India 17 of April - 4 of May 2009 - Varanasi

The morning between Thursday and Friday after the wedding. We were dropped at the train station in Jaipur, so that we could take a morning train to Delhi and catch our afternoon flight from Delhi to Varanasi.
Summer had really set in and it was just very hot as it had also been in Jaipur. Upon arriving in Varanasi I had never been in an airport that were so small, when the passengers from our plane, all got into the arrival hall it was filled. But luckily we quickly got our luggage and headed for the prepaid taxi stand to get a taxi to the city. We found a hotel that were listed in the Lonley Planet book, we got there and it was decent in price and the rooms were good, so we decided to take it for all the days we stayed in Varanasi.
During the time in Varanasi/Banaras - the old name of Varanasi. We took a trip to the university grounds. We saw this wonderful temple.

On the way back to our hotel, we went into the university museum, since it was now mid day and very hot, a few hours of sightseeing inside were appropriate.
Since we had a few days in Varanasi we decided to find a taxi that could take us to Sarnath Temple. This is the temple that according to history was the first temple where Buddha gave his first sermon, and are viewed as 1 of the 3 most holy sites of Buddhists.

Not far from there is another historic place called Ashokan Pillar. Below there are a few pictures I took there.

During our time in Varanasi we also went on what I would say is a mandatory thing, a sunset and sunrise boat ride on the Ganges. This were a great experience, it were amazing to see that there are activity around and on Ganges at all times a day. Every evening there are a big puja ceremony on the water front, where there are given thanks for all of the good things the water of the Ganges give to the city. Here are a few of the sunset pictures.

The next pictures are from the sunrise boat trip.

After a couple of amazing days in Varanasi, the trip would continue to Shimla.

India 17 of April - 4 of May 2009 - Jaipur

I had a early morning flight out of Copenhagen at 6, when we left it was 5 degrees outside, then I had a stopover in Amsterdam, when I left Amsterdam it was 15 degrees outside. When I arrived at New Delhi around 11 in the evening it was still 30 degrees outside. I had arrived just a summer was catching on. I was very intersted in seeing how I would deal with the heat this time.
This holiday would consists of a few things, first a wedding in Delhi, then a wedding in Jaipur, a trip to Varanasi and at last a trip to Shimla.
The two weddings I was so lucky and attend were batch mates from IIMC that were getting married. For the first one I attended the reception. From Delhi I took the train to Jaipur, for those of you that have never been at an Indian train station, here are a picture of the platform and one from inside the train.

The train was a few hours late getting into Jaipur, but it worked out.The wedding party would be going on from Monday until the night between Thursday and Friday where the actual ceremony would take place. During these days there was also time for some sightseeing. So I got to see the Maharaja Palace Jaipur.

The above pictures is from Tuesday where we went around in Jaipur for a few hours, before going back to where we were staying and got ready for the engagement party in the evening.
Wednsday morning we left early for a long day of sightseeing, with a few of the brides friends. Below you can see a few pictures of what we saw.
We also saw Hawa Mahal

After this we drove to see a fort and Jantar Mantar. Here are a few pictures. When we came to Jantar Mantar, I had to give up and to and sit in the shadow. Being outside in the sun was over for me, after around 6 hours of sightseeing in around 45 degrees, I had had enough.

The above is a few pictures from the fort. Below there are a picture of the Jantar Mantar.

After returning from the sightseeing. I was asked if I wanted to have mehndi done, I decided to say yes, since I thought it would be a fun thing to try. Several of the other female guests had it done while we were out sightseeing. Here is a picture of my hands while I am waiting for the mehndi to dry.

The day ended up with the guys going to the bachelorette party where the groom and his family were staying. And me staying with the bride's family. We had a good dinner, and just sat around and talked. Since Thursday was going to be a long day I turned in early. Thursday morning started around 7 with puja, followed by breakfast. Then us young people playing some card and talked before we went in cars for lunch at the wedding venue. After returning it was time for a nap, and some more hanging out. Around 6 I started getting ready, since we were leaving around 8. I had some help putting on my saree since, I was still not very good at it, and I wanted it to looks as good as possible. I had brought the saree I bought for Diwali when I lived in Calcutta. Since I believed this would be the most appropriate thing to wear, because I did not want to draw too much attention.