India July 2010

In July 2010 it was time for a holiday, after I finished and defended my master thesis and could call myself Master in Supply Chain Management.
I really needed a holiday, and decided that India were the right place to go since, I were sure the weather would be good. In Denmark that is not a given eventhough it is July. This time the trip would go to Armritsar, Dharamasala and sightseeing in Delhi.
I had wanted to see the Golden Temple for some time, and finally I had time. It was a beautiful as I had imagined, and the ambience at the temple grounds were fantastic. I am that kind of a person that just like to be in temples, churches and mosks. Even though I have been brought up in a christian socierty, In my family we have never gone to church every sunday or just once in a while. Unless there are special occasions like weddings, babtishmes, Christmas or something like that. But the special feeling there are in a temple, church or mosk facinates me. The fact that it is a holy place to someone els gives the place a special meaning. I like to hear, read talk aout other religions, to broaden my view. Because I feel this way I always try to see a lot of different religious places when I am travelling. The Golden temple was no different, and then up top of the it is just so pretty. I would like to go again, since I were only there during the day. It could be great to go there sometime around sunrise and sunset. Below you can find a few pictures from the Golden Temple.

The day after we went to the Indian/Pakistan border, where there every night is a show. When we got there, there were different entrences for men, women and foreginers. To go into the foreigner section the security want to see your passport, so it is a good idea to take this when going there. And also carry as few things with you as possible, because it is mandatory to leave your bag outside. I were glad that I wore pants where I could put what I had of value in my bag into my pockets. Sometimes it pays off to travel light when going to see things in India, because you can be asked to not bring your bag/purse inside. Here are a few pictures from the show.

There were so many people that it were hard to get pictures without other people bloking the view. But these 3 pictures are some of the best ones I have from that day. I like the second one it really gives an idea about how packed the "stadium" were. Before getting to the actual "stadium" there were several security checks, where men and woman had to be in different lines. In situations like this I would sometimes wish that I were able to speak and understand some hindi. But it is never a real problem, since you can just do what the other women are doing and then it always works out. :-)
After a few great days in Armritsar the trip headed with a taxi to Dharamasala, home to the Tibetan exile government and the Dalai Lama. We arrived the day before his birthday and were able to go into the temple and look at all of the decorations and preparations that had been made for the celebrations the following day. It was all very beautiful.

We stayed in Dharamasala for a few days, enjoyed the weather and the sights. I am a very big fan of the Indian hill stations, and have been lucky enough to visit a few of them. Here are a few pictures from the area.

We also went to see a waterfall in the area, this is a few pictures from the walk there and the waterfall.

After the days in the north we headed back to New Delhi. Here I got to see of few of the ights that I did not see during my first real sightseeing trip in Delhi in August 2008. I also got to see the Lotus Temple inside this time, along with the Humayun's Tomb and the Indian Parliament.

To finish off this post I want to share some of the great mountain view pictures I took during the trip to the north.

This was the end of my holliday and I went back home.

London 20-23 of May 2010

Just after I defended my master thesis in May of 2010, I decided that I needed a small holiday. One of my friends from IIM C now live and work in London, and since I have only been there 1 time, even though it is very close this were a perfect oppertunity to go for a few days. I did not to that many things but I did a little sightseeing, and just spend some time with my friend. For me there is something about being able to relax and forget about all of the worries when I leave my home. I did not take a lot of pictures in those few days but here are a few from Hyde Park.

I had a great few days, the weather was nice, I did a bit of shopping and meet up with my friend.when he was done with work. I just really needed to get out and experience something after working for quite some months with my master thesis, finally handing it in and defending it. This was my gift to myself for finishing my master education at CBS.

India 17 of April - 4 of May 2009 - Shimla

From Varanasi we took a plane back to Delhi. From Delhi we took a train to Kalka where we changed to a toy train, and took that the rest of the way. It was very early morning when we reached Kalka, and we had 1 or 2 hours before the toy train would leave, but not long after we arrived it was possible to get into the toy train and find out seats. Here are a picture of the toy train.

The next pictures are some of my favorite from the toy train ride.

We stayed in Shimla for a few days, like Gangtok in Sikkim, it reminds me more of an European city in the hills than of India. As a European that was struggeling a bit to get use to the heat, a trip up to the mountains was perfect, the weather was still warm, but now it was only around 25-30 degrees. So much more comftable for me. Below you can find a few pictures of the city and sights in the city.

One of the sights we went to see is the Jakhu Temple that is located on Jakhu hill. Here is a link to the story about Lord Hanuman http://hinduism.about.com/od/lordhanuman/a/hanuman.htm
If you choose to walk up the hill to the temple as we did you will come across this sign.

I must admit that according to this I am not fit at all, I think it took around 45 min to get to the temple. Below there are a few pictures from the walk to the temple and the temple.

After this we spend the next few days doing a tour of the surdrounding of Shimla and walking in the city, before the trip back to Delhi. And my trip home to Copenhagen.

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.