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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:42:30 GMT
Those of a nervous disposition please look away now.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:43:00 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:43:15 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:43:30 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:43:47 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:44:08 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:44:24 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:44:54 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:45:25 GMT
The town itself has changed quite a bit since I stopped visiting. Now it’s a lot more commercialised, as to be expected really. I used to park my truck directly outside the entrance gate and the nearby café. Now no vehicles are allowed (good thing). This is the café I frequented often. It was run by two Swiss ladies (sisters) who both sadly died within a few weeks of each other in 2003. Several years before this the husband of one of them (other one unmarried) also died. He ran a bit of a campsite not far away that had the attraction of being by the side of a nice river (swimmable) and a bar in a tree house. A visitor poking her head in -
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:46:20 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:46:41 GMT
I had to wake up the receptionist/dogsbody this morning when I wanted to check out. I can’t remember what his name is but he wasn’t very happy about it – Anyone want to buy some cooking fuel made from cow pats? – I love the early mornings here. A little bit of mist and a soft atmosphere, not cold but a hint of freshness –
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:47:00 GMT
As much I said I wouldn’t be visiting any tourist places, I did yesterday and somewhat less so today. After all, there’s only so many photos of roads you can put up with. So today I diverted a little to visit a place that I remember as being in the backwoods with only a passing tourist trade. I used to camp here, either in the temple complex itself or across the river. The last time I visited I saw a new hotel in the initial stages of being built. I could see the end was near for its remoteness and quiet. Now there are many hotels and tourist restaurants. However, most stop and see the main palace/fort and fail to go just half a kilometre further to see the abandoned and atmospheric temples by the river. It’s called Orchha. Originally built up around 1501 as the centre of a state in central India the town and surroundings were added to over the next hundred years or so - though one temple dates back to the 9th Century. Various other tombs and temples dot the area, virtually all are without any form of plate or sign to identify who/what they are. The ones I visited are abandoned; at one time you could walk into and around any of them but there is now a padlock on one gate I used to freely enter. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchha
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:47:32 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:48:01 GMT
These all are at the side of a river, the Betwa River, used to be good for swimming in and especially down by the small set of rapids. Now though I saw a sign on the way in for ‘Rafting Trips’. Tempus fugit. This photo is looking across the river at the area I used to camp in - Looking up river. The ‘cataracts’ are just visible in the distance –
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:48:24 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:48:53 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:49:22 GMT
Walking the few metres down to the river and looking left (to the right you’ve seen) you can see a causeway just wide enough to take a truck. I know it is ‘just’ wide enough. I would drive this to get to the camping spot over the river. It would always be though that if I waited for it to be clear of traffic as soon as I get halfway across some bus/truck/car driver from the other direction would decide to go onto the causeway where we’d meet two thirds of the way across (I was 2/3 over). Of course he’d not see the wrong of it and refuse to back up no matter that I’d be sounding my horn and flashing my lights even before he set one tyre on it. What he also didn’t know is that I’d be towing a trailer, so I couldn’t back up. Usually after a bit of an impasse he’d reverse as I would just gesticulate for a while. If that didn’t work I’d switch my engine off and start to read a book. That always worked. Lastly a quick shot of what the tourists do come to see which maybe one day I’ll visit again. But not this time -
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 10:49:56 GMT
I’ve reached my last but one city. The last being back to Delhi tomorrow. I may post a couple more photos but if I don’t, that’s your lot for this time. Oh! One more thing. Me crossing a railway track just as the barrier has lifted releasing us all through – Think anti-clockwise -
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2013 12:38:59 GMT
As you know, Mark, you have overwhelmed us by posting everything at once, so my comments will have to come in bits and pieces as I absorb things little by little. You are totally correct that we do not need to see the monuments when just the ordinary street life is so much more fascinating.
The step well is truly impressive but with the well not in use, I'm sure it is not as dizzying to see as when it was busy. The fact that there are so many steps implies that hundreds of people women were simultaneously making constant trips up and down while trying not to fall off the edge or spill too much water. Then again, one also can wonder with such amazing architectural skills why the builders did not invent some sort of pump or water wheel to bring the water up rather than making people women go down for it. Seems quite perverse to build something purposely so complicated and whose practicality escapes me.
On the other hand -- magic bed sheets! What a great invention. I am surprised that I have never seen ads for them in the back of men's magazines. An import-export house could make a fortune on that.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 12:50:41 GMT
I agree it is a bit overwhelming but it gives a chance to sit with the feet up and a cup of coffee and scroll through at leisure, if not occupied with other day to day things.
As regards the step wells, they developed initially as a source of water for the village but developed into places for the community (women) to sit in the cooler air and also then for worship to one of the 'gods'. No doubt the main one featured does seem overly complicated but probably was built with a sense of pride. These lasted until the dreaded British appeared and deemed the water unsafe and unhygienic. It was they who instigated the system of pumps, wells and piping that superseded the step well - nearly all which have fallen into disrepair (both the wells and the pipe systems).
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 23, 2013 14:24:38 GMT
I have to echo Kerouac here re: posting the whole trip at once, but re: what I've seen so far, wow!
I'm out the door right now, but will come back & give page one, the only one I had time to look at, proper due. This is a lot to take in.
Wonderful sightseeing, Mark, but were you there for business or pleasure? You covered enormous distances, it seems.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 15:22:29 GMT
Pleasure bixa, just a holiday. It's not compulsory to look through the whole thread, but as it is now in the past there was no need for me to post a bit and then wait and then another bit and then wait etc etc while I sit at home. It could all go down in one go and perused from time to time in slack moments. Total distance was just shy of 4000km, which is, because I am a bit weird, the type of break I enjoy. I like driving and driving and driving. There were three ten hour driving days in that when stops were just for fuel and street food. Weird in the way that it is the sheer act of driving that is the main part of the holiday. Sightseeing is an added bonus. The driving is the thing - and if it wasn't for the fact of having one eye on making a report about it then all you'd see would be roads as, and as you'll understand from later in the thread, I have been to all these places before.
Why then go back? Because of the ability to be in a place where I can drive all day, it is semi-familiar (I know the ropes as regards being in India), it was cheap enough to travel around, to hire a car, hotels, to fly to and the flight time was short enough to justify only ten days there. India fitted a lot of the relevant criteria - besides the fact that it is a bloody interesting country with good food.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2013 16:04:20 GMT
4000 km is what I had done in South Africa, but in 2 weeks rather than 10 days. I really enjoy long days on the road when I'm alone. When there are passengers, they tend to get restless, which I can easily understand.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 16:12:34 GMT
Certainly I wouldn't do this with family or even a passenger. One of the attractions is going where I want, when I want and stopping or not when/where I want. No need to think about what they'd want to eat or where to sleep, even toilet stops/street food being unsuitable, which music to listen to or not .......................... etc etc etc.
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Post by htmb on Feb 23, 2013 16:28:36 GMT
Solitary travel certainly has many positive advantages, but it amazes me the number of people who absolutely cannot fathom functioning on their own and who cannot stand to be alone with their own thoughts.
Wonderful report, Mark. Once again, you have presented images of a place for which I know very little. I found your photos of the animals interesting and loved your elephant and camel shots. There's so much to see, I must go back through your report again.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 16:55:18 GMT
Maybe I should've visited the tiger sanctuary at Ranthambore as well.
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Post by htmb on Feb 23, 2013 17:19:53 GMT
I certainly did not mean the animal photos were the only interesting parts of your report, but I have to think that it's rare I'm driving down the road and a couple of camels step out of the brush, or that I am forced to slow down because an elephant is in front blocking me from passing. Cattle, maybe, and perhaps a panther (on two instances). There were some men doing something as you passed them on the way back to your hotel and I want to ask you about that, but have to find the picture........oh, yes. Pics three and four in reply 18. Are they doing masonry-type work? Also, what was the primary language you used on your trip?
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 17:59:26 GMT
I didn't infer you were only interested in the animals, no problem.
Yep, masonry. I didn't notice any new buildings going up nearby that would require such pillars so I can only assume they were doing the common thing of setting up a business on any spare bit of land they could find. Initially they'd rough out the shape using a basic power tool but because labour is cheap and time aplenty the majority of the work would be done by hand and a basic block and tackle used to move them around. If you can imagine the stone type screens that would be common all over India (post 15 on the balcony and upper parts of the lower windows), they are all carved by hand. Skilled stuff and passed down from many generations.
Primary language was English plus plenty of pointing, smiling and gesticulation otherwise - English used in the hotels but most places I ate and people I interacted with spoke little if none. A few places I ate had an English menu, but if not they would understand anyway the names of the dishes like aloo ghobi, biryani, paneer, thali, chai etc. As long as I knew the word for the dish or could identify it from what was there I had no trouble. With the street vendors than a point, a smile and a finger count or so would work, even just offering roughly the correct amount of money for a portion worked (and I knew most 'portions' would be only 5 or 10 rupees).
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2013 18:06:06 GMT
Solitary travel certainly has many positive advantages, but it amazes me the number of people who absolutely cannot fathom functioning on their own and who cannot stand to be alone with their own thoughts. As per the amount of people who advertise for travelling partners even on well trodden paths. Yet if that is what appeals to them I wouldn't fault it, each to their own. I just know that solo travel appeals to me.
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Post by htmb on Feb 23, 2013 20:24:24 GMT
Thanks for the explanations, Mark. How long had it been since you last visited this area of India?
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