Mum Being Sick

Hey everyone,
Ok so mum was scrolling through my blog and apparently I wasnt clear on her sickness so I just wanted to let everyone know that she got food poisoning. Well thats all so see ya later!

Day 13 - 16

Happy first day of the new year!
Sorry it's taken me so long to upload this but since the rest of the trip was just pleasure I think I'm just gonna go ahead and publish it as one post.


Okay so we packed up shipped out to the airport where we flew to Cochin and then drove to our hotel. The hotel was right on the water and very pretty, with tons of activities and a pool that snaked amongst the rooms. The rooms themselves where nice too, each one with personal access to the pool and some cool yet creepy outdoor washrooms. Sadly though we were way too tired that night to enjoy anything.

The next day we had breakfast at the buffet and then amused ourselves with sitting by the pool and trying out the different activities (basket weaving, pottery, spinning rope and palm reading) and even tried to fly a kite (which ended up with it crashing in to Simon's head and snapping in half). For dinner that night we went to the seafood restaurant were my dad assured us it was safe to eat the seafood, he was wrong. The next day I spent most of my time horizontal pondering over a new life lesson: NEVER eat seafood in India.

Finally it was time to end this crazy trip and start the journey home. First we drove back to Cochin (2 hours), then flew to Mumbai (5 hours), then flew to Delhi (3 hours), then waited (5 hours) in Delhi before flying to Germany (9 hours) where the plane was delayed, then flying to Calgary (11 hours) before at last flying home to Vancouver (2 hours). Ok so lets add that up shall we? What is that over 37 hours? Fun.
Anyway we are home now so it's all good now. Yay!
-Chloe :)   

Day 12

Mum and dad woke up early and went on a boat down the river to take pictures of the sunrise and more dead bodies while Simon and I slept in. Then after breakfast we all got in the car and went to a Buddha Temple and got the lowdown on how that religion began.  

I suppose I should give you a quick summary:  

Once upon a time there was a king and queen who were about to have a baby. The queen was walking around amongst the trees when she reached up and grabbed a branch. Suddenly there was a flash of light and a her baby appeared before her and took seven steps, and where he stepped there grew seven lotus flowers. The mother unfortunately died a week later and bewildered the king to a wise man who told him that if his son stayed in the castle he would become a great and noble king, but if we left he would become a great religious man and receive enlightenment. So basically his father wanted him to be king so he kept him locked up in the castle till he was twenty three when he went out, saw an old man, a dead body and a priest, nom of which he had ever seen before. The guy then decided to leave his life behind and try to become a holy man. He traveled far found some holy people in the woods and lived with them for a while then moved on, was enlightened, then continued on to enlighten other people. Later he died and was greatly missed by all and was then on known as the Buddha.  

We wandered around the grounds for a while and went down the road a bit to where they had built a monument to mark the area where the Buddha had first been enlightened, although now a lot of it was just rubble because it was all destroyed by the Muslims. 

After that we needed a break from tourism so we returned to the hotel for a while and sat by the pool where we met some people from Edmonton (Go Canadians!) and chatted with them till our break was over and it was time for us to go out touring again.

This time we took to the streets once again on tuck tucks and toured around the town for about and hour.

Later we returned to the hotel and got ready for New Years Eve. The party was a disaster but it was sure funny to be at, there was a band setup outside in a tent but since it was pouring (it supposedly NEVER rains this time of year there) it kept short circuiting the instruments, the power kept going off and for some reason they decided to start the countdown ten minutes too early. Shortly after midnight we said bye to our Edmonton friends and retired to our beds.

-Chloe :)

Day 11

Today we woke up early rushed through breakfast and then set off on a five hour drive to Delhi. From Delhi we flew about an hour to Varanasi and then drove to our hotel. Once again we met our guide who after briefing us told us to meet him in ten minutes so we could start touring, which after traveling all day mum was not to pleased about. 


Ten minutes later we were all in the car on the way to the Ganges River. When we arrived we lit a few candles as offerings and then all got in a boat on rowed out a little ways to get a better view of the celebration. Turns out that every night most of the city goes down to the river side and watched as the Brahmins, sons of the priests, preformed rituals and gave offerings to Shiva, the god of destruction and the one who had blessed the river. The ceremony was about forty five minutes long and once it was finished we rowed over to the main crematory. The Hindus believe that the river was blessed by Shiva, the god of destruction and therefor death but they also believe in reincarnation. Since in reincarnation the human is the last being in the cycle and so fearing that they might be reborn as a bug or something like that they take the "holy dip" in the river which not only releases them from any sins but also stops the cycle so that they go to heaven instead. So they have the crematories on the river so that after you die and before you are cremated you can take one last holy dip to cleanse your body and such to prepare you. The whole family, with the exception of the women who basically aren't allowed because they cry, show up and watch you be cremated in a giant bonfire. Then after about three hours when the fire as turned you to dust they all go take a holy dip and then return home.


 Wow that was a mouthful. :) 


 So when we were finished seeing with the river we all returned to the hotel and took some nice showers to clean off all that dust and smoke.
-Chloe :)

Day 10

Hello everyone,
Today we had a nice breakfast and then went to the Taj Mahal. We had to take a go-cart because normal cars aren't allowed as they pollute the air which is slowly ruining the Taj. We took picture, after picture, after picture as we slowly approached the Taj. (it seemed like mum was doing better because she had started taking pictures again) We even got our picture taken on the same bench as princess Diana. The Taj Mahal was built as a tomb for Emperor Shan Jahan's wife, Taj After she died during the birth of her fourteenth child. While they were alive they two were apparently inseparable, spending every waking minute together and the Taj Mahal was apparently Shan Jahan's final testimony of love for his queen. When Shan Jahan died he too was buried in the Taj with his wife and his casket is the only thing in the entire area that isn't symmetrical. After we were finished we got on a go cart and returned back to the hotel.

We sat by the pool for a few hours and had some lunch before going to see the Agra fort which I think is the biggest fort in India. The fort was where all the different emperors lived with their families and servants, including Shan Jahan and his wife. It is also where Shan Jahan's son imprisoned him so that he could take over as ruler.

After strolling around the fort, (more then half the fort was closed because the military was using it as a base) and watching the monkeys we went back to the hotel for the day where we all went out for dinner and then went back to the room and watched click.
-Chloe :)

Day 9

We woke up early got ready for the balloon ride, only to find that when we got downstairs it had been cancelled because of strong wind, fog and because it was raining. So a little disappointed we ate some breakfast and then set of, ahead of schedule, on our seven hour rode trip to Agra. The main roads where blocked off by protesters so we had to take the back roads through small villages to get there. Along the way we stopped at a well, the biggest of it's kind in the world and now a world heritage site. We eventually arrived in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. We were staying at the Oberoi (the same hotel as in Ranthambhore) which was a very beautiful hotel, every window had a view of the Taj Mahal (although you couldn't see it at night because of the fog). We once again received the traditional Indian welcome and then after getting briefed by our guide went up to the room. (we are falling into a similar pattern aren't we?)

We met our neighbors who offered mum some medicine and then watched some goats sneak up onto the wall at the edge of the garden and eat the flowers.

Mum had a massage, took some medicine and went off to bed while dad, Simon and I went down for dinner and then watched the Titanic in the other room. We were almost finished the movie when the power suddenly went out for about a minute, so I decided to go to bed. Nighty night!
-Chloe :)

Day 8

Today we had dinner and then set off, with our zombie of a mother, to the first stop of the day, City Palace. To tell you the truth it wasn't really City Palace but just the outer wall which the guide said was actually the only exciting part of it, well that and crossing the road to get a picture of it :). Then we went to Amber Fort which is in Amber town which is surrounded by the Great Wall of Amber. Now why does that sound familiar? We sat and watched a snake charmer with his cobra and then mum as she sat freaking out with the snake around her neck. Then we rode elephants up the hill into the fort, although I don't think I want to do that again because they kept thumping the elephants on the head with crowbars. The fort was nice, although mum in her weak state fell pray to the merchants and ended up buying two umbrellas, some jasmine perfume and a bag.

After we stopped for some pictures in front of the Water Palace, which as you may have guessed was a Palace in the middle of the water.
Then it was off to a small textile factory where saw how they did block printing, placing up to seven different layers of natural vegetable ink in all different colors and designs to produce a picture or pattern on the fabric. Then they would place it in a special oxidizing liquid to set the paint and let it dry out in the sun.

Our last stops of the day were the astrological museum and another history museum who's name I can't remember. We went to the history museum first and saw the different rulers throughout the ages, there different attires, weapons and such. We also saw the worlds biggest urns which at one point carried the drinking water from the sacred Ganges River of one of the emperors (Sorry but I have a really bad memory for names and I didn't think to take notes :)) which was the only thing he drank, and we saw the worlds biggest chandelier which was so heavy that to make sure the roof could support it they placed a baby elephant on the roof and because it could support the elephant, it could support the chandelier.
After we made our way across the street to the astrological museum which is now as of this year, a world heritage site. The museum was all outside and was made up of sun dials, including the biggest one in the world, to determine the time, date, lunar cycle, position of the sun, the zodiac symbols and more. I think the astrological museum might have been one of my favorite museums. (my favorite probably being the Ghibli Museum in Japan.) We wandered around the markets for a while and ended up buying a mini barbecue and a flat cooking pan, a little random perhaps but they were extremely cheap so why not?
We went back to the hotel and ordered room service because no one felt like going downstairs for dinner. Then we all hurried of to bed excited for the balloon ride the next morning.
-Chloe :)

Day 7

Hooray! Another road trip! Ya not really, it seems there is only so much you can do in a car for five hours. Anyway we slept in and left well rested from Ranthambhore around noon, our final destination, Jaipur.

When we arrived we received the traditional welcome (a dot on the head for peace and prosperity) and met our guide who explained what we would be doing the next day. After we were shown our room which dad immediately didn't like but after settling in, changing rooms and then changing back I think he he changed his mind. Did you know rooms in India come with swings? After we all took turns swinging on it and got that out of our system we looked outside and saw that the hotel had a giant chessboard. So while mum was dying in bed we went out and played chess.

Later that night Simon and I decided to stay up and eat dinner for once but they didn't want to make it easy for us because dinner didn't start till 7:30 but we managed. Mum however went to sleep and wasn't heard from until the next morning.
-Chloe :)

Day 6

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Today we woke up early and after having some hot chocolate and watery coffee we set off on our morning safari. Did you know that although it is quite hot in India during the day, at night it can drop to about 5 degrees? Which is pretty darn cold! So we all bundled up with our hot water bottles and drove around looking at deer and birds until we got a call on the radio, someone had heard a tiger roaring. We followed the calls around until we received word of a sighting and you can imagine we drove there pretty fast. We arrived and there where about three cars but on the blink of an eye 15 cars and trucks where driving around eager to see the tiger. Suddenly a streak of orange through the trees, the air was filled with the sound of cameras flashing and children screaming. It reappeared once and then was gone

We soon had to leave the park and return to our hotel where we sat by the pool for a while before going out on our night drive. We saw much of the same on the night drive except the tiger was nowhere to be found. So at 5:30 we returned home and while mum and dad went out for dinner Simon and I went to bed. God we need to get on this time zone! 
-Chloe :)
 

Day 5

Welcome back I'm writing this in the car right now on the way to Ranthambhore, a safari camp.

We woke up this morning at three and after making sure we had everything went off to the airport. We arrived there with what seemed like sufficient time, although our guide didn't think, little did we know how right he was. A day in the life of a Wolverton is nothing if not unexpected. There was a huge line up for economy check in but we managed to weasel ourselves into the business class line so we got to skip it. Here in India they are very meticulous about there baggage checking clearly not taking any chances. If a bag is checked and deemed safe it is stamped.

....We are waiting at a train crossing right now and god is it taking forever.... Anyway were was I?

Oh yes so we got our bags and ran to our gate which was closing soon. We got there right at the final call and as you have probably guessed mum didn't have her boarding pass. So they told us to step to the side while they sent someone to go look for it. We sat there for fifteen minutes not knowing if they would find it or not till a man slightly out of breath arrived and told us he found it by the bag check area. Hooray! We were about to go through to board the plane when someone asked us to show the stamps on our bags. Mums camera bag wasn't stamped, so again we waited, and waited till someone eventually showed up and checked it again and deemed it safe. So we boarded the flight and took off. Twenty minutes later we landed in Jaipur where we were greeted by our drivers who had had to drive five hours from Delhi the night before to meet us. We drove four hours passing through small villages and by fields along the way. We saw a whole lot of goats and cows as well as some dogs, chickens, camels... you get the idea there are a lot of animals in India.

We arrived at the Hotel where we received a traditional Indian greeting, a dot on the forehead, a moist towelette and a glass of orange juice. The rooms where giant tents with full bathrooms and electricity and beautiful. We had a little lunch and then went on our first safari. The safaris were in the Ranthambhore National Park home to a variety of animals including the endangered Bengal Tiger. While our guide filled out some paperwork we waited at the entrance of the park where met non other then Kenzie and her family (for those of you who don't know mackenzie is my friend from school) I quote Walt Disney's song that's so catchy it's annoying in saying: it's a small, small world.

So after a little time to catch up with our old chums we set off into the park. The park was made up of plains and forest area that in total covered 400 square km and was split up into different zones. Each group was assigned a different guide and zone at random everyday so sometimes you might get a better zone then others. We saw some different antelope (spotted deer and such...), birds, a monkey and well not much else. The park was situated on an area once ruled by Moguls in 900 A.D. so there were a lot of ruins, roads and even a few bridges that kept you from feeling too in touch with nature. Though overall the park was very pretty with it's small lakes and rivers. At the end of the day we returned the hotel without seeing the elusive tiger but the people who greeted us and later on their "colleagues," as they like to call themselves, all seemed very optimistic about us seeing one.

There was a Christmas celebration going on by the pool which we were all invited to but Simon and I were too tired so we went to bed, mum and dad on the other hand went and enjoyed Christmas carols and dancing.

-Chloe :)

Day 4

Our first stop of the morning was the Red Fort, originally built as residence for one of the many rulers here who's name I cannot recall. It was later taken over by the English who greatly damaged a lot of the palaces inside such as the wives palace which they used as a mess hall destroying the paintings with the smoke from their fires and even causing the roof to collapse. Although while we were there they were in the middle of restoring the fort to its former beauty once again using the same techniques that were originally used to build it. After, having seen the Red Fort, and taken some more pictures with school kids we took to the streets of Old Delhi on Rickshaws, a bike that the driver rides with a sort of carriage on the back that you sit in, and after a while of driving on the busy main roads we took to the back streets in amongst the shops. We emerged at the steps of a temple which we unfortunately could not go inside of because they were in the middle of their prayer, so instead we got back inside our car and went for lunch.

After lunch we went to Qutub Minar, one of India's many world heritage sites. We saw the remains of a muslim mosque built on the palace grounds whose parts had been taken from other temples in the area and then configured to match it's religion. Reduce, reuse and recycle! On the site there was also a minaret that was over 2000ft tall (with a diameter of 14ft at the bottom and 2.5ft at the top, it is the tallest in the world. On the other side of the mosque another ruler had started work on another minaret that was supposed to be twice as big as the first but after his death they quickly ceased work on it and it was never finished. After visiting the original rulers tomb, taking pictures of the parrots and owls we were pretty tired and so we decided to stop for the night. 
The next day we were going to our next stop in India so we packed up and tried to get a good nights sleep.

-Chloe :)

Day 3

All bright eyed and bushy tailed, (well except mum who hard as she tries can't seem to fall asleep), we had breakfast and set off with our guide to explore India. First stop was the Gate of India, basically the same thing as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris except that this one was built by the English for all the Indian soldiers that died in W.W.1. Then it was off to the presidential palace which is on the same street as the Gate of India so they line up in all your pictures which looks pretty cool. Turns out women are in power in India right now, yay for us :) Security there is pretty tight too they have a guy who goes around with his special "detecting stick" and pokes it into flower pots, if they don't blow up, there safe. Then after we got back in our car and drove to Humayun's tomb, the building that inspired the Taj Mahal. We got to see how they restored it using the same techniques that they had used back then, carving and chiseling all of it by hand out of red sandstone. There were a lot of field-trips going on while we were there and they were all eager to take pictures with us. Once we were done wandering around the site we made our way to the Sydney Opera House! Ok no we didn't but it sure looked like it. It was actually the Lotus Temple home to the Bahai religion. The bahai believe that it is not important what religion you belong to, only that you pray, so they welcome all religions to come together and pray in harmony. Amen to that! :) The temple was built out of solid marble which kept it relatively cool and around it were built big pools which also kept it relatively cool. You had to enter the temple bare feet and once inside sit on solid marble chairs which kept you relatively cool. Talking inside was prohibited although mum being chatty Kathy had only taken five steps before she broke that rule. Another rule was that you weren't allowed to take photos and I have no idea how mum managed not to break that one. 

The temple was shaped roughly like an egg and so it had some pretty different acoustics which were interesting to listen to.

 Then after the ten minute prayer session we went to a cafe to meet one of our guides and enjoyed drinks well we chatted over what we would be doing next. Later we tried to go looking for a charger for our iPods but came back empty handed. Simon and I were tired so we went to bed shortly after returning to the hotel while mum and dad went downstairs and had dinner.

-Chloe :)

Trip to India - Days 1 and 2

Okay so this is my first entry in a while so for those of you who have read this before, welcome back :)

 Anyway today marked the beginning of our two week journey in India. We left the house and made our way to the airport and in a few hours we were on a plane on our way to Toronto. Four hours later after a bit of a mad dash we were on another plane, this time headed for Frankfurt, Germany. 

Germany was a winter wonderland that we didn't really get to enjoy because frankly we were just too tired. We checked in, went upstairs and passed out. We woke up a few hours later to find that it was about two in the afternoon and so we decided to go look for something to eat. Turns out the Germans no how to drink hot cocoa in style, they give you hot milk and a block of solid chocolate on a stick which you dunk to your hearts content till its nice and chocolatey, it's really quite nice. They also had this life size gingerbread house that you could go sit inside which was pretty cool. Later we decided to go visit the pool for a dip where Simon proceeded to run outside and roll, and I mean literally roll in the snow before jumping in the hot tub. Also did you know europeans like to swim naked? I don't think Simon did and after he saw that he suddenly lost all interest in swimming and wanted to go up to the room.

The next day at 10:30am we left for the airport, and it was probably the most hectic airports I have ever been in. So as you may know Heathrow was out of commission because of all the snowfall and actually so was most of Europe. Therefore Frankfurt didn't have any planes for most of the morning so they had to cancel all of the planes till 1pm onward (ours was at 1 so we just made it) and even when planes were there most of them weren't able to leave because there wasn't enough de-icing fluid for the wings. So as you can imagine that left a LOT of people stranded without flights and frankly in pretty bad moods. I'm not going to go into detail about what went on because it was quite stressful and will most likely bore you. Anyway we stood in line forever got yelled at a lot and eventually got through to our flight where we had the whole cabin to ourselves, well ourselves and another guy for yet another six and a half hours. 

We arrived at 1am and were greeted by a driver from our tour service who was surprisingly perky for the middle of the night. On the way to the hotel we almost hit a bobcat who at the last second decided he best not cross the street. Then we checked in and were greeted by yet another perky person, (if there is anything I have learned so far it's that people on this trip are WAY too perky way too early in the morning) and then went off to bed.

-Chloe :)