Taj Mahal At Last!

Well folks, we’ve been living in India for about 10 months so it’s about time for us to finally visit the Taj Mahal.  I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for the classic Taj photo of us laying across a bench or jumping in the air in front of the Taj or me trying to penetrate Isaac’s chest with my bare hands in front of the Taj, you know, the usual.

Here’s the blog post you’ve all been waiting for......at least for a few days since Isaac posted that great Indian wedding blog.  He took all of those pictures btw AND also 98% of the photos for this blog.  The other ones were taken by our amazing tour guide/photographer, Ali.  He really did a great job at taking us around and pretending not to be bored while explaining things that he’s probably explained over a thousand times.  Seriously.  


Here’s a bit of the back story of the Taj for those of you who want to know, or don’t feel like scrolling down right away to more pictures.  It was made by a Mughal emperor named Shah Jahan (or really it was made by Persian/Indian workers who really are amazing) in honor of his dead wife who was his third attempt and first successful baby maker for him.  Don’t worry, he made some other monuments for his other wives, they just aren’t as big or famous.  Fun fact, he started to try to build a monument for himself (his own man cave after death, if you will) but he died/ran out of money before it was complete and people were pretty upset about how much money he was spending on all these giant monuments while they didn’t have food to eat.  Go figure.  


Ok so enough history.  Words don’t really do the Taj justice so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. So here is 22 years of labor by 20,000 workers...


These are pictures of the Red Fort where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his loving son, but don't worry, he still had a view of his Taj, through teeny tiny holes.  

This man was feeding chipmunks and I decided I wanted to give it a try too.  I love touching wild animals, especially Isaac.  I think about 20 people came to take a picture of this happening, including one kid who stepped right in front of Isaac as he was taking pictures.

Isaac doing his best Daniel Tosh impression

sooo sunny!  I totally forgot my sunglasses for this trip.

These are pics of the baby Taj which really looks nothing like the Taj but it was cool. Fun fact, it was built BEFORE the Taj by a dif King for his wife.

6 on a bike!  New record! The sixth is a baby in white that the mom is hold on the back

You’ll notice that in the pictures we have a new victim, er I mean travel buddy.  This is Katrina and she’s the cat’s pajamas.  Seriously awesome gal who was willing to put up with me and Isaac all by herself without other sources of entertainment for 2 whole days.  Bless her heart!  I really learned to respect Katrina as she has yet to use the “toilet” on an Indian train, EVER!  It’s pretty amazing.  Also, she continued to play cribbage with us over and over again, even after Isaac exhibited his victory dance AND pointed out how unlucky we were and how he was doing so well throughout the game.  Thanks honey.  Isaac really is a great game player.  Don’t tell him I said that.  

All in all t’was a fantastic trip with aplenty of photo opps.  One thing I was a bit disappointed about was the lack of people asking us to take pictures with them. I mean, we were only asked seven different occasions, including walking up the stairs at the train station.  The best part about being a foreigner is feeling like a celebrity when people want to take your picture.  This time I had a women hold my hand for a solid 5 minutes (ok like 15 seconds but it felt like 5 minutes because she was staring into my soul the whole time).  Any way I didn’t get to enjoy the delusion of being important as much as I wanted BUT this weekend we’re headed to Amritsar so maybe more people will harrass us then!  I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
 

From Isaac: The Taj is supposedly the most photographed building in the world. When there in person, it is obvious why. No picture though could ever do this building justice. Sometimes things live up to the hype - Angkor Wat, The Road to Hana, Tower of London - and other times not so much (although still great) - Stonehenge, the 15th Thai temple in a day of temple touring. Then there is the Taj Mahal. There is a reason people use it to describe grand structures, i.e. “The Taj Mahal of football stadiums” (Kyle Field by the way). There is no paint anywhere on the building. Everything is marble and marble inlay. Words and pictures cannot do it justice. It is absolutely one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. I agree-Becky


Here's a slide show for you to enjoy!

Indian Wedding

Wedding ceremonies are nice, but everyone knows the best part of a wedding for the guests is the party afterwards. That is unless you attend an Indian wedding as a guest of the groom.

Our friends Justin and Preeti recently tied the knot right here in Delhi. Justin is a good ol' Michigan boy while Preeti is from a state in the north of India. There are so many interesting and intricate pieces to an Indian wedding, but they are most of all a great celebration. In India, there is a wedding season that generally coincides with the cooler months. Weddings are extremely colorful affairs, and we often drive past beautiful displays of lights and flowers. In February, it was our turn to join the festivities.

We went to Justin's house first to offer our support, as you do with any Indian groom. After a small ceremony to prepare him, his support crew headed towards the wedding venue. This is where the real fun started. 

I am not sure how long Becky will allow this picture to remain on the blog. Go Blue! - Love you, Beck.

Jason helps Justin get ready.

Becky getting a Bindi. This was after about an hour of trying to figure out how to put on a Sari by watching youtube before finally giving up and asking an Indian woman to help.

We unloaded a few blocks down from wedding hall, joining what was described as the 'best wedding band' in Delhi. The job of the band and the groom's friends is to make as much noise as possible as they parade towards the rest of the wedding party.

We jumped right in as the band aimed their horns directly at my ears. Directly. Blowing as loud as they could. We jumped and twirled and hopped on the side of the road while cars careened past us, amused by the gaggle of foreigners. 

As we danced, Justin mounted his white wedding horse and colorful lanterns lined our path. We blazed the path as Justin followed behind high upon his steed.  This was one of my favorite parts as I realized about halfway through that this loud truck was following right behind Justin and his horse. It turns out that all the lanterns were connected to the truck by extension cord. 

To make things even more interesting, no wedding would be complete without a fireworks guy. Fortunately, Justin put softball teammate and p.e. teacher Rick on it. ............... So as we danced down the street to the sounds of drums, horns and honking cars, our path was lit by a smorgasbord of fireworks.

Once we made it to the facility, we followed Justin in and were greeted with flowers and blessed with color marked onto our foreheads. This is where things get a bit confusing. There was a dowry ceremony where a suitcase filled with stuff was handed over. Dowries are still an inmportant part of the culture in India. So are arranged marriages. In fact, Indians distinguish between the two types of marriage calling the other a 'love marriage'. 

Mother of the Groom and Mother of the Bride.

Finally, Preeti made her way in. A typical Indian wedding actually takes place over several days. The bride is not really even allowed out of the house once the process of preparing her for marriage has begun. And jewelry and gold are very important parts of what a bride wears. Sometimes this is rented, but only as a last resort. 

Preeti entered surrounded by people and with a ceremonial sheet held above her. She walked to Justin. Once together, the two are supposed to put a decorative cord on the shoulders of the other. The fun here is that the grooms men pick him up as high as they can to make this as difficult as possible. 

From there it is mostly picture taking, eating and dancing. This ceremony is only one small piece of the entire wedding process. There are many more ceremonies surrounding this one, usually smaller and with different parts of the family. The lesson for you here is this, if you ever get invited to an Indian wedding, go.

Jolly Old London

Spring Break 2012. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I believe that is the way Becky likes to start off Spring Break blog posts, so I will keep with tradition. Since we now live in the Commonwealth, we thought it would be a good idea to make our way to the mother country, England. Plus, our Thailand friends Rachel and Ryan live there, so we had great guides to hang out with all week. We arrived on Saturday in time for dinner and a stop at a local pub. But the real fun started on Sunday.

13,296 Steps - Parks, Museums, and a Palace

After a lovely and long breakfast prepared by the Kirchners, we made our way outdoors. The sun was out and the weather was perfect, making our walk through Hyde Park splendid. It was hard to not get a little jealous of the clean air, wide open spaces, and lack of fecal matter in the park.

My scalp had not seen the sun in a while in this picture.  Don't look at it for too long or you could go blind.

The Victoria and Albert Museum awaited us on the other side of the park. A very cool museum with a great mix of old and new. We joined an hour guided tour to get the highlights. I was most impressed with the Renaissance tapestries, but there was so much to love.

The entrance to the V and A.

A Bengal tiger killing a British soldier. We liked it because it is from India.  Also tigers are cool.

I started zoning out while the guide explained this relief until he said it was about  a sex scandal....too bad I missed the story part but I'm sure you can be creative.  It's probably exactly the same as that Shades of Grey book.  Not that I've read it.........

The drama section of the museum. We played dress up with Alice and Wonderland costumes.

After the museum, we wandered into a pub for Sunday roast and a pint (or two). Just about every pub has a Sunday roast, chicken or beef. With time to spare before our scheduled tour that night, we walked to Buckingham Palace where Becky and Rachel took the first (and second and third and...) of many spring break "jumping pictures."

Perhaps you noticed a trend in this day - walking. In fact, we were not done as we went on a Jack the Ripper walking tour after Buckingham Palace (and another stop at a pub). For Becky and I, walking until we can't stand up is a normal part of our vacations. Partly because we are too cheap to hope in a taxi, but also because we enjoy it and its a good way to see a city. Rachel and Ryan were less taken to the idea, though they do live in London, so they were naturally less intrigued by the surroundings.

At one point on the walk, Becky enthralled us all with a story about a pedometer graduation gift (Thanks Grandpa, pedometers are great for college students! Love, Becky) and a claim the people should strive to walk 10,000 steps every day. As I remember this, Ryan scoffed at this whilst I immediately jumped in to defend Becky's honor. Well, as it turns out, thanks to the glory of satellite maps, we walked well over 10,000 steps. Ryan boasted of the 13,231 or 46 er 96 or whatever steps it was we walked the rest of the week. Now onto the tour.

Jack the Ripper Tour

My knowledge of Jack the Ripper before this tour was entirely based on an episode of Ducktales. Wooo-Ooooo. So needless to say, I learned quite a bit. And as a bonus, we learned that Sweeny Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street, was a real dude. The tour started with a quick stop at the place where William Wallace was drawn and quartered. I thought this was going to be a little lame, but fortunately it was saved when some jolly chap yelled, "Freeeeeedooooom," as they drove through the circle. From there we walked the believed route of Jack the Ripper on the night of the "famous" double murder. Turns out there are quite a few conspiracies explanations for the vicious murder of the five prostitues found mutilated in the fall of 1888.

Jack the Tripper appears at 1:30 in this Portuguese language version.

Excited about the tour!

Freeeeeeedooooooommmmm

This is Diagon Alley. It is blurry because of magic cloaking spells.

When in Bath, do as the Bathonians do

Since we had a full week in England, we didn't want to just stay the entire time in London, so we hopped on a train to Bath, named for the ancient Roman baths that are still there today. Bath has been a popular destination for thousands of years due to its hot spring waters. William Wilberforce, of Amazing Grace fame, used to visit Bath often during his life. Jane Austen lived in the city as well; Becky reports that Ruth, her mom, was especially excited about that.

One cool thing that we were able to do from Bath was visit Stonehenge. It probably wouldn't have been worth a full day excursion, but the entire trip was only three hours. Stonehenge is exactly what you expect, a bunch of big ol' stones stacked up in a circle. Still, I found it to be pretty cool, and driving through the English countryside was pretty grand too.

You cannot get into the waters the the old Roman baths, but there is a brand new fancy spa that takes advantage of the natural springs. Whilst soaking in the warm waters, we did get some good advice from a nice gentleman (must be read in a British accent), "When in Baaath, do as the Baaathonians do."  (Actually this guy was angry because we were making too much noise and having fun and his girlfriend didn't want to get water in her ears.  I didn't know there were rules about not doing cannon balls in Roman Baths.  Whoops!)

Bath Athletic Association

When it comes to ego, not many can match yours truly. Ryan Kirchner sure does his best though. So it only makes sense that we would have some sort of competition to determine superiority. Our day started off innocently enough with a frolic through a field.

As I put my shirt back on though, I notices something...a metal pole! Ryan quickly challenged me to through the pole into the air and make it stick in the ground. "Great idea!" I thought. After five tries though, I had to give way to Ryan who promptly succeeded on his third attempt. I was trying to be cocky and do with with a spin, where he wisely went with the javelin style.

Ryan: 780 pts
Isaac: 440 pts (I was able to recover with the javelin style)

Before we could move onto the next event, it was very important that Erin (Rachel and Ryan's friend who joined us in Bath) and Becky took a jumping picture.

I hurt my tooth in this one! - Becky

The next event came when Ryan spotted a big concrete block and challenged me to lift it over my head. Another fantastic challenge. I would have been stupid to not try this.

We both accomplished the feat, but I got extra style points.
Ryan: 1045
Isaac: 873

Becky wanted to play too.

I'm pretty sure this was about 20 stones, which is British for really fat.  I learned that on the Biggest Loser UK edition.  Thanks again, T.V.!  -Becky

The third event: Throw rocks at a sign. This was perhaps the most suspenseful task as Ryan was the first to hit the sign. Fortunately for me, I had three throws to match his efforts. I selected three medium size stones. They had to be big enough to get through the low branches in front of the sign, but small enough so that I wouldn't need Tommy John surgery after. The first throw sliced wide. Two left. The weight of the world was on my shoulders. I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing, thinking of all the great rock throwers that had been in this position before. I visualized the target and unleashed the mass of earth. Silence filled the air for ages before finally being broken by metal and stone colliding. And the crowd went wild.

Becky's interpretation:  Erin and I stood and waited forever for the boys to throw rocks at a tree.  It was boring.  Also Isaac is great at throwing things at other things.

Ryan: 2045
Isaac: 1873

The final event: One legged luge run. The challenge was to hop through a 30 meter long tire rut filled with gravel and roots and other obstacles. It was a broken ankle waiting to happen. Naturally, we all joined in. Ryan set the bar at 11.62, and I couldn't get a clean run without having to put down the other foot. After some coaching through the difficult portion of the course, I broke 10 seconds with my final run.

Final B.A.A. Scores:

Ryan :2996
Isaac: 2996
Rachel and Becky: 5000 points each for putting up with us.

How could we leave without taking a jumping picture first?

Answer: We couldn't.  And it only took 14 shots to get it!

Back to London


The rest of our time in London was filled with the typical tourist activities. It was Becky's third trip, so she was, as usual, wonderful for repeating all the things she had already done. I will let the pictures and captions handle it from here.

The British Museum

The famous Beefeaters of the Tower of London.  I asked if he had any gin.  He didn't laugh.

The White Tower inside the Tower of London.

A view of the Tower Bridge from inside the walls of the Tower of London.

Resisting urge to make a joke...

The Globe.

Millennium Bridge

St. Paul's Cathedral. 

We went to see The Lion King.

A big thanks to Rachel and Ryan for being great hosts. They made our trip easy and fun despite playing Settlers three times.

Love,

iBeck