31 août 2006
The Taj Mahal
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We wake up very early (5:45 am!!!) and walk towards the Taj Mahal, certainly the most extravagant monument built for love. The Taj was built by Emperor Shah Jahan as an ode of love for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their ninth child in 1631. The death of the Mumtaz left the emperor so heartbroken that he decided to build this monument as a tribute to her. The construction took 22 years to complete. In total, 20,000 people from India and central Asia worked on this masterpiece. Interestingly, this monument (that includes a mosque) built by a Muslim emperor has become the emblem of modern India.
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This Mogul masterpiece itself stands on a raised marble platform on the end of the ornamental gardens. The central structure is made of semi translucent white marble, carved with flowers and inlaid with thousands of semiprecious stones. The guide shows us some amazing optical illusions made by the best architects brought from Persia and Turkey. The black marble pieces were shipped all the way from Belgium. The construction is a model of geometry and symmetry.
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It’s not too crowded yet and we have the possibility to enjoy the monument with enough serenity. We obviously take the shot of the year ( so far…): the Taj with its reflection on the small lake. After a couple of hours, and as more tourists are rushing in, we decide to leave the place, wondering about love and its follies. It is not a happy ending for Emperor Shah though. As he was about to built a second Taj Mahal (the black Taj), on the other side of the river, to be buried there and view his beloved wife for eternity, his son – apparently worried about all the money extravagantly spent on those buildings – had him arrested and sent him to the Red Fort, where he died several years later.
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Walking the Taj
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Rita and the Taj's Mosque
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Taj Mosque's Painted Ceiling
30 août 2006
People of Agra
A blind man at the Taj Mahal
A hair dresser in the street
Children playing
Woman inside Baby Taj
A woman in the street
A child's hand
29 août 2006
Agra
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The next morning we head to Agra, roughly 170 kms away from Delhi. There are lots of people around, and every kind of means of transportation one can imagine. It’s crowded everywhere, people busy wandering around. We don’t drive fast, but that’s fine, we’re not in a rush. It takes us 4 hours to reach Agra. Agra is a busy place. (it looks like there are lots of busy cities in India…) We tour the city. 
It’s the first time we travel with a private way of transportation - our own taxi - and I have to say, it’s a real pleasure to discover India that way. Hassle free, no time lost in train and bus stations, no worries with our increasingly heavy luggage…, etc). We discover some nice locations with stunning views of the Taj (just by the river). We shall visit it the next day. It’s indeed best – if one wishes to avoid the crowds and enjoy Taj’s serenity - to visit either in very early morning or late afternoon. For today we thus visit Itimad-ud-Daulah (nicknamed Baby Taj), the tomb of Mizra Ghiyas, a Persian nobleman. The building is unfairly overshadowed by its famous neighbour. We wander around the tomb and the superb gardens. Families come to spend some time, children play, some pray. It’s a festival of colours, perfumes and sensations. We go back to the hotel and get some rest.
Tips
Hotel: Ganga Ratan (1000 Rs, Breakfast not included), close to Taj Mahal. Room a bit dark, but ok. With A/C.
Lunch at Only Restaurant, good food and efficient service.
28 août 2006
Arrival at Delhi
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Leaving Africa from Nairobi, Kenya, the first encounter with India shall be Mumbai. There was a short connection on arrival at Bombay airoport and we rush out of the plane to find the Air India office. When we ask whether we should pass by immigration first, the officer tells us loudly ‘JOIN THE CROWD!’ I look ahead and I suddenly see myself in front of hundreds of noisy people. I then understand we have no chance of getting on the scheduled flight. We end up missing our flight to Delhi and get another one 4 hours later. Our driver Tinkoo is at the airport to welcome us. He shall drive us to all the locations in Rajasthan we intend to visit. During Jérémie’s last stay in Delhi, he completely fell in love with the national car: the Ambassador.
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With its typical 1960s style, it’s as if we’re back in time. We shall thus drive in style! No real surprises so far. Tinkoo is in his late 40s, discreet, ready to help and to answer our questions. Jérémie had it all arranged before our departure and made sure there is no misunderstanding in what we planed for our trip. No push to go a friend’s hotel or to make lengthy tours to souvenir shops (for whole of those drivers usually receive commission fees to bring customers. More later on tips for renting a car with driver). On that first day we want to take it easy before hitting the road. We go to the Red Fort where Rita succeeds in getting an Indian fare ticket (5 Rps as compared to 100 Rps for a foreigner fee). A bit tired, we don’t last long. Later, we go for dinner at Tinkoo’s house. It strikes me how people can manage to live happily with so little. The walls of their 2 rooms-house are decorated with pictures of Hindu Gods; the fridge is in the bedroom as there seems to be no other place to put it. His daughter and son come to greet us and suddenly invade my chair with the family photo albums, explaining each time who’s who and where, some photos are yellowish but all are well kept and presented. The wife is in the kitchen, preparing food. I go to help and get to learn how she prepares good chapatti. The plates are on the table but the wife sits aside: she’s fasting today and only drinks water. The paneer - a fermented cheese dish - is wonderful. We thank Tankoo and his family - and get back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Tips:
Hotel: Broadway: good location next to Connaught Place, staff are not so smiley but service is good. The room is well kept and has AC and hot water. The price is 1500Rps for a single room including tax and a good breakfast. A double room is 2300+taxes.
The restaurant downstairs Chor Bizarre has a nice interior and seems always full.(an key sign when it comes to eat in India)
Airport to city by taxi: 40 to 45 minutes
Shopping: the Tibetan market seems to have things from all over India.
We'll spend more time in Delhi at the end of our trip, so more tips to come soon.
23 août 2006
Trip in India
For those who follow our trips closely, it won't be a surprise to know we're currently in India. We've focused our attention on Rajasthan - the Maharajas historical fiefdoms. Very soon, we shall start posting our various experiences and encounters in this surprising country. Some great photos too. With luck, we've succeeded escaping the massive floods that hit the region very recently. We're now in Haridwar, a holy city on the Gange river, north of Delhi.
So a bit of patience, and in the coming days, you shall know it all through our travel journals, photos and travel tips. We're back to Goma late this week.
In the meantime, if you fancy sending us news through your comments, don't hesitate.
20 août 2006
Mao
Mao Tsé Toung, de Philip Short
Une des nombreuses biographies de Mao, par le correspondant de la BBC pendant les années 70 et 80. Mao, qui vécut près de 80 ans, dont plus de 40 ans passées au pouvoir, a eu une influence indéniable sur l'histoire de ce pays. L'ouvrage retrace ses années de jeunesse, et son apprentissage politique progressif. Ses doutes, ses revirements, puis ses certitudes, qui deviendront vite des dogmatismes. La plus grande partie de l'ouvrage se passe donc durant les années de lutte avec le parti communiste, et l'influence croissante de Mao dans la hiérarchie du parti. On y découvre son sens de l'organisation, sa capacité à mener les hommes, ses compétences de chef de guerre, et son irrésistible montée au pouvoir. Les relations tumultueuses avec le régime stalinien, qui marqueront fortement les relations sino-russes de l'après guerre. L'auteur s'attarde relativement peu sur les années au pouvoir de Mao et on peut certainement regretter que les événements qui vont si profondément marquer la Chine et les chinois soient traité de cette manière. Si l'auteur est rapide pour déclamer le génie militaire de Mao, il se fait plus discret sur les choix catastrophiques au niveau économique (le Grand Bond en Avant) ainsi que la folie meurtrière de la Révolution Culturelle. Cela reste cependant une biographie intéressante, principalement sur la vie de Mao pré-1949.
Mao, A life, by Philip Short
Of the three great tyrants of the 20th century - Hitler, Stalin, and Mao - the West generally knows the least about the latter. What we do know is that he was every bit as genocidal in his policies as either of the other two great villains of the age. In fact, in purely statistical terms, Mao might have been responsible for the deaths of more people than Hitler and Stalin combined.
In this biography, Short draws on a wealth of hitherto untapped sources to fashion an uncanny portrait of Mao Zedong. His Mao is a warrior-poet who gradually lost vital components of his humanity in his exclusive devotion to a cause. By Short's reckoning, Mao's megalomaniacal ambition led to such disasters as the Great Leap Forward (1958-1960), the collectivization and production drive that ended in apocalyptic failure as 20 million Chinese starved to death, and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1969), during which hundreds of thousands were tortured, arrested or executed.
The real strength of this book is the great use of primary sources and the great job the author did on Mao's early life and the history of China from the fall of the Qing Dynasty to the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. The main fault I have with the book is that the author just did not do as good a job of the post-1949 Mao and China. However the pre-1949 stuff was great.
Where Short does error occasionally is in his emphasis. Sometimes he designates paragraphs to minor squabbling, then reveals a major change in only one short sentence, which will cause confusion to those who like to skim read. He also donates hundreds of pages to the communist army build up, then only ten or so to the actual post WWII battle for supreme victory over Chiang Kai-Shek.
However don't let these quibbles put you off- for those that want a greater understanding of Maoism and the amazing Red Army victory encapsulating the legendary and heroic 'Long March', you will find this book very enlightening.
Where the book loses its balance is that not enough is made of Mao's real failures, both as a leader and as a human being. Short faces these failures square on, but late and he does not give them nearly enough emphasis. Short's evaluation of Mao as being not as bad as Hitler or Stalin fails to convince us, perhaps because the effect Mao had on China was as bad as Stalin's on Russia: millions of dead and a crippled economy that could not sustain the population.
That is, it is sympathetic to the point of touting an official line at the expense of giving us the full story. Still, it is useful to know what the official line is and this is a good life of Mao from his youth through his entire career.
16 août 2006
Wild Swans - Cygnes Sauvages
Wild Swans, by Jung Chang
In Wild Swans Jung Chang recounts the evocative, unsettling, and insistently gripping story of how three generations of women in her family fared in the political maelstrom of China during the 20th century. Chang's grandmother was a warlord's concubine. Her gently raised mother struggled with hardships in the early days of Mao's revolution and rose, like her husband, to a prominent position in the Communist Party before being denounced during the Cultural Revolution. Chang herself marched, worked, and breathed for Mao until doubt crept in over the excesses of his policies and purges. Born just a few decades apart, their lives overlap with the end of the warlords' regime and overthrow of the Japanese occupation, violent struggles between the Kuomintang and the Communists to carve up China, and, most poignant for the author, the vicious cycle of purges orchestrated by Mao that discredited and crushed millions of people, including her parents. Working as a "barefoot doctor" with no training, Chang saw the oppressive, inhuman side of communism. She left China in 1978 and is now director of Chinese Studies at London University. Her meticulous, transparent prose radiates an inner strength Wild Swans is epic in its historical backdrop moving untirelessly through the last century of China, roughly between the years 1911 and 1976. This is the story of the author Jung Chang, her mother, and her grandmother. It is through their lives that history unfolds and is exposed. From the end of Imperial China, through Japanese occupation, the Nationalist movement, the Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communists, Communist takeover, Mao's Great Leap Forward starving tens of millions to death, the Cultural Revolution turning a national identity upon it's head and breaking it's collective spirit in the process, to Mao Zedong's death. Jung Chang explores her family so deeply that her subjects, such as her stoic father, a true believer in the Communist cause, and her grandmother, a veritable symbol through her bound feet of a time and place long gone, become indelibly etched upon the mind of the reader.
It is very educational reading on how after Mao died that many detained Communist officials were released and later absolved, to include Deng Xiaoping who led China back into the modern world once the Gang of Four was arrested for the crimes against China. The author's and her family's first hand experience and suffering brings out the truth about what happened in China during the Cultural Revolution, a period not fully covered or described in many history books.
Simply an amazing book where I learned about Chinese culture and traditions, the vast intricacies of the Communist rule in China in the 1950's, and the starvation, suffering, and death of millions in the 1960's and 1970's due to failing social policies that led the country to ruin.
Wild Swans is a fascinating and informative first hand social history of modern China. The book is exceptionally well written and is hard to put down. HIGHLY recommended for anyone interested in China in the 20th century and especially Communism under Mao.
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Un réquisitoire implacable contre la Révolution culturelle, un magnifique livre de souvenirs tissés autour de trois générations de femmes. Une fresque fantastique retraçant l'histoire de la Chine au 20e siecle à travers le destin incroyable d'une femme embrigadée, comme les autres, et devenue dissidente. Facile a lire, plus éloquent qu'un livre d'histoire, ce roman vous apprendra tout ce que vous avez voulu savoir sur les raisons qui ont conduit la Chine la ou elle est aujourd'hui.
12 août 2006
A Fanstatic Wedding in Goma
It definitely was a special even in Goma. Not only because after years of living together, Isabelle and Nicolas decided to get married, but this very special moment took place in a very special place.
Since they announced their wish to get married here in Goma, needless to say all ladies in town were talking about it, and wondering what dress to wear, makeup, and blah blah blah.
As the weeks passed by, stress started increasing significantly. Since the party was due to take place in the open air, weather was crucial. Still in the midst of the rainy season, violent rains and storms took place durnig the whole week. At amazingly same times: around 2pm for an hour or two, and around 10 pm for the whole night.
"D Day" got cloudy but no rain. Gods were with them, that's for sure. After the ceremony, most guests gathered at the Chalet, a hotel restaurant, by lake Kivu's shores. We did not have to go far, since we're neighbours. Once the newly weds show up, dances start. Traditionnal dances and songs from different part of the Kivus.
A traditionnal performer with a kid. Difficult to catch the ambiance on photo. But it definitely was there!
Then, a crazy performer shows up. He starts dancing all over the place, jumping, shouting things we don't understand. Suddently, he is the king of the place. I have to say, it is the first time I see a dancer like him.
Even the priest seems to enjoy himself.
Once the reception is over, and after a rest, and diner for families and friends, it's time to party. The party will finish late into the night.
Thanks for this great wedding Isa and Nicolas. And we wish you all the best in life.
09 août 2006
Roundabout
Fancy a trip to Ituri? Tourism maybe? Looking at this 'monument' in this roundabout in Bunia's city center, one may think the authorities believe in it. Well... far from it. This is just another vestige of the past, when some adventurous tourist (as well as expats living here) could come to this beautiful part of Africa. Would Congo be stable, and safe, there would be plenty of reasons for tourists to come over here. An exhilarating people, stunning scenery and diverse wildlife. The latter is sadly not what it used to be. With rebels in the hiding in the Virunga national parks, and poaching more active than ever, it's close to impossible to spot wildlife in Congo. I guess it's just another sad story from this surrealist country.
Un petit tour en Ituri, ca vous dit ? en voyant cette colonne à ce rond point dans le centre ville de Bunia, on pourrait penser que les autorités y croient. Et bien non. Ce n'ets qu'un vestige de plus du passé, du temps où des touristes intrépides (ainsi que les expatriés vivant ici) pouvait venir dans ce superbe coin d'Afrique. Si le Congo était stable, et sûr, il y aurait des tonnes de raisons de venir ici. Une population incroyablement ouverte, des paysages à couper le souffle, et une flore et faune en abondance. Pour cette dernière, ce n'est malheureusement plus le cas. Avec les rebelles se cachant dans le parc national de la Virunga, et le braconnage plus actif que jamais, it est désormais quasiment impossible d'observer des animaux au Congo. Une autre histoire bien triste de ce pays suréaliste.
07 août 2006
Congolese wheelbarrow
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This is a congolese wheelbarrow.
So what's the fuss about it?
well.... actually nothing. Just wanted to share that with you...
Ceci est une brouette congolaise
Et alors, me direz vous?
euh... et bien en fait rien. Je voulais juste vous la montrer...
