Rishikesh

Rishikesh

Today we spent the whole day in Rishikesh, a smaller, quieter holy city on the Ganga River north of Haridwar. I was surprised to see more foreign tourists in this more remote city. Judging from the bare feet and dreadlocks, I think most of them were here for either the spiritual enlightenment in the ashrams or the marijuana, which we were offered by the Sadhus wandering the streets.


Not this guy. He just asked me to take his photo and was just happy to see it on the back of the M8. A few people ask for money, but most don't.

We walked across the Shivanand Jhula bridge and down the river to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s huge ashram complex.

Then, after a great $2 thali lunch on the roof of the Chotiwala café, we walked two kilometers up the river to the next bridge, Lakshman Jhula. It was a beautiful, quiet walk with lots of photo opportunities.



The walk across the bridge and back down, however, was not quiet or beautiful. Many honking truck and buses spewing diesel fumes and trying to run us off the road! I was glad to get back to the market and the river. There were a few people bathing here, but not nearly as many as in Haridwar. There are monkeys and cows everywhere, making a mess and a nuisance of themselves.





I used all three cameras today with the help of my sherpa (Tommy), who carried the heaviest Canon most of the day. He even took a few photos.



As usual, when I got back and downloaded photos, I found myself looking for ones that I remembered shooting but which are on film! We came back to the hotel early to pack because we leave very early in the morning for the 6 hour drive back to Delhi to catch our flight for Varanasi.

The Ganga

Today is our wedding anniversary. We’ve made it 41 years so far! We celebrated by being blessed by a Hindu priest at a temple above Haridwar. He said his blessing for us was that we would return to India with all four of our children. (Since the four “children” are all adults, they may have something to say about that!)

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This was another great day photographically speaking. We spent most of the day walking around Haridwar and watching the pilgrims bathing in the Ganga River. It is freezing cold and windy here so I didn’t try a dip! The rituals associated with the religions here are very complex and I don’t begin to understand them, but the people have been very willing to include us in everything that is going on. There are no foreign tourists here, just thousands of people from all over India who have come to this holy site for religious reasons.









I have no idea what we’ve been eating but all of the food has been delicious – only vegetarian here in Haridwar. Everything is very spicy and we’ve been careful to eat only very hot foods. So far, (knock on wood) we haven’t gotten sick.



The kids here are all so beautiful and they all want their photos made! I'm in danger of running out of hard drive space! I’m still using the M8 and 5D (I needed the long lenses) and will take the M7 out tonight.




Tomorrow we visit Rishikesh, a smaller, quieter pilgrim site - where the Beatles met with their Yogi.

Haridwar

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The six hour drive from Delhi to Haridwar resulted in a severe case of sensory overload for me! A million fantastic photos and I couldn’t take any of them because we had to keep up with traffic or get run over. I tried to relax and just enjoy the scenery (as much as you can relax with two huge trucks or buses come at you in both lanes of a narrow two lane road!) but it was very frustrating. The only way to take all of those great photos would be to walk across India and I don’t have that many years left!

We are in Haridwar where the Ganges (or Ganga as they say here) River flows out of the Himalayas. It’s a holy city which means only vegetarian food and no alcohol. There are lots of ghats, or stairways leading to the river, where pilgrims of several religions come to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges. At sunset there is a ceremony where hundreds of people light candles in small boats made of leaves in filled with flower petals. They float these boats down the river while priests have elaborate rituals on the banks.

I got lots of photos, but when I was downloading them, Lightroom crashed and I can’t get it to restart. The photos are fine and saved on two hard drives but I can’t process them tonight without Lightroom so no photos to show for today! I think I can figure it out tomorrow but it’s way too late to work on tonight.

Independence Day

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After a delicious breakfast buffet of dosai-masala, idli, vada, uthappam and lassi, we watched about 10 minutes of the Independence Day celebration on TV. Then we headed out on a walk by ourselves. All of the streets were closed because of security so there was almost no traffic. We ended up at a couple of Hindu temples where the people welcomed us inside and encouraged me to take photos! The other temples we had been to strictly forbid photography.

We stayed there most of the morning and then went with the guide to more monuments, temples and markets in the afternoon.

I ended up taking the M8 and M7. The big disadvantage to the film camera is that I won’t know what I got until I get back home! I kept looking at the back after each photo but no photos showed up. I kept the 75/1.4 on the M8 and the 24/2.8 on the M7 most of the time. 236 digital photos and 186 film ones.

Tomorrow we leave early for the drive to Haridwar. I hope I’ll be able to find an internet connection there! So far everything has gone very well on this trip.

Arrival and Delhi

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We’re here and with no problems at all. A very thick fog didn’t delay our flight Wednesday morning in Charlotte.

and by the time our plane left Atlanta the fog had lifted.
We changed to an Air France flight in Paris and flew over the Elbruz Mountains in Iran before the sun set for the second time on this very long day.



Jet lag hasn’t set in yet and we enjoyed a very good breakfast buffet at our hotel before getting an early start on sightseeing. We visited several temples and monuments before convincing our guide that we’d really rather wander through markets and the unbelievably busy streets of Old Delhi. I ended up taking over 700 photos this first day, about half with the M8 and half with the Canon 5D. After reviewing them quickly, I’ve decided to leave the Canon at the hotel tomorrow and take the M8 and my M7 with some film. It will certainly be a lot less to carry and a lot less attention-attracting than the Canon cannon!




People were very friendly everywhere we went and only two requested money for photos. Everyone else was very happy to have their photo made. The hassling has been much less than I expected.







Tomorrow is a national holiday – Independence Day – and we’ve been advised to stay in the hotel and watch the parade on TV! Everything will be closed and nobody will be working except the pickpockets, according to our guide.

I saw a saying on a sign in front of the YMCA here that I like:
“Worry is the darkroom in which negatives are developed.”

Pancakes and Packing

The grandkids are here today so I made one of their favorite breakfasts - pancakes with lots of fruit and yogurt. Bennett ate 12!

Now I've deleted all of the files from my M8 and am getting ready to pack it. The Canon stuff is already packed in a Delsey roll-on.





The Leica stuff is still a mess!


I've got to make a final decision about what to take and then start on packing clothes!

India Itinerary

Here is our Indian Itinerary:

1/23 - Leave Charlotte, Atlanta, Paris, Delhi
1/24 - Arrive Delhi, check in apartment
1/25 - Delhi, Red Fort, Mosque
1/26 - Delhi
1/27 - Drive Delhi - Haridwar
1/28 - Haridwar - Rishikesh
1/29 - Haridwar
1/30 - Drive Haridwar - Delhi, Fly Delhi - Varanasi
1/31 - Varanasi, Sarnath
2/1 - Varanasi
2/2 - Fly Varanasi - Khajuraho
2/3 - Panna National Park Jeep Safari
2/4 - Train Khajuraho - Agra
2/5 - Agra
2/6 - Drive Agra - Jaipur
2/7 - Jaipur
2/8 - Drive Jaipur - Bikaner, Camel Safari
2/9 - Bikaner
2/10 - Drive Bikaner - Jaisalmer
2/11 - Jaisalmer Desert Festival
2/12 - Drive Jaisalmer - Jodhpur
2/13 - Jodhpur
2/14 - Drive Jodhpur - Udaipur
2/15 - Udaipur
2/16 - Fly Udaipur - Mumbai - Cochin
2/17 - Cochin
2/18 - Drive Cochin - Kumarakom
2/19 - Kumarakom
2/20 - Drive Kumarakom - Periyar
2/21 - Boat Tour, Lake Periyar
2/22 - Rice Boat Tour, Alleppey
2/23 - Fly Alleppey - Cochin - Mumbai
2/24 - Mumbai, Elephant Caves
2/25 - Mumbai
2/26 - Mumbai, Fly - Paris, Atlanta, Charlotte

This doesn't mean much to me in spite of all of the guide books I've read! I'm sure this first trip will be like most first trips to different countries. We will get to skim the surface and see what we would like to return to on our next trip!

I hope those of you who are familiar with India will contribute ideas for photo opportunities!

Until later -

Sunday, January 20th

It's 25 degrees at the farm this morning. Not the 17 that was predicted but far too cold for me! The snow yesterday didn't stick around very long. The birds are all emptying the feeders as fast as I can fill them. Today we have American Goldfinches - at least 50 on one feeder - Purple finches, Cardinals, Titmice, Sparrows, Chickadees, Downy woodpeckers, Red-bellied woodpeckers, Doves, Bluebirds, Junkos, and a Cowbird.

Cathy and the grandkids are coming today from Columbia and Tim is coming from Charleston. I think we'll all go back to the house where it's warm!

I really need to get busy packing for India. I've packed the Canon stuff but nothing else yet. Here is what I'm planning to take Leicawise:

21/2.8 (maybe - haven't decided about this one for sure)
24/2.8 ASPH
35/1.4
35/2.0 ASPH
50/1.0 Noctilux
75/1.4
90/2 - the big silver one
Maybe the 135 but I haven't decided about that one yet either.

And the 12 Voigtlander. I'm taking the M7 and 20 rolls of Provia just in case something happens to my M8. I'm pretty sure the lens I'll use the most is the 35/1.4. That's the one that stays on my M8 most of the time.

On the Canon 5D, I imagine I'll use the 85/1.2 most - even though that combination is huge!

My Leica stuff will all go in a Lowepro backpack with my computer and the Canon stuff is in the roll-on Delsey.

Tina

Leica Traveler

January 19

I'm starting this blog because my husband and I leave for India on Wednesday and I hope to use the blog so friends and family can travel through India with us. If we find internet connections, I'll be able to upload photos along the way.

Right now I'm trying to pack so that we don't have to check any luggage. Since I'm taking a Leica M8 digital camera, a Leica M7 film camera, about 6 Leica M lenses, my Canon 5D and 4 lenses plus all of the electronic and digital equipment and connectors, that means we won't be taking many clothes!

It's snowing today in South Carolina but I hope it will be warm in India!