(title courtesy of C.A. Marchand)

I am pretty sure that no one would ever come to Agra except for the Taj Mahal. But I did not photograph the endless poverty and trash and dirt and yes, squalor. Nothing but nice things in this post.

A very long day. Eight hours in the car coming and going. Our schedule just never worked for an overnight in Agra to see the Taj at dawn. But the morning fog did lift for us to enjoy a bit of blue sky.

Agra was the stronghold of the Mughals who ruled India from here for 200 or so years.

They built a number of palaces and forts around Agra, but their home base and strongest was Fort Agra, here in the city. Some pictures. It is a pretty enlightened place with fountains, markets, mosques, audience halls, a courtyard to grow grapes to make wine and a harem.

The third Emperor, Shah Jahan, built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for and memorial to his beloved third wife. She died in her 14^th childbirth.

And although this is certainly an ego driven construction it is also a monument to love.

Reportedly a learned man, he believed that all religions should be respected equally and as an example married three wives, a Muslim, a Christian and a Hindu. He hired three Architects for the construction of the Taj Mahal. A Turkish one, expert in symmetry. A local one expert in Italian pietra dura (stone inlay). And a Persian one expert in the construction of gardens. The Taj is within a symmetrical garden and the building is perfectly symmetrical from four sides.

Some gates to the garden area. Two were used as a Mosque and a guest house respectively.

I try not to think that in many ways this place has become yet another tourist “been there seen that” check off site, because this is one of the greatest works of art ever constructed.  Of course it is a World Heritage site. The particular translucent marble changes colors with the ambient light, brilliant white in the sun but shades of yellow and gold in low light. Originally the extensive inlays of semi and precious stones would reflect colors and light. The entire interior is covered with carvings and inlay. Sorry, no pictures allowed inside – but you do see some of the inlay work here. Just imagine it on every surface.

One thing I would especially have liked to photograph were the large screens carved out of single pieces of marble.

Vandals and invaders have removed the gold inlays (used fires to melt it out). And the precious stones (chisels). But the building is still stunning.

An interesting sidelight. Shah Jahan was deposed by his son, the last Mughal Emperor, and imprisoned in this apartment in the Agra Fort for the last 8 years of his life. He could look out the window and down the river at the Taj. After his death one of his daughters arranged for him to be entombed with his wife in the Taj Mahal.

You probably saw this picture of our dinner venue over the lake in Udaipur.

This could be a beautiful place someday.

While here we hired a car and driver and toured out to two sites in Rajasthan.   We are only one state away from the Pakistan border and everyone here is Muslim. Security is persuasive and serious.

This is a dry, denuded, barren area. Almost all of the trees have long since been cut down. And it is depressing to see the continuing pressure on the land: many people collecting branches off the living trees, along with bushes, sticks, leaves, any kind of potential fuel.

We travelled part way on a new (6 years old) divided highway, which was a surprise. But mostly on the narrow, one car wide typical country roads.

We encountered dogs, cows, camels, wild pigs, monkeys, cars, four wheels, tuc-tucs, busses, bullock carts .. The fields are small and hand cultivated although we did see a few tractors.

It seems to me that the severe denudation of the land is from the dryness, the press for fuel and the intensive goat farming. The latter so destructive to foliage. (I did have some goat curry the other evening though and somewhat understand.)

Some roadside notes: Lots of brick construction (no wood), and here is a brick works.

Although the place is very desert like there are streams and they use bullock driven pumps to lift water into their fields. Here is a (poor) picture.

They also collect dung for fuel. They hand shape it into patties, which is disconcerting the first time you see it being done. They dry the patties in the sun and then store them near the house in a pile with a straw roof to keep it dry. Here is a boy with some wet ones.

One destination was to visit a hill fort of the Mewari. Built in the mid 1400’s. Up on a plateau, two and a half miles of walls and cliffs enclosed 32 square miles.

Also went to another mid 1400 site, a marble temple, very holy to the Jain religion. To enter had to take off shoes and leave behind any leather articles (cows are sacred), belts, wallets, whatever.

The roads were impossibly narrow through some villages, but that can be said for Italy and France too. But these villages are amazingly dirty. Buildings half constructed, buildings falling down, bad shops and eateries, cow poop, trash of all kinds, piles of rocks and all kinds of building materials, plain old dirt everywhere. To be fair though the amount of people poop is substantially down from what I remember from 30 years ago. But it is part of the mix.

600 million Indian people poop outside every day.

People are everywhere you look. Not crowds, just everywhere, doing some farm or other work. Or, inexplicably walking in very remote places, or sitting on a rock beside the road high on a hill, or a family camping in a field. The women wear very brightly colored dresses. They carry amazing loads on their heads. Water in metal containers, baskets of leaves and twigs, branches, baskets of gravel, bundles of straw …

A note on having and having not.

We talked with some people staying at the Oberoi.

I used to stay at the Taj and Oberoi hotels, venerable Indian hotel chains on business years ago. They were expensive then. They are breathtakingly expensive now. And today there are plenty of choices:   good local hotels and international chains. One night at either of the former in Udaipur, in one of the less expensive rooms will not leave you with little change from a thousand bucks. We are not staying there.

But that got us discussing.

India is poor. 20 % of the population of the country cannot make enough in a year and 50% of the population cannot make enough in a month to stay in one of these hotels.

Here is our hotel. Pretty, but only just comfortable.

But we have hot water, clean towels, a comfortable bed, aircon heat, a pool, very good restaurants. We climb up to the top of our hotel. On the rooftops surrounding us all manner of living is going on. One yard just off our room has chickens. A troop of monkeys is on the other side.

Two goats are on one rooftop. And, just across is a large operation drying dung patties. This is in the best part of town.

Everywhere we have been there are women who continuously sweep the gutters and edges of the street. With the poorest of brooms. Twig bundles. They sweep into piles and then bring along barrows and collect the piles. And the amount of litter and garbage and bad stuffthey collect  is incredible. I thought that they were the poorest of the poor. But then realized that they have jobs. The really poor are moving around with one piece of cloth around them and their belongings in a bundle.  Individuals and whole families.

This monumental amount of poverty especially with comparative (and real) wealth and luxury right along-side is very hard to reconcile. I could write more on this and perhaps will some later time.

Walked around the old town this morning and post here a collection of street scenes. (for anyone who has not seen enough of these)

We have flown southwest to Udaipur in the state of Rajasthan.   A city on two lakes.  Hotter and drier here.  This is a popular tourist destination because of the beautiful setting of the old city and the castle.  Here are some pictures around the lake area.

We spend much of today touring the Castle of the Mewar, an independent dynasty for over 1600 years.  This “new” castle was built in the mid 1500’s and expanded and continuously occupied until the 1930’s when it was divided into a museum, two hotels and a home for the current maharana, Arvind Singh.  He is still around and enjoys going to auto shows around the world to display samples from his extensive collection of antique automobiles.

Being an old Engineer I though that this little article in the living quarters was amazing:  an Italian built steam driven fan !!

Of course this is India and the town is rough.  Here are some street pictures.

Our hotel is across the lake from the castle. We have a very nice rooftop restaurant with a great view of the old city.  But it is a bit chilly at night. The hotel is a comfortable but very strange place, and I decided to add some pictures to this post.

Notice the door to our rooms where you lock a big padlock when you leave !!

Leaving Delhi today.  Posting some photos of yesterday when we were out almost all day.  Walked through some beautiful areas where the rich live.

Difficult to see their big houses though.

All behind walls with guarded entrances.  Often razorwire.

Went down to India gate now that the detritus from the big parade is starting to be cleaned up.

A flower shop outside the Christian graveyard.

Made our way to the Lodi gardens, a very nice park.

Not a lot is known about the Lodi.  When some Mughals sacked Delhi in the late 1400’s they killed the entire population.  And from this lesson the Lodi elected never to build a city, but left behind their impressive grave sites.  Who is buried here is unknown.  But the unique buildings remain.

Braved going to old Delhi again.  This time rode rickshaws around which was much better than walking.  Cathy wanted to go to a very large Mosque, and did.

Took some pictures of high tech wiring from the rickshaw.

Then to the spice market. Here are some pictures but I could not capture the exotic smells.

Out to the National Museum.  Very interesting place but also very foreign with plenty of statues and pictures of the stories of gods we do not know much about.  Ancient jewelry, weapons, coins, etc.

Took one picture.  This wonderful little dancing girl.  4700 years old. Cast in bronze using the lost wax process.  Technology and Art and the human sprit crossing time.

Went to some historic sites.  Notably the fortress/home of the last Mughal Emperors.  Pictures here.  One remarkable thing the pictures do not show is the extensive hydraulic engineering.  The fortress was on the river and they lifted a considerable amount of water fro domestic use, fountains, etc.  But also they flowed water like a stream through all of the buildings, for pleasure and to act as a natural air conditioning.

Interesting day too.  Rode in a taxi, a tuc tuc and a rickshaw.

We found that the area of our hotel is an oasis of calmness within an ocean of the real Delhi, and here are some pictures.  We missed a million good ones. But you will get the idea.

My wife, the lovey and talented Catherine Marchand has met me for a conjugal visit in India. Long travel days for both of us to get here. Met her in the airport in the middle of the night and made it to our hotel at about 3AM.

One of the excellent things about her visit is that she DOES need to stay in the Shangri-La.  And since she worked up all of our India itinerary, that is exactly what we are doing.

Obama arrived the next day after us. Do not know how much of this was covered in the USA, but this was a very big deal here. He came for their equivalent to our 4^th of July, “Republic Day”.  Was guest of honor at the big parade, but also had many meetings, speeches, etc. Tremendous press coverage here. Live on 5 TV channels and every kind of analysis covered extensively in the papers. All of this was right down the street, just a few blocks away. Consequently all of our neighborhood was blocked off to traffic, filled with armed guards, and all the shops closed.

We did not make the parade. Needed advance tickets, plus it was raining. But who knows how many people did. My guess was 10,000 seats and then standing areas.

Arriving here was not much of a time change for me, but Cathy has to go through a major jet lag shift (11 and a half hours) and is working on it. SO, for all of these reasons we basically just hung around the hotel for a day.  Not too much of a hardship with complementary food and drinks in the concierge lounge. (I wish she would travel with me more often).

And, for those of you who made it this far, here are some pictures of walking around this morning.    NEW DELHI STREETS:

Well, we are wrapping up here in the Philippines. The farewell dinners with the Nephews are over. Andrew is already back in Taiwan.

I thought that some comments on life on the road and living here in the neighborhood might be of interest.

My hotel was OK.   No need for me to stay in the Shangri-La Palace. This is a good local hotel. Not expensive so I can pay for one of their larger rooms.

Hardly any foreigners ever stay in a place like this so plenty of attention to see that you are well served.

Breakfast and internet are important to me.

This hotel said it had internet, but not really. Also said they were 20 minutes from the airport, but more like 45.

Anyway, a safe comfortable base is important because life on the road is like living in Disneyland, you live in your secure place and then twice or so a day go out for an adventure ride.

First thing in country I find a local laundry.

Clean laundry on the road feels like what wealth must feel like.

Ripping off tourists is a huge global industry and hotel laundry charges are one of the most egregious. In hotel costs are always 10 to 30 times the cost of a local laundry.

I had a very good market just next door. And a nearby 7-eleven.

Batteries, bottled water, mouthwash, you got it .. and soap. Even in expensive hotels soap is often poor. In local hotels forget it. Tiny little things that don`t suds up well and smell like fake flowers. A big bar of good soap is luxury. After an adventure ride getting the layer of dust, sweat and pollution off feels really great.

It is nice to be in an area where you can walk to some good restaurants. This is a very good one with a great name.

OF course as you know, I came here not only to spend time with some family but to “pig out” with the local world famous slow roasted pork. Here is a very good place, always crowded, just a block from my hotel.

And here is the one that although it is a chain we found the best.

But here was my favorite restaurant: Barbecue Boss. 5 dollar steaks and 6 dollar bottles of red Spanish wine. But you have to rest a day or so in-between steaks to let your jaw recover from chewing them.

That’s my neighborhood.

As a BONUS for anyone who read this far, here is a collage of little dining places I never made it to and do not suggest to you. They are everywhere. I actually shot all of these pictures in about 10 minutes.

We hired this fine vessel, with a crew of four and Andrew, Matt and I went out to a nearby island to snorkel.

We left the ocean side of Mactan island and went across to a marine nature preserve. It was a fine day and we were pretty exuberant to get out of the dirty air of the city.

The water was amazingly clean and clear and there were plenty of fish to view. There was coral but it was sad. The captain said it would take another 20 years for the coral to really return because before the tourist industry became important they used to dynamite the coral and sell it. Anyway overall it was a really fine day in the water.

The boat guys took us to this so so seafood restaurant where they tried to push us to tourist prices. Most of the tourists who come here are Korean of Japanese who are famous for paying any number named. But we negotiated a fairly priced and pretty good meal. These are pictures of the restaurant, the lovely view out the side, and a picture of our chefs working the wok.

We returned sunburned and happy.

Had to take this little motorcycle cab from the wharf up to the main road to catch a real taxi.

The big Festival

Well it was certainly big. I have never seen anything like it.

For me it started with a dance group at the breakfast buffet.

Near town a lot of families seemed to have come to the many little places where they were cooking meat on sticks on charcoal. The whole day the city smelled like roasting meat. It must be a specialty of the occasion.

Heading into town the people became more and more dense. I cannot imagine how many people were involved in this party but the entire city seemed to be wall to wall.

There was a parade. But it was impossible for me to see much of it. I was unable to connect up with my friends. The crowd was like a rugby scrum and as I finally made it up near the Mango area where I thought they would be I encountered literally thousands of totally drunken revelers singing dancing screaming … and throwing poster paint around. The last is part of this party tradition. I got pretty well decorated and hope my shirt can be saved.

Anyway, it became impossible to move in the crowd … and so I bailed. It took a very long time to escape the crowds and finding no taxis a very long walk home.

The day actually put me into some heavy cultural shock and I had to self medicate with some pork and red wine and a cigar. (I am dead serious saying this). I kept my paint splattered shirt on which the people in the hotel and restaurant seemed to think was great.

January 16

I think that I have already seen enough of this city to last a lifetime.   I am told that the islands of the Philippines are truly spectacular. But Cebu, their second largest city would be rated terrible by most Americans.

These are really nice people. They treat me and seemingly one another very kindly. They are a laughing singing people (known to be the best performers in Asia). I see families literally sitting in dirt with nothing but a few packs and laughing together and enjoying their children.

But their living conditions are very bad.

My nephew Michael took me to a truly beautiful resort out on the ocean side of Mactan island (sorry, forgot camera). And I have found two areas of new investment, nice “modern city”, both of them  a few blocks square. Isolated in a sea of poverty.

Some other parts of the city are OK.

Just a typical 3^rd world country trapped in the vicious cycle of low investment=low productivity=low wealth creation=poor conditions=low investment.

I did not try to point my cell phone camera at people in desperate conditions. There are plenty of them here. But here are some street scenes to give you an idea.

The traffic is horrific. There are strange vehicles like Jeepney busses and motorcycle sidecar cabs. It is very dirty and polluted. There are usually no sidewalks adding to the traffic chaos.

You see everything on the street. Haircuts, pedicures, cooking, washing, grooming. Armed guards with pistols and often sawed off shotguns are at the entrances of any significant buildings. A significant portion of the population is constantly involved in vehicle maintenance.

The few cultural sites I have been able to track down (almost no street signs) are in terrible condition.

And it is hard to stick the camera inside places, but here are a few.

THERE IS A BIG FESTIVAL COMING. Everyone is pretty worked up with anticipation about this. Some set up is already underway .. and here are a few photos. I will try to send more later.