...india...

took the same photo walking around fell's point in baltimore







i wonder what's upstairs...



more stairs...



some of the kids saw my camera and wanted me to take a photo of their father



bouganvilla



christian



marigolds

one of the guys at the hotel and i have hit it off. he saw my ipod which started a conversation about music. he doesn't speak english well (and last i checked, i still don't speak hindi) but 'moby' and 'the beatles' translate well. today, we exchanged mp3s. i can't wait to hear how he interpreted my tastes.

we travelled to agra, in uttar pradesh, to see the taj mahal yesterday. agra is approximately 4 hours (more in the evening when the trucks are on the road) from dehli.

built by shahjahn as a memorial to his wife mumtaz mahal. construction started in 1633 and was completed 17 years later.

it's hard to describe the beauty of the taj. the contrast of the red sandstone and marble, the workmanship of the inlayed precious stones, the symmetry (with one exception), the inlays of the scripture (each arabic letter is a single piece of onyx)...

below, a couple of snapshots...i haven't sorted through the photos yet.

first sight of the taj








looking to the west, just inside jilo khana



marble and sandstone pattern
the floor of the mosque on the west side



marble steps
this doesn't really show how thick and white the steps are...





one of the towers



view from the red fort
shahjehan was imprisioned by his son, aurangzeb, in the red fort.
i was standing in the yamuna river bed, in front of the fort, when i took this.



tourist shot

earlier this evening, before a meeting, jagdish, sounav and rahul took christian and i shopping in a ganj (gee, i hope that's right), or market. what an experience.

rahul found the types of shops we were looking for while sounav negotiated prices for me. sounav had to tell the proprietor that the items were not for me, to get the best price. it was great to watch the bartering, but tough to understand what (exactly) was going on. in the end, sounav called his wife who confirmed that he did, indeed, negotiate well.

next time i buy a car, i'm calling in rahul and sounav (and sounav's wife) to negotiate the price!

me with the guys

left to right: rahul, rajarshi, jagdish, satish and dinesh



on the balcony, during a dust storm

christian and i had dinner with malay and his family on thursday night.

malay and his wife wore beautiful clothes traditional to their homeland, banglore.

the food was a type of 'mughal' cuisine: an incredible variety of kabobs. i recognized beef, chicken, fish and mutton but there must have been others; the quantity of the food was overwhelming. all was accompanied by nans and roti, as well as the ubiquitious sand piper beer. yum.

also on thursday, a wedding was held at the hotel.

i noticed something "was up" on thursday morning. as i ate breakfast i watched local workers build a four column structure covered in a beautiful beaded red cloth in the area by the pool. by the time i returned from work, the hotel grounds were decorated with candles, lights and flowers (marigolds and jasmine). later in the evening, the lobby filled with family and friends in traditional, formal clothes; colorful sarees and kurtas and types dress i can't name.

as i understand it, the stucture is called a mandup. in addition to the candles, a fire was lit under the mandup. the bride and groom stand together under the mandup during the ceremony, while the family and friends witness. the groom circles the fire three times, then the bride circles three times. seven vows are made, then a brother or father ties the bride and groom together with a cloth and they circle the fire for the last (and seventh) time.

after the ceremony, which took place quite late at night, there was dancing and music. it lasted well into the morning. i fell asleep listening to the sounds.

"in america you drive for yourself, in india you drive for other people."

same shot as in the previous post, 17 hours later

the street sounds are very different than in the u.s.

at first the sounds seem confusing: walking through the streets i hear different languages and car horns and music and announcements and, well... all manner of interesting sounds. after a few days the sounds become comforting and even poetic.

some of the commercial trucks are painted with "horns please!" signs. using the car horn is more polite here than in the us.

i thought i knew what dust was.

at some point this afternoon, the dust became so thick that the sun disappeared. really. it's just like seattle in the winter .

here's a photo of the portion of the sky where the sun should be/was.

// posted by smbailey @ 6:34 AM

christian at breakfast



we finialized our travel plans to agra: leaving saturday morning at 7:00 a.m.

satish: "there are two kinds of people in the world: those who have seen the taj and those that want to."

monday the indian stock market was pretty unstable, largest single day drop in history.

tuesday sonia gandhi turned down the pm position. the news coverage last night looked interesting but it's difficult to understand all of the nuiances of the politics and impact. i have today's paper, though, which should help.

here's a link to a good indian newspaper, interesting times here...
http://www.hindustantimes.com/

a couple of snapshots from my morning walk:

amazing statue in the distance (best i could do with a 28-80)




cow




plates made of leaves...

india gate was built in 1931 to honor the indian soldiers who died in world war I.

we visited at night (again the heat), so we saw the gate lit with colored flood lights. the surrounding park was full of families picnicking. i've come to understand that all of the names of the soldiers who fought are engraved on the gate. i'd like to go back during the day.

here's one of the snapshots i took...emphasis on snapshot...

we were fortunate to be at the lotus temple, a temple of meditation and worship for the baha'i faith, at sunset. one of the tenets central to the baha'i faith is that humanity is one single race; all races should be unified into a global society.

12.5 hours time difference. need to find out how the half hour figures in.

indian breakfast this morning...
idli steamed rice flour cakes with two chutneys: sambhur (very spicy) and coconut.
puri aloo a potato curry.

the concierge suggested that we wait until the heat subsides to go out. of course, we went out anyway. mistake. i have a heathly respect for both the heat and the sun. the humidity is low, but much hotter than any place i've been in the states...by a long shot.

photos from the market in noida:

we arrived in london sometime in the early morning. we were both oddly fuzzy about time and how we felt. after a quick shower at the bed and breakfast we were off.

before we left, we had planned a trip to the tate modern. it was clear to both christian and i that we were in no shape for a museum. we needed time outside, the weather was too beautiful to spend the day indoors. most of the day was spent in and around knightsbridge, south kensington and hyde park.

dinner reservations: 7:00 p.m. at foliage. [deserves a post of it's own...really...]

a couple of snapshots from our wanderings....

impossibly old trees in hyde park



part of the albert memorial, a tribute to asia



royal albert hall



after dinner...waiting for the tube

current temp in new delhi: 90 (with widespread dust)
current time: 4:07 a.m

10-day forecast high temps: ~108 - 110

i'm looking over what i had originally packed and have decided i need to shop for some lighter clothes. just two days worth: i'll either buy more there or launder frequently.

i'm not one for new year's resolutions as my bad habits indicate. this year i made one:

take at least one photo each day

oddly, i've kept the resolution. i suppose this is simply a commitment to a new habit.