The "Taj"

Well, this post has been about two months coming. Back at the beginning of February Jose Luis and I decided that we better get our trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal out of the way early. After going to the wrong railway station at 7 a.m. and racing across the city on a rickshaw to the correct station, we arrived at our train precisely at its departure time: 7:15 a.m.

While the train was quite crowded, we were lucky to have seats for the four hour journey. It wasn't too hot on the train, but we could tell they were already prepared for the hot months to come.

Once in Agra, we found a restaurant with dining on the roof and some Australian and German friends to share lunch with. The view from the roof was a perfect teaser before we set off to explore "The Taj" as it is called by locals and tourists alike.

The classic "Taj" photo. Although you can't see it, there are probably 20 similar photos going on at the exact time just to the right and left of us.

I'm actually quite proud of myself for spotting this photo opportunity: all types of tourists, foreigners and Indians alike, taking photos from a variety of angles in front of "The Taj".

Construction of "The Taj" began in 1630, courtesy of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan who had it build for his wife, Arjumand Jehal. Agra was the capital of the Mughal emperor between the 16th-19th centuries. It is also symmetrical on all sides and while it is an amazing monument in terms of size and beauty from the outside, the inside is much smaller than I thought and the wear of thousands of tourists on the inside shows. For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal

This photo is taken from Agra Fort. Taj Mahal actually seems a lot closer than it looks in this photo, but my stupid camera always makes things in the background look further away.

Kirani Market is a crazy place in Agra. There are probably 200 (no joke) sari shops adjacent to each other and somehow they all seem to make a living. A great day trip though. We were back in Delhi by 11 p.m., in time to have some drinks and go dancing with friends.

Yes, it was a long, but incredibly fun day :)

Indian Home Stay

I know, two blog entries in quick succession! What can I say, with my laptop, “Lapia” as I affectionately refer to her, back in working order with a new adapter cord, I am back in blogging mode.

Last weekend I had my first “Indian home stay”. The boyfriend of my wonderful friend Andrea, Shivam, whose family is from Jaipur where he grew up, was in India for three weeks so I made a trip to see them all. I hadn’t seen Shivam in over two years.

On Good Friday, we went to Choki Dhani, which is basically like a Rajasthani “village experience” for tourists. It’s more like a village carnival complete with magicians, dancing, gift shops, a maze even and plenty of Rajasthani food.

Since I had the opportunity to see all the touristy Jaipur places a couple months back on a weekend trip with roommates, I was able to spend this three day weekend very casually, getting to know Shivam’s family, walking the markets with him and trying just about every Rajasthani sweet there is.

Shivam’s parents are amazingly sweet people and told me I had a second family in Jaipur anytime I wanted a weekend away from Delhi.

700 Million Indians

Two weekends ago I had the opportunity to visit a number of rural India´s villages, the India that over 700 million Indians call home (of population of 1.1 billion). Specifically, I was in the area around Ranchi, which is the capitol of an eastern Indian state called, Jharkhand. Now Ranchi has a population of over 2 million, but I only stayed the nights in Ranchi. The rest of the time I was outside the capitol learning all about check dams, lift and drip irrigation systems and irrigation channels, underground water tables, self help groups, integrated water harvesting-livestock ponds, village development committees, primary care hospitals and the Standard Days Method (SDM) they are promoting to village women who choose (for different reasons) to not use contraceptives, but are able to keep track of where they are in their menstrual cycle through a necklace of red and white beads.


This man was telling me how before his current pond and help from the local foundation the water would collect in the hills and drain right down and go to waste. Now they are able to collect it through a complex water harvesting system.


At our first village, my colleague Franz and I were able to meet with over 60 local villagers.

At the third village on the first day, we met with the school´s student parliament. A group of eight girls sang us a welcome song and gave us bouquets of flowers. I then told them that I too took part in our version of student parliament throughout middle and high school. I failed to mention that I think I wrapped up the middle school vice-president election with a promise of an indoor roller hockey league.

The second day we were able to visit two local hospitals that serve 7 and 13 villages respectively.

The plane ride home was a little harey (hairy?) to say the least. On take off apparently, one of our wheels burnt off or hit something and was completely flat when we landed in Delhi. We were greeted by a fire engine and some security personnel from the airport. I was utterly confused as I had slept through all of the announcements and our first attempted landing :)