Jaipur

Finally, we come to our last stop, Jaipur, known as the "pink city" in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Most of the chief sights in this city date from the 18th and 19th centuries, when a series of maharajas decided to showcase their wealth from mineral deposits and precious stones in the area. First is the Jantar Mantar, an unusual observatory built by a maharaja who was an amateur astronomer. Many of his devices are still accurate today.
The City Palace, pictured below, was home to Jaipur's rulers through Indian independence. The interior contains many opulent rooms like the one pictured here.
On the outskirts of Jaipur is the hilltop Amber Fort, which tourists approach by riding on elephants (yes, I did). The second shot is of members of my group on the way up.
The Palace of the Winds is a whimsical addition by a later ruler who designed it so the ladies of his harem could observe the street below without being seen themselves.
Finally, here is a traffic scene in Jaipur's central square, showing the diverse modes of transportation and the fact that traffic lanes are mere suggestions. As one driver told me, you need three things to drive in India: good horn, good brakes, and good luck!
I left Jaipur very reluctantly on February 25 to begin the long journey home, which took some 34 hours from the Jaipur hotel to the Delhi airport (5 hours drive with another 5 before my flight), then nonstop to Chicago (15 hours), plus a 4 hour layover and and 4 hour flight to LA and another hour before reaching my own house in LA. Fortunately I was able to sleep on the long flight (which I usually don't), but you'll understand why it took some two weeks to fully recover from my jet lag.

Agra and Taj Mahal

We finally get to the Taj Mahal, the most famous site in India. Located in Agra (the Mughal capital before Delhi), it is actually a tomb built by Emperor Shah Jahan for his favorite wife. Here is a view from the gateway, with the Taj surrounded by its four minarets. Next is a view showing the landscaped grounds in which it sits, then a closeup of the building from just outside, and a detailed shot with some of the intricate marble filigree work.
Nearby is the Agra Fort, which was the seat of government when it was the capital. Numerous monkeys live at the fort, seeking food from tourists, and some are not shy in front of cameras.

Delhi

In Delhi our smaller group stayed at the Oberoi Maidens Hotel, a grand old British hotel from the early 20th century with guards dressed like British beefeaters at Buckingham Palace. Our sightseeing in Delhi was jam packed, and I'll only hit the highlights.

The Jami Masjid is India's largest mosque, located in the center of Old Delhi.

The old city itself is a crowded maze of streets and shops, as you can see from the photo. We rode through those streets in rickshaws, which was quite a bumpy ride and a bit scary at times (no accidents, fortunately).
The Red Fort, pictured here from outside, was the government complex of the Mughal (Mogul) emperors in the 17th and 18th centuries. It contains numerous palaces and mosques, and was the center of government in north India under the British until they built New Delhi nearby (it is no longer a separate city, as the old and new parts are both now at the center of a sprawling metropolis).
The Rajghat, or Gandhi memorial, is a national pilgrimage site where Gandhi was cremated. There were numerous schoolchildren there at the time we visited.
Finally, I just had to take this photo of a plane appearing to hit the minaret of the Qutb Minar, a mosque and palace complex dating to the Delhi sultanate (12th century). It wasn't really close, of course.

Kerala lowlands and Kochi (Feb. 16-19)

Leaving Munnar, we descended to sea level on the western side of India in the state of Kerala. The climate here is even wetter and more humid than in Tamil Nadu. We spent two nights at a beautiful resort named Coconut Lagoon, which is accessible only by boat. Here is a view of part of the grounds. I had my second Ayurvedic massage here, with two young men working on my body at the same time!
In the morning we went bird watching before breakfast. My best shot from that trip is this heron, reflected in the water.



This part of Kerala is known for its waterways, and we spent a night on a houseboat (pictured here). Also shown is the dining area of the houseboat, with my boatmates Jeff, Roger, and Brian. The ride was a bit disappointing, as the boat tied up for the night well before dark and never got into the unpopulated backwater areas. But it was a nice change from the hotels we stayed in the rest of the trip.




















Leaving Coconut Lagoon, we drove to Kochi (Cochin), the chief city of Kerala. On the way, we happened upon a festival moving through the streets. These young boys were very anxious to have their pictures taken!

I would have loved to have more time in Kochi, a very vibrant and diverse city. This part of India has been open to the outside world for centuries, and only 60% of the population is Hindu. The rest are mostly Christian and Muslim, with some tracing their roots to Syrian Christians and Muslim Arabs who came more than 1,000 years ago. The language here, Malayalam, is a Dravidian language like Tamil but with more outside influences. There was also a Jewish community for many centuries, but most have now moved to Israel. Fewer than 50 remain, mostly elderly. I was able to go to the synagogue but could not go inside as it was closed. Here is a photo of the exterior. The surrounding area is commercialized for Jewish tourists, with names like "Synagogue Lane" and "Jew Town" emphasizing the historic connections.
On the morning of Feb. 20 some of us flew from Kochi to Delhi for the north India part of the tour, while others lingered in Kochi or flew home.

Munnar hill country (Feb. 14-15)

Leaving steamy Tamil Nadu, we crossed the border into the state of Kerala. The border is formed by the Western Ghats mountain range, which rises to 5,000 feet and was a summer refuge for the British in colonial times. Here is a view of our resort, Siena Villas, near the town of Munnar.
On one of the mountain roads, we saw this bus standing on its end and thought there had been a serious accident. It turned out they were filming a movie!























Munnar is the center of a tea-growing area. The tea plants grow on the hillsides, as shown in this photo with people harvesting leaves. We visited the Tea Museum, which shows the entire process of making tea from the harvested leaves. We also visited a spice plantation, where they grow numerous spices from peppers to cinnamon, vanilla, and cardamom.

Chola temples and Madurai (Feb. 11-13)

Proceeding south and west, we came to the Tanjore area, which contains the great Chola temples built in the later medieval period (10th to 12th century) when this area was the center of a large Hindu empire. Many of these temples are UN World Heritage sites (one member of our group has a goal of seeing as many of these sites as he possibly can, so we went to several of them). Here is the courtyard of the Brihadishvara Temple in Tanjore, and a photo of a couple of schoolgirls who were there on a field trip and posed for a photo.

Also in Tanjore, we visited the city palace, which contains a museum with many bronze statues of Hindu gods and goddesses, animals, and other mythic figures. Here is the palace courtyard and a sample of the statuary (the peacock is a common motif in Hindu culture).















Next stop was Madurai, perhaps the largest city you've never heard of (estimated population is 2.5 million). The chief attraction there is the Minakshi Temple complex, one of India's largest. Here is a model of the complex (we didn't visit all the buildings), and a view of one of the magnificent painted ceilings. There is much other amazing art in this temple.

Mamallapuram and Pondichery (Feb. 8 to 10)

Leaving Chennai, we traveled south along the Bay of Bengal to Mamallapuram. In the early medieval period, this was the capital of the Pallava dynasty, which built many impressive temples. The temple complex known as the Panch Rathas (five chariots) is an archeological site with several temples and other statutes (including a large elephant) that were carved by master stone cutters from large boulders already at the site. Here's a view of a portion of the complex.


Next, here's a view of some of the intricate carvings of Hindu gods and animals on the sides of the temples at Mamallapuram.









We spent two nights at a resort called Temple Bay, which reminded me of a resort in Hawaii. It seemed quite out of place in India. Our free day there was a good chance to get over any remaining jet lag from the long flights (23 hours from LA with a layover in Chicago). I also had my first Ayurvedic massage, a traditional Indian massage using oils applied all over the body (almost everywhere) and based on Hindu spiritual techniques. Very relaxing and almost erotic!
















Leaving Temple Bay, we traveled to Pondicherry, a former French colony that still has some French influence in its architecture and cuisine. This happened to be my birthday, which was known to the group leader because he had my passport info., so during lunch I was presented with a birthday cake. For the rest of the south India trip (9 more days) it became a running joke that any desserts, drinks, etc. were in celebration of my birthday.



Finally, after a long day of driving, we arrived at our next hotel. We were greeted there by this elephant, the first of many we met on this trip. Elephants are frequently used in India for festivals and all sorts of other purposes.

Chennai (Feb. 6 to 8)

My tour started in Chennai (formerly Madras), the capital of Tamil Nadu state in southern India.
We stayed at the Rain Tree Hotel, the first of many elegant hotels on this trip. Here is a view of the rooftop pool.

The language here is Tamil, a Dravidian language unrelated to Hindi and other languages of northern India. It has a rather sing-song quality to it, but the words are all unfamiliar to speakers of any Indo-European language. English is the common language that unites India, and is spoken more in Tamil Nadu than Hindi is. The Hindu religion, however, is the same as in the north.

At our first of many Hindu temples, we happened upon a procession in which the worshipers take a god out of the temple in a litter, to parade through the streets for a festival. The temple itself included elaborate statuary on the gate and other parts of the complex of buildings.

In Chennai we also saw the church of St. Thomas (Catholic), which is based on the legend that the apostle Thomas visited India shortly after the death of Jesus. In keeping with the Hindu custom of absorbing other faiths and gods into itself, Jesus is known here as "Guru Yesu."

We also visited the complex of government buildings of the former British fort, which now serves the Tamil Nadu state government.

Introduction

From February 4 to 25, 2010, I traveled to India with Toto Tours, a gay men's tour company based in Chicago. There were 14 of us on the South India portion of the tour (through Feb. 20), and 6 on the North India extension (Feb. 20 to 25).

I knew only 2 of my fellow travelers from previous trips with Toto, so part of the adventure was meeting new people, including 4 from Canada and 1 from Australia. My roommate, Jeff Port, was a doctor from Chicago, who happens to be a member of Ohr Chadash, the GLBT synagogue in Chicago whose rabbi (Larry Edwards) is the brother of my rabbi (Lisa Edwards). Small world! There were a total of 4 doctors in the group, which came in handy when some of us got diarrhea. But that didn't stop us from having a great time!

India is the most exotic destination I've traveled to, and the only one I would consider a "Third World" country with a non-Western culture. This of course required some adjustments. We didn't use public restrooms outside hotels or tourist sites, for example, because they usually consist of a hole in the ground which may or may not have a seat. Anyone who thinks the US has a lot of homeless people on the streets should compare it to India, where they are ubiquitous. Beggars and hawkers swarmed around us at every place we went, and we had to learn to say No.

But the poverty we all hear about is only part of the story. Even in smaller towns the stores are well stocked and people seem to have money to buy things. Most people looked reasonably well fed and clothed, except those who live on the streets. Some 90 percent of school age children are enrolled, and they wear uniforms so they are not distinguished by caste or by income level (we saw groups walking to and from school in almost every place we went at the right time of day). They get free lunch in public schools, which is an incentive for parents to send their children rather than keep them working to earn money for the family. There is plenty of industry, including high tech, which is helping to lift the standard of living all over the country. But most of the college students who waited on us in hotel restaurants still want to go the US or UK if they possibly can.

Although the exotic food was part of the adventure, we couldn't eat out much because the local food is not prepared for sensitive Western stomachs. Fresh fruit and veggies are especially problematic because the water is full of bacteria that the locals are accustomed to but we aren't. So we ate mostly in hotel restaurants or other places frequented by Westerners. At each new hotel, the first thing we checked was whether they had left us bottled water so we could take pills and brush our teeth. Most of what we get in the US as "Indian food" is from northern India, where they eat a lot of naan bread, tandoori, basmati rice, etc. Southern Indian food is more spicy, with different curries, tropical fruits (coconut, banana), and more fish.

The weather in southern India was hot and humid, but in the north (Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur) it was about the same as inland California (quite comfortable in February). Delhi is a huge city (about 12 million estimated), and has not built enough roads to handle all the cars that have been added to its traffic in the last decade or so. The traffic jams and smog make LA look like a village. They do have a metro, but it doesn't go to that many parts of the city.

In further posts, I'll include a summary of what we saw, and selected photos (I took over 500 in total).