Merry Merry & Happy Happy

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a very happy new year for 2008. Congratulations to all those who’re engaged or married to all those who have had babies, are about to have them, have fought hard to save their health, have moved countries, have started new businesses, moved jobs, have been promoted, have bought a house and for the rest of life’s incredible events which we’ve not mentioned. Its been a huge year in Incredible !ndia… and hasn’t the year flown…

If Santa was an Indian he might look a bit like this...

The Taj - 'a teardrop on the face of eternity'

The road to Agra in Uttar Pradesh is a busy 200km stretch crossing through villages and filled with over burdened trucks, camel drawn carts of wheat, tourist buses and the sleepy drivers beeping and weaving through the smallest gap. Our driver Ali, took the passenger side mirror off on a slow moving cow and then again on a truck without even waking up! Ali didn’t start the trip well, a journey which takes between 3-4 hours took us 5+ as Ali got a bit lost, taking a short cut down a dead end, busted up dirt road to the crushing/concrete plants feeding the Delhi building boom…

Needless to say Shaz was not impressed...
On the outskirts of Agra we stopped at Akbar’s Mausoleum where Shaz created a stir with the girls more than the boys showing a bit of knee..
We were keen to walk a bit after the drive so we asked our 3 Star Hotel tour desk operator in which direction he’d recommend we walk.. He asked if we would be purchasing, because on our map it stated that tourists often liked to purchase in Agra, we said no, so he summed up the evening city sights of Agra in three words... “There are none…” We walked off anyway into the crush of peddle rickshaws and all our soon to be “friends”..
Next day we joined the dawn patrol at the World Heritage Taj Mahal (1631-1653). A few years back the government decided to limit cars and industry around the Taj as the white marble was turning yellow with acid rain.. Unfortunately when Agra lost favour and Delhi became the new centre Agra declined into an industrial city until the tourists hit.

The crisp winter morning was a great time to see the Taj before the pollution haze over the city was too thick and the hordes of tourists descend. It is a truly magnificent building. Shah Jahan was the local Mogul ruler in the mid-1600's. When his second wife Mumtaz Mahal, which means "beautiful wife" died giving birth to their fourteenth child at the young age of thirty-nine he was so heartbroken that his hair turned white overnight. Not satisfied with merely a change in hairstyle to express his grief, he decided to build a huge, elaborate mausoleum to his beloved, departed wife. Thus, the idea of the Taj Mahal was born. "Taj" means crown, and "Mahal" means palace. The year after his wife died, 1631 CE Shah Jahan had construction started on this monument. It was to be a tribute to her, and a show of his great love for her.


The architecture of the gates at which to enter such Mausoleums provides you a narrow view of the structure, once through the gate the expanse of the parks and the enormity of the scale can be fully realized. After seeing so many images of the Taj over the years it was amazing to finally be there to feel it.

Seeing the work that have gone into structures like these across the world is truly amazing. The books quote 20,000 worked on the Taj with much of the stonework and semiprecious stones making up the inlay work imported with the skilled tradesmen from Asia, Europe and Sri Lanka.

The massive red sandstone Agra Fort (1565) is the other major draw card, which continues a connection of love to the Taj, which can be seen across the banks of the Yamuna River. Shah Jahan, the builder of the Taj was imprisoned at the Fort by his son and was left to look over to the Taj for 8 years until his death.

Delhi, oh how smelly..

We’ve just returned from India’s sprawling capital Delhi with over 15 million people it is one of the worlds biggest cities. The thing we hear most about Delhi in Mumbai is the delayed flights in the winter with the fog/smog that engulfs the city on a daily basis and the notorious smell in the streets. Our early morning flight had no problems and landed in the air thick with a mix of pollution, smoke and morning fog. The air was like this all day leaving the sun filtered as a perfect orange ball in the sky. Delhi is more of a planned city with wide streets and expansive parks breaking up the urban sprawl but the traffic is the same chaotic mess. The city is preparing to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games so the people have a new Metro service and new shiny bus stops for the beaten up old buses but the city planners have neglected to solve the matter of city streets being a wash with men urinating. It’s bloody horrible as you walk along a modern(ish) street only to have to step over the urine tracking to the kerb from the blokes openly pissing on the footpath. Sharon asked one well dressed fella why this had to be his toilet…no stage fright for him…

The Red Fort in Delhi is a little over rated in comparison to other historical buildings of India.. Getting through the main gate was like an obstacle course fairly typical for any Indian tourist site.. Firstly the player must avoid the impulse to buy postcards, guidebooks, novelty beards and employ “very good guide sir” in the plaza, then let go of any personal space hang ups as the guards at the security pat you down and without a fuss make it past the guard with the itchy trigger finger on the mounted machine gun directed at the visitors. From there run the gauntlet of the “very cheap bazaar” all to get to the monument/park inside. I have to say the park grounds around the monuments of Delhi were fantastic, a great feeing of space with people walking at their own pace and even on the grass.. But you will be moved along by the security if you and your girl are caught "entertaining yourselves" that is, sitting too close together for too long..

The Jama Masjid Mosque is an active place of worship in Old Delhi, so it’s shoes off and some more rupees for the foreigner with the camera. It was impressive but I glad to leave as the hassle inside continued worse than on the packed streets below.

The National Modern Art Gallery was fantastic for the senses. I’ve never been in a place in India where I could hear my own footsteps. The gallery had some interesting modern angles on traditional Indian art. The walk back to the middle of town took me past the India Gate and the shopping strip around Connaught Place for the tourists…

Humayun’s Tomb, world heritage was a highlight from Delhi. This 16th Century red and white sandstone building and surrounding formal parks and gardens were beautiful. This tomb to the senior wife of the second Mughal emperor is a predecessor of the Taj Mahal in Agra. It was great to explore the grounds with buildings in partial ruin or in a state of grand perfection.


As the major cities of India expand there is a push to build brand new cities like Navi (new) Mumbai and Gurgaon outside Delhi. These city expansions although providing modern housing and new industry for big $$$, have the worst of western consumer influence with large shopping malls, one mall claiming 1km of wall space with massive advertising boards being built next to broken down roads and people sleeping in the dirt.. We still struggle with it but have to realize that although India professes to be first world it is still battling in the third world.

Early Xmas

As it happens with many expat communities, Christmas is celebrated when it suits the timing of those leaving the country.. It was no different recently went we had an afternoon on the deck at Vie, our local "surf club".. About 10 of the Mumbai mob gathered for a 750 rupee (about $20 aussie) buffet with beer included.. It was too late for Vie to change the pricing once they realized we were all Australian... We forgot to take pics til late afternoon and the buffet/beer was over..
It's so nice to have a place to have a beer on the beach. As luck would have it Vie is directly under the flight path of the busiest airport in Mumbai, those 747s are low on take off sometimes and when the tide is out it pongs a bit.... We've seen a few ladies asking for money on the beach but this was the first time for a bloke on the beach in budgie smugglers... Indians are generally a little more bashful..

The next weekend we enjoyed an Aussie xmas lunch at Megan and Jason's which had the works... Roast chooks, spuds, honey carrot, ham Megan smuggled into Mumbai a week earlier, chocolate cake, eskies of beer and Australian wines. An Indian Santa dropped in to hand out the secret Santa pressies (Rs500 limit) and entertain/distract the kids.. Good fun!

Sights at the Chor Bazar

A few weeks back we headed to the Hilton Hotel in south Bombay for a Tourism Award evening. As traffic is always a consideration we decided to suit up in Juhu and drive Noddy to town leaving two hours for the 25km trip. We were late but we looked great and created a stir as we stepped out of Noddy and handed over the keys for Valet parking.. We love it... At the finish of the evening the valet boys drove Noddy up the ramp and it took 4 of them to make sure we knew it was an old Indian car. "Old is gold", said the leader and like royalty without a driver we jumped in and roared off...

We stayed with Ash that night and next morning headed back to Chor Bazar, the "Thieves Markets" for a bit of xmas shopping. We found a few things to buy or at least entered the price negotiations, old doors that convert to nice tables, turkish lamps, Art Deco furnishings. There's so much stuff there, shops spill onto the gritty streets with all sorts of objects which haven't broken when they've been thrown out, or weren't wrecked in the accident leaving little space for the people to sleep or animals to feed..



On the way back to Juhu we saw the smallest hearse we've seen...
A bongo van with a big window and roof racks with the coffins stacked inside..

It's not funny really..