Our trip to India
Fall 2005

[Start] [Delhi] [Agra] [Taj Mahal] [Fatehpur Sikri] [Jaipur] [Wrap Up]

INTERESTING THINGS

As we were driving around India, we saw a lot of strange things. Things that you would shake your head at if you were in the states. When the quake happened in Pakistan and so many people died (while I was in India no less), I had some insight into why so many people died. It's the way that buildings are built these days. I can't tell you why mosques and temples don't come crumbling down as they were built hundreds of years ago, but they are basically making high-rises using bricks. If you look closely at the pillars holding the floors up, you will note they are not a single pour. For you not in the construction biz, that's a bad thing. It creates a shear line where the two parts of the columns are not one. When it starts to shake & rattle, these shear lines give way. Bad news. Really bad if you are in this building when it happens.

How would you like to be using that scaffolding when building it? I think it would give an OSHA guy a heart attack.

As we were driving between Delhi & Agra and then Agra & Jaipur, I couldn't help but laugh at the fully loaded auto-rickshaws. These guys would win the phonebooth or backseat contest no problem. They practice everyday. This one was actually light as there weren't three guys on the back bumper like I'd seen on others.

As in the US, the highways are filled with trucks transporting goods between the cities. What is quite different however, is the extent these drivers will personalize their trucks. This one was blaring music that would put to shame the teenage woofer thumpers in their ricers back in the US.

Monkeys are almost everywhere. These were beside the road between Agra and Jaipur.

You see a lot of camels that are used as freight transport. Most of the camels I saw were carrying large bundles of logs / wood.

Near Jaipur, the elephants need to gather their own food.

We did go on a small buying spree while in India. As I stated before, we were enamored with the inlaid tile and just couldn't pass up these tables. The small one we brought back on the plane. The larger one is being shipped to us. The small one was just cleaned & was kind of wet when the picture was taken. The big one ways about a thousand pounds. Those four guys? They simply rotated from where it had been leaning on the wall. I'm still wondering who I'm going to have to bribe with beer to help me get this in my house when it gets here in a few months.

WRAP UP

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my story. I can't say enough of how much we enjoyed our visit. On the one hand, it is an extremely poor country that could really use a lot of investment in the infrastructure. On the other hand, there is a magnetic pull that happens to you the longer you stay in India. And the food is simply amazing.

If you re-look at the map, you will see that we visited a very small slice of the entire country. From the stories I have heard from others, I would love to come back and spend even more time visiting Rajasthan and Kerala. If Pakistan and India can ever come to a truce, I would love to visit Kashmir.

[Start] [Delhi] [Agra] [Taj Mahal] [Fatehpur Sikri] [Jaipur] [Wrap Up]