Paul's Travel Blog – travel experiences, photos, ideas, and tips

Classic Posts

Post author By pkk
Post date August 25, 2016
Sticky post

Since it’s been so long since I’ve had truly substantive posts on this blog, I thought I would highlight for new readers some of my favorites–the entries that I’m most proud of.

Below are a series of posts I did on religion:
The Reuse of Religious Sites series, in which I explore religious sites that have passed between conquering religions, is one of my favorites: 1, 2, 3.
In this post, I ponder the difference between the word Islamic and the word Muslim.
In this series, I consider how the history and practice of Islam is distinct in certain countries/regions: Indonesia, Balkans, China, India.

This is a thought piece on Tibetan Buddhism.

Some more meditative pieces on travel generally:
Traveling rich and poor, On deprivation

I did two multipart history series, on Iran and India, which give quite a broad overview of the history of those two nations/empires:
Iran: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
India: 1, 2, 3

For geography nerds: panhandles and quadripoints, Gibraltar and Ceuta

Botswana Namibia Zambia Zimbabwe

Panhandles and Quadripoints

Post author By pkk
Post date December 20, 2016
2 Comments on Panhandles and Quadripoints

I’ve mentioned in other posts that I grew up staring at a lot of maps. Looking through a red-bound Hammond World Atlas (gifted to me by a pilot friend of my father’s from the Korean Air Force, if I recall correctly) was a favorite pastime for me and my father. I can and still spend hours looking at maps of all kinds.

Maps, of course, tell stories. Some borders are more obvious than others (say, Sri Lanka or New Zealand), but most others are more or less arbitrary. The lines on which national identity and nationalism are built are often just historical quirks based on some temporary exigency long forgotten. Some of the most peculiar borders include enclaves/exclaves (which I have never blogged about, but an excellent blog post can be found at http://geosite.jankrogh.com/exclaves.htm, panhandles, and quadripoints (four corners).

Enclaves and exclaves are often created when ethnic or religious groups that used to live intermixed in relative harmony need to be sorted for whatever reason into separate nation-states. Towns, neighborhoods, or even homes are deemed to fall into one state rather than the other, creating a bizarre patchwork of borders. Central Asia, a region of tremendous ethnic diversity that has been separated into pseudo-ethnic states (see post of July 8, 2008), contains a tremendous number; India and Bangladesh sorted out some of theirs in land swaps (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India–Bangladesh_enclaves). Oman and the UAE, and Belgium and the Netherlands, even have enclaves within enclaves (see http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/08-05/arabian-enclaves-and-counter-enclaves-united-arab-emirates-middle-east.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Nassau).

Panhandles also often have curious historical origins. The Wakhan Corridor (see post of June 23, 2008), a tiny strip of Afghanistan that separates the former Soviet states of Central Asia from Pakistan, was delineated as a buffer between Russia and Great Britain during the territorial competition known as the Great Game. Oklahoma’s panhandle resulted from the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slave-holding Texas from extending beyond 36.5 degrees latitude. The tiny strip, before incorporation into Oklahoma, was an area of complete lawlessness.

This post is sparked by our brief crossing (on a fishing trip) into Namibia’s Caprivi Strip, a small piece of Namibia that extends hundreds of miles eastward into the middle of southern Africa. The Caprivi Strip resulted from negotiations at the famous Berlin Conference of 1884-85, where the European colonial powers divided up Africa among themselves. Germany, which controlled Namibia, wanted access to the Zambezi River, and so swapped Zanzibar for the Caprivi Strip, not knowing that that stretch of the Zambezi had no access to the sea, due to as-yet-undiscovered Victoria Falls.

namibia
The Caprivi Strip also causes an example of the third topic of this post—a quadripoint. Around the point where the Caprivi Strip ends, four countries (Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe) meet at a “four corners” in the river. (To be precise, it is not a true four corners, as the border between Botswana and Zambia is actually a line rather than a point, such that Namibia and Zimbabwe don’t actually share a border. This deviation from a true quadripoint is allowing a bridge to be built between Botswana and Zambia without crossing the other countries’ boundaries.)

The most famous “four corners” is, of course, in America, where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet at a true quadripoint located in the Navajo reservation (and marked by a monument which is supposedly at slightly the wrong location).
In the way that enclaves and exclaves demonstrate borders yielding to the human reality that no clear lines can truly represent boundaries among people and cultures, quadripoints (and straight line/rectilinear borders generally) represent a complete disregard for on-the-ground realities. The drawers of straight line boundaries are generally treating the subject land as a blank slate, an emptiness where national identity can be created by fiat rather than historical reality. Genocide and relocation made consideration of Native American claims in the American West largely unimportant, faciliating the drawing of straight lines. Actual desert emptiness “justifies” some straight-line borders in the Sahara and Middle East. But other arbitrary lines, from the 38th parallel in Korea to many African borders, have been causes of much bloodshed.

And thus borders are: As much as they tell a historical tale, they also create a reality. The nearly arbitrary acts of people standing around a map come to affect identity and culture, with tremendous consequences for future residents.

Mauritius Uncategorized

Resort!

Post author By pkk
Post date December 16, 2016

We don’t stay often at resorts.

In part this is because we are (sort of) budget travelers, and decent resorts are expensive (and a lower-end resort would probably be more depressing than anything). Not only are room rates at good resorts high, but the seclusion of resort layouts makes it difficult or unappealing to travel outside for drinks or meals, leaving one stuck with international hotel pricing for any food or beverage (unless, as Chinese tourists apparently do in the Maldives, you bring instant noodles to cook in your room electric kettle (but that doesn’t seem like a great way to spend your vacation)). Menus and overall atmosphere will also likely be similar to any other resort around the world, if you substitute a few local spices and fruits—possibly great but also sort of bland as any hotel that caters to a wide range of nationalities, ages, and styles must be. Even at a resort with a few different restaurants, dining options can feel boring or limited after a day or two, and the boredom may extend to more than just dining. After you’ve done the two or three activities that you were most interested in doing, there may not be much left to do other than hanging out in your room or by the beach.

But that, of course, is precisely the point.

International travel is hard work. As much as people enjoy it as a vacation option, for the variety and adventure it provides, having to figure out every logistic in an unfamiliar place isn’t trivial. The way we travel, every day or two or three brings us to a new city where we have to figure out the lay of the land. We have to know where we are and where we want to go, how to get there, what to see and do, where and what to eat, how to order, where to sleep, etc., etc. Every interaction might have a language challenge and room for miscommunication, or there might be tiresome frustrations, like a thirty-minute walk carrying all your luggage, only to find out that Google maps misplaced your hotel. Negotiating with taxi drivers is exhausting; safety can be a concern. When the weather is hot, as it has been on this trip, each day can feel like a sweaty slog, counting the hours until the next opportunity to shower and let your clothes dry out.

A resort is a vacation choice without any of these challenges. Temptation to sightsee or to search for outside restaurants is kept at a minimum, by isolating you in a self-contained world. Activities are prearranged (you just sign up), and often child care is even provided, to give adults some real relaxation time. Costs and payments are frictionless, with things simply billed to your room. Air conditioning is always within a few minutes’ walk.

A resort is a vacation choice to minimize choices. Our resort in Mauritius had us park at a parking lot and take a golf cart to our room—it wasn’t even clear that walking back to our car was an option, making the choice not to go sightseeing during the day an easy and lazy one. Buffet dinners were included in the room rate, obviating the need to make ordering choices. The biggest choices during our stay were how much appetite to save for which desserts, what to do for lunch, and whether to go for a glass bottom boat ride even though it looked like it might rain. We spent a great deal of time enjoying our (rather impressive) room and sitting by the beach, reading or doing photo work. To us, it wasn’t really travel, but a break from our travels.

For us, travel isn’t really about relaxation—it’s about exploring the world. Our curiosity and energy levels, not to mention relative lack of cares (e.g., stress of child rearing), are such that we’d rather spend our free, non-work time out in the wild discovering and learning new things. But knowing that such travel is tiring, something from which we ourselves appreciate a little break every now and then, we can easily understand why others choose resorts—true, simple relaxation—for the duration of a vacation. Yes, the opportunity cost is great, but sometimes one just needs a break.

PS: Please excuse the privilege/“first world problems” reflected in this article. What can I say—guilty as charged.

Mauritius Uncategorized

Language in Mauritius

Post author By pkk
Post date December 15, 2016

We first encountered French-speaking people of South Asian descent in Madagascar, in the coastal town of Tulear in 2005. It felt like quite an oddity—similar to when one hears an East Asian person with an southern American accent. I subsequently learned that there’s a country basically full of French-speaking Indians: Mauritius.

Since then, I’ve been curious to visit Mauritius, largely because of its mixed colonial and ethnic history. Mauritius was controlled by the Dutch, French, and English, before it became an independent country. Uninhabited until colonial times, its population is entirely composed of people who came to settle or work: largely Indians (68%), but also Africans, Chinese, and Europeans. It was hard for me to imagine what a country with such a composition would look or feel like. (I was also intrigued by its beaches and its status as a sort of tax haven for corporations.) Mauritius has proved as interesting as I had hoped.

The most obvious remnant of its mixed French and English history (the Dutch period was early and brief) is language. When the British took over Mauritius from France during Napoleonic times, they assured the local population that it could maintain its language, customs and laws. To this day, almost all Mauritians speak a Creole French as their primary language. With outsiders, however, Mauritians seem quite comfortable in both standard French and English—more than, I would say, the typical Quebecois, who probably feels significantly more comfortable in one language than the other. Signs are often bilingual, but many are written in just English or just French, assuming bilingual literacy of consumers and drivers.
FullSizeRender 3.jpg
The occasional advertisement is in Creole.

Memorial to Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam at SSRG Botanic Garden, Pamplemousses, Mauritius

France Uncategorized

Parts of France

the tricolore over a government building in St. Pierre, Reunion

Most people are from the “main” parts of a country. If you’re born in mainland United States, it is easy to forget that the “United States of America” actually encompasses not only the forty-nine states in North America, Hawaii and the District of Columbia, but also a large number of small territories and possessions scattered around the world, each of which has a somewhat different legal status with respect to the U.S. government. For example, people born in Guam are American citizens, but people living in Guam do not have the right to vote in the U.S. Presidential election (although they do participate in the party primaries). People born in American Samoa are not automatically U.S. citizens, though they have the right to live anywhere in the United States. The story of colonization is far from over, with many places in the world maintaining stronger or weaker legal relationships with the larger nations that once colonized them or won them as spoils of war.

Today we flew to Reunion, an island in the southern Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Mauritius, that is today still a part of its colonial “owner,” France. One interesting thing about Reunion, though, is that despite its small size and tremendous distance from France, and the fact that the vast majority of the population is not of white French ancestry but are mostly black or Indian, Reunion is fully a part of France—using the U.S. analogy, it is legally more similar to Hawaii than to Puerto Rico or Guam. People born and living in Reunion are full French citizens, elect representatives to go to Paris, and are also citizens of the European Union. Cars on Reunion have French license plates, the money is the Euro, and both traffic infrastructure (roundabouts included) and bakeries are similar to those you’d expect in European France. Technically, Reunion, Mayotte, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana are referred to as the “overseas departments,” but they have the same legal status as the regions and departments within European France.

Mayotte, pictured in Air Austral’s route map above, is even more of a demographic outlier, with almost its entire population black and Muslim. It is also the overseas department to attain its status most recently, through a 2011 referendum which yielded a 95% “yes” vote. From Mayotte’s perspective, it isn’t hard to see the advantages of becoming a full part of the motherland. Mayotte is very substantially poorer than “metropolitan France,” and becoming a full part of France will over time result in substantial inflows in infrastructure expenditure and social safety programs. The Reunionnaise apparently enjoy nearly a European standard of living, likely largely subsidized by taxpayers in Europe. Whatever loss in autonomy Mayotte will suffer, voters decided, is well worth the financial benefit.

I do not know the politics of all this, but am tempted to admire France for its inclusion of these territories as full and equal parts of the nation. Puerto Rico, which has a population greater than twenty of the U.S. states, favored statehood in a non-binding election in 2012, but the U.S. Congress did not even acknowledge the request with an up-or-down vote. Even the District of Columbia, the nation’s capital, doesn’t have equal representation in government—something recognized by the local license plates which include the revolutionary refrain, “Taxation Without Representation.” What keeps the U.S. from providing equal rights to all under U.S. jurisdiction? Largely partisan politics. Statehood for the District of Columbia or Puerto Rico would have immediate consequences on federal elections—namely, a benefit for the Democratic Party. As long as voters in D.C. or Puerto Rico remain likely Democrats, the Republicans have a strong incentive keep them from gaining equal representation in government. It is a markedly unjust outcome.

Might there be other, less overtly political, factors? It is tempting to say that racism and xenophobia play a part. Even Hawaii, America’s most recent and least white state, is majority non-hispanic white and asian (the latter being, arguably, the non-white “race” least threatening to white American identity, if only because of numbers). D.C. is largely black, and Puerto Rico of course almost entirely hispanic. But I think it also has to do with our country’s relationship to colonialism. Americans tend to think of colonialism as “European colonialism,” the period of time when Europeans such as British, Spanish, and French gathered territories around the world. But America, despite having started as a colony itself, was also an active participant. The thirteen original states may have been colonies of Britain, but basically every other state is a result of further colonization of the North American continent by the United States. By purchase or invasion, the United States acquired these additional territories, colonized them, and made them states. The land acquisition extended overseas—with some properties that were eventually spun off, such as Cuba, the Philippines, and the Panama Canal Zone, but others retained, such as Puerto Rico and Guam. I think that countries that are more self-aware about their colonial/imperial history, such as France, may be more likely to recognize the genuine historical connection and responsibility they maintain with their overseas possessions. In American’s minds, even Puerto Rico, with its large population and proximity to the mainland, is an afterthought, a strange historical quirk we’d almost like to forget.

For a somewhat similar though more detailed post on India, see my post of 20080316 Parts of India. Also, this post has also been inspired by C.G.P. Grey’s excellent videos on the American Empire and the European Union.

India photo

No Money!

Post author By pkk
Post date December 9, 2016

It would be difficult to argue that I’ve ever known real scarcity, but there have been a few times in our travels when we’ve been left totally without cash and without an obvious way to access it. The first time was when, due to a sort of banking mixup, we ended up with no money in the only account for which we had a working ATM card. This was in Turkey, if I recall, during our 2008-09 big trip, and our friend Shan came to our rescue, quickly depositing a few thousand dollars into our bank account. Just the other month, we were staying overnight in the small village of Xidi in Anhui Province, China, which we discovered had only one ATM, connected only through the Chinese UnionPay network, and not Cirrus or Plus. We had enough money for our room but not for dinner or transport back to Hangzhou—our friend Haiping came to our aid with a quick WeChat virtual payment made from Hong Kong. Today, I was not the victim of my own poor planning, but one of the billion plus affected by the Modi government’s apparently rash plan to rid the country of “black money.” On the evening of November 8, the Indian Prime Minister announced that all existing 500 and 1000 rupee notes—over twenty billion bills that constituted about 85% of the Indian money supply—were to be worthless as of midnight, and must be exchanged for new 500 and 2000 rupee bills. There was an immediate shortage of cash everywhere, with ATMs emptying as soon as could be stocked with the new bills and businesses not able to make change. 161209_1519 We wandered all over town looking for money, finally waiting in line for about half an hour when we found a stocked ATM. (The line wasn’t even that long, but the ATM was hideously slow with a confusing interface.) 161209_1532 Success! It is easy to view the chaos that resulted as typically Indian. Disorder on the order of billions is, after all, a sort of hallmark of the world’s largest democracy. The decrease in economic activity will hit GDP substantially, though estimates vary, and of course there’s a corruption angle to even this anti-corruption measure—it is said that leaks allowed those who were connected to launder their money in advance. But for all the short term disruption, the possible benefits are clear. In one fell swoop, the government rid the economy of billions of dollars in counterfeit and illegally obtained hoards of cash. For example, it was almost universal for Indian real estate transactions to have both a legal component and an under-the-table component, for purposes of tax evasion. Such large black market payments would now be difficult. Entire industries ran on the unreported cash economy, and may now have to be formalized. Buying a US$3 lunch with a credit card today (the restaurant couldn’t provide change for our 2000 rupee notes), it occurred to me that the government will have from this cash shortage period all sorts of new data on the volume of transactions done by businesses, revenues that probably went entirely unreported on the cash economy. Lack of cash is not only triggering the use of ordinary credit cards but also new mobile wallet schemes, the growth of which will help India not only locally but perhaps establish systems and brands that it can then market, using its IT prowess, around the world. The long term consequences will of course be unclear for a while, but India does have perhaps a unique . . . tolerance? ability? to muddle through chaos, and things seemed to be working out. Our hotel was obviously grateful when we handed them approximately $60 in rupee notes to settle our bill, but Uber to the airport was as smooth and cashless as anywhere else.

trains

Rail Travel, and the Man in Seat 61

Post author By pkk
Post date April 5, 2013
2 Comments on Rail Travel, and the Man in Seat 61

Most readers of my blog probably realize that I love train travel. Trains offer the adventure and sense of journey that overland travel provides, with the comfort and relative dependability of air travel, all wrapped up in an experience that is both civilized and romantic. Although of course the time demands of modern living mean that train travel isn’t always an option (especially in the United States, where insufficient investment in passenger rail means that very few routes offer practically competitive service), when we are out traveling, roaming the world, I almost always opt to travel by train, whenever possible.

Train travel, like cruises, are sometimes trips unto themselves–with the journey as much an experience as the destination. The most famous of these is perhaps the Trans-Siberian Railway, which crosses all of Asia on a continuous eight-day journey. Connections to the Chinese rails, at one end, and the European rail network, on the other, mean that you can travel all the way from London to Saigon, on the rails, starting by crossing the Chunnel on the Eurostar, across Europe on a whole range of networks and then from Moscow to Beijing, and then from Beijing to the Vietnamese railway on the reliable Chinese rail system.

You can search the label “train” on my blog for some information on traveling by train, but the site I usually recommend for international rail travel is The Man in Seat Sixty-One, one of the internet’s very best travel sites, which includes an amazing amount of detail on train systems around the world, including helpful pictures of car layouts, and a surprising number of schedules and fares. The site is named for his favorite seat on Eurostar first class. Many thanks to Mark Smith for creating and maintaining such an amazing repository of travel information!

India photo trains

Trains in India 2

Back in 2009, I put together a pretty thorough post on train travel in India, including the booking system, different classes of travel, and things you’re likely to see while riding the Indian rails. This is a supplement of that post, including descriptions of some of the different kinds of trains that are available (some with distinct classes of service).

Also, an update on booking: In addition to the Indian Railways (IRCTC) website, which has always been a horror to use (and which does not currently accept overseas credit cards), you can now book train tickets on third party sites through a bridge to the Indian Railways, including my favorite, Cleartrip. Cleartrip, in addition to providing a very pleasant and simple booking interface, has iPhone Passbook integration, bringing Indian rail travel into the 21st century. Please refer to the indispensable www.seat61.com for details on how to set up your IRCTC and Cleartrip accounts.

***

If you’ve traveled a great deal around India by train, you’ve probably noticed that there are some “special” types of trains, with different levels of service and fares. One might argue that these trains add complexity to an already complex system, but knowing what they are and offer is important for frequent riders.

The “special” train that travelers are most likely to experience is the Shatabdi Express, which are the fastest and most luxurious daytime trains in the Indian train system. Many travelers end up taking the New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi, which departs New Delhi Railway Station for Agra Cantonment Railway Station in the early morning and returns in the late evening, allowing a full day of sightseeing in Agra on a convenient daytrip. This particular run, which takes about two hours, also contains the fastest stretch of the Indian rails, at a maximum speed of 150 km/hr. Shatabdi Express trains offer only AC Chair Car and Executive classes, and cost a pretty hefty premium relative to other trains–but also include meals, tea service and bottled water. In Executive Class the servers also wear nifty outfits! (Unfortunately I don’t have a picture, so you’ll just have to be surprised.)

A Traveller Enjoying Dinner on the Shatabdi Express — Tourist Enjoying Dinner on the Shatabdi Express

The overnight equivalent of the Shatabdi Express is the Rajdhani Express. Rajdhani means “capital,” and the Rajdhani Express trains link Delhi to the largest cities in India. Rajdhanis, like Shatabdis, include free meals and snacks, and are all AC (1AC, 2AC and 3AC classes).

New Delhi - Ahmedabad Rajdhani Express — New Delhi – Ahmedabad Rajdhani Express

Even faster than the Rajdhani is the Duronto (“restless”) Express, which is a nonstop service. It’s actually pretty impressive that these nonstop services exist, given the significant distances they cover. What other train systems have 16-20 hour journeys without a single stop?

The Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto are premium services. The Indian Rail also has special economical services, the Janshatabdi and Garib Rath.

AC Chair Car, on the Green/Yellow Garib Rath

The Janshatabdi Express, or “common” shatabdi, offers similarly fast service as a Shatabdi, but instead of Executive and AC Chair Car classes, has AC Chair Car and Second Class, and no free meals. The Garib Rath offers service that is similar to a Rajdhani, but offers only 3AC and AC Chair Car. Garib Raths are unusual in two respects: they are basically the only trains to offer an air-conditioned seated class for long distance trains, and the 3AC is a special “tighter” configuration that allows more berths per car, and correspondingly lower fares.

And, of course, the suburban rails. With subways being built in so many Indian cities now (Delhi’s system is ever expanding, while Mumbai, Bangalore, Kochi and Jaipur are building out new systems), the suburban rail systems may not last too much longer… but with their open air configurations, they can be quite a joy to ride, as long as not during crowded rush hours.

India QuickTrip Uncategorized

Delhi QuickTrip: Pushkar

Pushkar’s camel fair, which takes place in the fall, is deservedly one of India’s most famous festivals. Derek and I went together in 2003, and Derek again, alone, in 2009. Last weekend, we thought we’d try Pushkar sans fair, and found it a very enjoyable getaway.

To get to Pushkar, we traveled by the Haridwar Ahmedabad Mail, which is scheduled to leave Old Delhi Railway Station at 10:20 PM and arrive in Ajmer at 6:40 AM, though our train ran a bit late. We traveled via 2AC tickets we bought last minute using the tatkal system. We returned to Delhi on the Ajmer Jat Express, which leaves Ajmer at 2:15 PM and arrives at Delhi Cantonment at 9:13 (and New Delhi Railway Station a bit later). If tickets had been available, we would probably have preferred the Shatabdi, which leaves Ajmer at 3:45 PM and arrives at New Delhi Railway Station at 10:40 PM. Those comfortable taking an overnight train back to Delhi could take the Chetak Express, which leaves Ajmer at 10:45 PM and arrives at Delhi’s S Rohilla Station at 5:10 AM.

In Ajmer, we took a quick look at Ajmer’s most famous site before we headed out to Pushkar. A short autorickshaw ride away from the railway station is the famous shrine of Sufi saint Muinuddin Chisti, which is probably the most significant Muslim religious site in India, if not all of South Asia. A place of pilgrimage for centuries, the Ajmer shrine is in some ways a giant version of the Nizamuddin shrine in Delhi, a huge religious site full of living medieval architecture and hundreds of pilgrims. Bags and photography are not allowed–which is a bit annoying–but the energy is incredibly positive and you are likely to hear a bit of Sufi qawwali music. (Before going to the shrine we also went to the Adhai Din ka Jhonpra, a Jain temple-to-mosque conversion dating from the 12th century–but this is optional. In case you decide to go, it is walking distance from the shrine.) From the shrine, we took an autorickshaw direct to Pushkar, which cost 300 rupees. Cheaper, and probably just as fast, would be to go to the bus station and take a proper bus, although that would also require two short autorickshaw rides to/from the bus stations. Returning to Ajmer we took a bus, which was fast, and fun. Early for our train, we had lunch at the local/divey, terrific Medina Hotel across the street from Ajmer’s railway station.

In Pushkar we stayed at the Paramount Palace, in a lovely room with a small balcony overlooking Pushkar, perhaps slightly overpriced at 1000 rupees. Had we booked in advance, we probably would have stayed at Seventh Heaven, which is the most proper/professional of the budget hotels in Pushkar. The Bharapur Palace was also tempting, with its lakeside location.

What is there to see or do in Pushkar? Almost nothing, which makes for a very relaxing weekend indeed. We walked over to see the fairgrounds just outside of town, which were almost entirely empty (since the fair was not on), and did one circuit of Pushkar’s holy lake, where people were bathing (and some guards/priests enforcing the “no shoe” rule in an annoying manner). Pushkar is a huge destination for both tourists and pilgrims, even when the fair is not on, making for good people watching (everything from very colorful Rajputs in marvelous turbans to Israelis with dreads) and shopping. We had kurtas tailored, with special iPhone-sized pockets. We had cokes and pots of chai on our balcony, overlooking the town. We sat eating terrific falafel wraps and watched folks walk down the main bazaar (the town is entirely veg–not even eggs available for breakfast!). Admittedly, some of the relaxingness of the weekend wore away with the long slog back home (which would have been better, I think, had we been on the Shatabdi), but we will certainly return to Pushkar again, for both the camel fair and for simple relaxation.

Camel Fair

India QuickTrip Uncategorized

Delhi QuickTrip: Khajuraho and Orchha

Post author By pkk
Post date January 22, 2013
2 Comments on Delhi QuickTrip: Khajuraho and Orchha

For the past three-day weekend, we decided to revisit a site we’d already visited, and to take in a new site on the way back. One should probably choose one of the two for an ideal weekend trip, and I will provide the logistics for those preferred itineraries.

Khajuraho is a peaceful small town in Madhya Pradesh famous for the amazing sculpture, much of it erotic and some of it downright “pornographic”, on its 10th/11th century Hindu and Jain temples. Khajuraho is certainly worthy of a revisit, but what really drove it as a destination for us this past weekend was the relatively last minute availability of overnight train tickets–on the UP Sampark Kranti which departs Delhi’s Nizamuddin Station at 8:15 PM and arrives in Khajuraho at 6:35 AM. The rail connection to Khajuraho is fairly new–when we first visited in 2003, Khajuraho was, for those who didn’t want to fly, a painful multihour jeep/bus journey from the nearest railheads–and the rail connection seems to have caused fairly positive developments in Kharuraho’s tourist infrastructure, including a better selection of hotels and restaurants and a pedestrianized area in the core of the town near the greatest set of ruins. We stayed at the Hotel Surya, which cost less than 600 rupees for a non-AC room booked online. (I should note that while there are some upscale hotels in town, none of them are walking distance from the ruins.)

One could easily spend two nights or more in Khajuraho. The town is peaceful, the selection of food and lodging pretty good, and, even if the ruins themselves would occupy only a day of sightseeing, there are likely pleasant walks and bicycle rides that could be had, strengths that come from it’s being pleasantly quasi-rural for a major Indian tourist site. But because my time was limited, we didn’t want to take an overnight train back to Delhi and Khajuraho still has no nonstop flights to Delhi (flights to Khajuraho go on a triangular Delhi to Khajuraho to Varanasi to Delhi routing), we stayed only one night in Khajuraho and took a rather painfully slow daytime passenger train to Orchha, which left Khajuraho at 12:30 PM and arrived after sunset. To return directly from Khajuraho to Delhi, you could take the UP Sampark Kranti back, which departs Khajuraho at 6:20 PM and arrives at Nizamuddin at 5:30 AM, if you are okay with an overnight return trip, or take the Khajuraho – Udaipur InterCity, which departs Khajuraho at 9:10 AM, and then transfer to a Delhi train (such as the Shatabdi, see below) at Jhansi, Gwalior or Agra (probably the first, in order to have the safest connection).

From Orchha station, which is right before Jhansi Junction, we caught an auto rickshaw to Orchha town, about a 20 minute journey for which you will certainly be overcharged. By the time we checked into our hotel (unremarkable but cheap Fort View Guest House), it was dark. Were we to do it again, or arrive at Orchha earlier, we would certainly try to book the Maharaja Suite at the Hotel Sheesh Mahal, which is the state-run establishment that is the only lodging in the fort itself. Being a state-run hotel the Sheesh Mahal is not fancy, but the Maharaja Suite is fairly impressive, and for a relatively low price of around $100 allows you the experience of staying in a unique and private part of the old palace. The Maharani Suite, next to the dining room, is nowhere near as impressive–we imagine the substantially cheaper regular rooms may be more appealing. The Sheesh Mahal is also, by our limited experience, probably the best place to eat in town. We visited some of the more upscale hotels located just away from the town center but were not really drawn to any of them (despite really wanting to be). With one’s own transport the Bundelkhand Riverside may be okay, and we didn’t visit the fanciest hotel in town (the Amar Mahal), though its location didn’t inspire us.

Orchha may be one of the most impressive sites in India that are not commonly visited. Though seemingly well frequented by tour groups (including especially Korean tour groups), which may find it an easy stop from Khajuraho, there are not very many tourists considering the tremendousness of the fort. The Jahangir Mahal, in particular, is extremely explorable, and in most ways just as impressive as any of the palaces in Rajasthan. Chaturbhuj Temple, which is in Orchha town, is also unique–a vast cathederal-like Hindu temple with an impressively high roof with a good view. Like Khajuraho, Orchha is also pleasantly rural (and less tourist-oriented to boot), and would be a good base for walks and bicycle rides (we are also intrigued by the “mud-hut home stays” listed in the Lonely Planet). Of the places we’ve visited “near” Delhi so far, Orchha is the one that we could most easily imagine visiting repeatedly.

To return to Delhi from Orchha, we took an auto rickshaw to Jhansi Junction and then the comfortable Shatabdi to New Delhi Railway Station, which leaves Jhansi at 5:59 PM and arrives in Delhi at 10:45 PM (though odds seem to be that it will run late). The excellent timing of the Shatabdi return trip makes a simple weekend trip to Orchha easy. Any number of overnight trains departs Delhi for Jhansi, including the Dakshin Link SF Express, which departs Nizamuddin at 11:00 PM and arrives in Jhansi at 5:20 AM, giving you a full 1.5 days in Orchha for a two-day weekend. If you want to arrive Friday night, a few different trains leave Delhi in the afternoon and make it to Jhansi Junction about five to six hours later, though unless you leave a bit earlier in the afternoon that would mean an Orchha arrival after midnight.