Feb 28, 2015, Jaipur, India

David took a balloon ride over the city.  I am glad I didn't go because it seemed they did not go over the pink Old city. But everyone had a lot of fun.  

Dev took us for a walk in the park across from the hotel.  There were lots of men walking for exercise around this nice grassy park.  Dev pointed out the nice neighborhood and the gyms in the area where many people work out.  We saw a potter camped out with his finished pots, his manual wheel, and small kiln on a corner street.  We stopped into a sweet shop just opening its doors.  The shopkeeper gave us samples.  He says he has the finest sweets, made from cows' milk in the surrounding areas.  He has several families who work for him.

The potter

Jaipur sweet shop

City palace, Jaipur

The City Palace has an array of textiles, arms, carpets, paintings and manuscripts.  There is a handicraft building with chosen artisans where we shopped.  I bought silver earrings with mysic topaz stones.

We were very charming

The Maharajah's solar clock, showing about noon, at Jantar Mantar

another type of sundial he invented

Evening entertainment in front of Albert Hall.  Dev stopped the bus so we could watch for awhile.

Our group at dinner

dancer after dinner

    

Puppet show after dinner.

Dev said that these performers are part of the snake charming community.

We also saw some small children as we got off the bus who were with their mother and performed acrobatics for us.  They looked very poor because their clothes were almost rags, their hair was dirty and unkempt, and the props they used were falling apart.  Dev said they were members of a group of people who were nomads or like gypsys.  He gave money to these people because they performed.  He did not give money to beggars.

Feb 27, 2015, Friday, Jaipur, India

This morning we were to take a walk around Delhi city between the India Gate and the President's Palace to see the gardens and this area similar in plan to the White House and the grounds in grandeur.  

Our plans were waylaid when the bus was prevented from going too far.  Dev quickly hired tuk tuks for us all to take us to the India Gate.  We walked around this and then started walking to the Palace.  Half way there we were told we coulnd't go because of security.  Standing here, I took a movie looking between the India gate and the palace, equidistance apart.  They were barely visible to us.  This shows the severity of the smog in this city.  

This time our tuk tuks had to find the bus. Ours of course wanted to be there first, so it passed all the others who knew where we were going.  We ended up circling the round-about a couple times and finally found everyone.  It doesn't seem to matter that the bicycle rickshaw, tuk tuk, taxi, or bus is already paid and has really no incentive to rush.  They all want to win!  I eventually got used to this style of driving and learned to close my eyes when heading straight on to traffic, and imminent crash. This was also the day we did a Metro rail ride & getting a firsthand experience of the most preferred mode of transport in the city of Delhi.

In the afternoon we flew to Jaipur and checked into our hotel, The Ramada Hotel.

Jaipur airport

Rhesus monkey who greeted us

Feb 26, 2015, Thursday, New Delhi, India

After breakfast, we walked to the beautiful white marble Sikh temple.  

We all had to wear a head scarf and only bare feet.  There were pools of water at the foot of the stairs for you to wash your feet, and a huge pool to the right where you could bathe, I guess, although no one was doing it.  Inside was a raised area with something large covered by a cloth and a man sitting behind it.  He is the keeper of the book.  There were TV sets all around with teachings displayed in various languages.  Three musians played music and sang.  The pillars and ceiling were covered in gold leaf.  A huge crystal chandelier was over the big book.  Sikhs do not have a clergy, just these teachings.  there are five things a Sikh has to have.  A headress/turban, a dagger, long hair, certain pants, and a metal bracelet. This will signify that you are a Sikh.  They believe in welcoming everyone, young, old, rich, poor, etc.

A Sikh temple will always have a kitchen.  We went to this huge room and sat among other volunteers and made chapatis.  We rolled the dough into rounds.  Someone came to get them and gave them to men who were cooking them on a huge charcoal grated fire.  The cooked ones were put in huge bowls the size of a sofa chair.  Someone was stirring a cauldron of lentils and vegetables.  Other cauldrons held rice.  The meal would be served in an hour or so.  The temple feeds 10,000 meals per day and more on the weekends and maybe 50,000 on holidays.  The kitchen is staffed by volunteers like us, continually circulating into the area.  

inside the kitchen

Entrance to Sikh temple

Delhi is part old, part new.  Our hotel is in the new area with tree lined avenues and street grid in contrast to the old alleyways part of the city.  When we returned to the hotel we got on the bus to visit the symbol of Delhi, a World Heritage Site called Qutab Minar.   It is a complex of Indo-Islamic architecture topped by a 234 foot high tower.  There was another one just started but not finished.  there is also a tall iron pole made from about 500 to 600 AD.  Indians are known for knowing how to use metal. 

The metal spire

Qutab Minar

details in the Minar

a failed minar

a tomb in Qutab Minar

We had lunch at Lazeez Affaire restaurant.  It was advertised as Chinese, but I hardly recognized it at all as any cuisine I ever came across.  But we all enjoyed it.

Our hour long bus rides to and fro were mostly on the Shanti Path which is a beautiful wide boulevard with lawns, flowers and trees on the middle strip, the sides of the road, and large parks in the round about areas.  Even though Delhi is the most polluted city in the world, they are making efforts to plant trees and greenery.  You do see trees and grass wherever possible, it is just that the leaves are dusty.  Shanti Path is where all the embassies are located.  

We also passed by a very exclusive housing area where a small condo/apartment style unit would be about $300,000.  However, just across the corner is the beginning of a slum area.  50% of the 20,000,000 people of Delhi live in slums.

After we got back we had to pack our bags because they are going on the bus to Jaipur.  But we are taking a plane.  This bus will be our bus in Jaipur and also transportation to other places.  So we will all have the same clothes on tonight and tomorrow.

David and I had dinner at a nearby Kwality Restaurant.  He remembers eating at one in Baroda.

February 25, 2015, Wednesday, New Delhi, India

The Park Hotel, New Delhi, India

Wednesday after a hearty buffet breakfast at the hotel, we met to bus to the Jama Masjid Mosque.  It is the largest mosque in India, the Friday mosque, constructed by Shah Jahan about 1638.  We took off our shoes inside.  There was a large area filled with bird seed and flocks of pidgeons would gather until children would delight in running among them and they would fly away.

Jama Masjid mosque

We took a rickshaw ride through the Chandni Chowk Bazaar.  The streets kept getting narrower and narrower.  The electric lines were a tangle and filled the skyline there were so many.  Each store had about 50 sq ft. and someone was always in the doorway talking on the phone and others watching the people passing by.  There were actual customers.  I don't know how anyone could tell what to buy.  there would be shop after shop after shop of colorful saris, or a whole street of bracelets.  I was amazed that our rickshaw was able to get through the alleys and allow for another rickshaw in the opposite direction as well as pedestrian shoppers and maybe a scooter or two.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable ride, a delight to all the senses.  

Bicycle rickshaw ride

Chandni Chowk Bazaar.  Look at the electricity system. 

Next we visited Raj Ghat, the beautiful garden area where Ghandi was cremated.  There is an eternal flame and a raised walkway all around.  Others were also honored there in this large grassy lawn with flowers and plants.  It was very peaceful, simple, and beautiful.

Raj Ghat, with eternal flame of Ghandi

We walked from our hotel through the Connaught Place area which has exclusive stores and restaurants.  The restaurant was very nice.  they served an Indian meal with many courses, and we did not have to make any decisions about what to order.  Everything was delicious.  Several people had never eaten Indian food before it seemed.

There are pidgeons roosting on the ledge of our hotel room window.  We can hear and see fireworks in the distance, sometimes two or three displays.  This is wedding season.  We saw a horse carriage used for the man to arrive at the wedding, but it was just crossing the road.

Feb 24, Tuesday, Delhi, India, Park Hotel

Today the rest of our tour companions are arriving.  There will be 16 people in all.  We started out from the Suryaa Hotel with a tour of the Red Fort and the Brila Temple on our way to the Park Hotel in the Connaught area.  The drive through Delhi was just as advertised. See rules of the road below.

Highway code of India:

1. Traffic is on a caste system.  In order of descending precedence, give right of way to: cows, elephants, camels, buffalo, pigs, goats, dogs, heavy trucks, buses, official cars, pedal rickshaws, private cars, morocycles, scooters, auto-richshaws, handcarts and last, pedestrians.

2. To slow is to falter, to brake is to fail, to stop is defeat.  This is the Indian driver's mantra.

3. The use of the horn:  short blasts indicate supremacy.  Long blasts denote desperation, ie. "I am going too fast to stop".  Single blast (casual) means "I have seen someone out of India's 1 billion whom I recognize", or "I have not blown my horn for several minutes."

4. Trucks and Buses:  all horn signals have the same meaning, "I have a weight of 12.5 tons and have no intention of stopping, even if I could."

5. All maneuvers, use of horn and eveasive action shall be left until the last possible moment.

6. Traffic entering a road from the left has priority.  So does traffic from the right and also traffic in the middle.  All India traffic at all times shall occupy the center of the road.

7. Overtaking is mandatory.  Ocertaking should only be undertaken in suitable conditions, such as in the face of oncoming traffic, on blind corners.  No more than wo inches should be allowed between your vehicle and the one you are passing.  One inch in the case of bicycles or pedestrians.

8. Nirvana may be obtained through a head on crash.

9. Reversing.  No driver in India likes to use this gear.

We met Dev after we arrived at the Park Hotel.  Our room is quite nice and modern. We joined 6 others in our group at a nearby Indian restaurant.  It was very dark so it was hard to read the menu or figure out what was offered.  Whatever I had, I am still alive.  I was worried about having the raita, but all is well.  Our friends Russi and Chandrabala from Huntington Beach recommended chewing a pepto bismol tablet before a meal when in India.  It seems to work.

Red Fort in Delhi

Brila temple

Brila temple

Street scene, Delhi

This is where you get chicken in India

Doorman at Park Hotel

Road work in Delhi

This is a butcher shop

Street food, Delhi

Feb 23, Monday, Delhi, India, Suryaa Hotel, New Friends Colony

Delhi is colorful, a cacauphony of sounds, and full of unrecognizable smells.  We are in for a blast of an experience.

As you can see, it is also very smoggy, the streets are impossibly crowded with bullocks, busses, cars, trucks, tuk tuks, bicycle rickshaws, pedestrians, people in every shop and corner on the streets, and most of all, motorcycles.

From hotel room

Beautiful lobby of hotel in Delhi, Suryaa

We arrived in Delhi around 3:00pm and met Gene and Abe who are on our tour.  We were met after customs by an OAT representative who was also meeting others for a group starting a day earlier than ours.  We booked the Suryaa Hotel, thinking that was going to be our hotel in Dellhi, but the other group went there.  We are at the Park.  So we stay one night at the Suryaa, an hour cab ride through S. Delhi.  The air is foggy/smoggy so the visibility isn't that good.  The Suryaa hotel is very nice.  We had a very nice room and ate at the restaurant at the top, which served Asian food.  They had a special menu for Chinese New Year, the year of the ox.  

I must mention that we are both reading a book called "Enjoying India, the Essential Handbook".  One of the things mentioned was the love of Indian people for Cricket.  In the airport in Joburg the restaurant TV had the highlights of the recent S. Africa vs. India cricket game.  And India won!  We got some basic information about how the game is played from some British photographers sitting nearby. They had been in Africa filming the carmen breasted roller for a 10 min. bit on BBC TV.  Now we have a topic of discussion with Indians.   The World Cup of Cricket is playing now in Australia, until about March 23, and it looks like India may have a chance, although they say Australia is the best team.

Streets of Delhi.

Feb 22, Sunday, Travel from Kasane, Botswana to New Delhi, India

Thompson gave us our wakeup call at 6:30 - ish.  The staff at Bakwena lodge gave us a song send-off which made me teary eyed.  I didn't want to stay longer, but I hated to leave.

Thompson, the border magician, got our passports stamped at the Botswana customs office by bypassing the huge line from a tour bus from Denmark.  Next stop, entering Zimbabwe, he also must have known someone because we were out of there before the crowds.  We just changed busses rather than have to drive the bus from Botsawana into Zimbabwe which is another stack of paperwork.

We never really did anything in Zambia, we were just passing through.  But I have my passport stamped and even a Visa from Zambia.

We stopped off at the Sprayview Hotel in Vic Falls and met up with some other OAT travelers who also come to Vic Falls, maybe on a different itinerary.  One of the couples, we were told, were going to keep traveling and not get home until July 8th!  Well we were too!  They are on our ship!  We didn't get to meet them because they were busy with activities.  It seems they may also be taking an OAT India trip as well, however they will be following us and not in our group, unfortunately.  We will be anxious to meet them and compare notes.

Our flight to Jo-burg was uneventful, and we will miss our travel companions.  Thompson showed us to the international terminal and we bid goodbye.  We have an all night flight to Dubai, transferring there to our flight to Delhi, arriving Monday afternoon.

We found a restaurant and had a wonderful meal of fish and lamb.  David found a spa where we had back massages.  We are leaving Africa with good memories and good feelings.

The flight from Joburg to Dubai was very nice on Emerites Air.  A S. African woman with her 8 mo. old baby sat in our bulkhead row and the baby slept the whole way.  We did too.  We were an hour or so in the Dubai airport before boarding our 2.5 hour flight to Delhi.  Two gentlemen approached us in the immigration line and asked if we were with OAT.  Gene and Abe are on our tour with us!  They also came a day early, but they didn't know it.  They spent a few days in Dubai before coming to Delhi.

Animals we saw in Africa, Feb 6 to 21, 2015, S. Africa, Zimbabwe,Namibia and Botswana

Olive baboon - troops

Papa

http://youtu.be/7jisXefup-c

Link to Youtube of teenage baboons playing top of the mountain.  Hilarious.

Mama and baby

Cape Buffalo

Cape buffalo herds

Common bushbuck - antelope

Gray duiker - antelope  small, elusive.  Just saw it far away, moving fast

Eland - antelope

African savannah elephant

Elephants. 

Giraffe

making his way to get some salt and minerals from the ground

The largest stride of giraffes we saw.

Hippopotamus

Hippo out of the water

Impala - antelope

Two handsome Impala

Black backed jackel - too far away to photograph for us.

Kudu male - antelope

Lion coalition of males

Female lion going back to the kill to eat.

Lion pride

Lions eating

Mongoose, grey, yellow and banded

No photo, but they were all over the Chobe Bakwana lodge grounds

Vervet monkey

Puku - antelope

white rhino

rhino

Sable - antelope  elusive, solitary

S. African ground squirrel  everywhere but not photogenic

Steenbok - antelope

Termite mound, Chobe

Warthog   a group is a sounder

Warthogs grazing at our hotel by the crocodile river.

Waterbuck - antelope

Water buck

Wildebeest or gnu - antelope

Gnu

Zebra  a group is a dazzle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmCf2YIXFnA

Zebra

Crocodile

Leopard turtle

leopard turtle

Water Buck

Secretary bird

Ostrich

Monitor lizard, very hard to spot or photograph

The one we didn't see, which means we will have to return, is the elusive leopard.  We did see the antelope he killed, we just don't know which one it was, among the group that was attacked, just after we left the scene.  

Africa:  I will never forget it.  I am so glad a had the opportunity to visit and go on safari.  I was totally blown away.  It was not the experience I imagined, which was, I thought, like going to Denali Park and seeing the wild animals of Alaska.  Surely Africa is similar, just different animals.  But this is a whole different experience.  

I loved watching elephants.  I would have been happy to just see elephants going about their daily lives.  

Hippos were interesting, peeking their heads up out of the water, and then wandering to banks of the river to eat grass in the evening, seemingly impossible to walk.  The happy hippo on his back was priceless.  

Rhinos swishing their heads from side to side, wandering in a zig zag path, looking too heavy to move.

Giraffes are so graceful and compelling.  silently looking at us chewing their cud.

Crocodiles basking in the sun and quickly slipping into the water for a bath.

Wart hogs always gave us a laugh because of their funny gate and how they were usually in a family, babies tailing behind.

Lions, confident, walking like princes with an attitude of superiority.

Baboons jumping from tree to tree, all over the road, always in big family groups.  Plenty of food of fruit on the trees so they could play.

Monkeys having a good time performing.

Cape buffalo looking forlorn, swishing their tails, too heavy to walk much.  They seemed uncomfortable.  I never saw them eat anything.

The birds were a surprise to me.  I am fascinated with them.  Their colors.  Their habits, songs, flight.  The water birds pranced and spread their wings.  They were very busy. 

Zebra, heads down, snipping short green grass, teasing each other.  When we came upon a group they would invariably turn their backs on us to give us the rear end photos you can use at the end of your slide show.

The END