India Team

Here is photo of the team I trained in India.

Agra Fort

India was ruled by Mongolians in the middle of last century for about 6 generations. This is where the rules lived.

 

West entrance of Agra Fort

My tour guide said this was once the home of the Peacock Throne. The king would sit here and listen to the concerns of the people.

Living are of part of the royal family.

Taj Mahal as seen from the Royal bedroom

Some of the artwork in the bedrooms

Princesses' living area

The tea cup shaped shone was a bathtub gifted to one of the princes at an early age.

Taj Mahal

I have to admit that I never thought I would see the Taj in person. But...

I personally took this picture. 

This is looking up at the front of the building

The four towers lean slightly outward. This is so that in case of an earth quake they follow outward and do not damage the building itself.

Shoes are not allow. Locals remove their show. Since my entrance fee was 37 times their entrance fee I was given some booties to wear (and a water bottle).

Can you guess how many sides are in this column?

Kind of a cool shot where the out line of this arch fits the outline of the Taj.

Monkey in a Dress

Here are some photos of me...with a monkey...in a dress. 

Traffic

You can see that lanes are a suggestion...

Sikh Temple

Sikhs are the people you see that look like this...

They are very humanitarian. They provide a fee meal to all that come to their temple.
One of the natives that was showing me around for the day took me through their ritual.

First you take off your shoes and wash your feet.

You cover your head

You give a money offering in exchange for some porridge

Half of the porridge is taken as a sign that your offering has been accepted.
You walk through the temple (around the holy book).
The half of the porridge that was taken away is given back. However, now it was been mix with every one else's offering.
Some people then bath in this pool to show their devotion.( I just washed my hands and took a picture with the fish.)

Many people also walk around the flag poll

The final step is to drink some holy water. Which I did not do. My stomach is having a hard enough time with the bottled water here.

Random Pics

I have already mentioned that Akshardham does not allow cameras. Since most places also have medal detectors, it is hard to get pictures while out and about. However, since a couple of people have gotten after me for not putting up enough pictures, please enjoy the random pictures below:

The metro, from out of my hotel window

The building behind my hotel, as seen from my hotel room.

More of the above.

Some garden and building I pass on my way to the office.

'Life'...in India

more of 'life'.

Amayer's Tomb. 

Random building we past that I tool a picture of.

I enjoyed this seen of sticks being used to support this floor of cement being laid.

My hotel (Hilton DoubleTree), as seen from the metro.

Metal Detectors

In order to get into almost any building you must go through a medal detector. Every time I enter my hotel I walk through one. To get on the metro I walked through one. To get into Akshardham I went through one (and then got a pat down) and to get into the mall I had to go through one. 

Akshardham

This is a temple build to Swaminarayan who lived in the 18th century. He was a get spiritual leader that dedicated his life to peace and service. They do not allow cameras so you will have to Google akshardham and maybe cruise around www.akshardham.com.

The temple grounds where huge and the place was beautiful!

Purchases

These are some of the things I have bought so far.

This is a picture made out of a dried banana leaf. They us a metal pen to draw and then they get the picture wet. The natural die of the leaf provides the pigment for the art.

This is a prayer mat, a candle holder, an incense holder (still in it's wrapper) and a hand carved wood item.

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho it is Off to Work I Go

It is about 4 miles from the hotel I am staying at to the office.

Here are some videos and pictures of the ride into work.

A little structure in the middle of the road

Can you guess what it is made out of?

You got it - Cow Pies. Maximize this picture to see. 

This is the office. Notice the different between the road outside and the 'bubble' inside.

Adobe is the process of building it's own building here. For the time being we rent a couple of floors of one of the buildings on this campus.

Service

I have been treated like a king so far. To by honest I have a hard time handling it. There is polite and nice. But, as a whole, Indians seem to take it to the next level. Now, one might say; that guy that greeted you at the hotel door and welcomed you to the hotel, the other guy that helped with your baggage. All these people were just doing their job. The warm cookie they gave you when you checked in, a perk of a nice hotel. Okay, okay. But explain this! My room was being cleaned so I decided to go for a walk. No where in particular, just around. I pushed the down button on the elevator. The doors opened, I hesitated as I realized this one was going up.  I said, 'Going down? I'll get the next one.' The doors closed. Then they opened. I realized the occupants where expecting me to get on. I stepped on. A lady asked, 'floor please'. I said, 'lobby, ground floor, please.' She pushed the button. We went to their floor. Before getting off she turned to me and said, 'We get off here, but this will take you to the ground floor.' All self explanatory, I know. But the way she said it...the best way I can think to describe it is a  deep respect at a human level. I felt like for a moment I was the center of the universe. I can't see I have ever felt that way before.

No Birds on the Freeway

I got into Dehli at 11:30 PM local time. By the time I was through customs and had retrieved my checked bag, it was well past midnight. My hotel was still an hour car ride away. I got the VIP treatment; there was a man outside the terminal with a sign with my name out it. He was to me my guide (driver) for quite the ride.
Rules of the road:

• Drive on the left side of the road.
• Lines are a suggestion - I noticed they were rarely followed.
• Horns - used mostly as a notification tool. For example, if I honk I can then do whatever I want.
• Road Blocks - watch out for impromptu road blocks where local police randomly choose cars to 'pull over'.
• Trucks are only allowed to be on the streets at night.

With all this craziness I would have expected to see 'the bird' reguarly. However this was not the case. There seemed to be no 'road rage' at all. I can only describe it as aggressive patience. All the outward acts of aggression (road rage), without taking anything personal.
Thankfully, I had an pretty aggressive driver. This meant getting to my hotel fast so I could get some sleep.

Two Days in One

In the span of 30 hours I saw two sunrises and two sunsets. I wish I could say the amount of sleep I got over that time was on par with having seen two sunrises.
Update: I guess it must be the jet-lag...I took a sleeping pill my doc said would knock me out for 8 hours. I slept for 4.

Holly Cow!

I am expecting to eat a lot of curry while I am in India. However, since the cow is a sacred animal there, I do not expect to eat very much beef. In an effort to get three weeks worth of red meat in me, I hosted  a meat feast for my sisters and their families.
Holy Cow! the beef (and ribs) we put away!
Sharee - Thank you for the jell-o salad
Camille -  Thank you for the cheese potatoes
Trina - Thank you for the tasty deserts
Alisha - Thank you for the juice and chips

Dale - the grill master did the cooking - we all did the eating.

Breaking the News

Tonight I was setting up Skype on all of our devices so I will have all sorts of ways to talk to Shannon and the kids while I am gone. MJ loved this game. She was holding my new Droid 3 (global phone with front facing camera) as we Skyped with Shannon from my closet. Shannon was in the family room with KT and Rachel.
I mentioned that this was how the kids were going to be talking to me while I was gone. Shannon said we had not told the kids yet about me being gone. We figured, "no time like the present." So, Shannon, over Skype started explaining to Maliya how daddy will be gone for 'until we go to church three times'. Maliya's response....'let's talk about this later.'

Okay....???

Count Down

I leave for India March 10 at 10 AM.