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 :)