Thursday, January 11, 2007

i love india!

so, this is a story to follow the pics that i posted.

picture 1--we were in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 3 days. our first night we ate dinner at this buffet, while these guys danced. they showed us different types of dancing, and at the end they asked for people to go up and dance with them, so i did. it was fun.

picture 2--this was taken upside down in our van of the Patronus Towers. pretty cool.

picture 3--Madras is where Ramesh's mom lives, and it's 10 min. from the beach. we went to the beach 3 times, and this one was taken at sunrise. if you ever get a chance to go to the beach at sunrise, do it!

picture 4--the same beach at sunrise, and you can see the fishing huts that are on the beach. as you can see there's garbage EVERYWHERE! the lighthouse looks way cool!

picture 5--more beach pictures

picture 6--there is a town on the other side of a mountain called Ooty, and you have to drive up the mountain (full of hairpin turns) to get there. on our way up, we stopped at a "rest stop" and there were monkeys in the tree. this is a baby monkey.

picture 7--we stayed at the "Jungle Hut Resort" up in the mountains and on our way up there our driver spotted this Leopard sitting on a rock. it was awesome!

picture 8--Micah, Ramesh and i went on a hike at the Jungle Hut. it was up in the Jungle which is more like a forrest, but there was a river running through it, so we saw a lot of animal tracks by the water. the hike was awesome!

picture 9--in "Jaipur" (jai like chai, and poor) we went to a festival, and we all went on Camel rides. it was so exciting to ride a camel! i'm going to sell my car and ride a camel everywhere!

picture 10--also in Jaipur there were a lot of umbrella street shops. american umbrellas are boring compared to these.

picture 11--the Amber Fort in Jaipur. it's a huge palace built on the hill side. the only way up is to ride elephants, and well worth 250 rupees! that's around 5 bucks!

picture 12--this women was collecting water from the courtyard to repare the Amber Fort.

picture 13--Micah at the Amber Fort.

picture 14--these are the elephants that we rode up to the fort. they decorate their trunks with chalk.

picture 15--well, hopefully you all know what this is...the Taj Mahal. this was taken right after sunrise.

picture 16--we're back in Madras and drinking coconut milk! do you want a coconut? just grab a knife and cut one open! it's only 10 rupees! that's about 20 cents.

picture 17--the Taj Mahal. did you know that the Taj is actually a tomb? the emperor Shah Jahan built this tomb for his favorite (and second) wife Mumtaz Mahal. the Taj is made out of Marble, and it is all inlayed. the four pillars are slanted outward just a little bit so that if an earth quake happens, then the pillars will fall out instead of in, so that the Taj will not be crushed! amazing eh? also, the Taj Mahal took 22 years to build!

picture 18--the Agra Red Fort. the palace is made out of marble and this red fort is built around it. one of the kings that lived here was the one that built the Taj Mahal around 1648.

picture 19--we were driving to Agra (which is where the Taj is) and this guy charges you to money to take pictures of his monkey...so i secretly took this one without him seeing it.

i love india and i can't wait to go back! hopefully you got a taste of India while enjoying my play-by-play commentary. have a great day, and remember to visit the gift shop.

1 comment:

Natalie said...

Great pictures! Sounds like you had a great time, thanks for sharing!