A little bit of this and that...

Some 'situations' from the first five weeks in India....

At the Hard Rock Cafe, New Delhi.
Upcoming Guitar Hero, Anders at the stage.

Cybercity, Gurgaon.
Population of Gurgaon is aprox. 1.8 Mio

One of the 'dangers' of India is 'Electrificution'.
It actually means the danger of being killed by loose hanging power cables. Electrical installation in India are extremely poor and totally out of control. The last month we read about two cases with people being 'electrified' by opening their car door towards an iron fence - unfortunately sending 10.000 volts to the car. So we avoid going under loose hanging cables and touching any electrical installations.
The tree on the picture  has been hanging there for more than a week - taken from the newspaper 'Times of India'

Interesting reading from our hometown....
(The Galleria is a shopping mall near our apartment)

'Times of India' front page article about the government
doing nothing the last 30 years, to prepare for monsoon rain.
One day in July, 123mm rain came within few hours.
The 3rd highest in 10 years 

I think I'll find my old Supertramp album...   (Nice video)

Agra and Taj Mahal

Last weekend we went to see the Taj Mahal.

A 3-4 hour drive from Delhi to the city Agra.

Taj Mahal is a white marblemausoleum located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".

Taj Mahal is regarded by many as the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Indian architectural styles.

In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We came to Taj Mahal early morning at 08.00.
Few people and only 32 degrees

Taj Mahal is symmetric.
Looks the same from all sides

Amazing shapes....

It's hard to see on this picture (but easy on the top picture). The four towers are build with a 2 degree slope away from Taj Mahal. This to protect the Taj Mahal against earthquakes.

Should an earthquake occur, the four towers would collapse away from the Taj Mahal, without any damage to the buidling. Smart thinking.

The construction of Taj Mahal began around 1632 and was completed around 1653.

Beautiful stone inlays - all done by hand work.
The black stones are from Belgium
(Noir Belge)
The red stones illuminates when
exposing light to them...

A skilled guide told us all
about Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal has many optical illusions. Look at the middle column....

Picture from Google explaining it...

Seen from the side... the surface is flat, but seems not to be from the distance.

Definetly worth seeing...

Ceramics and shopping

We stopped by a roadside ceramic shop.
The family lived there and were very kind and helpfull


















Local made handicraft is cheap in India.
About 300 rs for a Flower vase (aprox. 30 Dkr).

House of the family

India made food, ceramics, handicrafts, clothes and stuff are usually cheap to buy. 

Imported foods and stuff however is pretty expensive. So don't belive India is cheap country to visit or live in - it is not. Unless you turn into a vegetarian and only eat Indian food. 

650rs for a pack of Lurpak (65 Dkr)
Worth every rupiee...

Tuborg gains market share in India
150rs per bottle (15 DKr)

Great Danish cheese - 580rs (58 DKr)

Still searching for our favourite:  Castello....

Registration and other authorities

Working in India requires an Employment Visa followed by registration at the Foreign Registration Office (FRO).

FRO is located in a Gurgaon Police Station, and being there was really an experience.
Normally you pay money for entering the Horror Chamber in Amusement Parks, but this one was for free...

FRO Gurgaon

Mr. White (!) kindly helped us during the registration process.
You can see the FRO archive behind him.

The registration took about 2 hours (mostly waiting), with 3-4 power black-outs where everything went dark.

Armed guard at ATM credit card machine

My self-written police report
Approved by the New Delhi Police department

Here we are at a local police station in New Delhi. 
Unfortunately my wallet was stolen at the Indira Ghandi Museum.
The police were very helpfull, and surprisingly two days later, they called me and said they have found my wallet!
Money was missing but all cards, driver license and notes were there.
Of course I've blocked my credit cards, so now I'll have to wait for new cards to be send from Denmark.

Transport and the weather

The weather in India is.... different than the weather we know in Denmark.

Arriving mid July, we knew we were coming to India in the middle of the Monsoon season, meaning 2-4 months of heavy rain.  India has all climate zones including desert in Rajasthan. 

90% of rain comes from June to to October, and in Cherrapunjee the maximum yearly 'amount' of rain falling from the sky, was 26.461 mm.
That is 26,5 meter of water!

In Denmark yearly average is about 745 mm (0,75 meter).



Driving about two hours after heavy monsoon rain

Water everywhere.....

... and you never know when your car goes into a (pretty) deep hole, which the Indian roads are well known for.

Besides holes in the road, you also meet diverse wildlife along the Indian roads. We have seen holy cows, horses, stray dogs, donkeys, camels, monkeys, pigs, cats, squirrels and (very big) water buffalos.

This fellow came directly towards us, 
and I thought I should do the 'Crocodile Dundee trick' to pass. But the driver just continued, and the buffalo passed the car by just a few centimeters - a close encounter, but that's how it is down here.













Water buffalos coming out of the water.
The weight of a grown up water buffalo is 800-1200 kg
(Objects in the mirror are bigger than they appear)




Having a flat tyre?
No problem . we'll fix it.....

    Engine broke down?

No problem - we'll fix it

Lots of TucTuc's in India
Anders and Adam on the backseat - Rule #1: Keep your arms inside the vehicle!

10-12 people inside - no problem
We will make school timely...

Two-wheeler with 6 legs.
Traffic law says only driver needs to wear helmet.
And helmets are expensive in India as you can see...

Where we live

Here's some pictures of our new home.....

We live in an apartment on the 14th floor in this 17 floor building.
It's good to be in the heights in terms of mosquitos and dust.
As you can see, the view is good. To the right you will drive towards Delhi. Left goes further out of Gurgaon, and it's amazing to see all the new buildings, schools, universities and malls that are under construction for about the next 6-8 miles!  We wonder were all the people should come from to fill up those buildings - but then again, India has a population of 1.24 BN people (that is 1.240.000.000). Passing China by 2020 according to statistics.

Besides taking a Hindi course, Merete has become very familiar with the Indian cuisine.... she makes very good food and as 'European Like' as it can be :-)

I also tried the role as Master Chef, but ended up with Genuine Indian Pancakes (you know, the ones that comes in boxes and you only have to apply water) - but the kids and Merete liked them and Zico too :-)



We use gas for cooking as every other Indian (having a house) does.
The red/white device you can spot in the upper right corner, is an emergency light.
The electricity goes down (totally) about 4-8 times a day (!) - and most often between 18 and 22.
The downtime is only about 30-60 sec. but it's still annoying. We have installed a few backup power supply's to protect electronic equipment and give just a little light when it happens.

My home office

Sunset - seen from our apartment (taken by Merete, iPhone)