Clint and I (Susan) were asked a couple of years ago to do a presentation of our trip to India which we took in November 2018. Due to Covid, it was put off a few times but finally last Thursday night we were able to present in person at our local library.
So how did this start? Well, a friend of ours Lola, decided a few years back to plan what are called “Armchair Traveler Series”. She asked people to share their travel adventures with photos, stories and information on places across the Globe. So she pitched it to the library and since then Lola and Wendy (from the Library) have organized many presentations. We have seen presentations on Malta, Vietnam, Antarctica, Morocco, Africa and more.
Some have been done via Zoom and some in person. We were fortunate to have a pretty good turnout, I believe about 27 people which wasn’t bad with Covid still hanging over our heads. We did have a few friends that couldn’t make it as they were traveling themselves but we certainly appreciated our friends that showed up.
Below is the hallway where some of our photos were displayed, there were also some displayed on the walls down the other way. Our photos were all printed out by Quinte Photo Services and a wonderful job was done.
India was a fascinating country and I would love to go back one day. Some of the facts we shared that was interesting:
- India has a population of 1.4 billion people, Canada has a population of 36.4 million and yet India is one third the size of Canada.
- Nilgai Antelope, pictured below, are native to India and Pakistan (mostly) however in the 1930’s, some were exported to the State of Texas as game. To this day you can go to a hunting lodge, pay big money, and hunt the Nilgai which one company says “difficult to hunt but delicious to eat”. So now there are anywhere from 15,000-50,000 running loose in parts of Texas.
- National Chambal Sanctuary is home to many endangered species and over 330 different species of birds. We were fortunate to take a river boat tour down the river.
People washing their clothes and themselves 
Water Buffalo 
Mugger Crocodile
Jal Mahal (Water Palace) (in the city of Jaipur) 4 floors are underwater. It was built in 1699 as a hunting lodge for the Maharaja and friends to hunt ducks. (shown below)
- Below is the Taj Mahal built by Shah Jahan for his wife, his third wife who died giving birth to their 14th child.
- Amber Fort, built in 1592, taking over 100 years to be fully completed. It was built in the town of Amer which used to be the capital of the State of Rajasthan until they made Jaipur the capital, due to lack of water in the Amer area and a growing population.
- Village of Bateshwar, known as the 101 Shiv Temple Complex. Only about 10-20 temples are utilized now. Also know as having one of the largest Cattle Fairs in northern India. It has been held here for 400 years and lasts 3 weeks every year; with the exception of 2020 when it was cancelled due to Covid. Buying, selling and trading, horses, goats, oxen, cattle, goats, donkeys is the name of the game.
Cattle Fair 
Lining up at a temple to get in to pray
- Animals are everywhere, monkeys, dogs, water buffalo, oxen, cows, camels, elephants, horses, donkeys……. and more
So we had a great time and we really appreciate our friends that showed up to enjoy and support us. I’ll end with a couple of random photos….
Agra Fort 
Streets of Delhi
Let’s see, to sum it up, we loved India and would go back. The people, architecture, food, history, all wonderful. If you ever have the chance…..go.
Trums Travels 
The photos are amazing, a way of life so different from ours. The population difference between Canada and India is staggering, how do they feed everyone?
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Thanks John! Yes it’s a different culture, sometimes I felt like I was in another time. We have a small population for the size of our country for sure. I don’t know how they feed everyone but they somehow manage to do it!
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It must have been a wonderful evening – I would have loved to have heard you
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It was a wonderful evening! We had talked about taping it and then posting it on You Tube or whatever but then we got sidetracked and it didn’t happen. I think we were about an hour, lots of photos and lots of interesting tidbits. My husband did the first half and I did the second half, we enjoyed it and were just glad we could remember everything! lol
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🙂 I understand that ! 🙂
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This is fantastic! I love that this took place at your local library. Your photos are gorgeous, as always. Good for you!
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Thanks Michele!
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What a wonderful opportunity to tell your story of your travels in India. The post was very interesting Susan (and I’m glad to finally know your name – I looked around your site and never saw it). What a different way of life from what we know. Your pictures of the marketplace and the oxen and bathing/washing clothes were so representative of what I’ve heard or read about India and the Taj Mahal looks so majestic. The monkeys and being careful of them – a fellow blogger from South Africa often mentions the monkeys that run wild on car routes that they travel and that you must be careful of them. Another fellow blogger is from India … she has not been active on her blog much lately, but I’ve kept in touch with her by e-mail. She came to the U.S. in the Fall of 2019 for a year at Yale for a degree to add to her studies in India. She did not complete that entire year of school in person due to the COVID outbreak. Her mother passed away last month and she sent a YouTube link to me to watch the funeral. How different it was from what we are accustomed to here. It is always interesting to learn of countries and their cultures.
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Thanks Linda for mentioning that, about my name. Jeez I don’t know why I didn’t notice that! Anyways all fixed now on my About page and Contact page, thanks again. That is so sad your friend could not complete her school year, Covid certainly did, and still does, have a huge impact on everyone world wide. Yes I think monkeys can be little devils lol. India does have a different way of life and it was so interesting and fascinating, I would love to go back some day. I agree, I love to learn about different countries and their cultures.
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You know I was going to ask you on my blog as I thought maybe you didn’t want to divulge your name, although you have mentioned Cliff sometimes since I have been following. Glad I mentioned it to you.
Yes, my friend was disappointed to leave early and quite suddenly after lockdown went into effect. She had a difficult time getting home to India. You will find this part amusing. Before she started school, she asked me what she should buy for dressing in the Winter months. She remembered me mentioning how many layers I wear for my Winter walks. I told her what I thought she needed, plus I stressed to buy boots. Well she was overwhelmed at how much she needed to buy to be “prepared” for Winter, but I said best plan ahead. She was looking forward to seeing the snow. Turned out it was a mild Winter, with one minor snowfall where she said she was fine in her sneakers and didn’t need boots. They had a shuttle bus that picked the students up at their dorms and took them to buildings or the library, so no slogging through snow was done. I felt badly for the advice I gave her, but you know how bad it gets in Winter sometimes!
International travel is fun and none of my friends were interested in traveling so I went with tour groups which worked out well for me. I’ve not traveled anywhere for a while, even before COVID.
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We went to India with a group but there was only 10 of us, all from this area. We had our own driver, navigator and tour guide, it was a lot of fun. I’m sure sometimes our guide thought he was herding cats as he would be talking and we would get distracted and wander off ! lol He was amazing though. Oh better to be safe than sorry when it comes to winter dressing! It can be brutally cold and lots of snow, or ice or somewhat warm, you just never know.
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