Blogs from Uttar Pradesh, India, Asia - page 168

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Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra November 20th 2004

Friday afternoon I took myself for a wander through the back streets of Jaipur. Note... If Quincy Jones Soul Bosanova is good for bopping through the doped up alleyways of Pushkar, Paul Okenfolds techno remix of the James Bond theme is excelent for surviving the mean streets of Jaipur. Though you still attract plenty of attention walking around the back streets you have nowhere near the harrasement you get around the shops, and people are more interested in you than they are in what money you might want to part with. It's odd, there are days of the week and times at night when I'm not overly keen on walking between my front door up the high street in Wigton to the Indian takeaway, but I never seem to have any qualms about venturing into unknown ... read more
ME AT FATEHPUR SIKRI
ME STILL AT FATEHPUR SIKRI

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra November 16th 2004

Will add more soon.... read more

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra November 10th 2004

I am back in Delhi now after my little trip down to Agra, and quite a trip it was too.... On Sunday night I was feeling pretty odd having left the company of Sanjay and Preeti and everyone with a chance to finally get my head around things a bit. I had some dinner and then went up to my room and almost cried with joy to find an english speaking channel on my tv showing that classic Arnold Sharwzeneger film 'Kinder Garden Cop', awful it may be but it cheered me up no end! You can't really venture out on your own in the evening, or rather, you shouldn't, so I didn't. But I was quite happy in my strange windowless hotel room with curtains on the wall and Arnie on TV. Everyone seems to ... read more
So beautiful......
A happy Anna

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi November 4th 2004

Well this is my first entry on this er! travel blog thing. Well on our 13th day in India and already much to reflect upon. I'm reading a short story collection by the writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and 'A fine balance' by Rohinton Mistry, in order to get a real flavour of life in India. I am very ignorant about this country and feel the need to verify some of the things I'm reading about, like is there still an informal caste system here? We have got friendly with a waiter at the hotel (Varanasi) he seems to want to talk about such things. So I feel free to ask the question. He informs me that the only division between people is those that have and those that don't, he includes power as well as money ... read more

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi November 4th 2004

From Agra, and the Taj Mahal, we headed to Varanasi, the Holy City of the Hindus, formerly called Banares. It's here that people come to cleanse themselves in the River Ganga (Ganges), especially first thing in the morning. Also on the banks of the river people cremate the dead, there's a special site where there are 24 hour burnings. When we sailed past on a boat we had hired at sunset we counted about 16 fires at the one time. Understandably, We were not allowed to photograph the cremations. Varanasi is one of the oldest living cities in the world, and much of it feels like it hasn't changed in hundreds of years. For a couple of days we stayed in a guesthouse overlooking the river, with fantastic views from one end of the city to ... read more
Morning on the Ganges
Ghosts on the Ganges
Goats by the Ganges!

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra November 3rd 2004

The Taj Mahal is not the only beautiful thing in Agra, there's also the Red Fort. It was begun by Akbar between 1565 and 1573. It is situated on the west bank of the Jumna River, about 2km upstream from the Taj Mahal. Akbar built the fort of sandstone; his grandson Shah Jahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal, constructed palaces of white marble within the fort itself. Shah Jahan was imprisoned in Agra Fort following the coup of his son, Aurangzeb, and died here in 1657. Here are a few photos... read more
A pastoral scene
Denise 'praying'
Gerry in 'Women's Mosque'

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra October 18th 2004

We thought the Taj Mahal restaurant in Lewisham, London was tasty, then we saw the real thing! I have to confess I shed a small tear when I first glimpsed the awesome sight of the Taj Mahal. Built by a Mughal Emperor in honour of his much beloved wife who died giving birth to their 14th child. Denise asked me what I would build her if she died, I assured her I would complete the conservatory at the back of our house she keeps talking about!... read more
Mother and daughter
The Taj Mahal
Gardens of the Taj Mahal

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra October 7th 2004

Don't panic - the assault was by a squirrel (it bit Denise's bum while eating breakfast outside) and the mugging was by a monkey (it stole a bag of bananas from Denise as she walked down the road)!! Denise is recovering well from her traumas. Our journey did not start well. We did not get on our first flight as we were late and it was overbooked. The next flight was the next day on a different airline, and it was much longer as it involved a 4 hour stop-over in the United Arab Emirates. At least we were put up in the Sheraton at Heathrow, with free dinner and breakfast and 50,000 free airmiles each as compensation. So we had one less day in Delhi. We stayed there for 2 days in a pretty basic ... read more

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra June 30th 2004

We saw more than Taj Mahal in Agra In 2004, about one and a half years before we joined TravelBlog, we travelled in India for a few weeks. On that trip we learnt that it can get very hot in India in July. And that refers mainly to the weather. Of course, the food in India was also hot. But that's true regardless of what month of the year it is so no need to point that out. When we left Sweden we had a general idea of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. After a few days we realised that we'd have to alter those plans slightly. The weather was too hot for us to be able to enjoy our travels. To cool off we applied the same strategy as ... read more
Taj Mahal
Row of arches
Taj Mahal

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi December 27th 2003

Agra. Taj Mahal je cudovit. Pika. Bil sem brez besed! No, se enkrat se pokaze vecvrednost bele rase, ko moramo tujci placati vstopnino cca. 3000 sit, Indijci pa celih 80. Zivljenje je zelo fer. No, v Agri sva se morala posloviti od najinega Ramesha in se odpravila v sveti Varanasi ob sveti reki Ganges. Cela fora tega Gangesa je, da se Indijci odpravijo tam umret in jih sezgejo ob reki. Lahko izbiras med tradicionalnim sezigom na drva ali modernim cenejsim na elektriko. Midva sva si malo to ogledala, pa ni prevec prijetno za oko. Ce pa kot preminuli spadas med izbranih pet (menihi, nosecnice, dojencki, ljudje z znamenji in tisti ki umrejo od ugriza kobre) te pa doleti cast, da te vrzejo v reko. Sicer pa tale kastni sistem prav nazorno pokaze kam kdo spada. Na ... read more
Puncka na Gangesu




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