Namastae from India!!!
 

I know this is the Africa board but some of you showed some interest in the trip and also, this is where my friends are so I'm posting here!

So far the trip has mostly been family stuff with SOME photo opps/ tourist stuff but tomorrow I'm off to Agra so that should be good.

Mini report:

Landed at Delhi airport at 1 am on 24th and was met by my dad (mum and dad's trip which was booked not that long back ended up coinciding with three days of mine - they wanted to go back sooner but flights were full so had to go with returning to UK on 27th instead).

He'd hired a car and driver so we went straight to Roorkee, stopping for a few hours sleep at his uncle's en route. I got a half an hour massage from a local girl which was just as well as the ones I'd asked to prearranged for Roorkee AND Delhi didn't materialise...

I have family in Roorkee - mainly I wanted to visit my only remaining grandparent, my mother's mother. The house is the home of my mother's younger brother and his wife. And their son, one of my favourite cousins lives there too and we two had arranged to spend time together in advance - a few photo trips in particular. My mum was already there too.

That evening my cousin and I went to Haridwar - it's an amazing place and I love going there. I'm not religious myself at all but it's a very spiritual place with Indians bathing in the Ghanges and taking home some of the holy water and making devotions at the hundreds of varied and colourful shrines etc. Also people buy little boats made of leaves containing either fresh flowers or an oil and cotton wick and send flowers or lanterns floating down the river in the evening. Photos of that beautiful occurence didn't come out as was too dark and I struggled even with a tripod but got a few snaps and just enjoyed the experience.

Next day my cousin and I took a trip to Rishikesh, another religious place that I enjoy visiting and I got some great photos there of these two young girls I befriended. They were poor kids making dough from which they were forming tiny balls - these are sold to tourists/ visitors to throw into the water to feed the fish which are an attraction in their own right now. They approached me just in curiosity and sat with me - not looking for money though I did give them some when I left them some long time later. We chatted as much as we could - me with limited hindi and they with little english. They let me takes lots of pics and we had a lot of fun. I was with them for 40-50 mins, maybe more. My cousin was nearby chatting to some young lads near the water's edge. I can't wait to work on that set of images in particular as I think they are gonna be good.

The rest of the day was spent with the family.

Following day, 26th, mum, dad and I took the car back to Delhi. En route we stopped a few times - once for me to take lots of pictures at a small scale local sugar cane place - hundreds of these tiny "cottage" industry scale places line the road in this region and process sugar cane into a format that is then sold as is or refined further by the big refinery companies. Amazing process. Also stopped in a field to take photos of women cutting the cane. Handy having the parents with me for a few days as my dad was able to ask permission for me first - I just don't have the language skill.

In Delhi that night we hosted a family getogether in a rented room with caterers. Family living in the Delhi region came by and I was able to catch up with many more than I could have visited individually.

Today is a down day. Parents left this morning. This afternoon I'll go shopping but this morning I have little to do. I started off on the normal tedious digital upkeep - copy card to laptop, copy card to X drive, recharge battery, recharge X Drive, recharge laptop, burn DVD backup, etc etc. It takes AGES! Sigh! So much easier when hubby is with me and does most of it! I have a newfound appreciation for the chore!

Now that's done I've nothing to do for a while (this one uncle isn't into doing anything) so I'm online for a bit to pass an hour or two!

I think I have some good pics so

Hi Kavey,

This does sound interesting, and I would love to see the photos. Hope all goes well with your family and your photos.

I am wishing you good luck also with animal photography that may be coming up. My brother was in India/Nepal in November and was lucky enough to see 3 tigers, not great photos as he was on the back of an ele, but you can certainly tell they are tigers! Wishing you the same good luck that he had!

Kind regards,
Kaye

Thanks Kaye

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Last few days not so great as been sick as a dog and eaten by mossies too during a road trip with friends but turning corner now and should be fine for Ranthambore!

I don't mind this report being here. (though we miss it on the Asia board)

The way we have justified it is getting really great reports on seeing tigers. So get to work! :)

I hope you see soemthing at Ranthambore. I have a friend going next month and I have tried to basically downplay his enthusiasm telling him it is unlikely he will see a tiger and that if he does, consider it a GREAT privilege

I love Haridwar - amazing place -
I'm off the India in a month to work for a charity - can't wait to get back there!!!!

Sounds like an interesting trip -- isn't Rishikesh where the Beatles went?

Based on what you need to do with digital camera, I'm glad I stuck with film ;-)