Kangra

After visiting the rock temple and having lunch it was off to Kangra. Kangra is the "big town" in the area meaning that it was still pretty small but clearly the main city. We first went up, and up, and up, to Kangra fort. The fort was built on the top of a hillside and had the most amazing views. It was, however, rather hot that day (although still cooler than Delhi...when is summer going to end?) so while we were less than thrilled by all of the steps we were well rewarded for the walking. The fort itself was pretty basic, but there were a few little spots of amazing carvings; that is a pre-sweat covered me below with some of them. Interestingly when we got to the main courtyard of the fort we saw people living in the fort. From what we could figure - without intruding too much into their space - the people that work on the fort, cutting the grass and general maintenance and such - live in the fort. They have very little and would, in the US, be considered squatters I suppose, but here people just live where they can find space and it kind of works.

After exploring the fort...and then buying a bunch of drinks and re-hydrating we went to another temple which the guide book said to visit. The temple was rather a disappointment, it was swarming with people so we got in and out really quickly, but, the walk up to the temple was really fun. You walked through a market that was full of people selling things for people to offer at the temple, as well as other 'normal' things to buy. There were a few men selling different types of grain including flat rice, which is just what it sound like, rice flattened out; you could buy flowers; and, as seen below, bangles galore. We spent all of 2 minutes in the temple but almost an hour walking through the market taking it all in.

Quite a varied and fun day.

temple time...yes, again!

One of the reasons why I wanted to go to Dharmsala was this picture I had seen of a rock temple. On occasion when I travel I become somewhat fixated on seeing one thing in particular and this determination has served me well in the past and brought me to some pretty cool sights and I'm happy to say that once again my determination was rewarded. However I must say that when it comes to distances and guide books in India they are pretty much all wrong...our 'easy 1/2 hour ride' was a twisty turny 1 hour ride...but it was a very pretty ride.

The temple we went to visit is in Masroor and is carved into rock and is over 1,000 years old. I'm always amazed by how beautiful things are that were built so long ago when so much of the work was manual, just imagine how long that must have taken to make. It was damaged in an earthquake about 100 years ago and what is really cool (I think) is that you could see exactly where some of the damage occurred; the second picture below shows a big slab of the rock that slid down. We climbed up some very steep stairs (which I actually slid down on the way back down because I was so afraid of falling) for some great views over the valley. See those people on the top left hand side of the temple, that is where we went up to. Even though the temple was actually fairly small we spent about an hour walking around checking out the carvings. Definitely lived up to my expectations.

After visiting that we were on mission lunch, which, I'll admit had us a bit nervous because we were not near much of anything. Our driver took us to two places and we picked the one that looked a bit better but still made us a bit nervous as it was kind of like a diner on the side of the road...in India...that was empty. Turns out it was a really really good meal. We passed by it again on our way our home and it was quite busy, it was just empty when we went because we were there so early. Whew...that was lucky.

Anyway...its a very busy time at work right now so I'll cut this post short today so I can get back to everything I need to do.

Tomorrow Kangra and another temple!

McLeod Ganj

Today is one of many pseudo holidays over here, which means that in theory it will be a nice quiet day in the office. Tonight, however, I think will be noisy but I might have my holidays confused...will update you tomorrow.
For now back to the quiet of the hills...
So after visiting the church we headed into the town of McLeod Ganj; about 8 km up the hill from Dharmsala; this is where the Dalai Lama has his residence and is home to the Tibetan government in exile. It was a small little town with an interesting mix of about 1/3 Tibetans - half of those being monks; 1/3 foreign hippies of all ages; and the rest were Indians or non-hippie travelers.
We grabbed a very forgettable lunch and then walked around looking at all the stalls of things being sold, some very beautiful clothing which, alas, was made for small Tibetan women that I towered over so didn't exactly fit me.
We then strolled to the temple for the Buddhists and it was quite interesting. I didn't take any photos of it as there were quite a lot of people praying and I didn't feel I should take photos. The temple is part of a larger complex that the Dalai Lama's residence is attached to; it also has a shop and a small restaurant, and seems to be the hub for the Tibetans in the area.
We followed the sound of a voice which one of the monks told us was the recording of the teachings the Dalai Lama had given the day before. We walked up into this area which was a large square space; in the centre were over 100 monks sitting listening to the teachings. There was a little walkway around them and on the other side of the walkway there was probably 200 lay people listening to the teachings. I noticed in one area a few people eating rice from bowls; my hunch was that they were poor and came to the temple to be fed. We walked around to a small room which was quiet and had only a few people in it. I don't know much about the religion...actually I know almost nothing, but as we were walking around this small room a few people came in and prayed for a few minutes to one of the statues in the room and gave it an offering of a few rupees or food.
It was very interesting seeing how the Buddhists prayed; it very much felt like a community, perhaps because they are all in exile, and even though it was quite busy and there were tourists like myself, it still managed to have a spiritual feeling.
After visiting the temple we decided to take on a third religion and visit a Hindu temple. So we hopped in our car (we met a taxi driver at the bus station when we arrived and he was nice and a safe driver so we hired him for the rest of our time there) and went to the other end of McLeod Ganj to visit the Hindu temple and the waterfall. When we got there I decided not to go in the temple as it looked quite small and I felt a bit uncomfortable going in. My travel partner is Hindu so she went in while I sat outside near a little fountain (see picture) and relaxed more.
While she was inside it started to rain a little bit so we decided to postpone our visit to the waterfall for another day and we headed back to our hotel for a very yummy Indian dinner.

Mountains and Churches

So there we were in Dharmsala after our wild and crazy bus adventures and I was pretty much immediately relaxed. The town of Dharmsala is in the foothills of a mountain range called the Dhauladhar mountains. When I checked into our hotel I asked if our room had a view; they said "of course" because all the rooms have a view. We sat out on the patio and had a lovely little breakfast, rested a little and then set out.

The first photo below is of the view from the door of our hotel, colorful little houses climbing up the mountains. It was almost always cloudy in the top of the mountains so the tippy tops didn't come out much in pictures but the clouds actually made for a really cool atmosphere (and it was actually cool...So refreshing after the Delhi summer).

Our first stop was about a 20 minute drive from Dharmsala and it was a cute little church, the "Church of St. John in the Wilderness". We walked down the short path, greeted by a cow (church and cow pictured below) and luckily the church was open. It was non-denominational I think, basically for any Christians in the area and was built in the mid 19th century. A lot of these towns in the mountains became really popular for the British during their reign in India as a way to get away from the heat (just like I was doing) which is why there was a church in the middle of kind of nowhere.

India is usually such a loud country and this church was just a little back from a quiet road in the middle of some woods and it was so nice and peaceful. We sat in the church for quite a few minutes just enjoying the quiet.

Just thinking about it relaxes me...

riding a bus...

Remember how I said that taking the night bus wasn't my first choice? Well it turns out that it was quite an adventure, and while I didn't exactly get much sleep it makes for a good story...
So...we get to the bus station on Friday night at 7:50 for an 8 p.m. bus because traffic was bad - I mean it is always bad here but it was extra crazy that night - so I'm all freaking out that we will miss the bus, but I forgot...this is India...nothing happens on time. We find the area our bus is leaving from and ask "is this the bus to Dharmsala" and the guy grunts yes. 10 minutes later we discover that it was, in fact, not the bus, the actual bus was 2 buses over. Again more unnecessary concern we would miss it. We get there and see everyone standing outside the bus. After a few minutes I overhear a conversation where I understand one word in Hindi which is "broken" so I ask my friend (who speaks Hindi) to find out whats going on.
Turns out the AC on our "Deluxe AC bus" is broken. Yikes! So a bunch of the men planning to ride went to see what was going on. No point in us women going, they would have ignored us anyway.
So we waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually I was ready to go AC or not. First they looked for another bus, there wasn't one.
Then they demanded a refund but the bus people said no, you will go.
Then they couldn't find the driver. When they did find the driver he said he wouldn't drive because he would suffocate (which is silly because his window opens).
Finally at 10 we got on the bus. It was hot, no doubt, but not as bad as you would think. We drove for 5 minutes then stopped. The driver got out for 20 minutes, suddenly came back and we were off! It actually wasn't that uncomfortable temp wise and by the middle of the night it was pretty cool with the small hatches on top of the bus opened up for air. And since safety here is always a non-concern they also left the door wide open to let the breeze in (don't worry...I was far enough back that I was safe). And...they even refunded us the "AC" amount of the ticket.
The ride wasn't exactly comfortable; the average height of Indians is 5'5" and the seats seemed to be designed for someone 5'3" max so our knees hurt a bit (I'm 5'7", she's 5'9") but we got there.
How much did this experience cost? $7. Seriously. $100 less than the flight and we were able to take a quick nap at the hotel when we got there so all in all actually okay.
But wait...there's more! On Monday we go to the airport to check in and find our flight has been cancelled so we immediately get seats on the flight the next day to be safe (there is one flight a day - its a tiny airport) and then we ran back to the bus station to see if we can get on the bus back because we both have lots of work to get back to. A very unhelpful man says the only bus is the "standard" which is not nice and I won't even go on for a 2 minute ride much less a 10 hour one. Luckily we were determined and found that there was a new bus service starting that night; air conditioned with super nice seats, as in reclines and has footrests. So we climb on this bus, pay $16 this time and sit in relative comfort on our way back...with a few other people from our cancelled flight. We might even get the money from our flight back because we told them in time we wouldn't travel the next day. We got back to Delhi at 5 a.m. (when I must say I was thrilled to have my own driver because I'm adventurous, but negotiating a rickshaw at 5 a.m. just doesn't seem like the smartest thing in the world).
So, long story short. Night buses in India range from quite nice to quite interesting, but even the nice ones are pretty darn cheap so really, why not if that is the best option?

and am back

Dharmsala was wonderful! It was calm and relaxing and cool, but the transportation was a bit of an adventure so I got back to Delhi at around 5 this morning, meaning I am a tad sleepy and hoping to get home early today so...I'll blog more tomorrow. I have lots to write about and hopefully some of my pictures will do justice to the loverlyness that is Dharmsala!

Off to the hills

This weekend I'm treating myself to a much needed weekend away from Delhi. Delhi can be an overwhelming city to live in at times...15 million people or so can be a bit much...so I'm heading away. I picked a location based on not much, just a pretty picture I saw. I wanted somewhere in a slightly cooler climate, not too tricky to get to and not too high (apparently there is this great place called Ley but it is extremely high so you need 3 days to get adjusted to the altitude). Anyway, turns out I picked the town the Dalai Lama lives in. It is called Dharmsala. Not going to see him but I'm sure it will be a nice zen place which will pretty much get me back in the right state to enjoy Delhi again. Taking a night bus up tonight (apparently quite nice...not my first choice but my friend is on a budget and the flight times up are rather inconvenient) and flying back on Monday. So hopefully will have updates on Tuesday about life in a town with lots of Tibetan monks. Should be a nice relaxing birthday weekend.

how much could you pull?

I may have previously referred to the fact that people here quite often deliver things on bicycle pulled carts; or pile things right onto their bikes. I've pretty much seen it all being delivered but recently while practicing my panning photography (which consists of me standing on a smidgen of a sidewalk taking pictures while moving back and forth and everyone looking at me like I'm a bit crazy...its quite fun), I got two good shots of stuff being delivered.

The first is a vegetable seller with his cart so full he has some on his handle bars...which is why I usually don't buy from the guys selling stuff from carts as it is usually quite bruised...off to his location to sell his veggies for the day.

And the second it actually a fairly common sight; a bike so full of things that someone has to run behind to help push is along. Delivering water is the worst, usually they just walk the bike for a while but zoom back when all is delivered.

Enjoy...

Adventures in Old Delhi

This weekend I dragged two friends with me to Old Delhi. I wanted to take pictures for my photography class but didn't want to go alone...there are lots of people there and I didn't want to be harassed. Actually no one paid us much of any attention which was a pleasant surprise. I got some good shots, and my friend got a picture of me looking at my camera and a guy looking over my shoulder at the camera too...I had taken a picture of the flowers he was selling and he wanted to see how it came out.
Our trip wasn't very long due to the rain (man my feet were soooo dirty after just an hour; Old Delhi + open toed shoes + rain = a mess) but I got a great shot of one of the stores in Old Delhi. I've talked before about how stores are just soooo tiny and absolutely cramped full of things; last night I went to the store in my local market to buy cleaning supplies for my maid and the little helper boy hopped up on his ladder to climb up and get them for me. I'm always amazed at how much they have in this little 6 foot by 6 foot store but it goes up about 20 feet so there is lots stacked up there.
Anyway...here is the photo of a little shop, along with the 4 very bored looking people that work in it.

exciting times...

Last night I was able to sleep without the AC on. That means the longest and hottest summer of my life is coming to a close. It is a bit of a "cold" spell right now and no doubt the heat will rage again for a bit, but I think that that last time I was able to sleep with just my fan and no AC was in April, so even though I may have to use it again a couple of times the end is in sight.
Hooray!

crazy gecko

The baby gecko living in my apartment has now grown up - he is about 2 1/2 inches long now - and he has finally discovered that there is life outside of my living room and he is constantly scaring me half to death.
The other day I went into my bathroom half asleep to brush my teeth and he was racing along the walls.
Then yesterday as I'm leaving for work he suddenly jumped from the ceiling to the floor in my hallway right in front of me. Good thing I didn't have my coffee in my hand because I would have spilt it all over me.
So now I have to train Mr. Gecko that even though I'm happy to co-exist with him he is allowed in my livingroom and my livingroom only. This isn't easy but can be done. Basically I just need to not react when I see him in the living room, but every time I see him somewhere else I need to actively shoo him away.
I kind of feel bad for the little guy, he is just trying to eke out an existence eating bugs and climbing walls and I'm getting in the way, but such is life for a gecko in the big city.
Aside: it has been pouring for hours and hours. Everyone was late to work because there are massive puddles everywhere. I saw the 'basement' of the construction site of a house this morning and it must have had a foot of water in it...looks like construction will be delayed for a bit there.

Delhi at night

Yesterday I was so busy working I forgot to blog...and I actually had something I really wanted to blog about. Oh well, just another day for you all to wait and get excited about what fun and exciting thing I'm gonna share with you!
So...on Monday night I had my photography class (almost done, I'm sad...but I've learned tons) and this Monday was an excursion to do night photography. I was really excited about this because I've had lots of problems getting good night shots. Well, I was half way successful - meaning that half of my pictures look really cool and the other half look awful with weird lighting; but half way is pretty good.
So for this excursion we went to a local market. I'd never been to this market before although I had heard it was really good and has "everything", whatever that means. I'd never been because from the outside it looked really big and kind of overwhelming, especially since all the stalls are so close together. Well it was big and quite close together but it pretty much had everything; clothespins, boardgames, fabrics for clothing - along with 5 men sitting at sewing machines making things for you, spices up the wazoo, some very smelly fish, and live chickens which (from what I could tell) they would kill and pluck for you when you were ready to buy one. I didn't stay too long at the chicken area but that is what I deduced from the big pile of feathers in one corner. It was actually quite an interesting market and I think I will go back again to explore some more. I confess that I was a tad bit more interested in the market than in photography at first. But then...we crossed the street (using a walkway, not actually crossing the street - anyone whose been to India knows that crossing a street is a dangerous past time) to take photos of "car trails". My best (in my not so humble opinion) is below. It was fun playing with settings of time and trying to get it just right. As we were standing there taking photos people started looking at us, and then more and more, to the point where we had about 50 men standing quite close looking at us work. It was a bit uncomfortable because there is zero concept of personal space over here so they would come right up to look at the photo on your screen, but they weren't aggressive, just interested. I do suppose that 5 foreign women standing on the side of the street taking pictures for about 1/2 hour is a bit of an odd sight. After we were finished I realized just how many men were watching us work and then I realized that they were actually all supposed to be working on building the Delhi Metro and just stopped what they were doing when we came and then went back to work when we left. And no one thought that was at all odd. No wonder things take so long to build here.
Anyway, here is my best shot from a fun night out of one of the busiest streets of Delhi (and lest anyone fear for my safety, there were big barriers on the side of the road which protected us...and served quite nicely as tripods):

monkey madness

So I was thinking on Friday that I've run out of things to blog about so I'd better travel some more around India so I have something new to write about. I like to post every day if I can but I'm not going to post if I have nothing to say.

India sensed my lack of topics and sent me some monkeys to fill the void. I think I had posted previously that I've only ever seen monkeys around when I'm with a visitor (or when I myself am being a tourist). Well in the past week I've had 3 monkey sightings - quite amazing I must say. The first one I saw sitting on the back of a bicycle, it was so cute! The second was just chilling out on the side of the road. And the third (well, third and forth because it was a momma and baby) were on the tree just outside my house. I noticed them when I went out to check how my laundry was drying (even though it is super hot here is it also super humid which means laundry takes forever to dry) and I saw something moving in the tree right in front of me. There was a little baby monkey playing around just 10 feet away. I quietly walked into my house and grabbed my camera to get a shot. The momma monkey didn't like me taking a photo so she quickly grabbed up baby and hopped to the next tree (I was a bit afraid she was going to come and steal my laundry) but I did manage to get this quick shot - click on it for a bigger view to see the baby monkeys' face. I have to say, as cool as the hummingbird is, it is waaaay cooler to have a monkey just a few feet from your balcony.