chandni chowk

Hello all!! Again I write you from Delhi! where i have a wifi connection! alright! Today i bring good tidings and images. First. These photos are from Old Delhi in a neighborhood called Chandni Chowk. Chowk means market. The day i took these photos Honora and i desired a new adventure. Old Delhi is always an adventure so we headed down there by metro and walked until we found the spice market.Spices, nuts and dried fruits of all kinds are displayed and tickle your nose and burn your eyes. The streets are packed full of people and bicycle rickshaws and wagons. On the side of the streets most people just rest or drink chai or perhaps get a shave. Old Delhi. so cool. The last photo is from a play we saw about Kali, the goddess of time and change.

Other news is: Honora left (sob!!) and i've decided to spend the remainder of my trip volunteering and learning. Today i met with the Art Director of Down to Earth magazine, a magazine that focuses on environmental and science related issues in India put out by the Centre for Science and Environment (http://www.cseindia.org/). I've been given a photo assignment! So i'll be sticking around Delhi for the next few days working with them. I also met today with the Regional Director of the Ashoka Trust for Research of Ecology and Environment (www.atree.org). She was fascinating and so down to earth. A really lovely and smart person. and we have a common contact! She studied in Costa Rica and knows a woman, a forest ecologist, that i know there! such a crazy small world! She told me all about the current research they've been doing and how they're starting to tackle invasive species and fire supression here in India. there is very little information about India's invasive plant species and even among scientists in the country little is known. Ankila, the Reg. Dir., is trying to make information more readily available to the average non-scientist. So, I volunteered to write an easy to read paper on invasive species and why they're a problem in general and in India. So i'll be working on that as well. Alao, I asked her if there is anyway i could see first hand what they are doing and she said she'd connect me with the right guy in Bangalore and i could go spend some time at a research station near by if it all works out! i'm really excited to learn more about this!!! so exciting. so yes. i'll probably stay in Delhi till June 3rd and then head to Bangalore till the 9th when i fly back to Jackson! i've changed my flight. I will now arrive home on June 10th. The Bachelorettes have a show at Hal and Mal's red room on June 12 so please come and check it out! 9pm $5 cover.

and so many more photos to come!

photo by Honora

Pickin' and Paddlin'

Cute little girls at Pickin' n' Paddlin'

Hello all!

I'm back in Delhi after a relaxing pleasant week in Dharamsala and then a crazy couple of days in Amritsar on the Indian/Pakistani border. I will soon be posting photos from this. But first i wanted to post the following photos from Picking and Paddlin, a fundraiser event that i shot at Mayes Lake a week before i left. i have all the photos backed up and so i wanted to post these before i erase them from my computer so i can upload the 9GB of photos i've shot since i last posted. so there you have it folks, Pickin and Paddlin. at least my favorites from the event!!

Melia, Darren(?), Julia

Roz

Arthur and partner

Ward and Shelley

The Zydepunks

Canoe race!

Roz and Shelley

Charlie

Pera

Agra, Jaipur and back to Delhi

Hi from Delhi! Here are some photos from the last few days!! I'm feeling a little better. no more sore throat. but now i have a very stuffy nose. I'm taking it easy today hoping i will finally get rid of it! Headed to Dharmasala tonight!

On the train to Agra

from the train

colorful trash taken from the train

In Agra we were greeted by our friendly autorickshaw-wallah, Ali.

entrance to the Agra Fort

Again everyone wanted a photograph with us. so we exchanged. This was the daughter of a couple who took a picture with Honora and I.

i <3>

A group of ladies came and spoke with us for a little bit. The women are so curious and SOO nice!

Photo exchange! We gave these guys ample chance to take our photo and then we walked away. Thinking they had gotten a good shot. but no. they followed us around for a while. From here in we decided no photos for men. Only women and families.

Agra Fort

Honora being my model! Agra Fort

The highlight of my day was sitting in the grass next to a family. There were two little boys in the family and they kept running up to us and smiling and laughing hysterically! and talking to us. A man nearby translated a little. One boy was fascinated with Honora and exclaimed, "Your face is TOO white!!" and "You're too long!!!" He then cracked up and ran off only later to repeat the process.

Dru. They wanted us to take photos of them and for some reason thought they had to get real low. Sometimes they would put their heads so low for the photo that they fell over.

Their father.

They taught me some words in Hindi. Like Gotah which means dog!

Rahit.

Dru's mother and sister.

Ali was our official autorickshaw-wallah for the whole day! And was extremely kind.

From the rickshaw.

From the autorickshaw.

Streets of Agra

The next few shots were taken on a bridge built by the British in 1904. It was just wide enough for a couple of regular sized cars. The concrete had disintegrated along the edges and you could see about 70 feet down to sand below. The bridge was so crowded that there was hardly a square foot that wasn't being used. Horns honked and people yelled and everyone's trying to get across at the same time: autorickshaws, bicycles, bicycle rickshaws, motorcycles, cars, ox carts, cars. It takes about 5 minutes to get across and it is indeed an adrenaline rush!

One of my favorite photos. passing a market.

market.

on the streets of Agra

The mini Taj Mahal as Ali called it. A mauseoleum.

Honora at the mauseoleum

boy at the mauseoleum

These guys were sawing and selling pieces of marble.

Agra street

behind the Taj Mahal

There used to be the huge beautiful Yamuna River. Now it looks like a stream. Scary. You can walk across.

Behind the Taj Mahal.

Lizzie and the back of the Taj.

Kids behind the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal and sunset

We saw the sunset at the Oberoi Amar Vilas. A very fancy pants hotel. It was absolutely beautiful, however but very strange. The staff was following us around when we went to the bathroom. Also the staff is required to wear 19th century Indian attire.

The next day we went to the Taj Mahal. Saw this dog on the way.

Cecilia, our new Australian friend, got there at 5:30 and was going to watch it all day long. We got there around 6:15 but i had to take a book and a pen to the locker areas that were about half a kilometer away because they weren't allowed in. so we ended up getting in well after sunrise. around 6:45. But still enjoyed it immensely!

Lizzie from the direction of the Taj.

Honora and Lizzie

Looking out at the river (where we were the day before) from the Taj.

Honora!

Honora!

Lizzie

Honora! with the Taj Mahal in her sunglasses.

A shady lane on the grounds of the Taj.

Agra street.

the only photo of Jaipur, Rajasthan.
I started getting a sore throat on the bus to Jaipur. I missed most of the city because i wanted to nip whatever sickness i was developing in the bud. So i spent most of my time sleeping and reading at the hotel.

On the train to Delhi.

From the train. a rural scene.

On the train to Delhi.