Getting friendly with Elephants!

December 21^st, Day 4: Amber Fort and other fort

This morning, we woke up really early around 6:30am because kim needed to shower and we STILL had no hot water…she had to take a cold one L but we ended up getting breakfast (quick toast) and setting off to the Amber Fort.  We made one stop before the fort at this beautiful picturesque palace that sat in the middle of a lake! It was still early so the sun wasn’t too high and it was gorgeous. We took pictures there, people were selling coconuts, and there was a little girl who was crying to come with us, very good actress, she nearly got into the car with us! 

  

We also got to see workers pounding marble stones, who work 12 hour days for cheap labor and only earn about 3-4 American dollars! It's really sad seeing how hard some people work for so little a day. Hopefully it's enough for them to live on and provide towards their families. Just sad to see the economic disparities firsthand in the cities. 

 view from the elephant ride

On to the Agra fort now, THIS IS WHERE WE RODE BEAUTIFUL ELEPHANTS!!!! It was amazing because all the elephants were very obedient with their guides, decorated with colors, and were all female because they are easily trained into walking in lines and after one another. Males would be too rowdy haha. 

I was paired with Paremveer and it was so much fun! It wasn’t a short ride either and you sit on a little bed like contraption on top of the elephant. The elephant is so big and wide that you don’t feel too unsafe, but it does rock side to side quite heavily. Paremveer was quite scared to be honest :) 

The Amber Fort was the prettiest palace so far, other than the Taj Mahal. 

There were secret passageways in the palace because there were 14 wives, a saffron garden (Asian Viagra), and only one king, the tour guide says you can imagine why they needed them. The wives were dressed in 5kg of gold and beautiful garments so heavy they were just pushed around by 4 guards all day in a beautiful carriage. 

It has a winter and summer palace, the winter had many mirrors and the summer palace had the magic picture, decorated with beautiful gemstone designs. The magic picture had carvings of butterflies and flowers that were parts of animals in their designs. 

 

We had to drive quite a bit for lunch and we had trays of different Indian food that was so delicious. The bathroom wasn’t so bad, there was tissue!! Also in previous bathrooms, I had to do the Hong Kong style (learnt it there) way of flushing the toilet by pouring water into the toilet to flush it manually. Next stop was the last fort, which was private property of the 14 year old king, which looked more like the ruins of a fortress. We also bought pashmina scarves here for such a good price!! You use a ring test to see if it’s real pashmina by passing the whole scarf through the ring at once. 

After this, we drove for about 7 hours…YES SEVEN HOURS, back to Delhi. I had to use the bathroom so badly as well so I slept most of the time. Exhausting day it was! Had a bit of more indian food at Arveen's aunt's then slept not long after, got to try another indian sweet, a donut like pastry!

Jumping Jellybeans We're in Jaipur!

December 20, Day 3: Agra and Jaipur

Woke up around 6:15am today and had a toast, Puri bread, orange jelly I didn’t try, a spicy macaroni dish, and some curry sauce. After, we set off to another fort in Agra where we had to take off our shoes to go in! We bought postcards here. This fort was special because it had a prayer/tomb area where the King was granted three wishes by Salem and his wife finally bore a son after being barren. There was more filigree designs and people were very reverent when receiving a blessing. 

We had lunch at Rainbow City, where we tried South Indian Dosas. It’s a big crepe-like dish filled with potato and I had the onion marsala flavored one. I also had the mango lassi which is delicious! A famous Indian dessert delicacy is the Golab Jamun, which is a very sweet donut ball which has some paste inside, and in sitting in syrup.
 I wasn't a big fan because it is very sweet!

We then had to drive for another 3 hours at least before we got to the third fort of the trip in the Pink City, Jaipur. A 14-yr old recently became king which is crazy! We saw some really cool weaponry and bejeweled scabbers. We saw different clothing of the royalty and one of the kings out of the 14 kings was really fat, 4 feet wide!!! We took a picture with a Christmas tree with the King’s guards, and saw a traditional Indian puppet show! 

Also, there was a snake charmer who had two cobras in his basket to charm. Arveen and I were invited to go sit next to the snake charmer while he charmed the snakes. WE DID NOT however accept the offer to hold them. They instantly went in to bite repeatedly at the charmer when he finishes charming them. However, they were defanged. Later when the snake came out under the basket it made a HUGE poop which was green and white…we were very surprised it could poop. 

We got henna from a not so nice lady, but it didn’t show up TOO well after we peeled off the dried up henna outer layer

Buland Darwaza, Great Gate of Agra

Holy Area for Prayer

Later, after the tour with the stylish tour guide, I really had to use the bathroom because my stomach was hurting…so I went to the public bathroom there…let's just say it was a nightmare with no tissue. We went to a few shops outside and bought more elephant figurines, tea lights, turtles, postcards, and bangles. We also went to have dinner at a very fancy place near our really nice hotel in Jaipur. It was outdoors and had live traditional Indian dancing and entertainment. The female dancer picked Kim and I to go up on stage to dance with her and another audience member.  We were dancing in the circle so it wasn’t as embarrassing but still we were really bad compared to her! She seemed to like us and we even asked her for a picture with us, her name is Indira. We came home and no wifi, hot water, and discovered a broken flush for such a nice hotel! 

Oh well, when in India! :) 

Adventuring in Agra

December 19- Day 2: Agra (Taj Mahal and Agra Fort)

Woke up at 4:15 am with only about 3 hours of sleep before leaving for Agra! It took us three hours at least to get there and we were so tired. I slept a lot of the way; we went in a 12 seater van that was very bumpy. We got to Agra around 10am and we had breakfast at the hotel, naan bread and another kind of bread, with a potato curry sauce and yogurt. Starting the tour in Agra, we had the choice to get a camel-driven cart or an electric cart to the Taj, so we chose the camel! We were even able to take turns riding the camel but only me and Curtis took the opportunity. I went first and nearly slipped to my death trying to get on the camel. I only had two long poles to step on to get on the camel’s back with my yellow slippers on so it was terrifying!!! I had two people helping me and I still nearly fell! Eventually I got onto Raju (my camel) ok and it was so awesome riding a camel! It felt very funny moving up and down to the camel's walking speed. 

We went to see the Taj Mahal and had a wonderful tour guide who taught us a lot! We learnt that the Moghul emperor Shah Jahan built it out of love for his third wife Mumtaz Mahal (“Mumtaz= Excellence”), she was supposed to be very beautiful and bright. The Taj Mahal is well-known for its beautiful symmetry, as there are mirrored smaller palaces; the wife’s body is buried in the middle of the building line of symmetry. Filigree design was popular inside the palace, gemstones and part of the Qur’an design the palace. Nailian gemstones were used so that when light shone on it, would light up and it was so beautiful! The Blank oynx stone can tell if silver or gold is pure or not. Also, the most precious gem, is the Black star of India which when moon shines on it, a star appears. There are three black stars, the normal one, sapphire, and ruby. The tour guide briefly got into a huge loud argument with a few people over something about not telling me what to do, so that was a bit awkward and scary. 

OH so at the Taj, we had to wear shoe coverings and then we had a photographer follow us around to take professional photos for us, a lot of people do that job to make money from tourists. He took all these individual posing shots for us and then some group ones. Afterwards he developed them, we choose, pay, and we get them on a disc. It was so great because they were amazing pictures! Kim and I got so close in a picture with a monkey later that day too, amazing! Arveen got in trouble by Dilpreet when she tried…hahah. There are less beggars than I thought around the touristy hot spots of Agra, but it was still difficult to see all the dogs laying around that were stray, and all the children/poor selling tourist items. You just have to ignore them because they are very smart and persistent, amazing at reading people’s emotions/faces. 

One of the side mrirored palaces next to the Taj Mahal

Closer look at the Taj Mahal design

Along the way in the city, you see so many monkeys hopping around in public as well as cows. We had a late lunch at a nearby indian restaurant and had similar food to the morning. I went to the bathroom with Kim and oh my, it was our first hole toilet! After meals, you get sugar crystals and mint leaves to chew on which refreshes you after a meal. I thought it was to wash your hands with due to misinterpreting someone else's actions whoops! Restaurants are equipped with napkins, but they are so thin and cheap that it falls apart when you use them. 

We caught a quick dinner where we had Indian and Chinese, but the Chinese was Indian-style. We got mixed meat fried rice which was good, garlic naan, and chicken tikka marsala. We tried a salty yogurt lassi which wasn’t that tasty, but the sweet one was.

A magical day all in all! 

Start of an AMA-zing trip to India!

WHERE DO I EVEN START...

To give a brief abstract/purpose of my trip to India, was to participate in a medical/surgical camp with my home university (University of California, Irvine) club, Anteaters Medicine Abroad (AMA). We had a week of touring around India and the second week involved the three day medical/surgical camp in different parts of the city Bangalore, in Southern India. 


December 18 -Day 1: London Heathrow to Delhi Indira Airport and First day in Delhi

Flight was 7 and a half hours long and I just watched The Dark Knight Rises then slept the rest of the way (or kept trying to). The girl next to me slept almost the whole way through!  Baggage claim at Delhi took about 30 minutes for me to get my luggage L it was bad. Arveen, her dad, uncle, and our tour guide Dilpreet met me to take me to settle down at Arveen’s aunt’s house in Delhi. I was so thirsty after the flight I drank a big pepsi and I don’t like pepsi! We had a home cooked Indian meal (garbanzo beans with potato gingery sort of curry, a yogurt dish, a mint spiced dish, naan bread, vegetables, and paneer,cottage cheese). They made me eat so much and eat correctly which was quite embarrassing, but it was really nice to learn their culture! I learnt a lot of Punjabi/Hindi words as well! Dilpreet, Paramveer (Dilpreet's friend), Arveen, and I went to a really luxurious mall called Ambience Mall in Delhi to watch The Hobbit. 

We felt like we were in California because it was so nice. Observation though, security is very tight in India because of recent issues with Pakistan, so everywhere we went we were searched/scanned/made to go through the beeping airport check machine. That's always separated male and female too. Back to the theatre, the seats are velvet and lean way back, reclining movie seats for ya!! THE HOBBIT WAS AMAZING. We tried nachos (indian spiced chips, cheese, and salsa) and had a starbucks coffee latte. After, we sat for a bit at Dilpreet’s house and met all his family too! Everyone is quite friendly in the sense they hug you and talk to you J 

We had some indian sweets called Mithai, didn't like it too much though. After that, we had street food dinner called Gol Gappay or Bani Purri, which translates to water balls. It’s a pastry shell filled with a big of sugar and spicy water, potato and bean veggie mix. You're suppose to eat it all in one bite each time and it’s a big mouthful! I was a bit under pressure eating it, so I did each one in a mouthful and yeah...I'd be lying if I said it wasn't painful and if I didn't feel like crying from the spiciness. You get 6 for less than 50 cents CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? 

 Streets of Delhi

Gol Gappay!

 Then we went to pick up Daryl, Akash, Curtis, and Kim.(almost the whole group in AMA)

So far, Delhi is much more modernized than I thought, although along the car ride, you;ll see the streets laden with the poor in tents or sleeping on the street, fires made on the side of the roads, stray dogs EVERYWHERE, no rules in traffic yet there are not many crashes, and a honk from at least two people every 2 minutes! Weather was surprisingly nice, sunny but not too hot! Everyone stared at me as well, being Chinese is a rarity in India! Food has been surprisingly good so far and no sickness yet.

Punjabi/Hindi words I've learned today!

Gol Gappay (Punjabi)/ Bani Purri (Hindi)- Water Balls street food

Bus- Enough, Stop

Hanji- Yes

Nemastay (Hindi)/ Sut Sri Acal (Punjabi)- Hello, greeting

Thighee-G= Older Aunty

Thigha-G= Older Uncle

Gagee-G= Younger Aunty

Gaga-G= Younger Uncle

Christmas House Dinner and Christkindlmarkt in Leeds

8th December, 2012: Leeds Christkindlmarkt

WOOPS finally updating, but going back to fill in everything I forgot to, so I'm starting here with Christmas festivities :)  

Our House planned a house trip to Leeds, a nearby city to York, to go to the German Christmas Market they were having there! Throughout England, they have Christmas Markets, but only a couple are the German style ones, which would be the closest thing we get here to the authentic wonderfully Christmassy markets in Germany!

First, we explored a little bit of the city centre in Leeds, which is where this big christmas tree decorated with massive baubles was. It's a lot bigger and more modern architecture/layout than York city centre. It has more of the pricey stores and variety, in contrast to York's classic, medieval, specialty shoppes. 




This is all of us waiting in line for Nando's, a yummy Portuguese restuarant, famous for it's spicy grilled chicken and peri peri sauces. 

Nao took amazing pictures with his massive professional camera! 







After, we walked a bit to the outskirts of the city centre to where the Leeds Christkindlmarkt was being held, in Millennium Square. Wow, it was really packed with visitors dressed in snug christmas jumpers and coats. They had numerous stalls of holiday cheer like an onion stall, sausage/meats, donuts, marshmellows, potato pancakes, german sausage hot dogs, profiteroles, mulled wine and German beer, roasted mixed nuts (they had many cool flavourings of every kind of nuts, like a baileys irish cream flavor and cinnamon, and lots of cute toy/cold weather accessory stalls. There were also carnival rides, so a few of us went on Disco Fever, where we would be circled around in the air on this weird contraption, but it was a lot of fun!

 Left: Big O Tannenbaum decorated with shiny lights!



Right: Marieke and I

We finished this night with some drinks at the local pub around campus when we got back, the Charles XII. We were very exhausted :)









12th December 2012: Christmas HOUSE PARTY!

It's that time of year where I play Christmas songs every second of the day until Christmas day!!! Our wonderful House A put on a Christmas Dinner and Secret Santa gift exchange night for the 10 of us housemates. On the menu, we had a Halal chicken roasted with vegetables, roasted parsnips and potatoes, brussel sprouts (yakk...), gravy, stuffing (instant but it was amazing), carrots simmered in honey, homemade garlic bread, with apple pie and raspberry pavlova for dessert! You can imagine we were all overstuffed turkeys afterwards. We all exchanged secret santa gifts and I got lovely gifts from Marieke! She drew me James Morrison in a frame (ze best musician!!!!), got me a knitted jumper, and a necklace. We also had party crackers to pull to get very oversized party hats we all tried to wear anyways. Emma also brought a little christmas tree from home, and we dubbed him Herbert. Poor Herbert got knocked over many times...but he survived through the holidays I'm glad to say!! I also discovered I do not like the Baileys irish cream that night, yakk. The kitchen was very warm and full of cheer that I can say, especially with the 10 of us squishing around the table. 


 Here's the 10 of us, the merry bunch!

Back Row (L-R) Alio, Graeme, Sam, Ant
Middle: (L-R) Emma and I, Marieke, Belle, Sabrina
Bottom: Nao



EARLY! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEARS FROM YORK!!

 

Soon after, we all parted ways for our separate winter holidays with out families in various parts of the world!