Pictures are the Lotus temple in Delhi, Qutb Minar in Delhi, a couple Taj Mahal pictures and a photo at Fatepur Sikri. Check out my Facebook for more.
I left you a little more than half way through the North Trip and will continue with that along with describing what I did for New Years/ Christmas and what I am doing now.
So after Jaipur we went to Sawai Madhopur. That is a place between Jaipur and Agra and is supposed to be one of the few places where you can still see wild tigers. We went on a safari in the afternoon which continued till the early evening but didn’t see any tigers. We did see tiger footprints but we were joking around that they pay people to go out with a tiger footprint making stencil and place fake prints around. We did see lots of deer, monkeys, peacocks, wild boars and other birds. It was interesting how they tried to find the tiger, as they used the alarm calls of the other animals to try and find the tiger. Too bad it didn’t work. The next day we went for a drive to Agra and we stopped along the way at a place called Fatehpur Sikri which is an ancient abandoned city of a king which is carved entirely from red sandstone. It was interesting to see the history of this place but it was not amazing. The king embraced all religions so he had 3 wives, one Hindu, one Muslim and one Christian. Each of his wives had their own palace within the city. There was also a Mosque there and some thing where if you have a wish you tie a red ribbon to a holey holy wall and then your wish will come true. We left there and proceeded to our hotel in Agra. Our hotel had a revolving restaurant so that was cool, we ate there. The next day we did the sightseeing of Agra and drove to Delhi. For the sightseeing first we saw the Agra fort which was similar to what we saw the day before at Fatehpur Sikri but it had more marble with Marble inlay work. It was also a fort which belonged to that same king. One thing that I found interesting was that both the Agra Fort and the Red Fort in Delhi are both still used for military purposes. From the Agra Fort you could see the shadow of the Taj Mahal in the fog. On a clear day you can see the Taj Mahal well from the fort. The Taj Mahal was our next stop. I know what you are thinking, I am going to say something about being one of the wonders of the world, and you would be right. I don’t think I have seen something so wonderful and spectacular in my life. Nothing can prepare you for the sheer size and magnificence of the Taj Mahal. When you get your first glimpse of the Taj Mahal towering over the masses of people you still think that it is a photo. It still looks like a picture until you actually touch the cold clean marble. The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal who died giving birth to their 14th child. The Taj Mahal took 20,000 workers 22 years to complete. The thing that amazed me about the Taj Mahal was how symmetrical it was. It looks the same no matter where you look at it from; it is exactly symmetrical from all sides. There is, however, only one garden which stretches from the front entry of the Taj Mahal which has a long narrow pool and many plants which have been maintained exquisitely. Another thing that amazed me about the Taj Mahal was the Marble inlay work. Semiprecious stones had been inlayed into much of the marble which the Taj Mahal is made from. The work that this requires is intense, you need to carve a hole in the marble the size of the semiprecious stone you are going to inlay then trim the stones minimally but precisely and then use special glue to inlay the stones. Amazingly this glue has held up for centuries without fail. There is so much more I could write about the Taj Mahal but I don’t want to bore you. After Agra our next stop was Delhi. New Delhi is the Capital of India and had good sights to see. New Delhi was very clean for a big city and the roads were big although there was still an excess of cars. Old Delhi is a different story I’ve heard it is dirtier and not as tourist friendly. The sights to see in Delhi included a cool temple (which was too modern for my liking), a big ancient tower which was erected by a sultanate who built the tower to honor a victory or himself or something I don’t remember. I know the tower was very nice and had carvings in the sandstone all the way up the 70m tower and some other interesting ruins in the surrounding area. The complex was also interesting in the way that it mingled Islamic and Hindu decorative styles. Also we saw the India gate, the Parliament buildings and an interesting temple for the Bhai religion, which I didn’t completely understand. The religion was like they didn’t The temple was the called lotus temple and looked a lot like the Sydney Opera House but more like a flower. In the evening we did some shopping and also saw a sound and lights show at the Red Fort which is in Old Delhi. The sound and lights show gave a history of the area, India in general and the fort. The fort was very similar to the Agra Fort and was built by the same guy who built the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan. This guy truly shaped the Mughal empire in India. In the evening we did time pass together and went to bed. One of the most confusing things in India to me is time pass, people use this phrase very often and could mean anything. People text others stupid questions and wait for the answer as time pass, argue with others as time pass, look up useless stuff on the internet as time pass, think about stuff as time pass or just hang out together as time pass. Time pass could mean anything to pass the time but it is still confusing why the phrase time pass is used. Instead of trying to justify what you are doing you just deem it time pass as it has no other purpose other than to pass time. Ok that was my rant for the day, I feel better. Spending time with the exchange students is really great they are like the family we miss back home. The next morning we saw a Mahatma Gandhi memorial which has a fire that has been burning since his cremation, his last words, an important quotation and a bunch of trees that have been donated by various world dignitaries. We then drove to Haridwar which is a holy city, one of the seven holiest places to Hindus. It is the place where the Ganges descends to the plains and is holy because according to Hindu mythology, Haridwar is one among the four sites where drops of the elixir of immortality, Amrita, accidentally spilled over from the pitcher, in which it was being carried away by a celestial bird. We arrived after a 6 hour drive and did time pass around the hotel and had dinner. The next day was a better day though. We got up early in the morning and drove an hour and a half into the foothills of some mountains then went river rafting on the Ganges. It was incredible; we went through some pretty good rapids, went swimming at various points on the river and also jumped of a small cliff into the river. The water was pretty cold but I had definitely swum in colder water. We were allowed to swim down one set of rapids which was amazing and at one point we stopped on a small beach to play Frisbee with my Canada Frisbee. The whole experience was so awesome. In the evening when we got back we attended an aarthi of the river Ganges, it was like some prayers and rituals then people would set a candle afloat or bathe in the water. It was really interesting to see. I took some water from the Ganges and will bring it home to Canada. One funny thing was that when I was descending the steps to get the water from the Ganges I slipped and fell in the water. Luckily the steps continued into the water so I only got my right leg and upper body wet. It was pretty terrible but a cool story to tell back home. We went back to the hotel in the evening for a pretty bad dinner and hung out together. The next day we drove back to Delhi and took the train home. The trip was absolutely amazing, it allowed me to see the side of India you read about or see on TV as opposed to experiencing the big city life, which I also love. My next trip starts in 11 days and we are going to South India. I am sure it will also be incredible. So that is it for the North Trip but I could have written much more, now I will talk about New Year’s birthday and recent times.
Ok for New Year’s what happened was a bunch of us exchange students went to a BBQ and sleepover at one of the German girl’s houses. It is very rare to actually have a house in Mumbai but she is out in the Suburbs in a colony so she had one. We hooked up some sweet stereo, on the terrace and had a BBQ up there. That is where the party happened. I know you probably think India BBQ is terrible but the family was Parsee which is a religion and they are originally from Iran so we had beef. The beef was actually really bad because they steamed it before BBQing it but the thought of eating beef in India on New Year’s was priceless. Everyone pitched in and brought something for the party. I made pancakes in the morning which were actually pretty bad, except the syrup which is always good. For my birthday I rented a room in a sports club and it was all you could eat and all you could drink it was awesome. 23 people came and it was good times. In India for your birthday people feed you cake so lots of people fed me cake and it was all over my face after.
In the month of January I, along with the other exchange students, trained for dancing every day for 2 hours. We were training for a presentation we had to make at the Rotary District Conference. The dances we trained for were a folk dance/prayer from South India, a Bollywood remix and dancing to the national song (not the national anthem). The bad thing was I was fooling around and I seriously hurt my toe one day before the dance, I swear it was broken because it was not straight and I went into shock after it happened. In the evening I iced it and taped it up then the next day I taped it up more, sprayed some special athletic spray that numbs the area, and popped 3 advils then I was ready to go. The first dance was good; we spent a lot of time on it as it had very intricate hand movements and such. The Bollywood remix was a blending of 3 one minute clips from 3 different Bollywood movie songs, it was very upbeat and fast but was very fun to dance to. The next dance was to the national song and passed along a very important message of unifying India and putting an end to terror. In the dance there were 4 couples who preformed 4 different dances from different regions of India. I preformed a Bhangra dance which is from North India (Punjab) with a Brazilian girl, and then there were also dances from South India, East India and Western India. Each of the 4 couples dressed differently to match with their region. Overall the dancing went really well I feel and because of the importance of the message we passed along we got a standing ovation. I really want a copy of the video that was taken because I haven’t seen how we actually looked, you can’t tell from up on the stage.
I think that is pretty much it for now. I have started Indian drum classes and will be going on that South trip pretty soon. I can’t believe how fast time is moving. I will have been here 7 months on February 10th. I will be doing a yoga teachers course in the month of March and might post before the South trip but I doubt it.
Anyway take care and enjoy the increasingly “warm” weather wherever you are in the world.
