Beth and I have quickly learned that touring with a group is a whole different ballgame. We tend to move at a pretty leisurely pace when we travel. Also, we've never met a bench under a shade tree that we haven't liked. There isn't much time for that in group travel. So far on this trip the latest wakeup call that we've had has been 6:30. That being said, this is the only way to see India and we're extremely pleased with our tour company, Friendly Planet. The wake up call today was at 4:45 but it was well worth it, but that's for another blog later on. I'm running a few days behind. Unfortunately the wifi at our current hotel is very limited so I haven't been able to download pictures. I'll try to catch up with the pictures when possible which may be a few days away.
It's Thursday morning now in India but I'm going to go back a few days and share with you some of the adventures from Tuesday and Wednesday. We finished off our Tuesday in Agra (where the Taj Mahal is located) by having "High Tea" at the home of a very nice Indian couple. She had prepared some delicious goodies and they shared with us stories of their marriage (arranged), their children (2-a girl who is a dentist and a boy who is studying engineering) and their country. They were very proud of it all which was very understandable.
Wednesday was a doozy! As usual we were up bright and early, and off to the Agra train station to catch a train for the next leg of the journey. The train station was as crazy busy as any street. There were even a few cows roaming around the train platform although I didn't see any actually board the train.
The train ride was about two and a half hours to the city of Jhansi. We had an air conditioned coach complete with semi-comfortable seats. The seats were actually a little wet and we were told it was because they had been cleaned the night before! Many of the cars were not air conditioned and looked to offer only limited seating. Of course if you really wanted to go the economical route I guess you could have ridden on the roof. It was quite an experience and made me appreciate Amtrak and the metro in major US cities.
Once we arrived at Jhansi the real "Dance with Death" began. It was a six hour bus ride to the city of Khajuraho. We were now out in the "country" which simply meant narrower roads with equally as many motorized and self propelled vehicles and a heck of a lot more cows!
Beth did a little research and learned that there are over three hundred million cows in India. Just to bring some perspective to that number it's pretty dang close to the population of the entire United States! I'm sure somewhere in India there are cows that are living in nice pastures away from the roads but we haven't seen them yet. It seems as if the favorite gathering place of this sacred animal is either on the side of the road or in the middle of the road. We had a few nice stops along the way but as we were driving it was a constant dodging of men, women, children, cows, goats, donkeys, pigs, etc. All while moving at a fairly high rate of speed. Just for kicks I timed the number of times per minute that our bus driver blew the horn. It looked like it was averaging between 5-6 times per minute. It was an incredible orchestration of dexterity to watch. Driving, swerving, shifting gears and blowing the horn while to the best of my knowledge never hitting anything.
We stopped to tour an amazing Hindu temple complex in the city of Orchha. They were built in the 16th and 17th centuries. While many of the surrounding temples were destroyed by invaders these were built as a fortress that survived the destruction and were amazing to see.
At this time of the year there are many pilgrimages taking place throughout India. There were large numbers of female Hindu women who had traveled to Orchha to pray. A large group of them broke out in a traditional song much to the delight of their fair skinned visitors.
Back to the cows. Our guide (Ki) has taught us a number of things about cows over the past week or so. First of all he taught us to always be on the lookout for "landmines" aka cow poop. Sharing the sidewalks with 300 million cows can quickly lead to some messy shoes if you're not careful. So far Beth and I have managed to sidestep them pretty good but there is potential disaster with almost every step.
He also often refers to it as "Holy Sh*t". Technically for a Hindu this is correct. The cow is holy and the sh*t is sh*t! Being that it's in good supply there are a number of practical uses for the stuff. It's used as fertilizer for the numerous fruits and vegetables that are grown. It is also dried in the sun and used as a "firewood" for cooking as well as heating, especially during the monsoon season. Lastly, he said it can be used as a type of mortar for the construction of walls and roofs. So there you go. Hopefully the next time you see a big patty you'll have a new appreciation and if you step in it feel free to go ahead and let out a good .................HOLY SH*T.
It's Thursday morning now in India but I'm going to go back a few days and share with you some of the adventures from Tuesday and Wednesday. We finished off our Tuesday in Agra (where the Taj Mahal is located) by having "High Tea" at the home of a very nice Indian couple. She had prepared some delicious goodies and they shared with us stories of their marriage (arranged), their children (2-a girl who is a dentist and a boy who is studying engineering) and their country. They were very proud of it all which was very understandable.
Wednesday was a doozy! As usual we were up bright and early, and off to the Agra train station to catch a train for the next leg of the journey. The train station was as crazy busy as any street. There were even a few cows roaming around the train platform although I didn't see any actually board the train.
The train ride was about two and a half hours to the city of Jhansi. We had an air conditioned coach complete with semi-comfortable seats. The seats were actually a little wet and we were told it was because they had been cleaned the night before! Many of the cars were not air conditioned and looked to offer only limited seating. Of course if you really wanted to go the economical route I guess you could have ridden on the roof. It was quite an experience and made me appreciate Amtrak and the metro in major US cities.
Once we arrived at Jhansi the real "Dance with Death" began. It was a six hour bus ride to the city of Khajuraho. We were now out in the "country" which simply meant narrower roads with equally as many motorized and self propelled vehicles and a heck of a lot more cows!
Beth did a little research and learned that there are over three hundred million cows in India. Just to bring some perspective to that number it's pretty dang close to the population of the entire United States! I'm sure somewhere in India there are cows that are living in nice pastures away from the roads but we haven't seen them yet. It seems as if the favorite gathering place of this sacred animal is either on the side of the road or in the middle of the road. We had a few nice stops along the way but as we were driving it was a constant dodging of men, women, children, cows, goats, donkeys, pigs, etc. All while moving at a fairly high rate of speed. Just for kicks I timed the number of times per minute that our bus driver blew the horn. It looked like it was averaging between 5-6 times per minute. It was an incredible orchestration of dexterity to watch. Driving, swerving, shifting gears and blowing the horn while to the best of my knowledge never hitting anything.
We stopped to tour an amazing Hindu temple complex in the city of Orchha. They were built in the 16th and 17th centuries. While many of the surrounding temples were destroyed by invaders these were built as a fortress that survived the destruction and were amazing to see.
At this time of the year there are many pilgrimages taking place throughout India. There were large numbers of female Hindu women who had traveled to Orchha to pray. A large group of them broke out in a traditional song much to the delight of their fair skinned visitors.
Back to the cows. Our guide (Ki) has taught us a number of things about cows over the past week or so. First of all he taught us to always be on the lookout for "landmines" aka cow poop. Sharing the sidewalks with 300 million cows can quickly lead to some messy shoes if you're not careful. So far Beth and I have managed to sidestep them pretty good but there is potential disaster with almost every step.
He also often refers to it as "Holy Sh*t". Technically for a Hindu this is correct. The cow is holy and the sh*t is sh*t! Being that it's in good supply there are a number of practical uses for the stuff. It's used as fertilizer for the numerous fruits and vegetables that are grown. It is also dried in the sun and used as a "firewood" for cooking as well as heating, especially during the monsoon season. Lastly, he said it can be used as a type of mortar for the construction of walls and roofs. So there you go. Hopefully the next time you see a big patty you'll have a new appreciation and if you step in it feel free to go ahead and let out a good .................HOLY SH*T.
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| Our "bullet train" |
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| At the temple in Orchha |
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| Hindu women on a pilgrimage to the temple. They broke out in song for us shortly after this picture was made. I've added some additional pictures from around and inside the temple complex in Orchha below:        |
