Live from Uniworld's India and the Sacred Ganges - Feb 6, 2017

Monday, February 6th - tasting menu, finished!

 

The course that was served in a suspended pot was a slow-cooked dish of lamb and grains (quinoa, rice, millet, lentils) in another tasty sauce. There was a ton of food in this course and the servings were relatively huge. Chris started hitting a wall with this and didn't eat much, so she could at least try the desserts. Conveniently, lamb isn't her favorite, so this wasn't a huge sacrifice on her part! I did my best. The white stuff in the bowl was a yogurt-based mint sauce to go with the lamb.

 

 

Here is the card that explains the dish.

 

 

There were two dessert courses, as if we needed them. The pre-dessert was an almond paste "coin" that was covered in a gold spray. The coins came served in a silver box. Imaginative! I inadvertently took the picture with the wrong card.

 

 

The correct card is here.

 

 

The last dessert was a "Gram flour net" which is hard to describe. The pastry portion was mostly dry, a little chewy, and not overly sweet. It had a lot of holes in it so it really soaked up the sauce, as opposed to being a solid pastry. The apricots and ground pistachio nuts went well. They added a few "raindrops" to the plate for decorative purposes.

 

 

And the card.

 

 

We had tried a bottle of Viogner (made in India) with the main part of the meal, then we had a glass of the Chandon sparkling wine with dessert. A most enjoyable meal, and not as expensive as one might think considering how fancy it was. The 7-course meal was 4000 Rupees per person (about USD 60). The wine cost about that much as well.

 

Thus ended our first full day in India. We are not even remotely adjusted to the time difference yet, but we'll keep trying. After all of that food and wine, time to try to sleep. Tomorrow, the official program starts with a tour of Delhi! Time to meet some fellow passengers.

I have not had dinner yet, and now I am absolutely starving!

ewizabeff, my apologies for exacerbating your hunger pains! The food at these hotels was amazing. We didn't do any other big tasting menus, though...there is only so much one can eat! As usual, we were hoping that we'd be able to lose weight...not a chance.

 

Thanks to everyone else who has come by to look and post.

 

I took detailed notes daily for the trip on my smartphone (using the memos app) which worked well for me, as I could jot stuff down on the fly and I didn't have to wait until I was back in the room using the laptop. A 15-minute bus ride was enough to jot stuff down; very handy. It was a bit tricky to reassemble the daily memos into one single word document but I finally did that.

 

Chris and I have labeled and organized about 2800 pictures, and we have chosen our favorites. My last remaining task is to go through them and add additional pictures (warning, ewizabeff, they are mostly food!) that will need to go in this blog. I also have to scan in our daily programs, the laundry price list, etc and post them.

 

But the good news is that the ground work is done, and I should be ready to forge ahead with the trip report - hoping to make some progress soon.

Tuesday February 7th - New Delhi tour

We slept on and off for the beginning of the night as is our usual. After one good night's sleep my body rebels against going to bed when the clock says I should. Eventually we slept more soundly and actually needed the alarm at 6:30 to wake back up. We have an 8:00 group meeting and a 9:00 tour today.

Breakfast was a buffet with all sorts of varied foods, including Indian food items. It's served in the 361 degrees restaurant, same place where we had lunch yesterday. Here is an small sampling of what was on offer:

 

 

We headed to Amaranta for the group meeting. Most of the group was already there. We met our tour director, Hemesh, and settled in for an introduction to what we'd be doing for the next two weeks. We ended a little after 8:40 and decided to sign up for this afternoon's optional excursion to Qutub Minar, as it was only $20 per person.

 

We reconvened in the lobby at 9:00 and Hemesh asked us to assemble ourselves into three groups because we had three buses and three local guides. We would keep these groups for the first week of touring. The group that headed to the exit first got bus #3, next got bus #2, and we hung back and were rewarded with bus #1. Sweet!

Because there were three groups, and the buses were full-sized, they were incredibly roomy and we could spread out as much as we'd like. Everyone could have a window if they wanted, and you could switch sides if need be to get pictures. It was not crowded at all. The seats were comfortable and the bus had a bathroom.

Off we went into the misty morning. We passed by some local fauna as we approached the outskirts of the city. I was surprised by how much undeveloped woodland there was along the road. Our guide Rishi kept up a good commentary. One of the little tidbits he shared was that people were scared of the Rhesus monkeys (below) because they carried rabies...um...good thing we're not on a bike!

 

 

 

But there was plenty of traffic as well. We saw school buses, lots of cars, and motorbikes weaving in and out of traffic. Within 40 minutes, though, we were in the "New" Delhi part of the city, with wide boulevards, less traffic, and beautiful traffic circles. We saw the Dandi March statue, commemorating Ghandi's march to the sea.

 

 

Next we passed by the President's house for a quick glimpse. Don't blink!

 

 

We approached Parliament and saw this building first. It's another governmental building set alongside a ceremonial boulevard called Rajpath. Very pretty!

 

 

On we went towards the Indian Parliament building. I usually fall asleep during bus tours, but so far, so good.

Edited February 23, 2017 by jpalbny

Tuesday February 7th - New Delhi tour, continued

 

A little further on, we drove by the Indian Parliament building.

 

 

And a nice fountain along the Rajpath on the way out. By the way, that's another of our buses that you can see on the opposite side. Pretty nice!

 

 

From here, it was about a 5-minute ride to the Ghandi Martyrdom site, Ghandi Smriti. Here we got out of the bus for a walking tour. This sign explains the significance of the site.

 

 

The whole site reflects his message of peace.

 

 

The man himself. It was inspiring to be in the place where he had lived and worked.

 

 

But he died here too. We saw that part next.

Edited February 24, 2017 by jpalbny

Tuesday, February 7th. New Delhi tour, continued.

 

Ghandi's last steps were taken along this path. You can follow along side them.

 

 

Here at the spot where he was assassinated, there is now a shrine. If you wish to climb up to it, you must remove your shoes. We observed from below.

 

 

There were many school groups visiting. We enjoyed the different uniforms. Some pictures would have been interesting...

 

Back to the buses, then we drove by the India gate. Cool structure. We were disappointed that it was only a drive-by and we couldn't get out to see it better. The road running under it is the Rajpath, which leads back to the Parliament and the President's house.

 

 

Better lighting from this side.

 

 

Off now to Humayan's Tomb. After about a 10 minute drive, we walked a short distance to the entrance and had to go through security.

 

It was shaping up to be a nice day though. Beautiful weather!

 

 

Off to the tomb! This is supposed to be reminiscent of the Taj Mahal.

 

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Edited February 24, 2017 by jpalbny

Tuesday, February 7th. Humayan's Tomb, New Delhi

 

We approached the tomb complex. The gateway had some impressive designs within.

 

 

I liked the tile work

 

 

And more of it.

 

 

A side gateway. Not sure where this led.

 

 

This guy was keeping an eye on us. Luckily, we'd been eating too much food so there wasn't any danger of him carrying us away!

 

 

Finally, we walked through the gateway and saw the tomb complex itself. Impressive combination of red sandstone with white marble! Now, if only bus #3 would get out of our way so that we could get a clearer picture...

 

 

Time to get a little closer, I guess.

Tuesday, February 7th. Humayan's Tomb, continued.

 

Rishi was taking pictures for all of us. At least we could block out some of those pesky bus #3 tourists this way...

 

 

We had free time to explore at this point. We headed to the tomb complex and climbed up. Nice views from here. The gardens and waterways are laid out on all four sides of the complex though some sides are in a state of less repair than others.

 

 

The tomb, in the center of the complex.

 

 

The inside of the inner dome, above the tomb.

 

 

Great details here! The architecture is impressive. Supposedly there is a double dome structure so that the interior ceiling cannot get wet and deteriorate. Glad these details stay preserved.

 

 

More decorative details. A lotus flower in the center. This is a sacred flower in Hinduism, and also the national flower of India.

 

 

After exploring a little we started heading down. There wasn't a lot of free time (maybe 20 minutes) here but we did get to see just about all of it. Though it's a big complex, you can see the highlights pretty quickly.

Edited February 24, 2017 by jpalbny

Tuesday, February 7th. New Delhi tour, continued.

 

We took a few more pictures of each other before climbing down from the tomb complex and meeting back up with Rishi.

 

 

 

Back to the buses for a quick ride to an "upscale" marketplace, where we were supposed to have lunch on our own. Hm. I am glad that this is upscale because the downscale might be a little scary! This is the Khan Market.

 

 

We tried to eat at a place that advertised wine and tapas, but they weren't open for lunch. So we went with the guide's recommendation for the Chatter House. It seemed nice enough.

 

I had a plate of chicken sausage with several tasty sauces. I liked the hotter one on the very left - soy with hot paprika. The mustard on the right wasn't bad either.

 

 

Chris had a braised pork belly topped with shrimp.

 

 

Local beer - Kingfisher. Not bad with lunch, and pretty cheap.

 

 

They brought food and drinks quickly but were very slow with the check, even after I asked twice. Finally I had to get up and go to the bar to pay, as it was almost our rendezvous time and I didn't want to be late. Lunch with two drinks each was 2000 rupees, about $30.

 

Back to the bus, to finish the included part of the tour with a visit to a Hindu temple.

Tuesday, February 7th. New Delhi tour, continued.

 

We drove a few minutes from the Khan market and stopped by Jagganath Temple. This visit wasn't very exciting as we weren't allowed to go in, so we stood around on the sidewalk and took a few pictures. Meh.

 

There were some cool statues at the entrance, though.

 

 

 

And I liked the guys up on the roof, doing some cleaning work. No safety harnesses in sight, by the way.

 

 

Rishi took us walking down the street for a little bit to talk to some of the guys selling food, drinks, souvenirs, etc. This gentleman posed for us with his cart of fruit.

 

 

There were a lot of these barber shops along the street but I liked this picture, where I was able to get the customer's face in the mirror.

 

 

That was it for the included tour. It was about 2:45 by now. Those of us on the optional tour now headed back to one of the buses for our next stop at Qutub Minar. Everyone else went back to the hotel.

 

It was impossible to miss, yet hard to see, the poverty in plain view along the roadside, while we rode along in our comfortable buses.

 

 

A different world out there on the streets. India doesn't hide it.

...A different world out there on the streets. India doesn't hide it.

At least these people had a tent-like structure and are not just lying on the sidewalk at night like many. A number of years ago after a relatively comfortable railroad night in an air-conditioned sleeping car bunk, I had arrived in Varanasi and was approached by a peddle rickshaw wallah who offered me his services. In India it is expected to dicker over prices, so I asked how much. His first offer was US 15 cents per hour - I can be frugal, but even with the loss of face by not haggling there was no way I was going to argue him down further. The guy had probably never been to school a day in his life, but I could actually understand him - all his English had been learned from tourists and he was uncorrupted by the usually quite difficult to understand Indian English accent. From his previous clients he knew every restaurant in Varanasi that was listed in Lonely Planet. I had him for parts of four days - the only time in my life where I went out to dinner two nights in a row with a "taxi" waiting for me "on the meter". On Day 2 he had a flat tyre - it took several hours for his rickshaw garage to fix it so we visited his "house". He, his wife and son lived on the sidewalk in a 6' x 6' x 8' shipping box with one side hinged to provide a shaded "porch". They were better off than many. To make sure I was not being scammed I told him I was not paying for those 2 hours, which he accepted with typical Indian resignation. When he dropped me off at the train station on Day 4 I tipped him considerably more than I had paid him for all four days, wished him well and thanked him for the quiet dignity of his service. Highlights of a trip are sometimes where you least expect to find them.

 

I am greatly enjoying your pictures and words, and look forward to the next installment.

Thom

Great pictures and narrative....you and Chris are adventurous eaters!

 

Kathy

Your photo blog is marvelous as always. What a juxtaposition of worlds. Some pictures show magnificent architecture and scrumptious meals. While others show suffering and poverty, rabid monkeys. Thanks for sharing.

 

 

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J.P.,

I'm sure that you've answered this before, but can you tell us about your camera equipment that you take with you?

Thanks!

At least these people had a tent-like structure and are not just lying on the sidewalk at night like many. A number of years ago after a relatively comfortable railroad night in an air-conditioned sleeping car bunk, I had arrived in Varanasi and was approached by a peddle rickshaw wallah who offered me his services. In India it is expected to dicker over prices, so I asked how much. His first offer was US 15 cents per hour - I can be frugal, but even with the loss of face by not haggling there was no way I was going to argue him down further. The guy had probably never been to school a day in his life, but I could actually understand him - all his English had been learned from tourists and he was uncorrupted by the usually quite difficult to understand Indian English accent. From his previous clients he knew every restaurant in Varanasi that was listed in Lonely Planet. I had him for parts of four days - the only time in my life where I went out to dinner two nights in a row with a "taxi" waiting for me "on the meter". On Day 2 he had a flat tyre - it took several hours for his rickshaw garage to fix it so we visited his "house". He, his wife and son lived on the sidewalk in a 6' x 6' x 8' shipping box with one side hinged to provide a shaded "porch". They were better off than many. To make sure I was not being scammed I told him I was not paying for those 2 hours, which he accepted with typical Indian resignation. When he dropped me off at the train station on Day 4 I tipped him considerably more than I had paid him for all four days, wished him well and thanked him for the quiet dignity of his service. Highlights of a trip are sometimes where you least expect to find them.

 

I am greatly enjoying your pictures and words, and look forward to the next installment.

Thom

 

Great story, Thom, and those kind of connections that you make while traveling are the ones that stick with you for a long time. The highlight must-see attractions are worthwhile, but the personal interactions are more unique. There was some time for that on this trip, but not until the cruise portion.

 

 

Great pictures and narrative....you and Chris are adventurous eaters!

 

Kathy

 

We are willing to try (almost) anything, though I don't think I could bring myself to eat tarantulas or insects. The Indian food was pretty tame in comparison! Neither of us have any real experience with Indian food so it was a new adventure for both of us. Chris tired of it after a few days and took breaks. I tried as much of it as I could but we were both happy to be back to something more familiar. When the urge to reminisce strikes us, we'll check out some local Indian food establishments around home.

 

 

 

Your photo blog is marvelous as always. What a juxtaposition of worlds. Some pictures show magnificent architecture and scrumptious meals. While others show suffering and poverty, rabid monkeys. Thanks for sharing.

 

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It was sometimes overwhelming. Now I understand why so many of my residents who came from India are ecstatic to live in the United States. Even if you have the means to live well there, it would be hard to do so.

 

 

 

J.P.,

I'm sure that you've answered this before, but can you tell us about your camera equipment that you take with you?

Thanks!

 

 

Hi FuelScience, Chris uses a high-end Sony P&S, HX50V. For this trip I lugged my DSLR (Nikon D7100) along with my Sigma 18-250 lens. I have a Nikon AW120 for a backup, very small P&S that's waterproof. If you see an orange camera around my neck in any of the pictures, that's the backup one. It works surprisingly well for landscapes but only has 24-120 equivalent zoom so not great for detailed zoom shots. The DSLR is obviously far more versatile; with the correction factor for the APS sized sensor, the equivalent zoom is 27-375. And the pictures are higher resolution and crisper. But, you have to carry it...

 

I sometimes don't bother with the DSLR, but I did bring it on this trip. I figured that we might not be back, and I wanted good quality pix of the Taj Mahal on the first try. But the P&S models work fine for screen-sized pictures.

 

As an aside, some of the pictures are also cell phone snaps. I am thoroughly impressed with the camera capability of the Samsung Galaxy S7. It's way better than the S5 which was no slouch. Particularly in low-light settings, it's really incredible. Pretty much all of the food pictures are with my cell phone, no flash. But there are a number of other cell phone shots as well. Out of all our cameras, the cell phones take the best pictures when HDR is needed (part of the picture is dark, another part light). Surprising that the cell phone can handle that best, but that's been my experience so far.

Tuesday, February 7th. Qutub Minar, New Delhi

 

This was the optional part of the tour. It was about a half hour on the bus from the Temple to Qutub Minar. I've also seen it spelled Qutb and Qutab, so I have no idea which is correct.

 

It's a 240 foot tall brick tower which was begun in the early 1200s and completed in stages over the next 150 years or so. Quite a sight! It sits in a complex of other buildings, most of which are in ruins.

 

Some local fauna to greet us as we entered - is this a squirrel with stripes, or a chipmunk with a fluffy tail?

 

 

As we approached the wall, we got a glimpse of the top four storeys. Lots of birds around today.

 

 

You can walk through a series of columns that were once part of a mosque.

 

 

More mosque ruins

 

 

Here's a shot of the tower. It's 240 feet tall and supposedly there is a 379-step spiral staircase that leads to the top.

 

 

Unfortunately the stairway is closed after an unfortunate accident that occurred more than 30 years ago. Nobody gets to climb up. We were disappointed but settled for a zoom lens shot of the top storeys.

 

 

More poking around to do here. Ruins to explore, and other photographic angles to seek out. It's an interesting structure. Because it was built over such a long time, the different storeys have different styles.

Edited February 25, 2017 by jpalbny

Tuesday, February 7th. New Delhi - Qutub Minar et al

 

We poked around behind some of the other ruins to see what there was to see. The remains of an archway are picturesque. The site was pretty crowded, too.

 

 

Lots of beautiful designs on the walls and the columns.

 

 

This pair of birds thought so too.

 

 

We did the standard tourist shot. Someone (other than me, that is) asked Chris if he could take a selfie with her too. It's odd to get asked that. Eventually we came to expect it but it still felt strange.

 

 

Heading back to the tower, we came across this iron bar which is exhibited in the complex - the Iron Pillar of Delhi. It is 23 feet long and weights over 13,000 lb. It was supposedly made around 400 AD, yet due to its composition, it does not rust. It remains pristine despite sitting out in the elements year round. Impressive.

 

 

One last shot of the tower, from up close. I like the different textures; this is no boring round smooth column.

 

 

Back to the buses for the ride home. The ride took about an hour and I slept through most of it.

 

We got back to the hotel around 5PM and relaxed a bit before getting ready for dinner. It was a little too late in the day to go swimming but a bath in our soaking tub substituted nicely. Then it was time for the welcome cocktail and dinner.

 

We headed over to one of the private event rooms and had some wine while chatting with some of our fellow passengers. The wine and/or local beer was included, two drinks per person, and after that it was a charge of 600-850 rupees per drink.

 

Dinner was a really nice buffet with many items - quite a spread for only 40-some people. I wasn't all that hungry but I sampled lots of tasty dishes. They had nice desserts too.

 

We went to bed early as we were still pretty tired from the long trip and the time difference. I woke up at 1:30 feeling unwell and proceeded to spend some quality face time with the facilities...so that's why I wasn't very hungry for dinner! It tasted much better the first time, but I felt a lot better afterwards. Back to bed for a few hours of sleep if I can.

 

***

 

So, an eventful first day in New Delhi - we saw a lot of sites, but most of the visits were drive-by, quick, and superficial. You could definitely spend a few days here, but this is all the time that we have. Tomorrow, it's off to Agra bright and early. I hope this stomach thing is a one-shot deal, or it's going to be a long four hours!

Is it odd that I find a bit of comfort in knowing that my fellow adventurous travelers also get sick, and then sort of take it in stride like it's no big deal? I hope your next installment has you up and about without lingering effects from the sickness.

No tower climb? That must have been so disappointing! (From a fellow climber). Love the review, looking forward to more

 

Robin

 

 

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ewizabeff, not odd. I totally expected to get a GI illness at some point along the trip. Day 2 was a little faster than I expected, but...

 

My POV is that if you travel to a place with very different standards of hygiene and public health, it's only a matter of time. You can take steps to decrease your risk of getting sick, but you certainly can't eliminate it. And neither can Uniworld. It's part of the package. At least this wasn't a big inconvenience. Others had it worse. Luckily, we are (relatively) young and healthy, and I carry meds. And missing a meal or two is probably good for us! ;)

 

Somehow, Chris went the entire trip without any issues! Lucky girl.

 

I will say that Uniworld did go out of their way to try to prevent illness. Hand sanitizer was present everywhere - at meals, on excursions, after we touched anything... They collected our shoes as we re-entered the boat when we came back from excursions and cleaned them for us. Still.

 

acwmom, definitely a disappointment! We were so excited to hear that there was a staircase inside - and then so sad to hear that it wasn't open for climbing. Talk about a letdown!

Wednesday February 8th - Delhi to Agra

 

Today was an early morning, as we had a bus ride to Agra that left at 8:00. Chris was up by 6 but it took me a little longer.

 

We still had plenty of time to get ready and get our bags packed. We had our bags out by 6:45, then we paid our bill and dragged ourselves to breakfast. I had no appetite at all so I had some coffee and a plain roll.

 

Hoping that the bus ride isn't too miserable. I decided to medicate up with some Cipro and I also took a motion sickness pill. Even though I don't get motion sick, I was most definitely not looking forward to the bus ride after the events of last night.

 

The bus was prepared for hungry people. They must know that cruise passengers have to eat every hour or so, otherwise they get cranky!

 

 

We left our hotel on time at 8:00, but strangely we drove all the way back to New Delhi. Perhaps they think that we didn't encounter enough traffic yesterday?

 

 

We passed many of the main landmarks which we have already seen yesterday. This photo of India Gate shows how smoky it was today. More smoke / smog than yesterday.

 

 

Sabz Burj, pictured here, is very close to Humayan's tomb. We saw this yesterday but this morning's pictures came out better.

 

 

Not sure what this was but it was undergoing some major renovation. I continue to be impressed with how much green there is in Delhi.

 

 

It was a nice recap, but Google Maps had said that we should just head south. Thus the first part seemed longer than it should have been. It took over an hour before we were finally on the expressway between Delhi and Agra. Once there, we headed south and made good time. They even had a hospital with a familiar name...I hope that is not an omen!

 

 

We made a rest stop after 2h then pushed on. So far, so good. The bottled water is agreeing with me just fine. Either that, or the meds are working. Fingers crossed.

 

I even felt a twinge of hunger. Potato chips have salt, so they would probably be good for me, right?

Edited February 26, 2017 by jpalbny

Wednesday February 8th - Delhi to Agra, continued

 

We continued on along the highway, stopping now and then for tollbooths. No E-Z pass here, just get to the tollbooth and pay. Even though there were marked lanes approaching each toll station, it was still a scrum up until the very end. And the buses usually won, because they were bigger!

 

We approached the outskirts of Agra and turned off onto smaller roads. Some of the markets were colorful.

 

 

Some looked rather dilapidated.

 

 

Soon we were at the Yamuna River. We crossed the bridge and had a good look back at the seemingly pastoral scene. Cows grazing. Laundry drying. Very pretty...from a distance.

 

 

Across the river was another tomb complex, Itmad-ud-Daula. Some consider this a forerunner of the Taj Mahal.

 

 

As we approached Agra Fort, we drove by this statue. Looks like someone needs to clean the bus windows.

 

 

It's Rani Lakshmi Bai, a freedom fighter from the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Here's another angle. Sorry for the power line in the way. It's hard getting good pictures from a (mostly) moving bus.

 

 

We could see the walls of the fort from here. Not long now until we're out of the bus. It's been just about 4h driving, plus a 15-minute break. Looks like I survived!

Edited February 27, 2017 by jpalbny

This definitely seems like a trip for the young and healthy. Still fascinated by the the mixture of ancient and modern. For example the highways look like it can be in NYC near the airport. Meanwhile the poverty and lack of sanitation makes me squimish. Looking forward to more. [emoji846]

 

 

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...Meanwhile the poverty and lack of sanitation makes me squimish. Looking forward to more. [emoji846]

 

 

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Oh yes, it can make you more than that! :eek::fever:

Wednesday, February 8th. Agra Fort

 

As we approached Agra Fort, the walls made an imposing structure along the side of the road.

 

 

We got to the fort about 12:15 and hopped off the buses. We entered through the Amar Singh Gate (AKA Lahore Gate).

 

 

There were many others here with us, enjoying the nice weather. The inner gates of the fort were pretty as well. Rishi led the way with our #1 sign.

 

 

Lots of towers, but no time to climb any.

 

 

The structure has many pretty tile decorations.

 

 

This ramp led up to the main complex. Easy walking, no stairs, a small climb.

 

 

The "fort" is a walled defensive structure. Inside, it has the feel of a walled city. There are a lot of non-military structures here, and that's what we're here to see. Onward.