Majestic Elephants

Elephants are pretty cool and rather majestic animals, I think.  For the most part, they seem like pretty laid back animals, but startle one and you'd better watch out!  So anyway, I've drawn an elephant in profile with a sunset for background.  It takes me back to a safari I went on in India where we saw a few elephants in the wild. There were also a few elephants around that were kept as "pets" that people rode on.  They would saunter slowly past our jeep, with a whole family perched on its back.  The sheer size was amazing and the elephant completely dwarfed our group's jeep. Although it did look like an interesting way to travel through a safari, the jeep felt much safer!

This one I've drawn does happen to be an African elephant, tho.  The main difference between African and Indian elephants is the size and shape of the ears.  Indian elephants have smaller ears than the African ones, and they say, the Indian elephants ears are shaped like the country of India.

A bit of India in North Carolina

These are some photos are from a visit to a Sikh temple (gurdwara) last weekend.  Anyone, Sikh or non-Sikh, is welcome to visit and the people are very friendly.

The golden domes are very common for gurdwara's everywhere.

 The Sikh emblem, a Khanda, on the front gates.

Travel photos: India

Some pics from our trip last year to India.  My sister-in-law is doing a project on international travel, so I thought I'd make a post showing more of the life and people there. Most of these are simple snap shots, some taken by me, some by others traveling with us, but interesting nonetheless.

There is always a lot of commotion everywhere you look, this was a rural city we stopped in for snacks.

In New Delhi, lots of wires run every which way and locals sells fruit and veggies from their carts.  Cows, dogs and monkeys roam free as well, no one really minds or bothers them as there is no real animal control.  There was even one stray female that regularly wandered inside the home searching for scraps.

Taken while waiting in the insane traffic coming back from Bajpur.  Even dump trucks are colorful and decorated!

In New Delhi, rickshaw drivers take you around for a few rupees.  Unless you're a tourist, then the price is way more, negotiate! 

Beautiful lake in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains the city of Nainital.

Local market shoppers in Nainital.

Bos cow getting busy working on the sugar cane farm.

Farm workers weeding crops by hand.

India

In December of 2008, we took an amazing trip to India. We went on an exciting adventure in the Jim Corbett National Park located in northwest India. This park is a tiger reserve, but you must have plenty of time to wait for them to appear.  We did see a few wild elephants, boar and tons of deer and monkeys.  It was actually my favorite part of the trip!

We spent the night in the park and woke early to search for feeding animals.  A thick fog gave a surreal quality to the paths we travels down in the early hours.

A pair of elephants grazing in the tall grasses.  We had to be very quiet as they are known to stampede when startled (we had some younger cousins adventuring with us) so this was the best shot I got of them.