The Imperial Hotel is a majestic, gleaming white art deco beauty surrounded by manicured lawns and tall palm trees. Inside wood paneling and prints of British Raj India harken back to an earlier time. It is a grand place, elegant, and refined.
But one of my favorite features of the Imperial is a phenomenon called the "Cyber Butler". The Cyber Butler, I kid you not, is on call 24/7 to provide tech support to guests of the hotel. Cliff of course discovered his existence and we had need to call upon his services on more than one occasion. One day we called him to assist us at the breakfast table and he arrived laptop open and ready. Unfortunately not all of my issues are solvable by the Cyber Butler such as the mystery of why I can't format paragraphs in my blog or edit anything. I've given up on trying to fix these things. I will have to make the blog presentable when I get home.
This morning after a very early breakfast who did we run into in the lobby but Vivender, the representative from Spirit of India in Delhi who several years ago ably shepherded us around the city and helped us get to and from Agra. We took a group reunion photo at the airport and I must remember to email a copy to him.
He has a way of ushering us to the front of all lines, cutting through the red tape shall I say, so we can check in to flits without hassle. Go Vivender!
Our flight to Lucknow departed (again from the beautiful new Indira Ghandi airport) at 9 am. Our Jet Lite flight looks like any other Boeing 737-700 flight I've been on except for one thing. I've never seen passengers milling in the aisles still searching for overhead compartment space while the plane was taxing on the Tarmac. Even the handsome young Indian flight attendant looked our way and muttered under his breath "unbelievable". I have pictures that unfortunately I can't post right now but you'll see them later.
I was shocked as we landed (after a very bumpy flight) that I couldn't see 100 yards through the thick hazy smog. I guess I won't be seeing much of Lucknow! At least from a distance anyway. The airport is small; a one carousel jobby and we were met by our contact, Praveen.
Checked into the hotel Taj Vivanta and quickly headed out for a few sightseeing stops. First was Dilkusha armory and former hunting lodge which is destroyed around 1850. We got a brief Hindi lesson: "doast" for example means friend, the literal translation of each syllable means "sad, happy, tension". The idea being that a friend is someone who sticks by you through sadness, happiness and times of trouble. Isn't that nice?
Lucknow is an odd looking city. Because it was almost completely destroyed in 1857 and because it is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, much of it has been rebuilt in a attempt to depict the city as a grand center. There are enormous parks - miles long and miles wide - bordered by pink stone walls, while outside people live in makeshift tents along the side of the road.
Most of the vehicles in Lucknow seem to be either tuk-tuks or motorbikes. Traffic is unbelievable (Indians do drive on the left by the way) and even a drive on a two lane road is hair-raising.
My favorite of the afternoon stops was the Claude Martin (la Martinier) boys school built in 1775. It was a strange experience being there. Imagine a what appeared to be, from afar, a huge decrepit prison-like building. Imagine nearing the building and realizing that you hear a cacophony of voices; young boys laughing and talking, echoing throughout the building. This is not a ruin after all, it's a functioning thriving school for boys - very nice looking boys of all ages dressed in uniforms with jackets and crests on the pockets.
At the front entrance of the building there were large lions and wide sweeping stairs. The whole scene was quite majestic and I had a marvelous time photographing the building and the boys.
Did a little obligatory chikan shopping (chikan is the speciality embroidery of this area) as rain periodically fell outside. Weather today has been chilly and I've worn my black windbreaker all day. By 5pm we realized that we hadn't eaten since breakfast and returned to the hotel for happy hour and dinner.
Food was surprisingly delicious; had a dry rub Alwadi chicken, yellow lentil patties and vegetable buriani. Fell into bed exhausted at 10:30.
This morning after a very early breakfast who did we run into in the lobby but Vivender, the representative from Spirit of India in Delhi who several years ago ably shepherded us around the city and helped us get to and from Agra. We took a group reunion photo at the airport and I must remember to email a copy to him.
He has a way of ushering us to the front of all lines, cutting through the red tape shall I say, so we can check in to flits without hassle. Go Vivender!
 |
| Portrait of Cathy and Cliff |
 |
| As we roll down the taxi way for take-off... |
Checked into the hotel Taj Vivanta and quickly headed out for a few sightseeing stops. First was Dilkusha armory and former hunting lodge which is destroyed around 1850. We got a brief Hindi lesson: "doast" for example means friend, the literal translation of each syllable means "sad, happy, tension". The idea being that a friend is someone who sticks by you through sadness, happiness and times of trouble. Isn't that nice?
Lucknow is an odd looking city. Because it was almost completely destroyed in 1857 and because it is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, much of it has been rebuilt in a attempt to depict the city as a grand center. There are enormous parks - miles long and miles wide - bordered by pink stone walls, while outside people live in makeshift tents along the side of the road.
Most of the vehicles in Lucknow seem to be either tuk-tuks or motorbikes. Traffic is unbelievable (Indians do drive on the left by the way) and even a drive on a two lane road is hair-raising.
My favorite of the afternoon stops was the Claude Martin (la Martinier) boys school built in 1775. It was a strange experience being there. Imagine a what appeared to be, from afar, a huge decrepit prison-like building. Imagine nearing the building and realizing that you hear a cacophony of voices; young boys laughing and talking, echoing throughout the building. This is not a ruin after all, it's a functioning thriving school for boys - very nice looking boys of all ages dressed in uniforms with jackets and crests on the pockets.
 |
| The Claude Martinier School |
Did a little obligatory chikan shopping (chikan is the speciality embroidery of this area) as rain periodically fell outside. Weather today has been chilly and I've worn my black windbreaker all day. By 5pm we realized that we hadn't eaten since breakfast and returned to the hotel for happy hour and dinner.
 |
| I think this photo speaks for itself. |
No comments:
Post a Comment