Asia-Europe 2012

Kalka – Shimla railway

This century old railway is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, together with the DHR railway, noted for it’s technical achievement as well as spectacular location. Unfortunately, in the purest Indian spirit, trash is generally present, caused by travelers who refuse to use the bin and throw everything off the windows. But, as long as you look further than 100m, things look really nice.

Although there are no loops or zig-zagz, 893 bridges and 103 tunnels are needed to negotiate the rough terrain. The journey is 95km long and lasts 6 hours.

At the end we arrived in Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh and former summer capital of the British Raj.

Full photo archive available here.

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April 2, 2012|25 india|Post Comment »

Still alive

We are still alive and back in the low lands (Amritsar, Punjab) after spending almost one week in Kashmir. Will post soon about that, after getting some rest.

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April 1, 2012|25 india|2 Comments

Water pump play

Guess I was over confident in Palomina’s self healing capabilities. That’s why I added tap water to the cooling system every time it needed topping. After some time, the minerals and other impurities in that kind of water ground the shaft to the extend that it started leaking. So I had to spend one afternoon replacing it. Biggest problem was keeping the bystanders away, which suddenly became wannabe mechanics.

Can’t be too proud when I am having the same problem for the third time! (1,2)

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March 29, 2012|25 india, 00 misc|3 Comments

Red Fort; Qutb Minar

For some reason I forgot to attach this picture explaining Humayun’s journey to my previous post. Very interesting I would say! Click image for higher res.

The Red Fort in Delhi is (today) not quite a fort but a group of not-so-old buildings surrounded by a wall. Inside the buildings there are some museums, focused on the India’s struggle for independence.

Most buildings and gardens are not so well maintained. Piles of rubbish everywhere. Made us wonder what are they doing with the ticket money.

At first we got surprised to see many Indian men holding hands in public. But since 90% of the people on the street (as well as inside every place we go, such as shop or hotel or museum) are men, we think man holds another man’s hand just because there is no woman nearby.

Qutb Minar is an impressive XII century tower. It’s purpose is not clearly known. We arrived there after sunset. We paid full ticket price and only after entering we found out that more than half of the architectural site was off limits after 6PM. We asked to be allowed to return the next day to see the rest (without paying new ticket), since there was no way we would have known about this limitation prior to entry. We were denied. Yet another quality Indian service!

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Humayun’s tomb

After losing his Agra throne in 1540, the Mughal Emperor Humayun (together with his wife and few followers) seek refuge to present day Pakistan. Forced to retreat even further, he went to present day Iran. There he was impressed by the architectural work of his ancestors. With the Persian’s help he fought back and regained control over parts of present day Afganistan, Pakistan and, 1555, of Northern India. He died in 1556 and in 1562 his wife began work on his tomb, inspired from Persian architecture. This was the first of the Mughal buildings in India, preceding, among others, his son Akbar mausoleum and his son’s wife mausoleum – the Taj Mahal. Other structures followed, so that upon the discovery by the British in the 1860’s around 160 tombs were located in the Delhi area

Various stages in tomb’s recent history

Simmetry is one of the features of the Mughal architecture. Also unusual, the Crescent together with what appears to be David’s star (but it’s actually Shatkona, a hindu symbol)