritage site. Next will be an equally long ride in SUVs to Bandhavgarh, where we will begin two and half days of safaris in the national park. This trip was advertised as a tour of northern India and Nepal, but a third of the trip is better described as a visit to sights in central India.

Our reaction on the trip thus far is mixed, or rather split in our respective opinions. Frances and I agree on the magnificent sights we have (and will) see, and safaris are always a joy. However, the crowds, the traffic, the pollution, and the glimpses of poverty bother Frances greatly. The child beggars are nerve racking for her, especially when they approach her directly. Somehow I am less concerned with the chaotic traffic flows and roiling crowds and, while keenly conscious of the poverty, am  otherwise intrigued with the colors and dynamism of this society. It doesn’t help that Frances has been fighting a mild cold. I have my fingers crossed that I avoid that fate.

We both agree that the pace of this trip leaves little time for relaxing. We’re envious, when given a few hours “off”, that many in the tour party go shopping or exploring while we rest and recharge. (This time, typically, is when I compose my blog postings.) As we say too often, youth is wasted on the young, or at least the younger.

This doesn’t mean that those finishing their eight decade or older shouldn’t take this trip. My sister and brother-in-law, for instance, I know would love this journey and our travel companions, the McKennas, have admirable stamina. We’re all different in health and attitudes.

Back to the train trip. One of our fellow travelers forgot to empty her hotel room safe so our bus to the rail station returned to the retrieve her items. We made it to the station platform about five minutes before our train arrived. Hint (that I confess I don’t follow), put one shoe in the safe to ensure you don’t forget to empty it. 

We were not lucky in our seat assignment, having a pillar block much of our view, but perhaps another seat will come open farther along on the journey. We have not yet arrived at the more scenic portion of this journey anyway. On the other hand, we’re far away from a crying baby.

Our guides thus far have all been excellent although I struggle, with my hearing problem, to catch all they say. Indian accented English is particularly a challenge for me. Our tour leader, Sidd (Siddhartha), gets high marks from most of the tour group but we find him less than clear, concise and timely in the information he provides. A meeting time, for instance, may be documented as, say 6:30 p.m. in the written itinerary but he’ll announce it as 6:00 p.m. in the middle of longer lecture. Nevertheless, we have only been late for one event.  Non-fatal. Beyond this, however, the tour is well administered, especially concerning tickets and reservations, for which Sidd gets full credit.

That is enough “thoughts” for now.

With apologies, I inflict this posting on only my registered blog followers and will spare my readers who access the blog via Facebook. For my next post I promise it’s back to pictures! 

Two of the more iconic reasons to visit India are to visit the Taj Mahal and to observe tigers in the wild. One down.

I left you in a mountain resort in Nepal, with us enjoying massages and Nepalese cuisine. The night before we left we were treated to a singing (or healing) bowl demonsration and a cooking demonstration. The dumplings made during the latter were delicious.

We paid the price the next day, spending all that day first being driven to Kathmandu, then flown to Delhi and finally driven to Agra and our next lodging. That twelve hour ordeal, despite its length and administrative hassles, delivered us on time (9:00 p.m.) to our next hotel, the Oberoi Amarvilas, in Agra. Consistent with all our lodging so far, the hotel is beautiful. Our hotel room is back to “normal” in size, but we have a view of the Taj Mahal in the distance from our suite window. The one downside is that while our late supper meal was preordered, the restaurant mismanaged the affair. We and several others of the group waited nearly an hour for our appetizers to arrive (one of which was wrong). We were then so tired that we cancelled our main course. Patrons at an adjacent table took pity on us and shared a pizza with us. We’ll not starve.

The Taj Mahal

Our first event the next morning? The Taj Mahal, of course. Many know the basic story. Mughal emperor Shah Jahan had the mausoleum built as the tomb for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child. Construction began in 1632 and the mausoleum completed in 1648, with other construction in the complex continuing for another five years.

The white marble structure is marvelous in pictures but is something that must be seen in person to fully appreciate. And as grand in size and architecture as is the mausoleum, the detail work is also impressive.

The Agra Fort

After a brief return to the hotel we headed to the Agra Fort. Besides being a fortification that housed 6,000 or so soldiers, servants and family, the fort was the royal residence and government center for emperors. The present day structure was built in the 16th century. There is a mile and a half of walls and the grounds occupy 94 acres. Part of the fort is still used by the Indian military.

Our Thali Dinner

For the evening, the women in the group were all dressed in saris while the men sported turbans (wrapped on our heads by a turban “master”). From there we were escorted outside for a traditional Thali meal—all this while being entertained by two Indian dancers and two musicians. A thali meal features small portions of several different dishes. Much to my surprise, the meal was very bland, much too dumbed down for my taste, without a hint of spices. The wine was good though.

There is another travel day tomorrow. We are taking the train in the morning. No, we’re not riding on the roofs. However, our luggage is being sent ahead so we’re living out of our backpacks for a night and a day.

Now where are those tigers! 

Bakhtapur

The medieval town of Bakhtapur is the third UNESCO world heritage site we have visited in Kathmandu Valley. It’s a stunning, compact collection of temples and pavilions. Our guide described each temple and monument, but little of the detail sunk in. No matter, it was all impressive. Bakhtapur was the capital of Kathmandu Valley from the 12th century through the 15th, when  the valley divided into three kingdoms. Most of the temples date from the 1700’s. (Pur, in Nepalese, is a suffix for town or city.) As has become customary for me this trip, I’ll throw a lot of pictures into this posting in lieu of helpful dialogue.

As advertised in my previous posting, it took most of the day to get from Kathmandu to our lodging across the river from Chitwan National Park. Eighty percent of the time was waiting first at our hotel (two hours) then at the airport (two hours) then on the airport tarmac (an hour) for our flight to take off. Takeoff we did and our twenty minute flight to Bharatpur proceeded without further delay. The waiting bus took us to Meghauli Serai Lodge, a resort hotel across the Rapti River from Chitwan National Park. The far side of the park is along the border with India. We were warned that we should wear layers as the mornings and evenings could be cool. Hardly. Mornings and evenings were quite comfortable. Mid-day was warmer, but not really that bad, especially while driving through the well-forested park. I don’t believe, however, I would want to visit the lowlands of Nepal (or India) during the summer.

My descriptions of the sights we’ve visited in Nepal thus far have been, shall we say, minimal. Mostly this is because by the time we return from the excursions, I am too tired (pleasantly so, I must add) to document much of what we have viewed. This is to inform you that I doubt this will change for the rest of this trip. I either need a little more time and energy to write or a few years less on the body.

The Kopan Monastery

Our first event of the day was to visit the Buddhist Kopan Monastery, located on the mountainside just above Kathmandu. We weren’t quite above the haze of the valley, but the air was slightly better. We arrived on a day full of activity for the several hundred students we observed. Its 1971 (or so) founding is relatively recent and the monastery is a clean, tidy place. Apparently we were lucky with the timing of our visit as some ceremony was taking place. I”m sure our guide described it, but neither Frances nor I followed the explanation.

Boudhnath, the Biggest Stupa in Nepal

The next stop was to visit the Boudhnath Stupa (or Bodhnath, by our trip literature) built about 600 A.D. We couldn’t go in, so we viewed it from all sides. (Stupas are Buddhist shrines, often, including this one, containing relics of Buddha.) The best view, apparently, is from directly above.

Patan and Its Medieval Palaces

Lalitpur is the third largest city in Nepal and contains the medieval capital of Patan. Patan, along with Kathmandu and Bhakpatur (which we did not visit), are the three major cities and the three ancient kingdoms of the Kathmandu valley. Patan’s Durbar Square palace and temples were also badly damaged by the 2015 earthquake but much has been restored. There are both Buddhist and Hindu temples in the complex. While the square as a kingdom’s capital was founded in the 3rd century A.D., most of the temples date from the 16th century.

We again had a sales stop, this time for a demonstration using soft hammers on brass bowls, the vibrations easing tension in the body.

We are now leaving for Chitwan National Park. We’re sitting in the Kathmandu domestic terminal as I write this. It’s only a 20 minute flight away, but apparently it will take us all day to get there. It did.

Our second breakfast complete, we were bused to the center of old Kathmandu. There we started a city walk in the marketing area, passed dozens of temples, large and small and ended up with visits to several temples. I took so many photos and videos that for the first time since possessing an iPhone my battery charge dropped to a level that the camera quit working. Here is a collage of markets, temples, palaces and people, too many to remember the names of, let alone document.

After a 4:45 a.m. iPhone alarm wake-up, we were delivered to the Delhi airport three hours early for our flight to Nepal. Early? No, we needed nearly the full three hours to go through checks, scans, pat downs and  other inspections. We must have shown our passports eight times. But once on the airplane we had a smooth flight out of the smog and haze of Delhi—into the smog and haze of Kathmandu. We did get our first glimpses of the Himalayas (above the haze) in route.

Our lodging in Kathmandu, The Dwarika’s Hotel, is quite special, carefully built and expanded over the last several decades to use centuries old wood (carved and uncarved) that otherwise would have been used as firewood. The founder of the hotel, Dwarika Das Shrestha, believed that Nepal must preserve its heritage and its culture and chose to start with its physical heritage. Our fifth (top) floor room is quite nice, other than the shower, which is weak and erratic in its flow.

Once settled in, we were taken to observe funeral pyres along Kathmandu’s Bagmati River. Hindus bring their deceased family members for cremation at the point on the banks of the river near the Hindu Shrine at Pashupatinath Temple. There were close to a dozen bodies being prepared for or in the process of being cremated while we were there. Friends and family members were on one side of the river and tourists like ourselves on the other.