Tuesday, December 02, 2008

A few remarks

In a lot of beautiful places it was prohibited to take pictures. The most stunning place apart from the Taj was the golden temple in Vellore. It's been completed only three or four years ago so it's a little known attraction, but one which will become world famous. The gardens were designed geometrically and contained loads of flowers and fountains. I could easily have spent the whole day taking pictures if it had been allowed. I also visited a lot of other nice Hindu temples but again, photos were not permitted.
In other places I was simply too slow get anything but blurred pics. Quite often, the sky was hazy so I'm not really happy with the light in most pictures. But then again, I don't want to photoshop it into something different than it was...

Last but not least, I'd like to thank everybody who let me stay in their house or had me over for tea. I was honestly surprised at how much I enjoyed meeting up, even though in most cases, it had been at least 12 years ago...A story I tell my friends about India is how I was silently wondering, why everyone I stayed with, had parathas, chicken curry and Sprite at home without me really telling them. Only at last in Bangalore I figured, that everyone was calling the last person I had stayed with to inquire about the things I like. Even though I try to be hospitable, I would never have thought about that...That was just so sweet.

So what happened to the family pics?

I have been thinking about whether to put family pictures on this website or not. I decided against it for several reasons:
1. I'm vain. A lot of the pictures were taken in low light and are blurred.
2. I don't know if my folks would appreciate it, if their pictures are published.
3. I forgot to take a few people's pictures (sorry for that, it's not personal at all)...
So I'll just e-mail the pics and whoever is on it can decide what will happen to it.

Delhi parliament

 

 

 


While I was looking at the building I overheard an Indian woman saying 'see these are the monkeys. They represent our politicians'.
The haze you see in the third picture is smog and it looked that way all the time. The weird thing is that the air is ok to breathe. What's good is that they're really trying to solve the problem. The tuktuks in Delhi for example use green energy.
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Agra

 


After seeing the pyramids and Stonehenge I tried to figure out why visiting some iconic places is disappointing and why it's not like that at all in other places. I was stunned by the Taj Mahal although I have seen loads of pictures before. Not just the sihlouette is beautiful but there's a lot of nice detail work too. But that's not what made it special. What really made the Taj Mahal stand out as impressive was the fact that the surroundings were beautifully kept. It's not just the monument but how it interacts with the environment that really creates this feeling of wonder...
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Delhi: Lotus Temple, Vishwa Shanti Stupa and Qutb Minar

 

 

 

 
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What I like about religous architecture, regardless of the faith, is that they really try to make it beautiful and often succeed....

My favourite hotel in the world

 

 

 

 



I wasn't sure if I should come here. After all it had been one of my favourite places in my childhood and I was worried that the reality might be different from an adult point of view. Frankly it wasn't. Apart from that unidentifiable smell when they were cleaning the stairs everything was the same. The bombay toast and the iced tea where as sensational as ever, the views amazing and the waves are so loud, you have the feeling you're going to be washed into the sea. I didn't even have to raise from bed to enjoy the sight of palmtrees and the ocean. As the hotel belongs to a friend of my mother, I was lucky enough to stay two nights for free. But I would have happily paid for this great room. I also took a walk around Kovalam and passed through a palmtree forest. How lush and quiet...
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Possibly one of the most beautiful houses in Kerala (or anywhere else for that matter)

 

 

 

 
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Kerala: Thiruvalla

 

 

 

 



For a white person, walking through this place, where my mum grew up, is like being famous. School kids run to the gates, mothers hand over their children, girls giggle as they walk past and guys scream from their motorbikes: 'hi how are you?' or 'what's your name?'. It's a weird feeling, ok in a way, but just for a few weeks. While it's funny as a holiday experience I'm glad that random people don't walk up to me and want a picture taken when I'm at home...
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Kerala: houseboats and vegetation

 

 

 

 


Plants are not often on my mind. It's not that I ignore them but usually I just pause a few seconds to look at something and forget about it. In Kerala whenever I was on the road and not seeing relatives I was looking at plants and thinking about them. For example these water hyacinths: the locals think it's a pest and call it weed and I'm sure they have their reasons. But these little plants can actually live in both sweet and salt water and therefore most have some kind of salt filter. A lot of plants have huge leaves and I just loved looking at those, I guess because we don't have them at home.
I didn't have time for a trip on a houseboat but I got a chance to take a few photographs. Some are palaces, bigger than my entire appartment (probably double the size) full of luxury items but I kind of liked the simpler versions, without flatscreen TV, where you have more of a connection with the environment....
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Tamil Nadu: Mamallapuram

 

 

 
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