We stayed at the Hotel City Palace, which is directly in front of the beautiful Victoria train station. The hotel is ultra-clean and modern, but the relatively cheap room we had was windowless.  We had our own bathroom, a double bed and even a TV.  The only surprise we had was a 1 minute call from the room costing us $10.  The location was great and the room was very quiet.

The bathroom was cramped but clean.  There was plenty of hot water, good water pressure and a sit-down Western style toilet.

After Kanha, we headed back to Jabalpur by car (Wendy was feeling better, we just didn’t feel like a long bus drive) and took the train to Bombay (Mumbai). It was the longest train ride we took, but it was comfortable.  The train station is beautiful, too – an old building that from the outside looked more like a museum or cathedral than a train station.

We went to see the Gateway of India (arch built to commemorate the visit of King George and Queen Mary) and then did some shopping – the knock-off ‘government stores’ were particularly good. Really cheap jewelry and crafts at a good quality.  Then we wandered down Marine Drive (road by the ocean with a wide SIDEWALK! you can WALK ON!!! With no COWS?!!!) 

We ended the evening with a great dinner at Indian Summer, just off of Marine Drive.  The food was great, if a little pricy, and the restaurant was clean. 

We were in Bombay/Mumbai for just a short time but we really enjoyed it.   

We took a night train from Varanasi to Jabalpur.  Shortly after leaving the Ghats, we realized that you can take Wendy out of Varanasi, but it’s a little more difficult to take Varanasi out of Wendy. She got sick multiple times on the train ride to Jabalpur.

So, instead of the 8 hour bus ride we were supposed to take into the National Park, we got soft and got a car and driver to take us to our hotel, the Mogli Resort.  We called them from the train and they had a driver waiting to take us ($40).  It was a very, very welcome relief!

Mogli Resort wasn’t really a resort, but it was a very comfortable hotel.  Unfortunately the room wasn’t heated. Thankfully, the hotel lent us a hot air heater because it was very, very cold at nights.  The big room didn’t help – the tiny heater really couldn’t keep up.

We went to see the tigers 3 times.   We left the hotel at 5AM every morning for a very, very cold open-air drive into the park.  Basically, the way it works is that they drive you around in circles in a jeep for a couple of hours, supposedly looking for tigers.  In the meantime, mahoots are out on elephants actually tracking the tigers… 

They park you at the Educational Center/Rest Stop in the park.  Theoretically it’s so you can go to the bathroom (don’t.  That’s all we’ll say.  Just don’t).  You can also have tea either from your  packed lunch or bought there and they sell snacks too (including Parle Gs which are very, very bland biscuits and about all Wendy was eating at that point!)  Really, it’s where you wait for your driver to be radioed that it’s your turn.  So, unfortunately, a lot of our visit was spent here, waiting for it to be our turn to go and see the ‘tiger show’.

Anyhow, while you’ve been driving around in the jeep and waiting at the Educational Center the mahoots have located the tigers.  Once they find them, they stick the tourists on elephant and walk them out to see the tigers where they have decided to have a mid-morning rest.  (The elephants looked well cared for, in contrast to elephants we saw at other tourist sites in India and we felt comfortable with the way they were being treated.)  

So it’s a bit of a Disney experience.  But who cares – we saw tigers, in the wild, on elephant back.  They are so elegant and graceful when they are walking around!  It was a magical experience and worth all the problems we’d had trying to get to Kanha.

After our turn on the elephants we had some more time in the jeep.  We drove around and saw a bunch of other animals, and some pretty scenery, too.  During our three jeep trips into the park we managed to see gaur, jackals, white spotted deer, peacocks (they were everywhere!) loads of Languor monkeys, Sambar deer and wild pigs.

We arrived in Varanasi yesterday afternoon and are leaving tonight (we hope) on the night train at 11:30pm.  (Maybe – that’s what it says on the ticket).  Our train was 3 hours late this time, but we did make it.  Our guidebook warned us that Varanasi has very high ‘hassle-factor’ so we came out of the train station ready for battle. An onslaught of auto-rickshaw drivers and bicycle rickshaws attacked. Our guidebook told us there was a pre-paid taxi stand, but it was not staffed. The tourist office wasn’t helpful either. So, we grabbed an auto-rickshaw, but seeking to avoid the hassle of him taking us to the wrong hotel,we concocted a story of needing to meet our friends at one of the ghats (bathing areas on the Ganges river).

We insisted we had no idea where our hotel actually was, only our friends knew it. He wasn’t buying our story and kept insisting we tell him where we wanted to go. Finally, despite our insistence, he dropped us off at his hotel. He claimed that the ghat we were looking for was just down the street, which it of course wasn’t. We set out to find our hotel, having no idea where we were. We managed to find a main street, and used our cell phone to call our hotel. They pointed us the right way, but we were soon lost again. We had quite a group of touts following us – our backpacks ensured that every tout within a 10 mile radius was all over us.

We asked a female storeowner, who pointed us the right way, but unfortunately some of the touts overheard. They started following us, again. The problem is that as soon as a tout bring you in to your hotel, the room price would go up so the hotel owner could pay the tout.

We tried at first to politely get rid of the touts, but that wasn’t effective. Next we tried making fun of them, insisting that they pay us for the pleasure of talking to us. One tout actually coughed up a couple of rupees to talk to us! Finally, as the hotel came into view and the touts started running ahead, we lost our patience and yelled at them at the top of our lungs. This was actually effective and we finally shook them.

The Hotel Temple on Ganges is right at the end of the Ghats at Assi Ghat. It is a great location (quiet, but still very convenient), the hotel is clean, and there is a reasonably priced (though horribly slow) rooftop restaurant with a great view overlooking the Ganges.  Very relaxing.

We went for a walk along the ghats (holy places/laundry/crematoriums).  You can walk all the way along and there are steps down so that people can go down to bathe (not a good idea – the water is beyond filthy – the levels of pollution are off the charts – they dump sewage into the river at several points).  Anyhow, we saw lots of people bathing in the Ganges, kids playing cricket, cows, goats, more cows, people peeing, people crapping… We saw a cremation and we were constantly bothered by every child and beggar on the banks.  Anyhow, it was a very interesting experience.  We ate dinner at the hotel.

The following day, we had arranged for an organized day tour of the main sights of Varanasi. We tried to get our hotel owner to arrange it for us, but he said he couldn’t (he didn’t have any business sense, but a very nice guy!). We ended up with someone we arranged through the tourist office. First thing in the morning we went for a boat ride on the Ganges. This was a good chance for pictures, but it wasn’t long enough. We went to Benaras Hindu University. It’s a very pleasant campus – lots of space, greenery, and quiet. We visited the Sri Vishwanath temple, before heading back to the city. We saw the Mother of India temple which has a to-scale topographical map of India which was interesting. We also visited a couple of other Hindu temples.

Finally we headed to Sarnath, 30 minutes outside of town.  Our guide thankfully left us alone to wander the grounds. There is a crumbling stupa, and other ruins. There is a tree that is supposedly a descendant of the original bodhi tree, where Buddha gave his first sermon.  There’s also a spectacularly boring museum on site, which we had to pay 10 cents US to get into. (We should have saved our dime).

Back in town and alone (much better!) we wandered around the market at the central ghat and then headed down to the river again to light some candles (they sell them with flowers in a little bowl made of leaves – you say a prayer and float them out onto the river).  By accident we managed to be there for this new ceremony they’ve started.  It went on for about an hour and involved 8 guys light up chanting and ringing bells and burning different lights and incense and pretty much everything else imaginable.  Awesome! 

We had dinner at a big hotel with some friends we had met at the Hotel Palace on Ganges. The buffet was overpriced.  But hey, it was a Christmas buffet…

The following day, we hired a taxi for the day. First we headed to Fatehpur Sikri, a couple of hours outside of Agra.  It’s  a silent hilltop city of abandoned palaces and gorgeous crumbling red stone buildings. We were there first thing in the morning and had the place to ourselves – a beautiful thing!  There are some beautiful buildings here, with lots to explore. It’s well worth the trip.

After visiting the main area, we went next door to the Mosque (Jama Masjid) next door. Again, we were glad to have socks because the grounds were not clean and we had to take off our shoes. The courtyard is huge. The gleaming white tomb in the middle has even tighter security – you can’t even carry your shoes inside. There was no official shoe-keeper, so we just took turns wandering around.

Back in Agra, we visited the Itimad-Ud-Daulah (aka Baby Taj) It is sort of a scaled-down version of the Taj, and is pleasant to check out, especially for the beautiful inlaid carvings inside.

Our final stop was the Dayal Bagh, which is advertised as the next Taj Mahal. Similar to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the building has been under construction for years (since 1915), with no end in sight. We were able to wander around freely checking out craftsmen at work, working on stone carvings etc.  It was a great opportunity to see how the inlay work is done.   There was no one there, since it’s not really on the tourist path yet.  It was well worth the trip, and we were very glad our Let’s Go guidebook told us to check it out. Our driver told us that in all his years of driving a taxi, no tourist had ever asked to be taken here, but it’s a really worthwhile side-trip.

We also visited the Agra Fort, which is the sister building to the Red Fort iin Delhi. In the distance, through the smog, we were vaguely able to make out the Taj. Otherwise, the Agra Fort has very nice gardens and courtyards, some beautiful buildings, and a good view of the city (and the smog).

We headed back to the hotel, grabbed our bags and continued on to Varanasi (Banaras).

We’ll we showed up at the train station in Amritsar at 3:30PM for our 4:10PM train to Agra.  Make that our 5:00 train…  Actually 6:00…  Well, actually 7? No, 8:00 train.  Which then lost 2 more hours, finally arriving in at 3:30PM instead of 9:30AM.  And today is Thursday.  And tomorrow is Friday – the day the Taj Mahal is closed. 

So we ran, and we made it in by 5:00PM – security is tight and took a long time.  And it costs a FORTUNE – like 750 rupees – or almost $20US.  (Tonight’s hotel is 400 to put it in perspective…)  But the Taj is worth every rupee. WOW.  Amazing.  And it’s not white.  Well, it is, but it’s all engraved with verses from the Koran inlaid in black and beautiful flowers inlaid…  Wow.

Went for a great dinner and the power only went out once…  (Dasaprakash – fabulous chain of Indian restaurants – they even have some in other countries).  It was actually kind of hilarious.  The power went out so we took out our mini-Maglite.  They’re made so you can twist off the front of the flashlight and it forms a base on which the handle and bulb of the flashlight can stand, like a candle.  So, a few twists and we were eating by 21st century “candle” light.  The rest of the restaurant was still dark, and you could see everyone looking at us in amazement!  Of course, since it was a nice restaurant they have their own generator for power outages and the lights were soon back on.  Still, gotta love those Maglites!  

So tomorrow we check out the fort, and maybe the view of the back of the Taj (same as the front).  Also another tomb they’ve nicknamed the Baby Taj, and an abandoned city called Fatepur Sikri.  Then we catch the night train to Varanasi.  (The train was actually really nice on the way here…  just a little slow).

We’ll we showed up at the train station in Amritsar at 3:30PM for our 4:10PM train to Agra.  Make that our 5:00 train…  Actually 6:00…  Well, actually 7? No, 8:00 train.  Which then lost 2 more hours, finally arriving in at 3:30PM instead of 9:30AM.  And today is Thursday.  And tomorrow is Friday – the day the Taj Mahal is closed. 

So we ran, and we made it in by 5:00PM – security is tight and took a long time.  And it costs a FORTUNE – like 750 rupees – or almost $20US.  (Tonight’s hotel is 400 to put it in perspective…)  But the Taj is worth every rupee. WOW.  Amazing.  And it’s not white.  Well, it is, but it’s all engraved with verses from the Koran inlaid in black and beautiful flowers inlaid…  Wow.

Went for a great dinner and the power only went out once…  (Dasaprakash – fabulous chain of Indian restaurants – they even have some in other countries).  It was actually kind of hilarious.  The power went out so we took out our mini-Maglite.  They’re made so you can twist off the front of the flashlight and it forms a base on which the handle and bulb of the flashlight can stand, like a candle.  So, a few twists and we were eating by 21st century “candle” light.  The rest of the restaurant was still dark, and you could see everyone looking at us in amazement!  Of course, since it was a nice restaurant they have their own generator for power outages and the lights were soon back on.  Still, gotta love those Maglites!  

So tomorrow we check out the fort, and maybe the view of the back of the Taj (same as the front).  Also another tomb they’ve nicknamed the Baby Taj, and an abandoned city called Fatepur Sikri.  Then we catch the night train to Varanasi.  (The train was actually really nice on the way here…  just a little slow).

Our next destination was Amritsar. This was not a night train, it took about 4 hours. We took the Express, which is renowned as one of India’s nicest trains. We were fed (well) and it was very comfortable. We arrived in Amritsar at night and made our way to our hotel, the Sharma Guest House (400 rupees).   At night it was 15C in the room (59F)  – thermal time.  The hotel has a fairly large rooms, but the bathroom was rather cramped.

The reason we visited Amritsar was to see the Golden Temple, the largest Sikh temple in India. Our hotel was just a short 5 minute walk from the temple, and is spectacularly lit up at night. We went to check it out. Before entering, we had to leave our shoes (and socks) with a guard – but unlike every Hindu temple we visited, we didn’t have to pay. The temple itself was absolutely spotless. At the entry, there is a foot washing pool (with heated water!) that everyone must go through.  The temple is beautiful, and very peaceful.  We were made to feel very welcome and comfortable.

The next morning we headed back to the temple to check it out during the day. We were able to enter the temple itself, via a walkway. Worshippers seemed genuinely pleased that we were there – multiple people stopped to explain to us parts of what we were seeing.

We also visited the langur, which is a communal free dining hall in all Sikh temples. It is open to all people.  Sikh founder Guru Nank created the kitchens to promote the concept of equality – the highest caste sits next to the lowest caste, and the rich next to the poor.  We sat down in rows facing each other, and people walk around serving out delicious Dahl and bread (chappatis) onto your plate. They keep feeding you until you can not possibly eat any more. We wanted to leave a donation for our free lunch, but believe it or not we had a hard time finding the donation box!  The bin has writing only in Hindi, and we weren’t sure if it was a garbage or a donation box!  We waited to see someone else dropping money into the box.  We spent some time watching the kitchen/food preparation area. It’s a very organized, efficient operation staffed by volunteers from the temple.

A short walk from the Golden Temple is the Jallianwala Bagh. This is the site of the slaughter of 400 Indians when British troops fired on 10,000 unarmed men, women, and children who were protesting (and trapped) inside the square.  The memorial is tastefully done, and nicely kept up and clean.

We did some shopping and walking around the very busy town, before heading back to the hotel to get our bags and head to the train station.

The following day, we started out early to see the Red Fort. Our trusty driver didn’t know how to get there – he ended up paying an auto-rickshaw driver and following him. Our guidebook had the opening time wrong – but fortunately also had failed to indicate the entry gate, so by the time we found it, we didn’t have to wait that long.

The Red Fort is red.  At least, we think it is.  It’s kind of hard to see it through the smog…But it was certainly beautiful and very un-fort-like.  It’s got several former palaces inside – awesome.  t’s pretty big, lots to explore, but the interiors of the buildings are empty. After a while, we were approached by a group of young men asking to take a photo with Wendy. They left us alone, but we no longer felt comfortable (the site was pretty empty) and left.

Our next stop was the Jama Masjid.  It’s big.  And beautiful.  It’s the oldest and largest mosque in the country. There was a huge crowd outside the gate. We had to pay for entry to the mosque, and the guard actually tried to overcharge us, despite the huge sign behind him indicating the price for foreigners.  (Do you get an especially quick trip to hell if you rob people INSIDE a mosque?)  It was kind of funny since there’s a big sign posted with 150 rupees each right there, and he said, yes, 150 rupees each – 400 together.  Apparently the Indian perception is that foreign schools are
really, really bad!  Of course 100 rupees is a little more than $2US, so we’re not talking megabucks, but…  Anyhow, we won that argument. Again we had to take off our shoes to enter the Mosque, and the ground wasn’t clean (pigeon droppings everywhere).

After a while we sat down by the central fountain in the courtyard, to relax and take in the sights. Soon after, a large group gathered not far from us, looking at us and laughing at us. Again, we felt uncomfortable and left earlier then we wanted to.

We went to a recommended restaurant nearby, Karim’s.  Apparently it’s been serving curries, kebabs, etc. for almost 100 years and has opened several branches within and outside Delhi.  Although it was very cheap, we didn’t think it was that great. Next we walked over to the old shopping street, Chandi Chowk. We wandered around the narrow alleyways, checking out the different souks. The shops were mainly of interest to locals – we didn’t see much in the way of souvenirs (crafts, etc.). The main road is incredibly busy and loud. We were glad to take a quiet break at a McDonalds on the main street.

We finally found an "internet cafe" – some very enterprising family had turned their computer in their family cloth business into a little tourist attraction.  Awesome.

We headed back to our taxi driver who took us to the train station. There was a bit of a disagreement over the price (or maybe he was upset at the lack of a tip), but since he didn’t speak English, we won that argument.

The next day, the first thing we did was head out into the city to find an ATM. At 8am on the weekend, Connaught Place was a ghost town. It to ok us about 4 ATM’s before we found one that accepted foreign cards. We ended up at a Citi Bank. Getting breakfast was a little difficult – none of the shops open till 9am at the earliest. We had arranged for a taxi driver to drive us around the sights of Delhi. The sights are for the most part fairly spread out, and given that a driver only costs $10 for the day, it’s a great option. Our driver did not speak any English. He didn’t even know how to get to some of the most major sights…We guess you get what you pay for!

The first sight we checked out was Raj Ghat. It is a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi.  There is a perpetually burning flame in a glass box that sits on the marker of his grave.  Nowhere on the memorial is Gandhi’s name, but the inscription instead has his last words: ‘Oh God’.  It’s a nice spot of calm amidst the madness of the city. Be sure to wear socks, as it is necessary to take

off your shoes, and the path is not very clean.

Next we headed to India Gate.  There were a lot of tourists there.  It commemorates the 90,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who lost their lives fighting for the Indian Empire in World War I and the Afghan Wars. 

Next up was the Qutb Minar.  This complex is a  UNESCO World Heritage Site and there are several sights to see within it. There is the tallest stone tower in India. It is made of red sandstone.  Construction began in 1199 and it is beautiful although it is no longer possible to climb it.   The 98% pure iron Gupta Pillar (Iron Pillar) was built in the 5th century and has been rust-free ever since.  The Quwwat-Ul-Islam Masjid is India’s oldest Mosque outside of western Gujarat.  Exploring around the area is a fun way to spend an hour or two. Lots of good photo opportunities – especially with all the Indian women wearing these amazing brightly colored saris brightening up every photo we took.

We stopped for lunch at Naivedyam Restaurant in Hauz Khas Village. There’s a little market next door which we didn’t have time to explore, but lunch was absolutely delicious. The restaurant was very clean, comfortable, and a very reasonable price.

After lunch we headed to Humayun’s Tomb.  It was built in the mid-16th century by Haji Begum.

Huymayun was the second Mughal Emperor and his tomb is a great example of Mughal Architecture.  This was a real highlight of our trip to Delhi. Is an absolutely beautiful tomb, exquisite carving, and impressive architecture. We spent an hour or two walking around. Lots of great photo opportunities here too.

The only other sights we saw were the Parliament Building and surrounding area. Unfortunately, due to security concerns, it is not allowed to walk around – in fact our driver didn’t even stop.

He had no problem however stopping at some shops, despite our insistence over and over "NO SHOPPING!".

That evening, we had dinner at our friends and headed back to the hotel.