Greetings from India - now with photo exhibition!

[Andail]

Hey!
I found an internet cafe here in the very holy city of Kajuraho. I've spent around half of my fairly short visit here in India, and I thought I could send you a few lines just so you know I'm still alive, in case any of you wondered where the hell I was and why I haven't taken care of things (like the pick of the month or the ergos or critics moderating or whatever irrelevant duties I might have taken on my shoulders lately).

I will return to this thread with funny pictures, fascinating anecdotes and other peices of edutainment when I come back. (The circumstances of the room I sit in now does not motivate any reduntant essaywriting.)
See you on thursday next week!
                      Your ags globetrotter, Andail

[Nacho]

You bastard! Stop boasting of your trips and make us become green of envy!!1  

Good come back trip, Petter...

[Meowster]

Bring me back some wonderful fairytale fabrics! Have a good time!

[Squinky]

Glad to see your having a good time exploring the world while I sit here and read about it....

Bastard Andail and his world travelling antics...

[Meowster]

Man, you're kinda like Indiana Jones now! Did you find any unusual relics or beautiful and easy women yet?

[Andail]

Asch, I thought India would attract more attention than this! Anyway, I'm back home. Nice to see you everybody.

Here's some of the photos I took with my christmas-gift-camera.
I think some of the pictures are really nice in an artistic sense, so even if you don't care much for travelling, please have a look!
(Some of them are pretty large, but it's Esseb's account so I couldn't be bothered to compress them further)

New Dehli
These pictures are a bit greyish, but there was an ever-present smog in that city.
http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/smallshops.jpg
Commercial block in old town.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/dehlistreet.jpg
Ordinary street in old town.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/cows.JPG
Holy cows, a very common sight throughout India. They even occupied the high-ways sometimes.

Varanassi
This town is where people wash themselves in the holy river of Ganges. Everything is horribly chaotic and dirty.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/internet.JPG
But they had internet!

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/woodchop.JPG
Wood was used everywhere. To cook food in the streets, to create some warmth for the millions of homeless people, and to burn the dead.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/woodsupply.JPG
A whole block is used for wood storage. This is near the place where dead people are burnt in holy ceremonies, to help them reach nirvana.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/children.JPG
We went to a street where high music emanated in the middle of night. It turned out to be a ceremony for children. After I took the picture (which I am highly fond of) people started getting intrusive and we split.

Sarnath
This is the place where Buddha made his first preaching, and so the very head-quarters of buddhism. It's a very nice and calm area.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/buddha.JPG
Some women in front of the main tower.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/buddha2.JPG
A rather moody scene. Ruins of ancient temples everywhere.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/cows.JPG

Khajuraho
Idyllic small town surrounced by heaps of temples. Very serene nature, and a nice contrast to the big cities.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/kajuraho.JPG
Me on a café with view over one group of temples.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/anderstemple.JPG
My father in the middle of temples.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/castle.JPG
The surroundings of Khajuraho.

Agra
Agra is a horribly big and dirty city, but it's the city where Taj Mahal is located.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/tajmahal.JPG
Yeah, this scene has been used for postcards in centuries. But we just had to have our own!

Amritsar
In Amritsar lies the Golden Temple, which is the head quarters of the Sikhs. Sikhism is a sub-religion to hinduism, and its followers are recognised by their being big in stature, more charismatic and wearing big turbans and beards.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/sikhpetter.JPG
We had to wear those things in order to enter the temple area (which was breath-taking! The temple is cled in real gold). Also, no shoes or socks were allowed.

http://www.esseb.com/andail/India/traffic.JPG
On our way out of the temple area.

This is just a selection of photos, as I took around 90. I hope you feel your insight in India has grown somewhat by this little chronicle

[Darth Mandarb]

The picture of the children is very interesting.  The way only the center child's face in focus.  Was that intentional?

The traffic picture is really cool ... they cabbie's face (eyes) in the mirror is what sold it to me!

The dehli street shot looks like it belongs in an adventure game.

All in all I'd say India looks like a fascinating place to travel ... if a bit claustraphobia inducing

PS
Does anybody in India smile?

[Andail]

Does anybody in India smile?

Interesting remark. Remember that the hindus' main ambition is to reach nirvana, i.e not to reincarnate. For most of them, life is just some necessary evil they have to go through while waiting for the eternal rest.

[Ghormak]

Does anybody in India smile?

No, they all look like this: ._.

[Las Naranjas]

It might be part of a more that exists in much of South and SE asia which means that they smile whenever a camera is focused on them.

And I'm surprised that there's no pictures of cricket [it's more sacred than the cows].

Where will your wanderlust take you next [Albany I'm guessing].

[earlwood]

Sweet, what a hell hole (J/K)

At the risk of being flamed, Why are you there?

[Timosity]

Very interesting Andail,

I've never been to India, but I know it's an interesting place to visit, I've got a few Indian friends (most only lived there when very young but have visited a few times) and have heard stories from them.

They keep their cultural herritage at home and become more westernised in general life. When I go round It's great to get a real Indian Meal, not a restaurant one .

I guess in parts of India they don't eat quite aswell as others, lots of poverty. I guess they have some of the most extreme classes of people from extremely rich, to the starving on the poverty line, And I guess you probably saw that on your travels, something that most people know about but haven't witnessed.

As Las mentioned about Cricket, I'm sure you must have seen people, kids playing cricket on the streets. It really is Amazing apparently how many people are into it.

The Indian Cricket Team are out here at the moment, I went to a game the other day with over 40,000 people and it seemed like there were more Indians in the crowd (even though these people are Australian, they still support their mother country fanatically)

The Indian Cricket team are treated like royalty in India (although some are from really wealthy families probably close to royalty anyway) Even the Australian team has more fans in India than Australia (although the populations are slightly disproportioned ie 20 million compared to a Billion)

Good to see you exploring the lesser known wildernesses in this world, I've always had an inkling to explore Africa and South America, but everywhere else too especially Sweden you lucky man. Sometime when I get my life and money sorted out, well the money anyway cause travelling sorts out life (well let's you escape it & live it at the same time) I'll make it to the places I want to go.

[Nacho]

I think you should know that India isn´t actually dirty, it is just that it has been painted all the buildings in that way, and people is not sad and poor, they´re just figurants, and if you wake up very soon in India (5 or 6 AM) you will see how 2,000 million people preppair the daily performance.

Tourism issues, you know?

[Pumaman]

Nice photos Andail, looks like you had a great time out there

[shbaz]

That was some awesome photography Andail. Seriously.

Makes me want to go. I love the architecture.