INDIA - DAY 3: bharatpur & agra.

Today we had our first yoga lesson with Singhji. It was gentle yoga with no standing poses, but it was still energizing. I need to incorporate it into my daily American life, so I won't get tired so easily! We also did a little bit of group chanting mixed in with the yoga. I was a little skeptical at first, but I am now a huge fan. As cheesy as it sounds, I really felt a deep connectedness while we were chanting and humming. Also, the laugh yoga at the end was an instant mood-lifter, and Singhji's laugh was so contagious! After yoga, we drove into the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh to visit Fatehpur Sikri, which served as the capital to the Mughal Empire from 1571 to 1585. The architecture was astounding in its intricacy, combining styles from both the Hindu and Islamic faiths. Apparently, Emperor Akbar, who was in charge of the building of Fatehpur Sikri, was a very open-minded and tolerant man, thereby allowing these two traditions to mix. There were a bunch of persistent beggar children outside the site, which was a little bit disheartening and a lot bit annoying. Also, at one point during the tour, there was a man claiming he would dive into a seemingly shallow pool of water for 200 rupees [less than $5]! None of us was willing to let him risk his life for $5 though.

some of the buildings with little singhji & zacji in the background [jennifer turner]

turrets [jennifer turner]

phallic details on a column

outdoor hallway

me, studying the relief patterns [joel kraut]

details of a column [joel kraut]

robyn & josie in front of a screen [joel kraut]

the man who will dive for rupees [blair stirek]

he was ripped! [blair stirek]

hallway [landin donner]

elephant spike tower

indian tourist group

passageway

lanji & i with singhji in between

graves [landin donner]

the little beggar boy who wouldn't leave landin alone [blair stirek]

jewelry peddlers [jennifer turner]

post office box [jennifer turner]

INDIA - DAY 2: bharatpur.

Today, we left Gurgaon for Bharatpur. It was a looong drive over, and on the way, we ran into a few obstacles [where was Ganesh when we needed him?]. We got a flat tire, which was changed at super-speed by our drivers. Then we got stuck in a traffic jam, waiting for a train to cross. Blair & I had been talking about our major cravings for bananas, and there just happened to be a man taking advantage of the train crossing to sell produce to stopped cars. Our sweet driver, Ranjeet, made our day by buying each van a bunch of bananas.

 

men in a diner [blair stirek]

safe-looking fire extinguishers at a gas station [blair stirek]

traffic jam

the train [jonathan dipratna]

blair & i with the bananas from ranjeet [blair stirek]

We FINALLY arrived at our hotel in Bharatpur, the Udai Vilas Palace, where we were greeted with marigold leis. We left soon after for Keoladeo National Park, which is a bird and wildlife sanctuary built around the 250-year-old Keoladeo Temple. We were given the option of taking the tour by bike or rickshaw, thereby aligning ourselves in our "gangs" for the remainder of our trip [our group was so big that we had to split in two at most tourist attractions]. Landin & I rode bikes, while Blair rode in a rickshaw with Tiffanie. We later coerced Blair over to the bikes gang [bikes up, rickshaws down!].  At the park, we saw many varieties of birds, and a lot of other animals, too, like cows, spotted deer, jackals and turtles.  Much to our disappointment, we didn't have a sighting of the elusive park tiger.  But it was great to be surrounded by such beautiful, natural settings - a nice break from the noisy bustle of New Delhi.

me & landin before our bike ride [blair stirek]

tiffanie & blair with their rickshaw driver

map of the park

tranquility

cranes

mounds

does being territorial [joel kraut]

our wonderful guide

tiger warning sign [johanne lu]

INDIA - DAY 1: gurgaon & delhi.

After an eight-hour flight from London, I arrived, bleary-eyed and a bit nervous, at the Indira Gandhi airport in Delhi, around 4 a.m. I was greeted by quite the assortment of people: a beaming Indian Santa Claus [Singhji], an excited but sleep-deprived bearded man [Landin] and two fellow jet-lagged travelers, who had coincidentally been on my flight [Jonathan & Peggy]. All apprehension dissolved as soon as I hit the airport parking lot. We saw a trash can with the acronym D.A.P.S on it, and Landin asked Singhji what it meant. Singhji didn't know, so Landin showed him what "daps" meant in America. You know, the fist bump thing? Yeah. From then on, I knew that Landin & I would be close buddies for the rest of the trip.

first impression of landin...see what i mean? [jonathan dipratna]

After a get-to-know-you car ride to the hotels in Gurgaon [basically a new residential section of Delhi], I found out that Landin didn't have a room for the night, so I offered to let him crash in mine. Pretty sure I shocked the hotel manager, letting a strange man come hang out in my room.  Leave it to me to make an Indian social faux pas right from the start. We had to be up at 8 a.m. for breakfast at the other hotel [The Clover], which gave us two hours for showers and sleep, so it wasn't a big deal.  At breakfast, I got to meet my other travel mates, and we took a quick walk to a Gurgaon strip mall that was just opening its stores. I became instant friends with my new roommate, Blair. The random pairing ended up becoming what I hope to be a life-long friendship.  In fact, our group, as a whole, really lucked out on our travel mates. Everyone was incredibly nice, good-natured and intelligent, and, as a bonus, everyone seemed to appreciate each other's humor. I couldn't have traveled with better people.

Our big tourist event for the day was a visit to the National Gandhi Memorial, or Gandhi Smriti, but first we headed into Delhi for lunch at a veg restaurant in a HUGE mall. I had a dosa for the first time, and it was delish, but seemed spicy to my Indian-food-virgin mouth. Zac, Colleen & Joe [Zac & Singhji are the adventure leaders with Veg Voyages and Colleen & Joe are the founders/publishers of VegNews magazine] were being interviewed for a local tv program on veganism. If our group of twenty-four Americans didn't already stand out, we now had a film/tv crew with us to add to the chaos.

colleen & joe with their interviewers [michael lu]

The Gandhi Memorial was peaceful and serene, with landscaped gardens and a slightly cheesy path of concrete footsteps, which marked Gandhi's walk to the prayer meeting where he was assassinated.  There was also an open building with a busy mural of Gandhi's life - even the ceiling was covered in the earthy paint colors.  Around the building, there were lots of signs and carved stones with quotes by and about Gandhi.  Everything was so quiet; it really felt like a sacred place.

the only non-camera-shy monkey at the entrance

gandhi's path to his last prayer meeting

gandhi mural

gandhi mural & ceiling

quotes

some of the gardens

INDIA - Introduction to the VegNews/VegVoyages Great Adventure to India 2011!

I was lucky enough to be able to travel halfway across the world to Rajasthan, India, on a vegan trip co-hosted by Veg Voyages and VegNews magazine. The result was two incredible weeks filled with what will surely be some of the defining moments [and meals!] of my life. My fellow travel companions and I - mostly strangers at the beginning, but family by the end - were exposed to things we had only dreamed of, like a village wedding procession, an auspicious Hindu aarthi ceremony, and the chance to meet a Maharajah. A lot of people questioned why, of all places, I wanted to go to India. To me, it is a mysteriously beautiful place, with a rich culture far removed from anything I've ever experienced. India is now sacred to me, and I left huge pieces of my heart there. I hope these photo highlights and this quote by National Geographic Traveler editor-in-chief, Keith Bellows, will help explain my feelings in a more eloquent way:

"There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won't go. For me, India is such a place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds. It was as if all my life I had been seeing the world in black and white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor."

*photos courtesy of me, landin donner, blair stirek, joel kraut & jennifer turner