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

Photos from Day 1 and 2: Dehli!

Lizzie on the plane. Keeping herself busy.

Hello All! I am too tired to recount the days events. In brief, we walked all over old and new Dehli, saw extreme luxury and poverty within inches of each other (no surprise here but always overwhelming to witness), got stared at all day, got treated like movie stars, but also received stares of disdain, saw the Red Fort, and heard singing in the Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargha mosque, where we got scolded for not having long enough skirts and for having our elbows exposed a little under our shawls which we purchased earlier from all the men staring at our bare, sexy shoulders. Oh and i got my butt grabbed. check that off the list. I have never in my life wanted to put MORE clothes on in 95 degree weather until now. I felt extremely exposed all day. I'm excited to share my thoughts on all of the days experiences and will hopefully have time to type them tomorrow on the train to Agra. yep. gotta hit up the taj mahal. get it out of the way and then continue north where it's cool. I only peed twice all day cause we sweat so much under our shawls!! anyway, Dehli is a fascinating and curious place! Enjoy the photos!

Also, if anyone knows how to write the html to be able to have part of the blog on the main page and the rest in another place accessed by a link, could you please teach me? That way you won't have through half a page of images to get to the previous post! Thanks!

Honora engrossed by "Marley and Me".

Looking for stuff. and stretching! 14hour plane ride!

Look at how far we went!

First impressions! the ride home from the airport!

Rock-carrying truck
so awesome.

Shnazzy hotel Imperial. Stopped there for breakfast. Where Honora's parents stayed on their pre-honeymoon.

Honora, Jeff, our amazing host, and I

Bike

Marigolds in the tree.

Honora on the Promenade near Presidential Palace.

Jeff. Recuperating in the shade.

Entrance to Red Fort

If your wondering which one is Honora just look for her sexy exposed stems!

Red Fort

Red Fort

Everyone wanted a photo with us. So i told them they could have a photo if we could get one too.

Indian Tourists

Red Fort

Strangely enough there were a few hawks at the Red Fort, which is still very much in the city. I imagine between the squirrels and pigeons they're able to survive.

Red Fort graffitti

Honora at the fort!

Maybe they have good intentions but they have a LONG way to go.

On the rickshaw, Honora holds on for dear life!

At a restaurant in Nizamuddin

The crowded narrow streets of the Nizamuddin neighborhood eventually land you at the mosque in the center where ceromonial singing can be heard every thursday night. Amazing!!

At the market leading to the mosque.

my view inside the mosque under a tent!

Wandering the streets after.

Jeff and I. Me in my makeshift traditional attire.

Almost full moon in a neighborhood in Nizamuddin.