Play Father Christmas. Please.

A question I get asked almost every day is:

"Are you staying for Christmas?"

Christmas time at the strong farm is the favorite time of the year, and not just for the kids the adults love it too! Its a time of year when everyone gets a new item of clothing to show off, and a small present to go with it. They have meat for one of the only times in the year and they dance and party like any great Indian family does. They celebrate it with a church service and the school does a nativity play.

No one can believe that I am here so close to christmas, but not actually staying for it!

This has been a really rough year for the Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission, both financially and emotionally, with the death of the woman all the kids call Grandma, who was the director of the mission, Maxine Strong.

They will struggle financially with Christmas this year, as they struggle to make ends meet let alone provide one night of festivities. I am asking that you would all think about donating to the orphanage this year, especially for christmas.

No matter what happens, this family of 200 strong will enjoy themselves at christmas. While they are not all blood related, they know the significance and the blessedness of having "family" to share it with more than most. Christmas for them is the one time in the year when they get to live "extravagantly", and when i say extravagantly, I mean with one new set of clothes each, a single present to enjoy and some extra zing to add to their curry by the way of meat.

Help the staff and the Shipways (directors) be able to afford to keep up this tradition the kids and the adults so love here. When i think of all we have at Christmas, i would gladly give it away to give this amazing family their extra special day of the year.


Just $15 gives two girls an outfit each. Just $10 provides every kid with a piece of fruit each, and fruit is prized like chocolate.

Please donate either via paypal if you would like more specific items, through their catalogue.

(oops so i fail at linking like that :S here the url copy adn paste it. haha http://indianorphanage.com/get-involved/donate-financially.html)

And do it now, so you don't have the excuse of forgetting.

Ok, so is it just me getting the brainwash from Indian media, or are the Australians particularly whiney these Commonwealth Games?

All the Australia vs India sports that are going on at the moment are allowing me to feel pretty much at home, except for some weird reason I have this tiny part of me that wills the Indians on. Maybe it’s a survival instinct, in case the Aussies somehow win the cricket and the crazed Indian fans turn on me for stealing victory from them…?

Speaking of sports, Caris and Selma and I had great intentions at the start of last week to do some yoga (well the exercises of yoga) each evening. Selma opted out after just 2 days, then in the last couple of days Caris is slacking off, so I’m last one standing. 2 weeks into it, and I’m pretty sure I’m still not doing half the stretches right. Its fun though, and hey, yoga is synonymous with India so I have to at least pretend I did some while I was here.


(Caris and I doing "yoga")

I have concluded that my Australian/Kazakh upbringing has neglected to teach me three particular things in life that I now consider important to my daily living 1. To sing all the songs off Shakiras albums 2. To beat a farm girl, 5 years my junior, at arm wrestling and 3. Being able to catch and skin a monsoon frog.
I didn’t think I would ever utter these words, but frog is so good! Big, juicy monsoon frogs. They are the size of a toad but are a frog, and deep fried they are magnificently tasty. A cross between chicken and fish, in this mostly vegetarian diet I have had over the past few months, frog has become my new favorite meat! These girls could give Bear Grylls a run for his money with their ability to catch food in the wild. Last Sunday I went with the older girls to the jungle and we made a fire and they went and caught about 8 frogs in the pond (in like 20 mins) and we fried them up for afternoon tea. Yum!

Just after the river crossing, with L-R: Euginea, Semma, Me, Caris and Annie
Caris with the first frogFrog de-skinned

Fired frog. yum

I haven’t been into the school much the past few weeks. Instead I have been honing my maternal skills and playing ‘big sister’ to a little boy called Raymond and the two little twins. I must admit it’s only in the last few weeks that I have branded Saloni and Shavani (twins) old enough for me to even pick up, let alone hold while moving in a walking motion. I still haven’t moved on to the changing nappy stage yet, no rush though. If I ever have kids, I’ve concluded that they’re gonna have to come out as 6 month olds otherwise I will be too scared to even touch them.

(me with shavani)

My little Raymond however (named after the TV show “everybody loves Raymond” - ughr) is just the sort of little boy I can cope with: Incredibly cheeky, ridiculously adorable, unbelievably affectionate and typically naughty. We spend our mornings together reading the same book, adventuring off to see the cows, and playing dead then resurrecting each other by placing medicine in each others mouths (yes, every time he does it I wonder where his hands have been…). On particularly friendly and good-mood mornings, he tells me “I miss you” when I pick him up. Seeing as I see him every day I don’t think he has fully grasped the meaning of the phrase, but judging by his little smile I think he means somewhere in between ‘I love you’ and ‘I love you… now play with me”. Yesterday he, Ebyon (the son of one of the staff members) and I had a round of golf which concluded with zero holes being made, zero balls getting lost and one putt being broken. Rather successful I would say.

(My little Raymond playing golf)

The Hindus have a ten day festival running at the moment, one of the biggest on the Hindu calendar. The kids at public schools get 10 days break for it but the Maxton Strong School (the farm school) is only getting 2 days. This festival is called dewali, and it is sort of like the Hindu version of Islamic Ramadan. They fast for 10 days, then hold plays and parties in the village at nights. From the farm we can hear their worship and drones. I wouldn’t mind going to see some of the plays, but everyone on the farm is hesitant about it because 1, they have seen it all before, and apparently the crowds get pretty rowdy and intoxicated. Which actually surprised me. For some weird reason I have this perception that most Indians are very respectful and proper people and drinking is not common. But then same as at home, this is a celebration, and come to think of it, alcoholic fathers are the reason a few of our kids are at the orphanage…


I have just over 3 weeks till I leave! It is just insane how fast time goes here. What am I going to do when I leave and am expected to eat with my fork rather than my hands, flush the toilet every time I go, and not be able to unashamedly put my feet up on anyone’s couch (even public transport), and it be completely culturally acceptable and done by the masses!?

(Cynthia and Raymond at her 3rd birthday party catching bubbles)

All my love,

Lauren xox

Riots, Papercranes and Kids

(Below: The twins Shivani and Saloni sunbaking on the patio)





My dad used to complain when we had student free days from school twice a term, he would have conked out by now if we had gone through our schooling years in the Indian education system.


Here they have holidays in the summer for being too hot, in the winter for being too cold/foggy and in the monsoon for the rain. They also have public holidays for the MANY Hindu festivals as well as Muslim ones and Christian ones. While these holidays make sense most of the time, like if there is too much rain the schools not only get flooded out, but the risks that parents will have to take to pick up/drop off their children from school on scooters or bikes if a flood came, can be catastrophic. According to Clifton’s calculations, holidays make up 3 months of their school year. That is a lot, but like I said most of them are justifiable, I might blog about that later on, it’s one of those topics that has enlightened me and broadened my perspective on poverty and education…:P


Recently the kids have had quite a few extra holidays. Last week they had 3 days off because of possible riots they were expecting throughout this state, after the verdict of a 60 year old land title case was announced. The riots were expected to be pretty serious; in 1992 there were riots over this case that killed over 2000 people! Fortunately however, there didn’t end up being more than a few tussles because the verdict was a split between the parties anyway. Yay, for now at least.


So while the kids aren’t at school, we have to find ways to entertain them. Man, school holidays would be a huge test of patience for all the staff!
Before Katharine (USA) left she had been doing quite a few crafts with the kids while I had been taking the others for computer. One day they learnt how to make origami cranes, quite a number of them ended up bringing their creations to me and so I put them to good use and wore them as earrings and an attractive 80’s looking scrunchy for the rest of the day.





Over the last few days I have been making paper mache with the small girls and the small boys. Lots of stress for impatient little me, but also a lot of fun! Unfortunately most of the creations were a flop, it’s the first time they have done paper mache so this was a trial run, and Indian glue isn’t the greatest sticky stuff ever invented. However, they had fun and I got nice and covered in glue and my cheeks ended up hurting after blowing up all the water balloons to make the animals out of. How do primary teachers do this on a daily basis?!






I have taken them on a few walks around the farm; a favorite path is the one to the fish tank. I am yet to see a fish that is bigger than 7cm, but the kids get extremely excited and go to fetch bottles and bags- anything that holds water to makeshift a home for them. Not surprisingly, none of the fish last more than a few hours and certainly no more than a day. I find it a little sad at the waste of it all, but in India there is such a different perception of death. Ok so that sounds gory or whatever, but what I mean is that death is so common and open here, of animals and even people, that their perception is a lot different to ours. The amount of stray dogs, cats, cows and other animals that wonder the streets, the only way to keep them away is to kill them. The other day a cat came around and to prevent it from becoming another one of the many pets that cause trouble around the place, the older boys killed it. I was so shocked, but it’s the how life goes here and it’s a necessary evil to prevent further problems I suppose. Anyway, the other day Debbie brought forth her fish to show me. I could barely see it through the murky dirty water it was just surviving in, but she was ecstatic to have it nevertheless. I asked her what she named it and she said ‘Lauren’. What an honor! :P However, about 15 minutes later she managed to spill the bottle over and sent Lauren flying through the air landing on the concrete, jumping and jerking. Thanks to the quick reactions of Kelly, one of the small girls, Lauren was rescued and put in a fresh bottle of water and once again was free to ‘thrive’ in her surroundings. The next morning I woke to Debbie at my door with a grim face, Lauren had died. Although Lauren fish will stay in our hearts forever, we have moved on and are trying to regain our normal lives. It took about 2 seconds.




(Pic: Debbie with Lauren)


Yesterday was a brilliant day at the river for me =). Through a tiny patch of jungle, through the village that is behind the strong farm, there is a river that is particularly large but, surprisingly empty after the monsoon season. Pricilla announced that she was taking all 17 of the nursery kids to the river for a swim and I went with. I don’t know about your family, but I always remember as a kid when we planned to go to the beach it always seemed to take forever before we would actually make it out the door. Yesterday, we announced we were going swimming, and in the space of a few minutes, they had retrieved their bathers (a pile of spare undies) and were ready to leave. After a pleasant walk that should have taken us about 10 mins but took more like 30, we arrived at the river with every single one of the kids practically wetting themselves with excitement. What a great feeling it is seeing those kids ecstatic about just being able to go swimming!!




I wasn’t quite sure if it was culturally appropriate for me to go swimming but the water looked clear enough, and under the warm sun, I was dying to join them for a dip. I waded out to my knees and was immediately ambushed by 10 kids under the age of nine with crazy splashing abilities, and before I knew it I was soaking wet and in the water. Yipeeeeeeee!!!! And thankfully, one of the other ladies that had come down with us was already in the water by the time the war was over, and Pricilla joined in a little while later. Phew. I’m still learning what is appropriate and what is not for a young lady to do here, there are a lot of restrictions but not too many that I didn’t expect. Pricilla did say that they don’t let the older girls swim in this river anymore because it is too open and anyone can see. That would seem a little extreme in Aus I suppose, especially considering what we wear to the beach at home as opposed to the fully clothed swimming we were doing, but I kinda like this part of the Indian culture a bit better…I’m sick of seeing too much skin bared and hanging out at home…





Well I think that about wraps up my last few days. Thankfully, they are all back to school this week and my slightly more sane routine starts up again =) Only 5 weeks of India to go, where did these last 2 months disappear???

All my Love, Lauren xox

My birthday and some special presents

So in the last two weeks I have celebrated my birthday and celebrated the ridding of some visitors than has been planted on my after I received a gift from the nursery children.


The 18th of September. On this day I threw my children a birthday in honor of myself. Now personally, I would rather have just gone under the radar with my bday this year, but in Indian culture your birthday isn’t really about you, it’s about the party you put on for others. So in the spirit of fitting in, I held a bday party for 50 children. With a list of their favorite junk foods, I went off to the local market and bought up on individual chip packets for all, popcorn, plates, lollies, juice and anything else that caught my eye-a feast to feed 50, for a total cost of roughly $20. With the help of 4 other foreigners (3 of which have since left) we put on a party with a number of parties games. Uaine and Brit (UK) drew up two fabulous giant donkeys to play pin the tail on the donkey, the first time they had played it. Then I had Beth (USA) run a game of limbo while Brit and I led musical statues. Split off into three separate groups (small girls, small boys and nursery) and divided into three corners of the room, we had a jolly fun couple of hours enjoying the deafening screams and shouts of the masses as well as the blazing heat that was encompassing us from all the sweaty little bodies. Did I mention the power was off for the 40 hours previously and so no fans or lights were working? Anyway, the party ended well and all enjoyed which was awesome :)


On my actual birthday I was showered with more happy birthdays than I have received in my entire life, as well as enough flowers (picked from the gardens :P) and cards to fill my table which was lovely! Pricilla made me a chocolate cake and the kids made me a goofy birthday hat I was forced (happily) to wear for a number of hours before I walked through a doorway and if fell off… That night I bought 6kg of chicken for all the girls to make meat curry for once, as well as soft drink which is also a novelty. While we all ate in darkness for a number of minutes, the generator kicked in and the party started up again. Once the meal was over we all adjourned to the girl’s hostel area, ready to kick back and enjoy the “soothing” voice of Bollywood superstar and heart throb of all-Sha Ru Kahn- in one of his films. As is the norm, most girls got up and danced along with the dances, coping each move and giggling at each other. It was a lot of fun! My dance moves left a lot to be desired though, I could tell by the polite pitiful gazes that were thrust my way. Oh well, it’s my birthday, I can embarrass myself if I want right?
So that was my 19th birthday, spent in India, on the 19th of September-they call it my Lucky birthday here. And I believe it was. =)






(Pictures: FRom top to bottom- 1. Me in my party hat,2. Nursery kids playing musical statues, 3. limbo and 4. pin the tail on the donkey)


I contracted headlice from my little kiddies after about week 3 of being here. It’s quite a problem here, everyone gets it at least once a year. What was particularly unfortunate for me was that I had just managed to get rid of some headlice I had contracted back in Australia, only about a month before I left Aus, so I wasn’t particularly overjoyed at my lovely present..Anyway, forget lotions and potions as a de-licing solution, here they strip the procedure back to the core, and do it monkey style- picking each individual one out by hand. For a number of weeks I had hourly visits by a few of the girls to go through my hair. Now before you take me for some spoilt princess summoning my civilians to do the dirty work, de-licing is actually one of the girls weekly jobs. They have to spend an hour a week going through each other’s hairs to prevent infestation through the entire dorms. So I joined the band, although I sucked at actually finding them in other peoples hair, and had my beauty treatment along with the rest of the girls. Apparently my lice is so white compared to Indian lice, because the lice adapt to the hair colour. In fact, I don’t mean to brag, but I am actually somewhat of a lice pro now. To cut a long and itchy story short, Selma (who I would say is probs my best friend on the mission) spent around 2 hours one afternoon attempting to get rid of them once and for all. She first went through my head as is, then she went and got oil to make them slip down my strands, then finally she brought out the big gun in the form of a nit comb. Using all her strength and all my willpower, we crushed those critters and destroyed the entire clan of them. Mission accomplished.

...For now at least.




(Photo: head lice hunt)


There have been a few more events here and there, but for now, this will do. Love to you all!!!!

Lauren xoxox

PS. Go Saints for next week and Happy 50th Dad for last week.

My encounter with a Bollywood star

I am going to attempt to write this blog in one sitting, but I’ve just come off of supervising 9-14 year old boys for a few hours, so I’m pretty drained! :P

There are currently two American girls, two British girls and me here as short term volunteers. Because there are so many of us, we were able to hire a car (for 10 bucks each) to and from Nenital, a town in the foothills of the Himalayas with a big lake parked in the middle of it. It takes about 3 hours one way. We had a good mix of nationalities which was nice, I partnered up with Pricilla (Clifton’s Indian wife) because we were the only ones without a patriotic buddy.

Before we left we had been told that car sickness on the roads was going to be inevitable on this journey. We put Pricilla, the only one who had been there before AND who suffered from car sickness, in the front. Brit (UK) and Katharine (USA) were in the far back, and then Uaine (UK), Beth (USA) and I sat in the middle. This worked for about 30 mins before Brit started getting sick and we reshuffled to get her in the middle. Then about 2 hours into it Katharine caved and needed to squeeze in the middle with us. About 20 mins before we reached nenital, Beth suddenly jumped from her seat in the back, lunged forward to the middle section, stuck her head out as far as it would go out the window, and vomited her heart out, all over the side of the guy’s car.


The roads were terrible, potholes everywhere as well as an hour of winding through the hills in a jerkey Indian driven car. I kept myself entertained by reading the many different road signs they have up everywhere. The English ones were entertaining: “We like your face, but not your fast speed”, “If you sleep, your family will weep” and my personal favorite- “If married, Divorce speed”.


Funniest moment was when we were winding our way up the hills and we reached a section big enough for only one car at a time. As we approached the narrow road, I realised that there was going to be confrontation when our car started to pick up speed in an attempt to beat the car that was now coming towards us. It was a race to get to the lane first. When the cars met half way and it was obvious that one of us would have to reverse, instead of backing up like we expected our driver to do, (our driver was so in the wrong) he turned off his engine and stubbornly refused to move. We all waited in disbelief. I double checked with Pricilla to see if there was any reasonable reason as to why we had stopped. There wasn’t one. Cars started banking up behind us, and after the 10th minute, some men started getting out of their cars to approach our driver. We girls were telling the driver to back out, frankly to stop being a complete jerk, but he absolutely refused. The whole situation had us all in hysterical laughter, because we could not believe what was happening. I thought that maybe if this had happened at home, there might have been an all out brawl due to road rage. Pricilla said that if the driver opposite us hadn’t finally decided to reverse (after 20 mins!) there probably would have been a fight. I can’t believe that a grown man could act that childish! Haha anyway, we got there in the end!


OK, I have to admit, the lake and the mountains were a lot more impressive than I was expecting. Every place I go here, I never expect it to be spectacular because quite often, compared to postcards anyway, it’s not (we are still in India- home to rubbish and pollution). I was wrong! This place really was gorgeous! We were greeted by rain and fog –of course- but we could still make out the lake and the mountains. It was going to be beautiful. The lake sat in between the mountains, and there were monasteries and tiny houses scattered across the mountainside.

After we had some lunch and walked through the Tibetan markets, we went boating on the lake. The boats were incredibly rickety, but took three of us really well and as soon as we were on the water (each wearing life jackets which impressed me immensely!) I forgot about any safety worries. As we were being rowed around we saw that there was a set of spotlights and crowds of people around the boat club. It was a film set! We asked to be rowed closer, and Pricilla recognised one of the actors as a Bollywood star who I would say is our equivalent of Russell Crowe (Older, popular in his younger years, known but not beloved by all, but everyone recognises him).


As soon as we hopped off that boat, our mission became to get into the club and get a pic with Jackie Shurov- the Bollywood actor.


Being three white girls (the Americans had gone off to do their own thing) really gave us the upper hand when it came to getting into the club. At first we were told to come back in a few hours because the filming hadn’t finished, so that’s what we did. Now is probably a good time to explain a common occurrence that happens wherever I tour here. The last thing I expected to happen when I was touring was that I myself would become the tourist attraction, but that’s what happens. We were asked by at least 5 different groups of guys to have our picture taken with them. So awkward! I didn’t think that being white would be all that much of a spectacle in India, but the stares and the amount of times I have been videoed on peoples phones just while walking around, has proven me wrong about that! I now know a little of what it’s like to be a celebrity, and quite frankly, it doesn’t appeal to me at all! Haha :P


Anyway, we came back at 5 that evening to get in and see Jackie Shurov. Our plan now was to not only get a pic, but talk to him and invite him to the orphanage ( which of course we knew realistically wouldn’t happen :P). When we got to the club there was a crowd gathering, when the guard saw us white girls he ushered us through quickly. We got the power! Haha. Anyway we got into this exclusive club thanks to the colour of our skin, and had to wait about 2 minutes before Jackie walked out. The people in the club started to flock to him and the flashes started and I realised that getting a solo pic with him was not going to happen! There was quite a lot of noise, but when he spoke, it was only to us white girls!! Here is what he said, word for word:

“Hi. How are you doing? Are you enjoying India? Have you been to Bombay? Catch you later”.


Profound, I know.


So our 4 minute glimpse of a Bollywood star was pretty awesome, Pricilla was particularly ecstatic. On our way out we were greeted by one of the producers/directors who had studied acting under Ben Kingsley who won an Oscar for his performance as Gandhi in the 1982 film!! We left star struck :P
The rest of our nanital holiday was sent sampling Indian ice-cream, drinking mango juice and wandering the markets. Our journey home was much less eventful than the one to nanital, I think this had something to do with the extra volume the driver put his Hindi pop at and the fact that we were now all squished across the middle seat.

I love you all, and I just wanna gloat and say, gosh I love my life right now!

Delhi and Agra

I’m sure I will struggle to find a place in the world that is like the capital of India, Delhi.


It was interesting to see that the lonely planet guide’s description of this place “….it’s crowded, aggravating, polluted, extreme, and hectic, but hey- nobody’s perfect”. It is most certainly all that and more! I would say that the main smells you get while travelling around are that of urine, rubbish and pollution. But in saying that, when you go to Delhi that is what you expect, it’s not visited for scenery reasons, it’s the people, the size and the craziness of it that attracts so many!

I left the farm on Saturday night along with an American girl Katie. We caught the bus for the 11 hour journey, which cost us about $4 each. I was expecting the oldest most rickety bus possible- and that’s what we got! My main fear for this bus ride was that I would have to, at some point in the 11 hours, get out and go to the toilet. There was no way I wanted to have to have to go on this ride (the bumping of the bus didn’t help my bladder out much) as there are hardly any toilets available, rather people just go on the side of the road. Actually, let me rephrase that, the men go on the side of the road, and the women...-well actually, I don’t know what they do. I took a number of steps to prevent me having to go. Step1- I carefully rationed my water supplies. Step 2- I started praying that the Lord would either supernaturally empty my bladder for me or that I wouldn’t need to go. And finaly, everyone knows that the more you think about it, the more likely you’re gonna need to go, so step 3 was to just not think about it. You’ll be happy to know that I made it the whole journey without needing to go once, even if all the men seemed to stop about 20 times that ride to empty themselves!

We reached Delhi around 5am the next morning, as nothing was open that time Katie and I caught a auto rickshaw to the nearest McDonalds which we hoped would be open. It was pelting with rain, and we spent about 15 minutes in it searching for the Maccas sign, by which time everything we were wearing as well as carrying was drenched through (when we got to maccas, it was closed). Unlike in Adelaide, the streets in the early hours of the morning are never deserted. There are hundreds of homeless people sleeping under any sort of shelter they can find. Maccas was located in Connaught Place, which is the upper-class shopping and hotel district of Delhi, and it was quite a contrast seeing the ragged, dirty sleeping bodies lying in front of the pristine clean glass of the designer shops.


(Pic taken from a rickshaw of another autorickshaw, so i apologise for the blur)



Going with Hindi speaking Katie to Delhi was a huge help! It is very manageable to navigate your way through the sea of rickshaw drivers and hostels with just English here, but it takes half the time if you speak Hindi, and you also win brownie points and better deals. The fact that we were dressed just like the locals also meant that we earnt more respect and less attention than the other female tourists in their completely culturally unacceptable short shorts and tank tops.


(Me infront of India gate)

Shopping in Delhi is by far my most favorite shopping ever!!! I am not a fan of shopping at home, but here it’s more of a walk through Indian cultural than it is just seeing, trying, buying and carting home. I loved haggling and learnt a few good tips here and there. About 80% of the time I would leave with my product at my price, after walking out and being chased by the shopkeeper to come back. As I was looking at clothing stalls, which had WAY too much variety at incredible prices, I started to notice that a fair bit of fabrics and clothes looked very familiar. I realised that I had clothes at home from exactly the same fabrics as they have here, a number of times I saw my exact dresses, which I knew were made in India, but I suppose didn’t expect to actually SEE in India!


(shopping heaven :P)

We went to pick up Katharine (Katies friend) from the airport that night which was good practice for me for when ill have to do it. The Delhi airport signage system is rather chaotic at the moment as they are extending and upgrading (especially because of the commonwealth games being very soon). A few times we followed the signs to toilets and would be greeted by a makeshift wall or a dead end. While we were waiting for Katharine to arrive, I saw what could arguably be the most bizarre thing I have seen in my life. A large Indian man in his 50’s came out of the airport with his luggage trolley in tow, he stops directly in the middle of the main area of the arrivals section and starts to strip of his pants! I looked around to see if anyone else saw this, or at least thought it was as weird as I did. By the hundreds of stares and confused expressions I saw boring onto him, it seems that this is also quite different for India. So, he’s standing there in his undies, and starts taking off his thongs. He collects the clothes from the floor and opens his suitcase and starts ruffling through. Eventually, after about 3 minutes (the whole airport staring now), he finds some shiny black leather shoes and put them on, as if he’s oblivious to the fact that his footwear isn’t exactly his most immediate problem. Then eventually he got out some long pants, puts his legs in while wearing his shoes, struggles around for a bit, finished up, then walks on as if nothing had happened! Yes, I am aware that I am going to bet a lot of comments asking why I kept looking, maybe I should be a little ashamed but really, how can you pull your eyes away from such a spectacle!? Haha


Anyway, on to Agra! Monday morning we set off at 5am for the train station to catch the Taj Express to see, yep you guessed it, the Taj Mahal. We had not booked early enough to get air-conditioned seats (which we noticed, as we were walking past the cart, also had big cushy seats) so we were seated in second class. I am SO happy that there were no seats left in that A/C cart because really, we not only saved money, but we were also able to sit amongst the locals. This car had pretty hard bench like seats, and about 30 ceiling fans along the roof and was not nearly as uncomfortable as I was expecting. I learnt two things on this train ride. The first is that there is no rubbish system on trains (or anywhere in major cities it seems!) so once people finish a packet of chips, or even takeaway style meals, all rubbish goes straight out the window to pile up with the other litter dumped everywhere. The second lesson I learned came when a woman and her two children came into our cart and started begging. The woman sat banging her drum for attention while the kids did tricks with a single metal hoop. Once they finished one performance they would go around the nearest set of seats and ask for money, then they would move down the cart and start again. Begging is a profession in India that is just once huge cycle that passes through parents to their children, then from their children to their children’s children etc. It is sad that they chose to do this, and yes, many do have a choice, rather than seek jobs. The job situation is also not ideal, and by western pay standards are probably not even considered jobs, but at least they are earning a keep…. Anyway, I won’t go into detail here because I still have no learnt enough to comment. According to Katie this family on the train was not poor beggars; both the kids were the size of the children on the farm, even fatter than some of them. Katie gave both the kids a few biscuits when they approached us, which as they are trained to do, they both took immediately to their mother.




When we reached Agra we had a 2 places on our agenda for that day, the first being the Taj and the second being the Agra Red Fort. As much as I would love to go into the histories of both these places, this blog is already getting wayyyyy to long and I’m quite sure I have lost most of the readers under the age of 40! SO anyway, after a little bit of drama (as always haha) we finally made it to the Taj. As I was walking into the area where you line up for tickets, I turned around to explain to Katie that we didn’t really have monkeys in Aus (because they were everywhere there!), something hit me pretty hard and snatched the packet of biscuits I had in my hand. In the space of seconds, a monkey had jumped up on me and nicked my biccies and ran off! Haha quite a shock for me!!


What I love most about the location of the Taj, is that you can’t see it until you get into the actual gate! It is covered by big walls and trees. I had to leave my Doll Alisha (who was made for me by an elderly woman whom I visited for work at the start of this year) behind at the lockers because of the possible bomb she might have had under her bloomers. The impact of the Taj is amazing. When we rounded the corner, walked up the steps and got the first glimpse of it, it was just mind-blowing!!!! I have seen so many pictures of the Taj, but I didn’t realise how HUGE it would be! It is GIGANTIC! And what is just so incredible about it is that it is all handmade hundreds of years ago in the 1660’s!!!! The white marble is so immaculately carved, and the taj itself is such a bright white colour I never expected. I never realised that there were flower designs around most of the panels which are so striking, and actually inlaid with thousands of precious stones, so that when you put a torch to the pattern the entire flower lights us. Yes, I learnt most of my facts by tour hopping Haha. I have decided that the best way to describe the taj is to imagine the most immaculately carved white marble chess piece anyone could make, then enlarge that by a million, and there you have- The Taj Mahal!
I will let the pictures of the Agra fort speak for themselves, as it’s really the history of this structure that is so fantastic haha.



(entrance to Agra Fort)



(Me, Katharine and Katie infront of the Taj)

We left back to delhi that evening. The next day we went out shopping which was, as I’ve already said, more fun for me. We were supposed to leave the next night, but Katie needed to be at the farm for teaching, so we left that night on the bus back for Banbassa. We were delivered safely by a driver who played us 11 hours worth of Hindi pop and a conductor who liked to get a little tipsy and dance bollwood style in his seat and sometimes in the aisles. All up, a fantastic glimpse into Indian city life as well as an experience of the Taj that I will never forget!

Photos

for those who dont have facebook, there are a few more pics there for you to see if you wish. im hoping this link works :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=72743&id=1297536432&l=9e94c3da45