Once again, I quote from our itinerary: "Agra - Ranthambhore: by road, 24okm / 5hr". After our experience of the Delhi-Agra highway we decided to ask our driver his opinion of how long it was going to take us. After a moments thinking he said: "9 hours". 9 hours!!! I'll leave you with that thought for now...
Once again, I was excited to be on our way and looking forward to our next destination - Ranthambhore National Park. Apparently it is where "you are most likely to spot a tiger on safari in India" (Lonely Planet) !
On the way we stopped off at Fatehpur Sikri, about 40km west of Agra. This nicely finished off our visits to the Mughal Emperor's monuments forts and palaces. Built by Emperor Akbar, this red sandstone complex is often referred to as a city, as it was for a short time during Akbar's reign the capital of the Empire. It was abandoned after his death as there was no natural water resources in the area and became known as a ghost city. There are two distinct complexes, one made of many halls and buildings and the other a large mosque. Our guide told us of how Akbar had 3 wives, one Islamic, one Christian and one Hindu and so he built their palaces according to their cultural style and so it's really interesting to see the different influences in the building work, by the shape of the arches and the decoration.
One other thing to mention is a footnote about the religion that Akbar created (mentioned in Day 3). In the Diwan-i-Khas - Hall of Private Audience - there is a fantastic pillar that has images of the five faiths of Din-i-Ilahi illustrated - Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Christianity and a religion called Zoroastrian. I don't know how many followers he had but not surprisingly the religion didn't survive after Akbar's death!
Back on the road we left Uttar Pradesh behind and entered into Rajasthan. Once we got onto the highway we thought the going would be plan sailing and couldn't work out why our driver thought it would take so long to get there. However there are two factors (well three really) that contribute to driving in India being so interesting:
1) the speed limits - the reason we could go fast in Uttar Pradesh is that there is no speed limit! Unfortunately in Rajasthan it is 80kmph which works out at just about 50mph. Still, to do 240 miles from Agra to Ranthambhore you would think that around 5hrs would be a fairly accurate estimation, plus an hour for lunch and an hour to look round Fatehpur Sikri, but that isn't taking into consideration factor 2;
2) with all the development going on in India at the moment, the roads are one big construction site. Unfortunately, instead of working on one part of the road at a time, they seem to be doing all the road at the same time - in 2km stretches (or that was what it seemed)! So our progress for most of the journey consisted of us driving as fast as was permitted on the regular stretch of highway and then 10-20kph on the bit that was being worked on. So you can imagine us relaxing, enjoying the scenery, maybe drifting off into a pleasant dream when suddenly the car flies off-road and we are jolted into a back-jarring ride over rubble and sand, avoiding the potholes and trying not to slip down the banks plus trying to look out for factor 3;
3) Trucks. The highways - mostly two lane affairs (one each way) - are the main means of transportation across the country and as a consequence are full of big, noisy, overloaded trucks which drive at less than 40kph. This means that if you want to get anywhere you have to overtake the trucks and so the whole journey is taken up with getting in front of the truck in front of you. The regular mode of driving on the highway is to tailgate the vehicle in front of you. This is because if you leave any kind of distance another vehicle will push in. The method of overtaking is to suddenly swerve out into the centre of the road - remember that a big truck is in front so you can see anything - and if nothing is coming then you race alongside the trucks for as long as possible and then pull in either when there is a space or when a truck coming in the opposite direction threatens to squash you. If, when you swerve out something is coming towards you, then you swerve back into your space and repeat for as long as it takes to overtake. And then you start all over again with the next truck ... and then the next ... which makes for a very long journey. Getting to Ranthambhore in 9 hours was going to actually be a feat of skill on the part of our driver!
We stopped for lunch at one of the little 'tourist' restaurants that just appeared on the side of the highway and relaxed for half an hour before getting back into the car for the next leg of the journey.
Showing posts with label fatehpur sikri. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fatehpur sikri. Show all posts
Monday, 30 April 2007
Day 3: Delhi --> Agra (our first road trip)
Quote from our itinerary: "After Breakfast start for Agra early in the morning. Reach and check in at hotel. Proceed for sight seeing." It sounded so simple, we were to travel on the Delhi - Agra highway, 221km in approximately 4 hours.
Our driver was to be with us for over a week and we soon learned to completely trust his judgement and observations. When we optimistically said that we looked forward to be in Agra in time for lunch, he gave us a knowing smile and set off down the road at breakneck speed, horn blaring, dodging in and out of the traffic. Apparently this is the normal way of driving and it takes years to perfect the skill!
We were on the road quite early, and even though it was a Monday morning, it didn't take long to reach the outskirts of Delhi and head for the highway. As we got out of the city the traffic didn't really get any quieter - in fact when we passed through towns it got a bit mad! Basically, the roads are usually two-wide, i.e. single lanes in each direction. However a whole number of vehicles travel along the roads so more often or not there are two or three vehicles to each single carriageway - or if there are motorbikes and bicycles it is however many will feasibly fit!!
Passing through the towns there are usually a couple of sets of cross roads with traffic lights, so when the traffic is stopped everyone tries to get to the front of the queue so it's a bit like the start of a grand prix when the lights change to green. The going is very noisy and stop-start, and you have to know where everyone is all of the time so as not to have accidents. We deduced that as many vehicles don't have wing mirrors on them (on account of them all driving with 1 inch separating them to the side and the front - no lie - I have the pictures (and sorry, they are still not ready)), this is the reason for all the horn blowing. They seem to honk the horn when they are going to overtake and while they overtake, but you can imagine when there are literally tens of vehicles all around you all honking it is difficult to decipher who and what is where and who is overtaking who ...
... Well I think you can guess what is coming ... we were driving up to a set of traffic lights, all around us were motorbikes, motorcycles, rickshaws, bull carts, trucks and a few other cars, when suddenly the lights changed and everyone screeched to a halt. Our driver put his foot on the brakes, however one of the motorcyclists either wasn't watching where he was going or his brakes weren't as good as ours and we heard this bang and almighty clatter! The lights changed and everyone started maneuvering around the fallen bike and the guy laying on the road who had crashed into us. A traffic policeman who just happened to be there waved us over to the side of the road and our driver got out.
In the short space of time of the accident and us pulling over, a crowd of about 50 strong had gathered and our driver disappeared into the middle of them. We sat in the car hoping that he wasn't going to get a) beaten up or b) arrested and wondered what might happen to us if the crowd got angry ... thankfully, about 10 mins later he emerged from the crowd, followed by a man held up by a couple of others limping down the road, jumped in the car and we were on our way! We never did find out what happened but we hope that the man is ok and by now our driver has had the dent in the car seen to. It was amazing really that we didn't witness any other serious accidents, although once we got on the highway we occasionally came across trucks lying on the side of the road having slipped down the bank or with a wheel off!
We stopped at a cute place at the side of the highway for lunch. It was the only building in view for miles and was obviously a popular place for tourists and travellers, being midway between Delhi and Agra. It was the first meal that we had eaten outside of the hotel so we were slightly wary, but it was delicious and sitting in the sunshine in the lovely gardens, listening to the birds singing all the traffic traumas were forgotten.
It was obvious that we weren't going to reach Agra until late afternoon so we tried to sit back and enjoy the rest of the drive. I was itching to see the Taj Mahal however we made an impromptu stop about 1okm outside of Agra. We were at Akbar's Mausoleum. Akbar was Shah Jahan's grandfather and ascended to the throne at the early age of 13 after the death of his father, Humayan. Akbar extended the Mughal Empire across India but he is also known for his contributions to the arts and his tolerance to other faiths. He founded his own religion called the Din-i-Ilahi, which means "Divine Faith" we learned more about this on our visit to Fatehpur Sikri on Day 5.
As the Mausoleum wasn't on our itinerary and we didn't have a guide we got out our trusty lonely planet and navigated ourselves around it as best as we could. The mausoleum is built of red sandstone decorated with white marble patterns inlaid into the stone. Walking through the huge gate with its three-storey minarets on each corner leads you to the gardens, and the mausoleum sits at the end of the walkway. It was a very pleasant stroll around the grounds, watching the monkeys and chipmunks playing in the afternoon sun.
Arriving at the Taj View Hotel, I managed to grab an hour by the pool to write some postcards and then looked out of the window at the Taj Mahal as the sun went down, excited that the next day I was finally going to see it!
Our driver was to be with us for over a week and we soon learned to completely trust his judgement and observations. When we optimistically said that we looked forward to be in Agra in time for lunch, he gave us a knowing smile and set off down the road at breakneck speed, horn blaring, dodging in and out of the traffic. Apparently this is the normal way of driving and it takes years to perfect the skill!
We were on the road quite early, and even though it was a Monday morning, it didn't take long to reach the outskirts of Delhi and head for the highway. As we got out of the city the traffic didn't really get any quieter - in fact when we passed through towns it got a bit mad! Basically, the roads are usually two-wide, i.e. single lanes in each direction. However a whole number of vehicles travel along the roads so more often or not there are two or three vehicles to each single carriageway - or if there are motorbikes and bicycles it is however many will feasibly fit!!
Passing through the towns there are usually a couple of sets of cross roads with traffic lights, so when the traffic is stopped everyone tries to get to the front of the queue so it's a bit like the start of a grand prix when the lights change to green. The going is very noisy and stop-start, and you have to know where everyone is all of the time so as not to have accidents. We deduced that as many vehicles don't have wing mirrors on them (on account of them all driving with 1 inch separating them to the side and the front - no lie - I have the pictures (and sorry, they are still not ready)), this is the reason for all the horn blowing. They seem to honk the horn when they are going to overtake and while they overtake, but you can imagine when there are literally tens of vehicles all around you all honking it is difficult to decipher who and what is where and who is overtaking who ...
... Well I think you can guess what is coming ... we were driving up to a set of traffic lights, all around us were motorbikes, motorcycles, rickshaws, bull carts, trucks and a few other cars, when suddenly the lights changed and everyone screeched to a halt. Our driver put his foot on the brakes, however one of the motorcyclists either wasn't watching where he was going or his brakes weren't as good as ours and we heard this bang and almighty clatter! The lights changed and everyone started maneuvering around the fallen bike and the guy laying on the road who had crashed into us. A traffic policeman who just happened to be there waved us over to the side of the road and our driver got out.
In the short space of time of the accident and us pulling over, a crowd of about 50 strong had gathered and our driver disappeared into the middle of them. We sat in the car hoping that he wasn't going to get a) beaten up or b) arrested and wondered what might happen to us if the crowd got angry ... thankfully, about 10 mins later he emerged from the crowd, followed by a man held up by a couple of others limping down the road, jumped in the car and we were on our way! We never did find out what happened but we hope that the man is ok and by now our driver has had the dent in the car seen to. It was amazing really that we didn't witness any other serious accidents, although once we got on the highway we occasionally came across trucks lying on the side of the road having slipped down the bank or with a wheel off!
We stopped at a cute place at the side of the highway for lunch. It was the only building in view for miles and was obviously a popular place for tourists and travellers, being midway between Delhi and Agra. It was the first meal that we had eaten outside of the hotel so we were slightly wary, but it was delicious and sitting in the sunshine in the lovely gardens, listening to the birds singing all the traffic traumas were forgotten.
It was obvious that we weren't going to reach Agra until late afternoon so we tried to sit back and enjoy the rest of the drive. I was itching to see the Taj Mahal however we made an impromptu stop about 1okm outside of Agra. We were at Akbar's Mausoleum. Akbar was Shah Jahan's grandfather and ascended to the throne at the early age of 13 after the death of his father, Humayan. Akbar extended the Mughal Empire across India but he is also known for his contributions to the arts and his tolerance to other faiths. He founded his own religion called the Din-i-Ilahi, which means "Divine Faith" we learned more about this on our visit to Fatehpur Sikri on Day 5.
As the Mausoleum wasn't on our itinerary and we didn't have a guide we got out our trusty lonely planet and navigated ourselves around it as best as we could. The mausoleum is built of red sandstone decorated with white marble patterns inlaid into the stone. Walking through the huge gate with its three-storey minarets on each corner leads you to the gardens, and the mausoleum sits at the end of the walkway. It was a very pleasant stroll around the grounds, watching the monkeys and chipmunks playing in the afternoon sun.
Arriving at the Taj View Hotel, I managed to grab an hour by the pool to write some postcards and then looked out of the window at the Taj Mahal as the sun went down, excited that the next day I was finally going to see it!
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