Holy Cow!

Now that we have said goodbye to India and hello to Africa (our 5th continent - wow..), I have been reflecting a bit on our India experience. Usually as we depart a country we ask each other whether we would ever go back. In most cases it has been a fairly easy decision. I know I could move to Buenos Aires or Perth (or even Cape Town) tomorrow and be perfectly content I find that when I ask myself the same question about India the answer does not easily come.

Our brief glimpse into India showed us so many things. It is a country of amazing history that lives in its temples, forts, mosques and even its people. I had no idea that India is the birthplace of chess, of zero and pi as mathematical concepts (although I did know about the yoga thing). The food was fantastic. The spirituality that the people we encountered exhibit every day is something that I don't think I would ever be capable of. And how so many people can co-exist astounds me.

But there was also another side to India. The despair that we saw on the streets from the beggars (especially women with newborns or just little kids) that routinely approached us, to the point of knocking repeatedly on the car windows as we stopped at any light. The insane amount of garbage that sometimes seemed to be everywhere. The "homes" that we couldn't believe people actually resided in. The endless sound of honking horns. The crush of the masses as you would try to walk from one place to another.

There was such contrast to our experience each day. But there was also one constant that we could always count on to make the day a bit less imposing. I'm talking about the cows.

I knew before the trip that cows were considered sacred beings by the Hindu people. We saw that when we were in SE Asia. But in India the cows were everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. After a while you start to know what they are thinking...


" Hey kids - hands off the bike"


" A blond kid? You hear stories but you never think you will actually see one in person"


"We've got to get us one of those"


"Can't believe I get to eat his homework again?"


"How about a kiss lady/"


"Nice to be able to relax with some friends and catch some sun"


"Where the heck was my seat?"


"Who needs the guard dog when they have me"

So with that it's goodbye India. I don't know if I will see you again, but I am very, very glad that I got to see just a little bit. Now for some reason I seem to be craving steak for dinner. Gotta go!

For the Love of Taj

We all have been waiting in anticipation to see the frequently spoken about and photographed building in all of India.  After seeing so many impressive forts, temples and palaces throughout the state of Rajhastan we were a little worried that by the time we saw the Taj, it would not be as impressive as we had anticipated.  Our worries were for not; the majestic Taj does not disappoint!

Our first view of the Taj through the North Gate

The Taj Mahal is a beautiful structure (one of the 7 man made wonders of the world) inspired by a most beautiful love story.  Shah Jahan (who would become Emperor in 1628) met Mumtaz Mahal in the Meena Bazaar in Agra.  They fell in love and were married 4 years later in the year 1612 (He was 19 and she, 20).  Although Mumtaz was only one of the  Emperor's wives, she was definitely his favourite and accompanied him everywhere.  19 years into their marriage, Mumtaz died giving birth to their 14th child.  On her death bed she made Shah Jahan promise that he would build her a huge monument and never marry again.  It took 22 years to build and is now THE most visited monument in all of India.

After completing the great Taj, the now elderly and still heartbroken king began clearing a site for a black tomb for himself, that would be located directly across the river from the Taj.  His son, worried that taking on yet another large scale project would bankrupt the kingdom,  put his father, Shah Jahan, under house arrest until his death in 1666.

The Maharajah standing on the site of his soon to be erected black
tomb, imagining the satisfaction of always being able to look upon his beloved.

36 Hours in Varanasi

The last main attraction on our marathon India adventure was a trip to Varanasi, home of the very religiously significant (and heavily polluted) Ganges River and apparently the oldest city in the world

Now I am by no means either a religious or spiritual person. Yet for some reason going here was for me a must-do for India. I think it had something to do with reading about how, in addition to bathing in the waters being a very holy experience for Hindu's, the river was also used as a place to send-off the recently deceased. I had images of dead people (or their ashes) just floating serenely down the river. Maybe even being cremated while on the river, kind of like a Viking funeral.

It turned out to be a trip that really tested our endurance.

After spending a couple of days in Agra (where I am still in awe of how cool the Taj Mahal looks) we headed for the train station for the journey to Varanasi. In order to get there we had to again brave the India rail system, which you may recall I did not exactly have a fun time with on our earlier night train. But this surely must be different, and travelling during the day, even if it is a 9.5 hour trip couldn't be that bad?

Let's just say that instead of getting into Varanasi at 8:00 PM and having a casual evening before having to get up at 5 AM to watch the sunrise from a boat on the Ganges, the train pulled into the station at 2:00 AM, and it was another hour to get to the hotel and crash for a brief nap before we had to drag ourselves down to the river.

Thankfully the fatigue was not so severe that we did something silly like falling out of the boat. Once we were led to the shoreline our guide arranged for a small boat for us to take out into the river and tour the shoreline.

From that vantage point we were able to see the sun rise, witness locals coming down to the waters edge for a morning bath or to do laundry, launch three flower offerings from our boat, and even go over to the local crematorium at the waters edge and see a dead person being brought in for a final cleansing and cremation.


"The Varanasi Marina"


"The View from Our Yacht"


"Bath time"


"The Local Laundromat"


"Last stop for the dead people"

The rest of the day was a blur. We attempted to rest until we were picked up in the last afternoon to go back to the waterfront and make our way through the masses to check out the ganga aarti ceremony.




Then it was back to the hotel to crash until our 5:00 AM pickup to head back to the train station.

At least we woke up on time. We groggily made our way to the car and drove through the dark. Once at the station our driver told us to wait in the car while he checked things out. He returned very quickly to inform us that the train was running 2.5 hours late (what a surprise). We waited patiently while trying not to think about how much more sleep we could have had in the hotel, and watched a steady parade of locals use the cement wall ahead of us as the local urinal. Finally the driver went back to see how the train was progressing. He returned with a grim look on his face, and told us that it would be another hour.

With this news I snapped. After a quick family meeting we called our tour operator and asked if it was possible to fly to Delhi instead of wait another hour for a train that was gong to take 15 hours (assuming it ran on time the rest of the way) to get us to Delhi. Thankfully after a few minutes all necessary arrangements were made, and very soon after that we found ourselves back in Delhi, met by Mr Singh who delivered us to a lovely hotel where we had a very calm and restful last night in India.

Going on a Tiger Hunt

6:30 am: pick up in the freezing cold wondering why we didn't do the afternoon when its warm.

7:00am: at the entry gate of the park. Vendors selling ear muffs are getting very good business right now.

7:15 am: at the entry gate for section 3 of the park ( our section ) where we spotted our first animal, but only because they were feeding the monkeys.

7:45 am: now starting to warm up a little.

8:10 am: spotted our first REAL wildlife, a spotted deer just like you might see in Canada...

9:00 am: bird attack on the people who have food! Thankfully we didn't have any but the people beside us did.

9:15 am: sitting in the truck waiting for ANY sudden movement. Oh wait, I see something! No that's just a deer.

9:30 am: our guide says that we should start heading back. As we were driving back our truck makes a sudden stop, our guide sees a tiger heading across the lake.

9:31 am: suddenly our guide says duck and starts the truck and we go rushing to the lake at top speed.

9:35 am: can you see him?

9:40 am: okay how about now?

9:55 am: we head back to our hotel feeling satisfied and in need of sleep.

Driving in India

First of all, WE are not driving (thankfully)! We are fortunate to have a calm, careful and cheerful man named Pradeep Singh at the wheel of the car.*

The first day we were driven around Delhi we remarked on the frequent and fervent honking going on. We were told that there are 3 essentials needed to drive in India:
GOOD HORN, GOOD BRAKES and GOOD LUCK (and in our case a good driver).

Hearing this admittedly made me a little nervous about the 3 week driving tour we had signed up for but we carried on, assured with the knowledge that we were about to embark on a popular tourist route.

Having been on the road for a week now, I have made a few observations that might give you a flavour of driving here in India. In particular, I have noted a number of hazards on the road that seem a little more dangerous than what we usually encounter at home:

1. Animals - dogs, pigs, goats, chickens, sheep, donkeys, horses, camels, buffalo and of course the ever present COW. None of these animals are kept safely out of the way behind fences or on leashes or tethers but stroll, no, saunter may describe it better, beside, across or in the middle of the road. This ever present hazard is as equally apparent on the city streets as the cross-country highways.

It's even worse at night as there are apparently dangerous cows and deer that also cross the highways. I guess this isn't very different than moose in Canada or kangaroos in Australia.

2. Potholes and speed bumps- some are bigger than others but you'd better be prepared to slow down for both (and I mean slow WAY DOWN).

3. Detours- Unlike the detours found at home, these alternate routes may or may not be marked by signs and would definitely not have a lollipop (as they call the highway traffic controllers in Australia), to direct traffic.

One particularly frightening construction detour took us into a double lane of traffic (small graces) going in the opposite direction. The cars coming towards us however, did not appear to be aware of this traffic adjustment. Pradeep eventually put on the hazards and thankfully spotted a small bypass back to the other side of the highway - of course there were no signs to let him know how or when to return to the other side.

3. Other vehicles- cars, trucks, motorcycles, tuktuks, tractors, bicycles and carts pulled by camels, donkeys or cows. And, once again, these are all found on city streets as well as larger highways.

4. 2 lane highways - this last one may not be a problem for people who enjoy changing lanes frequently and are good at darting in and out of traffic (Rick), but it freaks me out!!!

It's particularly scary when there's a truck coming towards you in your lane while your driver is just passing a motorcycle that you're amazed you haven't struck or pushed off the road already. At this point you are trying really hard not to offend the driver by flinching or throwing your arms up to cover your eyes and possibly shield yourself from the blow of the on-coming truck. Finally, just before completely loosing all composure and after a polite honk and a slightly more urgent flick of the lights by your driver, the truck swerves back into it's own lane and you take a much needed breath,...... only to await the next near death experience. I HATE SITTING IN THE FRONT!!!


*Mr. Singh really is a good driver and should he ever read this post, should not take any offense to my remarks. He is doing a fantastic job of keeping us safe and avoiding all of the hazards in his path!*

Journey into Jaipur

Before we left we had an interview with the placement manager for Peru's Challenge, who asked us about our experience being confronted with 3rd-world living conditions. I remember at the time my brain flashed through my life and really couldn't come up with big examples of when I would have had that experience.

Now Peru certainly had its moments, as the school community we were at really had not much, but nothing comes close to what we have seen so far here in India. I think some of the impact is because there are so many people the scale of what we are seeing is far greater than anything we have seen anywhere else. It's just so ever-present that I find it's a real element in our India experience. Probably far more than I thought it would be. I hope I can remember this when I am back home and stop myself from complaining about the hardship of the cable being out.

We left Delhi yesterday and drove (well, our guide Mr Singh drove) about 5 hours to Jaipur, the Pink City, which was the second stop on our India tour. It's the "Pink City"because all the buildings in the old city are painted pink (actually it's more like terra cotta. I guess "Terra Cotta City isn't as catchy)We had a brief visit at the Jaipur Monkey Temple, then found our hotel and had dinner (butter chicken = yummy for the tummy).





Today we had our power tour day. We started off with a drive-by of the Hawa Mahal, where the royal women would get to watch street ceremonies. They could see out but no one could see in.



The next stop was the big one. The Amber Fort. Amb-solutely amazing is all I can say. See for yourself.


The view from beneath the fort. You could ride elephants up the hill, but as we are seasoned elephant riders now we decided to skip the line


The view from inside. Can you see the elephants?


The view to the outside.


The short cut out


Where the Maharajah's twelve wives hung out. I wonder how he dealt with Valentine's Day?

The rest of the day had us visiting the Water Palace. Apparently there are plans to make this into a high-end hotel.



After some lunch (yes! More Indian food!) we made our way to the City Palace, as well as Gaitore, which is the royal crematorium site.




Our City Palace visit brought one piece of unexpected excitement. Both Heather and Chloe sat down to listen to some local music and saw what else was listening.....




Now it's time to rest up before we hit the road again tomorrow morning as we head to Bikaner and again experience the incredible contrast that is India.

....and Hello India!

In planning the India portion of the trip we got some really good advice to utilize the services of a tour company to help allay any culture shock. After our first day in Delhi we are certainly glad that we have!

We arrived late last night and spent a very full day today seeing some of the sights. Here's a sample of some of the things I have picked up from 24 hours (+/-) in New Delhi.

- I'm still not sure whether to call it Delhi or use the "new".
- there are 20 million people in this town. There are only 34 million in the whole of Canada (and yes - I had to look that up). And you do feel the numbers
- there are 3,000 Hindu weddings a day here between November and March (no weddings are allowed between March and November). Big business
- apparently there are 10,000 monkeys living on the rooftops
- the architecture is gorgeous. The sense of spirituality and the concerns for security are also very prevalent. We saw a mosque, the India Gate, the Presidential Palace, Mahatma's mausoleum, and the Swaminarayan Akshardham Cultural centre










- street begging is as forward (little kids holding onto babies knocking on your car window) as advertised
- real India food makes my hair sweat. And is really, really good (at least right now it still is).
- I couldn't drive here.And rickshaw rides can be a bit scary



- monkey's are even funnier in the big city.Especially to travellers.