Sources and goodbye

Sources: 

Taj Mahal:http://www.timesofindiatravel.com/india/akbars-mausoleum-inside600.jpg

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal

http://goindia.about.com/od/populartrainroutes/qt/delhi-agra-trains.htm

Cricket: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket                   17.10.2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_in_India 17.10.2012

 Kenya: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya , 17.10.12

Massai people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasai_people , 17.10.2012

Air Baloon: http://www.worldtravelguide.net/kenya/things-to-do             17.10.12

http://www.eastafricashuttles.com/10-       14daysluxurylodgesafaris2007/migration-kenyasafari.htm     17.10.12

http://www.explorerkenya.com/hot_air_balloon_safari.html  17.10.12

Facts about India: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_literature
http://nn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indisk_dans
http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India
http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spr%C3%A5k_i_India
Bollywood: http://snl.no/Bollywood
http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood
Standing Babas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_Baba

Goodbye!

- Julie & Stian

Hot air ballooning:

We had already been on a lion safari when we saw a big poster in the middle of the centrum. They promoted for a firma that can take over the Masai Mara Park (a part of Serengeti) in a hot air balloon! We thought we had to call the number on the poster and listen to what they had to offer us. And we were absolutely astounded. We heard that the Masai Mara Wildebeest Migration were in Kenya just now. The Masai Mara Wildebeest Migration is one of the Hillman Wonders of the World and is supposed to be incredible. It’s a gathering of many different animals that’s moving all at the same time.

       

We didn’t hesitate one second and we got even more enthusiastic when we heard that they started the day after we rang.  We thought this could be a fantastic end to our trip. Think. Sailing over Masai Mara in the sunrise, looking down on all of the animals. It had to incredible.

We had to get up early that morning, because we were leaving very early. The people of the firma came and picked us up before we headed against the edge of the national park. We had never been so excited before on the trip, although we had experienced a lot.

        

We arrived at the camp and we saw the huge monster of a hot air balloon. We jumped into it with our guide and then we started to rise up against the sky. It was exactly what we had hoped. It was the most incredible thing we had ever seen in all over our life. It was long rows of animals down on the ground. Buffalos, zebras and antelopes grazed and we saw they drink from a waterhole. It was so astonishing that it can’t be explained with ordinary words.

      

After a few hours we started to go down and when we came out of the balloon we were severed a good lunch. You could say that it was a good start on our last day in Kenya. We were sad for going home, but it would be good to come home also. Thank you for reading our blog and I hoped you learned a lot about India and Kenya and we hope you enjoy the blog.

We took some pictures here also and we just had to show them to you:

A picture taken of the group in the camp:

 And a picture of some amazing elephants from our view:

- Julie & Stian 

Lion safari!

Hello! Today has been a great day! We woke up very early, got ourselves dressed and ate some breakfast before we went to see our guide for the lion safari. Our guide was a quite fat lady with her face full of wrinkles. She was black in her skin. You could see it on her that she’s been through a tough life. She was very kind and happy, and so positive about the safari we were going on.

We were in a group with six others. And our guide, Nancy also had a helper with her. We drove to the Savannah in jeeps, the guide and her helper had also brought weapons. It was not so reassuring.

It took us about two hours to reach the savannah, the weather was so hot and the air was so dry. In the start we actually thought the whole thing was boring, we were just hiding our self in a bush waiting for the lions to come. We were waiting for an hour or something before we finally saw a lion. And it was just not one lion, it was seven! A whole herd of lions was coming straight at us, I actually become afraid for a moment, but the lions were not noticed us. 

Of course Stian had brought he’s camera, so we got some fantastic pictures. It was amazing to be so close to the lions, to see them hunt and just watch them relax in the shadow of a tree. The whole expedition took us ten hours, and then we finally return to our hotel room, we was so tired and exhausted that we just fall asleep and slept for twelve hours.           
  




Hope you have a nice day!

- Julie & Stian

The Maasais

We were super lucky today. A native man who we met at the airport had today invited us to his tribe. We hadn’t expected something like this, but when he asked us if we wanted to, we answered yes immediately. The man came from a local tribe that are called The Maasias in Kenya, like the Aborigines in Australia. They’re the native people in Kenya. They live in the bush and many of them are nomadic. They’re known for the way they’re dressing themselves and they’re also known for being fearsome warriors.

         We arrived the tribe at the middle of the day when it was warmest, but it didn’t seem to bother them. A man came over to us and started to shake our hands to show that we’re welcome here. We were so glad because this is something that we had whished to experience in all of our life. When the man we met when we came here first was done with talking with us, the rest of the tribe came to us. We were a bit scared because they started to touch our faces and pinch us on the arms like we were food, but it all ended well.

          After a long day with much informative experiences like how to make jewellery and bracelets, we were invited to the ritual ceremony and the dinner. One of the oldest mans in the tribe, which we had seen before that day and then he seemed a little bit tired and sick and we got to know that he was the witch doctor. He was a totally different person now. He had gone into a trance there he jumped up and down and were totally crazy in front of everybody. Meanwhile, when we were watching him dance, the guy we met at the airport told us about their hunters and warriors. The hunters of the tribe were absolutely amazing. They had apparently learned how to steal meat from a lion! We were so excited when we heard this story and couldn’t wait for the time we’re going out to hunt. You should take a look how the Maasais steal the food for the lion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBpu4DAvwI8

Here you also have a picture of the men of the tribe:

Have a nice day! 

- Julie & Stian

KENYA

Our next stop is now Kenya. Kenya is a country in east- Africa and they have borders to Somalia, Etiopia, South Sudan, Tanzania and have a coastline to The Indian Ocean. Their main languages are Swahili and English. The reason that Kenya is now speaking English is because Kenya was once a British colony. They were a British colony from 1895 to 1920 and a part of The British East-Africa. Kenya got many attractions and some of them could be the Serengeti, a big national park and ecosystem which houses the largest mammal migration which is on top ten of nature wonders (a small bit of Serengeti is in Kenya, the rest in Tanzania) and the big Victoria Lake where you can discover incredible wild life.

        We’re looking forward to this trip and we hope that this trip is going to be as good as the trip in India. Kenya is a bit more different country than India in many ways ex the landscape and the land itself.  The country is well known for its wildlife and for being extremely hot, but this is something we think is going to be top. We can’t wait to experience and tell you more about our absolutely fantastic trip. So keep reading and in a short time we will be back for even more of the good stuff.

- Julie & Stian 

One of the best experiences in our lives.

The village we were visiting was so different from any other things I have seen before. It was not like the Indian slum or ghetto. The people weren’t poor like the people in the ghetto, they had no money, but they had small farms and some animals. They seemed so happy and satisfied with their life. They appreciate the simple things in life that I never had noticed before.

The bus trip to the village took us seven hours. The bus was old and had an odour of old sweat and dirt. The road was old and bumpy and it was so hot inside the bus that I and Stian almost died. But it’s became better then we arrived the village. A large crowd was waiting for us, and welcomed us with food and reverent greetings.  It was clear that they were not used to having other than their own family where, so t they almost looked at us like gods.

They offered us their food. When we were going to sleep, they gave up their beds for us, and when we said that it was not necessary, they almost become angry at us.

We learned to milk the cows and take care of the goats. I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen, learning traditional ways to cook Indian food. They were using tandoori ovens, and the food they were making was so good! Stian spend most of his time with the young boys the village, they were teaching him how to hunt and how to set a trap for animals.

The Tandoorioven 

We participated in a ceremony for one of their gods and where they sacrifice animals in their god's name and dancing ritual dances while they were dressed like spirits. They had also prepared a huge meal and we were singing and dancing all the night.

I learned a lot from these days in the village. It has been really fun to get so close into a culture that is so different from your own. Both I and Stian look forward to three more exciting weeks in Kenya. See you soon!

Next stop: KENYA!!

- Julie & Stian

A golden opportunity.

We only have a week left in India, and we have done a lot of thing that we will never forget. Quite spontaneously we decided to take a trip to a village in the mountains. We did not reach to go all the way to Nepal, which really was the plan. But one evening we went to a bar, and a cute local man start talking to us. He was very kind, and when we told him about our cancelled plans about Nepal, he offered us to join him back to his home village. We looked at this as a golden opportunity, so we said yes. We’re leaving tomorrow, and we can’t update you before we are back from the village. We’re so excited! See you soon.

Picture from the day we visited the Ganges

-Julie & Stian

Cricket match

Now we are going to something we have looked forward too for a while. The cricket match between two of the best teams in the whole world, the national teams from Pakistan and India. A very interesting game, but first some facts about cricket. Cricket is the national sport in India, just like skiing is the national sport in Norway. The national team to India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup and they’re one of the best cricket nations in the whole world. We think the point of the game is a bit silly, because you score points out of running a lap. We bet the Indians share our sight when it’s coming to football, when 22 players try to get the ball in the back of the net.

              And now over to the best thing with this, the game. Pakistan and India are one of the biggest nations in this sport and we were really excited. We had ordered tickets early so we some pretty nice spots, in the middle of one of the long sides. The game was absolutely breath taking match. The Indians went up to the lead and kept the lead through the whole match. The match was great, but something that we think was even greater was the atmosphere and the people on the stadium. Today we really got a view over the Indian people, in the normal life because they doesn’t care what tourists thinks about them on a match, something which was really special. We’ll recommend this also for everybody that are just a bit interested in sports and are travelling to India. If you want to see the highlights of the match, you could see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLcM1ptMnlA&feature=fvst

We also took some pictures this time also:

(India in green and Pakistan in blue)

- Julie and Stian. 

Bollywood!

Hello! Bollywood was amazing! It was so much to see there, but we were not allowed to take pictures. 

Bollywood is a term for the Indian film industry based in Mumbai. Bollywood makes ca. 1000 films each year. Actually, Bollywood is bigger than Hollywood. It was so cool to be in the studio to watch the dancers practicing the dances that will be in some of the movies. We were also allowed into a studio where they were making a film. That was really fascinating. The producers only let in a few special people. 

Since Bollywood account for most of the film production in India and all of the actor’s heads there, I think it was really cool to walk around and see the famous preserved scenes and set pieces. 

- Julie and Stian 

Taj Mahal

Today we were going to Agra and the fantastic temple Taj Mahal. We were very excited because we had heard that this was the best attraction in the whole India and the story about this place is also incredible fascinating. Taj Mahal were build of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the year 1631. He built this building in honour of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to their 14^th children. Today Taj Mahal is one of the eight wonders in the world on UNESCO’s list. If you want to read more about Taj Mahal you can find it right here: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/252

               We arrived Agra after a train trip from Mumbai early in the morning. The sight we saw was absolutely incredible. The temple loomed over the terrain and it was just like we expected, it was amazing. We met our guide right outside the temple. He showed us around and the absolute highlight were when we went inside the temple. The walls and the roof were adorned in mosaic and the Indian architecture was magnificent.

                We will really recommend to be early out to see the temple because we think there is a completely other atmosphere when you can look for yourself. So keep reading our blog and we will come back with a new post pretty soon.

Here are some pictures from our trip to Taj Mahal:

Inside the temple:

Hope you have a great day!

- Julie and Stian 

Standing babas.

 Today we woke up, got ourselves dressed and ate a lovely breakfast at a very cute chai Shack. After that we went to a bus-terminal near Mumbay. The bus trip took us about two hours, we were visiting the standing Baba's temple. 
I assume most of you do not know what they stand Baba temple is. It’s a temple for Hindu monks who has vowed to stand, not sitting or lying down even to sleep.  This is a self-inflicted corporal punishment intended to help bring spiritual enlightenment. The monks are also called Khareshwar, and this monastic order are primarily found in India, but are not limited to that country.
I think the whole thing was horrible. How can they torture them self like that? Their feet’s was swollen and sore. It made me sick. The sickest thing is then they are asleep, they hang them self in a rope, but their feets are always touching the ground. 
The babas (the monks calls them selvs for that), was telling us incredible stories about India, and the Hindu-culture. I actually found the journey to this temple very usefull!

This is the ugliest thing I ever seen.

Even that it was creepy and nasty to be there, I also think it was very interesting to see. And I think it’s cool that my friends never had done this before.

- Julie and Stian

Some facts about India

Hello guys! We have just been to a restaurant named Raja and eaten chicken tandoori, it was so good and spicy, and the chicken flesh was so juicy and good! I can understand that the Tandoori-oven has gotten so good review. I have never tasted anything like that. Amazing!

I thought you maybe would be interested in some facts about India. India is a very exiting country with lots of culture and history. India becomes an independent nation inn 1947. It was Mahatma Gandhi who led India to victory through non-violent protests. Today India is a republic and the second most populous county in the world.
New Delhi is the capital of India, and over 400 different languages ​​are spoken in India, the main language is Hindu. We are lucky because in India they use English as their lingua franca. So the communication is not a problem.

India is an old country with a lot of history and culture. India has been a British colony, but the country has retained many of the old traditions, like dancing, cocking, religious rituals and literature.
The dance methods in India are very famous all over the world. The dance expresses feelings or religious expression. In Bollywood (India’s version of Hollywood) dance is widely used.

In India they use a lot of hot spices, and breads like chapatti end roti. Many Indians are vegetarians so spiced peas and beans are very typical. 81,0 % of Indians are Hindus, therefor the cow is preserved. But they eat a lot of goat, lamb, chicken and fish. 

Chicken Tandoori. 

The Indian literature is based on religious texts and different spellings. The Indian literature is very extensive, and includes infinitely many ways to write. The literature in India is different from place to place and depends on religion or belief. The most normal languages ​​to write in are Urdu, English and Sanskrit, but there are many languages ​​in India. Therefore, it is difficult to give India a specific literature. One of the most famous literary works in India is Mahabharata, which is a book consisting of 18 small books. Mahabharata is one of the world's biggest literary works. No we are going to visit Bollywood, see you soon!

-         Julie and Stian 

- Julie og Stian

Finally in India.

Today we finally  arrived India early in the morning. The flight took us a long time, but we think it’s totally worth it. It’s so amazing, we have dreamed about this our eternal life. Finally we’re in India. Me and my big brother, Stian, have saved money for this backpacker tour for many years. We’re staying in India for three weeks, and after lovely three weeks in India, we’re going to Kenya for another three weeks. We're so excited!
In India there are many things to see and do. We’re going to see Taj Mahal, take a bath in Ganges, visit Bollywood, eat spicy food and we’re also going on a day trip to Nepal. We have not decided all the entire thing we are about do yet, but of course we will update you with the latest news! See you soon.

  We have not seen so much of the city yet

-Julie & Stian