Driving to Abu Dhabi

Last week I was back in the United Arab Emirates for this year's junior varsity volleyball tournament. My boys played well, but I have to admit it was a disheartening sixth (out of six) place finish. What was fascinating for me was that this time the school decided to fly us into Dubai and then we took a bus to Abu Dhabi, a 2-3 hour drive. The bonus - a chance to see some of the unusual architecture scattered around Dubai, Abu Dhabi and regions between. There are the twisty tall buildings that dominate the Dubai skyline. Some unusual ones that for some reason made me think of snails or mice. One that looked like a wheel, while another reminded me of the train of a wedding dress. There is always an overwhelming mosque - this time the pure white Sheikh Zayed mosque, along with smaller ones dotted around the city. One thing for sure, it is a big change from the architecture you see in Delhi!

The AES boys and girls jv volleyball teams

The temples of Khajuraho

In a small village in the heart of India lies one of the true gems of Indian history. The temples at Khajuraho are completely covered in intricate carvings. Layer upon layer entice the eye as you stand there looking. Each new angle revealing some new detail. A mix of Hindu and Jain temples, it is a bit shocking in conservative India, to find temples proudly displaying their erotic carvings. Providing a glimpse of different positions and even partners in the stone work. As you wander the grounds each new temple provides some other tidbit that is special - the carved boar under the Varaha Pavillion, camels being pulled along, an elephant tearing apart a person right next to a couple in flagrante delicto, elephants next to Ganesh statues, cow headed people and half male half female individuals, kisses and couplings...and that is almost all on the exterior of the temples. Inside you have tightly enclosed spaces, still filled with carvings, a Hindu or Jain representations taking the center stage, geometric patterns on the ceilings and columns. When you stop to think it is almost too much to take in. What a treasure that has been preserved from the 10th century.

The backwaters of Kerala

Bright houses are nestled behind built up banks. Women wash dishes and clothes on the edge of the canal, a built in step allowing them to stand in the water while they do their work. A few people sit ad fish for small catch off the bank. Clothes hung out to dry reflect in the water. Men paddle dug out canoes full of one thing or another (bananas, grass clippings etc.) on their way to deliver them somewhere.It is pretty easy to see that life revolves around the canals and rivers in the backwaters of Kerala. Taking a boat tour or spending the night on a houseboat is an amazingly relaxing way to explore this area of India, sitting out watching life in the region pass by as you motor down the river. Getting a glimpse of the everyday while not having to worry about anything.

 

I can't recommend the company we went with enough for our night on the houseboat. Lakes & Lagoons is a well run company with excellent boats and great food.

Life on the river

An early morning boat ride is definitely the way to get a taste of what living on the edge of the Ganges river means in Varanasi. A bit like sanctioned voyeurism, it is one of the main activities that is recommended in the city for tourists. I must admit I enjoyed the morning trip more than the evening boat ride, in part because the riverside seemed a bit calmer as everyone was going about their usual morning activities. Families and individuals wading into the water at one of the many ghats to become ritually clean (despite the fact that the water is anything but). Wooden boats floating in the water waiting for tourists to schedule a ride. Washer men out scrubbing sheets and laying them to dry on the concrete steps, creating a patchwork of colors. Some sadhus (holy men) sitting down by the edge for a morning meditation. Pot washers and net menders getting to work. The men at the cremation grounds waiting for the first demand for their services and wood. Just a town getting down to daily life despite the enormous number of people who pass through each year.

Devils Circuit

Last weekend we drove two hours to get to the outskirts of Delhi to take part in the Devils Circuit - a mud run/obstacle course that occurs twice a year here. The drive was so long because we had to get out to the construction site for Wave City, after all where else could you lay down a 5 km track, dig holes, make several pits of mud and in general make a mess of a space? A construction site has the added benefit of already coming with some of its own obstacle like the giant concrete pipes we clambered over and ran through. There we about 12-15 different obstacles to get across, although the benefit of participating in the non-competitive section was that it didn't matter if we chose not to do some. I generally did one section of an obstacle and then skipped the two repeats that followed. I was surprised to find that it wasn't as strenuous of exercise as I had anticipated (perhaps because I walked around too much of it), but I definitely came home covered in mud and with bruises just about everywhere.

Photo op in the middle of the race...Why not? We're not really competing.

We had a group of about 20 teachers and spouses that joined up to do the race together. As if having that many foreigners in one group wasn't enough to attract a lot of attention we also decided to try to win the costume contest (a successful endeavor) - which resulted in us wearing tiger hats, pinning tails to our back and painting some stripes onto our faces. In a way I liked that better...at least we earned the attention we got instead of it just coming our way for existing. It was definitely a lot of fun to go through the race with so many other people, and to be able to identify our group so handily from across the course: "Go tigers!" Good dirty fun for sure.

Nice and clean before the race

After the muddy run

I even ended up on the banner of their face book page! I must admit, the hats have definitely made it easier to find pictures that involve our group!

Real Estate Office

Today I went out to an area that is being developed as a "smart city" for an obstacle course/mud run (more on that at a later date perhaps, but where else but a construction site could you dig pits and make large patches of mud?). Considering that they began in 2011 I can't say that there is much there to encourage people to think about moving out there. It is most definitely still a construction site. About the only thing that appeared complete was the one acre gardens that the different areas will be built around. In no way does it look anything like their advertisements. However, what I found most interesting was that as we were driving out I noticed the real estate "offices" where you could buy into the building, prepaying for an apartment in the development. I just have to ask, would you really trust a real estate agent that works out of a tent on the side of the road?

River obstacles

Our wooden row boat bumps into something with a loud thump. I look over the side and see a bamboo structure floating in the water, a section still solid with mud resembles several arms outreached. A bit of cloth is wrapped around the base. This is what remains of a statue of Durga that got dropped into the river yesterday. It was hard not to notice the groups of devotees that came clapping and chanting their way down the steps of a ghat yesterday evening as we sat to watch the aarti. A group seemed to descend every 5-10 minutes, sometimes one right after another, carrying one to four statues painted up and dressed in finery. The statues started as small as your arm and extended to one and a half the height of the men trying to navigate their way down the steps without endangering their holy cargo. At the bottom they loaded the statue into a boat and set off onto the Ganges river to continue their ceremony for several hours before placing the statue in the Ganges and allowing it to float away. Turns out my visit to Varanasi coincided with the Durga puja.