Adventures in India...

Apologies for the hiatus in posting, I have recently graduated from UCL, moved, and started my new job as a researcher on a fascinating project.

Before all the fun and games of life as a working gal began however, I took a once in a life time trip to India with one of my oldest and closest friends, Amaryllis. We travelled for three weeks all across Northern India, from the Thar desert through Rajasthan to Calcutta in the East. It was the most entrancing holiday I had ever been on. Despite the fact that between the two of us we had done a fair bit of traveling, neither of us had been anywhere like India. It was incredible in both the good and the bad. The sites were saw on a daily basis in terms of architecture and history were often shockingly beautiful. Yet we were also confronted with a world very different from the one we had left back in England, both in terms of poverty but also cultural values. It certainly opened our eyes to an exotic world that definitely could not be unwrapped in a mere three weeks. We really only scratched the surface. I thought I would share some photographs that we took on the trip (as you can imagine there were quite a few!)

The Thar desert

Image courtesy of Aimee Holmes

Camel trekking, Amaryllis on the left and I am in the centre.

May I introduce you to our camels: Alfred and Carol. Our names for them, as you can imagine.

The Mehrangarh Fort, Jodphur. Built in 1459, it is absolutely stunning. This was one of the female only Royal courtyards.

We met some awesome Indian kids. At first they could be shy but after a while they would crack the most insane smiles and were keen to laugh and play with you. These are the children of a local potter who we visited. 

Jain Temple

The interior of the Jain Temple. Like something out of Tomb Raider! It was monsooning outside so you could hear all the reverberations on the roof and rain was pouring down the walls onto the marble floor. 

A lot of the Indians we saw liked to take photos and videos of us on their mobiles. So we started doing it to them! It was an annoyance but actually by joining in it often broke the ice.

These two images are from Pushkar, a very holy city. It rained so hard here we were stranded in the hotel for an evening. This was the night we were introduced to the joy of Bollywood films!

Image courtesy of Amaryllis Earle.

So this is the shot you get up at 5am for! Amaryllis and I at the Taj Mahal. Funnily enough the Taj Mahal has never been something I was ever really over keen to see, but once I saw it that early in the morning, I was totally blown away. As it was monsoon season the sky was so pale it looked like the marble was almost disappearing, or appearing Im not sure...

View of the Ganges, Varanasi. 

One of the places that first drew me to India was Calcutta. I spent a lot of the last year at university studying British Colonial and Post-Colonial presence in India, so Calcutta was obviously a hot topic for us. For me, Calcutta was one the highlights of the trip. We were lucky enough to go to the South Park Street Cemetery, which was full of Western inspired tomb sculptures. It was so far removed from the urbanised hussle and bussle of the city outside the cemetery walls, with wide boulevards surrounded on either side by giant mausoleums under the dense cover of mango trees. It was such an unusual place, again like the setting for an adventure film.

Unusual mix of European monument style and Jain (see temple images above). There were so many different examples in this amazing place. Such a hidden gem, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who happens to visit Calcutta.

  Victoria Memorial, Calcutta. So beautiful, but also such a beacon for British presence in India. I was surprised that it is essentially a massive empty space, literally just designed for grand ceremonial occasions that only a hand full of people would get to attend. It reminded me that British rule in India was so much more about the show of power rather than actual authority and governance on the ground. 

Amaryllis also has her own (rather more professional and exciting) blog which promotes positive beauty both inside and out! She has some fabulous posts from interior decorations to do it yourself hairstyles so I thoroughly recommend you check it out! The site is called www.deeperdazzle.com

The post on India Unplugged by Intrepid Travel, which is what our trip was called, is linked here:

http://deeperdazzle.com/2012/09/