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November 07, 2007
More India: Hidden Delhi
A and I finally merged our massive photosets, took out exact duplicates, and did some work to pick the best couple of hundred photos, so if you ask us for an in-person slideshow, you know what you're getting yourself into. In the meantime, I've updated Flickr with the missing photos; Jama Masjid, a hugemongous mosque in Old Delhi, more Delhi shots, Jantar Mantar, a huge stone astro-nomical and -logical observatory, and some other random shots.
Jama Masjid
We went there because my finely-honed "late afternoon tropical thunderstorm" senses were tingling, and we figured we could find refuge. After wisely toting our shoes (you can't wear shoes in mosques), the sky broke open and deluged the less fortunate:
After the rainstorm we slipped and slided and clammered up a tall and steep minaret/tower to get a view of the city; it was... harrowing, unlit, narrow, and super crowded with 2-way traffic up a 1-way staircase. We survived, with some great shots. 
Some pictures of India Gate, government buildings, and the presidential house:
A Hindu temple, and the Bahai temple:
There are three more choice photos from our morning at Humayun's Tomb that I must share. First:
There is one parrot, and five ninjas, in this photo.
Second, I come halfway across the world to find a country overrun by mesquite trees? Next time I'll save money and jetlag and go to west texas:
Third:
Important lesson for female travellers: don't get your picture taken with men outside of family groups. That shit-eating grin on the guy's face? Yeah, he's grabbing Audrey's ass. Not that I can blame him, really, but still.
Posted by griffjon at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)
More India: On Public Tranist
If you haven't seen Wes Anderson's latest; The Darjeeling Limited, I highly recommend it. Standard Anderson, people dealing with distant/absent parents and their own messed up lives, but filmed in India. Not really India-accurate, but hilarious nonetheless, and some awesome shots/scenery. If only the trains were actually remotely like that.
The main for of transit is autorickshaws, which I blogged about from India with my "three riddles" :
1) What's the only thing scarier than an autorickshaw ride during rush hour with a shaky transmission?
2) How many autorickshaws does to take to get you to where you want to go?
3) How many lanes does an Indian road have?
(answers at the bottom)
So, what IS an ARS anyhow? It's a three-wheeled gocart-type affair, with a pull-start motor and motorcycle-like handlebar controls. They're about 1/2 as wide as a normal car, and very dexterous moving through traffic. Here's some visual explanation: 
not enough?? Fine. Here's a video of a normal, calm ride in a rickshaw. The (unusual) blasting bollywood tunes help you imagine you're a dashing hero out to save a modest female!
So while ARSs are the best in-town transit, it's the trains that get you between towns. Now, you have to fill out forms for everything at the train station; to get tickets, to request information about what ticket to get, to store your luggage... You even have to sign a log book if you wait in the waiting rooms for the reserved-class cars (the ones where you have a reserved seat, as opposed to the "hope you can squeeze on" style. Fully in line with the standards of bureacracy one comes to expect, we discovered where these forms go: 
note that this was taken at a chest-high window into a room filled with piles of old forms. I'm sure there's a 27B/6 in there somewhere....
You spend lots of time waiting for trains. We had five train rides, 2 of which were 5+ hours late, 2 ~1 hr late, and one on time. You discover all sorts of things while waiting or riding, such as new flavors of chips (warning, may cause mischeviousness):
And you remember why you're paying exhorbitant amounts for a reserved seat:
Excuse me, conductor, this cow doesn't have a ticket:
Rickshaw Quiz Answers!
1) an autorickshaw ride during rush hour with a *good* transmission
2) One more.
3) One more. Tags: delhi indi
Posted by griffjon at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)
More India: Jaipur's Jantar Mantar (Observatory)
There's not much text I can throw in here to really explain or improve the photos, so here's an eruption of photos from an astronomical/logical site in Jaipur:
Each of these "small" tools was aligned for its specific zodiac, you can guess ours?
This is a REALLY LARGE SUNDIAL:
This was a fancy star chart/calendar:
And a planet chart:
This smaller sundial could get within 20 seconds accuracy, the large one had 2 second accuracy:
Posted by griffjon at 03:41 PM | Comments (0)
More India: Jain Temples in Jaisalmer's Fort
Another case of words detracting from the photos:
Posted by griffjon at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)
More India: Best photo from India
I so envy Audrey for being the one to capture this moment (by explicit and almost forced request of the village elder, in the glasses, mind you)
Posted by griffjon at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)