I've grouped these two together as that's the order we visited them! We only spent a couple of days in each so theres not enough info for 2 posts...
Lucknow
On arriving in Lucknow, we noticed how different it was. We were in a new state (Uttar Pradesh) and everything was green, unlike the desert state of Rajasthan. We grabbed a Rickshaw to our home stay (like a BnB) and settled in.
The homestay was in a very rich area with not many tourists around, well actually no tourists at all. We found this an odd place to have a place for tourists to stay but never mind, although when we went out later that day to go and explore it was virtually impossible to find rickshaw to take us!
Lucknow itself is a very Muslim city and this was reflected in the archetechture and food. There were delicious meat kebabs on offer, althugh when we actually had them instead of being minced meat it was ground to a paste, like eating fried pate. Not altogether bad, but a bit odd.
We visited the tourist hotspots, a few mosques dotted around, a couple of tombs and a labyrinth. They were very interesting and were different to the Mughal art that we'd already seen. We don't tend to have guides as they can charge a lot and they set the pace of a visit which we don't like. However this doesn't seem to stop guards and random old men following us around and telling us the history of a place and then expecting payment, even when we say we don't want a guide. A particularly over zealous man followed us around a tomb telling us the info, I however walked off as I wasn't that interested and definitely didn't want to pay him. he had other ideas, shouting "Madam, will you please listen" across the very echoey hall! I slouched over like a teenager and glared at him the whole time. Needless to say we didn't pay him...
At the homestay we met a few lovely people from America (everybody say hi!), Aaron, Melinda, Josephine, Chelsea, Anastacia and Schuyler. They're students that have been given an opportunity to study in India as a partnership program with their college. So we all went out together the next day into the markets to see what we could find.
Allahbad
On arriving in Allahbad we were virtualy ambushed by all of the different rickshaw drivers wanting to take us to our destination. Even though we could walk to the hotel! We were followed by one particularly persistant cycle rickshaw driver the whole length of the road and up to the hotel car park!
After we settled in and sorted ourselves out we went for a walk to go and explore only to find out that a lot of places are closed on a Sunday. D'oh! We found the Indian Coffee House ( a co-op business that has branches all over India) so at least we knew what we were getting.
After a tasty coffee and an icecream we hopped in another rickshaw with a guy that looks like the Indian Robin Williams! We went to the Nehru's house, who are the first family of Indian politics. They have produced 3 Prime ministers including the infamous Indira Gandhi, only the 2nd female leader of a country after Maggie Thatcher.
It was interesting as the house has been kept as it was when it was used as a political base ad so all the meeting rooms and bedrooms have been kept in their respective times. There's even a small plaque showing where Mahatma Gandhi used to meditate on the balcony.
Strangely there is also a planetarium on site, which we went to. It was mainly in Hindi but it was quite therapeutic to sit under a dome and look at the stars above us. There was a 20 minute section on alien life, which we think may have been speculating on what aliens look like... A little odd but nevermind.
Low and behold when we walked out, our friend Robin Williams was waiting to take us home!
(No photos I'm afraid as this PC won't let my phone hook up)
Lucknow
On arriving in Lucknow, we noticed how different it was. We were in a new state (Uttar Pradesh) and everything was green, unlike the desert state of Rajasthan. We grabbed a Rickshaw to our home stay (like a BnB) and settled in.
The homestay was in a very rich area with not many tourists around, well actually no tourists at all. We found this an odd place to have a place for tourists to stay but never mind, although when we went out later that day to go and explore it was virtually impossible to find rickshaw to take us!
Lucknow itself is a very Muslim city and this was reflected in the archetechture and food. There were delicious meat kebabs on offer, althugh when we actually had them instead of being minced meat it was ground to a paste, like eating fried pate. Not altogether bad, but a bit odd.
We visited the tourist hotspots, a few mosques dotted around, a couple of tombs and a labyrinth. They were very interesting and were different to the Mughal art that we'd already seen. We don't tend to have guides as they can charge a lot and they set the pace of a visit which we don't like. However this doesn't seem to stop guards and random old men following us around and telling us the history of a place and then expecting payment, even when we say we don't want a guide. A particularly over zealous man followed us around a tomb telling us the info, I however walked off as I wasn't that interested and definitely didn't want to pay him. he had other ideas, shouting "Madam, will you please listen" across the very echoey hall! I slouched over like a teenager and glared at him the whole time. Needless to say we didn't pay him...
At the homestay we met a few lovely people from America (everybody say hi!), Aaron, Melinda, Josephine, Chelsea, Anastacia and Schuyler. They're students that have been given an opportunity to study in India as a partnership program with their college. So we all went out together the next day into the markets to see what we could find.
Allahbad
On arriving in Allahbad we were virtualy ambushed by all of the different rickshaw drivers wanting to take us to our destination. Even though we could walk to the hotel! We were followed by one particularly persistant cycle rickshaw driver the whole length of the road and up to the hotel car park!
After we settled in and sorted ourselves out we went for a walk to go and explore only to find out that a lot of places are closed on a Sunday. D'oh! We found the Indian Coffee House ( a co-op business that has branches all over India) so at least we knew what we were getting.
After a tasty coffee and an icecream we hopped in another rickshaw with a guy that looks like the Indian Robin Williams! We went to the Nehru's house, who are the first family of Indian politics. They have produced 3 Prime ministers including the infamous Indira Gandhi, only the 2nd female leader of a country after Maggie Thatcher.
It was interesting as the house has been kept as it was when it was used as a political base ad so all the meeting rooms and bedrooms have been kept in their respective times. There's even a small plaque showing where Mahatma Gandhi used to meditate on the balcony.
Strangely there is also a planetarium on site, which we went to. It was mainly in Hindi but it was quite therapeutic to sit under a dome and look at the stars above us. There was a 20 minute section on alien life, which we think may have been speculating on what aliens look like... A little odd but nevermind.
Low and behold when we walked out, our friend Robin Williams was waiting to take us home!
(No photos I'm afraid as this PC won't let my phone hook up)
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