Women at work

Powerful yet gentle. Strong yet soft. Resilient. Patient. Humble. Beautiful inside out.  Smart. Wise. And with a servant’s heart. These are a few to describe these women I had privilege to photograph at random, spontaneous moments when I was India. Here’s to the women of the world!  Happy International Women´s Day!!!

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Travel Diaries: Day 2 in Udaipur

On our second day in Udaipur, we got up early, had an Indian breakfast and went on our service car and toured the city and its outskirts.  We had enjoyed the view and sceneries while we drove around the city.  And I guess I learn much better through observation than to listening to a tour guide with a difficult accent 😉  Here are what I had learned through the day´s travel.

It came to me that at this part of the world, clay pots are popular to locals for kitchen use.  And it is a very popular vessel for storing liquids and drinks. Drinking waters stored in these containers have a specially sweet earthy taste and refreshingly cold perfect for India´s hot weather.  I know that people in the Philippines, especially in rural areas where refrigeration is a luxury, (if one has any access to electricity, that is), use clay jars too to store and cool drinking water.  It is also the perfect cooking pot to cook acidic local viands like fish/pork soup cooked in tamarind or guava fruit, and I bet people here in India use this as well for similar purpose.

I was also pleased with the sight of women and children alike bathing and washing clothes and sheets by the river…

And by the colorful fabrics hanging on rocks and bushes around waiting to dry.

I love the rustic feel of the place- the peaceful view of cows grazing on the grass, the brown mountains peppered by green shrubs and trees, and I wondered at the dryness of the soil of this semi- dessert area, while the wetness of the ponds and swamps in the vicinity brings forth an elixir to the flora and fauna flourishing around.

I just love the simplicity of life here.  I reckon that washing clothes together in the river is part of their daily lives, their routine contentment.

It was also my first time to see a full grown cacti in their natural environment. I haven't been to a dessert nor to a place as dry as this place.

We drove still a few more kilometers until we arrived to an old old gorgeous temple.  This temple is my favorite of all the temples I had  visited so far.And I had enjoyed photographing it I guess, as I went a little bit more creative on the angles of shots I made.  On our way back to the city, I enjoyed looking through, jumping from photo to photo, staring at these pretty shots! 🙂

After our mini tour in the morning, we decided to go to a local market by lunchtime.  Oh wow!  Spices and tea galore were what welcomed us.  I really had fun photographing this marketful of colors and and enjoyed educating myself with the different spices and teas.  Educating myself means I have employed all my 5 different senses- I took the oppurtunity to see, touch, smell, and taste these different spices on the spot, and I swear tried so hard to listen to the vendors´expertise on the subject.  I bought myself some red gorgeous chillies and some aromatic black tea.  I even found myself a friendly tea vendor you have lectured me a bit on how-to-prepare-the-perefct-masala-tea 101 🙂

And I found myself marveled at the size of that pumpkin- the biggest I´ve ever seen!

At late noon, we went to a mountain peak through a red cable car and reveled at this wonderful sight of Udaipur city, the City of Lakes.

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Travel Diaries: Day 1 in Udaipur

After a long night on The Slow Train to Udaipur, we finally arrived the city.  We were picked up by our second driver, and drove us into our hotel by the river.  And guess what?  We got a room with a view. 🙂

We freshened up and ate a hearty Indian breakfast composed of an Indian bread paratha, deeply fried potato and green pea mix, a homemade yoghurt, tea masala, and a refreshing mango juice. Yum yum. It was the best breakfast I had in India. On our way to the city, this kind of scene got me curious.

I had then learned that these stainless containers carry fresh cow´s milk being sold to the neighborhood every early morning in India.  Nice noh?  Fresh creamy yummy cow´s milk. Perfect for a freshly brewed coffee or a homemade curd or yoghurt. 🙂  I remember me and my mom used to make yoghurt back at home in the Philippines using fresh milk from Philippine Carabao Centers. This just got me miss home so badly 😦

The first stop for the day was a Hindu temple. We got a bit of educational tour about their religion and beliefs, their gods, and their ways of worship which I must say I could not comprehend.  However, we were impressed with the engravings on the marble blocks which made up the temple.  Marbles are one of the hardest stones- just imagine how painstakingly they had carved these impressions on the stones without using machines but simple tools, their hands, their ingenuity and patience,  and a lot of adenosine triphosphate or ATP 🙂

On our way out of the temple, I caught this guy up on the temple fixing a banner to the elephant’s trunk.

We then went ahead and visited a local park where we saw children playing with the water fountain 🙂  What a lovely sight (!).

These children are adorable! Aren’t they the cutest?  And they’ve let me photograph them while they play and threw me some of their cutest smiles!

Inside the park lies a mini science children’s museum where we entertained ourselves with some puzzles. I should say this is not the place for me.  What the heck?!  I am a scientist and I can’t even break a simple puzzle!  I’ve sweat it out trying to solve them. Well, I’d solved some, but not this one.  Stupid me 🙂

While the tour around the city was lovely, it was hot.  I reckon hot enough to fry an egg under the sun.  It’s amazing how much water one can drink in a day and don´t even look for a toilet to pee.  I mean, where do all those water go?!! Do they just evaporate from our bodies?  The heat can even drain all the energy you’ve stored in every fat of your body, and so we decided to go back to our hotel rooms and get some rest.

Later that day, we went out to the city by ourselves (without any guide or driver).  Wow, this is what I’ve waited for.  I really want to go out and just experience the real India- the present day India.  After all, we’ve experienced too much of the old India already- the kings and the prince, and the palaces, etc.  So I thought this is it.  I’m gonna go out there as a traveler, and not as a mere tourist.  And so I did.

At the top on my list is to experience the streets and the markets, so we roam around and I had enjoyed every second of it.  These are what I saw…

This taxi is pretty much alike with the Philippines´ pedicab or tricycles, only that this has the reverse gear. Pretty cool huh? Taxi anyone?

And if you are not up to a taxi or pedicabs, you can also hire a camel for transport 🙂

The streets are just full of stuff that entertained me, just like these group of old ladies chatting the afternoon away.

The market is full of stores selling textile and colorful saris.

And I also caught a curious girl staring at the lad in a lovely blue sari.

There are colorful bangles hanging around for display which lures ladies into buying them.  Ha! It almost got me 😉

And of course, the wet market is full of vendors selling fresh vegetables.

And policemen were patrolling around to maintain peace and order even in the markets. How reassuring, noh? 🙂

While these babies caught my eyes,  they look lovely and classic I wanted to ride them.

I also braved to taste some of their street foods and I was glad I did.  It was yummy!  I just love street foods.  Who doesn’t?This was our first glance of the city, and it was a fine one.  Coming up next is our adventure on our second day in Udaipur, the city of lakes.

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Travel Diaries: The slow train to Udaipur

From Jaipur, we hopped into a sleeper A/C train for an overnight ride to Udaipur.  Whew.  What an experience (!).

This was my first time to a sleeper train and I´ve always wanted to try it. Not only that it freed me from being a sleeper train virgin, it also opened my eye.  I must say this trip was a little bit too heavy, figuratively.

Our driver picked us up from our hotel and brought us to the train station.  It´s already dark and 21:00 but the air is thick and warm (40 degrees Celsius or so).  The streets are still busy but dark; heavily littered with dirt and garbage; loitered with homeless.  The smell hurt my nostrils; my senses can not comprehend; I can barely breathe.  I was shocked.  I was almost surreal.

I have not seen too many people laying on the streets sleeping in the middle of the night not mindful of the dirt, the smell, and the uncomfortable warmth of the air.  I reckon the street floors are still hot from the burning rays of the sun earlier that day but the people did not mind it.

It was heart breaking.

We struggled our way into the train station. The walk to our platform was long and burdened.  Literally and figuratively. We were quiet. I reckon, trying to take in (or not take in) what we were witnessing that very moment.

While waiting for our train what seemed to be the longest one hour wait in a lifetime, my mind was racing, my heart pounding.  I was mad.  And annoyed at myself. I thought I can do something, somehow, but I was helpless.

That day, I witnessed the big contrast in India´s society- the rich and the poor. The palace and the streets. The kings and the homeless.

It was an experience.  An experience I have taken home with me, and I will forever take wherever I go.  My learning experience as Udaipur city welcomes me home.

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Travel Diaries: Agra

On our second day in India, we drove from Delhi to Agra to see Agra fort and the famous Taj Mahal.  The drive was long and tiring, but not at all boring.  There were so many new things to see on the road like these:

Vendors selling… Dead cow on the road… Pedicabs for hire… Busy city streets… We had experienced new things – crazy traffic, the heat, animals roaming around, the fields, and the vastness of dry idle lands it almost resemble a desert except it was peppered with barely green plants.  What striked me was poverty.  One can see the symbols of poverty everywhere – uncleanness, beggary, the barrenness and dryness of lands, starvation and scarcity of resources evident of the skinny weak animals roaming the streets, and the aggressiveness of people- they were touchy and pushy, trying to make you buy something, or make you pay for ridiculous things, or make you pose for a picture to which they demand payment.  Ridiculous, right?! I have to be honest; it was not pleasant at all…

But as a prize, we were able to see the famous Taj Mahal (!).

Taj Mahal is a mausoleum and not a palace.  It was built over 3 centuries ago with white marble (one of the finest and strongest marble in the world) mined up to now in India.  Its architecture is a mixture of Persian, Turkish and Indian.  It is considered one of the most beautiful architecture in the world.  And since it was built by the Mughal emperor Sha Jahan in memory of his most beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal after she died, it a now known as the symbol of eternal love.

Approaching the gate to Taj Mahal… First peek at its beauty… The beautiful symbol of love…And we also got to see Agra fort which is made of beautiful red sand stone some 300 years ago.

I just love these Persian style arches…

During our tour inside the fort, we learned about the art of in-laying semi precious stones on marbles.  Note that this artwork was completely done by hand about 300 years ago (!) and this industry is still alive in North India up to now (!).

After our visit to the famous spots in Agra, we went to a shop were marble works are displayed and sold.  Here, we were taught and shown the techniques in this centuries-old tradition. It was really impressive…. and of course, expensive 😀

This is a sample of a finished semi precious stone in-laid marble table top illuminated from below… Exquisite isn’t it?

However, this is the winner for the day….  Mutton butter masala.  Yum yum 😀

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Travel Diaries: Jaipur

From Agra, we drove to the pink city of Jaipur to see some of the famous ancient palaces and learn more of the culture of India.  Upon arrival, one can understand why it is called the pink city- it is pink. Literally.  The gates, infrastracture and palaces are mostly made of the reddish (or pink) sandstone just like the Hawa Mahal palace whose architectural design was inspired by the crown of Krishna, a Hindu god.

Here in Jaipur, we experienced our first Princess Moment with the elephant ride up the Amer fort or Amer palace.  This is once home to the Rajput Maharajas (great soldiers) and their families, of royal lineage. This impressive architectural jewel stand magnificent (and yellow) on the semi-dessert region of North India. The palace is surrounded by a stone wall all throughout which keeps enemies away from its territories.  The surrounding walls almost resemble the great wall of China 🙂

The palace also houses a floating garden where plant spices and some ornamental plants are grown.  This is not your ordinary garden as it is shaped and designed like a carpet when seen from above.

Nowadays, the palace is home to thousands of pigeons watching over the entire place.

From the palace, one can have a view of the old city (in royal days) as well as the modern-day city.

The old city.

The new city.

And trying to get a perspective on both cities, I made a shot where one can see the contrast between the old and the new.  Here, one can also see the man-made (palace wall) and the natural (mountain ranges) barriers of the old and new cities of Jaipur, respectively.

The Amer palace attracts thousands of tourists every month and even on a hot summer season in India, tourists can not resist to visit and photograph this said attraction. This picture is just a proof of its popularity to tourists like me. 🙂

Thanks to these ladies in blue sari uniforms who maintain the cleanliness of the palace.

After seeing the palace, we went higher up into the mountain to get a view of the Man Sagar Lake which houses another palace called the Jal Mahal Palace or the Floating/Water Palace. During dry season, the lake dries up and the palace in the middle is accessible by walk, but when the water rise up during the rainy seasons, it is only accessible by boat.  The palace is a home to nobody, but it is a palace anyhow, and now under continuous renovation by the government of Rajasthan, India. It is now one of the major attractions in Jaipur.

Later that day, we visited a number of shops to learn and experience the old-day industries in India which up to now are still celebrated.  First stop, the hand block printing.  Hand block printing is a method of printing fabrics or textile printing.  It is the earliest and the slowest method of textile printing, but is considered the best (and most artirtic).  Here, designs are carved in to a block of wood and prints are transferred into a fabric by dipping the wood into a dye, then pressing it firmly and steadily to create impressions into the fabric.  Note however that a series of impressions must be done in order to achieve even the simpliest of the designs. In printing a simple elephant design, we needed to make 4 different impressions, meaning 4 different block designs and 4 different colors.  A fifth block was used for the India in the design (see photos below).

Chemical oxidation was done to fix the colors into the fabric so the colors won´t fade.

We also took a little educational tour to carpet making…

and jewelry manufacture and design.

The shop showed us these different precious stones commonly used for jewelries their names I forgot the minute I walked out of the shop.  But what really impressed me are the artists who design jewelries from things which appear rather common and not artistic to me.  In the photo below, the artist is designing an elaborate ring of diamonds inspired by the shape of a colliseum. Another educational tour we took is a visit to the observatory Jantar Mantar. The obervatory houses a collection of astronomical instuments and was built by Maharaja Jai Singh II inthe 17th century.

Our tour was great so far and we were learning a lot about Indian culture and history.  But I must say it´s a litlle bit too much and I am getting sick of seeing some more palaces and hearing stories about royal families which is not in existence anymore. And at this point (our 4th day in India), I wanted to experience three things:  see a Bollywood movie in India, witness an entire cricket game and actually learn to understand how the game is played, and have a Palace of the Wheels experience.  Unfortunately, I was not able to do these things.  It was not scheduled in our group tour itinerary.  This is the thing about going on a group trip, you can not really do everything you want.  But it was not bad.  My travel buddies are great travel buddies. 🙂

This is the nearest I can come up to seeing a cricket game – A photo showing a neighborhood playing cricket one early summer morning.  This was taken from our hotel room on our second day in Jaipur.

Anyhow, who knows? I might be going back there again, right? Or may be not.

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Travel Diaries: New Delhi

I will be writing a series on my recent travel to India.  I made a short diary everyday during the travel and I will be copying these to this blog  (with some modifications). So here it is….

From Cologne, G. and I made an early trip to Dusseldorf airport to take our flight to India via Istanbul.  Upon arrival to Istanbul, we wanted to go out the city and roam around even just for 2 hours while waiting for our connecting flight to New Delhi.  Unfortunately, Philippine passport holders needed a consulate visa. Too bad!  We were stuck in the airport for 6 hours, but it turned out not too bad, I guess. G. and I chatted away and just enjoyed each other’s company, not even noticing the time passing by until we needed to board for our flight. On the flight, we were preoccupied with what I call an on-board entertainment thanks to our individual TV system.  I opted for 2 english movies Never Let Me Go, a depressing sad science fiction movie, and My Life in Ruins, a light romantic comedy.  And then it was time to land. We actually made it through to India! We both were super excited upon touch down at 3 AM of May 28th, and walk through to the immigration gate.  On the way, we saw a singage  that says “Welcome to India.”  Upon seeing it, we both uttered “Welcome to India” loudly, looked at each other, then laughed. I noticed people turned toward us with a curious look, and we didn’t even care to bother.  Oh yes, we were so tourist!

While waiting in line at the immigration gate, G. spotted our travel buddies coming from Poland and we were introduced. After passing through the immigration, we impatiently waited for our luggages on the conveyor belt, exchanged some money for Rupees, and out we went to the arrivals.  We were picked up by our driver from the travel agent and checked in to our hotel at about 6 AM. We decided to have some time to rest and sleep before going for the tour at 10 AM but G. and I overslept so we had started a bit late.

In Delhi, we roamed.  Everything is quite different from Europe, but somehow similar to the Philippines in some ways.  However, I’ve learned that they are right hand drive which was a bit odd for me during the first few days of driving.

We first visited a Muslim mosque. And learned that the devotees need to clean up and wash using this water before going in the house of God.

We also visited the Delhi Gate and the nearby parks around.

And the Presidential Palace too.

I also sampled some of India’s famed food like samosa and a variety of Indian breads like paratha and chapati.

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Princess Moment

Did you ever wish you are a princess/prince? Or a queen/king?

Did you ever had a royal experience somehow? Well, I had.  On some various occasions.  During my travel in India.

I, together with three travel buddies, went to India to attend a friend’s wedding.  But more than the wedding we did. We traveled to various places in India for about 16 days.  And some of the highlights of our Indian adventure were our royal moments…

We  had an elephant ride in Jaipur, a city of north India, on the way up the Amer palace.  In ancient times, only the royal family had the luxury to ride an elephant, while commoners walk on their feet to move from place to place.  As I climbed up the elephant, I was a little scared.  And became even more scared when the elephant started to move.  They are so big and I thought, when I fall… if I fall… well, I don’t know- They could step on me and crush me to death or something.  But half way up the palace, I started to enjoy it. Especially when my elephant started to shower me with a liquid something from inside its trunk. Haha!  It´s a bit disgusting, yes. But I enjoyed it somehow. Afterall, who got to be showered (in a regular basis) with this elephanty liquidy stuff anyway?  The royals, who else?!

While getting ready for the grand Indian wedding, we also had a royal experience.  We were dressed in our saris by three lovely, friendly ladies.

Yes, it took 3 ladies to get me in my sari. All I did was stand on my heels, arms raised up, while they gently wrap me in silk sari cloth glittering with gold embroidery.  I reveled on the 5-10 minute princess moment with my mind saying “Ahhhh… I can get used to this!”  Mind you, it felt so good.  It felt princessly.

This is me with the 3 lovely ladies who were kind enough to help me with my sari.

After the 2-day wedding in Madurai, we went ahead on our following destination down south.  With so much traveling that had taken place for more than a week this time, our bodies were aching and shouting for a massage.  So we booked an ayurvedic massage therapy in Munnar, Kerala, which apparently is very popular in the country.

I took an 80-minute whole body massage with medical steam bath.  Three different oil/gel was used in this therapy pax. One for my hair and scalp, a cool gel for the face (awesome, like no other!), and a warmed oil for the body.  My masseuse began with my hair and scalp and a head massage.  Which was followed by a relieving face massage which made me feel the most beautiful face on the planet (!).  She then continued down to my whole body.  She carefully, but deliberately poured a warm thick oil all over me while I lay naked on a black leather bed with my eyes leisurely closed.  She put so much oil I can swim on it if I must.  The pressure from her capable hands while she massages me literally squeezed out the pain and fatigue out of my muscles. This took place  for about an hour and I swear I went to heaven!  A therapeutic steam bath followed for 20 minutes.  It was a bliss. It was heavenly therapeutic.

(http://www.ayurvedabooks.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ayurvedic_herbs.jpg)

(http://www.wikihow.com/Image:Ayurvedic-Massage.jpg)

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Now I am back to Germany. Back to being a commoner. And back to work.  But I will definitely treat myself to some royal experience from time to time. I think we all should. 🙂

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Marketful of colors

Markets are one of the best places to see interesting things. And whenever I travel, the market is on my top priority of things to see and visit. For me, Asian markets are particularly interesting. And I have made it my photographic paradise.  Don’t you just love to capture the honesty, the boldness, and the spontaneity of such place?  These photos were taken in a local market in the city of Udaipur in India.  Besides from museums, ancient palaces and temples, the market is my place where I can learn the culture of the people.  Let’s take a look of what I’ve seen and learned…

In this part of the world, they use a lot of clay pots for cooking and for cooling drinking water.  Unlike in south India where they commonly use stainless steels instead.

Despite the fact that we have different varieties of mango in the Philippines, I’ve only seen this particular kind here in India.

Vendors commonly use a wheeled table-like structure for ease of transport of goods.  Clever. And they look pretty and classic too!

Their own version of walis tambo or broom.  Sorry that I was not able to get which material were these made of.

Apparently, they like super spicy food. Hence, these overflowing supply of chilies on market stalls.

And yes, this confirmed that India is the land of spices.  And they’re cheap too! Except for some items. 🙂

Markets are busy even on weekdays.

They usually use beam balances here to measure weights. Cool!

They are very good in carrying (heavy) stuff on their heads!  They must have a very good sense of balance ;P

Aside from spices, India is also known for its tea.  And I’ve made masala tea as my favorite.

I love that they still use their traditional clothes as their everyday clothes.  Nice and colorful.

Take note, these are honey bees. Not flies.  Curious huh?

Make shift beauty parlor 😉

And make shift bed. Yey!  They are resourceful and innovative. 😉

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Snapshots: South Indian Wedding

I was invited to a colleague’s wedding months ago.  It is not my usual wedding; it is an Indian wedding!  It is grand. Packed. And busy. And I’d always wanted to witness one. So as soon as the invitation arrived, I said yes without any hesitation. I immediately started preparing for the trip to India and I was really glad I did go.

The wedding was a great success and I had enjoyed it a lot. It was flooded with friendly guests, well wishers, good music, colorful saris and great food. And most importantly, I am just proud to see my friend happy and blooming with beauty.

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