Author: gajb

Yesterday we drove from Agra to Delhi. In contrast to all our other driving, we joined an expressway for most of this journey which for the most part was on an almost empty road. Having made the outskirts of Delhi in under three hours, including a short stop, the final part of the journey to our hotel took the best part of another hour.

We are staying at the Imperial Hotel which is as grand as its name suggests, built in the early 1930’ties in Art Deco style with wide passages and high ceilings. After unpacking, we had a ‘light buffet’ in the cafe before an afternoon drive around the Lutyens part of New Delhi.

We started off by driving up the Tajpath to see the Presidential Palace and Government buildings. They are fine in their way but do not have the beauty of the older monuments that we have seen over the past few days.

 

 

 

 

 

Then we went to visit Gandhi Smriti at Birla House where Mahatma Gandhi stayed for the last five months of his life before his assassination in early 1948. There were some interesting posters of his life, qualifying as a barrister at Inner Temple, and then in South Africa for some years before returning to India.

From there to Humayun’s Tomb which preceded the Taj Mahal and with the ‘Little Taj’ inspired the design for the Taj Mahal. Next door was an even older mausoleum for Isa Khan which in some respects was more interesting with its inside painted roof. Lastly we stopped by at the India Gate erected in memory of those who died in the First World War whose names are inscribed on an otherwise rather heavy structure.

 

Today we went off to the Old Town; we started by exploring various markets on foot with intervening rickshaw rides – much bustle and then we visited the Red Fort. This was more imposing outside with its high red sandstone walls than inside where many of the buildings were demolished by the Brits after the Indian Mutiny in 1857, known here as the First War of Independence. Later rather uninspiring barracks were built. Much of what was left is currently under restoration so limited sightseeing only was possible but there were some pleasant garden areas.

There appeared to be some sort of demonstration going on so the traffic jams were worse than ever but eventually made it to a Sikh Temple for our final visit of the day. Much gold here and a need to put on head dress before we could go in but overall an interesting visit where we learnt about the charitable side of the Sikh religion.

 

 

 

 

 

Then back to the hotel for a swim and relax as we leave early tomorrow for Ahmedabad to start our return journey.

We were up before dawn to see the Taj Mahal as the sun rose. By the time we reached the entrance, there were already many people there, mainly locals, but we were through the ticket barrier and entrance gate by the time the first rays of sunshine appeared on a hazy morning.

The Taj is as magnificent today as the time that I first saw it in August 1969 nearly 49 years ago. It has recently been cleaned and sparkled in the morning sunlight. We wandered slowly around and although there were already many visitors, the only time we felt crowded was when we were in the centre of the mausoleum itself – very different from my first visit when there were but a handful of people around.

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was back to the hotel for breakfast and a swim before the rest of the day. Later we were off to Agra Fort; an amazing structure of which we only saw a small part with some lovely gardens in the inner courtyards.

From there to the Jama Masjid, a mosque not far away from the Red Fort which we got to partly by tuk tuk and partly on foot through very crowed streets. From there to a delightful lunch spot; we felt our early start earned us a Kingfisher beer particularly as we have a hour or so after lunch for a snooze!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the afternoon, we went to visit the Tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah built in the 1620’ties and known as the “Little Taj”; it is indeed a little Taj and was used as the inspiration for the Taj Mahal started a decade later. At distance, it is a lovely building but close up, it is apparent that it needs restoration and this is now planned together with restoration of the gardens and water features which is already under way.

We followed this by a visit to a rather run down mausoleum where boys were playing cricket nearby.

 

Our last visit of the day was to the gardens on the other side of the river for a sunset view of the Taj Mahal and the two pictures below show what we found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we drive to Delhi in the morning to arrive around lunchtime.

Yesterday we spent looking round some of the Jaipur sights. We started with the Janitor Mantar Mahal, an amazing collection of astronomical instruments installed by Jai Singh II in the early 18th century just outside the city palace. One of the most interesting exhibits for me was a huge sundial which could tell the time to an accuracy of 2 seconds (as long as the sun was out).

From there we did a tour of the City Palace which had a number of interesting exhibits including two huge silver urns each weighing 345 kg and capable of carrying around 4,000 litres of whatever – it was water from the Ganges when the then Maharajah took them to London for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902.

Following this we visited the Royal Gaitor or cenotaphs where former maharajahs and their relatives are buried. Unlike most places we have visited so far, this was a peaceful place with few visitors. There was a mixture of large mausoleums for the maharajahs and smaller ones for less important cousins.

Next an obligatory visit to a carpet weaving shop and saleman’s pitch thereafter and by then it was time for a light lunch with (unusually for lunchtime – SD please note) a cool Kingfisher beer.

We then returned to our hotel where Miranda was meeting up with a friend of our daughter to go shopping while Phil and I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool. Miranda came back with a lot of shopping!

Today, we drove from Jaipur to Agra making a side visit suggested by our driver to a deep well at Bharatpur which in many respects turned out to be more interesting than the scheduled en route visit to Fatehpur Sikri. This was interesting and of its type a fine example of a sandstone city constructed in the late 16th century, but only occupied as such for 16 years. But the carvings did not have the beauty and workmanship details that other buildings we have seen had.

 

A slow journey through the outskirts of Agra then followed by which time the wind got up with worsening visibility in blowing dust and we arrived at our hotel in a thunderstorm (but nothing more than a few drops of rain) from a large cunimb cloud with mamma overhead. After a while this cleared and the view of the Taj Mahal from our window became clearer.

We have started to look at the winds for our return flight which shows the jet stream continuing to pursue a much more southerly track than usual with stronger headwinds than we would normally expect. Phil and I had a planning session this evening rearranging our flight back to Hurghada to add an extra fuel stop at Riyadh to take account of this.

Tomorrow we meet our guide at 6 am for a sunrise tour of the Taj Mahal.

A morning at leisure was shown on the programme but we decided to make an early start and visit Ajmer and Pushkar on the way to Jaipur. It was a two hour drive along a generally good road to Ajmer but unfortunately on arrival, the Nasiyan (Red Temple) was closed in preparation for Holi and we were only able to see the impressive outside and not see the gilt wooden representations ofJain mythology inside. To make up for this, we make a detour to see Pushkar and its lake.

 

Again preparations for Holi were ongoing including the requirement to make a small donation before we could enter the town built round a large and not very enticing looking artificial lake. Our driver conjured up a guide and Phil and I walked through the town down to the lake. Quite a few European hippies were hanging out and one was being enticed into the lake to purify his soul (and not looking too happy about it either).

 

After that excursion we drove on to Jaipur stopping briefly to eat a very late picnic before arriving at our hotel which is an annex to the Rambagh Palace, a luxurious place where we have much enjoyed  dinner yesterday night and tonight.

 

Today was Holi and not wishing to get indelible dye thrown over us, we spent the morning reading, swimming and wandering round the Rambagh Palace Gardens. This afternoon we went to the Amber Fort, the former capital of Rajasthan before Jaipur took over this role. This was an impressive structure overlooking an evil smelling lake with some fine plasterwork and carvings. It was also very crowded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way back, we stopped at another temple, the Govind Dev Ji, which was full of people celebrating Holi.

Tomorrow we have another full day in Jaipur before continuing to Fatehpur Sikri and Agra on Sunday.

We left our charming hotel near Udaipur with its two labradors shortly after 9 am on Tuesday 27th February for a two hour drive to Kumbhalgarh Fort, a splendid construction in the 15th century and completed in the late 19th century. The fort is part of a defensive construction on the top of a hill with a circular wall of around 35 km in length within which now is mostly scrubland but with some temples, cultivation and village houses. Apart from one occasion, it always resisted the Moghul armies trying to conquer this part of India. As you climb higher up through the fort so do the views improve although the hazy conditions curtailed distant views somewhat. Phil and I then visited the temple where one famous maharajah was slain by his elder son in his haste to inherit his father’s kingdom before he was overthrown and killed four years later in revenge by his younger brother.

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, on to Ranakpur Temple constructed by the Jain tribe who practised a rather severe form of Hinduism. Our guide was somewhat critical of their approach and their keenness to relieve tourists of rupees but certainly the building was very fine after a recent restoration. [Pictures to follow as you had to pay to take a camera in and Phil took these pics]

We then moved on to our hotel for the next two nights, the Devshree at the village of Deogarh. It is similar to our hotel at Udaipur run by a charming Indian couple but overall not quite as good as Udaipur. There was one seriously overweight black lab and a little jack russell. As well as communal drinks before dinner, which is fun and jolly, we dine communally together which can be interesting but in practice can prove something of a challenge depending on whom you are sitting next to!

Today, we had an enjoyable train ride in the morning down the hill side to the valley below which took an hour and a half to do 22 km with the train stopping twice “to check its brakes” but overall was a fun experience with Phil and I leaning out of opposite open carriage doors taking photographs while Miranda received a neck massage from our versatile guide.

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, a snooze, a swim and a read before we left for a late afternoon walk. Naively we assumed this would be in the local village but it was preceded by somewhat interesting drive in an open jeep followed by an even more hair raising return after drinks by some lake in the dark. Still, we made it out and back with the only incident being a motorbike ridden by three youths in a hurry which passed us only to collide with another motor bike just in front of us. All came off and hopefully no one was too badly hurt.

Tomorrow we move on to Jaipur.

After three days of early starts as we flew east and lost time, Sunday was a lie in with a leisurely breakfast before we started our sightseeing. Having looked at the motor museum on the previous evening complete with model aircraft and other memorabilia, we started with the Maharawal’s family museum which had some interesting costume and photographic exhibits. Then a short drive on to Juna Mahal or Old Palace built in the 13th century high up on a rocky peak with some fine frescoes and glass and mirror inlay work. Juna Mahal is no longer occupied except for a caretaker.

Then a two hour drive to Udaipur where we arrived for a late lunch. Indian roads are interesting; we had a two lane highway for most of the way and slow lorries would occupy both lanes so cars would overtake in either lane and glide pretty effortlessly from one to another with only the occasional harder braking moment. Still English grannies would not understand the system at all.

After lunch it was time for swimming and relaxing, catching up with books and emails before an excellent Indian dinner preceded by drinks round an open log brazier.

Today we breakfasted rather earlier, in time to be collected for a tour of Udaipur Palace, part of which is still lived in by the Maharajah and his family. The Palace is set on relatively high ground overlooking a man made lake with an island on which sits what was the Maharajah’s summer house which featured in Octopussy (must get this out and look at it again when we are back home). The main Palace is spread out over three buildings in Persian, Hindu and Colonial styles respectively.

We started by seeing the fine Durbar Hall followed by the Crystal Gallery where possibly the finest collection of crystal to be found anywhere is displayed; it was ordered from Birmingham in 1877 but only unpacked more than 100 years later in 1984. As well as elaborate furniture made out of crystal, there were hundreds of crystal glasses, decanters and other such objects for fine dining but none of them have ever been used.

From there we went to the Museum in another part of the Palace where there were some interesting objects but it was rather crowded. Then a short drive to a workshop where an artists’ co-operative do fine paintings,  and we also saw manual wood block printing of materials being done.

 

A shopping moment followed giving Phil an opportunity to hone his bargaining skills last seen in Istanbul in 2012. This was followed by a walk in the vegetable market and various side streets where we managed to see raw Udaipur street life and avoid (just) being run over by tuc tucs and motor bikes on the way to see our first Hindu temple

 

 

Then a return to the hotel and tea. Phil has decided to visit a couple more temples, Miranda is going to read and I am off for a swim having made friends with the (English) hotel owner’s two labradors. Tomorrow we move on.

After breakfast, we were collected at 8:15 am local and 15 minutes later were at the airport. Departure formalities were completed quickly; the handler told us that if we came again, we should go to the main airport as the fees there are considerably cheaper (this was just after handing over a fistful of USD for landing, handling and our hotel costs). Out to the aircraft within 15 minutes and we were airborne 7 minutes behind schedule at 9.07 am (0507 Z). An easy departure into morning haze and we climbed in stages to 31,000 ft routing SE towards Muscat and then eastwards over the Arabian Sea.

Our tailwind remained with us at around 55 kt which gave us a ground speed of 320-325 kt and one certainly covers the ground at this speed! About halfway across the Arabian Sea, we were transferred to Karachi Control and there were many complaints from other air traffic at their inaudibility. At times, an echo on their transmissions made them almost unreadable.

There was much lower cloud over the Arabian landmass which cleared as we went out over the sea. However for most of the way, there was light chop at 31,000 ft and CAT were reporting moderate turbulence at higher levels.

We had a modest lunch as we neared the coast and were then transferred to Delhi and shortly afterwards given descent instructions for an ILS approach to runway 23 at Ahmedabad in fine but hot, turbulent and hazy conditions. After landing and refuelling, we were towed to our parking area where D-FLEX remains for the next 12 days.

 

There was a slight delay getting past a charming Indian immigration lady who thought our tourist visas were incompatible with our pilots’ uniform but this was eventually resolved by the handlers who then delivered us to Deborah’s driver waiting for us outside to garland us with sweet smelling roses before a three hour drive to our first night stop at Dungarpur in the Udai Bilas Palace there, an amazing 19th century building furnished by the then ruler in art deco style. After a drink in the bar at the back of a garage full of interesting vintage cars, we dined outside in some style along a rectangular pool, light adorned with night lights.

So ends our first day in India. It is good to be back again and the holiday bit now begins. I will try to record the more interesting elements of our visit in the blog over the coming days.

Abu Dhabi to Ahmedabad 1,028 nm in 3 hour 40 min

The day dawned fine and sunny and after a prompt breakfast, it was off to Heraklion airfield to refuel for the shorter of our two flights today. Fuel came quickly and we were airborne 15 minutes after our planned departure time.

During our climb to FL270, some CB activity was seen off to the east towards Turkey; the weather grew hazy as we neared the Egyptian coast and a cloud layer below us formed as we traversed the Western Desert with the odd green patches of cultivated land to the east. We were given a minor diversion south of Cairo but with a very good tailwind approaching 100 kt, we could not complain. Transferred to Hurghada radar, we were vectored for the RNAV approach to runway 34L in increasingly turbulent conditions. The main instrument runway 34R was closed and barricaded off for no very obvious reason so a long taxi round to the terminal.

There our handling agent met us; there was some delay in getting fuel because BP had apparently not sent the required fuel release but with much telephoning this was sorted after a while, flight plan filed and Phil took over  for the afternoon flight to Abu Dhabi after a turn round of about an hour and a half.

This was planned for FL310 to get the best from the tailwind with maximum fuel economy. Cloud with forecast tops of 22,000 ft over Saudi turned out to top at around 32,000 ft above our ceiling, so much of this flight was in slightly bumpy IMC. We had a late lunch and then tea (Tracey’s fruit cake!) as it got dark over the Persian Gulf before our second night landing of the trip at Abu Dhabi’s business airport. What a difference to yesterday evening; here we had vectors to an ILS approach and saw the runway several miles out, landing in a balmy evening temperature of 23ºC.

The airport is getting ready for an AeroExpo starting on Sunday but otherwise was quiet; fuel came quickly, we managed to persuade the immigration that Miranda was ‘crew’ and after that, it was off to the hotel and a much enjoyed steak and beer.

We discovered that there is a two hour time change between Hurghada and Abu Dhabi but at least that means we can start an hour later for India tomorrow morning.

Heraklion to Hurghada 667 nm in 2 hr 45 min

Hurghada to Abu Dhabi 1,156 nm in 3 hr 50 min

We left Biggin Hill in cloudy, raw weather at 9:45 am after loading all the luggage and saying goodbye to Tracey with me flying the first leg. Soon we climbed into clear sunny skies and it essentially remained like that all the way to Split. We flew at 27,000 ft and gradually as we went southeastwards, various cloud layers started to build beneath us, climbing up to our level and necessitating a climb to 29,000 ft as we crossed the Alps, with the odd snowy peak visible below us. Over the Adriatic, the weather cleared to some extent although there was light rain on landing at Split.

A quick turn around and we were airborne after refuelling within the hour. Cloud became more scattered as we flew south with a fair number of snowy peaks to be seen over Albania, Greece and Crete and a sizeable CB with tops at around 31,000 ft out to our right as we approached Crete. The sun set and Phil made his first night landing in D-FLEX on runway 09; as we found out in 2014, this is quite difficult to find with a 40º offset approach and again there was some debate in the cockpit as to exactly where the airport was.

After landing, we were marshalled to some remote spot, and with a 45 minute delay for refuelling, we decided to leave this until tomorrow. Then it was into Heraklion to our hotel and out for dinner in a very jolly local fish diner with some ice cream, sweet puff balls and fearsome raki thrown in ‘on the house’ for pud (only a very small amount of raki taken given tomorrow’s programme).

 

Biggin Hill to Split 854 nm in 3 hr 25 min

Split to Heraklion 678 nm in 2 hr 40 min

Even years mean big trips and this year Phil Caiger and I are off to India. There is another change as well; last year Phil replaced his Piper Malibu with a TBM 700 C2 aircraft. This is in a different league of aircraft altogether; it is a cabin class turboprop aircraft which can carry six people and cruises at 290 kt at around 30,000 ft with a range of around 1,600 nm. It also burns Jet A1 fuel which sweeps away the need to make prior arrangements to ensure that expensive avgas is available at en route airports.  Phil suggested that I train with him for the type rating required to fly this aircraft so we can share the flying on these sort of trips. What an invitation!

Our route mirrors to a large extent the first of our trips together in 2013 to Muscat in Oman and only the last leg breaks new aerial ground. In India, we have a twelve day ground tour organised taking in cities in Rajasthan, as well as the Taj Mahal and ending up in Delhi. We explored the possibility of travelling within India by air but it soon became apparent that it would be easier to leave the aircraft in one place.

The additional payload available means that Miranda can travel with us. On purchase, Phil upgraded the avionics; instrumentation is traditional six pack with dual GTN750, dual transponders – one with extended squitter and ADS-B out – and the aircraft is RVSM approved.

We leave later this month.