These first three are from a zoo that I went to. Haha, very interesting experience, the rickshaw drivers there are all about bamboozlement so our guy actually grabbed my money to buy us tickets and bought himself one as well! to keep an eye on us and bring us back to his taxi but I saw him checking out some animals, that’s the thing with almost everyone we met. Very nice, very smart, friendly, one can have a very good conversation, but in the end they are about getting some money, because they don’t have any. These are the saddest two otters perhaps on the planet, their pit (only like a 3 ft wall) had no water at all and they were just hot sound asleep right there and people were throwing food at them to make them move. But! As all otters are, they are quite cute.
This is a HUGE hyena, lion king always gave the impression they are small, but they are massive dog like animals, this one was relaxing under a tree but I got really excited to see him as he was such a burden for poor Pi and Richard Parker.
The last picture ! is a monkey cage ! with everyone looking in ! with a monkey sitting outside of it ! hahaha. There were actually monkeys walking all over the place in the zoo… at the Taj Mahal… on the street… in the airport… hehehe.
These are all pictures in Varanasi at the River Ganges, the holiest river ever! I talk more about it later so here are just the pictures. The first is one of the night ceremony, putting the river to sleep, doing the same thing they’ve done forever, every night, and we got to watch it, though I have to admit I don’t really understand it. The next four are all in the morning. We rode on a boat up and down the river. It’s amazing to think that I, a little girl from Minnesota gets to see these amazing places when most the people living actually in India wont. But millions of people a year pilgrimage to the river to die, because if you die in the river Ganges you break the cycle of death and rebirth. Everyone who lives there simply baths and washes their teeth and clothes and goes for early morning swims in it. The last picture is of people cremating their dead, they put the ashes into the river. Varanasi was really intense and really real. It was the best place I’ve ever been because it was completely 1 million percent different then any thing else I have ever seen/heard/read/thought about.
Here’s a picture of me ! in our hotel, my roommate was perfect. I look pale, which I’m not, my hair looks dark, which it is definitely not (I got highlights just before India :) which was funny because it ended up making me a celebrity, my friend has red hair and everywhere we went we were asked to take 10 pictures with whole Indian families), I look skinny, which I certainly am not, and I look sweaty, which is an accurate representation of every second in India. Also I’m wearing a lay which we got often. But we were very rarely in our rooms when it was light out – we got up every day at 4:30am and rarely got back before 12.
Here I tried to show you all the cows that just have free reign, they are every where, they walk into shops and lay down ! seriously. They stand in the middle of the street, they block entire alleyways, they are everywhere.
By the way I didn’t get too many pictures of India because we flew 4 times and were not allowed to carry on any liquids or batteries, we often didn’t get out checked items until reaching the hotel and often did a lot in the mean time. also I was busy living rather than taking pictures but I am highly disappointed I didn’t get a really good cow picture because it was cool to be less important than the cows.
This is a meal I ate! That I’m surprised I didn’t get sick, because it was in a big room and they come around and scoop you a bunch of food and you eat it on a big leaf washed with their water (a big no) with your hands ! and it was so spicy and I ate the yogurt (a big no) because I wouldn’t have been able to survive with out it. Sooo good
Here we are in Agra, this is palace there, very cool, there I am. I liked these palaces a lot because they were simple but grand all the same, there I am, in front of part of this giant compound.
The next is a not that good picture of Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon! It was REALLY cool, we got to spend quite awhile there walking around, being harassed by beggars and merchants as always, but it was just really cool and we almost didn’t get to go due to transportation delays. The big sandstone structure is the site of the speech, maybe 250 yards up from that are all ruins of old buildings and stuff, it’s still being excavated and yeah, was cool.
Here is a class visiting there! Ah all the people were so beautiful. And there were definitely some hot guys! Haha but yeah, there was no ugly child. There were however very poor very hungry sick children. And that was of course horrible.
Here is a silk shop! 3 guys making a silk blanket. There were 2 other guys on the other side making one too. 5 guys making silk blankets with insane awesome patterns. My god! How could you not buy some? What I’ll do with it I don’t know but I need to start curbing the shopping… especially now as my card isn’t working after India… mm
Here is my little 12 year old tour guide at a mosque we went to. An Indian attached themselves to every member of our group and all 25 of us got separated and shown around by someone that would have to run away and hide every time this regulator with a stick would come around and chase them because they weren’t supposed to be there! But my kid was really cute and said be spoke all these languages, his English was awesome and I tried to speak with him in Spanish and French but we all know how good I am at those… which is not very good at all. So he seemed good but I was kind of overwhelmed by being split form my group, I decided to believe he knew Hindi, English, Spanish, French and German. At the end of things I tipped him 5 American dollars – which he wanted American money, and he helped keep all the other beggars/sellers away from me and it was a nice investment because he taught me a lot. He has one sister and 5 brothers, we talked about our families, he asked if I was married. He showed me an elephant grave yard. It was cool.
Here is the Taj Mahal! haha I took a billion pictures, but here is one of me hanging out a window at a really cool giant fort you could see the Taj from. Some of me standing, we were there at sunset, it was beautiful, the Taj is white marble at sunrise and sunset it really lights up, it was a perfect and beautiful day all day long, really wonderful, there I am being all pensive. haha. Going inside (no pictures no shoes) was really hectic and crazy, I’ll write about that later)
Here are 3 pictures of houses I took from a rickshaw ride people just hang out and live on the street. I really need to get writing because you can’t understand from pictures how poor people are but how wonderful they are too, India isn’t dismal, really. Also there is some really fancy stuff there, like the air planes. Very nice. Here I am in the Indian Ocean!! Kind of that’s my shadow I looked like a mess in the real pictures so there you have it, and lastly here is one of my favorite things of India, my calculator watch! I was given by a fellow SASer we ran into at the train station in Agra, I didn’t know him but said I loved his watch and he whipped it off and put it on me. ahhh hhhh hhhh I love that watch, makes currency conversion much easier!
Okay well there are my India pictures! There is so much more I didn’t get to take pictures of, so please return in the near future to read my travels further! Haha. Happy Halloween almost! Wow, we’re out weighed by the Canadian dollar now! Good thing we went this summer I guess. Wwwoooowww I’m going to be in debt by Europe and what am I going to do now?? There are like 5 Canadians on this trip and now they are the lucky ones I guess. I’m going to invest in the UAE and move there, it’s awesome. Also everyone has been seeing whales and dolphins right where I am and 5 seconds later I try and see and they are gone! And everyone is like oh man! That was so amazing! It changed my life ! …not actually but everyone has really been pumped and it’s just not fair. I’ve been watching a lot of movies a lot a lot. Life on the boat has been pretty sweet. : )
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