India 2023-Back to India-Camels, Mustard, Safaris and Living like a Maharaja.

[RB]

After our Palace adventure it was off to lunch - another long term favourite of Magan’s, the restaurant attached to the heritage hotel the MTP Tansen Residency. Certainly not crowded but excellent service, very good food and cold beer.

Chicken with cashew nuts- had already been attacked before photo

Next was a visit to the rock-cut Jain monuments. These are a group of Jain carvings dated between the 7th & 15th century. They are located around the walls of Gwalior Fort. Our main viewing was the Urwai Group. This is a link to a very comprehensive blog that goes through the various locations and has some fantastic photos The Rock-cut Jain monuments of Gwalior – Siddhanchal (Urvai Group) – Kevin Standage
After our clambering around to get photos we inadvertently rejoined the traffic at the wrong time for the uphill climb on a one way section to the Fort - some particularly unhappy drivers coming the other way! (really no more chaotic than normal Indian traffic!).

 

[RB]

A bit of perspective

 

[RB]

Gwalior Fort
We were a bit “forted out” so passed on a full-blown visit & instead did some walking around the general area of Gwalior Fort. Gwalior Fort - History & Interesting Facts

The sandstone walls are massive, the glazed blue ceramic tiles are stunning, the city views are amazing and there are plenty of people visiting. While up the top we drove around the grounds of the Scindia School where the boys stay in the old soldier barracks and the teachers live in the ex-British Officers quarters. The facilities look amazing and I read that the teacher/student ratio is 1:12.













The old Fort Branch of Post Office


Telika Mandir-

 

[RB]

Neemrana's - Deo Bagh Gwalior​

I have mixed feelings about this hotel. Certainly lovely grounds and attentive staff but far from the most comfortable room and certainly no bargain compared to the rest of our stays. Deo Bagh Gwalior | Hotel in Gwalior | Near Gwalior Fort. We stayed in one of the 3 suites, the Dhanur Mahal (a summer house for the ladies in the 17th Century), described as “done up in vibrant hues of red & orange and also has a cheerful ante-room. Stunning floral textiles from Western India adorn the walls”.
A very uncomfortable hard bed, very noisy and with part of the bathroom window providing an open passage to various insects wasn’t what I was expecting. Certainly a beautiful garden complex with family temples, stables and cenotaphs and a reasonable dining experience (very limited menu) but I think by this stage of our trip I was looking for something more comfortable.

The room










The grounds- extensive beautiful spot

 

[RB]

Gwalior to Delhi
Last day on the road! Very heavy traffic early in the day and the roads seemed to be clogged with a high proportion of trucks & many settlements, meaning the traffic didn’t get spread out. As we headed away from Agra we seemed to encounter quite a variety of highway numbers - the new Mumbai/Delhi project is progressing & various sections are opening up in stages. Plenty of agriculture with a potato harvest being a highlight close to the road. Interesting to see a few roadside sellers of bulk fresh water - apparently relied on by truckies as a convenience purchase.
We passed Baba Jai Guru Dev Mandir - a Hindu temple that we had apparently also encountered during our first trip with Magan back in 2007. Lunch was at a new set-up called Food Street - a food court style outlet aiming to cater to both domestic & overseas travelers. It was straight beside the highway with excellent bathroom facilities and certainly a variety of food offerings - only thing missing was customers but I guess it is a very recent offering.
As we approached Delhi to smog/pollution levels certainly deteriorated (later supported by newspaper articles). I really enjoy reading the newspapers, they appear factual, actually convey news and have a very broad sports coverage.



The potato harvest




Water seller




Baba Jai Guru Dev Mandir


Lunch

 

[RB]

One of the new toll collection points

 

[RB]

Vivanta Dwarka New Delhi Hotel

5 Star Hotel in New Delhi near IGI Airport | Vivanta New Delhi, Dwarka

Magan’s contacts ensured we secured a great rate for our 1 night stay at this hotel. Location wise it is around a 800 metre walk to the metro station for the airport express & then a 1 station hop. There are also hotel transfers but Magan was determined to finish his role & drop us at the airport the next morning. An excellent room with all the facilities of a 5 star hotel and outstanding, well-trained staff in all roles - some of the fastest speakers of our whole trip though!. The corridor on the other side to our room provided some runway views of the airport. We were happy with the food options and heralded our last night in India with a hamburger & a pizza! We had pretty good views towards the city & noted the lack of night lighting for the CBD buildings.

Didn't seem to capture very good photos but the web site is accurate










Airport Views-poor photos




Couldn't go one more curry!

 

[RB]

Delhi to Sydney Via Singapore

We had a roughly 15 minute drive to the airport-basically driving along and around the runway. At the car drop-off there were touts out and about wanting to help with bags and get us to the entry doors of the airport. We basically picked the door according to the waiting times that were on display (the times were a bit ambitious). To enter the airport you need ID & a boarding pass. Our itinerary on our phone & passports were ok. Waited behind one other person at check-in & then used priority lanes through. My backpack attracted some extra attention at security & was scanned a few extra times ( think it was power cords) before a manual note was written in a book. At immigration we were able to use the diplomat line & we were soon parked in the Air India lounge-approx 30 min after drop-off by Magan.
We thought the lounge was very comfortable & certainly at this hour not crowded- a few people snoozing in quiet areas. A variety of food available & self-serve drinks and the bathroom facilities were certainly clean. Newspapers available & staff walked through announcing the various departures. The walk to the gate was relatively short & priority boarding was underway when we reached there.
SQ 401 and SQ 221 with a 2hr 25 min layover. Seats 12A & 15A selected on both legs and we were happy with our choices (bit more privacy away from the aisle). Did book the cook on both legs and ordered lobster on both. Perhaps a little odd having lobster for breakfast but enjoyed both mine although Mrs RB thought her DEl-SIN one was poorly cooked. The taxi out of Del is a long ride. The lounge in Sin was fine although the wait for showers was too long for us to bother (estimated over half an hour). The listed single malt was missing again with a Suntory on offer instead.
Our path through SYD was smooth, bags were quick and with no extra checks of our bags we were soon on the train to catch up with mates near Wollongong.

Lounge in Delhi






A very long taxi

 

[RB]

Crowded like most of India




Some of my food

 

[bPeteb]

Amazing tr RB. I'm going to get balt to read it all. We'd been thinking more Southern India but this trip was amazing. If it's something you're willing to share could you let me know by pm what this cost? How many nights/days?

 

[RB]

Amazing tr RB. I'm going to get balt to read it all. We'd been thinking more Southern India but this trip was amazing. If it's something you're willing to share could you let me know by pm what this cost? How many nights/days?

Thanks. We certainly had a great time. Have sent you a pm.

 

[RB]

It seems when I moved photos around in Google photos it had an impact on some images I loaded in Post 166. Reposting these as I referred to them in the text