goodbye north !

goodbye north india. Shot of a cow and calf in the back of a truck. Also a shot of us with our fantastic driver Deepak.

Happy Dress like a FOB day!

foreigner rate at the Taj Mahal is 700x the local rate. After our experience at Fatehpur el Sikhri we didn't want to take any chances seeing as how Floyd, Trish and I weren't able to learn Hindi in two days. Damn us. So we dressed to impress :). Possibly the only time you'll see me in Indian style Kurta. Anyway, I'm only posting a few photos because you just can't capture the taj. It's one of the few monuments that have been properly maintained and you need to see it once in your lifetime. Only downer was the heat. Damn it's hot.


OWNED!!!


see, told you it's hot.


indian lawn mower at the taj mahal XD


I thought this was kindof cool. It was outside the Taj and this artisan was demonstrating the translucency of marble.

we told this fellow we'd give him money as long as he fed the monkey. Enjoy your dinner. You're welcome monkey.

Fatehpur el Sikhri

I think this was the lowpoint of our trip. Fatehpur el sikhri. I'm so mad I'm not even going to rotate these pictures. Yeah. Take that. You suck.
Anyway, in India there's a local rate and a foreigner rate. Being born in India, so far my family and I had paid the local rate. However at Fatehpur el sikhri, our tour guide sold us out. He told the ticketers that we weren't local and then asked us to prove otherwise. Since my brother, sister and I can't speak hindi they charged us the foreigner rate (about 10x the local rate). And I noticed that he got a spot of money on the side. It can't have been much, maybe rs 100 but I guess it was enough for him. Once we got inside it rained. You may notice that the water is green in these pictures. I thought it was a pretty color but it turns out it was algae. For the most part I was still okay though. What killed it for me was when we came to the 'shine' part of the palace. We had to take our shoes off. This place was so...filthy. I was repulsed. Dad, Floyd and Trisha said they'd wait outside but mom and I decided to brave it. The shine was covered in flies and the floor was filthy. But mom and I went in and made a donation. In return you get one wish. I won't tell you what mine is but I'll let you know it came true :). Mom's also kept hers a secret. Don't know if hers has come true yet.
You'll notice that I have an unhappy smile in these photos. That's because I'm standing next to a goat turd. It's off camera.

The Pink City

Greatest mouche in the world! This guy was so sweet. He was the doorman at our hotel. Anyway, one day I took a closer look at his face and I realized that those swirls were a braided mouche and it was real. It took him 17 years to grow and IT IS EPIC.


the city palace in Jaipur. Me and trish at the winter gate. It would have been fun to stay longer but it was so damn hot. Damn you India and your lack of air-conditioning. We were melting, so we did the city palace pretty fast and then ran home. Interesting story about that actually. When we were doing our elephant rides up at the winter palace these hawkers were snapping photos of us. Anyway, on the way out, they'd try to sell them to us. This one fellow called 'Lucky' got about 6 shots of me and trish and he tried to sell them to mom but she didn't want them. Anyway he followed us all the way to our car. He was really persistent. Hours later when we were down in the city visiting the city palace another man started following us. I don't know how he tracked us down, but he was trying to sell us Lucky's photos. When he brought them out I had this moment of shock. I was like 'how the hell did you find me?' and although I was impressed with this mad stalking skills I still didn't buy the photos.



These were taken at the Jaipur observatory. It was built by emperor Akhbar so they could study the stars and calculate the exact position of the sun. There is a giganticnormous sundial that I couldn't fit in the shot. Anyway, apparently this was all important for horoscopes. Here's me with the Taurus sundial. Let's go Taurus, let's go !


This lovely old man taught me carpet weaving.


old palace in Jaipur. It's being renovated and will be turned into a hotel. Right now though, it's a sad mess. The lake has been so polluted that the fish are all dead. There's garbage floating around in it and the palace is supposed to be no better. It saddens me that the government couldn't take proper care of this beautiful monument and the only way for it to be restored was for it to be sold to a private company.

Things I miss

Hit with a blast of homesickness. Here's a list of things I miss in random order

Tim Hortons.
Girl Guide Cookies
Pepto Bismal
HDTV
drinking water out the tap
trashcans on the street
bubble tea
sushi
beef (surprisingly hard to find :S)
high heels
short shorts (Hot country. Conservative culture. Why.)
pasta
my car
my cell
my friends
my love
hot showers (I get a bucket of warm water and a jug. Gets the job done, but I miss showers none the less)
my comforter
dim sum
fro yo
puffs plus with lotion
washer and dryer
microwaves

Money

some lady sleeping next to a stray. I just thought it was an interesting composition.



Aaah money. Trish was taking a photo of this cleaning lady with the hallway all lit up because we thought it looked lovely. Anyway, she turned around and gave Trish a big smile so we were pleasantly surprised.We thought 'oh, what a nice lady!'. So we said thanks and went on our merry way and then we heard 'money' behind us. We turned around and she was saying 'money. Money. How much money? You have money?'. We were incredulous. So we apologized and told her no we didn't have any money.She wasnt too pleased but I'd only taken visa with me. So what could I do. Oh well
Same story with the snake charmer above her. I'd taken this photo from some way off but I think he saw me and he stood up and started playing louder.Then from the distance I heard 'money!'. Good grief, these people. I ran.


The queen's garden witht the winter palace behind me


th path the elephants travelled along


the windows the princesses used to stand by. They'd shower down flowers when their kings and princes returned from wars.