Just to recoup from the last blog... at this point we were getting on the train, looking forward to 4 hour trip back to Thrivundrum on the train, then to Rebecca and Ward's to repack then up early and out the next day to catch our flights back to Tokyo... so we planned!
As it turns out, upon return to the apartment and unpacking, my passport was nowhere to be found! Somehow, between getting on the train and getting off the train, my passport pouch with my passport, my Japanese ID card, my JP health insurance card, my JP driver's license had disappeared!!!
A concerned call to the Canadian emergency line confirmed that our only avenue possible to getting a temporary passport was to go to New Delhi to the Canadian embassy there (a 32 hour train ride or a 2 hour flight away!). So after an intense all night marathon of canceling one set of flights, booking other flights, finding lodging in New Delhi, repacking and thanking Rebecca and Ward for all of their help... we were off to Delhi, where we had not planned to go, in one of the hottest months of the year in Delhi (every day was between 42 and 47 degrees Celsius during our time there; people kept asking us why we were visiting Delhi then!)
Once again this was a healthy reminder to "Proceed as the Way opens" which it always does... in some surprising ways as it turns out!
Our hotel... downtown Delhi...PACKED with cars, scooters, pedicabs, cows, buses, tuk-tuks, pedestrians and noisy/noisy/noisy! An exploration walk around our hotel was a real challenge to pick out way through traffic, garbage, vendors, street repairs, beggars and crowds...
Once we applied for my temporary passport at the Canadian embassy and found it would take three working days (this was Friday) at least, we had to let go of all of our plans for our return to Tokyo: a friend coming to stay with us at the apartment, Dan off to run an English immersion camp, new teacher arriving... etc.
We decided that, if we were here, we should explore what India has to offer in the Delhi region. So we hired a driver and took off for three days of exploration of some of the epic sites around New Delhi.
Our first stop, Agra and the Taj Mahal. Early sunrise line-up at the gate along with hundreds of other visitors for a full body inspection to make sure no one was bringing in anything sharp to damage the monument.
We found a little quiet corner away from the crowds for our first view of the main entrance gate.
It was striking to see the Arabic script used as decor. Each strand of script is a unique piece of black marble carved on its own then inlaid into the main white marble slab!
Ah yes... even at sunrise, we were not alone!
Our guide did manage to clear a little wedge of space for us to have the requisite picture taken... but their was a line-up for the same spot; had to move fast!
As we approached the main building we slowly became less aware of the crowds and more entranced by the building itself. As our guide reminded us, this is the only wonder of the world built for love... and still so beautiful after more than 400 years! (The Taj was built from 1631 to 1648) The following photo gives you a sense of the scale of the monument.
The details were what stunned us. As the sun hit different facets during the morning, each facet would begin sparkling in the light. Notice the white sparkles on the left side of this arch.
Looked at up close, every one of these sparkles turns out to be because each flower, stem and petal is made from semi-precious stones; jade, agate, onyx, coral and bloodstone! Looked at up close you can see how each individual flower petal, stem and leaf has been individually carved and inlaid into the marble over many of the huge surfaces of the Taj.
The columns also have inlay semi precious stones in them, creating the optical illusion of a six sided column that actually had only three sides.
Every Friday the Taj Mahal is shut while workmen maintain and repair the incredibly beautiful and detailed work done here. The repairs have been done by generations of the same family since when it was built. We explored the compound from every angle...
And left before the heat rose to the mid-forties.
It was also striking to us the squalor all around the Taj Mahal in the city of Agra. Though there were beautiful compounds and high class hotels behind walls the city itself was hot, strewn with litter, crowded and polluted. It turns out there is no central electricity in Agra so anyone wishing to have electricity has to generate it with their own generator; you can picture the noise and the pollution from that.
In a little side alley off the main street we had the opportunity to visit the workshop of the family who has been repairing the Taj since the 1600s. On Fridays they work for the monument, the rest of the week they produce the following items.
Working the same way they do at the Taj, they start by carving out the cavities of the sheet marble.
Then they take the semi-precious stones...
and shape them with a grinder pulled with a bow....
down to tiny meticulous shaped slivers that fit together...
to make beautifully detailed inlaid patterns on the marble pieces.
Fascinating to think that these skills have been practiced and used ever since the Taj was built!
Continuing on our journey we stopped at another Mongol castle built by one of the many Mongolian rulers of India in the 1700s.
That night we spent the night and the next day at Jaipur, known as the Pink City. Known for the many houses and monuments of the old city being pink.
It turns out that King George and Queen Victoria visited the Maharaja Ram Singh. To welcome them he had the whole city redone and painted pink.
Going through these gates we were again introduced to some history we had known nothing about. One of the great Maharajs in the history of this area was Jai Singh II who lived 1688 to 1743, known for his wisdom, his skillful warfare and... his interest in astronomy. In the late 1600s he had a large set of astronomical instruments built at his palace to better observe the sun, the moon and the constellations of the zodiac. Click here for more background on his reign.
This included the largest sundial in the world with the ability to tell the exact time right down to the minute.
Seen from a distance:
Here is the huge sundial; check the person standing at the base for scale!
The current Maharaj living in this palace descends from a long lineage spanning hundreds of years:
The palace has evolved over the hundreds of years with many additions but is still guarded by the Maharaj's security detail:
Portions of the palace can be rented out for special occasions if needed.
Some of the features are stunning at the palace:
And we always enjoyed the elegantly dressed women with their variety of striking saris.
The Maharaj's summer palace (the lake providing cooling for the rooms built below water table) from the 1800s (also trying not to notice the garbage floating in the lake).
On our way back to Delhi we stopped at another Maharaj's fort/palace from the 1700s, which also happened to be a special festival day for the temple at the fort.
This palace was unique for its use of mirrors as mosaic pieces so that every wall you walked by you were reflected on thousands of different facets like a kaleidoscope:
We were impressed by the ingenious ways that they cooled the air down in their palace including fine streams of water trickling down wires in front of these doors so that the air would blow through the streams of water and be cooler.
We enjoyed the varied aesthetic tastes of these castles, so different than our world in Japan.
After two long days of touring, heat, crowds, stairs, castles, beggars, history and unique sites we were settled into the air conditioned car for the last drive back to Delphi (with our wonderful driver Hardeev) ... but no, as it turned out, we had also paid for an elephant visit and petting time that we needed to do. As you can tell Shelley was thrilled by this!
Successfully back to Delhi, we spent our last day in India sweating out (literally) the bureaucratic maze to get out of India. Temporary passport from Canadian embassy by 11:00 (check!). Flight out that night at 11:00 PM (Should be no problem!).
Well as I left the embassy they casually said: "You need to stop by the Indian foreign affairs bureau for your exit stamp..."
7 hours later, after struggling through crowds and crowds of applicants pushing and shoving to get their case dealt with, after being sent from wicket to wicket to photocopy, back to an unlabeled table surrounded by applicants to get a "chit", back to the back of the room to write a letter, through 9 (yes I counted; 9!!) different desks checking, re-checking and re-checking ALL of my documents (that the previous person had just checked), after waiting at each desk in a random "line-up", after our driver intervened via another client of his who had connections in the office...all in sweltering 45 degree heat... I finally got "THE EXIT STAMP" at 5:50 (The office closed at 6:00 PM!). All of that work, all of that worry, all of that uncertainty to get a small, ordinary-looking signed and dated stamp in my passport.
So we raced off to the airport to start those complicated hoops there.
The armed guards at the front door: "Why is your passport white? Temporary??? Is this a real passport? Oh I'll have to get special permission!"
The airline check-in counter: "Why is your passport white? Temporary??? Is this a real passport? Oh I'll have to get special permission!"
The security check to get to gate: "Why is your passport white? Temporary??? Is this a real passport? Oh I'll have to get special permission!"
But we DID manage to fly out of India, we landed in Tokyo, and after a mere one hour in the special room with Japanese immigration (No JP ID card; "Why is your passport white? Temporary??? Is this a real passport? Oh I'll have to get special permission!")
We are finally back home! (Shelley's V sign on the airporter bus back home)
This whole experience reminded us of several things:
1. DON'T LOSE YOUR PASSPORT (this is a very tense world we live in at borders!)
2. How privileged we are to be Canadian, living in a first world country, where systems work, where services are there to help us and where civil servants are (generally) extremely helpful!
3. It also gave us both a really strong gut empathy for the fear, worry, unknowing and uncertainty that face so many refugees today caught in the cross-hairs of politics. It also really brought home how, as a refugee without ID so many doors are closed to you and normal travel is impossible.
We are grateful to be back to our regular lives and our hearts go out with empathy to all of those whose lives are still in limbo as faceless refugees.
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