India

India is impossible to photograph if you are not wholly committed to doing it, which I was not, at all.  I didn't take pics of the lovely people who we stayed with, or their beautiful homes; so there is none of that here. But I will say that the rest of the world could learn something other than just cricket from India: at hospitality and warmth, India are world champions too.  So I took a handful of photos, really.  This is in Delhi, bags being tied to the roof before heading to Agra - and the Tajmahal. 

We also travelled by train, which was just great.  Two below, is a pic of Uttar Pradesh landscape at sunset from the train window - harsh as a place to live this, by any standards.  The photo above that is in one of the many stations you pass through.  The old man has a tiffin with him - cool things.  The train took us to Chandigarh, and more fantastic hospitality from lovely people, with lovely kids, and from there we went up up up up up by car to Shimla (Simla), a hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas.  Surreal.  Massive vistas, forests, and the best hotel I've ever stayed in.  The contrast in landscape was mindbending. 

The photos below that are from Chandigarh, a tiny sample of an enormous (40 acres), completely surreal garden, called the Rock Garden, built, initially secretly, by a guy called Nek Chand - which I was moved to take a few snaps in because it reminded me so much of the Owlhouse in Nieu Bethesda in the Karoo - which I seriously recommend going to some time - when that learner's becomes something more permanent, and you develop a taste for the road.  The Rock Garden is all built out of industrial waste - broken bits of this and that (check out the small pic on the left - it is a detail section of a much larger wall, all made out of broken neon light tube holders) - it is a fairyland of shape, and contrast and colour (I would have taken a million more photos, but Aiden puked instead, so we sort of had to take pity on him (and it was 40 something degrees in there).  But as a mindbender, check out this site http://www.nekchand.info/ and then click on the photo links to see the different parts - what I took does it a complete injustice.  Like the Owlhouse - its a great example of how art prevails while all those more serious things in life seem not to; it seems one of our species defining features.