We All Scream for Ice Cream

One of things I like about Singapore is that while it is one of the most modern cities in the world with its over the top architecture and efficient transportation systems, it still keeps on with a little of the old ways.  One of those throwbacks is the ice cream sandwich carts. 

In many high traffic pedestrian areas, like along the Singapore River of by the Marina, you see these carts with their umbrellas.  Usually run by an Uncle (who makes the ice cream sandwich) and the Auntie (who is responsible for taking the money), these carts are SO Singapore.

Unlike an ice cream cart in the US where the attendant would reach into the freezer to pull out a factory made, soggy graham cracker with vanilla ice cream wrapped in foil, the Singapore sandwiches are made fresh and to order.  That means you get to choose the flavor of ice cream you want, along with the type of bread.  For bread your choices are the traditional soft rainbow colored bread, or a crisp wafer cracker (my favorite).

I usually go for a chocolate chip ice cream filling.  The Uncle pulls out the ice cream brick and cuts off a 1 inch slice it his knife.  He quickly slips it between two wafers and hands it to you in a piece for wax paper.  While he was doing that, the Auntie was collecting the $1.50 SGD (about $1.15 USD).  You are quickly on your way.

As you can imagine with the heat of Singapore, you must eat it pretty quickly as you walk along.  Usually it is gone in less than five minutes, but those five minutes are wonderful as the cold creamy ice scream contrast with the crisp wafer.  It will put a smile on anyone’s face.

Litchfield Provided a Rich Field of Sights

The “Top End” was not a phase that I had heard of prior to planning our Chinese New Year’s trip to Darwin.  Everyone said it was the wet season, that it was hot, and what was there to see there anyway.  Well, Singapore is hot and wet this time of the year so we are used to it (not to say that we like it or have adjusted to it, just that we are used to it).  As far as seeing things, we found out about Litchfield National Park, a couple of hour drive south from Darwin.

Our first full day in Darwin, we headed out to see what Litchfield NP was all about. After an easy drive through Darwin we ended up on the Stuart Highway.  This 4-lane divided highway was a breeze to drive, especially considering in Australia, like Singapore, you drive on the wrong side of the road (i.e. the left).  Another thing that was different were all of the small billboards dotting the shoulder side of the road, one right after the other.  But when the road turned to a two-lane highway without a divider, the road signs ended too.

The other odd thing that happened at this point was that the speed INCREASED.  The nice divided highway had a speed limit of 100 kph (62 mph), but the narrower highway with just a white line separating oncoming traffic has a speed limit of 130 kph (80 mph).  One observation though is that people pretty much follow the speed limits exactly, no 10 mph margin of error like in the US.

After passing Bachelor, we entered the Park.  There was a sign, but no formal gate or even a park fee.  As this was the wet season (aka low season) there were few cars at our first stop, the magnetic termite mounds.  Right next to the car park there was a wheelchair friendly path eading to a platform surrounding a cathedral termite mound.  Immense is the word that came to mind—this thing was huge, about 5 meters high.  Nearby was another one which you could get right up to.

Turns out these are about 50 years old.  We had seen quite a few on our drive, but none as big as these.  You could see the termites scurrying and working everywhere.  I was expecting these termites to be the larger wood boring ones we have in the US, but these actually looked like medium sized ants. And the mound was somewhat reminiscent of drip sandcastles we built as kids.

On the other side of the car park was what we came to see—the magnetic termite mounds.  These are completely different from the cathedral variety.  They are not as tall, about 2 meters high, and instead of being a 3 dimensional “blob”, they are like giant wafers or tombstones.  And there were probably close to a hundred spread across a large, green grassed meadow.  In the distance it had a kind of Stonehenge visual quality.

Hats off to the Australian National Parks (would that be Men Without Hats?) for fencing off the area to allow you to view them without people or their impacts.  The park has created an elevated boardwalk to be able to view them well and in the right way.  At this time of the year it means these dusky gray mounds set in a sea of long, green grass.  Beautiful.

The mounds are all oriented in a north/south pattern.  This is to minimize the heat gain from having the hot, Australian sun beating down on a large exposed slab, building up heat inside.  The thing is, the termites that build them are completely blind.  Researchers have found that these termites are able to detect magnetic north and use that ability to orient their building efforts. (Note: researchers tested the theory by placing a large magnet nearby a mound and the mound construction began to alter to this “new north”.)

Back in the car we headed further into the park and wound up at Buley Rockhole.  Like almost all of the pathways in Litchfield, much of the way from the car park to swimming hole was wheelchair accessible making it an easy walk.  In this case there were some steps at the end, but still a good surface to walk on.  And this car park was filled with cars and kids in swimsuits, carrying swimming noodles.

When we got down to the swimming holes we saw a chain of swimming spots, all being enjoyed by kids of all ages.  One had a rock above it that was a popular jumping off spot.  It was a mellow, family experience for a hot day.

We headed up a little further to Florence Falls.  Again there was a good, paved trail leading to a spectacular overlook of the falls.  The falls were flowing into a swimming hole at the bottom.  And the swimming hole was being used by about a dozen people, paddling right up to the churning water.  (We skipped walking down and up the 135 steps from the platform to the swimming hole.)  The falls were surrounded by mixed vegetation, both monsoonal forest with palms and other water intensive plants and cypress pines that prefer a more arid environment.

Now it was time to head to Tolmer Falls.  Tolmer Falls is a long, slender waterfall that falls into a secluded plunge pool that is off limits to people to help a preserve bat nesting area.  There is a nice boardwalk trail (of course) that leads to an observation area.  Besides a good view of the falls, you can look out across the outback, a spectacular, yet subtle view.  We watched as a thunderstorm approached, its rain bands falling.

I always seem to keep a weather eye.  Whether this is from sailing many years ago or from spending a lot of time backpacking I don’t know.  But in this case, it paid off.  As we walked back to the car in a light drizzle I made sure we didn’t dally.    Just as we got to the car we began to feel hard drops beginning to fall.  Seconds later, after we were in the car the skies let loose with a downpour.

As we drove to our next destination it continued to rain hard and the windshield wipers struggled to keep up.  In the US we are always told NOT to drive through water flowing across a road.  In Australia it’s different.  Here there are “Floodways” marked by signs where water is known to flow over the highway.  In addition, there are markers at the low point showing the depth of the water.  They are either 1.4m or 2.0m high which means A LOT of water can collect.  It also means that the Australian attitude is “use your best judgement”.

We didn’t have any significant water to drive through, but there were spots where it was a few inches deep and I was glad that I had rented a full-sized SUV in case things got worse.  When we arrived at Wangi Falls it was still coming down.  We decided to spend some time snacking and try to wait it out.  Julie had caught a glimpse of the falls as we drove through the car park, so at least we could say one of us had seen the falls.

We decided to give up and began to leave when Julie caught another view of the falls.  Then too, the rain stopped almost as quick as it started.  So we drove back through the car park and re-parked.  The paved trails still had a couple of inches of water on them in some places, but it was an easy walk to the falls.

We passed warning signs about being “Crocwise” and they aren’t fooling.  Crocodiles like the water as much as people do and that is not a good mixture.  The water level of the plunge pool was quite high and in case anyone thought it a good idea to ignore the warnings, the rangers had put up temporary fencing to separate the plunge pool crocodiles from would be waders.  This helped make sure that there were no Darwin Award winners in Darwin.

The raised boardwalk path was just a few inches above the water and the falls were thundering from the waters just pouring down.  A heavy mist and wind was in our faces as we stared at the wonder.  There were even small waves, maybe a foot high, generated by the crashing waters.  Spectacular is the only word than can describe what we saw and it is not enough.  We took pictures and a little video, but it still doesn’t capture what we experienced. 

When we got back to the car Christopher, who didn’t want to brave the possibility of getting wet so stayed in the car, told us while he was sitting there he saw a kangaroo hop by.  The kangaroo evidently stopped for a while not realizing he was being watched.  Christopher got a great look.  Leaving the car park we saw a few more along side the road.  These weird animals are common, but fun to see.

It was getting later and we were hungry, so we decided to head back to Bachelor for lunch at a pub there.  As we entered town, we saw a blue miniature castle on a corner.  We actually stopped and looked at it, but for some reason we didn’t take a photo.  Well, the next day we found that it was in the Atlas Obscura website, one of our favorites.  But trust us, we were there! (The other site in the Darwin are was the Darwin Oil Storage Tunnels which were closed for Australia Day when we went to visit them.)

What we did take a picture of on the way back was the giant boxing crocodile in Humpty Doo.  A town with the name of Humpty Doo is just asking for us to drive a few kilometers out of the way.  Add a giant boxing crocodile and there was no way we could pass it up.  It taking the time to do the little things that makes travel so memorable.

We enjoyed exploring The Top End.  Our final night in Darwin we headed to Mindil Beach Casino and Resort.  We normally aren’t casino people, but it was Australia Day and we knew lots of the “regular” restaurants would be closed so we opted for here.  As we sat at the Sandbar sipping our drinks, watching the sunset on the Timor Sea, we talked about our 3 days in NT. 

Bottomline, we had fun.  It wasn’t a must see when you are looking for a place to visit.  But Litchfield NP was a place to see, if you are in the area and love the outdoors. And Darwin had its own history to learn about, especially surrounding WWII and its bombing by the Japanese.   We were happy we went.

Live Like a Raj at the Taj

Even before we moved to Singapore, the Taj Mahal has been on our (well, mostly Julie’s) bucket list of places to visit.  We talked about it for about 2 years before FINALLY picking a date and booking plane tickets. 

India is a unique and complex place.  Doing things almost always take longer and requires more work than you would think, but it’s totally worth it.  Our first decision was when did we want to go.   Julie follows Katie Couric on Instagram and when she went last November and had a wonderful time was the first clue that November would be the time of the year to go. 

November in Agra is significantly cooler, but the air quality is not as good.  Living in Singapore we are used to hot and humid weather (nighttime lows of 24C and typical daytime temps of 31-34C), but June and July in Agra while clear is unbelievably hot, approaching 50C.  So we decided to take our chances on visibility in exchange for cooler weather, we had temperatures of18 to 25C. (Note: We did have a bit of regret 3 or 4 weeks before when the air quality PMI readings reached 700-800 in Agra.  Luckily there were down around 150 when we were there.)

Our good friend Lauren said she wanted to join us as it was a bucket list item for her too, so we happily included her and we booked flights from Singapore to Delhi, leaving around 4pm on a Friday and returning Monday evening.  Next were the in-country logistics.  There were a couple of options.

The first is to take the Gaitman Express tourist train from Delhi to Agra.  It leaves Delhi in the morning and returns in the evening, so a day trip is possible, but we thought that would be a little too much.  We looked into an overnight with transportation by the train, but we doubted it would save us much time as we would have to get from an airport hotel to the downtown Delhi train station.

The second option was to go to Agra by car.  We have learned that car travel in Asia ALWAYS takes more time that you would expect as the roads are narrow and tend to go through the center of city, towns, and villages.  We also learned that they have built an express toll-road between Delhi and Agra and it would take just over 3 hours.  It sounded like our kind of plan.

Searching on the internet we stumbled across Perfect Agra Tours and reached out to them.  We outlined exactly what we wanted: There would be four of us, pick up at our hotel, the Holiday Inn at the Delhi Airport and be taken to Agra.  There we wanted a hotel (3 rooms) and guide for the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, then be driven back to our Delhi airport hotel for our next day’s morning flight to Singapore.

Perfect Agra Tours responded promptly and after a little back in forth clarifying things they quoted $115 USD each for 4 people (total $460 USD).  That included the car and driver, hotel, and guide in Agra.  Ashish kept in touch via WhatsApp in the days and weeks leading up to the trip.  We arranged to pay him in cash while in Agra. 

The Holiday Inn in Delhi was great.  We arranged in advance for transportation from the airport to the hotel (as we always do—so much easier).  After leaving the Arrivals Hall we found our name on a sign and we were quickly on our way to the hotel where we checked in.  Travel in Asia has so much more friction that traveling in the US with immigration at arrival and a more complicated hotel check in process (copies of all passports etc.)  Needless to say it took about 2 hours from landing until we were in our room.  Welcome to India.

We woke up that morning early what with the 2.5-hour time difference.  Plenty of time to shower, pack, and partake of the breakfast buffet included with our room.  We were to meet our driver in the lobby at 10am and in a very un-Indian way, we met Rajis about 10 minutes before the appointed time.  Soon we were in his nice Toyota mini-van and on our way to Agra.

We followed the outer beltway around Delhi until we hooked up with the beginning of the Yamuna Expressway.  This expressway is a wonderful way to travel.  Much like a US freeway, it has limited access and 3 lanes in each direction.  The speed limit is 100 kph, which means the trip to Agra would be a little over 3 hours.  There was the occasional tractor towing an overloaded trailer full of farm products as well as people gathered at key spots waiving down busses—so you knew you were in India.

There was a rest stop about halfway there, which had 3 important features: 1) Clean restrooms, 2) Some tourist shopping, and 3) Starbucks.  We made use of all three and were then on our way pretty quickly.  We passed through an area that we could only assume was a brickmaking district as there were at least 70 quite tall smokestacks, part of the kilns of the firing process.

Ramada Courtyard Fountain

Rajis delivered us safely to the Ramada in Agra.  We checked in and then headed to lunch at Bon Barbeque.  Geared towards western tourists, there was a buffet on the first level that had a wait.  We decided to head to the upstairs where there was an ala cart menu—we made the right decision.  The highlights were the cashew nut chicken curry (deeply layered flavors) and the mint paratha (just the right amount of char).

It was there too that we met Ashish, the operator of Perfect Agra Tours, who I had been WhatsApp’ing with.  He had me send him a selfie of myself so he could readily find me.  He talked through our program and told us that our guide would be Hapy and that Hapy was a happy guide.  With that, we headed out to meet Hapy and see the Taj at sunset.

Agra is city of about 2.5M people which, for me anyway, made it easy to get my mind around and oriented (unlike Mumbai and Bangalore (which are HUGE and confusing).  Driving through it you know that you are in India; no sidewalks, dirt, vendor carts, wandering cow and dogs, and people everywhere.  It turns out this is “wedding season” in Agra and the wedding venues were all running at full tilt.

We headed to Mehtab Bagh and made it just before closing.  This is directly across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahal and is a good place to view sunset.  Sunset at this time of the year really isn’t that special as the omnipresent haze means it’s less of a sunset and more of a general reduction in light.  But this was our first view of the Taj and a great introduction.  While there were others there, it wasn’t what I would consider crowded—especially for India.

Mehtab Bagh is a symmetrical garden aligned with the Taj across the river.  It was originally going to be the site of The Black Taj which Shah Jahan was going to build for himself, but he got sidetracked when his son Aurangzeb imprisoned him in Agra Fort for the rest of his life (he fared better than Aurangzeb’s brothers who were all killed by Aurangzeb).

We headed back to the hotel for what Lauren calls “Dirty Gins”.  Now I assumed that this was a dirty martini (which I consider a sacrilege unless you are a using the olive brine to cover up the taste of cheap gin), but I was wrong.  This is having a cocktail, any cocktail, after a day’s activities BEFORE taking a shower and freshening up. A great way to end a great day and a tradition that we will be adopting.

The next morning we met our car and driver at 7am to see “sunrise” at the Taj.  At this time of the year sunrise is a little before that.  But also at this time of the year with the haze and fog there really isn’t a sunrise, just a gradual lightening of the sky.  On the way to the East Gate we picked up Hapy our tour guide.  I’d like to say that Hapy wasn’t so happy that morning as he had been at a wedding until 3am, but you would never have known it.  He was great.

We paid for our tickets (about $15 USD each —with a discount for card payment) and headed in.  The first thing to know at the Taj is that you are limited on what you can bring in.  No Food is seriously enforced and which the local monkeys love as they raid the trashcan of spoils for breakfast (Lauren donated a protein ball and made a monkey happy). 

We hopped on a golf buggy and were dropped off at the South Gate.  Hapy began to explain to us the history of the Taj Mahal.  It was here that he began to point out some of the inlayed stone that, among other things, makes the Taj Mahal so special.  It was also here that we saw a flock of parrots on the grass—something you don’t see every day.  The buildings in this section were made or red stone from Jaipur. 

Everything about the Taj’s design is about symmetry.  We entered through the South Gate and then saw our first daytime glimpse of the Taj through the gateway arch.  As we kept moving forward more and more came into view; the sky-blue reflecting pool, the 4 minarets, and, of course, the mausoleum.  Every Taj image that we had seen throughout our lives was there in front of us.

This place is Instagram heaven for those that are so inclined and there were many that were so inclined.    The crowd was much more American than anywhere else we have been in Asia.  And while there were people, it didn’t feel crowded. 

Hapy did two main things for us while on the Taj grounds.  First, he gave us history in bite sized chunks.  (We have had guides other places that spew a firehose of facts at us and our brains quickly overflow, not processing what we are hearing.) Secondly, he either took pictures of us or, more importantly, took us to spots where we could take wonderful pictures.  And we did!

Hapy moved us forward in stages, each time getting a little closer to the huge marble pedestal foundation that the Taj sits on.  And at each stop he showed us or told us things we would have otherwise missed.  We learned about the Mughal emperor who built it in memory of his wife and his son who imprisoned him (and killed his siblings). 

We put on shoe covers to protect the marble as we stepped up on the pedestal of the Taj. On the outside of the main entrance, Hapy pointed out the inlay work that forms a filigree of design on the outside of the buildings.  Semiprecious stones from different parts of Asia are shaped on hand powered grinding wheels.  At the same time the marble is carved a millimeter or two to be able to take the shaped stones.  They are then bonded together with a secret glue and after they are cured, the stone is polished.   (Later we went to a stone shop where we saw this in action). 

We went inside the mausoleum where the tombs are (no photography allowed).  Here is one of the few places where symmetry has an exception: His tomb is bigger than hers.   One of the docents held up his small flashlight to red inlayed stones and it glowed.  The inside is quite dark, but you get some light that penetrates through the marble walls.  These translucent properties of the marble are what allows the Taj to almost magically change its coloring as the light changes.  It is supposed to be spectacular during a summer’s full moon.

We headed out the back to the river side of the Taj.  We could look across the river to the planned site of the never built Black Taj where we were the night before.  Down the river there was Agra’s Dhoby Ghaut, which literally means washerman's place in Hindi.  Julie and Christopher have been to Mumbai’s Dhoby Ghaut where all of the hotel laundry is done.  And we have one in Singapore which used to be the washing place, but is now a sprawling MRT station.

As we left the Taj proper the 5 of us climbed into a tuk tuk to head back to our car and driver at the gate.  This was a pure sensory experience with the cacophony of horns and voices, the smells, the chaos of the streets (including wandering sacred cows, one of which headed into the main entrance of an restaurant).  This five minute ride WAS INDIA!

After going back to the hotel to pack up and eat breakfast, we headed out again.  This time we were off to Fort Agra.  The fort is at the center of Agra.  Its imposing red walls are huge and are surrounded by double moats. 

We bought our tickets (this time about $7.50 USD with a similar payment card discount) and walked through the main gate.  The sheer size of the walls was impressive.  You could clearly see the double moats that provided additional layers of security.  We walked up a sloping stone ramp that was also part of the security.  Stones could be rolled down the ramps towards invaders while, at the same time, hot oil and water could be poured down from slots in the walls above. 

At the top we looked at one building that appeared to have a couple of Stars of David inlayed above the doors.  When asked about this apparent oddity, Hapy explained that it was a shatkona, a Hindu symbol.  Interesting that the Hindu religion is responsible for both the shatkona and the swastika symbol given their meaning in the 20^th century.

We went into several of the buildings at the fort.  We saw where the British colonials had stripped jewels and gold from the walls, some as recently at the early 20^th century.   We also saw the “cell” where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son, but where he could also see his beloved Taj Mahal.  Much like the Taj, it was not overrun with tourists and had a peaceful quality to it.

After the fort we headed for lunch at Pinch of Spice, a sister restaurant to our lunch restaurant the day before.  The food there was great as well.  After our fill of Indian food and Kingfisher beer we were on our way back to Delhi.  The drive was uneventful, which is just what you want at the end of a trip.  And we got back in time for Dirty Gins.

India is such a unique place and Agra even more so.  

So last observations:

• India is work-- Don’t go there for a relaxing vacation, but be expected to be challenged and rewarded.
• Appreciate the noise and smells—there is nowhere else like it in the world that we have found.
• Agra is not a walking place -- You need to be driven (car, tuk tuk, whatever).
• Enjoy the sights -- the 4 wheeled carts selling veggies, the wedding lights being pushed down the streets, and the cows wandering peacefully.