Sara Turns Tourist

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this blog up. It will be a big one to make up for the delay! I have been doing a LOT of traveling the past week and a half, so there is much to tell. I left UTC amidst all the other students also packing up and saying goodbyes. I guess I was too excited about the next phase of my trip to really worry too much about seeing everyone before leaving.

Mall, Moses, and I boarded the train along with a couple of other YMCA students to head north on Monday night. We arrived in Agra on Wednesday morning and were fortunate to be invited by our friend Amit and his family to their home there for breakfast and baths. Their home served as a home base for us for the day, so we enjoyed visiting neighbors and even getting a bit of a nap before eating and boarding a train again that night. The travel and the sightseeing were that much more restful and enjoyable because of this respite place and care by Amit’s family (even entertainment by his baby niece).

During the day, we visited the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort – amazing places that were a part of the Mogul Empire, but have been preserved for so many years. I think you can probably read the details about Shah Jahan’s shrine to his 3rd wife after she died bearing her 14th child, and some of the other details of the Taj Mahal in books, so I’ll try to stick to my personal impressions in this blog. The symmetry, intricate work on every inch of the building(s), the beautiful garden, and the amazing size and beauty of the Taj was enough to just keep me in awe for awhile. It was practically perfect in every way – and it always stuns me to think of the hard work that needed to happen so long back before all the technology and equipment we have now. As one of the 7 wonders of the world, it definitely ranked up there with the pyramids in Egypt that I saw last year. I convinced the guys to enjoy just sitting and enjoying the beauty of it for awhile after our tour.

Next, was the Red Fort, which is filled with fairytale-like stories. It really amazed me to hear about leaders who had one servant for every day of the year, a vineyard outside their grand bedroom, an area to catch fish with a bow and arrow for sport, and huge walls, moats (filled with crocodiles or other wild animals), worship spaces for each wife (Muslim, Hindu, and/or Christian), and many unbelievable stories. It proves that we really don’t need to make up stories from our imagination in order to entertain ourselves… real life is definitely interesting enough on its own!!!

While the imagination, creativity and beauty was overwhelming and awesome to witness and imagine, it was disturbing to consider the brutality of the empire, the extravagance for the sake of pride or arrogance, and the extreme cost of such things when you know that so many suffered from poverty in its shadows.

The next stop on our journey was Mall’s home - Pathankot, Punjab. Punjab is unique in India for several reasons. Much of the popular Indian contemporary music (especially in Bollywood movies) comes from this region, it is known for its lively dancing, and it also has particular foods that are special. Primarily, it has been the area’s Sikh influence which has shaped the culture. Mall’s home includes his mom and his paternal grandfather (failing in heath now) as well as weekend visits from his sister who works a couple hours away. We went on several outings together with his friends and family members to see more amazing places:

Two trips into the nearby Himalaya foothills made this mountain lover a happy camper!! It was even worth it to endure car sickness from the very windy mountain roads on the first day (before I remembered to take my motion sickness pills) in order to see a beautiful meadow in the valley of these gorgeous mountains. (For those of you map lovers, we were in Khajjiar, near Delhousie in Himachal Pradesh.) A few stops on the way to enjoy a little snowball fight or slide down an icy slope was extremely refreshing… especially for Moses – for whom we were thrilled to introduce to snow for the first time!

The second time in the mountains was to a Tibetan Buddhist Temple in the place where the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government has been in exile for several years (McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh). This time, the clouds blocked our view of the peaks most of the day, but were magnificent on the ride home. We saw the temple, filled with beautifully colored wall paintings, statues, and prayer wheels (as well as stacks of food items given as offerings) and we also walked up to a nearby waterfall where I dipped my feet in the cold water. There was a outside pool in the village where the guys all enjoyed a bit of a dip, but I wasn’t about to push cultural boundaries and jump in as the only female there, even though I would have really liked an opportunity to swim. The village was also filled with a lot of small shops with especially clothes and jewelry. The people around us were more ‘fringe’ kinds of tourists – hard core trekkers or spiritual seekers from all over the world, although there are mostly Tibetans who live there permanently.

The other big journey we took was to the atypical Indian city of Chandigarh, Punjab. There, a European planned the city into extremely organized sectors of residential areas with gardens in each, business sectors, and the home of the regional government. The city transportation was regulated and there were nice boulevards and sidewalks/bike trails everywhere. They have some very nice things to see there besides just the cleanliness and unusual order. We walked by Sukhna Lake, explored a HUGE rock garden made by Nek Chand by using garbage (broken plates, electrical fuses, rags, etc.) to become a place of beauty and creativity, took time to smell the thousands types of roses in the city’s Rose Garden, and visited the shopping area where people gathered in the evening for socializing and a cultural program. We were all surprised at the orderliness of society as well, since there were few fences or barriers, and I saw almost no security the whole day!

We did manage to take some rest (and watch a lot of Indian music/dance videos) as well, but most days were quite busy with travel and sightseeing. We packed a lot into a short time. I won’t go into much more right now, but instead leave the rest for my next blog, which will hopefully come early next week (to share Easter greetings with you all!!!) For now, enjoy just a few further thoughts…

True Wonders of the World

More incredible than the most advanced human handiwork
Is the miracle of a newborn baby.
More majestic than any castle or shrine defended by grand armies
Are the snow-capped mountain peaks
More powerful than the most successful ruler of any land
Is the sway and rhythm of the ocean tides.
More meaningful than any grand monument build in devotion to another
Are the sincere words “I forgive you” or “I love you.”
More dynamic than the charismatic leadership of any king or queen
Is the ability of music to move one’s soul.