January 10 and 11, 2010
I figure I'll just do one combined blog post instead of two separate ones to catch up!
So on the 10th we were in Lucknow and touring the sites (if you hadn't caught on yet, this was standard operating procedure for us: travel, see sights lol). Lucknow is an interesting city because the Muslims in the city are mostly Shi'ites, so the mosques we visited were noticeably different than all the ones we'd seen previously.
Even the exterior looks a bit different from all the previous ones.
Yet another baoli. This was probably the biggest one we saw though, because this is just the ENTRANCE to it! there's another whole section behind the gate there.
The interior of the well-proper.
The inside of the mosque was ridiculously colorful! the lime-green paint and weird bluish lighting were jarring compared to the rest of the mosques.
Ok, this was pretty darn sweet. This mosque had a labyrinth on the roof! (Alas, it did not have a David Bowie...) So it was cool to spend a half an hour or so just climbing through the different passageways and trying to find our way in and out of it!
Similar hallway, different lighting.
The roof of the mosque.
This was the interior of another mosque that we visited-these chandeliers are donated from all over the world. I think the green one is from Japan and the white one on the right is from England (I can't remember where the others are from...)
Our guide in the mosque standing alongside a feature that we only really encountered in lucknow-miniatures of other mosques and buildings displayed inside the life-size ones. They're something along the lines of mini-shrines...
We also visited some of the British buildings in Lucknow. This is the site of a major siege during the Indian uprising in 1857 where the British were besieged by Sepoys who had switched sides and were fighting for Indian independence.
We went boating on the river that runs through Lucknow, rounding out our methods of travel (we now had air, ground, and water transportation under our belt).
Waiting to board the rowboats and see the river.
There was a shrine just sitting out there in the middle of the river. Pretty neat.
One of the boats from our group WAAY behind us-the poor guy rowing that boat 1) ended up with the most and physically largest from our group and 2) was the oldest of the rowers. So they took just a bit longer to make the same journey our other boats took.
The Chief Minister (basically Governor) of Uttar Pradesh is a Dalit, or Untouchable. Her name is Kumari Mayawati, and her political success is seen as a symbol of hope for other Dalits. This is a picture of a city that she's literally building from scratch for other Dalits so that they have a place to live that they are accepted and not discriminated against. They have a little stream that EVERYONE, Dalits included, knows is just tap water. However, Dalits will make pilgrimages from around the region and around the country just to come here and take some of this glorified tap water back with them: it's sacred to them.
In addition to an entirely new city, Mayawati is building statues of herself all over the place. She has been confronted about the seeming vanity and pretentiousness that this implies. Her response is, "I build statues of myself because I know that no one who comes after me will build them." Quite the sobering thought.
Just couldn't resist taking a photo of the menu at the restaurant we ate at that night...lol
On the next day, January 11th, we continued our tour of Lucknow.
More British buildings in the city.
I really liked the open top to this tower.
This used to be the house of a man named Claude Martin-it's now a school.
With cannons! lol
This is actually a picture of a picture. They had a room where they had posted photography that some students had taken around the campus. This is from the roof of the building and really stood out to me!
Some Lucknow-style tombs.
So beautiful and picturesque.
We basically had the afternoon to ourselves, so Zack and I went with one of the students from Lucknow University (Siddarth) and two of the girls from our group to explore the city a bit more. It was awesome going with Sid because he was able to get us discounts on everything and knew a lot of the local hotspots and flavors like this:
This is Sukha Aloo Tikki. It's basically fried potatoes in a yogurty mix and is perhaps one of the most delicious things I had in India! My mouth is watering just thinking about it... :)
When we got back we had the craziest experience of the trip. It's almost beyond words. The administrators from the university arranged for us to have dinner and a dance party with the girls from the university....needless to say, things got ridiculous VERY quickly.
The next day was basically us travelling from northern India to southern India, so I'll save my particular crazy story as an "exciting opener" for the next blog update. However, I WILL say that I don't think I've ever been in so many photos in the span of two hours or so in my life! I only managed to get my camera out and have someone take a picture of me once over the course of the evening, so I'll leave you with that picture from the evening:
Tomorrow: what exactly was so crazy about the dance party??? Well i'll tell you! Plus one or two more sites before jumping on a plane and heading south to Chennai!
ok that blue lighting is so crazy!!! and can't wait to hear bout the crazy dance party!
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