seventh wonder - taj mahal (agra, uttar pradesh, india)

I am recently returned from another MBA trip, this time to India. Before classes started, I had the chance to tour (briefly) two prime sight-seeing spots in northern India: Agra and Jaipur.

Figured I would start with photos of the prime attraction: the Taj Mahal. I got to see it in the late afternoon, and we hung around through sunset. Another one of those surreal life experiences that I have been lucky to have so many of this year.

One thing that surprised me (in a good way!) was how many of the tourists were Indian. I asked one of my Indian classmates about it, and he said that there are different prices for Indian nationals. He explained that making a visit to the Taj Mahal is still a very expensive endeavor, and some of these families might be coming for the only time in their lives.

At popular tourist activities in South Africa and other African countries, to be honest, most of the people touring are white. I just heard something on the radio yesterday about a woman writing a letter of complaint to the City of Cape Town about prohibitive pricing on attractions like Robben Island and Table Mountain. Her argument was, simply stated, that she's never seen these amazing sights because they are too expensive, and now that she is getting older, she wishes she could go. I think she makes a fair point, especially for the Robben Island museum, which is something every South African should have the chance to see. A few parks in Rwanda had "national" and "foreign" pricing, as did the Genocide Museum, and it seemed to make a difference in the number of Rwandans we saw, especially at the museum in Kigali.

A brief history of the Taj: it was built between 1631 and 1648 by Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan. He founded Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi), amassed a huge fortune, and built a lot of monuments. He built the Taj as a burial monument to his favorite wife, Arjumand Banu Begum, who died in 1631 giving birth to their 13th child. For that reason, it's interpreted as a site recognizing true love.

After he built the Taj, Shah Jehan went a little off his rocker, and was pushed out of power by his son and essentially imprisoned in his rooms in the palace at Agra Fort, across the river from the monument (he had wanted to build a black version of the Taj as a burial site for himself. Instead his son buried him in the Taj after he died). He got to look out at it every day.

I'll also post more photos from the other major sights we saw, including Agra Fort (where the Mughal Emperor who built the Taj Mahal lived), as well as Jaipur.

Walking up to the gate at the Taj Mahal. From here, you can't see any of the actual building. The small arched doorways on the right that line this big courtyard were used as hotel rooms until not long ago, for people who wanted to come and see the Taj.

Facing the gate - excitement builds!

Our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal.

This is probably my favorite picture - from much later in the evening as the sun was getting low. But it was too good to bury at the end of the blog post! Click through for more. 

Our tour guide was very excited about taking this photo for each of us! Had to do it.

wildflowers, spring 2014 (clanwilliam, south africa)

We were busy this "spring" and never got around to posting these photos from our wildflower-viewing weekend in September.

Every spring in the dry veld of the Western Cape (north and west of Cape Town), a really magical bloom of wildflowers takes place. The absolute best ones are supposedly about 7 hours away in Namaqualand; we didn't make it that far, but we did get to Clanwilliam this year and really enjoyed the weekend driving through fields and exclaiming over the colors.

We're heading back up this way next week for our last trip in southern Africa before we head back Stateside. As you can see from our lack of posting on the blog, this year has been busier than last with fewer weekend trips - we're not exactly tourists here any more! But we are looking forward to getting out for a few more long weekends and taking advantage of school holidays before we leave Cape Town permanently in June. (Tears are forming just thinking about it!)

Til then, enjoy a few sunny flowers now that it's turning to spring in the northern hemisphere!

weekend by the sea (betty's bay, south africa)

Jen is on school holidays!! Let's get out of town!

My MBA program has been a little restrictive on our weekend trips (to say the least). So with two free weekends this month before our last road trip in southern Africa at the end of the month, we had to take advantage!

We hit the road looking for some hiking and some swimming last weekend, and found both in Betty's Bay, near Hermanus. We also detoured west for another amazing lunch at Havercroft's in Stanford.

Jim prepares to snorkel this swimming hole, perched on the rock in the upper-left.

Taking after my husband.

Beautiful spot to stop. The black flag means shark danger is low - no sharks spotted. 

ringing out 2014 (shewula mountain camp)

Sunset on New Year's Eve from Shewula Mountain Camp. We could see nearly 100 miles across Swaziland.

No fireworks this year, but this nearly counted.

swazi hiking (ezulwini and shewula, swaziland)

We took a couple of nice hikes and walks while in Swaziland.

Up in Shewula, we spent New Year's Day on a long hike down the local roads to an overlook with December, our camp's guide. We enjoyed seeing everyone in the community out and about celebrating the new year. December grew up there and knew just about everyone we passed in the road, and got us comfortable saying hello properly: "Sawubona! (or Sanibonani! if you are greeting a group)" "Yebo!" "Kunjani?" "Siapile, kunjani?" It took us a while to get it.

We also saw a soccer game and dance group at the end of our walk.

And further down in the post, you'll see a few photos of a hike in Ezulwini, up Sheba's Breast. Beautiful!

We enjoyed a few minutes of birdwatching at this water hole in Shewula.

An abandoned plow at a family's old homestead. They still plant here, but the house was at the end of a long dirt road (it took us about 3 hours to walk there from our lodge, already 10km down the road from the highway), and too far for the family to live in any longer.

A view to a large dam in Mozambique.

sangoma visit (shewula, swaziland)

On the final leg of our holiday road trip, we went up to Swaziland for a few days. Swaziland is one of the two entirely land-locked countries bordering (enclosed by) South Africa; Lesotho is the other. Both are kingdoms with traditional tribal leadership. 

Our first impression was that Swaziland was in pretty good shape! (relative to our expectations anyway - Jennifer has done some volunteering with HIV organizations, and had done lots of reading on how widespread the HIV epidemic is in Swaziland, which led us to expect sub-par government services. Sounds like things have improved since the early 2000s). We drove across the whole country (which isn't exactly saying a lot - it took maybe 4 hours) and saw good roads and some nice towns and productive farms. Sugar cane is a big industry there, and there are a few sugar processing mills that provide some good work. 

We spent a couple of nights near Mbabane, the capital, in a resort-y valley called Ezulwini. There was a shopping mall down the road with all our familiar South African brands (Woolie's, Mugg & Bean!) and some nice walking right outside the door. But we were hankering to see a little more of the country, and after discovering a very local guidebook in an art gallery on our first morning and phoning around to a couple of community-run lodges in rural areas, we decided to head up to Shewula for New Year's Eve. 

We were so glad we did. What a beautiful, peaceful place. Definitely recommend anyone interested in Swaziland take a look!! http://www.shewulacamp.org/thecamp.php. The camp was clean and welcoming and quiet, and we really enjoyed a couple of tours of the area, which is filled with subsistence farms (mostly maize and wheat, plus vegetable gardens). 

On our first afternoon, we had an amazing visit with a sangoma, a traditional healer, and enjoyed asking her questions about her life and work. We had heard that over 80% of South Africans visit with a sangoma at least once per year, so were curious to see what this was all about. This sangoma said she sees around 15 people per day on average, mostly from South Africa and Swaziland. Since she is about a 30 minute drive up a dirt road, after a 1-2 hour drive from the nearest town on the highway, which is another 2-3 hours from the South African border on any side, we thought those were impressive numbers. She sees very few Mozambicans, despite her road being only 10km from the border. We gathered that the sangomas in Mozambique follow a slightly different tradition.

Here was our view of the sangoma and her tools: her bones are on the mat in front of her, which she "throws" to read someone's fortune. The many bottles next to her are full of homemade poultices and tinctures, which she prescribes for various ailments. Calendars are on the wall behind her. 

She is answering our questions, translated by December, who sits to her left. We asked about her outfit, and she said the spirits require her to wear certain things, so everything she wears was specifically requested by a spirit.

road tripping and city living (durban and sodwana bay, kwaZulu-natal)

We had a great time breaking up our time in the wild with a little stopover in Durban on our road trip. Durban has a huge Indian community, so the food is awesome. We had great curries every night and spent afternoons walking the city beaches. 

From Durban we headed north up the coast to Sodwana Bay, a beautiful place a bit south of the border of Mozambique. Jennifer got her scuba certification, and Jim got an advanced open water certification. We only got to dive together a couple of times :) but managed to see some beautiful water life - green turtles, moray eels, giant potato bass (as big as Jennifer!!), and amazing live corals. Aside from vomiting at the end of every dive waiting for the boat to head back to shore (Jennifer gets very seasick!!) it was an amazing week at scuba camp. 

A camera shot back towards the city of Durban.

Beers on a big pier over the Durban Waterfront after a long morning beach walk.

Hanging out on the beach!

Who needs an ocean when there is a gigantic pool that is 2 feet deep?  This was a spectacle to behold!

A Durban beach two days before Christmas.  There are certain sections of the beach for swimming that are about 100 meters wide and tightly policed by lifeguards.  Kids from all around pack into those 100 meters to get their chance at diving and jumping into the waves.

Body surfing!

monks cowl and didima gorge (drakensberg mountains, kwaZulu-natal)

The Drakensberg Mountains are a stunning wilderness that has protected and provided for thousands upon thousands of generations of humans.  They functioned as a boundary for the Basutu people who were defending themselves from an encroaching and militaristic Zulu population and later the encroaching and militaristic Boers, not to mention the English.  Before this recent history they were home to Khoi Khoi or Khoi San people.  The evidence of the Khoi Khoi can be found in really cool rock art--some of which we found and is pictured below.  

Finding hidden caves is probably one of the coolest aspects of the Drakensberg.  They are on maps, but that does not mean you are going to find them.  We hiked far and wide to find two caves and spent the night happily tucked away behind a waterfall for one night.  The cave was so protective and peaceful that we spent about 20 hours hanging out, eating, and sleeping before moving on.  

The grass is stunning--more recently burned sections actually look greener.

There are plentiful streams and waterfalls as it is the rainy season.  Getting caught in one thunderstorm taught us how quickly the waters can rise.  We ended up saving a German couple from possible demise after a particularly powerful thunderstorm brought streams from 5 cm deep, to 1 meter deep in a matter of minutes after pelting us with marble-sized hail.  If you're wondering what the hell we were doing we were too.  That was our last hike up the big mountain.  Until next time!

Disclaimer:  The pictures are not in chronological order--maybe I'll take the time to rearrange them later.

This is one of a few of the Ranger Cabins.  So, don't think they're used very much anymore.  This is called the Ranger Station on the map.  Gives you a good idea of the politics in the region.  If someone builds a public building near you that means you are allowed to harvest anything valuable from that structure...including its roof.

This nearly hidden road through a swamp reminded me of Frodo walking through the swamp of the ancient battlefield where there were dead elves and orcs.  The Drakensberg was also an area that inspired curiosity and imagination in a young JRR Tolkien.

kensoks on a quick trip! (cape town)

We really enjoyed having Tim and Karen visit before the holiday break.  It was great to see them and be able to spend time with family before Jennifer and I set off on another adventure together.  Tim and Karen spent most of their days by the pool with interesting books in hand--the kind of vacation that leaves you well rested and content.  They also took Jennifer and I out to countless lunches and dinners of extremely high quality.  It was fun to taste all of the great food and wine together and share stories from past Christmas and Thanksgiving seasons.  They will attest to the splendor of the Greenspan residence and the luxury that it provides should anyone be tempted to book tickets at the last minute.

Dad on a hike above Hout Bay

Re-visiting a favorite spot from their last visit!

Jennifer worked very hard on my birthday cake.  Thank you Jennifer!!!!

Birthday boy with all his spoils!!

It is the whole crew of birthday gatherers at the table. Starting from left to wrap around the table to the right: Bash, Mia, Me, Patrick, Randy, Erika, Tim, Karen, Gabby, Tom, and Jennifer taking the picture!  We had a blast at dinner and enjoyed goofing around with everyone.

crayfish boil (aka south african rock lobsters)

Thank you to our friend Emile for catching these for us!  What a guy!  I'd like to go along with him sometime, but it is a close-knit family venture so I don't anticipate being asked to go.  They once saw a big great white while diving for these things so there is certainly a sense of adventure when free-diving 30 feet to the bottom to look for your crayfish.  Sounds like a blast to me!

Gabby and Tom look like they're enjoying themselves!  Gabby and Tom, hoping to hear you survived and had fun in Beirut.

Jim is an awesome chef!!