.....and in conclusion

We've been back a few days now, and India still dominates our thoughts!  An incredible variety of sights and experiences, a number of mixed feelings, and no doubt done in far too little time, but on the other hand, a lifetime probably wouldn't be enough to do the whole country justice.   Our short trip will have to suffice for us.   However, I do propose to re-read Holy Cow. 

My sleeping patterns are still disrupted, far more than I would have expected a 5½ hour change to cause.  Moreover, it was only after I'd been back for a day or so that the effects started to manifest themselves.  I think there's an age factor in play here.

I'm also conscious that a number of my posts glossed over some of the sights that we saw.    Originally, I thought I might go back over some of the posts (done "on the run") and expand on them, but I'm not sure that this would really be productive.

There's one exception.   In my earlier blog post, I didn't do justice to the Jantar Mantar at Jaipur.   As I said then, this is a historic observatory at Jaipur, with large astronomical instruments.     I see from Wikipedia that it's a collection of nineteen architectural astronomical instruments, built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II (who laid out the city of Jaipur), begun in 1727 and completed in 1734. It features the world's largest stone sundial, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  There were five Jantar Mantar monuments in India;  others are at Delhi, which dates from 1724, Varanasi and Ujjain.  The fifth, the Muttra observatory, is gone.

We had a local guide take us around, and I'm sure his technical explanations were good.  At first, the observatory seems to be just a curious collection of sculptures, but each construction has a specific purpose such as telling the time and measuring the positions of stars and planets, altitudes and calculating eclipses.    I fear that most of what the guide told us was rather lost on our group! Just the same, the fact that so much detailed technical knowledge existed in those days was amazing in itself.

I won't attempt to describe the function of each instrument shown in the images below!

So, that's it for this blog.   I'm going to give blogging a rest for a little while, but I anticipate resuming my day-to-day blog (or a successor?) shortly.

Transit in Bangkok

We've arrived home, but our journey involved a couple of hours transit time in Bangkok.   Our flight had left Delhi at 11.30 pm, and it took about 3½ hours to get to Bangkok, but with the time change, we arrived there something after 5.30 am local time.   Needless to say, we weren't in great shape.   This was the only occasion I can ever recall regretting not being able to stay on the plane for longer so as to continue sleeping!   And my state was such that I left a couple of insignificant items on the plane....annoying.

I glanced at a couple of the local newspapers while in Bangkok.  It's all about the forthcoming cremation of their late King.   The Thais are a bit obsessed about this.....very strange.

On a different note, I've got some more things I want to say about India, so some further posts on this blog are in the pipeline.

To Delhi

We've arrived in Delhi, but I intend not to rush in with too many generalisations.    So just some initial impressions.  The traffic in from the airport, at times, was every bit as bad as I'd expected.     The must be some female drivers, but maybe they know to keep away from the most congested roads!  I suppose they employ drivers, anyway, as it seems from the newspaper that anyone who can afford a car is likely to employ a retinue of "helpers".   Although Delhi is dusty, it's got a lot more trees and so is greener than I thought it would be (the wet season finished a few weeks back).   The city seems rather spread out, and in my walks, I haven't felt unsafe (but of course I haven't ventured too far).   Most of the people we encounter are friendly and helpful, but of course the numerous people who approach you in the street are just touts!

Our exploration has been based on the area around Connaught Place, not far from our accommodation.   All colonnaded (relics of a British past) but now very overlaid with lots of Indian character (that is small shops selling everything you don't want and nothing that you do want, like bottled water).  And numerous touts!

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Delhi sunrise, through the mist ...err, smog

For the record, our trip, from Bangkok to Delhi, involved a 7.35 am departure, so in line with the hotel's suggestion, we were up early – and ended up with more time at the airport than we needed. Oh well, better than running late and then encountering holdups.  There was a delay before we took off from Bangkok due to congestion, and our approach into Delhi was also marked by a few minutes in a holding pattern,    However, we arrived in Delhi satisfactorily, to be faced with crowds in the immigration hall which seems unable to cope with the number of travellers - especially given the very thorough  check of everyone's passport and visa.  But we emerged, and were met by the "meet & greet" person that the tour organiser had arranged (at our cost!).  This was followed by the drive to the hotel through Delhi's Saturday traffic (awful).

In Delhi, we've eaten a couple of times in the hotel's coffee shop which is expensive - even by Western standards.   The reason for the high prices is that there's nothing else in the immediate vicinity that most Westerners would accept.   We have also eaten at Connaught Place, but that's a few minutes walk along fairly ordinary footpaths.

Tomorrow our tour officially starts, with a tour of Delhi.

The authorities are ready for anything

Flagpole at centre of Connaught Place

Auto-rickshaws - everywhere

Colonnades

A quieter part of Connaught Place

To Bangkok

Our trip took us first to Bangkok, with a 2-night/1 day stopover there. A kindly dropped us at the airport in plenty of time. In fact we had a short wait even before the checkin counter opened, but this was part of “the plan” - namely to have something to eat (and drink!) in the lounge! Thai use the Air New Zealand lounge at Tullamarine (they're Star Alliance partners).

If my memory serves me correctly, the lounge has been expanded, because now it's quite large, and it wasn't very busy at the time we were there. Anyway the New Zealand bubbly was fine!

The flight was on an Airbus 350, which Thai have only recently started to operate on the Melbourne route. I really just can't get excited by the concept of flying on a "new" type of aircraft;  in spite of what the enthusiasts say on the internet;  basically, all planes are just metal tubes and minor differences in things such as the size of windows just don't "grab" me.   And each airline/plane seems to have a different control system for the inflight "entertainment", so I had to work that out.   Even so, I couldn't find any movie of interest (although S watched a couple).

At 8 h 45 m (and a 4 hour time difference), the flight was longer than I'd anticipated, but things went smoothly enough, and after finding our way around the barn that Bangkok airport is, we had a quick passage through immigration and were on our way through the well-marked passageway to the Novotel (last time we were here there was a shuttle bus, but apparently no more). UPDATE - on checking next morning, the shuttle indeed still operates.   But from the 'arrivals'  level (Level 2), not the 'transportation' level to which I had instinctively headed.

The hotel is large, modern and very functional, but my body was telling me that it was nearly 3 am (although the clock said 11 pm local time), so after a much needed shower, I was in bed!