I've moved.  You can find me here now : Still googling after all these years under new management - same great name, same bland posts, but at least now you should be able to comment!

Come on over and comment on the India posts you've been unable to comment on - you know you want to, or at least you know I want you to.

Please update your blogrolls as needed.  I'm still figuring out all that sort of thing at the new digs - I'm kind of slow, but hey, I got this far all in one day!  Techno advancing all the time.

Well, the blogger comment disease appears to have spread to my little place here.  I am aware that the comment box has completely disappeared - erg.  Apparently Blogger is also aware they have problems and claim to be working on it.  I am a total technotard, as anyone who knows me is aware, so all those other commenting options out there are more than my feeble mind can wrap around.

I'll keep posting my trip anyway and maybe one day comments will reappear and in the mean time  most of you have my email if you really want to say something about one of the posts - I, like all bloggers, love comments.

This shot gives you some idea of the packed traffic and what a typical crossing looked like.  Don't think for a minute that traffic actually stops for pedestrians - see the rules of the road at the end of the post linked there.  It is a matter of survival of the fittest when it is time to get to the other side of the road.  See all the little green and yellow vehicles?  Those are called tuk-tuks (we saw them in Thailand as well), they are little three wheeled taxis of a sort. Tuk-tuks are not green and yellow to indicate they are taxis though.  The color is an indication that they run on compressed natural gas - the tank for which is situated directly under the seat of the passengers.
Now - do you know that splenda causes gas in many people?  Guess what color packets of splenda are in India....

A vegetable market.


The Lotus Temple, a Baha'i temple - I think it looks like the Sydney Opera House turned inside-out.


This gentleman made panels by engraving on strips of palm fronds - sometimes painting them, sometimes not.
He demonstrated the process for us.  One of his pieces is now hanging in my collection of international art.
The ubiquitous Ganesh...

We bought two tiny, brightly painted, wooden pieces from this artist.  One a little Ganesh and one a tiny Shiva, each about an inch high.  When we paid he didn't have quite enough change so he gave the boy a pencil with a carved parakeet topper as a "gift".  That was ok with us.  We thought it was kind of funny, the amount of change owed us was minuscule (maybe a quarter), and the boy wanted one of the pencils anyway.


The artists sat amongst their own pieces and you dealt directly with the man who had made the items.  When we travel, as much as we possibly can, we do try to buy our souvenirs from the craftsman who made them.  No middleman to make money off the artist - and we almost always enjoy the exchange.

In addition to what I've shown here there were seamstresses making clothing, quilts, pillows and such, embroiderers, and a men working in metals.

The result.  I'm afraid that the vast majority of the pictures of us we are wearing sunglasses and our faces are shaded by hats.  But I can tell you that in the three weeks we were there we didn't get a single sunburn.  The sunglasses were a must, we would have had endless headaches without them.  Plus, mine are prescription (as are the hub's) so without them we'd have been blind.

When we'd finished at the museum it was necessary for us to cross the busy street to get to our bus.  As I said earlier, the traffic does not stop for pedestrians so we learned to cross Indian style - Karni says "look left - look right, close your eyes and run for your life!"  With his help, we made it.  We'll be good at it by the end of the trip.

There you go, the next installment and massive picture dump.  There will be one more post to finish this, the second day.  Do you begin to get an idea of how packed our days always are with OAT?  They do a great job of not only hitting the tourist spots but showing us some of the more off the beaten path treasures and do an outstanding job of immersing their travelers in the culture (at least as much as they can with groups of up to sixteen traveling together).

These women are carefully cleaning and restoring some of the old stones - in some places the powers that be are trying to reconstruct the buildings - though with the jigsaw of some old Hindu and some old Muslim it proves a bit more than just challenging.  The complex is quite large and there are extensive efforts being made to preserve and restore.


This shot is of the tallest minaret in India.


This is a closer shot which shows the beautifully engraved bricks used to face the minaret.  Before we left the bus at the complex, Karni said he could get from the bottom of the minaret to the top in less than five minutes and did anyone wish to race him?  Several of us, being the sort who normally exercise, said sure, we'd see him at the top.  Now, when each of us tried to find a way in we discovered the door was locked and fenced off.  So, knowing we'd been had, we simply all agreed next time we saw him we'd let him know we'd made it to the top in less than three minutes and were was he?

He just laughed and pointed to this little pagoda -

This is the top piece of the minaret that has been removed and set off to the side of the park - just a couple leisurely minutes walk from the bottom of the minaret - ha ha Karni, very funny.

Karni was full of jokes and entertaining stories.  We learned to think twice about pretty much anything he had to say...

A later ruler wanted to out-do the builder of the first and tallest minaret so he began the minaret shown here - determined that it would be twice as tall as the first.  This ruin shows that often pride goeth before the fall.  The attempt failed because the technology and building practices of the time would not support the planned tower and it collapsed under its own weight before barely getting off the ground (comparatively speaking)

Here is Karni explaining the history of the area and that the builders of these mosques used bits and pieces from previous Hindu temples - which can be seen in the pillars which were formed by stacking disparate bits.  Did I mention that I love the OAT method of having a knowledgeable  native guide who speaks excellent English for each of their tours?  I've only done two OAT tours myself (the hub also did China with OAT) but so far they are perfect for first quality guides.  Love it, love it, love it!

This photo shows two pillars, one that has been cleaned of the centuries old dirt and sand build up and one that has not yet been cleaned and restored.  It is a daunting and delicate job.

Here you can see the bamboo scaffolding being used in the restoration effort and it shows the stacked bits of different columns the Muslim builders used to build the new. It was very interesting to see the mix of the bits with Islamic geometric and script design combined with the Hindu bits with depictions of Hindu gods and goddesses as well as animals and flowers all stacked together into a single piece of architecture. Beautiful and fascinating. I loved the bamboo scaffolding, especially when it was being used to build modern steel and glass skyscrapers....

Another thing Karni explained was that the Indian builders of the time did not yet have the knowledge necessary to build arches as we know them,  the idea of a keystone.  So, the way  the look of these arches was achieved was through the use of post and lintel construction.  After forming the post and lintel frame, the builders would fill in underneath then carve out the arch that was desired.  I love the way the sandstone brick formed the colorful ombre effect and the way the craftsmen carved beautiful geometric patterns and script into the brick faces.  It was simply stunning.


A closer look at some of the carved brick.

I just liked this shot.

There were so many intriguing and beguiling angles, vistas, and ways to frame pictures - part of the reason we ended up with nearly 4,500 photos...

Color was added to the complex by these parakeets - this guy was the first time we saw, but by the end of the trip we'd seen hundreds.  The parkeets had fantastic long tails and a distinctive screech as they flew, we learned to look more by the sound than by seeing them first.  Tending to be rather shy, it was difficult to get a good picture of them before they would fly off.
  
More color was added to the scene by our fellow tourists.  The women of India, ah color.


I thought this is tomb was in a gorgeous setting.  Not exactly the Taj (oh yes, that is some sight but comes much later in the trip), but still very lovely.

Only the beginning of this day, but already sixteen pictures up so I'll continue the day with the next post.  It is proving to be very difficult to chose a reasonable number of photos to show and share...

I can see by looking through our pictures that this second day is going to take at least two more posts to complete.  You guys up for it?

Finally, back to the trip.  So far we've covered the mosque and the rickshaw drive, as well as our first little walk and the orientation meeting.

As we dismounted our little bike chariots we re-boarded our bus and experienced our first Bus Bazaar.  Karni, our guide, had suggested that rather than stopping to haggle with various street vendors all along our way we could assemble a short bus bazaar after each stop.  The fact is the vendors know where the buses with tourists will be so as soon as the doors open the vendors descend and the hawking commences.  When you first step off the bus the prices are at their highest, as you walk along looking at whatever you are there to see the vendors will stay right at your elbow showing the same shiney something over and over, cajoling you to buy pretty lady - good price, good quality, better than all the rest, and on and on.  As you finish your tour and begin to walk back toward the bus the prices suddenly drop - and as you have entered the bus to leave at last the prices are approaching reasonable.  Karni would then chose several vendors with different items and allow them to barter with him.  Once he was satisfied that he had a price that was fair both to the vendor and to us he would take a few samples to show us (as we sat safely on our bus) and let us tell him yes or no.  This bus bazaar was a blessing.  We were still chased, and sometimes even purchased items before remounting the stairs to the bus - but many of the items I dub happy trash (post cards, necklaces and bangles, bindi, wooden toys - any number of small items) we were able to purchase in the relative comfort of our bus's air-conditioning.

Following our first purchasing frenzy we headed off to the Raj Gaht which is the site of the cremation of Gandhi.

This black marble slab commemorates the site.  It is meticulously maintained and there were many there paying their respects to the great soul.  It is held as a particularly sacred spot and once again we were to remove our shoes and wear our "temple socks"

We encountered our first Indian squirrels

This gentleman actually called the squirrels to him to be fed.  As you can see they had the markings of chipmunks but had long tails - not as bushy as our grey squirrels and their bodies were a bit smaller than our squirrels as well.

Saw this guy too.

From there we boarded the bus for one last sight seeing stop - Vijay Chawk to see the governmental buildings of New Delhi.  By this point I was exhausted and governmental buildings hold no real interest for me so I gave my camera to the boy and stayed on the bus to close my eyes for a bit.  The pictures from here are taken either by the boy or the hub.



The boy took both of those for me :) can you tell?




All the governmental buildings were built of pink sandstone. Very large and very grand,they certainly were designed with a certain exotic flare, even for governmental buildings.

The India gate - surrounded by people enjoying their Sunday of freedom - many many games of cricket (it is India's second religion) going on all around.  The boy spent every evening in our room winding down for sleep by watching cricket on TV.  He was determined to figure out the rules by the end of our trip.  For the most part he did just that.

Then it was time for dinner which included several different dishes.  All good - but I was so exhausted and befuddled by this point I didn't record many details and now I can't remember which meal this was.  Just that it was good and we left full.  That was to be the theme when it came to eating - full...

And thus, finally, ended our first full day.  Pictures get better after this first day.


As ever - clicking on the pictures will enlarge for a better look see.

Update - it was 4,200 pictures taken - not 3,000...

Rickshaw ride!


 By the end of the trip we'd done it several times, but this was to be the first for India - We are still in the first full day here.  It was a little uncomfortable for me, not the bumps, but the idea that I (and the boy, two to a rickshaw) were going to sit there while someone else - a fellow human being, equal in every way - would serve as the engine to pull us about.  Having ridden one of these contraptions in Thailand as well, I'd already experienced the queasiness in the pit of my stomach.  Heck, I feel guilty when I plop my big butt on Rosalie's back.  It didn't help that this guy might have weighed 105 soaking wet.


Our driver was a nut - he wanted to share his English and tried to point out as many sights as he could.  I might have understood every tenth word... He spent a great deal of the ride racing two of his buddies, also pulling rickshaws, and if he got close enough to one particular other young driver, they would try to slug each other or get the other in a headlock, all in good fun.  As a cultural aside, Indian men show a great deal of affection to each other.  It is quite common to see men and boys walking hand in hand or with their arms around each other's shoulders - or sometimes their affection is manifested in taking silly swings at each other.  This is all very heterosexual behavior but not something we are accustomed to seeing.


Almost immediately we dove into narrow alleyways with the well known and disconcerting jumble of power-lines overhead.  This is just one of many photos we took of the power lines, some of the photos show the lines even better - but this shows the narrow alley and our line of rickshaws the best.  I'm going to be showing a lot of photos as it is and I don't want to over do it.  Between us, the hub and I took more than 3,000 pictures.

I believe this counts as our first truly perilous encounter as at one point the power-lines hung so low they actually scraped the canopy of the rickshaw in which the boy and I rode.

We passed many examples of daily Indian life:

Men managing impossibly heavy loads by ancient methods.

Or perhaps women carrying impossibly large and heavy loads on their heads!


 Food vendors cooking on the street - for the most part various types of fried breads.  Most everything brown.  Smelled good, but we never bought food from a street vendor.  One of our goals was to get through the whole trip without Delhi belly.  More on that at a later time.

Or selling fresh fruits and vegetables from their carts.  Always bright and beautiful.


Fabric vendors with their mountains of bright cotton, silk, brocade - how does one choose?  I have a weakness for brightly colored fabric.  We did not have the opportunity to get down and buy anything on this ride.  I'd have had some of those pieces for sure if I could have.

Bangle vendors - ooo, shiny.  Wish we could have bought items at the local price, I'd have come home with many more bangles than I did.  But none of the vendors had prices on any of their wares because they know that Westerners will pay more than locals.  From research I've done I believe we tourists tend to pay five times or more the going rate for pretty much anything from a piece of bread to a length of sari fabric.  I'm ok with this for the most part.  Don't mind helping the Indian economy.  But I'd have come home with much more sparkle if it had not been necessary to haggle the price of every single thing.

Livestock free in city streets - yes Laura, a goat just for you : )

A family of Sikhs.  The little boy and the man in the orange shirt have their turbans tied differently from the man in the blue turban.  The style of wrap in the blue turban indicates this man's father is dead.  The style of the young boy and the man in orange (tight around the head with the big knob in front) show that their fathers are still alive.
Monkeys (Karni says there is a "monkey menace" in Delhi) - we saw monkeys in every city we visited, and quite a few in the national park we visit later in the trip as well.  Not to mention the dozens and dozens that lived in and around the resort we stayed in during the Nepal portion of the trip.  Details to follow.
Tiny packed shop, after tiny packed shop.  I could have spent hours and hours looking through these little shops.  Except that the shop keepers would drive you nuts trying to force you to buy one or two particular items rather than just letting you absorb the whole thing.  This shop was full of items for religious offerings.  The flower leis hanging in front, sparkly fabrics, beautiful boxes, gorgeous strings of beads...
And so very much more - this is but a sampling.

This ride is the point at which I fell head over heels in love with India.  So many bright colors, so many bright smiles.

The power lines defy description.  Even pictures don't quite capture the insanity.

 Another thing the pictures cannot even hint at is the noise.  Car horns, motorcycle horns, scooter horns, heck - Even some of the goats and cows had horns - and they all use them....non-stop.  It seems to be something of a second language.  The horn might mean "move over, I'm bigger than you" or it might be "watch out! I'm here, don't hit me" or just "hello".   I had heard that horn honking was a bit to the extreme.  But like so much of India, you simply cannot understand until you have experienced it.

One of the informative items given us at the orientation meeting was a copy of the Highway Code of India.  I'll share it with you because it is all 100% true

Article I: The assumption of immortality is required of all road users.

Article II: Indian traffic, like Indian society, is structured on a strict caste system.  The following precedence must be accorded at all times.  In descending order, give way to: cows, elephants, camels, buffalo, pigs, goats, dogs, heavy trucks, buses, official cars, pedal rickshaws, private cars, motorcycles, scooters, auto-rickshaws (tuk-tuks), handcarts, and last - and least - pedestrians.

Article III: All wheeled vehicles shall be driven in accordance with the maxim:to slow be to falter, to brake is to fail, to stop is defeat.  This is the Indian drivers' mantra.

Article IV: Use of horn (also known as the sonic fender or the language of the road)

Cars: Short blasts (urgent) indicate supremacy. I.e. in clearing dogs, rickshaws and pedestrians from path. Long blasts (desperate) denote supplication, i.e. to oncoming trucks, "I am going too fast to stop, so unless you sow down we shall both die."  In extreme cases this may be accompanied by flashing of headlights (frantic).

Single blast (casual) means, "I have seen someone out of India's 1 billion whom I recognize",  "There is a gird in the road which at this speed could go through my windscreen", or "I have not blown my horn for several minutes."

Trucks and Buses:  All horn signals have the same meaning, "I have an all-up weight of approximately 12.5 tons and have no intention of stopping, even if I could"  This signal may be emphasized by the use of headlamps.

Article V: All maneuvers, use of horn and evasive action shall be left until the last possible moment. (personal aside - no kidding, it is a non-stop game of chicken)

Article VI: In the absence of seat belts (which there is) car occupants shall wear garlands of marigolds.  These should be kept fastened at all times.

Article VII: Rights of way: Traffic entering a road from the left has priority.  So has traffic from the right, and also traffic in the middle.

Lane Discipline:  All Indian traffic at all times and irrespective of direction of travel (pa - for reals!) shall occupy the center of the road.

Article VIII: Traffic Management:  It is a jungle out there. Apparent traffic islands in the middle of crossroads have no traffic management function.  Any other impression should be ignored.

Article IX:  Overtaking (passing for those of you who have never driven outside the US) is mandatory.  Every moving vehicle is required to overtake every other moving vehicle, irrespective of whether it has just overtaken you. Overtaking should only be undertaken in suitable conditions, such as in the face of oncoming traffic, on blind bends, at junctions, and in the middle of villages/city centers.  No more than two inches should be allowed between your vehicle and the one you are passing - one inch in the case of bicycles or pedestrians.

Article X: Nirvana may be obtained through the head-on crash.

Article XI: Reversing: What's this? Not many drivers in India like to use this gear.  It is against their driver's mantra.

Article XII:  The 10th incarnation of God was an articulated tanker.


And we are still not done with the first day.  More to come.