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.

Home from exchange

The 3 of January 2009 I arrived home from my exchange and holiday in India after 4½ months away from home. It was all in all a very good trip, where I meet a lot of new people. Experienced a lot of things I had never done before. 
After returning home I needed to start my master's thesis, so I could finish my Master. But not long after returning home I started planning my next trip to India, only 1 months after I came home I booked a new ticket. This time I would stay in India from 17 of April until 4 of May.

The Taj Mahal and Agra Fort

As most other tourists coming to India, we could net go home without a visit to the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. It was a beautiful 31 of December, the sun was shining. Here are some of the pictures I took while we were at the Taj Mahal.

This is just so amazing, very pretty. I would never say no to going again. The next pictures ara all from Agra Fort.

As you can see there are a lot of fog in these pictures, North India are known for the heavy fog in winters, for so me it could be fun to go back in summers some time and get some better pictures of Agra Fort. After this we spend some days in Delhi doing the last shopping, and then we headed home.

Goa

After picking my friend up in Delhi, we went to Gao, my dad had found a hotel in the north of Goa, and even though this part of Gao are know for the wild and loud parties, our hotel were in a place where there was not too much noice.
We spend most of the days just laying at the beach, talking small walks in the city and eating good food. Here are a few pictures from our hotel and the beach.

While we were in Gao we wet to see a spice plantation one day, it was very fun to see how all of the spices looked when they were still in the ground growing. Because most of these spices we do not grow at home, so I had never really seen then like this. Below you can find a few pectures from the spice plantation.

I decided to get my first suit made from a tailor, since here I could get it as i wanted it. I have this small problem, for a Scandinavian I am quite small, so I can never get any pants that fit me, and it costs extra to get the pants put up. This combined with the fact that both of my grandmothers had send some money with my dad, as a birthday and Christmas gift, I decided to do it. It came out great :-)
This is more or less what we did while in Goa, it was a great week, and fun to spend time with my friend and family from home. To finish this post off here are a few of my favorite pictures of the beach.

Rajasthan

The last day before we went to Rajasthan we decided to stay at a hotel near to the airport, so that it would not take too long to get there. So my dad decided to book a room for us at one of the more fancy hotels. I really enjoyed this, since I could count on 2 hands the number of times I had taken a hot shower, where the hot water was comming out of the shower head since I left Copenhagen in August.
The comming day we went to the airport and checked in, we were flying in Jaipur in Rajashtan where our driver for the whole Rajasthan trip would pick us up. Below you can see a map of what cities we visited in Rajasthan.

We started in Jaipur, where we arrived at our hotel early in the evening, but since it was already dark, we did not go to see anything the first day.

Udaipur is from my point of view the most charming of the cities we saw in Rajasthan, we lived at a hotel where we had a view to the lake and the palace on the other side of the lake. here are a few pictures from Udaipur. The 2 first pictures are the old lake palace.

After staying in Udaipur for a few days we went on to Jodhpur, here we only stayed for 1 day. And dident get to see a lot because it was raining heavly when we arrived at our hotel. After this we continued on to Jaisalmir here we stayed for a few days. the first pictures are from the old city.

These pictures are from the old fort in Jaisalmir.

We stayed at a hotel a bit from the city, this was fine, since it was not longer than we could take an auto to the city. We spend our days walking around in the city. After this we went to Bikaner, unfortunatly I do not have any good pictures from Bikaner. After this we went back to Jaipur, and then to Delhi to pick up my friend.
After visiting Rajasthan in December, I think it is very importent to know as tourist that even though it will be nice and sunny during the day. Then it will be very cold at night, so it might be an idea to bring a extra blanket on your trip.

The family comes on holiday

After the end of my term at IIM C I had arranged with my dad, that he and my brother would come to India, and we would travel for 1 month together.
They arrived on my birthday December 9 at Calcutta airport, I went to pick them up, so that I was sure they would get to the right place, after my own problems with the taxi driver that picked us up, I did not want to take any chances.
'I had arranged that they would live at campus with me for the first few days, so I had rented a room for them.
We spend the first days at campus, and in Calcutta so that they could get use to the heat, they came from below 0 in Denmark, so the 15-20 degrees we had in Calcutta, was a good change for them.
After the first few days we went to the makemytrip office in Calcutta, a travel agency that we had, had good experience with. They had planned our trip to Nepal for us.
We had decided that we wanted to take a trip to Rajasthan, and after that go back to Delhi for some days, to pick up my friend, then all of us would go to Goa for Christmas. For New Years we would go and see the Taj Mahal, and then finish the holiday with a few days back in Delhi, before going back home. For me this was a great way to finish my stay at IIMC
But first of all it was very fun to show my dad and brother the school and the city, even though we have traveled quite a bit, this was their first time in Asia, as it was for me.
I will write a post for each of the places we went to, Rajasthan, Goa and Taj Mahal.