After an uneventful flight, we arrive in NEW DELHI. The city welcomes us with a warmth we are not used to: it is eighteen degrees, and considering that when we left Italy it was +2°, you can imagine. We leave our suitcases at the hotel and plunge into the chaotic city traffic; we had already had a taste of the chaos on the way back from the airport – an hour to cover fifty km. Our driver is skilled at dodging hundreds of push-pushes, bicycles, motorbikes, cars, cows, dogs and monkeys. There is a cacophony of sounds to make you shudder; here they use the horn as if it were the national sport. We are dazzled by a scorching, wonderful sun, and coming from a foggy winter, it was just what we needed. The smog is sky-high and you feel it on your teeth straight away.
The dust is heavy and clogs your nose, mouth and eyes. But you hardly notice it, so enchanted are you watching the colours of the saris the women wear. They look like butterflies: pink, blue and red, glittering moths dressed in gold and silver, right down to the anklets that jingle with every step. There are many Hindu temples and mosques, and they speak of the religiousness of this people. We tried to work out how many Hindu gods there are and what their names are, but after the usual Buddha, Shiva and Vishnu we gave up, because apparently there are more than three million. In Delhi we visited the Red Fort, a reminder of British colonialism, immense, massive and beautiful.
It is easy to imagine generals and colonels giving orders to the local soldiers and to see them marching in neat ranks. But the most shocking thing about India is the cars driving on the left: until you get used to it, it seems they are coming straight at you. Goodbye Delhi, see you on the way back. On Friday we leave for Mandawa, where we visit the 'havelis', the beautiful houses of rich merchants. They are enormous! Completely painted inside, but what strikes us most is the outside, with frescoes of daily life and a multitude of gods and goddesses. A pity that almost all of them are falling into ruin, because restoring them costs a fortune and the rich merchants are rich no longer. The road to Mandawa is very bad in places and above all very frantic, being the only road connecting the town to the capital. Two hundred and sixty km in seven hours! Our tour operator prepared a beautiful itinerary and dream hotels for us. He did, however, neglect to tell us about the food: extremely spicy! Although we try to eat little of it, the result is not long in coming. Maria has a stomach ache: the cure begins – white rice and yoghurt. An afternoon in bed while Oliviero goes to visit Bikaner, a very beautiful city, but again with chaotic traffic.
We have moved south and the heat has increased. JAISALMER is a stunning city in a fairly populated desert; we come across Bedouins with lots of children, goats and dromedaries. The fort and the temple dedicated to I no longer remember which deity are remarkable, and the workmanship of the local stone is enchanting. It is all fretwork, so much so that tourists call it 'the city of golden lace', referring to the golden colour of the stone, and the fretwork carved by the stonemasons really does look like golden lace. The interiors are in white marble, because this material, being cool, keeps the palaces cooler. We try an Indian massage: forty-five minutes of pure bliss, done with warm, scented oils. So much for my friend Luisa, who left me on my own this time. In the afternoon the camel ride into the desert awaits us, to watch a fabulous sunset over the dunes. Very romantic. I enjoyed it, while Oliviero couldn't have cared less. In the evening, dinner with the Bedouins, complete with a show and a fire. The dancer was really good; she amazed us! We set off for JODHPUR. We cross the desert, more and more beautiful, and suddenly our driver slams on the brakes and says 'look-look'. Grazing there is a herd of antelopes with lots of young ones; out come the video cameras and cameras, but they notice us and run off as fast as their legs can carry them. A pity – we hope we managed to film something. JODHPUR is called the blue city (indeed the houses of the old city are all blue) and they belong to the Brahmin caste, one of the wealthiest castes. It is a remarkable sight, especially seen from above, from the castle of – needless to say – the MAHARAJA! It stands on a high rock (luckily there is a lift), dominates an immense plain and is all gold and marble. Dancers and musicians entertain us festively. Then, after so much walking, finally the hotel and a nice shower.
Tomorrow we leave for RANAKPUR. It is said that the religiousness of a people is measured by the grandeur of its temples, and the one at RANAKPUR is enormous, almost half the village. The sculptures telling the life of the various GODS look ethereal, they are so delicate. Seeing these works of art broadens your spiritual horizons. The guide explained the castes to us; Indians are very strict on this subject, so much so that if two young people fall in love and are from two different castes they cannot marry. If they do, they are shunned by the whole village as if they were lepers. Nobody helps them or gives them work. They are sometimes forced to emigrate, and the lower castes are the most orthodox and intransigent. We go to UDAIPUR, a city romantically stretched along the shores of one of the five lakes that surround it. The hotel we are staying in is straight out of the Arabian Nights; set high up at the lake's edge, it offers a breathtaking panorama. A five-star where people don't talk but whisper; girls in splendid saris welcome us with the classic greeting 'NAMASTE'; bright corridors of black and white marble, gleaming. The room looks like a museum, all carpets and paintings. In the evening we dine by candlelight in a romantic little restaurant on the lake, and there I enjoy a very cold flute of white wine (Oliviero doesn't, because he has tummy trouble). The next morning, a visit to the MAHARAJA's palace, so beautiful it takes your breath away. A boat trip on the lake and an aperitif on an island where there is a hotel all in dazzling white marble!
Today we really enjoyed ourselves, but tomorrow we'll pay for it: eight hours to cover three hundred km. We arrive late and are exhausted. While I am resting I see a small body pass in front of the window. Good grief, what's happening? I run onto the balcony and sigh with relief: it was only a monkey jumping. The next morning they wake us with their shrill cries; they are playing in the trees and one is on our balcony looking at us. We set off, and along the road to PUSHKAR we find them again; there are lots of them in the middle of the road and, being used to people, they let themselves be photographed without any fuss. We arrive and visit yet another temple and a sacred lake born from the tears of the god GANESHA, moved by the poverty of the people. There were worshippers immersing themselves in the icy water to purify themselves (incredible what faith can do!). The RAMADA hotel is large and bright and has everything: toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, soft slippers, tea, coffee and water. Even a bathrobe – but, strangely, only for one person. The other has to make do. We arrive in JAIPUR; the MAHARAJA's palace awaits us, and to get up more easily we use an elephant employed to carry passengers. It's an experience we really were missing. This building looks as if it came out of a film, it is so beautiful it seems unreal, and we lose ourselves among inner courtyards, ballrooms and gleaming mirrors. The apartments of the queens and the concubines. There is the saffron garden, while the rose garden is positioned so that the breeze carries the scents into the palace. Festivities with the male population were held in the inner squares; indeed only the men danced, while the women just watched. The queens and concubines, on the other hand, were confined to their apartments and could watch, unseen, from behind the screens. This palace is connected to a fortress high up on the hill by a tunnel that was used for escape in case of danger.
It is surrounded by a wall reminiscent of the Great Wall of China, which encircles and protects the whole city. On the way from JAIPUR to AGRA we stop to visit another temple at SIKRI, this one also rather interesting. Finally we arrive in AGRA, the purpose of our trip. We go to visit the TAJ MAHAL, called the dream in marble, famous as the tomb of ARJUMAND BANO BEGUM, the beloved wife of the MUGHAL, who died giving birth to their fourteenth child. These two met by chance at a fountain and fell in love at first sight. His name was SHAH JAHAN, he was a Muslim and she was a Persian princess. They lived together for only a few years. On her deathbed she asked for three promises: never to remarry, to take care of the children, and to look at her every day.
So her husband had this fantastic mausoleum built in a spot where he could gaze at it from the terrace of his palace. The TAJ MAHAL is considered the eighth wonder of the world and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. It is made of white marble, and seen at sunset it lights up with a rosy glow that enchants you. It is all fretwork, like lace, and the emotion you feel on entering is great. The two sarcophagi, side by side, are in half-light and surrounded by an octagonal screen pierced with floral motifs. The vault and the walls are decorated with flowers whose petals are semi-precious stones: agate, carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, onyx, pink and blue quartz. The whole gives an impression of extreme lightness. The only sad note is that, when the work was finished, the architect's hands were cut off so that he could never make anything like it again. Well, our trip is drawing to a close. All that's left is to say goodbye to a warm and colourful India. Tomorrow we fly home, where cold and snow await us. Let's console ourselves with the thought that the best trip is always the next one.
MARIA and OLIVIERO RAVAZZINI
Itinerary:
ARRIVAL – 08 FEBRUARY 2013 [SATURDAY] – AT 09:35 HRS ON AI-120
DEPARTURE – 21 FEBRUARY 2013 [THURSDAY] – AT 13:35 ON AI-121
08 February [Friday] – Arrival and night in Delhi – Hotel The Royal Plaza
09 February [Saturday] – Mandawa – HOTEL DESERT RESORT
10 February [Sunday] – Fatehpur / Ramdeora / Bikaner – Hotel Laxmi Niwas Palace
11 February [Monday] – Kheechan / Ramdeora / Jaisalmer – Hotel Rang Mahal
12 February [Tuesday] – Khuri / Jaisalmer – Hotel Rang Mahal
13 February [Wednesday] – Osiyan / Jodhpur – Hotel Ranbanka
14 February [Thursday] – Ranakpur / Kumbhalgarh / Udaipur – Hotel Lalit Laxmi Vilas
15 February [Friday] – Udaipur – Hotel Lalit Laxmi Vilas
16 February [Saturday] – Chittaurgarh / Pushkar – Hotel Jagat Palace
17 February [Sunday] – Jaipur – Hotel Ramada
18 February [Monday] – Amber / Jaipur – Hotel Ramada
19 February [Tuesday] – Fatehpur Sikri / Agra – Hotel Clarks Shiraz
20 February [Wednesday] – DELHI – Hotel The Royal Plaza
21 February [Thursday] – Departure in the morning
Written by the traveller and first published in Italian on our former Italian website. Translated from Italian.