Posts Tagged With: India

A golden temple and a remembrance of spilt blood in Amritsar, India

Posted on November 22, 2014 by H-Bomb

IMG_20140325_160016_965_1No one seems to know quite how many temples there are in India, but an accurate count would surely reveal numbers running into the thousands. However, it’s difficult for me to imagine that any of those religious houses could be any more beautiful than the main pavilion of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. I was there during my trip to India that took place from March to April of this year. (Earlier during the same trip, India became the 33rd country on my World Karaoke Tour when I sang in New Delhi.)

A city of about 1.1 million people (ranking 34th in population among India’s cities, per the 2011 census), Amritsar is situated in the Punjab state in northwestern India. Its airport makes it very accessible; I flew there round-trip from New Delhi, a journey with a flying time of about one hour (and my return flight from Amritsar to New Delhi on Air India was my first time flying on a Boeing 787. It was a beautiful and comfortable plane.) Like most of the rest of India, Amritsar is also easily reached via passenger rail service.

The main purpose for my inclusion of Amritsar on my itinerary was my desire to see the Golden Temple, although while in town I also visited a non-religious site of historical significance, as you’ll see. In addition, I’ll tell you about a unique day-trip opportunity from Amritsar. Continue reading →

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Country no. 33 on my World Karaoke Tour: sinking my teeth into India

Posted on October 3, 2014 by H-Bomb

hbomb in delhiTwo days before I flew to India, I had a wisdom tooth removed in New York City. That emergency dental procedure was obviously unanticipated during the time, months earlier, when I was making the travel arrangements for my 2 1/2 week trip to India and Sri Lanka. When I arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport in the Indian capital of New Delhi, I was still suffering intermittent mouth pain (and the soreness would continue to crop up periodically for the rest of the trip). Because I was recovering from oral surgery, and because there are certain precautions that any traveller to India is advised to take, I was carrying a small pharmacy around in my daypack: painkillers; an antibiotic to protect against the risk of infection; anti-malaria pills that my travel doctor had prescribed for me; and Cipro, another antibiotic that I would take if I were to contract the intestinal ailment that’s affectionately known as “Delhi Belly.” (Spoiler alert: I did indeed succumb to Delhi Belly before the trip was over.) But the presence of an open wound in my mouth didn’t prevent me from singing karaoke at my earliest opportunity after landing in a new country! Additionally, one of my trademarks when travelling is to seek out quirky museums; and I found a suitably offbeat one in Delhi.

(A note for my fellow geography geeks: Before I knew any better, I used the terms “New Delhi” and “Delhi” interchangeably. That usage was in error. New Delhi is actually a section of the much larger megalopolis of Delhi. New Delhi’s population is a mere 300,000, give or take, while the complete expanse of Delhi (which is also known as the National Capital Territory of India) harbors nearly 18 million residents at last count. However, New Delhi alone is the capital of the nation and contains all of the governmental institutions. Both the karaoke bar and the museum that are discussed below are located in New Delhi.)

Karaoke: Bringing the sounds of Billy Joel to India

My Indian karaoke debut took place at a joint called Harry’s Karaoke Lounge Bar. Harry’s is on an upper level of a sprawling shopping mall, and while the rest of the mall was deserted on a Sunday night, Harry’s was hopping. Continue reading →

Categories: Asia, travel, World Karaoke Tour | Tags: , , , , , , , | 27 Comments

H-Bomb’s Sunday photo, week 47: a temple carved into a cave in India

Posted on September 21, 2014 by H-Bomb

Hello on the last full day of summer in the northern hemisphere! This week’s featured image comes from India. From the city of Mumbai you can take a ferry to Elephanta Island. That island’s big attraction is a series of five temples that are chiseled into caves. Dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, the rock carvings date back well over one thousand years. The caves are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here’s a glimpse inside one of them:

cave temple in Elephanta

Despite the name of the island on which these temples are found, there are no elephants; but as with seemingly every other temple site that I visited in India, I saw abundant cows, goats, monkeys, and dogs hanging out on the island.

This photo was taken during my trip to India and Sri Lanka in March and April, 2014.

Would you like to explore these caves?

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Categories: Asia, H-Bomb's Friday Photo, travel | Tags: , , , , , | 5 Comments

H-Bomb’s Sunday photo, week 45: the monkey temple in India

Posted on April 13, 2014 by H-Bomb

Hello, yeah, it’s been a while! At the beginning of this week I got back from my epic trip to India and Sri Lanka. And this week’s featured image comes from that journey. Just outside the Indian city of Jaipur in the state of Rajasthan, there’s a temple complex known as Galtaji. Dramatically situated in a mountain pass, the site is commonly referred to as the “Monkey Temple” (Galwar Bagh in Hindi). The reason for that sobriquet has to do with the hundreds of rhesus macaques that run around on the temple grounds. A couple of those resident simians can be seen here:

monkey temple

This photo was taken in March 2014. Incidentally, monkeys are not the only form of wildlife that abounds at Galtaji. Plenty of cows, goats, pigs, and dogs also roam the sacred precincts. (I found monkeys, cows, and stray dogs to be pretty ubiquitous in the parts of India that I visited, even in urban downtowns.) But it’s the monkeys that were especially adorable.

Have you been to, or would you like to visit, India?

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Categories: Asia, H-Bomb's Friday Photo, travel | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

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