Chakkar walk video

Another great video from Max Marble about the walk around the chakkar in Landaur.

Madhya Pradesh video

I am back in the US .. but here is a link to a wonderful video by classmate Max Marble about our drive to Maheshwar. 

Leaving Delhi

We leave this evening. Three of us will share a taxi to the airport for two different flights. There are two of our group who leave tomorrow morning, and another two who are revisiting the area where they grew up.
I am both ready and not ready to leave, but I have new adventures in my future!

Craft Museum, Delhi

Banyan tree

Taj Mahal

A small group is left in Delhi and yesterday we took a day trip to Agra so newbies could see the Taj and Agra Fort. We had a nice bus with ac, but outside was hot!

The Taj now attracts millions of visitors and thetr has been some vandalism, so the visit is much more regulated than in previous years and some places are no longer accessible. . But it is still magnificent!

How to take 5 hours to go 90 kilometers

The drive from Glenburn to the Bagdodra airport in Siliguri is reputed to take 3 hours.  We did it in 5!
First .. 40 minutes of uphill on narrow, rough, cobbled road in jeeps with stop after about 15 minutes because of broken down truck blocking part of road.  All drivers and men get out of the jeeps and ponder the situation, then finally fill in the ditch at the side with rocks so that jeeps can squeeze by .. 30 minutes added.
Second .. Darjeeling road is decent, but then we join Hwy 10 coming down from Sikkim .. road is pitted from monsoon rains .. landslide repairs being done ... stop at railroad crossing for train so another 30 minutes added.
Third ... get to the outskirts of Siliguri and traffic is utterly jammed and backed up .. turns out to be combination of some gov't official's convoy being given priority and a broken down truck in the middle of the road .. 1 hour added.
Fourth .. screech into the airport drop off with minutes to spare.  Employees kindly give us rush job through checkin but of course get slowed in security lines.
All board! .. Then we make it to Delhi but plane has to circle for 45 minutes before space is available for landing.
Adventures in travel ...

Glenburn Tea Estate

How to say it all?  We spent 3 full days and 4 nights at Glenburn Tea Estate "near"  Darjeeling as guests of the estate owner who was a classmate of ours. The old planter's bungalow is now a beautiful guest house with all the mod cons except wifi. And with terrific food. We experienced
- tour of tea leaf drying, rolling, and sorting.  Tea tasting of first flush to other pickings. Lesson in tea plucking.
- drive to Darjeeling and back with visit to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute with a major Sherpa climber as our guide
- a drive down to the Rangeet River through jungle of teak and bamboo.
- Fantastic views of the Teetse valley and surrounding mountains with Darjeeling to the west and Kalimpong to the east, Kanchenjunga to the north.
- body shaking jeep rides on the roads down to Glenburn and down to the river (and back up again). These are the roads for which 4 wheel drive was invented.
- 3 hour drive to nearest airport which took 5 hours due to blocked mountain road and then traffic jams in city. We did make our flight!

Views from Glenburn

Flowers at Glenburn

Hanging orange flowers are Mysorium

Tea plantation and picking

Kanchenjunga

Glenburn Tea Estate

Drumstick tree

Garden beds lined with old cannon balls

Narmada River. .south bank in the early morning

Room at Ahilya fort

Sunset on the Narmada

Photo by SF

Temple entry at Ahilya fort

Nandi

Citrus fruit?

Women washing clothes in the river

Karonda

Bananas

Sita phal or Custard apple

Papaya tree

Our room at Ahilya fort

Rehwa weavers

Lizard on a giant fern

River ghat on the Narmada

Ahilya fort, Maheshwar

Temple along the road

Bullock cart 2

Bullock cart

Drive from Burhanpur to Maheshwar

The drive from Burhanpur to Maheshwar was about 150 kms, and at 30-40 km/hr it took over 4 hours. The scenery was well worth it!  Growing in the fields was cotton, bananas, green gram, millet, corn, some kind of lentils,  and sugar cane; and along side the road large trees -- neem, banyan,  teak, tamarind, and more.
We also passed many bullock carts, many belonging to gypsy migrant workers. There were also hundreds of flocks of sheep & goats evidently brought to this area from near Rajasthan to graze on the highlands during the monsoons.

Burhanpur

Sunday eve we spent in a funky hotel in Burhanpur,  Maharashtra. This is probably the most historic town I'd never heard of. It is the home of Mumtaz, the wife of Shah Jahan. There is also a masjid with inscriptions in Sanskrit, Arabic, and Farsi. Also a lot of other historical places. No pictures taken there.

Ajanta caves

Visit to Ajanta caves .. super crowded as it is a 4 day weekend with Dusshera, Muharram, and Gandhi Jayanti. Also super hot and so humid in the caves that i couldn't stay in them. The caves are Buddhist dating from 600 bce to about 11th century ce. Art inside the caves is paintings, not much carving.