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December 31, 2005
Ellora
Ellora caves feature temples of faiths from Buddhist through Hindu to Jain. They are not painted like the Ajanta caves, however they feature examples of both the "Cut-in" and "Cut-out" method of carving.
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Posted by Shirley at 10:00 PM
December 30, 2005
Wedding Anniversay
We celebrated our second wedding anniversary with a quiet, relaxed day at our hotel in Aurangabad.
Posted by Shirley at 08:00 PM
December 29, 2005
Ajanta Caves
On the 28th of December we flew to Aurangabad which was the jumping point for visisting Ajanta and Ellora cave temples.
The Ajanta caves were carved out of a hillside from 200 to 700 C.E. and many were very beautifully painted. Some caves were designed as temples for Buddhist worship and others had cells for the monks to live in. These caves were abandoned for the later Ellora caves and rediscovered in about the 1850's.
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Posted by Shirley at 08:00 PM
December 27, 2005
Lodi Gardens
For today's adventure we didn't need to go far. The Lodi gardens are situated just a little up the road from the guest house in which we were staying and we could get there without crossing any major roads!
The gardens are beautiful and peaceful particularly in te early morning and late afternoons. We walked all around the gardens and saw the 15 and 16th centuary tombs which loom out from the grass and trees.
 | Shish Gumbad late 15th century |
 | Inside the tomb of Sikandar Lodi built in 1517 |
 | Alan in front of the tomb Muhammad Shah built in 1434 |
Posted by Shirley at 10:00 PM
December 26, 2005
Day trip to Agra
Whilst we were staying in Delhi we took a day trip with our friend Sanjay to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri, two of the wonders of the world.
Fatepur Sikri was built as an imperial capital by the Moghul emperor Akbar between 1569 and 1585. Akbar was the grandfather of Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his wife in 1632 to 1653. These two sites are located about 40km apart and make a wonderful contrast to each other.
The Taj Mahal
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"The philosophers walk" | ||
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Fatehpur Sikri
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Posted by Shirley at 10:00 PM
December 25, 2005
On our own in Delhi
The thought of being on ones own in any city in India is a pretty scary one. Christmas day in Delhi was pretty quiet though especially being a Sunday most shops were closed. However the Crafts Museum was open so we made the trip out to see the recreations of traditional housing from all over India, arts and crafts displays, watched artisans in action and even saw a traditional Kolkatta puppet show.
We also discovered an extensive collection of traditional arts and crafts on display tucked away inside a complex of buildings. A large collection of beautiful hand woven fabrics and ornate wood work were some of the most outstanding features.
After a bit of a rest back at the guest house, our driver collected us and took us to visit Sanjay and his family in a suburb just outside of Delhi called Gurgaon.
This was a pretty wild place, with rows upon row of enourmous new shopping malls. The city infrastructure bursting at the seams from the pressure. It took our driver half an hour to cross the road as we slowly worked our way first up one side of the divided road and then back down the other through bumper-to-bumper traffic heading into and out of the malls. Clearly the electricity grid wasn't coping with the pressure either, there were two power failures in the area while we were there. One blackout was in progress when we arrived at our friends place and then we experienced another whilst we were visiting the mall just next door.
We had dinner at a resaurant in the mall which was decorated in the style of a dhaba (a roadside eating place) from the north west states of India. It looked very exotic and the food was good too.
Posted by Shirley at 03:06 PM
December 24, 2005
Delhi
The next stop on our India trip was Delhi. Here we stayed at the lovely Lutyens Guesthouse in the exclusive Southern area of New Delhi. The facilities were simple but comfortable however the atmosphere was wonderfully homely. Our host, Shukla Nath, looked after our every need, and her staff cooked wonderful meals which we shared with Shukla and her other guests.
On our first full day in Delhi our friend, Sanjay, came to meet us at the guest house and took us on a tour of the city. The first stop was the National Museum. We spent about two hours looking around the museum. More than one hour alone was spent looking at the amazing collection of Buddist sculptures, both stone and bronze, on the ground floor.
By that time we were getting pretty hungry and Sanjay knew exactly were to find an excellent authentic Punjabi resuarant to take us to for lunch.
Next we visited the technical section of the E.D. Galgotia & Sons Booksellers at Connaught Place. We must have spent another couple of hours there and none of us left empty handed! (Well what do you expect when 3 Geeks/Nerds go to town!)
Posted by Shirley at 10:00 PM
December 22, 2005
Golconda Fort
After the last day of the conference we went to see the sound and light show at the Golconda Fort just outside Hyderabad.
We arrived too late to climb the fort in daylight and therefore to take any pictures. This was due to a mixup with the taxi driver who when we asked him to take us to our hotel "The Walden" at Whisper Valley just four kilometers away from the conference venue, so we could drop off our bags and freshen up, took us to the the "Walden" book store on the opposite side of downtown Hyderabad more than a 45 minute drive away! We finally convinced the driver to turn back just before we got to the book store. Aparently the bookshop is quite impressive, but we missed seeing that too.
However we were happy that we made it back to the fort in time for the show.
We saw the show together with our friend Krithi and his family and Anthony who we met at the conference.
Posted by Shirley at 10:00 PM
December 21, 2005
COMAD 2005b Banquet
The COMAD 2005b Banquet was held at the Taramati Baradari Cultural Centre.
Before we were treated to a lavish banquet meal we were privilaged to see a performance of traditional Indian dance performed by a large troop of young dancers.
Posted by Shirley at 10:00 PM