Pondicherry

Sunday Giselle and I visited Pondicherry--a former French 'colony'. I'm not exactly sure, but I think the first governor bought it from the ruling king at the time. Our guide there was much better. His english was very good, and interestingly he was a Catholic. I think this colored some of his commments a bit, but he was very gracious and tried to point out how well all three major religions (Catholic, Muslim and majority Hindu) worked and lived together. He even took us down one side street and showed us the houses by religion, all intermingled.

I wasn't prepared for a guide in Pondicherry, but it was nice to have one. The itinerary wasn't very clear that we would get one there. I didn't really understand why the driver was in a hurry to get there in the morning, until we stopped for the guide. He was probably the best we have had so far.

He showed us the local architecture, an Ashram-where I didn't get many pictures, and the market where I did get a lot...
and here you can see the influence of the French. They didn't like to buy food off the ground...

We also saw a local museum which had art / historical stuff on the ground floor--which I enjoyed, and a French living area on the upper floor, which Giselle enjoyed. We also saw "White Town" which is the former French area, and is fairly grey now-that is the color of the Ashram which has bought many of the houses. We went along the beach, but didn't get out... We went to the beach by the resort. And we saw a museum dedicated to a local freedom fighter. And the local Cathedral.

I think one of the best things though was the Dunes Eco-resort. It is eco-friendly. They promote saving water, not using electricity when possible. They have an electric car for taking people to the bungalows, instead of a gas engine one. And best of all, they support several charities with their work, from Tsunami relief, to land recovery with Biodynamic means, to local vocational training, some of which they do on the resort itself (Catering). They serve locally grown organic food when possible, much grown there on the resort grounds. There is also some awesome wildlife.

Mahabalipuram

Giselle and I got away for a few days to the south east coast of India. We started off on Saturday morning by flying to Chennai. Cindy wasn't in very good spirits when we left, but fortunately that got better by the time we returned. The flight from Bangalore is only about 45 mins by Jet, 1:10 by turboprop (which we took back). I had gotten sick the day wen went to Mysore, but I figured I was over it by Saturday, especially since I had taken something to quell the diarrhea. As it turns out, I didn't get over it, but it wasn't too bad while we were traveling. It hit me much worse when we got back and I was out of commission through the next weekend.

Anyways back to Mahabalipuram. After arriving in Chennai, we were picked up by the car, and driven to Mahabalipuram. On the way we picked up our guide P.M. Raman. He knew a lot about the place, and had stories to tell, but unfortunately we had trouble getting him to understand our questions.

The site is very interesting in that it is comprised of 3 different kinds of temples, which came from different times in history. There are cave temples (carved into the rocks),temples carved from a single rock, with most of the decoration on the exterior. ( I don't remember what he called these last 2). And there are temples built from rock, similar to those in Hampi. This technology apparently emanated from Hampi, so I'm glad I went there first. Also many of the temples in the area are dedicated to Shiva, or his wife.

The most famous and largest of the last style is located very close to the ocean. It is in a park which didn't exist till after the Tsunami. Only a small part of it was government land which was excavated in the 70's when much of it was re-discovered. The Tsunami wiped out a whole lot of shops which were close to it, now they have been moved further away. In the picture you can see the seawall in the background. There is some speculation that the sea used to come up to the temple, at least to let people off of boats. You can also see that the sea has worn away one side of the temple.

The other thing that you can see there which is really spectacular is one of the largest Bas Relief sculptures in the world. It is a whole scene which I cannot describe all of, but there is a part of it from top right down towards the center which depicts a river flowing, I think bringing life if I remember correctly.

Last but not least we saw Krishna's Butter Ball. At any rate, Giselle and I had fun despite my occasional slowness from the fever I was fighting with aspirin.

More photos here.

Elephant Slobber

Last Thursday, Giselle and I went to Mysore for the day. It was really nice to have a day with her. We left at about 7:30 in the morning and arrived at the Mysore palace by 10. She and I went in very quickly-- there weren't many people. The same guide was there at the entrance to the palace that Cindy, Maya and I had used last time in March, and at first I thought to find someone else. In the end, after we walked around the gardens a bit, and stopped for a call of nature, we went back to the entrance for a guide, and picked him up as the best candidate.

As we were going into the palace itself, we noticed that there were several elephants lined up by the main gate to the palace grounds (and a jeep went whizzing by in that direction). The guide said that he knew the elephants, and would make sure we got to get close to them, but we would need to hurry a bit. So he took us on a tour of the palace (many of the same jokes and stories as last time), but fortunately there weren't many people in the palace, so we could move quickly from one area to another. I understood him better this time as my ears were not so stuffed up, and I think I understand the Indian speech patterns better as well. Giselle still had trouble with him. Giselle enjoyed the beautiful architecture, and the paintings of the gods/goddesses. Neither of us really were that interested in the royal family, though it is still interesting to see them at least once.

Anyways back to the elephants. They were coming for the first of the celebrations of Dasara (More info) So we watched the parade come up from the main gates, to the front of the Palace, 5 elephants, preceeded by a marching band, met by an honor guard of local police. There must have been about 200 people watching the whole thing, half of which were press. Then the elephants did a salute to the honor guard, and the guard left. The elephants then proceeded right up to the gate, and were turned around. At this point many photos were taken with some celebrities (local dignitaries I guess). And then, Giselle and I (no one else) were offered the opportunity to feed the head elephant. There were a variety of fruits. Now normally feeding an elephant is holding something out and he takes it in his trunk. But no, not this time. We had to put the food into his mouth (and get his saliva on our hands in the process). We each had a large bowl to feed him. Our pictures were taken by the press, and I was even interviewed on camera afterwards. At this time I was really kicking myself for not bringing in the camera. I had left it in the car as one is not allowed to take a camera into the Palace itself, and didn't want to leave it at the 'camera keep'. What a shame, my cell phone was running out of battery and I didn't get a photo. The guide did offer that if any photos of us turned up (he asked a couple of photographers), he would send them to me. I really hope something shows up, but I'm not holding my breath...

Well, anyways, what an exhilarating experience. These animals stand there and look you in the eye. You can just feel that they are gentle at the moment, but boy the power there is enormous. And they seem very intelligent. It was a once in a lifetime experience!!!

After that, we saw the St. Philomina Cathedral, went to the folklore museum on the Mysore University Campus. The museums are awesome, they have historical artifacts, a literary museum, and best of all a folklore museum with sculptures, paintings, puppets and much much more. Unfortunately the docent in the folkore museum part didn't speak much English, but still impressive.

And then went up the Chamundi Hills to see the temple and the demon statue.

All in all it was a long but very fun and interesting day. I never thought I'd be the attention of the media feeding elephants in India.

Giselle arrived

Giselle made it here this morning (6am) after her year in Germany, flying in from London. She seems to be in good spirits and happy to see us all. It seems she had a good two weeks traveling to different cities in Europe, though she spent more time traveling than actually visiting sites.

I arrived back from a week in Finland about 5 hours before she arrived, so we are both a bit jet-lagged and tired today. So we didn't do much more than a bit of shopping for Anna's birthday present, and a few necessaries which Giselle hadn't brought. Then after a late lunch at Olive Beach, we came home and now Giselle is napping. I think I may do the same.

More Later...

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal:

We spent the night before visiting the Taj at the TajView hotel. We were lucky (or spent enough money) to get rooms with an actual view of the Taj. Although it is only visible during the day. They turn off the lights at night due to terrorism threats. They also restrict traffic close to the Taj Mahal to non-combustion engines (ie Electric buses, oxcarts, ...) to keep down the pollution and effects of pollution on the Taj. The government has also reduced and restricted industry in Agra. I guess this is good for the Taj Mahal and Tourism, but has somehow negatively impacted the economy otherwise.

What's to say about the Taj that hasn't already been said. It is a magnificent edifice to love. It is amazing that it took over twenty thousand laborers. The beauty is stunning. I was also amazed that there was no long line for us to get in. The men didn't have any wait at all, the women had to wait in line for about 10 people ahead of them. Yes we did arrive early--but not ungodly early, somewhere around 8:30. We were very blessed with overcast, but not rainy weather. So it was not too hot, but still dry and enjoyable. There was definitely a breeze close to the river which was nice. We got our pictures taken on the Diana bench by the guide (I guess this is a must), and saw the grounds before proceeding to the white marble around the actual building. At the marble, we had to either put on booties, or leave our shoes behind. I kept my shoes and wore the booties. Half way through I would have preferred to have gone barefoot, but I was glad to have my shoes when we got out. Our guide had gone back to the entrance to wait while we wandered around and took photos. Unfortunately he took the shoe token with him. So I had to go collect it from him before we could retrieve any of the others' shoes.

The best part for me, I think was seeing all of the stone inlay. Any of the color on the outside or inside of the Taj is done by semi-precious stone inlay. Later in the day we actually went to a showroom where we got to see the actual work still being done. It is painstaking. One job is to accurately grind by hand the thin semi-precious stones into the right shape. Another job is to carve out the marble in the right shape such that the inlay can be done. Both are grueling work, but it does render a beautiful product.

Walking back when we were done, Smitty and I spotted a mower being pulled by oxen, or cows-not sure. We wanted to take pictures of it in action, but immediately the workers stopped working and suggested we pose with the animals (for a fee of course). Then one of them tried to elbow Ari in the breast while collecting money and shaking hands goodbye.

It was a really fun, beautiful, and almost too much to take in. We were very blessed with the good weather and lack of crowds. I guess since it is monsoon season, and Indian schools are back in session, the crowds were less. Lucky us.

You can see my best photos from the Taj here, and the remainder here if you really want to.

Sorry this took so long to post. It was written a while ago, but I hadn't gotten the photos organized.

Off to Agra

From Jaipur the next morning, we left for Agra. It was to be a 5 hour drive, with a stop at Fatehpur Sikri along the way. The ride was interesting from the perspective of the different landscape and people in Rajestan. For instance Camels, in the rain, not something you normally associate together. In this case, I'm not sure it was raining at the time, but it had just rained as the ground was very muddy. This camel was tied alongside the road. We saw many, some were pulling carts, others were just waiting for work.

Another thing, although in south India, many objects, i.e. trucks, are decorated, there is much more decoration in Rajestan. This truck was typical of many we saw. It is beautifully decorated. Also many of the smaller trucks/jeeps didn't have covers for the engine, and the driver sat directly behind the exposed engine. Also this could have been used for public transport, it would have carried about 30 people, standing in the back. We saw a lot of this.

There was a lot of work on the road. It is apparently being improved for the Commonwealth games which will be held in India in a couple of years. The road needed updating. Most of it was 2 lanes wide, and they are adding another 2. In this case the bridge here (a new one is being constructed next to it), was literally falling apart. You can see the missing parts of the railing. Some of the brick sections were wobbling from side to side as we drove past, and I was wondering when they would just wobble into the river below.

We also saw a lot of local color. Many people doing various kinds of business, or living along the roadway. I caught these two women from the bus as we were driving by. And also these two women who were obviously grooming one's hair. We even passed by a local livestock market. There were many men and boys with their sheep or goats. They were just hanging out, loading them into or off of carts/trucks, and generally conducting business. I thought these were particularly colorful animals.

Finally we made it to Fatehpur Sikri a city which was built by the Moghul Akbar in the mid 16th century. He only lived there for a little over a decade. Apparently water was a problem. It needed to be carried up from the river as the wells on the hilltop didn't yield much. I won't describe all the historical info, go to one of the official sites for that. Here are a couple of photos from the site. It is a stunning place. It was built to celebrate the birth of a son to the Moghul.

We met our second guide there before going in. He wasn't as good as the first one, though he did know his stuff, he repeated himself a lot. He knew more about the Taj the next day too. On the way down from the hilltop (we took a bus up), he decided that we would all fit into one rickshaw. Cindy took a couple of photos, obviously Conner was too tall and had to stick his head out... Thanks Cindy for letting me steal your photos. There were 10 of us in the Rickshaw (including the driver).

Agra:
After Fatehpur Sikri, we went on to Agra, only about another hour's drive. There we saw the Red Fort before checking into the Hotel.

The Red Fort starts with an impressive defensive structure--there are two moats, followed by a drawbridge/gate and then a long walk up between two high walls. The long walk is exposed to spots where one could be shot at from defensive positions, and where hot oil or water could be poured out onto the invaders. Much of the fort is still occupied by the Indian Army,and is off limits. But it is possible to visit the parts where the Mogul who built the Taj Mahal was imprisoned by his son for creating a monument that didn't follow the strict guidelines of the Muslim beliefs. He was supposedly imprisoned in an area where there is a view of the Taj Mahal. There are also beautiful gardens, many buildings with beautiful arches and other things to see there. Check out the Flickr page for all my photos-I didn't take many. It was a long day and by closing time, we were ready to head to the hotel and relax, have dinner and get ready for the Taj Mahal the next day.