Finally Getting To See India

About two weeks ago Jeff finally had a day off work. We (me, Jeff, and two other employees from Jeff's company) took the opportunity to head out of town and see the Taj Mahal. We hired a driver and headed out in the early evening. Because traffic is so chaotic, it took us about 6.5 hours to get there, an hour and a half longer than the 4.5-5 hours we were expecting. But we got there safe and that's all that matters!

Right now is prime tourist season in Agra because the weather is not too warm. Before we left we called a bunch of different hotels looking for open rooms, but everywhere was booked solid. We decided to just head out and hope to find open rooms when we got there. Our car was pretty big, so if all else failed we could sleep there. It sounded like a good idea when we left, but after the long drive I was really dreading the thought of marching from hotel to hotel searching for a room. The first hotel we came across was the Holiday Inn. We had called them before and they said they were booked, so I was not optimistic. Jeff and his trainee from the Delhi office went inside while I waited in the car. I saw them getting ready to leave the lobby with no keys in hand, so I looked in my book for addresses of other hotels. When I looked back up they had disappeared. I had no idea where they went but I was thinking maybe they were using the phone to call other hotels. Suddenly they reappeared with two room keys! The hotel had two cancelations just minutes before we arrived. We were all ecstatic that the first hotel we tried worked out! Plus the hotel was really nice, which is important, because the standards of hotel vary widely in Agra. We all slept soundly on the most comfortable beds we'd laid on in over a month!

The next morning we met up early feeling refreshed. Our driver took us straight to the Taj Mahal, as we knew the earlier we got there the smaller the crowds would be. To prevent pollution from damaging the marble, no one can drive within one kilometer of the Taj Mahal. We easily could have walked the one kilometer, but in the parking lot there were many carts pulled by camels to take you there. The ride was really cheap, so we decided why not just take the cart and have the experience. Before we all hopped in the carriage they let me hop on top of the camel for a photo op!

We reached the gates and there in front of us was the Taj Mahal.

It was just as incredible as we had imagined. The pool in front of the Taj has countless fountains, which look really cool when they are on. But when they are off you can get a great picture of the Taj and its reflection. We were lucky and got photos with the fountains on and off.

We were so impressed by the intricate inlays all around the Taj. It's amazing to think of how much time it must have taken to complete all of this work.

I am sure most of you know, but the Taj Mahal was built as a mausoleum for Emperor Shah Jahan's favorite wife, so while the outside is incredible, there is not too much to see on the inside. There's just one center chamber. It still has the same gem and marble inlay as the outside, but unfortunately over time a lot of the detail has been destroyed.

After a quick stop at a nearby shop for some souvenirs, we headed to the Agra Fort. The fort is absolutely massive. Only a small portion is open to the public, but it was impressive.

The outside and the entrance were crawling with monkeys, which was totally unique.

The fort has tons of different rooms and all kinds of passageways to explore.

Jeff and the boys found an old narrow passageway that lead to this balcony.

We were also able to get a good view of the Taj Mahal from the fort.

After the fort we decided to head out of town, in hopes of seeing a bit of Delhi on our way back to Panipat. We would have liked to stay longer, but at least we hit the two big sights! The drive to Delhi took quite a long time, but luckily we made a stop at McDonald's along the way so we had full bellies. In Delhi we briefly drove around the diplomatic center and took some pictures. We then headed to the city center which is full of shops and restaurants. We did a little shopping and enjoyed a good old American meal at TGI Fridays. We then hopped in the car and made it back to Panipat by 11:00 at night. We were all exhausted from our whirlwind 28 hour trip, but it was definitely worth it to get out and see more of what India has to offer.

P.S. We meant to post this a while ago, but we have been without internet for the past week!

"Life in Chicago is Easy"

That is a direct quote from Jeff's trainee on this assignment. He is originally from India and works out of the New Delhi office, but he spent about a year in Chicago training, so he can definitely compare the two. The following are a few things he pointed out that make life in Chicago so easy:

1. The power almost never goes out in Chicago, and when it does, it is usually because of a major event like a storm. In Panipat (and we understand the Delhi region too), the power constantly goes out for absolutely no reason at all. The first time it happened we were kind of freaked out, but when it kept happening we realized it must be a chronic problem. I did a little research, and I guess the demand for power grossly exceeds amount of power the city's system can generate. I am stuck in the hotel room for the majority of the day, so I started keeping a tally of how many times the power goes out. We've been here four weeks and on average the power has gone out about 12 times a day. It usually doesn't stay out for more than 10 seconds or so, but sometimes it lasts up to a minute. Many hotels have back-up generators that kick on pretty quickly to minimize the impact, but we aren't sure that our hotel has one as some of the outages can get quite lengthy. We've gotten used to it, but it still can get pretty annoying when you are in the bathroom or the elevator or in the middle of doing something online (the wireless internet goes out when the power goes out too).

2. Driving in Chicago is easy. That's right, I said it, driving in Chicago is easy . . . compared to driving in India. Jeff's company doesn't let employees drive here, and I can definitely see why! In the big cities people are earning more money and one of their favorite big ticket purchases is a new car. That has lead to a boom of vehicles on roads that simply weren't built for this level of traffic. Driving is not only hard because of the number of cars, but also because of the way Indians drive. I think it must have something to do with the culture, but Indians drive very impatiently. If you leave the littlest space in front of you, it is pretty much guaranteed that a car will sneak in there. If there is a little gap between your car and the edge of the road, someone will drive on the side of the road and try to pass you. People drive so close to each other that you constantly feel like there is going to be an accident. However, traffic moves so slow that accidents don't seem extremely common.

That is city driving. Driving in the country, and out here in Panipat is slightly different. There is still a great deal of traffic, and people still drive very impatiently and use their horns incessantly, but there are not nearly as many cars here. But if there aren't as many cars, then how can there be traffic you ask. Good question. In Chicago traffic may get backed up, but at least you know you are only fighting with other cars and trucks for space. In India cars, trucks, rickshaws, bicycles, ox/horse/donkey/camel carts, tractors, pedestrians and stray herds of animals are all competing for space on the roads. Now all of these vehicles cannot move at the same pace, so it is a constant battle to get around the slow moving vehicles and drive at a reasonable speed. I don't know what the speed limit is around here, but in those few rare moments where you are unencumbered by traffic you are fearful that something is going to jump in the road and cause a serious high speed accident (we have seen a few of these and they are not pretty). As of 2000 (which was the latest statistics I could find) an average of 270 people died on the roads each day in India.

One thing that initially drove us crazy is the number of times that Indians honk their horns. In the US you may hear a horn honking every so often if a person is driving like a jerk. In India, horns are constantly honked so that other drivers know you are there. If there is someone in your lane that is going to slow you just keep honking until he moves over. If you are frustrated with the guy in front of you and want to pass him in an incredibly tight spot, you just keep honking so that everyone around you knows what you are doing. It almost seems like drivers don't really use their mirrors or watch for other drivers; they just honk and people will get out of their way. It is really something amazing. When we are back in the city in traffic we will have to try and take a video to show you what it is really like. The thing that is amazing though is that despite all of the chaos on the roads, no one seems to be getting angry. They all just accept that this is a part of life and they don't let it stress them out. Even as a passenger I get completely stressed out by the driving, but the drivers are cool as cucumbers.

3. You don't have to constantly worry about what could possibly be in your food in Chicago. Anyone who talked to me in the very brief amount of time we had to prepare for this job knows that I was borderline paranoid about getting sick from the food in India. Hygiene isn't quite the same here, and I had read reviews of our hotel detailing horrible illnesses from the food. We started off slow, eating very little hotel food, but now we full meals and so far we have been okay. Jeff was extremely sick two weeks ago and could hardly move for several days. We're not sure if it was from the food, our malaria medicine, or just exhaustion (he's been working 10-14 hours every day) but luckily he is much better now.

4. There are not nearly as many people in Chicago as there are in India. And not just that there are not so many people, but there are not so many really poor people. Everywhere you look here you cannot help but see the poorest of poor. It seems to me that in this town you either live in a gated community or in a shack (if you are lucky). Our hotel, which is light years away from many of the hotels we have stayed in, is by far the nicest place in town. We chuckled to ourselves because it is a "three star hotel," but compared to the city surrounding it, this is a 25 star hotel.

5. You don't have to worry about having hot water in Chicago. In India, access to hot water is not as easy as you would think. Even at our extremely nice hotel in Delhi our first night here, the water was luke-warm at best. At our hotel here in Panipat the water is hot, which is excellent, but it is only available a few hours a day (a lesson I learned when I attempted to take a shower the first afternoon here). And lets just say that the water pressure leaves something to be desired.

6. There are places to go and things to do in Chicago. This comment is specifically aimed at the city of Panipat, not the country of India as a whole, as there are TONS of places to go in the country. In Panipat however there is absolutely positively nowhere to go and nothing to do. There is work and there is the hotel and that is it. There are no shopping malls or restaurants or bars. There is work and there is the hotel and that is pretty much it. If you look at our pictures and videos from the previous post I think you will agree.

Some may read this post and think that it is just us sitting here complaining. I can see how it can come off that way, but we had a purpose. Being here has really opened our eyes to a whole different lifestyle, different than any country we have been to before. While we may complain about silly things in Chicago, we really have so much to be thankful for. Life may not be perfect all the time, but remember, it could be worse!

Portait of Panipat

Panipat is really the poorest place either of us have seen. A large portion of the population lives in tents, shacks, or small huts made of cowpies and covered in straw (there are tons of these huts around, and most of them are used to store cowpies for fuel, but we were told that people live in the larger huts). There really is no way to explain what we see on a day to day basis, so we thought pictures/videos would say it best.

There are literally thousands of stray dogs all over the city. Tell me these puppies aren't adorable!

This is a stack of cowpies on the side of the road. The more moist ones are used to create the huts while the dried ones are stored inside to be used as fuel.

Some roadside shops.

This is a very common sight. It's kind of cut off, but there are at least 10 people in this tiny rickshaw.

These two pictures are of the same small village in the city. It consists of hundreds of tents, shacks and cowpie huts all crammed together.

Like the pictures, these videos were all taken from the car, so they move pretty quickly, but we think they show what life in Panipat is like.

This is a video of that same village above.

This is another small village in Panipat. If you watch closely you can see the cow pie huts as well as some stone shacks. There are also a lot of shops and wild animals in this area.

This video pretty much sums up what its like to drive in Panipat. Bear in mind this is a divided highway meant for speedy driving.

You can see a lot of the cowpie/straw huts in the background and the foreground here. You can also see a lot of cowpies laying out to dry.

Happy Indian Republic Day

January 26th is Republic Day in India. It is a huge celebration throughout the country that commemorates the signing of the Constitution of India. In Delhi there is a huge parade from the president's palace to and old fort (you can read all about the parade in the link above). Military regiments from all over India come in their dress uniforms to march in the celebration. When we were driving from Delhi to Panipat we passed by a regiment on camels making their way to town. They had the most incredibly awesome moustaches. Unfortunately we weren't able to snap any pictures.

Here in Panipat there was music and celebrating in the streets. The company Jeff is working with had their own parade and in the days leading up to Republic Day spent a great deal of time working on their floats. We weren't able to attend the parade, but we did see the floats in the company's township the day after the parade. Our particular favorite was this peacock, as the employees who were supposed to be helping Jeff and his coworkers spent many work hours creating it.

Something you may not know (at least we didn't know it): peacocks are the national bird of India and you often see them walking along the side of the road.

We're Here

We know it has been a long time since we've posted, but we wanted to let you all know that we are here in Panipat, India. We didn't think we would have internet access here, but it was a very happy surprise when we learned that our hotel had recently installed wireless internet. We intended to post earlier, but our internet service has been disrupted for at least the past week. In case you haven't heard, five internet cables were cut around the Middle East. It's still unclear what happened, but there are many theories out there. In any case we were sans internet for many, many days. It seems that things are back to normal, so we hope to be posting more about India soon!

Penguins on Parade

We couldn't help but notice that there was this 6-foot tall painted fiberglass penguin outside of our hotel in Tulsa.

We figured it was just a clever advertisement and didn't think much of it until two weeks later we noticed another penguin in a different part of the city. Another week later we saw a third penguin and realized some research was in order. We learned that the penguins were part of the "Penguins on Parade," a fundraiser for the Tulsa zoo to bring an African Penguin exhibit to the zoo a few years ago. There are about two dozen painted penguins throughout the city of Tulsa, and I really wanted to try and find all of them! I couldn't find a website that listed out all of the locations, but after some scouting we were able to find quite a few of these cute little buggers. Unfortunately, because we had to leave Tulsa so quickly we weren't able to get to all of the ones we had found, but we did find a few and thought we would share some of the pictures with you.

This next one is clearly a faker, but he gets credit for effort :)

What a Crazy Life We Lead

As of 5:00 this morning we are now back home. Though the job in Tulsa was not yet complete, there was a more pressing job that Jeff was needed for, so we left Tulsa yesterday evening (after watching the awesome Packer victory) and drove straight through the night. As soon as we get our visas sorted out we are heading to Panipat, India. It is a smaller city in northern India, a few hours north of New Delhi. We have talked to other employees who have been to this location, and it seems like we will not have internet access, so it is possible that you will not hear from us for a while. We should be there for about a month or so. I will try to post a few fun things in the next few days before we leave so you don't miss us too much!

More of the Ice Storm Aftermath

The weather here has been warmer lately, so a few days ago Jeff and I headed to a local park to play some disc golf. Every single tree in the entire park seemed to be effected by the ice storm. Here are a bunch of pictures to show you just a bit more of the devastation.

Seeing these definitely reminds us how lucky we were that we suffered basically no impact from the storm, while just a mile from here it looks like a war zone.

Ice Storm

As I am sure many of you have heard (and some of you experienced), last weekend Oklahoma was hit by a pretty bad ice storm. Several hundred thousand people in the greater Tulsa area lost power, but we we VERY lucky to be in what seems like the one area of town that kept power throughout the whole storm. The worst of the storm hit on Sunday during the day. Starting Sunday night the hotel here became completely booked with people who had no power at home. It was absolutely amazing how many people they were able to cram into this little building!

Lucky for us Jeff had the weekend off, so we opted to stay indoors Sunday and enjoy the view from our hotel windows. On Monday Jeff had to go to work at midnight (I guess technically Tuesday morning). We needed to get groceries, but upon seeing our cars coated in over 1/2 inch of ice we decided that we would walk to Chipotle across the street. The place was an absolute zoo, probably because it was one of the only restaurants open, and because everyone from the hotel seemed to be going there. After waiting in line for about 15 minutes we learned that they were out of pork, chicken, tomatoes (also including all tomato salsas) and chips. Clearly the supply truck wasn't able to get there!

After eating we decided that we needed to try and tackle the ice covering the cars so Jeff could get to work. Jeff wasn't feeling well, so I took on the job myself. I have seen some serious snow and ice storms while living in Minneapolis, but I have never had to scrape so much ice from a car! It was insane. Here are some pictures of my car to give you an idea of what it was like.

After about an hour I was able to get both of our cars clean. Jeff headed off to work and got to see the damage as he drove. There were branches snapped off trees everywhere you looked. Some trees looked like they had been split right down the middle. Neither of us had ever seen anything like that! Unfortunately Jeff couldn't take pictures from the car, but here are a few pictures of the tiny trees in the hotel parking lot.

Even though these are small trees, you can see how the weight of all of this ice could snap branches on huge trees, thus pulling down all of the power lines.

On Tuesday I made it to the grocery store and it looked like people were stocking up for the apocalypse! Shelves with essentials (bread, lunch meat, soup, water, etc.) were completely bare. It was a surreal experience that made us realize how bad it was in the rest of the city. We really did get lucky!

It's been a week since the storm, and things are starting to look a lot better. Last I heard there are still over one hundred thousand people in the Tulsa area without power. Tomorrow is the first day that Tulsa public schools will be open, but I guess seven schools will not reopen because they still don't have power. We went to the grocery store and the shelves have been restocked. Chipotle is even offering a full menu now :) I guess slowly but surely life is getting back to normal.

By Popular Demand

As some of you know, we were able to find cute Russian style fur hats while we were in Russia last month. Last time we were there it was spring and the selection was slim, but since this time we were there right at the start of winter it was easy to find hats that we liked. We've had a few requests to see a picture of the hats, so here you go:

The picture isn't the best, but Jeff's is made of brown leather and otter fur and mine is made of mink. They will definitely keep us warm on all these cold winter days we are having!

We're in Tulsa

We are so excited because for the first time in our travels we have an assignment in the United States!!!! On Sunday we packed up my car and made the 11 hour drive from Chicago to Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was so fun to not have to worry about airport delays, luggage weight restrictions, jet lag, or any of the other not so glamorous parts of international travel. We just packed the car with as much stuff as we wanted and headed out on our own time. It was fantastic!

Our hotel room is beyond perfect, as we finally have an actual kitchen to use, but it is hard to want to cook when we have all of our favorite restaurants within just a mile of our hotel! In case you can't tell, we are really excited about this job :) We should be here until early January, but at least we will get to spend Christmas and new year's in the US!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and were able to spend time with loved ones. Because of a family emergency, we were able to return from Russia on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and spent the holidays with our families. It was really a wonderful time and we are glad we were finally able to be here for at least one holiday! We will be heading out again shortly, but more on that in another post!

A Little Lesson in Aviation History

Throughout modern history there have been many famous Russian aviators. Two such pilots have hailed from Nizhny Novgorod. On our tour of Nizhny a few weeks back our translator taught us a little bit about these two famous men.

The first is Pyotr Nesterov. Nesterov was a pioneer in the area of in flight acrobatics. In 1913 he was the first person to ever perform a 360-degree loop in an airplane. To this day, when pilots perform a loop it is known as a Nesterov loop. But that is not the end of Mr. Nesterov's fame. He was also the first pilot to destroy another aircraft in flight. During World War I Nesterov was a pilot for the Russian military. While in flight he came across an enemy spy plane. At the time planes were not armed, so Nesterov had no way to stop this enemy plane. Instead of allowing the plane into Russian territory, Nesterov rammed the plane with his own plane, causing the spy plane to crash. It is believed that he intended to ram the plane with his landing gear, but instead Nesterov hit it with his propeller, causing his plane to crash also. Both pilots died in the crash. While Nesterov did not survive this first attempted at ramming an enemy aircraft, his idea was perfected over the years and was used frequently and successfully by Russian pilots during World War II. There are several monuments and plaques honoring Nesterov throughout Nizhny. These are a few that we found and took pictures of.

A replica of the plane Nesterov flew when he rammed the spy plane

The largest monument to Nesterov

A close up of the same monument (you can actually see the snow falling in this one!)

I have no idea what this says or stands for, but I can read that it says Nesterov

The second famous aviator from Nizhny is Valery Chkalov. Chkalov was the first pilot to fly non-stop from Russia to the United States flying over the North Pole. The nearly 5,500 mile flight from Moscow to Vancouver, Washington took place in 1937 and lasted 63 hours. Chkalov too has a huge monument in Nizhny (as well as several in Washington state). Here are a few pictures we took of the monument.

Jeff and I in front of the monument

The monument is in front of the Kremlin (notice what a difference a week makes in terms of the weather!)

Close up of the base of the monument, which has a map of the historic flight

Happy National Unity Day

Today, November 4th, is a huge holiday here in Russia: National Unity Day. The day is similar to the Fourth of July in the US, as it celebrates the Russian victory over the Polish which lead to the unification of Russia as a state. The holiday was celebrated from 1613 until 1916. However, in 1917, following the Bolshevik Revolution, the holiday was abandoned and replaced on November 7th by the Day of Accord and Conciliation (which celebrated the Bolshevik Revolution instead). The Great October Socialist Revolution (another name for the Bolshevik Revolution) was celebrated as a national holiday until 2005 when President Vladimir Putin eliminated it and reinstated National Unity Day on November 4th. We are told that there are groups throughout Russia that still celebrate November 7th, but they are a minority.

The day is particularly important here in Nizhny Novgorod because the cavalry of troops that came to Moscow and defeated the Polish originated in Nizhny Novgorod. If any of you have ever been to the Red Square in Moscow, you surely saw this monument in front of St. Basil's Cathedral (we took this picture last time we were here in Russia).

When we saw this monument we really didn't understand what it stood for, as the plaque is written in Russian. However, last weekend while touring the city with our translator we learned that it was a monument to Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. Minin was a common merchant from Nizhny who was called upon to arm and organize the volunteer forces that would march to Moscow. During the battle he was Prince Pozharsky's "right-hand man." Prince Pozharsky was the man who actually lead the troops in the liberation battle. When the monument was originally produced it was supposed to lie in the Kremlin here in Nizhny, but apparently Moscow requested it come to the capitol and reside in the Moscow Kremlin instead. Nizhny did not want to be deprived of the monument's beauty and significance, so an exact replica sits in front of a cathedral just outside of the Nizhny Kremlin's lower gates.

Late last week Jeff received an email alert from his company reminding us of the holiday weekend. It warned us that there would be large public gatherings and a lot of drinking. As in the US, any time you have the combination of drinking and large groups of people, there is a slight chance for criminal activity, so we were advised to shy away from the celebrations. However, we did walk to the grocery store during the afternoon and observed some of the interesting preparations for the evening's celebration. First, like Fourth of July in Chicago, many of the major streets were closed (and regulated by traffic police) to accommodate the increase in pedestrian traffic. Second, and I think most interesting, liquor was not being sold during the day. We are guessing this is to cut down on over indulgence and the violence that can often accompany it. We are not sure if this was city wide, or just at our grocery store which is near the Kremlin, but in any case the aisles of liquor were blocked off and all displays were covered in plastic wrap.

Later in the evening, as we were preparing to watch the Packer's game, Jeff and I started hearing extremely loud bangs outside of our hotel room. At first we figured it was just cars backfiring (that happens here ALL the time), but when we looked out our window we realized there was a huge fireworks display! Though we weren't out on the streets, we felt like we were part of the celebration, as we think they were being shot off just a few blocks from our hotel. We took a few pictures and the following video.