Diwali

Diwali (the festival of lights) celebrates the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair… Legend says it honours the return of the god Rama from exile after 14 years (Ramayana)

But as in every country the spiritual is covered/forgotten by the running around. It’s the biggest festival here that’s for sure, and as many people told me “it’s like your Christmas”. And it is, like Christmas, people run around buying, buying, and buying!

What I really enjoyed is all the mini festivals around Diwali; you have the one for the husband and wife or the one for brothers and sisters… Diwali itself it’s crazy, fireworks non-stop all night long (like a Dutch new year), and they say the pollution in Delhi the next day is up to 1000, as an exemple when is around 100 in Brussels they ring the alert (and you can drive at more than 90km/h on the motorway)

We decided to enjoy the long weekend and went to visit Jaipur, the pink city! (to be continued)

Phool Waalon ki Sair

Phool Waalon Ki Sair

Or procession of flower sellers or flower festival… or the fair to bring Hindu a Muslins together… 

The story tells that the wife of Akbar Shah II vowed to offer flowers fans (pankhas) if her son that had killed a british resident and was in exile would be returned to her. As a devout lady she did and went to Merauli.

Surekha took us around to visit the important places, and the next day we were lucky enough to see some qawwali (I’ll try to upload a video later)

Translation: these are the prayer mats of Muinuddin Chishti, Fariduddin Ganj Shakar and Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki

Jahaz Mahal
where the festival started...

Jharna (waterfall)

Yogmaya Mandir

offering of floral Pankha

Bin it! (@Lodi Garden)

21 days!

Just because I need to say it! today it's my 21st day without smoking!!!

Back to school!

Il y a seulement quelques mois j'ai juré de ne plus jamais étudier... me revoilà! back to school!

Cours intensif de hindi, 3h par jour! Ca ne semble pas beaucoup mais je vous assure mon cerveau surchauffe. Plus, étudier avec des Japonais et des Koreans a de quoi me donner des complexes, après un jour ils connaissaient deja tt l'alphabet!!!

Bref... j'ai l'impression d'être de retour en maternelle! 

Holy cow!

I just don't get it!
Today I got stuck behind a cow for a while on the road, and really don't understand, so you can't push her out of the way, too holy to touch, but it's ok if it eats rubbish??? 

yoga... ouch...

J'ai tanné tout le monde avant de partir avec mon "je vais faire du yoga en Inde", le berceau du yoga, son origine... blah blah blah... J'ai eu mon premier cours cette semaine, et ça fait mal! 

Certes j’aurais du demander quel était le niveau du cours avant d’y aller, mais au meme temps personne m’a demandé si j’avais fais du yoga avant… bref…. j’arrive dans une salle relativement petite, il fait 35° dehors donc je m’attend naïvement à avoir de l’airco (ha! bête pensé sophie, bête pensé, un ventilo fait l’affaire =  ce sont les européens qui ont inventé le bikram yoga ici c’est birkham tt les jours!!!) tout est dans le noir, je dois trouver un espace, je me place, je me rend vite compte que de la où je suis je ne peux pas tricher et qu’il aurai vraiment fallut que je retienne quelques noms des différentes poses. En me tordant le cou, j'arrive tant bien que mal plus ou moins à suivre. Ce qui ne suit pas du tout sont mes bras (bizarrement les jambes ça va), ils crient à l’aide, mes muscles tremblotent et dès que je suis prête a faire une pause/arrêter la prof dit “challenge yourself a bit” (accent indian) donc en tant que bonne têtue que je suis “I challenge myself” and keep going… Je ne vous raconte pas mon état à la fin (t-shirt trompé, rouge comme une tomate…)…

Mais cela ne s'est pas arrêté la... le pire fut le lendemain... me brosser les dents, me coiffer, me gratter, tousser, respirer a fait mal!!! 

J'y retourne demain! 

Turisteando continues to Hauz Khas...

On the back streets of Hauz Khas Village..

main road

by night

Lodi Garden

As we say in spanish a sunday "turisteando"

Bada Gumbad Complex 

Tomb of Sikander Lodi

Tomb of Muhammad Shah

Lotus temple

bye bye hotel

hello Vasant Kunj

First real day!

Today felt like the 1st day in Delhi!

Last night we finally moved out of the hotel into a "serviced apartment", where we will stay until we go to Korea... When we come back we should (i'd like to underline should) get the permanent apartment at the same time that our stuff should be arriving from Brussels...

Today on my to do list I had "buy food"! Yes, it sounds stupid but here is a bit of a crusade, a market for fruits and vegs and other for the rest... You can also go to "Auchan" or similar and get everything for a ridiculous amount of money...

So... and this is when it becomes surrealistic... I asked Anil (driver) to pick me up at 10am at home (I am still not really confortable with this whole driver thing), when we arrived to the market, he doesn't want to let me go alone, saying is too dangerous! I have a feeling he's more scared than me that something will happen to me, if he only new where I've been! Anyway I do not argue, thinking he can help me negotiate, as he knows the prices... But... that didn't seem to work, as my stupid blond hair always have the same effect (aka. multiply the price by 10)... I quickly run out of cash (my fault I didn't have a clue how much it will be...) so we have to leave (via a ATM)...

From there the plan is Khan Market. Since I arrived to Delhi I've been hearing about this market, and a bit like a film that people praised too much... it went a bit flop... I do have to recognise they do have nice shops (and that I did ended up buying myself a shirt) but more on the clothes/furniture side... by then is 1pm and I haven't bought half of the goods I needed... tired, hot, and above all: lazy, I head to the mall where the "big bazar" is. I tried to console myself think that it is a good compromise, is not Auchan but it has everything and is local. Funnily enough, and this I wont be able to tell Anil (i'll be ashamed) on the way to the entrance I got distracted by a saloon that did pedicures for next to nothing... an hour a half later I was out with half a bag of goods and very nice feet! 

Summary of the day: it took me 4h and 30 min to get most of the groceries we needed, but I have nice feet!

I think I'm gonna like Delhi! 

An improvised tour of Delhi!

Qui dit improvisé, dit aussi pas préparé! J'avais sur moi le petit appareil photo que j'utilise pour filmer les apparts que nous visitons (30 jusque là, du coup je filme pour me rappeler lequel est lequel). 

Mais ce qui veut dire que ce tour improvisé de New Delhi, n'est pas correctement photographié! Je vous attends pour retourner! 

The India Gate: A war memorial (WWI)

Jantar Mantar: the astronomical observatory built in 1724

Just for you Bea!!!