India and Hong Kong...
Hmmm, it’s been an awful long time since I’ve Livejournaled. I’ve been to two new countries since then I think. Oh dear. I guess I’ll start with India -
India was different than I expected, but not in a really bad way. I’m not sure how it was different, it just was. I was pretty prepared for the poverty but it was still a little striking to drive down the road and see people who look like they’re just barely making a living scratching out vegetables in the dusty soil. The oddest thing though was that the women in the fields always had on these amazingly colorful sarees, like they were going to a party when really they were out to milk the goat. Speaking of sarees, I am now the proud owner of four, one of which rather scandalously bares my midriff. We went to the Taj Mahal which is more amazing than any picture you can ever see of it. Maybe it’s my oddly romantic sense of history but I think you could feel the love that surrounds the Taj Mahal. The story behind it is romantic - The Prince of Mughal India saw a beautiful girl one day and they fell in love but for political reasons he was forced to marry a Persian princess. He never consummated the marriage and sent the Persian girl back to her parents after a number of years saying that she was unable to produce any heirs for him. The beautiful girl that the prince had seen before had been unsuitable then but when her aunt married the king her political influence grew and she and the prince married and lived happily for 18 years, (she had 16 children in that time) until she died giving birth to the 17th child. It was then that the prince, now a king, began the 22 year long project of a memorial and mausoleum to his beloved wife. Now they are buried side by side in the Taj Mahal. After the Taj Mahal we went to the red fort, which was cool but and ended up being basically the same as every other Mughal building we saw. Red sandstone is terribly popular in that region of India because there’s a whole lot of it. We went to Jaipur and I’m a little ashamed to admit that the thing that stands out in my mind is the weird tour guide. He was icky. Well we rode elephants and camels and stayed at this palace for two nights and were ripped off my mean picture sellers and we went rafting on the Ganges just outside of Rishikesh (which is where the Beatles spent some time. Yay Beatles, one of my first loves) and it was all very fun. We spent a lot of time in the car though, which is almost never fun.
So after India came Hong Kong. I went with Emma, my super cool friend from Canada, and her papio…mostly the trip consisted of Emma and me stuffing our faces with excellent food at every possible moment. We shopped and saw the “Big Buddha” and now I’m tired so I’m going to sleep and I’ll tell y’all more later.
Plus, this is horrifying but you should read it. http://blinkytreefrog.livejournal.com/80660.html
India was different than I expected, but not in a really bad way. I’m not sure how it was different, it just was. I was pretty prepared for the poverty but it was still a little striking to drive down the road and see people who look like they’re just barely making a living scratching out vegetables in the dusty soil. The oddest thing though was that the women in the fields always had on these amazingly colorful sarees, like they were going to a party when really they were out to milk the goat. Speaking of sarees, I am now the proud owner of four, one of which rather scandalously bares my midriff. We went to the Taj Mahal which is more amazing than any picture you can ever see of it. Maybe it’s my oddly romantic sense of history but I think you could feel the love that surrounds the Taj Mahal. The story behind it is romantic - The Prince of Mughal India saw a beautiful girl one day and they fell in love but for political reasons he was forced to marry a Persian princess. He never consummated the marriage and sent the Persian girl back to her parents after a number of years saying that she was unable to produce any heirs for him. The beautiful girl that the prince had seen before had been unsuitable then but when her aunt married the king her political influence grew and she and the prince married and lived happily for 18 years, (she had 16 children in that time) until she died giving birth to the 17th child. It was then that the prince, now a king, began the 22 year long project of a memorial and mausoleum to his beloved wife. Now they are buried side by side in the Taj Mahal. After the Taj Mahal we went to the red fort, which was cool but and ended up being basically the same as every other Mughal building we saw. Red sandstone is terribly popular in that region of India because there’s a whole lot of it. We went to Jaipur and I’m a little ashamed to admit that the thing that stands out in my mind is the weird tour guide. He was icky. Well we rode elephants and camels and stayed at this palace for two nights and were ripped off my mean picture sellers and we went rafting on the Ganges just outside of Rishikesh (which is where the Beatles spent some time. Yay Beatles, one of my first loves) and it was all very fun. We spent a lot of time in the car though, which is almost never fun.
So after India came Hong Kong. I went with Emma, my super cool friend from Canada, and her papio…mostly the trip consisted of Emma and me stuffing our faces with excellent food at every possible moment. We shopped and saw the “Big Buddha” and now I’m tired so I’m going to sleep and I’ll tell y’all more later.
Plus, this is horrifying but you should read it. http://blinkytreefrog.livejournal.com/80660.html