India Random

India is semi-organized chaos which always makes for great photo subject matter. Add to that the stunning architecture, animals roaming the streets, the beautifully colored fabrics and the very colorful cast of local characters and you get a great photo roll. At times I wished that I could pause time and go around taking pictures of all the interesting characters and street scenes that I saw. Instead a lot of our photos were blurred because they were taken from the back of a car or atop an elephant, or weren't taken at all because I didn't have the nerve to stick my lens in the face of the subject. But here is a photodump of some memorable moments from our trip.

Ranthambore National Park

Following Agra we headed southward in search of wild Bengal tigers within the beautiful confines of Ranthambore National Park. The park is a sanctuary for the tigers where they can roam free without the worry of poachers and hunters who've driven the cats to near extinction across Asia. Now the tigers need only worry about the many safari jeeps that carry lookieloos like us thru the park to catch a glimpse of the big cats.

We took a four-hour naturalist-guided tour of the park in the late afternoon and didn't see a tiger. Ingrid was ready for action with her Junior Explorer utility vest and tiger t-shirt. Tillie was secure in her car seat with the animal print sun visor, perfect 'safari camoflauge.' We saw tiger poop, tiger paw prints and animals that had been beaten up by tigers, but no actual tigers. I'd say I was disappointed but the park was so beautiful and we saw so many other animals that it almost didn't even matter to me that we see a tiger. Antelope, deer, monkeys, warthogs. And with the big banyan trees, historic ruins, and grassy plains it really felt like we were driving straight through The Jungle Book. So, no tigers so I thought I'd post a couple of random tiger pictures I found on Google.

Post #500!!

What better way to celebrate post #500 as I sit in Cathay's lounge at HK airport? With a courtesy business class upgrade from Cathay for my 18 hour journey to New York! God bless you Cathay counter person, you must have already known about post #500!

Thank you readers who have stayed with us for all or any of our blog postings over the past 2 years.

Bindi

As you can see, the girls are taking their time in India very seriously by donning the traditional bindi. Tillie's is looking good but Ingrid's is a bit left of center. You'll also notice that her right cheek is ballooned up from a mosquito bite the night before so maybe its affecting her sense of center. Dang mosquito's, they always seek Ing out and she reacts horribly to them. And Indian mosquito's are quite untrustworthy so we're keeping close watch on her...

Drinking and Flying

India is the only country I know of to mix drinking and flying. Kingfisher Beer is their national swill and the company also runs a successful airline. Cheers to that!

The Taj

The Taj Mahal! My travel guidebook is full of quotations from poets and scholars who in the 5 centuries since the Taj was built have described it in larger-than-life terms. While I can't capture it in words nearly as well as these learned individuals, I will say that none of them wordsmithed what I felt when I saw it with my own eyes. It was magnificent, we were all blown away by how beautiful and grand it was.



Our helpful guide provided the narrative of how the Taj is a monument to love, built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial and tomb to his wife who died during the childbirth of their fourteenth (!!!) baby. Griefstricken Jahan pulled together the finest architects, a whole lot of local white marble and an army of workers who slaved under horrible conditions to built what is now considered the most beautiful manmade structure on earth. All that information is great but almost unnecessary as I found the best way to appreciate the Taj is to stare at it in silence with one's own thoughts....which I got to do for about 20 seconds until Ingrid stuck her finger in my ear.

We arrived early in the morning to beat the crowds and see it in the morning light which had the added benefit of giving Ingrid more space to run around without being doted upon by the crowds. And we thought the Chinese loved seeing a blond haired blue eyed child, the Indians really loved her! See the video at the top of this post where Ingrid stomps around in her little foot coverings to protect the Taj marble floors.

Agra Fort

Agra brought out the India that I'd expected, something I'd not seen in surprisingly civilized Delhi. Extreme congestion of both vehicles and people, the constant smell of sewage, people going #1 & 2 beside the roadside, mounds of rubbish being picked over by cows and pigs and views of general poverty on all sides of our coach.....it was a dump. When traveling one of my favorite things to do is just walk the streets and take it all in, but this was one city that I was happy to drive thru without stopping.

Agra Fort on the other hand was incredible and was the seat of power in India for nearly 200 years. The fort is massive though only 15% of it is accessible to visitors as the Indian military still controls and uses the remainder. We caught the fort in the late afternoon with a low sun which lit up the sandstone walls in a brilliant orange red. It was like being on the set of an adventure movie.

India progress

Our India journey has been great. Sorry for the communication blackout but I've struggled with my power cord and the Internet connectivity is not always perfect here, so I've not been posting. But I have a whole backlog of pictures to put up so do check back in.

I'm heading back to Hong Kong today and ultimately on to New York for work. Lizzie and company are continuing thru Rajastan for another week for which I'm jealous.

The trip really has been an adventure, India certainly is like no other place I've been.