Ben and Megan Travel the World

It’s Thursday; Ben has his conference today and tomorrow. I decided to venture out by myself. The air quality is worse than it’s been, see below. I did take a face mask but didn’t end up using it much. I wore it in the morning some, but it cleared up by the time I started walking around Delhi.

I talked to Neha this morning, she’s with guest relations at the hotel. She gave me the wonderful suggestion to see the elephant sanctuary. She told me about an Indian craft week happening near the airport. I ran out of time today, I really wanted to check it out. It sounded right up my alley.

I was nervous about venturing out on my own with everything I’ve read and heard about women in India, especially the concerns from foreign travelers. After seeing how Ben and I were basically ignored while walking around Delhi, I figured I’d be ok. The metro has a ladies only car, so I used that today. I did get a little turned around outside the metro stop for Jantar Mantar, but this is nothing new for me. It’s a running joke for Ben and me–I never pick the right way from the subway. Even when I’ve gone the same route for work multiple times, something trips me up like using a different exit. Let’s just say I’m used to backtracking in cities. =)

I made it to Jantar Mantar, an observatory in New Delhi built by a ruler in the 18th century. It’s one of five such places built by this emperor. It’s in a park, different instruments to measure date and time using celestial bodies, mainly the sun and moon. He wanted to predict the movement of the sun, moon and planets.

I wish it were more interactive to see how it all worked, but I understand they don’t want people on the structures to preserve them. The main sloping structure is a sundial, to measure time. This may be the largest sundial I’ve seen…well, maybe Sundial Bridge is. Either way, it’s large. I wonder which is more accurate, a smaller or larger sundial, or does it matter?

It was hard to get a good idea visually how this instrument worked. It measures the azimuth and altitude of the target. Below is a view from the top and side.

This was a calendar, they had one for the sun and one for the moon…or so I believe if I understood the guard correctly.

This is the most iconic structure, probably because of it’s pretty and unique design. It’s called the Misra Yantra which means mixed instrument. It’s a combination of 5 instruments used to determine the shortest and longest day of the year. It calculates meridians, so it can determine when noon is in other cities.

While writing this post, I remembered to look up the half hour time zones. India and Venezuela are not the only two countries with half hour zones. In fact, there are many. Newfoundland is a half hour zone, -3:30. Most of the others are in Asia and Australia. There are also some with 45 minute zones; however, I didn’t see any :15 zones. I guess that’s cutting it too short…

I went back after this because I didn’t want to miss Ben’s presentation. Plus, I was hungry. I only ate a portion of my lunch because an Indian chipmunk-squirrel was eyeing my food and getting braver by the second. He had friends, I was becoming outnumbered. Ben did great! He presented on a paper he’d written last semester, and it’s published in a book. Great job, Ben, I’m really proud of you!

We returned to Delhi Tuesday night and took the day off from sightseeing Wednesday. We hung around the hotel and Ben worked on his presentation. I worked out in the morning, the hotel’s gym is in the spa. It’s the first time I’ve taken clothes to change into at a hotel gym, I had to pass through the lobby and didn’t want to be disrespectful and wear shorts. It was a very nice facility, and I was the only one there. The grounds are beautiful as well. Jaypee must have a tie to car racing, or someone at the hotel likes it, because we saw racing themed art. Like a hedge trimmed to be a formula one car with the pit crew changing it’s tires. It was pretty cool, sorry I didn’t get a photo.

I ordered a spa service called Shiro-Abhyanga for both of us in the afternoon that combined a massage with a warm oil treatment. The massage was glorious, really worked through the tight muscles from all the walking we’ve done. The table was made of wood. When I saw it, I thought this would be an uncomfortable massage laying on a hard surface. Luckily, there was a cushion on top. She did a foot scrub first, like with a pedicure, except she used mud.

The oil treatment was an entirely new experience. They put pour oil on your third eye. It feels like it’s a gallon of oil, it keeps going. It’s tremendously relaxing, I was surprised at how relaxed and refreshed I felt afterwards. Ben didn’t have quite the same experience. The wrap they put over your eyes to protect them wasn’t quite sealed, so oil leaked into his eye. It burned and stung, a quick comical exchange happened as he tells it. First, the guy asks Ben, would you like me to stop? Uh, yes please, my eye is on fire. So he takes Ben to the sink and begins splashing water on his eye with his hands. Ben’s like, sir, this isn’t going to work, and he leans down to use the faucet like an eye wash. No damage, just a little discomfort.

Then came the steam and shower time. They asked if we were ok to be in the sauna together. I relented, thinking, well, I’ve already claimed Ben as my husband. 😊 The masseuse gave me mud concoctions for hair and body to remove the oil. The shampoo didn’t work so well, I’m sure it was user error. Ben said he’d look like an Italian mobster from the movies. My hair was still laden with oil even after using the entire dish. Luckily, I found something simple online that worked. Someone wrote a post to rub shampoo into the dry hair first before stepping under the water. Then lather and rinse as usual. Jackpot.

In the evening, I met some of Ben’s colleagues. We had dinner with Andy and Eileen. Andy’s in the DBA program with Ben.

We ate at the Italian restaurant in the hotel, and the food was delicious.

We got up early Tuesday morning to see the Taj at sunrise. It’s also less busy then. With the ticket, you get a pair of shoe covers and a water. I hate that I’ve had to use so many plastic bottles this trip, but we’ve not seen many refill stations, none in hotels. With a little more planning, I could have used fewer and refilled around town.

This is the main entry gate to the Taj Mahal below.

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum made of white marble. Each of the 4 sides is symmetrical. A mosque made of sandstone stands to either side of it. The shot below is taken from the western mosque. No photography is allowed inside the mausoleum.

A river borders the north side of the Taj. It is not the prettiest river, nor the cleanest. Though most visitors aren’t paying attention to this side when they come to the Taj Mahal.

I had to be patient to get this photo–everyone fills in to get their photos–finally asking multiple times to wait and move. Still, the lady in red couldn’t help but be in it. I’ll remove her in post-processing.

After seeing the Taj, we went back to the hotel for breakfast and to relax until checkout time. We spent an hour or so in the afternoon walking through the Taj nature park. This was a nice walk with views of the Taj.

We had a few hours before our train, so we relaxed at the pool. It was very nice. One of the cleaner days we had, blue sky even!

I was intrigued with Indian construction practices. Right now, most machinery is stopped in Delhi due to the poor air quality. Whether companies followed this is questionable. For good and bad, it’s the culture to buck the system, ignore laws and rules. They have a saying, TII, This Is India.

This guy stalled traffic while they did a u turn and joined traffic.

They use bamboo scaffolding and ladders. I’m surprised the wood is strong enough to hold weight and doesn’t splinter.

I saw many building material supply stores like this around Agra. Materials were just in loose piles around the building. Like a Ferguson pipe supply without a security fence.

This is a photo of tame traffic. Everyone makes their own lane, the one rule everyone follows is don’t hit anything. Organized chaos is the best way to describe it.

Cows are sacred in India. They do what they want, go where they want.

Well, it was a great run, but Cody calls us. We had a 4am flight Saturday morning. With a 2 hour drive to the airport, we decided to stay up Friday night. For any that know Ben and me, that was extremely difficult! =) By the time we sat down in the airplane, I could barely keep my eyes open.

We flew through Rome. I got a window seat, so I got to watch us come in. I’ve never been to Rome, hope to go there one day. The countryside around the airport is beautiful. We got home safely, first to Boston, onward to lovely Groton. Yes, I had to scrape the snow off the car, so we had our warm northeast welcome back.

We had a great time seeing a bit of India. Thanks for joining us. Until the next adventure…

Friday I spent some time with the other wives that came to India–Ellen, Eileen and Vivian. We saw Lodhi Gardens, the Gandhi museum, ate at a wonderful restaurant, and saw the Qutb Minar. We started at the gardens; it’s definitely a place schools bring classes, we saw plenty!

This is a mosque used during the Lodi dynasty in the 1400-1500’s.

Many of the students were very interested in us, especially Eileen with her blonde hair. They were excited to take a few photos.

Our next stop was the Gandhi museum. It’s on the property at which Gandhi lived his final days before he was shot. The museum is really well done, lots of information about his life and his last day.

I learned a lot about Gandhi here and realize that I want to know more. I’m definitely going to look into books about him. He began as a lawyer and made his way into civil rights in South Africa.

Our driver said our last stop was to see a tower. We didn’t realize it was an entire complex. Qutb Miner is the tallest tower in India. It’s beautiful, lots of colors and detail throughout. You can’t climb it, I’m sure the view would be amazing if you could.

There were many structures, but not many plaques describing what they were. We didn’t have a guide, so it was pretty much checking out cool scenes on our own. I did find one.

It was a good way to end a great trip. Sad that Ben wasn’t with me, but I had good company.

Elephants

We visited an elephant sanctuary in Mathura which is about 30 minutes outside Agra. It is run by Wildlife SOS, an Indian non-profit. The organization has multiple missions. Here, they rescue elephants that are abused for human or entertainment uses, mainly in the circus or as riding or Temple elephants. Elephants are a sacred animal to Hindus–we learned that elephants will be kept in temples across India during certain festivals. They are made to stand without moving for 20 hours a day. To do this, they are chained in place with spikes placed at their haunches, so that they are stabbed if they move.

They have 23 elephants currently, and they have multiple cases ongoing to rescue more. Since 2009, they have rescued over 200 elephants, allowing them to live out their retirement in peace and with medical treatment.

This is Asha and Suzy. Asha was a riding elephant in Jaipur. She has a ripped ear and shoulder injuries. Suzy spent 60 years in the circus. As she aged, she became blind and therefore useless to her owners. They abandoned her in the wild. A good samaritan called Wildlife SOS to help her since she would have no chance in the wild. She can sense Asha’s movement, so she follows her around. She’s a survivor–she’s my favorite.

They had a few dogs that live with them at the sanctuary. The elephant handlers also live onsite. This is the Indian Cody. He demanded attention and wouldn’t let you stop if you started petting him. Cody also likes to lay on feet–a great asset in the winter. This lady couldn’t move for 5 minutes. =)

This is Maya, and Phoolkali. Maya was a circus elephant in Agra, she’s one of the first elephants they saved. A normal sight in a circus is an elephant balancing on one or two legs. What I’d never thought about was the weight that one leg has to carry in order to do that and the toll it takes on those limbs. We saw a few elephants with cracked nails on their feet (which never heal on an elephant apparently, because of there very low metabolism rate) or limping with leg injuries as a result of their time with the circus. The video below shows how Maya doesn’t place much weight on her front leg. She moves it to help ease the cracked nails she has on it. I tried to capture the sound she kept making, she was groaning in pain, the poor girl.

Elephants love baths–they will clean themselves often. Phoolkali, behind Maya there, was a riding elephant. She never had the opportunity to bathe herself–her owners would hose her off once a week or so. When she was first rescused, she sat in the water and bathed for 6 hours! Then, she went on a 14 mile run down the road.

This majestic guy is Suraj. He was a temple elephant they rescued in 2015. He’s missing his entire left ear; they believe it was cut off when he was poached as a young calf. You can also see an abscess on his left hip that still has yet to heal 4 years later.

Our guide, Vijay, described how elephants are trained for circus tricks or to allow riders. It was very sad to hear, and I’m glad this organization works to help these animals. They do a lot of education for the public in hopes that if people know what is done to the animals to get the end result, they will not support the practices.

Wildlife SOS had a great success in stopping the dancing bears trade in India. Sloth bears were captured and “trained” to jump so it looked like they were dancing. Not only did Wildlife SOS work with local governments for legislation and to legally acquire bears that were abused (they have a sloth bear sanctuary as well), they spent a lot of time and money in the communities whose livelihoods were tied to this trade. They provided funds for schooling and other skills training, so the families had options; they don’t feel they have to continue abusing the bears in order to feed their loved ones. They are attempting the same with owners of elephants, but they are finding it much more difficult. An elephant can cost $150,000 USD, so those that purchase elephants also usually have power or sway in the political arena.