Anubhav

A True Celebration

sarahmastalir — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 03:18:00 GMT

Today I was totally pampered at the Cleopatra Spa! I had a manicure and pedicure, as well as a hair wash and blow dry. The mani/pedi was the most relaxing, amazing thing I could have asked for. They used 7 different creams/exfoliators, one of which was to remove the henna off my hands - very neat! I was practically falling asleep in my chair I was so relaxed. It was great.

Harky's parents 25th anniversary party was held at the Chandigarh Golf Club, and it was a great evening. Preeti had a suit made specially for me - a beautiful emerald green with antique embroidery along the hems of tru Punjab fashion. I must admit that I really did like it, and am saddened to know that I wont have an opportunity to wear it again for a while.

The golf club was great - although I was the only woman there who drank... I had to do it quite discreetly as I was worried I would face scrutiny about my life choices! All the ladies were dressed in immaculate saris and suits - not to mention all of the unbelievable jewelry they had as well! The party was very sophsticated, and was over promptly at 11pm. Of course not before we had cake (Black Forest!), ice cream and gulab jamun. yummm!

Inaugural Train to Golden Temple

sarahmastalir — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 11:15:00 GMT

I was lucky to have Harky take me to Golden Temple with 2 of his friends the day before last. We took the first train from Chandigarh to Amritsar. The train station was spotlessly clean and buzzing with media when we arrived. The train was adourned with flowers for its first journey to Amritsar. There were army personnel everywhere with AK-47s, as the Chandigarh Govenor was coming to cut the ribbon for the train. Many news reporters were very interested in me as I was what they thought to be the first white person (and Canadian) to be on the train. Yes I made it onto Indian television!!

Once we were boarded, the Army joined us on every cabin of the train. Harky's friend Aman explained to me that it is because of the common terrorist attacks on inaugural trains... not so comforting to hear that! And then they all got off at the first stop. And that is Indian Politics! We arrived safe in Amritsar after 4 hours and made our way to Golden Temple. I must say that the traffic in Amritsar was suprisingly isane! I was expecting another calm, sophisticated city like Chandigarh... not so!

Before entering the temple you have to was your hands, feet, and cover your head. It was the first time I have felt cleansed prior to entering a temple. Once entering down a set of marble stairs, the temple opened onto a vast square of holy water, filled with Coy fish! Devout Sikhs bathe in this water to purify their souls. I must say that it is the cleanest area of water I have seen in India yet. And then, with a regal walkway leading to it in the midst of the water, was the Golden Temple. We walked around the outside of the water first, to admire the temple. The architecture of the building was breathtaking, all the detailing in the entire complex was beautiful. Just like so many other holy places in India, inlayed flowers of semiprecious stones everywhere. The amount of effort and time that must have gone into building it baffles me. We dont have anything like this in Canada.

We joined the queue to enter the temple. I had been warned to be patient as the line can take 2 hours before you reach the inside of the temple. Luckily for us it only took 25 minutes. Harky walked me through how to enter the temple, to respectfully pray, and then leave the temple. Even tho he is not as devout as the rest of his family, I was so happy to go and experience this with him, to see a side of his family that was before unknown to me.

He explained that in Sikhism, they believe that God resides in every person, in every thing around us. This is why they welcome anyone to pray in their gurdwaras. It is quite a beautiful religion I have realised after having learnt all of this. Upon exiting the temple, we were given Parasaad, a blessed food to be consumed after prayers. Warm and sweet, it was much better than any other communion I have had!

This trip to India really has been so special. Learning about myself, Harky and his heritage has been a gift to myself that I was not expecting. Even tho it has notn all been easy, it has been a great learning experience and I actually I am excited for wherever our next adventure may take us! Only a couple more days now until we make our way home. Time flies!

A Custom Fitting

sarahmastalir — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 19:40:00 GMT

These past few days I have been toted around by Harky's mum, Preeti, to have a beautiful suit and jacket fitted. I am so grateful that she has a great eye for Indian fashion - the suit is gorgeous! An emerald green with golden embriodery along the neckline, bottom and the sleeve cuffs. It took a few fittings to make sure it was the perfect fit - but 'the ladies' proved to be a bigger problem than the tailor thought - pun intended!

The jacket it so cozy, and its a beautiful red colour, perfect for the approaching holiday season. With gold and black embroidery down the centre and on the sleeves, I am every excited to wear it when I get home! I have a feeling that muma Alice will quite enjoy borrowing this piece :)

Everyone is gearing up for the big party tomorrow for Harky's parents 25th anniversary. I am so excited to be part of such a celebration, and also have an occassion to wear the suit that Preeti has had made for me. Although we we worlds apart they sure have made me feel like part of the family.

Harky and I are on our way out for some drinks and meeting his friends, and then tomorrow we are heading to Amritsar for the day to see the Golden Temple. Hopefully we wont be too sore from tonights festivities!

Ranthambore, Pushkar and a serious detour!

sarahmastalir — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 10:40:00 GMT

Finally back to a place with internet, i will try and relive all the fantastic events of the past couple days with you.

The road to ranthambore was VERY rural. Cows, sheep, goats, camels - all roaming the road at their free will. The road was extremely bumpy and by no means could i sleep at all thru the 5 hour trip. We arrived at our hotel 'Raj Palace' - which was perfect. Even tho Harky would protest the fact that there was no TV - I thought it was great. The hotel put on a nightly rajasthani show, dancing and firebreathers! Lots of fun. The dancing was my favourite part. We were up early the next day to go out for our tiger hunt... and we saw lots of deer, beautiful birds, a hyena!! but not one tiger. There are only 45 in the park, and very rarely do you come across them. The drive thru the park was remarkable tho. We saw 2 types of kingfishers, storks, peacocks, and so many more that i cannot remember.

As soon as we finished with our ranthambore adventure, we packed up to head for Pushkar. It was a 7 hour journey that was just a bumpy as the first. We did pass thru a town that produces bricks - the majority of which is supplied to the entire state of Rajisthan. There were bricks piled everywhere. As we got closer to Pushkar, we came across more and more tractors decorated to the nines with streamers, bows, and bright colours blaring music on their way to the camel fair. I thought they were beautiful, but our driver thought otherwise... too slow and too wide! Once settled into our hotel in Pushkar, we went out for dinner at the famous Sunset Cafe (according to Lonely Planet). There I ordered a mango shake, to which Harky told me it was a bad idea. BUT me being stubborn, said that I would be fine because of the medication i had taken prior to the trip protected me from all stomach related food issues. I do not say this often.. but he was right.

The next morning, was up with liquids coming from every end of me... but i was determined to see the camel fair and all that Pushkar had to offer. We walked thru the main streets which were alive with colour and vendors from all over the province, selling anything you could want - ganesh, buddha, mala beads, oils, shoe horns - you name it, it was there! Unfortunately i couldnt last more than 20 minutes without needing a bathroom, which made if difficult to see everything.

We did find the Brahma temple - one of few in the entire world. We had a brahman say prayers for us, to which he asked me how much i was going to donate to the temple, and when i replied 50 he then said dollars in his prayers for me. Then when i interjected and said no - rupees, he went on to say oh what bad karma i will bestow on my family and future life if i do not live up to my word!! just FYI - $50 is 3,000 Rupees... half of our daily budget. When Harkaran heard this he was less than impressed, and gave this holy man a piece of his mind - and paid him only 2000. I was very upset to be conned by a 'holy man'... As I was told after, again, this is India!

We walked around the camel grounds which was great - but too hot for one who is suffering from food poisoning. We were lucky enough to come across a small hotel in the shade who were okay with me frequenting their restrooms until our driver came to pick us up. By the time he did, i was feeling somewhat better as there were no more liquids in my body. At that point we made the decision to spend the night in Jaipur and forego the Jaisalmer leg of the trip - the last place i wanted to be was on an 11 hour train ride to the desert - talk about making a trip to hell and back. The only thing we forgot to do was to tell our camel safari man that we wouldn't be making it. He somehow got ahold of my parents? No idea how that happened, but he was obviously quite resourceful!

Instead we stopped at a heritage site just outside of Jaipur - Chowki Dawni (something along those lines). It was tons of fun - traditional rajisthani dancing, magicians, games, camel and elephant rides and handicraft making. I was having a great time until we had to eat. The smell of food turned my stomach upsidedown, and with that we left right away.

We found a hotel by the airport, and booked flights to Harky's hometown, Chandigarh. I took the emergency meds I was carrying with me. They seemed to work almost instantly - to control the outflow of liquid at least. We flew out this afternoon, and it was a great suprise for Harky's family. His mum was so shocked it was perfect. It is very clean and much less crowded and noisy than all the other places we have been - and their house is gorgeous. It is a marble palace!

Now that we are here we will be doing some short day trips to some great places - which is almost more exciting as we were not planning to have the time to do so. Namaste!

The Pink City Jaipur

sarahmastalir — Thu, 7 Nov 2013 08:40:00 GMT

We had quite a long day yesterday. Long but great! We had to get up rather early to start our day as the Fairmont is so far away from the city. The hotel itself is spectacular, but the location and the services are very odd... definitely not like any other Fairmont I have ever encountered. Breakfast was great tho, they have an open concept for the kitchen so you can see all everyone working away throughout your meal.

Our first stop yesterday was Amber fort (actually pronounced Amair) for ELEPHANT RIDING!! The elephants take you up to the top of the fort - I was like a child waiting to see Santa Claus. Our Elephant's name was Sarswati, she was named after the goddess of knowledge. I much prefered Lucy (I had already decided on the name prior to meeting her) although the name Speedy was the best fit! She was faster than all the other elephants, she was running from time to time! The result was quite a bumpy ride - but it was SOO fun! When we reached the top, we got to explore the entire fort. And was it ever fun! There were tons of secret passages and great lookouts to explore. It was definitely the best fort we have seen!

We then went to another fort that was built in the 1700s and had alot of british influence, so all of the detailing was painted instead of carved into the marble. It was stil quite beautiful but not as well kept as Amber fort.

Next on our journey was City Palace. We traveled thru old Jaipur to get there, and it was a great drive to the palace. The streets were lined with shops, which were all built into the palace walls. The owners of the shop pay $1.25 in rent to the King of Jaipur per month! The profit margins for these shops are unbelievable. The city palace was stunning - the royal family still resides in the palace, but they have opened up certain sections of it to display the heritage of Jaipur. They had all the old carriages, tapestries, clothing, royal jewels and thrones on deisplay. It was really interesting to be in a palace that was still inhabited by the royals!

Next to the Royal Palace is Juntar Muntar - an ancient science complex. As we approached it, ii realized I had been pick-pocketed and our compound tickets for all of the attractions were gone. Luckily that was the only thing that I had on me, Harky had everything else and it was all accounted for. That put me in quite a sour mood, but Juntar Muntar was fascinating! they had constructed massive intruments to tell time, to find holy spirits, and measure how far the moon was from the Earth, how far places were from the equator, and much more... Definitely and unexpected favourite of mine!

By this time it was 3pm, and we were starving. We made our way to a famous thali house in the New Jaipur. Thali is essentailly tapas indian style - a rajisthani specialty! And its all you can eat- did I ever enjoy myself! After bein pleasantly stuffed, our driver stopped for us to have kulfi - a famous dessert in Jaipur. This one was traditional pistacchio, and my god it was the best I have had in my life.

We also saw Jal Mahal - the Water Palace. It was built during the dry season on a lake that evaporates, so when the lake comes back 2 stories of the 4 story palace are underwater... The premise of it was that as the water started to come back, it would keep the building cool, which is when the King would live there. We saw it half submerged by water, and it was still glorious. There were camels and stalls set up all around the port that lead out to the palace, as well as cows and dogs and chickens in cages, pretty much everything you could imagine. It was so hot that we had to have some coconut water from the street vendor. and WOW real coconut water tastes 100% better than the stuff we get in Cananda... I could drink it all the time.

By then we were well past exhausted, and took the long journey back to the hotel. We passed on dinner as we were still so full, and fell asleep by 830pm. What another great day! We are heading out to Ranthambore today, and then Pushkar tomorrow, and a 11 hour train ride to Jaisalmer after that. Not sure how great internet will be... so if there is no word from me for a while, fear not!

The Incredible Taj Mahal!

sarahmastalir — Wed, 6 Nov 2013 18:50:00 GMT

Yesterday after a much needed 12 hour sleep, we explored Agra. The journey into the city as quite something - we had to venture thru the slums to get to the main part of the city, and it was quite eye opening. The smell alone from all the waste was unbareable... far worse than anything i have experienced in South America.

With lots of sleep under our belts, we were up early with the sun to head to the Taj Mahal - an undeniable highlight of the trip. We arrived and there was a very small line to get in. Went thru the entry gates, and there she sat. No picture does it any justice. From far away it is a regal monument, and as you approach it, it turns into intricate designs of semi-precious stones in the shapes of vines and lotus flowers, engraved urdu throughout the pillars, and the most impressive marble pillars on all four corners. We were lucky to be there early enough to get great pictures without fighting thru a crowd, which also gave us the space to admire the Taj in all its glory.

Next on our list was Agra Fort. It is a massive structure that used to protect the city, and where the King would live. The moat around it unfortunately has been claimed by waste, and the smell wafting from it was something I was not prepared for... Enough said. Once inside there were many great vantage points whereby we could see the Taj down the Yamuna River. The fort was fun to explore with lots of small rooms and more intricate engravings in the marble across the entirety of the fort. I could picture myself there during the Mughal Empire, with the lavish paintings on the roof, waterfalls, and gardens so lush you would thinkn you were in heaven. The transition from red brick to marble through their reign was also quite neat to see, as each King had his own preferences. Very Cool!!

We then jumped on the train to Jaipur, and only to discover upon arrival that the Fairmont Jaipur is 40 minutes outside the city... What about unrivaled presenc? So the money that we thought we would be saving by staying with our great hotel chain will be spent on cabs to the city and our Jaipur explorations!! Oh well, that is part of what travel is all about - accepting the curve balls.

I will update you on our adventures of Jaipur city from today shortly, but that is all for now!

Delhi - what a city!

sarahmastalir — Tue, 5 Nov 2013 23:09:00 GMT

We had the pleasure of staying at Harkaran's friends plac whilst in Delhi - the real deal! The first night we were there, Rhea came to grab us from the airport- she was dressed as a police officer from a halloween party... if only i could have recorded the looks she was getting! When we arrived home to her place, there was an afterparty in full swing - scotch flowing and cards flying. I tried to stay up and celebrate, but lasted a mere 20 minutes.

The next day we woke early and went on our first day of exploration. Our first stop was Chandi Chowk - a crazy area in Old Dehli with tiny streets, vendors everywhere, rickshaws and autos dodging eachother... My goodness I could not believe how many people were everywhere. It was like a flood of people that never ended. After roaming around for a while, we made our way to Red Fort, a Wold Heritage Site for India. It was quite impressive, with many momuments still standing from the Moghul empire. Harky is quite the photographer, so he is creating a large album for when we are finished the trip!! We also visited Jama Masjid and finally this little bazaar called Delhi Haat - it was so cute! Once we were there I was so happy to be out of the loud bustle of streets and horns. I picked up a super cute pair of elephant print pants. I couldn't resist!! Plus a couple of other trinkets, it was Diwali and well there were some pretty cool things around.

The following day we had a great time visiting the lotus temple, qutab minar and then a mall that was made entirely of marble. all three areas were really impressive. One thing i could not get over tho were all of the cows meandering the streets. They are sacred in India, but these cows were found eating garbage and anything else they could nuzzle into - kind of sad! Also kind of ironic that these sacred animals are allowed to be foresaken and graze on whatever they can find. But as I've been told - This is India!!

We had a fantastic Diwali celebrataion - Henna, fireworks, lots of food and drink. And Gambling!! I was lucky enough to win about 500 rupees from the 100 I put in.. which equates to just under $10, but it was so much fun none the less! I was able to stay up until 3am, although the party didnt stop until 6am... The white girl did pretty well for herself! The next day there was so much pollution in the air - like a huge cloud of fog that would not clear. I imagined myself in space over Diwali, and I am sure the entire cotinent would be lit up by fireworks, and then after and even thicker cloud of pollution that usual. Even on Rhea's road the next day the garbage and debris from everything was crazy.

That is all for now - will give you updates hopefully on a daily basis now that we have access to internet again!!

Awaiting Takeoff

sarahmastalir — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 08:03:00 GMT

Our journey officially started last night with a very long drive to Seattle. Stopping at customs was very interesting for the first time. We all had to get out of the car and go for clearance as Harky needs to be questioned every time he crosses the boarder. The gentleman we dealt with was extremely pleasant - but an alarm went off mid interegation and everyone jumped out of their seats and ran towards the boarder exit! Moments later they all returned claiming a false alarm.. Pretty crazy tho!

We didnt get to the hotel until 1030pm - leaving Whistler at 3pm and having worked all day, I was exhausted.

This morning we had breakfast at The Georgian, and I swear by all things gastro, I had the best breakfast of my llife: Apple Fritter French Toast! What better to start a vacation with 2 doughnuts, griddled to perfection, with apple sauce and maple syrup. The bar has been set high early!

We were lucky to have a chance to walk around Pike Place Market. Pretty neat place! All the fresh seafood looked fantastic, reminded me alot of Bermuda - how I miss spear fishing... Next adventure perhap?!

Now sitting in the Sea-Tac airport, Harky and I are getting very excited, like kiddies on Christmas Eve!