10th – 13th of November – Agra, Delhi and home

After the last morning drive and breakfast back at the resort, we packed our bags, piled into 4 cars and drove to Katni and the train station there to take a sleeper train to Agra. The drive there we not much different that the other drives between national parks; plenty of open space and nature, and a couple of bird sightings if you paid attention. We also got to stop at a place where there were a row of large trees where we could get a clear view of a large group of bats sleeping.

Katni turned out to be a busy city but narrow roads. It wouldn’t have been too bad had it not been due to holidays which resulted in clogged roads and difficulties moving through traffic. We got to the station first, and despite the 4 cars were like stuck together for the entire drive, due to the traffic in Katni it took more than 10 minutes before the next showed up.

We had maybe 1½ hours at the station before our train would arrive. We had already been warned that trains in India can be notoriously late – several hours wasn’t unheard of. And even if it was on time departing lots of things could happen along the way so you would never really know until you arrived at your destination. It turned out that our train was delayed – but only by 10-15 minutes. The trains here are long, so getting ourselves positioned on the platform to be able to enter our carriage we had to go quite far – but as soon as we left the main building things were much less crowded so the situation improved. The general chaos on the platform was not nearly as bad as I had feared. The train rolled into the station. And rolled. And rolled. We were towards the rear of the train so we got to see all the cheap cabins/carriages pass by us (some of them were horribly crowded and made you feel claustrophobic just looking at them) before ours stopped almost right where we were standing. With a good amount of slightly chaotic rushing and piling our bags and ourselves into the train, we were ready to head north towards Agra.

We were placed in a sleeper carriage – a luxurious one, even, as it had AC and you were able to have a bit of privacy behind your curtain and it didn’t feel crowded. I ended up in a bed along one side (opposite a group of 4 beds in a cabin like you’d normally see in a sleeper train) which was definitely made for Indians. It was short enough that I had my feet out the side of the bed but just wide enough that I could be there while also having my camera bag there (it had been recommended to keep all valuables with us in the bed). Despite the not quite comfortable conditions I ended up getting a good night’s sleep on the ride, as opposed to others in the group who apparently struggled to get any sleep at all.

 

 Detailing at the Red Fort.

 

 

Arriving in Agra – on time, even – we left for the hotel where we had breakfast and deposited our bags before spending the day touring the Red Fort and Taj Mahal. Not much had changed since my last visit there but it was nice getting a refresher. Having left most of my camera equipment back at the hotel and only bringing my wide lens (recommended doing this due to security at the locations) I realized, standing at Taj Mahal, that the river passing by had amazing bird life going on, and plenty of birds that we hadn’t seen yet on the trip. Had to remind myself we were there for the buildings, not the wildlife.

 

 

We spent the night in Agra before getting on a private bus that took us back to Delhi and our hotel. Getting back I was reminded of how far away from cities we had been in the past days and weeks as the traffic chaos that met us reaching Delhi was nothing like what we had seen at all since we left almost 2 weeks ago. Goodbye quiet – hello millions of people trying to get where they need to be, dust and pollution. Returning to the hotel we had a few hours before going out for dinner and some of us ended up on the roof where we had a spectacular view of the thousands of kites in Delhi flying around and coming in to roost for the night. It was crazy seeing so many of this beautiful bird at the same time and a great end to the trip. That night I had a pickup for the airport and with an on-time departure I was homebound, giving enough time to watch Bullet Train and Nope, and still have time for a needed nap. I even had significantly more time during the layover than on the trip out resulting in far less stress.

 

Black kite.

 

And with that another amazing trip was concluded. A not so small part of the amazingness was due to the great people I traveled with. Big thanks to our guide Krishna Kumar who at all times did his utmost to get us to see as much as possible, without losing his constant high spirits. Big thanks to Phill, Kristi, Derek, Tim & Tracy, Sharon & Ian, Annette & Alan, Bev & Rod, Pam & Margaret and David & Heather for being a great group of people to travel with. I hope you had just as much fun as I did and that we may one day meet again.

Full album can be seen here.

24th – New Delhi Airport, aka I Don’t Give A Shit Airport

Arriving at the airport in the early morning you need to get past the guards at the entrance; showing your passport and tickets are enough. One in the group got a bit ahead of us and went through without any problems. When the rest of us showed up the guard looked at us and began waving us away – apparently he wanted us to go to one of the other doors to get checked there instead. On the way over there looking back you could see him letting single passengers in at a time, apparently a large group (of 9) was too much work. His colleague at the other door also seemed perplexed why he hadn’t let us in.

We checked in as a group but had to show documents individually. I asked nicely (despite it being early and only after 2 hours of sleep I can be nice) if it was possible to move/upgrade me to a seat at an emergency exit. She looked up and looked at me as if I had asked her to give me upgrades to 1^st class for all future flights, scoffed loudly and went back to work completely ignoring me from then on. Nice.

We were given name tags for our carry-on luggage, apparently as to confirm that the check-in counter had approved them as carry-ons. The security check went without a hitch, being early there weren’t too many people around. I found my bag lying ready for me after I came through the detector and they confirmed I could take it. We wandered the airport and basically just tried to kill time while waiting for boarding to start.

Entering the plane the security guy flipped when he saw me. Apparently the security check should have given me a stamp of some kind on that luggage tag, but because they seemed to have missed it I must have been smuggling everything from drugs to the entire Taj Mahal and half their nuclear arsenal with me on board the plane. He took me aside, let others on, and asked me to show him the contents. He was a very unhappy Indian guard, but he let me go at last. I had barely gotten on board the plane together with one of the others from the group before they started closing the doors. I hurried to my spot, found it in the middle of everything, but being the last one to enter I just grabbed to two seats at the window next to it instead – the plane had plenty of free seats so you were able to move around and claim different – better – seats if you were fast.

The rest of the trip home was fine. Well, almost. I met a very large hairy Indian guy on the plane. And completely unrelated; a very large hairy Indian guy learned he had to remember to lock the lavatory door when doing his business on the plane. We had a couple of hours in Istanbul airport which were spent on sitting in a café and getting something to drink and eat, and the flight from there was very uneventful. The moment we left India things went much more smoothly. And coming back to Copenhagen everyone got their bags. Success!

Once again big thanks to Susanne, Bo (again), Per (again, and have a great trip around India and Nepal!), Steffen, Christina, Mads, Thomas, Lars, Tina and Annika for being such an outstanding group on this trip. You guys are amazing – and after my recent realization that means a lot to me. I hope we will meet again sometime, that would be awesome!

22nd – Dust and noise

We were picked up at the hotel at 0500 as planned and as opposed to when flying to Leh we had no problems what so ever checking in our luggage and getting through security. This time we checked in as a group instead of separately as before which seems to have had made a difference – presenting the poor attendants with 11 large dusty bags it seemed as if they just wanted to get rid of us as quickly as possible.

Arriving in Delhi our pickup hadn’t arrived yet but after just half an hour’s wait he finally showed up and brought us to the hotel. The traffic was heavy, slow and noisy – we were obviously far away from the serenity of the mountains and back in the big city!

After a short break we took some tuk-tuks to the Red Fort where we had a walk-around before taking a route through the old part of Delhi, dictated by one’s Lonely Planet guide book. The tour was actually quite interesting and we saw parts that we might not otherwise have seen when walking around in the nicer parts of the city. Among other things we came by a Sikh temple where we got a tour for free for almost an hour. It was unexpected and very interesting seeing the temple from the inside during prayers/service. Very beautiful.

For dinner we ended up in a mogul restaurant which made some delicious food. While not spicy in Indian terms it did have a lovely zing to it that never was too much. Unfortunately my burnt lips were of another opinion, they are still very sore. My face feels OK, now, but due to all the burnt skin that’s peeling off across my face I look like I would be the perfect extra for a zombie movie.

Back at the hotel we had a small drink on the rooftop bar before going back to our rooms. Tomorrow will also be an early morning as we will be picked up at 0500 to be able to get to the train station in time to have enough time in Agra and Taj Mahal.

Walking inside the Red Fort you realize it is quite large.

Very large!

Seeing a Sikh service.

Serious business!

9th-10th – Departure and arrival in India

We met up at Copenhagen airport in the morning with the group before checking in. I had met both our tour leader (Bo) and one of the other participants before; when climbing Ararat an Elbrus, respectively.

Checking in was a breeze, boarding went without a hitch and we were soon on our way to New Delhi via Istanbul. We flew with Turkish Airlines which gave me reason to worry as they had managed to lose 2 of 14’s luggage when going to Ararat, and it didn’t help that I had heard similar – and worse – stories about them from others, too.

Anyway, off we went to Istanbul where we had a 4 hour layover. We found a café pulled a bit back from the main area of the airport which meant that our drink break was a relaxing and calm one. We continued to New Delhi where we arrived according to schedule at 0430 in the morning. To my surprise – and relief – we all received our bags. Success!

We were picked up by a local contact and after a short drive we arrived at the hotel. We were checked in and had a couple of hours of rest before breakfast and leaving for at city tour at 1100.

Luckily the bus we drove in had AC; the temperature was, as we found out later, up and reaching 40°C with high humidity. That was fun when walking around. The tour brought us to the Qutab Complex, a ruin of a Buddhist temple with a largest stone tower (Qutab Minar) in India which is 72,5m tall, a botanical garden (Lodhi Garden), India Gate and the center of the city. Our lunch was had at a high-end restaurant in the embassy district. The food was great but it took the waiters 3 tries to get the bills correct (and the last attempt they relied on manual corrections with a pen to make it fit).

As the hotel was located close to the airport it meant that it was a bit away from anything interesting in the city so that meant when coming back in the evening from the tour we had our dinner at the hotel. Early departure tomorrow at 0415!

Qutab Minar.

A temple located in Lodhi Garden.

India Gate.