The ruined British Residency in Lucknow, scene of the start of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 (Indian First War of Independence). Muslim and Hindu soldiers mutinied after being told to bite the bullets for the newly issued Enfield rifles as part of the loading process. As they believed they were smeared in animal fats from pigs and cattle it was against their religion. On 30th May 1857 battle commenced and lasted through to 27th November. The Residency was retaken by East India Company reinforcements in March 1858. Following this an act of the British Parliament abolished the East India Company, India becoming a British Crown possession until Indian independence in 1947
Having left on time, we arrive in Lucknow almost an hour late, but Mr. Arif was there to meet us. To the hotel, which is very posh, but Lucknow is not a touristy place, except to Brian. He wanted to learn about the Indian mutiny, or as the Indians call it, the first war of independence! We sorted some laundry and straight out, to the British Residency. There were only a few buildings left to walk around, but it did feel quite real. The bullet holes and cannon ball marks in the walls certainly told a story. I have to confess to flagging somewhat and not paying much attention, so hopefully the info will be with the pictures!
A painting in the small onsite museum showing what the British Residency used to look like
The second visit was round the bazaar, looking at the east and west gates before going into the Safed Baradari which would be an amazing dance hall. Past a couple of stunning tombs before finishing up at La Martiniere. This is now a boys college, but was built by Major General Claude Martin who was born in Lyon in 1735. He never actually lived in the house but had written a very detailed will about what should happen to it and how it should be completed if he died. This was done, so it is the most amazing looking boys school with amazing sports facilities as well as horses, bagpipe studio and probably anything else you can think of!
Many bullet holes still visible in the walls. 2,500 British people were killed, wounded or missing and it is believed around 1,500 Indian people were killed. Although the rebellion started here, it spread to many parts of India and became a general uprising
Travel around town was slow due to Prime Minister Modi being in town, so I may have embarrassed myself waking myself up snoring in the car! We had one more stop and that was to finally get a SIM card for Brian, just in case, though mine does seem to be working again I have lost a bit of faith. It was a painful process with Atif seemingly acting as sponsor, or something. Not only did they want passport and visa, they wanted address and OTP from Atif. All a bit much for £2.99 but hey it’ll last 28 days and we can either top up or not.
The banqueting hall
Travel fatigue seems to have hit, many early mornings and probably a bit dehydrated, I don’t want to drink much on the train as I don’t want to visit the bathroom!
Rear view of the Residency. It was not this dilapidated immediately after the siege, looting occurred for some time afterwards reducing it to this level
Day 20
A fairly relaxed start, 09.30 pick up, hurrah. (Tomorrow will be 06.00 for another train!) Two Imambara or Muslim meeting places. The first, Bada (big) Imambara, or Asafi Imambara because it was constructed by Nawab Asaf ud doula which was very old and relatively plain. Built entirely differently from the red sandstone and marble structures we have seen so far, structures in this area, including the buildings yesterday, are made of small bricks with lime mortar, than plastered with lime mortar and painted.
The graveyard around the small ruined church in the grounds
The highlight of this one though was the maze, or labyrinth within the walls which was really interesting. Atif was unable to take us there himself as he only had angioplasty last month so is not allowed to walk fast and go up and down stairs. Fortunately a friend of his turned up with four other English people so we tagged along with them! Great fun, up and down stairs, looking out of balconies and ventilation shafts all around the building. We weren’t allowed to go in the mosque on the site but did go to the well, described as a step well but without the steps! The interesting thing about this was that at one point there was a cleverly designed pool of water to reflect the entrance to the complex so in the past it was possible to see who was approaching without them knowing they were being spied upon!
With many inscriptions to those who died during the siege
We then went to a second Imambara, Chota (small) Imambara, which to my mind was more beautiful, coloured in black and white. I think what did it for me though was the mass of chandeliers inside. I loved it. They were probably put there for storage during the uprising as religious buildings were left alone, but whatever the reason, it was good.
I wanted to put on this short youtube of a rickshaw ride we had through Lucknow today, just to give an idea of driving in India
Next was a trip through the bazaar, stopping enroute to look at the clock tower, the highest in India which he likened to Big Ben, but I think looks more like the Birmingham University clock tower, and the not leaning, lower ‘tower of Pisa’! The bazaar was really interesting. Lucknow is the centre of different things, clothes with blockwork printing which are then embroidered. We saw some of this happening and also some stunning embroidery going on. Silver work was also being carried out.
Visit to the impressive Safed Baradari hall
Food was also a thing in the bazaar, we tried a sweet milk ‘fluff’ decorated with pistachios and real silver foil. We’d seen this when walking with Nidhi, but we didn’t try it then. Hopefully it wasn’t a mistake! Then a carrot sweet made from purple carrots, bit weird but ok. The highlight however was when we got to the savoury, kulcha nihari. The kulcha he described as bread, but it was almost like a puff pastry cooked in a tandoor, very buttery and absolutely delicious. Nihari is meat stew, traditionally buffalo but now occasionally mutton. We had buffalo which had been slow cooked and was so tender. It was almost a deconstructed steak pie, but wow! Another little stop for some kebabs which were selling at 5p each, I’d have eaten more, but didn’t have the space! I just feel really bad that Atif hasn’t been able to eat with us, but he says he is protecting his heart!
The equally impressive La Martiniere school, originally built by Major General Claude Martin as his palace, but he died before it was finished. He is buried here and left detailed instructions for its completion and future dedication as a school
I’ve had my photo taken three times today with three different girls, who all ask so politely, which is lovely. I’ve also been pulled at and tugged by people begging for money, which is exactly why I didn’t want to come to India.
The rear of the palace/school
We are now back at the hotel for the afternoon before going out on the Nawabi cuisine food trail. I feel so much better than yesterday and having the afternoon to chill is just fab!
I know this Youtube is a bit out of order, but this is for the previous blog during our visit to Keoladeo National Park near Agra and is of the python slithering through the undergrowth that we saw. I didn't have time to put this together for the last blog so I'm doing it now. Enjoy!!
Later on our last night at Lucknow...
Not sure what the Nawabi cuisine food trail was meant to be, but we went for an interesting walk through the bazaar, stopping for a mutton biryani and some more little kebabs and bread, at the ‘other’ Tunday kebab shop which Atif had proudly to,d us was number 12 on the Taste Atlas 150 most iconic restaurants worldwide. It’s now at number 5 for its kebabs, and no, I don’t know who Taste Atlas are, but the kebabs really were very good! Walked on somewhere else and had a mutton Rogon Josh which was a pleasant enough gravy, but very little meat, before finishing, in another place, with a kulfi. All thoroughly enjoyable, and rounding off a top stop in Lucknow.
Here's our photos from Day 20:
The impressive Bada Imambara. Imambara means meeting house and relates to Shia Islam only, not Sunni
An a mosque at the side, also very impressive. We weren't allowed inside that
The meeting room inside. Its a vast room with no supporting pillars for the roof. Stresses from the wide roof are taken by the walls and to make it possible the walls are 15 feet thick (even 19 feet in some places). The walls aren't solid, but two walls, interconnected to provide the strength and a by-product of this is the labyrinth of passageways within the two walls.
We temporarily left our guide at the bottom and joined another group of 4 English people with their guide to ascend the steps up through the labyrinth
Royal or important ladies who didn't want to mix with the others would walk through the passageways and alight at a small balcony overlooking proceedings
Along more tunnels, we were now completely lost
And finally up onto the roof
With splendid views over the grounds and city beyond. There's the mosque on the left
Reunited with our guide and having said goodbye to the four English guests we got on a tuk-tuk to head to the other Imambara
And here it is, the Asafi Imambara with its distinctive black and white paint. I did track our progress using a mapping app on my phone and created a short Relive video of our progress. You can see it by clicking here
Inside the Asafi Imambara is a huge quantity of mismatched chandeliers. Atif thought it was something do do with the 1857 siege where no religious buildings were touched so wealthy people stored their artifacts there and never collected them. Its very pretty, but a bit over the top
On the front doorstep of the Imambara Atif told us that here you can see architecture from four different countries. On the left is a copy of a Portugese church, right a bit just past the man posing and almost out of view is a shortened copy of a non leaning tower of Pisa. Next to that is a miniature Taj Mahal and further right is a copy of Big Ben (it looked more like the University of Birmingham clocktower to us)
That is supposed to be an unfinished copy of the leaning tower of Pisa (a bit unconvincing!)
And that he thought was a copy of Big Ben (also unconvincing!)
So now we went for a stroll through the busy bazaar to get some local lunchtime food
On the way I had to take a photo of a Royal Enfield motorbike. A classic old British bike now made in India. Its a proper classic and is on every Indian who wants to ride ones wish list. Fabulous!
First sample of the day at this little shop
Purple carrots fried with nuts and dried fruits in ghee. Actually quite pleasant
Actually that wasn't the first thing, this was. Its a fluffy custard type dish that's kept on ice (the red thing under the conical perspex you can see there. It has very thin layers of silver on that you eat with it. Silvers good for you apparently. This was quite delicious although I'm not sure Jackie was quite so thrilled
A pause at another shop to watch some wedding gown embroidery going on. This isn't gold thread, but gold plated. He worked extremely fast and had his other hand underneath to catch the stitch as he pushed it through from the top
Next stop this small underground eatery. We'd never have walked in here on our own down some small backstreet, even less known what to order!
Fortunately Atif knew. And here it is Kulcha Nihari. Its a crispy bread, a bit like flaky pastry that you dip into that delicious mutton gravy. The nearest thing we'll get to steak pie! Great taste
Next stop, here. In the pan are Galawati Kabab which are pieces of buffalo fried with various spices. Absolutely delicious and cost only 5 rupees each (5p)
And there they are served on a leaf. This place was called Tunday Kababi and the restaurant rates as number 5 in the top 150 most iconic restaurants worldwide according to Taste Atlas
Its not the surroundings that do it, but it sure did taste good!
On our way out of this 1km long avenue of fabulous little eateries and this arch is very old and iconic (but I can't remember why now! It might be because its very old, 16th century?)
After an afternoon of chilling (during which I got most of this post done), we were back out again for a culinary tour of the city for more local dishes
First off another Tunday Kababi award winning restaurant for mutton Biryani. There was another restaurant after that I failed to take photos of. In there we had a mutton Rogan Josh, quite different from those we have in the UK and was OK, not quite as fabulous as the others, but probably because it was so different, like a spicy soup with lumps of mutton in
We finished off here at Prakash for kulfi, an Indian ice cream
And there it is, very tasty. I ate all mine and most of Jackies too. Atif had his with noodles on as you can see. As the noodles were washed in water (which may not have been filtered water), we declined this addition
Well that's it, we've left Lucknow, been on this train for six hours and are now in Varanasi for the next three days
There's the engine that pulled us. More on this and Varanasi in the next blog. Bye for now!!
The schedule said to leave at 09.00, but that was when breakfast started so we sneaked in early, and got the time pushed back to 09.30. A long drive (6ish hours) though we did get to go on a section of the new Mumbai- Delhi 4 lane motorway, or 5 as Ram counted as apparently the hard shoulder is a lane, along which pedestrians are allowed! About an hour and a half to Agra Ram got a bit agitated, pointing out the bird sanctuary that we are due to visit tomorrow, along with the fort on the hill. This after visiting the Taj Mahal at sunrise and the Red Fort of Agra. He took matters into his own hands and we are pleased he did, liaising with our Agra guide Ashlish that not only would we do the ‘back view’ of the Taj at sunset we would go straight to the Red Fort on our arrival. It is another fabulous structure which I think we saw all of, before rushing to the car and crossing the river to the viewpoint of the Taj.
On a section of a new four lane motorway that will eventually connect Delhi to Mumbai. Our Indian driver saw five lanes (what we know as a hard shoulder is counted as an extra lane over here), but it it was busy it'd be eight or nine lanes!
I had been a bit distracted as about the time Ram pointed out the bird sanctuary my phone stopped working on data, though still worked for calls so I was contacting Lebara who talked me through all sorts of checks to find nothing needed changing. On the third call they finally agreed to open a ticket, which probably won’t get looked at till Monday! After chatting to a group of four Brits at Ranthambore we had talked about getting a SIM for Brian as £3 for 28 days it seems silly not to. Trying to persuade Ashlish to give us a hand on Saturday night proved difficult and then on Sunday it was too early!
Seen on another road travelling at 80kph (50mph) what could possibly go wrong?
As we passed them look what we saw. This is a right hand drive vehicle, so the man in the green jacket sitting on the window frame is actually in the drivers seat
Day 18
Meant to be an 05.30 start to ‘see sunrise over the Taj’ we were easily persuaded that 06.30 would be fine. Ram is always early, as are we, so his 06.13 forwarded message of one of mine saying ‘please come’ was not a surprise. He has both forwarded my messages back to me and sent voice recordings, both of which have worked absolutely fine.
Agra fort and the palace inside, built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan
We collected Ashlish and arrived at the car park where there was a big queue for golf carts to walk the kilometre to the entrance gate. We were happy to walk though I think Ashlish wished he hadn’t suggested it, apparently he thought he walked fast till he walked with me! Very little queue and £13 for tickets each (which included shoe covers and a bottle of water) and we were on our way. There is no getting away from it, it is a beautiful building, built by Shar Jahar for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who he obviously loved very much, despite promising her on her deathbed that he wouldn’t marry again, and then marrying her sister six days after her death!
Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal memorial for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, but soon after his youngest son, Aurangzeb murdered his two elder brothers and imprisoned Shah Jahar in this area of Agra Fort for seven years, so he could take the throne himself. Shah Jahan eventually died and was buried alongside his wife in the Taj Mahal. From the windows of the tower he could look out on the Taj Mahal in the distance, which can be seen in this photo
He spent so much on the structure he brought famine to the area in the 22 years it took to build. We assume this was one of the reasons his youngest son had him imprisoned in the Red Fort for 7 years until his death, when he was buried beside Mumtaz. At least he was in a corner of the Fort where he could look at the Taj. This may, or may not have been the son’s justification, as despite being the youngest son he had killed his three elder brothers to get to the position of being ruler!
Agra Fort is an imposing, very grand building
To give a focus to the Taj they have built beautiful replicas of both coffins for us to look at (though not photograph) as the real ones are underneath.
This is the rear view of the Taj Mahal on the other side of the Yamuna river which we visited at sunset. You can just see the red glow of the setting sun on the right (west) side of the dome
Back to the hotel for breakfast before out again at 10.00 back to Fatephur Sikri, the fort on the hill, about an hour and a half west of Agra, where we met our next guide. He seemed to know his stuff but really did talk very quickly, so much of what he said went a bit over our heads. Again it was interesting, and a UNESCO site built over 14 years by a Mughal ruler who had three wives, one a Muslim, one a Hindu and one a Christian, in order to try to get power from all directions! This did lead to some interesting structural differences in the areas for the different wives. Despite taking 14 years to build it was only actually inhabited for 4 as there was just not enough water about to make it all work. They went to the Red Fort in Agra and it became a stopping off point if travelling west.
Behind us are foundations of a building started about the same time as the Taj Mahal and directly on the opposite bank. It's octagonal in shape and exactly in line and some say it was the start of a mausoleum that Shah Jahan started to build for himself before he was imprisoned by his son. Others dispute this, but we'll never know
Somewhere during this tour my phone started working again, all very strange!
Early next morning we were up bright and early to see one of the wonder of the world, the Taj Mahal - and it didn't disappoint!
We then went to the bird reserve, not knowing what to expect, where we were met by another guide, who had worked on the reserve as a research chemist until his project finished since when he joined the bird spotting guides. We got into an electric tuk-tuk, lovely and peaceful, and pottered off. First stop into the undergrowth didn’t find the snake he had been hoping for, living in a hole it shares with a porcupine. Second stop however and we could hear it before we could see it, and it was no small thing, about 3 m long, gently slithering through the undergrowth. Mrs Python was also by the hole, but we couldn’t see so much of her. Great pictures and on to the wetlands area of the park. What a huge variety of birds, storks, geese, ducks, herons kingfishers… will just have to see how many of the pictures we can identify!
A truly wonderful building, especially in the early morning mist, despite the crowds of people
Shattered after our run of early starts, back to the hotel for about 17.00 ish (it would have been a long day if we’d had to do the Red Fort too!) Sadly as driving back to Agra my phone stopped working again, pretty much as we crossed the state line into Uttar Pradesh. Shame as we are in UP for the next couple of stops. I rang Lebara to update them on this but they seemed particularly unimpressed. Well have to see what happens today
Trying to get lots of different angles, this one from one of the corners
Day 19
Today being day 19. Another early start, collected at 05.30 to get the 06.30 Agra to Lucknow train, on which I am now writing. Again, en route to the station we collected another man who took us in to the station, to our train, into our seats where he took a photo of us and left telling us not to get off the train! The meeter in Lucknow has been told he has to help us get a new SIM card!
I like this one of Jackie with our guide Ashish walking into the sunrise next to one of the minarets
There are so many other fabulous photos. This one is from the front of the Taj looking back to the entrance gate, the Daravaja-e-rauja
Jackie with Ashish outside the Taj, him pointing out the intricate marble carving and inlays
Morning visit to the Fatehpur Sikri fort near Agra, built by emperor Akbar between 1572 and 1585. It was a walled city with walls of 9.5km in length. The central column in here represents many religions from Mughal, Hindu, Jain, Islam, Persian and Christian
A magnificent and huge fort that was abandoned after 4 years but used almost as a guest house for some years after for pilgrims on their way from Jaipur to Agra
Afternoon visit to Keoladeo Ghana National Park. We didn't know what to expect here but it was a fabulous visit, guided by an ex employee who spent almost his entire working life here in this 29 acre wilderness. He managed to find this 3m python slithering through the undergrowth and I managed to snap this photo of him hiding in the undergrowth
There his is sliding almost silently through the bushes
This really turned out to be a really good visit. We happened to be there at the right time of year as there were so many migrating species here and our guide had such an eye for spotting things. We can only remember a few names now, so there will be many blanks that need filling in. These are painted storks
Some spotted deer had waded out to an island
Turtles basking in the sunshine
An Indian spot billed duck
An antelope
An eagle eyed heron waiting to pounce
This is something like a grey headed marsh duck
Our guide seemed quite excited to see this. Its a bay-backed shrike
Look at this beauty. John tells me its a white throated kingfisher
Two Pied Kingfishers that look like they are talking to each other
And this little beauty is like the kingfishers we have at home, its a juvenile blue eared kingfisher. Thanks for the ID's John. And, by the way, I took all these photos myself with my little compact camera with 40:1 zoom lens
He told us this was an eagle swooping in but didn't enlarge on what type it was. I just managed to capture this as he flew by
This is a Drongo. I got just so many great photos, it was a fabulous tour. He had a telescope with him and the crisp images through that put all these photos to shame. But you get the idea
We came back to the car park and a tame spotted deer had come in looking for food. The family who had set out their picnic were hurredly collecting it in before he helped himself
This morning at Agra Fort railway station. We had to almost step over the sleeping bodies of the homeless to get to the platform
Through the morning mist and the train window our last view of the Taj Mahal as we crossed the river on our way to Lucknow. It's been a really good, but hectic visit to Agra, we've thoroughly enjoyed it, but its all very tiring! Next up, Lucknow. See you next time
