My buddy and neighbor, Natalie, moved far far away from me this past weekend. My pre-move denial is officially over because she is really gone now. She's not coming back. Her house has been taken over by somebody else, and I can no longer wait outside for her to come out of that red door so we can run together.
I will miss the annual Christmas caroling, the 4th of July bike rides, Cross Country and track meets, Boise River floats, birthday lunches, morning chats while running, dinner/movie date nights, and so much more. I wish we could do a 2nd annual ugly sweater party together. The first one rocked. We were meal group members, Primary presidency workers, trailer co-owners. Good times!
Natalie, Kris, and I have been BFFs for about 7 of the 8 years that I have lived here in Meridian. It is sad that we will be separated, but thanks to texting, phone calls, and road trips, we will stay connected and continue to always be friends.
Here we are having one last run together just the other night.
And here we are through the years. I love these girls!
More fun times to come!
In the meantime... I will miss you, Natalie!
I need to finish up our India adventure by telling you a little more about our time in Delhi. I already wrote about our snake charmer moment here. Check it out if you haven't already.
Our highlight of being in crazy Delhi was taking a rickshaw ride through the old part of Delhi... hence the name Old Delhi. Here is the video I took while riding with Benson, our travel agent from Abish Travels. He's a local of Delhi. Matt was in the rickshaw behind me. What a fun ride! It was in the late morning, so shops were just opening and the thick crowds of people hadn't formed yet. Watch and notice the mess of wiring above these alleyways. AMAZING. How'd you like to be an electrician here? How does one make sense of it all? Maybe they don't.
We got off the rickshaws for about 30 minutes so that we could visit the spice market. When I say spice market... I mean THE spice market that sends spices all over the world. Remember Christopher Columbus set off to go to India to get spices? They definitely have lots of yummy spices. POTENT, I tell ya! We were sneezing and having a hard time breathing in deep without coughing when we were down in the maze of the market. Benson took us up a steep, dark staircase that led us to the rooftop overlooking all of the action. So cool. We could see spices drying out in the sun. We watched men lifting and transporting heavy bags. It was a neat vantage point. People live around the spice market which I find crazy. It's such a loud place and it is hard to breath right there. I don't think they get used to it because I saw men who work there coughing.
Here is a guy that was in that dark, scary staircase. I guess he found a cool place to take a snooze.
Here is the view we first saw.
You'd never know that this is a world famous spice market, would you?
See the chile peppers in the picture down below. Notice the man in white taking inventory or adding something up on his calculator. Benson said usually the market smells mostly of peppers. I'm glad it didn't that day. Otherwise, I would have had even a harder time breathing.
Then Benson took us back downstairs to a spice shop where we spoke with the owner about his spices. We bought a bunch and look forward to sharing them and using them in our cooking.
Here are some more happy rickshaw drivers!
After our morning rickshaw ride, we met our Delhi tour guide, Ankit. His name means "something written that can't be rubbed out"... in other words, permanent. I love it. He was a quiet, young man in his early twenties who has been an official tour guide for only two years so he was obviously not as experienced as the other two guides we had.
He took us to the Mahatma Ghandi Memorial Museum. It was interesting to read about him and see many pictures of him as well as seeing some of his personal items including the blood stained "homespun" that he was wearing when he was assassinated in 1948. Last night, Matt and I watched the 3 hour movie "Ghandi" which was filmed in 1982. We both wished that we had watched it prior to going to India. We would have understood so much more about him and the history of India.
Next, Ankit took us to see the Indian parliament/government buildings. We were both hot and both beginning to have more serious stomach issues, so we weren't very attentive or interested. Just down that main road is India Gate. We walked up to that which is located in a family friendly park where people come to picnic and hang out. Got swarmed by street peddlers.
We drove through crazy Delhi traffic to get to the Baha'i House of Worship, a beautiful lotus-domed structure. Spectacular and unique.
After stopping to buy some cricket balls at a small sporting goods store, Ankit took us to the Mehrauli Archaeological Park. It is best known for the Qutb Minar tower which was started in 1193. It marks the first Muslim kingdom in North India. We would have liked to have spent more time exploring this amazing site with ruins of a palace, tombs, mosques, and courtyards. It began to lightning and then rain, so we had to get going.
Here is a picture of our driver who took us around for four days in northern India. He always had a smile on his face and never got frustrated in this chaotic indian traffic.
After shopping some more in a textile shop, we said goodbye to Benson at our hotel. Matt and I stayed one more night and headed to the airport early the next morning. Thus ended our India Adventure. But India remains in my heart, and someday I will go back. Namaste India!
Welcome to Agra! Another bustling city in India. Here you will find people, people, and more people. And oh, yeah, the Taj Mahal!
When we first drove into Agra, we drove through a very busy market street in the early evening when people were shopping for dinner. Oh my goodness! There was sooooo much to look at in every direction. So many things going on at once. I seriously wish that I would have taken Josh's GoPro camera and had it mounted to the top of the car. That would have been so cool! Then I could relive that awesome scene again and again.
Here's a picture Matt snapped through the car window. We were stopped by this jeep PACKED with people which was not unusual at all in India. What I love is that they are happy, smiling people just going about their business.
We stayed at a Radisson Hotel which was full of European tourists. It was a nice room with a nice toilet that you can put toilet paper in. You have to realize that that was a big deal for us in India. Enough said.
Matt spent five minutes with the hotel's palm reader. It was a bit freaky to hear what he said. He was right on about a bunch of stuff. He certainly isn't putting his faith and trust in this guy, but it was pretty darn interesting. I now wish I had had my palm read. I wonder what he would have said about me.
Agra was a good experience, but it was the beginning of a week of stomach issues that ultimately had to be knocked out with a large dose of antibiotics. So the last couple days of our trip were tainted with unpleasantness.
But onto the beauty of Agra's jewel... the Taj Mahal. The Crown Palace. It was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife who died while giving birth to their 14th child. They are both buried here. After 20 years and 20,000 workers, it was completed in 1643. The symmetry, proportions, and details in the workmanship is incredible especially when one remembers just how long ago it was built.
I was told to sit like a princess since this is where Princess Diana sat
Check out the reflection in my sunglasses.
These were the horse stables. So cool looking.
The Taj has many inlaid jewels in its gleaming white marble. Here's a very small example.
After seeing the Taj Mahal's inlaid work, we were taken to a place where we could learn about how it was and is still done today. It's a dying art that this family participates in. They make furniture and other pieces with inlaid work and ship these orders all over the world. It's a ton of work that takes months to complete. I can only imagine the cost. These two pics show a man sharpening something by hand...can't remember what he was doing. And the next pic shows a work in progress.
Next stop in Agra (after lunch of butter chicken and naan), we went down the river (the Yamuna River) to where Agra Fort is located. This was the residence of the royal families in Agra since the 1500s so it predates the Taj. It's made of sandstone. I'm sure it was amazing back then. It was fun to explore.
Here is poor Shah Jahan's view from his palace room where his mean son, who took over, imprisoned him for 8 years. Jahan was the king who built the Taj, and he could only admire it from down river until the day he died. BTW...the Yamuna River used to be much fuller, actually coming up very close to the palace.
Last on our list of sites was the "Baby Taj". It is thought that the Taj's design may of been patterned after this marble tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah since it was built before the Taj. This building marks the transition from the red sandstone architecture to the refined marble. It is a much smaller structure and so we weren't quite as impressed with it and just did a quick walk-around. While there, we stood and watched a group of kids playing naked in the Yamuna River. Right along side them were big, black water buffalo, the source of milk for many indians. Not a very clean place to play.
