*photos by Willy*
14
March
Wordless Wednesday – Holi
13
March
Visiting the Taj Mahal
If you are planning on visiting the Taj Mahal, and are looking for some tips, scroll to the bottom of this post
If you had asked me a little over a month ago if I thought I would gladly spend twelve hours (each way) travelling to a tourist destination, only to spend a little over three hours there, I would have told you that it would never happen. I had just been through a couple of rounds of visitors, and several long trips both near and far from home, including a close brush with a cyclone. The proposed trip was to see the Taj Mahal, though, so we started planning.
On my “bucket list”, it was still a trip that I never thought I would make. Likely the best known landmark in the world, it is in a place far, far from home. I longed to visit, to learn, to soak it in, and to photograph it. Then we moved to India, and I knew that I could not leave without seeing it.
Our family left early Friday morning, flew to Delhi and drove to Agra. Our plan was that I would hang back in the hotel on Saturday morning, while Willy went to view the building at dawn. He was stood up by our driver, which actually turned out to be a good thing for us. In making alternate arrangements for his transportation late Friday night, I learned that the hotel offered a horse drawn carriage ride to the Taj. Knowing that the lils would LOVE this, I signed us up.
When Woo, Goose, and I met the carriage at the front of the hotel, they were literally humming with excitement.
There were two attendants all dressed in white, guiding two lovely horses. As we settled in, the driver had the horses trot a little down the laneway towards the road. Woo looked up at me, his eyes as big as saucers, and said, “Mom, I knew they would run!!!!!”, before he and Goose settled in to a content and quiet snuggle on the bench. They watched in awe as we moved slowly down the roads, completely oblivious to the excited shouts and waves of the children we passed. When we stopped to buy the admission ticket, one of the attendants placed them on the driver’s bench so that I could take their picture. When the other man returned with the ticket, they were allowed to stay up there and “drove” us to the drop off point. This made the day memorable for us all.
We were lucky and there was not a line at our gate. We met up with Willy, and walked through the gateway to our first real viewing of the Taj.
We were all impressed, but Woo most of all. He was quite keen to learn all that Willy had learned from his guide, and to get up close to the building. As we walked along, I took a few shots and listened to Woo and Goose quiz Willy on the history of the building and the love story behind it. I knew little of this, and took it all in with them. As we paused to cover our shoes, I began to feel very emotional about our visit. It wasn’t just the story behind the building, which was built to honour Shah Jahan’s wife, who had died in childbirth or the efforts made in the twenty-two years to build this magnificent building. It was also the fact that I was realizing a dream of mine, and that I was sharing it with my family.
We wandered at a leisurely speed and soaked in as much as we could. Willy was lucky to have had an hour or so before we arrived, and I will be going back really soon with some friends who are visiting from Ottawa, so we let the lils decide when they had seen enough. After a few hours of soaking it all in, we returned to the carriage, and Woo once again drove us back to the hotel.
If you are planning on visiting the Taj Mahal, here are some of my hints and tips.
- It is closed on Friday, save for prayers between noon and 2:00pm
- The reflecting pools are drained on Friday and Saturday
- Admission is 750rs (about $15 CAD) for tourists, 20rs ($0.40 CAD) for Indians
- Children under the age of 15 are free
- Your ticket is valid from sunrise to sunset, but there is no re-entry allowed. So you can stay as long as you like once you are in, but you can’t leave and come back under the same admission fee.
- There is an evening viewing for the five days around the full moon, but you can’t purchase these tickets on the Taj grounds. it is limited to groups of 50, who are let in for 30 minutes.
- You must buy your ticket at a separate building / queue. The building for the East gate is quite far from the gate, but they shuttle you to the gate once you have purchased your ticket.
- There are guides available, but there is great variability in the information that they provide you with. They may or may not be affiliated with the Taj.
- Ask at your hotel if they can buy the tickets for you and have them waiting. Our hotel did offer this, but we requested it too late in the day. It will save you standing in one line the morning of your visit.
- You aren’t allowed to wear shoes up on the platform surrounding the tomb itself. You can get/buy little disposable shoe covers, but they are flimsy and you end up taking your shoes off anyway.
- You are allowed to carry a small bag/knapsack, but only if it is not too big.
- I found this post – http://vmphotography.com.au/blog/tips-on-photographing-the-taj-mahal/ to be really helpful in preparing for my visit and thinking about photographing.
- If you are looking to photograph it (and I didn’t really put much effort into photographing it THIS time), you are not allowed to bring a tripod in without a permit, which must be applied for well in advance.
- Arrive REALLY early and don’t stop to admire anything until you are in front of the tomb if you really want the shot with few people in it.
- I brought my 11-18mm and 24-70mm lenses and felt that they served me well. I might bring my macro too next time, just for some of the detail on the buildings.
- You are allowed to carry a cellphone (I’d seen conflicting info on this)
11
March
High Five!
Dear Woo:
Happy birthday! Today you are five! So happy and proud to be growing older and more independent, you move through life at a lightening speed, but have a keen interest to learn everything and anything about whatever strikes your fancy. You challenge us to learn more, so that your world can broaden. Books are your windows to things that have happened in the past, new information, and places that you want to go visit. Your favourite thing to do is take a quiet moment (or hour) with a new book, and get lost in the story.
This year was a year for many new things for you… first formal schooling, first roller blades, biking with only two wheels, moving across the globe, learning to make new friends and coping when it is not easy, drawing real pictures, reading chapter books, writing, learning that it is OK to be happy in India and still miss home, sleeping through your first cyclone, and many, many adventures in India. I could list a thousand ways that you have grown this year, and still not list them all. You also grew a few inches taller too!
It is very clear that you have collected traits from both your dad and me. Like me, you love to take photos, and dabble and experiment in the kitchen (even if you occasionally end up with apple milkshakes). Like your dad, you love to take things apart (and sometimes leave them like), love playing all sports, and can focus on tasks with an unshakable determination. It is so nice to see little pieces of each of us, in you.
My caring little boy who is not so little anymore, it warms my heart to see how much you love life and demonstrate your love to the people in your life.
Love,
mama
walking with Goose in your favourite haunt, the Museum of Nature
dandelion fluff
hanging out in the back yard
summer fun with your pal Goose
trainspotting
looking for snails at Mud Lake
school!!
meeting an elephant
two wheelin’
smiley guy
at the Taj Mahal
9
March
Palak paneer
One of the best things about my relationship with Willy, especially from the early days, is that he really got me to broaden my culinary horizons. My foodie life was a bland and drab existence back then. He pushed me to try many a thing that I previously held my up nose up to. Some of those things are still not to my taste (hello guacamole, bleh!), but I am grateful for the many things that I LOVE and never would have eaten had it not been for his nudges.
All of Indian cuisine falls into this category, but spinach dishes in particular. I didn’t really think that I was a fan of spinach, but in reality, I am not sure I ever gave them a chance. I certainly was not interested in even trying spinach curries for a number of years, but then a saag paneer roti from Ghandi Roti in Toronto won me over. Now we eat it all the time!
This dish is called palak paneer, but it is more commonly known as saag paneer in Ottawa. As far as I can tell, the distinction is that saag can refer to any green leafy sauce, which includes spinach, mustard leaf, broccoli or other greens. Palak specifically refers to spinach, palak is Hindi for spinach. This is my take on palak paneer, it took me a few tries to really get the taste to be both authentic and please all of us, but when I made this version this week, we got thumbs up all around!
Palak Paneer
3/4 – 1 lb paneer, cubed
2 tbsp oil for frying paneer
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seed
2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 tsp minced ginger/ginger paste
1 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
~6 cups of fresh coarsly chopped spinach
1 medium red onion, chopped
1/4 – 1/2 tsp red chili powder
2 – 3 tbsp high fat yogurt
Cut paneer into cubes. Heat a frying pan with 2 tbsp of vegetable oil and lightly fry cubes. Pat down and set aside.
Heat oil and add cumin seeds, heat until they pop/crack.
Meanwhile, puree tomatoes, ginger, coriander and turmeric. Add to cumin seeds and cook until liquid has reduced by about half.
Add spinach and, if necessary, about 1/4 cup water. Cook until spinach wilts.
Drain excess liquid into frying pan and saute onions. Add to spinach mixture and puree until desired consistency (we like it mostly smooth, with a few big pieces of spinach left).
Return to heat and add chili powder and yogurt. Stir well and add paneer. heat for a couple of minutes.
Serve with rice or naan bread. Or both!
6
March
Drivin’ in my car…
When we moved here, we decided that we would buy a minivan, use it for the year, and sell it when we left. We figured that this was the best option for us, and went so far as to put a deposit on a Toyota Innova (basically a Sienna) before we left on our look-see trip.
Unfortunately, delivery on the van was expected to be about three weeks after we arrived with the family, so we needed to make other arrangements for our first month. Willy got a referral from a colleague for a driver that came with his own car and was willing to take us on for one month. He proved to be very friendly, competent, and great with the lils, and we were feeling sad to be losing him as delivery day drew near. Turns out he was also happy with our family, so the week that we were to take delivery on the car, we cancelled it and hired Subbu for the year. We have never looked back, and we don’t think he has either. If nothing else, I know that the antics of the lils at least amuse him….
Every now and again I am reminded of how good we have it. Like when Willy’s Mum and I took a taxi to the airport, and the driver’s GPS had to warn him to slow down, as he was driving too fast (which is hard to do on Bangalore roads). Or the man the drove us from Kochi to Alleppey like he was driving the Indy 500 dekeing in and out of traffic, squealing off the highway to get gas, and stopping on a dime with no warning. For the most part, these were minor faults for driver’s that just could not meet the standard that Subbu has set.
This past weekend’s driver, however, was really bad. He picked us up at the airport in Delhi, as arranged, and we headed off on the long ride to Agra. We quickly noticed that he was the type of driver that liked to surge ahead and break, surge ahead and break in traffic. While this is just a minor annoyance for Willy and I, it is the very driving style that makes Goose carsick. Sure enough, not one hour into the ride, she was sick. We spoke to the driver, and asked him to take it easy, but even though he understood, he did not change his driving style. It was a long and uncomfortable ride for poor Goose.
We arrived in Agra, and let him know that we would text our plans to him, but that it would likely mean an early pickup, so one of us could visit the Taj Mahal at dawn. Later that day, he called to confirm, but we didn’t have plans set. Willy talked to me and called back within five minutes, but received no response, despite numerous calls and texts. After a couple of hours with no response, it was to look like he was going to get stranded, so we made back-up plans with the hotel for a 6:00 am pick-up. It was a good thing we did, as the driver never contacted us or showed. He finally called at 9:30 when we were at the Taj Mahal, and gave us excuses about his phone not working, and how calls to our hotel room were unanswered from 5:00am on. We knew this to be a lie, as I was up, and missed no call on any phone in the room.
We asked him to wait for us at the hotel, and headed back at our leisure. The driver did successfully take Willy and the lils to Agra Fort, and took the family to dinner that night. The last straw for me, as when he flicked on the tv, and started watching a movie as he was driving us back to the hotel! He could not wait to watch it, even though the drive was a mere five minutes, and I could not wait to be rid of this driver.
We headed back to Delhi on Sunday morning, and the ride was much like the ride down to Agra. Many rough starts and stops, a green Goose, and a horn worn out from too much honking. I think the lils had had enough at this point, as they made several pointed comments, along the lines of: Subbu is a good driver, why didn’t Subbu come with us, and I miss Subbu… We were all so happy to see him waiting at the airport for us when we got home!!
5
March
Minnesota’d
One of the things that we knew we would do when we decided to move to India was go to visit the Taj Mahal. We were lucky, in that six weeks ago, one of my best friends, Lala, forced our planning hand by needing to be in Delhi for work this past week. She was going to see the Taj Mahal on the weekend, and wanted to know if Willy and I would consider coming with the lils. We jumped and the chance and the planning began.
The focus of the trip was the Taj Mahal, but being able to just hang out with Lala was a big bonus. She and I met when we were barely past our teen years (she was actually technically still a teen), worked together for a few years, then lived together for a few years. We lost touch for a little while in the middle, then found our way back to each other. I am never letting her go again, despite the fact that she moved to Singapore a few years ago.
One of the reasons that I love Lala, and hanging out with her, is that we laugh together. Laugh at each other and laugh at everything that happens around us. I was looking forward to a little bit of that this trip, and happy that Willy offered to watch the lils so she and I could have some cocktails on Friday night. As luck would have it, I beat her to the bar, so I sat down, ordered a pint, and was content to people watch. I made the fatal mistake of smiling at one of those people as they crossed my line of sight.
He was a middle-aged man, and he smiled back, sat down, and ordered a beer. He then proceeded to tell me all about his business trip, being from Minnesota*, what he liked and didn’t like about India, and various other trivial details about his life. I was trapped. I tried to be polite as I willed Lala to hurry up and join me. When I saw her across the room, I gave her the “save me” look. She sat down and tried, as did her colleague who joined us shortly after. We talked about things like manicures and our shared past that didn’t include him.
Eventually he moved on and we laughed a relieved laugh. There was nothing wrong with talking with a random stranger from Minnesota, other than the fact that it was digging in to our precious time together. We chatted for a little while, until Lala looked toward the seat that Mr. Minnesota had vacated. She saw this:
“Did he pay for that?” she asked. We tried to figure out when he could have, and concluded that he couldn’t have. The delivery of the bill confirmed it. No, he hadn’t. He sat, he chatted, he ordered a beer and he stiffed me with the tab. I’d been Minnesota’d. Oh, she laughed at me over this. I am pretty sure she still is laughing.
*the fact that this guy was from Minnesota is not in any way intended to reflect poorly upon all the great people from Minnesota, or indicate that I hold this beer swindling incident against them. The fact that he was from Minnesota was merely how he self defined, and thus the term “Minnesota’d” was born.*
28
February
A new haunt
I have been pretty vocal about how much I miss having a ready supply of wine. It isn’t that we drink a bottle every day, that we really need to have the top of the line selection in wine at our disposal, or that I won’t pay good money for a good bottle of wine. There are wines available, but they are limited in selection, and are easily twice the price of what I would pay for them at home. I’m frugal, so I choose to make due with what we brought, and what our guests have gifted us with. We limit ourselves to one bottle a week, and we still have a small stash, with more guests on the way!
Several people have told us that there are good Indian wines, some of them produced locally, but we have not found one that we liked (well, except the one that I had three huge glasses of on an empty stomach. I won’t be touching that again), and most have been pretty bad. So we choose beer. Luckily, our “local” brew is Kingfisher, a well-known and mass produced beer that we had found to go well with Indian food. We were amazed to learn that there are in fact seven different varieties of Kingfisher!! Only four of them are readily available, and we have had a couple of skunky batches from two of those, so we are really limited to two slightly different types of Kingfisher. Kingfisher is not a bad beer, we are just getting tired of it. We are looking for more variety in beer now too, and the imports that you can buy are less than inspiring.
We had hoped that there might be more locally produced brew, perhaps even a microbrew or two. Historically there have been a couple of hurdles to the production of craft beers; the cost of the equipment, the treatment needs and variability in the water supply, and most importantly, the fact that the laws of the state didn’t allow it. These laws changed in 2011, and several groups applied to open microbrew pubs. We began to hear about one of these from a friend, who heard from a friend that there was at least one microbrewery open. A few weeks ago he let us know that he had visited, and pronounced it worthy. There were indeed multiple beers on tap, and they were all produced in house. They didn’t even sell Kingfisher!
We went on Sunday night with some other folks from our community. Although only three of us drank beer, it was well worth the trip. We only tried two of the six varieties that they offer, but found them to be both fresh and tasty! I think we have found our local. Even if it is a forty-five minute drive from home, it’s local by Bangalore standards!
27
February
My habit
Everyone copes with life’s curve balls in different ways. One of the first little unexpected “hardships” that life in India threw at me was that our shipment took longer than we anticipated. In that shipment was my stash of coffee and the drip coffee maker that I love. I thought that the instant iced coffee I’d brought with me, and the local coffee shops would get me through to this rough patch of under three weeks. Three stretched into over four weeks, and I found myself out of all coffee with no good coffee nearby. I had to turn to instant.
I managed to get myself through this difficult patch by melting a small square of chocolate into my coffee. It didn’t magically make it taste better, but it made it bearable. I was very happy to get my stash when the shipment arrived, but I continued to buy the chocolate.
It’s Dairy Milk, a bar that I have fond memories of eating as a child. That could be why I kept picking up one bar at the grocery store, smuggling it into the house and hiding it in the freezer. It was my treat, and I didn’t share. When I faced some difficulty, I got some satisfaction at smashing the frozen bar on the counter, to break it up into bite-sized pieces, and later slipping in to the kitchen to just grab a piece to help me deal with whatever troubles I faced.
Last week was a frustrating week, and I noticed that my consumption increased from one bar to two. Two BIG bars. Then Willy caught me digging into my stash, and gave me a worried look when I told him that this was how I smoothed out the curve balls. it made me pause. The kicker, however, was what the lils did at the birthday party they were attending yesterday. Their loot bags contained miniature versions of the very chocolate bar that I have been sneaking into the house. Woo looked at his and said, “Oh, this is for you, mommy!” Goose just handed it to me, saying, “Here, this is your kind of chocolate!”
Apparently I am not as good at smuggling the bars into the cart, house, and freezer as I thought. Maybe it’s time to find a new way to deal with the monkey wrenches that come my way.