Thanks to (yet more) Public Holidays at the beginning of October (for Gandhi's birthday and another Hindu festival), we spent five days travelling around central India, visiting sites which are tricky to get to from Mumbai in a single weekend. Our trip was one of two contrasting halves; we started with two nights staying in a converted Maharaja's palace and visiting a fort and some opulent palaces (in various stages of decay), following by two nights in a village homestay then in the chaos of the heart of Hinduism, Varanasi. My account of the second stage of this holiday will follow in a future blog post...
We started our tour by flying to Agra and driving to Fatehpur Sikri, an ancient city built by Akbar the Great and the headquarters of the Mughal empire for a few years in the 16th century. Long since abandoned, the buildings of the city are still in mint condition and are justifiably a World Heritage sight, including several palaces (one for each of Akbar's wives, one Hindu, one Christian and one Muslim), a mosque and magnificent fortified walls.
Unfortunately the site's proximity to Agra means that it is full of touts and, although we got a guide, I was not convinced by his authenticity. There were lots of scraggly looking children selling postcards and our guide kept taking us to makeshift stalls to buy tourist tat ("it is my brother's, he is a fine craftsman...") which was rather wearing, but it was worth the effort to see this city. The main courtyard was a no shoe zone which would have been fine except for the searing heat of the floor. I spent most of the time running around on my tiptoes!
We started our tour by flying to Agra and driving to Fatehpur Sikri, an ancient city built by Akbar the Great and the headquarters of the Mughal empire for a few years in the 16th century. Long since abandoned, the buildings of the city are still in mint condition and are justifiably a World Heritage sight, including several palaces (one for each of Akbar's wives, one Hindu, one Christian and one Muslim), a mosque and magnificent fortified walls.
Unfortunately the site's proximity to Agra means that it is full of touts and, although we got a guide, I was not convinced by his authenticity. There were lots of scraggly looking children selling postcards and our guide kept taking us to makeshift stalls to buy tourist tat ("it is my brother's, he is a fine craftsman...") which was rather wearing, but it was worth the effort to see this city. The main courtyard was a no shoe zone which would have been fine except for the searing heat of the floor. I spent most of the time running around on my tiptoes!
The fortified walls, apparently designed for trapping tourists until they had purchased some of the local goods
Inside the tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti, where visitors tie threads around the windows and each knot in the string is said to represent one wish, with a maximum of three. Akbar came to this saint four centuries ago to wish for a son, which came true, so this is a sight of pilgrimage for childless women!
One of the gates at Fatehpur - the people below it give an idea of scale
Another impressive gate
In Sikri - the palace of the Christian wife, which was remarkably church-like inside
Our next stop was the city of Gwalior where we treated ourselves to a two night stay at the Usha Kiran Palace, a Taj Hotel converted from a Maharaja's palace. Well, I say palace, it was actually built as a guest house for the visit of King George V for his short visit to Gwalior as part of a tour of India (!) and is now a beautiful hotel which has retained most of its old features. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay, including a great pool and spa, with the only let down that the hotel appeared not to have an alcohol licence, despite lots of appealing pictures of the old style bar on the website. Never mind - we took the news very stoically.
Hotel lamp - we want to buy lamps like this but still haven't been able to find them for sale anywhere
Outside the main entrance to the hotel, with the traditional bowl of flowers floating on water
Stone carved screens at the front of the hotel, a classic features of palaces and forts in this region of India.
Gwalior is dominated by its fort which dates from the 15th century and is 3km long. Most of the inside of the fort is occupied by a prestigious private school, but there is an impressive palace, the Man Singh Palace, and several temples (Hindu and Sikh) to explore, as well as some huge Jain stone carvings. The palace was well preserved but full of bats (they are very smelly) and we heard stories about the lives of the past Kings from our guide around the palace. Although their lives sounded opulent, they did seem to have a very high chance of being poisoned at a young age which was a little unfortunate.
Gwalior Fort - It was a hot climb to the top
Posing inside the Man Singh Palace
Bats. Urgh.
A temple which was discovered and propped up by the British to stop it collapsing. We had a random experience here when a fleet of cars drew up and a family came to look around the temple guarded by soldiers with rifles looking very fierce. The car had a 3 star number plate which means that someone in the party was important (probably a politician or someone senior in the army).
Jain carvings. Phil was a bit dazed by this stage as he had accidentally walked into a bell hanging up in front of a temple, much to the amusement of a passing motorist.
Next we visited the museum inside the Jai Vilas Palace, the home of the Scindia family, including the local Maharaja. This was built in the 1874 at a cost equivalent to $200m today, and it was clear that no expense was spared. 40 out of the palace's 400 plus rooms were open and the museum provided an insight into another world; the antithesis to the lives of the vast majority of Indians. The huge hall has two 3.5 tonne chandeliers with 250 lightbulbs, and it's rumoured that eight elephants were hung from the ceiling to check that it could hold the weight of the light fittings. The current and late Maharajas are / were both local MPs and educated (expensively) in the UK before returning to India.
The main palace courtyard
The chandeliers which must be a killer to polish
The banqueting hall including a miniature train track for a silver train which moves round the table transporting goblets of fine liquor
Our next stop after Gwalior was Orchha which we travelling to via train to Jhansi, a nearby town, then autorickshaw to Orchha. Rather disturbingly, we saw an autorickshaw which had crashed on our route with a body laid out next to it. We were told that this was a local man who was known was drinking then driving and had sadly expired. Eek.
Orchha is a small town (8000 people) with more than its far share of spectacular, though crumbling, palaces and temples. After a bite of lunch (a report on the village home stay will come in the next blog post...) we spent the afternoon wondering around these sites marveling at the quality and scale of the ruins (and also lack of health and safety, you could easily fall off ledges if you weren't paying attention). We made it through unscathed though and I saw my first camel stable and successful avoided the resident monkeys.
Relaxing on the train from Gwalior to Jhansi
One of the three main palaces of Orchha
An ancient camel stable - not still in use
Clambering around the palace walls
A fine wall painting of which there were many
It was hot, very hot, and I was seeking shade at every opportunity (and getting quite grumpy when asked to pose for photos in the sun)
Cenotaphs for the local royal family
Wall paintings in a local temple. Spot the British soldiers glugging wine!
On top of the temple where we had managed to pick up yet another friendly guide
I wasn't convinced about the structural integrity of these steps, and didn't stay up there very long!
Lovely. Hope you enjoyed a lot in Fatehpur Sikri, Gwalior. Check out all good hotels in Gwalior also.
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