Visiting Agra and Taj Mahal

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We left Delhi at 8 a.m. in the morning and arrived in Agra eight hours later (see Road from Delhi to Agra). The closer we got to Agra, the more our excitement grew. Taj Mahal, here we come! Will it be as stunning as everyone claims? And yes, I confirm, it was very impressive to see this enormous white marble mausoleum in the horizon for the first time. After dropping our bags at Hotel Kamal, we rushed to Taj Mahal, but the entrance procedure did not go as smoothly as it could have. Our bag contained illegal objects: guide books (!?), a torch and cellular phones, and had to leave them at the entrance (check recent regulations at your hotel). After passing the security check, we arrived in the garden. Suddenly, there we were, with thousands of Indians, some tourists and cameras in every hand. Once in a lifetime experience.

As Internet and guidebooks are full of information about this extraordinary 17th century mausoleum, influenced by Hinduism and Islam, I am not going to go into architecture and history (for example, Eyewitness India guidebook excels in architectural and historical descriptions). So, I will stick to sharing some more photos: Impressive, right?

In our opinion, it was definitely worth arriving before 5 p.m. and wandering around Taj Mahal until the sunset. Highly recommended! Moreover, as you know, the sun is so strong in India that even for photo shoots the evenings are much better. Alternatively, you could also arrive very early in the morning.

The next morning we woke up at the sunrise (5.30 a.m.) and climbed to the roof terrace of our hotel. The famous appearance of Taj Mahal was worth the early wake. In fact, I would recommend either staying at a hotel that has a great view, or finding a roof top you can easily access in the morning. After the morning photo shoot we walked around the Taj Ganj quarter (in the immediate proximity of Taj Mahal), which left us a pleasant impression. Quiet streets, old gates, rustic but charming houses, and friendly people. We had breakfast at the roof terrace of Shanti Lodge near our hotel and decided not to visit the Agra Fort and the Agra city center (that surely are worth visiting!). Next we picked up our bags and paid a rickshaw to take us to meet our driver who was waiting for us outside the center. FYI: cars are not allowed too close to Taj Mahal, so your driver may ask you to take a rickshaw to reach your hotel.

It was 8 a.m. and our day was only starting. Fatehpur Sikri, here we come!

TAJ MAHAL TICKET AND ENTRANCE INFORMATION: To my understanding, tickets can be purchased until 5 p.m., allowing you to stay until the sunset. There are also night viewing tickets available around the full moon, but not on Fridays. However, please note this information is based on our travel memories from March 2008 and on Internet reading, so please check the latest information with your hotel prior to arrival in order to avoid disappointments!

HOTEL KAMAL (http://www.hotelkamal.com/): The hotel was very simple, but we had big windows and hot water. Its location and roof top were big bonuses. However, my quick Tripadvisor browsing shows that recent reviews are not that great. It seems they redid the hotel since our visit and unfortunately there are no prices available on the hotel’s website. So, all I can say is that we were pleased with our stay, but we paid 400 INR ( 4.7€ or 6.5USD). A real bargain!!

EATING IN AGRA: We did not eat particularly well, so cannot recommend anything.

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PS This is the fourth post about our trip in Delhi, Agra, Rajasthan and Bombay in March-April 2008. Previous posts are:
Part 1. Arrival in Delhi: first impressions
Part 2. Eight cities of Delhi
Part 3. Road from Delhi to Agra

Lastly, have you already joined Pearlspotting?

Road from Delhi to Agra

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To travel from Delhi to Agra by car, train or plane, that is the question of many visitors heading to see Taj Mahal!

The distance between Delhi and Agra is just over 230 km, but driving along the old National Highway can easily take 5 hours. When we drove to Agra in 2008 it took us eight hours with some stops… And this is with a driver who knows the road! However, thanks to the recently built Yamuna Expressway the travel time is close to three hours now. Definitely worth the toll.

We met our driver in front of our hotel and begun the journey at the dawn. Navigating out of Delhi was not as painful as I had expected, and we soon found ourselves surrounded by agricultural and industrial countryside, colorfully dressed people and some interesting monuments. Our first stop on the route was Mathura. This lively, religious small town used to be Buddhist until Hinduism took over in the 8th century. Today, it is known among devoted Hindus as the birthplace of Krishna. Precisely, it is in the temple of Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi were he was born, it is said. No cameras were allowed inside.From Mathura we moved to Sikandra, where the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great is buried (1555-1605). His mausoleum is a 17th century architectural masterpiece, which Akbar according to a Tartary belief started constructing during his lifetime. It is said to be a forerunner of Taj Mahal and I found it very beautiful.

I know many travelers catch a plane or a train to Agra, mainly to save time, but now that there is this new road, traveling by car becomes as interesting I reckon. Both Mathura and Sikandra are worth the stop, Mathura for religious reasons, Sikandra for architecture. Both are along the national highway, making it very convenient to visit them if you are on the highway. However, if you are traveling on the Expressway, it probably makes sense to use the fast road until Mathura, and from there until Agra use the highway. But ask your driver…

Whatever you decide, buy some water and enjoy the ride!

PS This is the third post about our trip in Delhi, Agra, Rajasthan and Bombay. Previous posts are: Part 1. Arrival in Delhi: first impressions and Part 2. Eight cities of Delhi

Jodhpur Palace: classic North Indian food

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Paris is great for many things but not for North Indian restaurants. This is not London. And I am suffering from this!

After visiting India three times, I find it harder and harder to eat North Indian food here. South Indian food is ok (see My love affair with Saravanaa Bhavan), but North Indian food is more difficult. I sometimes go to Nirvana Inde in the 8th but it is quite far away from where I. And there also is Le Palais de Raja Maharaja (in the 15th, bordering the 7th), but I don’t live nearby either.

Probably because of my recent posts about India, we really wanted to eat North Indian food yesterday. My husband searched Tripadvisor, Le Fooding and Michelin, and finally we opted for Jodhpur Palace in the 12th, recommended by Michelin. I guess we had a bit of bad luck because there was a crazy couple next to us, making scenes, but I liked the way the staff handled them.

Contrary to what many reviews say about Jodhpur Palace, the service was fast and our chutneys arrived promptly. The wine, Côtes Du Rhône Seigneurs De Laudun (2011) arrived a few minutes later, too. It paired well with the dishes we chose.We ordered cheese nan, butter chicken, Hyderabad lamb, bartha and palak paneer. They looked delicious and were nicely presented. We preferred palak paneer, which was particularly tasty. It was made of real Indian cheese (and not of La vache qui rit cheese) and the taste was very refined. Our second-most favorite dish was butter chicken. A great dish with high-quality chicken. Bartha, the eggplant puree was loved by my husband, but I thought it had something missing. Lastly, Hyderabad lamb was not bad at all, but the mint taste was too strong. I do like mint a lot, but I think the beauty of Indian dishes is that they are so subtle and so harmonious that there isn’t just one flavor that becomes dominant. This said, our dinner was a delight and I think we will return to Jodhpur Palace. The bill came to 75€ and we thought it was very reasonable.

JODHPUR PALACE (http://www.jodhpurpalace.com/) : in the corner of 42 Allée Vivaldi and 16 rue Hénard, Paris 75012. Tel: 01-43407246.

PS They serve thalis during the lunch hour and I am interested in tasting them.

Eight cities of Delhi

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Most tourists use Delhi only as an entry point to travel toward the Himalayas or Agra. Many say Delhi is a disgustingly dirty city with nothing to see, but this is not true. This may come as a surprise, but I believe everyone should spend at least two days exploring this historic city. Read more and see why!

We spent three nights in Delhi, and after our initial shock (see Arrival in Delhi: first impressions) it grew on us. We ate well, we visited well and the history of the world had never felt so fascinating. During our first day, which happened to be the Holi Festival, we had lunch at the historic Karim’s restaurant (ok food, nothing special) and visited the nearby 17th century Jama Masjid mosque. The view from the minaret was breathtaking.During our second day, we rented a car with a driver, and started the tour with the Red Fort, the fortified 17th century palace of the Mughal empire. Afterwards we visited the Jain temple across the street, which was our first-ever contact to Jainism, and Raj Ghat, the Gandhi memorial.

After a very pleasant lunch break at Chicken Inn (very good food), we continued toward the older sites in the southern part of Delhi. As many of you probably know, Delhi has been the capital of seven empires. Today, the ruins of these empires can be easily visited and it would be difficult for me to highlight just one, because each one of them was interesting in its own way. Some remaining cities reminded me of the Silk Road architecture I had seen in Uzbekistan, whereas some were pure examples of Muslim architecture. Afghan architecture was strongly present, too. To our delight, a lot had remained in a very good shape. However, if I must mention one city to visit outside the city center, I would definitely say explore Mehrauli, the first city of Delhi, where the famous 12th century Qutb Minar is located (the one in the photo). In the same site, you can see the mysterious Iron Pillar from the 3rd or 4th century (http://wikimapia.org/7381299/Iron-pillar-of-Chandragupta-II-Vikramaditya-375%E2%80%93414-CE). Such a lovely, interesting site. We spent a lot of time here, because many Indians stopped us to be photographed with them. How cute. We felt like Bollywood stars…We had such a fascinating day and I think Delhi completely outdid our expectations. Should I return to Delhi, I would definitely reserve one full day to revisiting all of these cities, and the ones I did not have time to see. As a tip I would suggest (like we did) renting a car especially for the visits in the southern part of the city. It can be a long way… Moreover, before you rent the car, make sure that the driver knows these cities. Everyone has probably at least heard about the Qutb Minar tower, but your driver doesn’t necessarily know the location of the other, less known cities. Ours didn’t, and he even kept insisting they don’t exist or that they aren’t worth visiting…. and to some extent he was right. At some sites we were the only people, which brings me to the last point. Visiting these southern cities can also be a nice way to get away from the hectic city center full of cars and people. Think about it and I bet you won’t be disappointed.

More information on the eight cities: http://www.delhitourism.gov.in/delhitourism/aboutus/eight_cities_delhi.jsp

PS So far, I have made three one-month long visits to India. I felt quite overwhelmed as to where to start (see e.g. India: Top 10 places to visit) but I have now made my decision. I will start unfolding my India experiences from the beginning, by posting about our first visit, which included Delhi, Agra (Taj Mahal), Rajasthan and Bombay. So, what you are reading now is the second post about this trip, and the previous one can be found here: Arrival in Delhi: first impressions. Stay tuned for more!! And don’t forget to join Pearlspotting on Facebook.

Arrival in Delhi: first impressions

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Almost exactly six years we arrived in India for the first time. The night flight from Paris landed in Delhi in the middle of the night. We had booked a taxi service from our hotel and the driver was waiting for us as promised. So far so good!

The journey to the hotel was long and noisy. We saw expensive palace-like hotels, shacks, cows and people gathering by fire. Typical contrasts India offers to visitors. But the longer the taxi took to navigate through small streets, the more we got worried. Where are we going to? What mostly worried us, I think, was that we were supposedly approaching the center, but the city didn’t get any cleaner. Isn’t it usually the other way around? Aren’t the slums “outside” and the rich “inside”?Finally, maybe 3 o’clock in the morning the car stopped. It was pitch-black and we sincerely thought the driver needed petrol or that there is a problem. There was nothing apart from homeless people and cows by a big fire. And this is when the driver said “Welcome to Hotel Namaskar”. Like in the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, except that Marigold was a palace compared to our “hotel”…. I don’t remember if back then I was swearing in English, French or Finnish, but I must have said a few selected words.I had booked Hotel Namaskar by email and they had been very responsive and friendly. I guess I had found it through Lonely Planet or Tripadvisor. It had seemed ok, centrally located and cheap, and all this was true. So what had gone wrong? Ok, I must admit that there was one more reason why I had booked it: I wanted us to jump into the “real Indian life” as soon as possible. I guess I saw sleeping in a cheap, dirty hotel as a kind of vaccination? Or maybe I believed that if we start at the bottom, it can only get better? Whatever it was, my now husband was in utter shock. “There is no way I am sleeping here”, he said. By now we had already been taken to our first room, which was worse than a prison cell. It did not even have a window. I hate it when it is pitch black, so we insisted getting an other room. The receptionist informed us that it will be more expensive, but when you talk about one euro more, who cares. We got our new room, with private bathroom and a window, and crashed into bed. After all, it was almost 4 o’clock in the morning.. what else could we have done?

We ended up staying at Hotel Namaskar for three nights. We never touched the floor with bare feet and there was no room cleaning, but the bed was clean enough. We saw some cockroaches (only few) but there were no bed bugs. No hot water either but this was not necessarily the hotel’s fault. After three nights we left Hotel Namaskar in a private car with a driver to start our 14-day tour of Rajasthan with a drop-off in Udaipur we had bought at 400€. Our driver’s behavior will be another story, but we had an excellent trip in Rajasthan. And thanks to those very cheap nights in Delhi, we had more money to spend at beautiful palaces around Rajasthan!

HOTEL NAMASKAR (http://www.namaskarhotel.com): 917, Chandiwalan, Main Bazar, in the Paharganj area. Within walking distance from the railway station.

Standard room: 400 INR (4.70€ or 6.50USD).

PS Please don’t be turned down by these not-so-beautiful photos! There will be plenty of others that will surely be more appealing! India IS a very attractive country, wait and see.

The biggest farm of Paris

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In case you missed it, Paris International Agricultural Show ended last Sunday. It is an annual, nine-day long exhibition that attracts nearly one million visitors from France and elsewhere. The president of the French Republic always pays a visit during the first day, and this year Holland spent seven hours inside the Show. This is how important the Show is to France. We decided to spend last Friday evening at the Show and very much enjoyed ourselves. In fact, I thought that the Show was extremely fascinating and well done. The offer is huge and diversified, focusing on four main sectors: livestock, nature, gastronomy and agriculture as a profession. One can taste milk, get free samples of cat and dog food, learn how to cook, watch animals competitions, change a career (schools and employers are present to recruit), explore food products from different parts of France, including wine, etc. In addition, there are restaurants serving regional specialties, making the Show an excellent way to learn about France’s rich gastronomy.We spent most of the time admiring cows and beef, and believe me when I say that some of them were enormous. In fact the biggest animal (a bull) of the show was called Le Fêtard (Party Animal) and it weighed 1691kg. Le Fêtard was sleeping while we visited him, so we moved to my favorite cattle breed “Charolais”: I love their features and that curly white hair.

As you may know, every year there is a showstopper at the Show. Two years ago when I first visited this Show it was Valentina, and this year it was Bella, a beautiful, elegant seven-year old cow from Tarentaise breed. It was no doubt that Bella was the star of the Show, because when we found her, she was surrounded by dozens of people calling her name and trying to catch the best shot of her. In fact, if you go to the website of the Show, you can find a lot of information on Bella and her breeder and daily life in the Savoy region of France, near the Alps. The website continues to reveal that “Bella has a very easy nature, and is gentle and curious” and “Bella has two jobs: producing milk for Beaufort cheese and maintaining the Savoy landscape”. It almost feels like reading someone’s CV…!

This time we did not stay to eat at the Show, simply because no-one was serving côte de boeuf. It was a pity, because two years ago we ate a really tasty steak at the Show. Well, maybe next year!

Even if it is too late for this year, do not miss the Show next year! It is worth a visit, for many reasons. There are many activities for children, too.

English website of the show: http://en.salon-agriculture.com/

Who is Bella? http://en.salon-agriculture.com/Discover-the-Show/Who-is-Bella

Note: I love animals but I also have a professional interest toward agriculture because I recently wrote for a publication related to agribusiness. The publication was not about France but we did a lot of comparative analysis and France came up several times. As many of you know, France is very proud of its gastronomic heritage and diversity, and agriculture is viewed as a sector of prestige. And as the Show shows, French agribusiness receives a lot of state-driven marketing support, which is fantastic. Image building is vital for growth, maybe even more than we realize. (I just realized myself that I don’t think I know the type of cheese Bella’s milk produces and I should go and buy some. See! Bella is not only the star of the Show, but also the best PR person along with President Holland of course…!)

PS Pearlspotting can be found on Facebook, too!

Market surprise

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Doing groceries at the food market is exciting: you never know what you come home with! The weekly market supply for food products depends on the season, on the weather, on transport issues, on regulations, on trends, on political issues, etc. –you name it! And that is why it is so interesting (if you like unpredictability).

For example today, my husband asked for the price of mussels. The seller was in a hurry to return home and responded: “They were caught yesterday. I have tried to sell them for 6€ and nobody wants them, so if you like, take them home for free”. My husband offered him money anyway but the seller smiled and said no worries.

So, today’s (late) lunch is going to be mussels with parsley, celery, onions, white wine (Muscadet) and crème fraiche. And guacamole, grilled bell peppers, slow-roasted cherry tomatoes for the rest of the week. La vie est belle!

PS If you like this, why not to join Pearlspotting on Facebook?

Holy cow!

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Some of you have asked me to post more photos of India and I will be doing so: slowly but surely. I have thousands of photos and even if I think many of them are great shots, I admit it is difficult to post without writing a story to go with. So much has happened in India and there is no single photo that does not bring back memories of wonderful people, delicious food and amazing sites. In fact, how could I publish just one photo?

PS The story of this cow: it lives in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, and I found it outside the main temple. It was being fed by locals and seemed to like modeling for tourists like me. What a charming cow with beautiful eyes… worth posting the photo of it, right?

Le Tipaza: refined Moroccan food

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Le Tipaza is located in the northern part of the 15th arrondissement, not far away from the Eiffel Tour and UNESCO. We used to go this Moorish restaurant a lot in the past and were always very pleased with food and service. And yesterday was not an exception! Le Tipaza serves classic North African specialties (couscous and tajine) and some French dishes. My husband always chooses couscous and I take tajine (which is gluten free because it comes without the semolina). The wines come from Algeria, Morocco and France. My husband’s couscous royal came with a large bowl of hearty vegetable stew, a plate of mixed grilled meats, small bowls of raisin and chic peas, and semolina of course. He absolutely loved the stew, beef and chicken. The rest (merquez and lamb) he found tasty, too, but a bit dry. Anyhow, it was an excellent couscous. I usually have tajine with lamb but changed my mind and ordered chicken. The tajine I chose came with preserved lemons, onions and olives. Some potatoes were included in the dish, too. It was delicious!! Such a delight! We drunk Château Mansourah, Côteaux de Tlemcen (Algeria) and it was a perfect choice: aromatic, slightly maderized red wine made of grapes that grew under that strong African sun. On previous occasions when drinking North African wines we have noticed that they make us really tired –maybe it is the sun effect? Yesterday again we felt the same and in the end of the meal we could have fallen asleep right way. The dinner was very enjoyable and we were happy customers, but indeed the only thing we could have wanted more was a magic carpet to fly us home over Paris!

Lastly, the bill was 51€ for a couscous, a tajine and a bottle of wine. Excellent price-quality ratio!

Le Tipaza: 150 Avenue Emile Zola, 75015 Paris. Tel: 01 45 79 22 25. Metro: Avenue Emile Zola.

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Previous posts about eating North African food in Paris are:

L’Alcôve: finest meat of Paris (also serves couscous and tajine, but house specialty is grilled meat)
Algerian restaurant l’Atlantide in Paris (excellent couscous and tajine)
L’Homme Bleu: Berber hospitality in the center of Paris (reputable couscous and tajine restaurant but I was disappointed during my last visit)

Tribute to Parisian architecture

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As I was returning home this afternoon I stopped to take photos of this building, located right next to our metro station. The station has three exits but this is my favorite sortie. I get out of the tunnel, see the sun light and these elaborate statues salute me, time after time. One of those moments that makes one’s day. Hence this photo, a tribute to the 19th century architects and workers. Bravo.

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