Existing Member?

India.. . . My travels through India and teaching adventure in Lucknow

On Tourism in Lucknow

INDIA | Saturday, 30 July 2011 | Views [756]

View from the top

View from the top

Well as my time in Lucknow draws to a close I find it difficult to reflect on the amazing time I have had here.  The teachers at Vidyasthali asked me what I liked about Licknow and what comes to the forefront is the unending kindness I have been shown here.  Everyone—students, teachers, staff, people I meet in auto rickshaws, etc.—have all welcomed me to this city in a multitude of ways.  I will never be able to truly thank everyone for the kindness they have shown me.  But before I depart let me try to document the last in a series of adventures I’ve had in Lucknow with the dynamic duo Anand and Vikas!

 

On Sunday Anand, Vikas, and I attempted to make the most of the tourist stuff in Lucknow.   They kindly picked me up and before heading to Bara Imambara we made a quick stop for breakfast.  We had idli which is a South Indian kind of rice cake, almost a polenta texture, in a spicy curry.  (I think I described that right, otherwise boys please correct me J ).  It was delicious!  So far I have really enjoyed all the food in Lucknow.  After our stomachs were full (I could only eat ½ and felt like a wasteful westerner, but they assured me it was okay), we moved to Bara Imambara. 

 

Bara Imambara is a huge Nawab palace/religious place/shrine.  There are 4 buildings in the one area, one of which is still used for religious services.  They were constructed in the Islamic style that I’ve spoken so much about.  Beautiful scalloped arches and vaulted ceilings.  The main building has old pictures of Lucknow throughout and small alcoves or stages that are now used to house different exhibits or shrines.  Upon entering I once again relinquished my camera to Anand since he, as previously stated, has become my official Lucknow photographer. 

 

Then after ditching our shoes outside and looking around the inside of the main building we made our way to the Labyrinth.  First you have to climb a steep set of stairs to the top of the main building and from here you are allowed to explore the narrow hallways and dark passages ways that make up the top of the building.  As is the case in many countries, except the US, the safety of the visitor is not a huge concern.  One is allowed to climb about the top wherever one pleases.  In the US this would never happen.  So of course I tried to take full advantage of climbing about whenever possible.  The three of us continued to tramp about the labyrinth.  Vikas and Anand sporadically cracking up about the apparently ludacris information they overheard from the “guides” people had hired to take them around.  This made me happy that I had the “best” guides in Lucknow—even if they didn’t really have any information for me besides “unconfirmed” facts.  We eventually grew tired so we sat in the opening of one of the windows and simply put—enjoyed the view.  Upon our descent Anand told me I had to find the way back, which translates into us wandering around, and crawling through windows for an extra 15 minutes before I eventually managed to get us back. 

 

We then moved to another building in the same set of monuments, Bauli, it was a medium sized structure that surrounded what once was a well.  Creepy hallways encircled the large dried up well, but what was most fascinating was the amount of Lays potato chip bags littering the ground inside the building.  You could almost hear the muffled cries of the UNESCO World Heritage committee as we wandered over the empty remnants of those who passed before us.  From the Imambara we took a Tonga ride (Horse carriage, and super touristy) to Chhota Imambara a smaller shrine.  There we took more pictures—shock! Checked out the royal toilet, literally a massive bathroom with about 4 different sized built in tubs. Then proceeded to the ghat to ponder the gomti river and when we had tired and were fully touristed out we made our way back to Bara Imambara.  Along the way we stopped at a roadside vendor to drink coconut milk straight from the coconut and then watch as a man hacked the coconut open to serve us the coconut meat from inside our respective coconuts.  Yum! 

 

To continue my education into what really defines Lucknow we went to Mint.  Mint is a lounge with a surprising amount of young people, all flashing as many name brand items of clothing they possible can and trying to look cool while smoking hookah.  Now I say a surprising amount of young people, because a lounge is something that people in Lucknow don’t quite know what to do with.  Last week for example, we peeked our heads in Zero a family lounge, which is essentially a club where you will find men, families, and the occasional woman.  Club culture hasn’t quite made it to Lucknow, but they are trying and so it becomes a strange hybrid of family hangout/makeout spot/bar.  Yet out of all 3 the Lucknow dynamic duo took me to Mint was by far the best.  We relaxed on comfy couches, the boys watched cricket, and I tried to understand cricket.  I had a drink with ice!  Don’t worry I asked ahead if they used purified water to make their ice, and we had a meal of pasta.  I know also weird that they serve main courses in a club. 

 

From here we moved on to an area near Hazrat Ganj and had chaat.  Chaat is essentially street food in different configurations of fried goodness.  First we had aloo tikki and then moved onto these thin hollow fried balls filled with a spicy water and topped with yogurt and tamarind.  You have to eat them fast before they get soggy, so good!  We had three different kinds of chaat the names of which I can’t remember, but all were equally delicious.  In an attempt to seek out the night life we moved on to Lucknow University.  Anand and Vikas’ alma mater.  Turns out there is no night life there either.  J  But it is a beautiful campus, I really love the Islamic architecture in Lucknow.  We then went to a fairly new coffee shop for tea and surprisingly met two of Anand’s friends one of whom it was her birthday, so we all celebrated with a delicious chocolate strawberry cake.  By the end of our cake we were all tired and touristed out and so made the trek home.  Once again a great last day of tourism for me in Lucknow! 

 

I will try to update more, even though I will be moving on from Lucknow today.  I don’t know how much internet access I will have, but know that if you don’t hear from me all is well and I will let you all know when I arrive safely back in the US on 16th of August! 

 

Bye for now!

 

About kylabg


Follow Me

Where I've been

Photo Galleries

My trip journals



 

 

Travel Answers about India

Do you have a travel question? Ask other World Nomads.