It was a well planned trip
(23/28-12-12) (meaning planned well in advance – that’s it;-). Yes the golden triangle of India
where I could certainly spend 5 nights and 6 days. The flights I had booked
more than a month in advance and hotels and transportation were booked by
agent. When we landed in Delhi the Pilot
mentioned that outside temp is 10 degrees – it was 10:30 (the flight was
delayed because of fog by 30 min). When we went outside, it was cold but nice.
It was foggy and not at all sunny. We liked it.
The hotel wasn’t that great – but
anyhow the breakfast was nice/ they had heaters in room and room was very big
and clean. But not comparable to other hotels that I had stayed before. There
was a glitch in our plan. It was Sunday afternoon when we started and monday
being a holiday for most of the places in Delhi, we had to cover all places
that day only. Also as there were protests at India gate, we – we could not visit India Gate/Parliament in
our trip.
First we visited Lotus Temple. The
Bahai temple was big and is a meditation center. Here and at Akshardham the
system for shoe keeping is very nice. (free and fast) It reminded me of my
previous company front desk female (I think from Nugenesis) – She was a Bahai.
She told me that every day while stepping out of her house, she prayed to god
and thanked him for the wonderful day ahead. She was very nice lady. From that
day only I liked this youngest religion.
Akshardham is very big place and
is having very tight security. You just cant carry anything there, no mobiles,
no photos. It is amazingly beautiful and full of sculptures. Somehow the sanctity
feeling did not come but is worth watching.
Rajghat was kind of the holiest
place for me in this visit. Now the gandhin in me might have died, but to my
childhood memory and my admiration for him, this was the place where I felt
satisfied after visiting it. Nowadays because of politics, only the supporters
of congress will visit that place and may be BJP will not go there in future. I
could not visit Lal bahadur Shastri’s Samadhi because of time crunch.
Red fort is the heart of Delhi and
the place which has witnessed many wars and was the capital of Mughals. The
sound and light show in that chilling weather was really worth experiencing. I
enjoyed it very much. We were shivering and enjoying it.
Qutub Minar took me to the Gulam
dunasty and almost 800 years back. The iron pillar there was also having some
Bramhi scripts on it and might be something similar to the pillars that Gupta
kings prepared showing there knowledge
in metallurgy.
Of course we visited some other places like
Birla temple (here we took the souvenir on the copper coin), Palika bazar, Connaught
market, Chandani Chauk in Delhi.
The Tajmahal is as I had imagined
it to be, but the mist there made it more beautiful. After seeing the Biwi ka
makbara, I really wonder why that did not get such a big fame. May be the
carvings are not great and may be a few other historic reasons (Aurangzeb was
the only Mughal who died in south India and not many rulers liked him to
preserve his tomb). Anyhow, the Yamuna is clean, though there is less water.Now
I can say that I have seen the most romantic place (at least the world claims
it to be).
The agra fort is I think bigger
than Red fort. This is the place where Shahjahan was under house arrest and
then eventually died. The fort is basically a big palace and is well protected.
The Buland Darwaja at Fatehpur
Sikri is another wonder created by Mughals and the last one in my trip as we
moved towards the Rajput dynasty work in Jaipur.
The ParadiseInn at Jaipur was the best hotel so far. It was luxurious and the breakfast, and overall ambiance was great. The city palace is somewhat
similar to mysore palace (not that grant look) but still if we imagine how the
royal family would have lived there, we can certainly get the idea of their
lavish lifestyle. The Hawa mahal is just
a gallery to see the parade and is not as wonderful as I expected it to be. Now
to speak of Jantar Mantar, it was the place where I felt guilty. Yes, its true.
I felt ashamed what I could not understand anything there and just took some
photos. There were those kings and the people who built it with such an
accuracy and knowledge, and here I was – a tourist with no knowledge in
astronomy.
The Amer fort is the largest fort
that I have seen in my life. It was a great fort where in not only the king but
also the kingdom, its people were protected by walls. This was the best place
in Jaipur and Sheesh Mahal and gardens were simple wonderful. The Jalmahal was
nice but as we can’t visit it, it was not much fun.
