Christmas in India

Merry Christmas from India!

The Moores have a family Christmas tradition of foregoing expensive Christmas presents. Rather, they exchange modest physical presents but share a joint Christmas holiday at remote destination. This year, we spent Christmas with Charlie (Rachel's Dad) in India. India holds a special place in the hearts of Rachel and Charlie as they lived in the Punjab in the late 1960s, and this gave Charlie a chance to share some of his memories of living there (Rach was very young when they left, and although Punjabi was her first language, she was too young to have meaningful memories of the years in India).

We visited the "Golden Triangle" of India, Delhi, Agra (home of the Taj Mahal, pictured here), and Jaipur. See some select photos below, starting with a shopping expedition, selecting pashminas from a Delhi bazaar:

From 2006-12 India

Followed by a shopping expedition at Cottage Industries:

From 2006-12 India

The following day in Delhi, we visited the Tomb of Humayun, the second Mughal Emperor of India:

From 2006-12 India

We then visited the Qutb Minar in Delhi:

From 2006-12 India

We took the train from Delhi to Agra, where we visited the Agra Fort:

From 2006-12 India

We also saw the tomb of I'Timad-Ud-Daulah:

From 2006-12 India

We then proceeded to Jaipur, where we visited the Amber Fort:

From 2006-12 India

Where Rachel and Charlie rode an elephant up to the fort:

From 2006-12 India

We then proceeded to Jaipur. This is us at the Jal Mahal (with the water levels low because of the light monsoon season):

From 2006-12 India

And a large sundial at the famous observatory, Jantar Mantar:

From 2006-12 India

We enjoyed a surreal Christmas dinner at the Jai Mahal Palace Hotel, featuring fireworks, Indian renditions of Christmas songs by a Sting impersonator, native Indian dancers, and a visit from Santa Claus (who came in on an elephant):

From 2006-12 India

These are only a few of the sites we visited, but it gives you a sense of the trip. It was an adventure, experiencing the extremes of India (the abject poverty and terrible conditions on the street, the glorious architecture and history, the Hindus' calm reverence for life). We had a wonderful time and hope to return some day.