Taj Mahal & Kashmir

Challo!

I've made my way up North, at the moment I am residing on a houseboat on Srinagar's Dal Lake - one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. Kashmir is so different from the rest of India, a vast Muslim majority, balanced climate, mountains overlooking you wherever you are. And the tea ... Green tea with cardamon, saffron and cinnamon - what more can you say?

There's so much to say, many adventures, good and bad experiences - but overall I'm really enjoying my time here. Okay: Some impressions from the past days.

Taj Mahal... maybe one of the most photographed buildings in the world. For a reason! I was a bit sceptical about going there, but it was on our way from Varanasi to Delhi and was definitely worth the visit. We spend about 3 hours there and it's of a beauty that I've never seen in a building before. As you can see I was happy!

Some detail shots of the Taj. Even though the builder (Shah Jahan, father of Aurganzeb for the history junkies reading this) was a Muslim he respected the other main religions of his time (Hinduism and Sikhism) very much. See how the flower forms an 'Om' sign?

Beautiful Arabic calligraphy on the outside of the Taj. It looks like it's painted on the marble but in fact they cut out small pieces of it and replace them with black stones. When looking at this magnificent architecture I thought "How could anyone ever speak of European superiority, completely dismissing Indian culture and science. Is there anything comparable in Europe?"

In one of the side-buildings. It's a bit blured and there could be some work done on the colors, but not now ;-)

Approaching Srinagar from Delhi. See the mountains, the landscape... Simply amazing.

A couple of minutes before touch-down. Green, green, green - wherever you're looking!



Dal Lake, Srinagar. This is where we're staying, this is our view everyday. A magic combination of water and mountains. Never seen anything like that before!

India 2

This is a bus in Kolkatta. I did some experiments with my camera and that's one of the best, trying to portray the crazy and medium-dangerous driving skills of bus drivers in India...


Peter with hat in Darjeeling. Yes, it was cold. Bloody cold. I wore Jeans, raincoat, shawl and hat. And actually I miss it a bit ...

One of the few but stunning moments of fine weather in Darjeeling. Even though we could not see Mount Everest on the horizon (as one apparently can if one does not happen to be surrounded by rainclouds) we had great views sometimes.


A temple in Darjeeling, nice, colourful prayer flags everywhere.

Sunset in Varanasi, taken before going for dinner just now.

India 1

Yoyo,

after I've been facebooking/skyping/emailing with some of you I thought it might be time for some pictures from my India trip. During the last month I travelled from Visakhapatnam to Konark, Puri, Kolkatta, Darjeeling and Varanasi (where I'm at the moment). Here are just some impressions, too much is happening and everyday is full of stories and those moments that make travelling so worth while.

This is Anna. She was volunteering with Balamitra during the last year and is a cool girl. She managed to dress mostly in Indian clothes for the past year, something we did not achieve when we were here!

As I told some of you the school grew massively. Most of the children in this picture are new. It took them some time to get used to us, but after a while they were as active and open with us as the old children.

A couple of nights before we left we had a little function, the children singing songs, playing drums and dancing. It was one of those beautiful nights that take your heart. Coming back for 2 weeks made me feel like I never left Vizag...

O.k. and off we go on our journey. Fabian, Ina and me enjoying the 'sex-o-yogic' art of the sun temple in Konark. A quote from our guide is enough to describe the situation: 'This is an optimistic couple, one man, two wives".

The Gang on the bus to Puri where we spent a day at the beach before taking the train to Kolkatta.

Sudder St. Kolkatta. Taken in the heart of the tourist ghetto and still you have some of these pictures that are just wonderful, don't you think? Oh and what's special about it: I haven't seen much street art in India - and this piece actually looks quite good...

A drum-maker in Kolkatta. Even though it was after sunset it was still blazing hot, hence he works without a shirt on. I was sitting there for five minutes, watching his work, how concentrated he moved his knife and hammer to tighten the leather.

At the street barber in Kolkatta. Unfortunately I had just shaved so I could not take part in this session. But (!) I promise after writing these posts I will go to the barber next door which looks at least as good as these fellows.