We were joined on our trip to Gwalior by Olivier and Laurianne, whom we met in Fatehpur Sikri.
We took a bus back to Agra and got chance passenger tickets, which were really cheap but also meant we didn't have sure seats.
We went up adn down the sleeper section looking for a free place to sit, but the only available seats were in the AC section. So we tried our luck staying there until the conductor asked for our tickets. He said we could stay if we added 300 Rs. Of course, we didn't have the money, so he said "how much can you give?" Assessing our financial situation, I said try 50 Rs... for some strange reason, that didn't work so we ended up on the only free spot we could find - the exit.
But it was fun because we could poke our faces out of the train. Don't tell my mom!
Gwalior was a welcome change from all the other places we had visited. Rickshaw drivers would offer their services, and if you refuse they would say "okay, no problem." Had we just died and gone ot heaven?
We found some nice places to eat also, like the ice cream parlor, Baba's, and my personal favorite in Gwalior, the Indian Coffee House.
The cafe is run by the Indian coffee growers' cooperative, and their coffee was the best Henri and I have had in India. It's also clean, air conditioned, fairly-priced, and the people who frequent it were mostly middle-class Indians.
Another reason to go is the cool uniforms of the waiters :)
We stayed near the train station and it was really noisy all day, with drivers honking their horns unnecessarily and trucks revving their engines and swerving away from cows without slowing down... but what drove Henri crazy was the tiny mouse that showed up on our first night. He chased the mouse out and duct taped the door.
It was surprisingly effective -- but we did not expect the ants going over the door to eat our bananas. Dang!
The oldest monument in the complex is the Teli Ka Mandir, an erotic temple that was turned into a coffee shop by the British... WTF, right? Here, newlyweds were supposed to spend 3 nights after the wedding to learn about the art of making love.
Just in front is the Jain temple, where we were given orange headscarves and barefooted, we entered the temple. After praying, we were invited behind the temple to eat free thali, and we had the perhaps the best masala chai ever... and not because it was free!
It is hard to pick a favorite spot amongst the royal monuments, but the most impressive sight was the cliff of gigantic Buddha statues, the biggest being 17 meters or 55 ft tall, carved directly onto the rock. One could only imagine what an awe-inspiring sight that must have been for people entering the fort from the west gate.
If you plan to visit the fort, go through the east entrance first to avoid the crowd, tricksters and annoying guides. I saw a sign that said there's a 20 Rs entrance fee at the west gate, but that's totally bogus. Entering from the east also gives you the most scenic view. Some tourists with guides only pointed at the east exit but did not encourage their charges to explore what was below. And what a sight they missed!
We took a bus back to Agra and got chance passenger tickets, which were really cheap but also meant we didn't have sure seats.
We went up adn down the sleeper section looking for a free place to sit, but the only available seats were in the AC section. So we tried our luck staying there until the conductor asked for our tickets. He said we could stay if we added 300 Rs. Of course, we didn't have the money, so he said "how much can you give?" Assessing our financial situation, I said try 50 Rs... for some strange reason, that didn't work so we ended up on the only free spot we could find - the exit.
But it was fun because we could poke our faces out of the train. Don't tell my mom!
Gwalior was a welcome change from all the other places we had visited. Rickshaw drivers would offer their services, and if you refuse they would say "okay, no problem." Had we just died and gone ot heaven?
We found some nice places to eat also, like the ice cream parlor, Baba's, and my personal favorite in Gwalior, the Indian Coffee House.
The cafe is run by the Indian coffee growers' cooperative, and their coffee was the best Henri and I have had in India. It's also clean, air conditioned, fairly-priced, and the people who frequent it were mostly middle-class Indians.
Another reason to go is the cool uniforms of the waiters :)
We stayed near the train station and it was really noisy all day, with drivers honking their horns unnecessarily and trucks revving their engines and swerving away from cows without slowing down... but what drove Henri crazy was the tiny mouse that showed up on our first night. He chased the mouse out and duct taped the door.
It was surprisingly effective -- but we did not expect the ants going over the door to eat our bananas. Dang!
Aside from the coffee and relative calm of the atmosphere, the highlight for this stop is the imposing Gwalior Fort, and the stunningly beautiful (albeit a little bizaare) palace nestled within its walls. It had a whitening pool where the queens bathed in saffron water, a mirrored ballroom where dancers with sparkly dresses would reflect the light from the oil lamps and bounce them off gem-encrusted walls like human mirror balls, it had an ancient system of air cooling and telephoning, and the alarm clock was something straight out of the Flintstones; it must have been a wonderful time to be alive.
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| BAD! |
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| GOOD! |
The story of the Maharajah of Gwalior in the time of the Mughal occupation is both romantic and tragic. When the Muslim Mughals arrived, defacing their beautiful statues and temples, the women burned themselves to death to avoid capture and the desecration of their dead bodies. The royals who were caught alive were kept in the palace, whose pleasure rooms were turned into torture rooms and dungeons.
Some Indian tourists asked for a picture with Henri, and gave him a bag of water in exchange. Yun lang ang TF? (That's all?) Hahaha.
The oldest monument in the complex is the Teli Ka Mandir, an erotic temple that was turned into a coffee shop by the British... WTF, right? Here, newlyweds were supposed to spend 3 nights after the wedding to learn about the art of making love.
Just in front is the Jain temple, where we were given orange headscarves and barefooted, we entered the temple. After praying, we were invited behind the temple to eat free thali, and we had the perhaps the best masala chai ever... and not because it was free!
It is hard to pick a favorite spot amongst the royal monuments, but the most impressive sight was the cliff of gigantic Buddha statues, the biggest being 17 meters or 55 ft tall, carved directly onto the rock. One could only imagine what an awe-inspiring sight that must have been for people entering the fort from the west gate.
If you plan to visit the fort, go through the east entrance first to avoid the crowd, tricksters and annoying guides. I saw a sign that said there's a 20 Rs entrance fee at the west gate, but that's totally bogus. Entering from the east also gives you the most scenic view. Some tourists with guides only pointed at the east exit but did not encourage their charges to explore what was below. And what a sight they missed!
