Goa was such an adventure — beautiful, warmer weather, amazing food, and architecture.
We first started our journey through a sleeper bus and that was CRAZY. The roads that lead you up towards Panaji were winding and ridiculously dangerous. Adriane and I had to stare straight ahead a few times to stop getting carsick!
Once getting there, we were pleasantly surprised that our hotel was located in a very nice, beachfront area. We came before Goa’s tourist season so we enjoyed the quietness of it all.
Since Goa was ruled by the Portuguese for so long, we were interested to see how those traditions varied here. There’s a good mix of both cultures everywhere. We visited Old Goa which housed the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral as well as the Museum of Archeology. It was really cool and showed the complete history of Goa.
With my U.S. homecoming and final days of school coming up, I thought it would be best to recap some of the special moments I had in India — particularly a wedding we attended in Patiala located in Northern India.
North Indian weddings are elaborate, festive and are usually celebrated for an entire week.
The venue is huge! It’s a gorgeous outdoor setting with draped gold cloth everywhere. Upon entering you are greeted by the two families and get showered with fragrant flowers. The entire place is illuminated with strung lighting and reflective crystal.
The bride and groom took part in Indian traditions with their garment choices. We were lucky enough to attend to the Bride’s Mehendi party the night before and got to see her showing off her Mehendi. Take a quick look at the beautiful bride and groom in their traditional wedding attire.:
So sparkly!
Written by: Jennifer Isaza
Click here to read more of Adventures in Bangalore
Our time here in India is nearing an end but we still have some amazing stories to share!
We were lucky to go see the Himalayas! We saw great views and felt a significant climate drop:
…and saw a ton of MONKEYS! There were so many that it was hard to spot them all.
The drive up was one of the worst things ever for me. If you ever have driven up a mountain face, you might have an idea of what I am talking about. The curves were so difficult to handle that we had to stop to get some air. Upon one of the stops, we were looking over a cliff and saw what looked like a group of ten to fifteen monkeys screaming – they must have been fighting. It was definitely a surreal experience. (Check out the video to get a sense of what I am talking about)
Adriane was walking to a temple and a girl warned of curious monkeys and how they stole her scarf. So out of precaution, Adriane put her camera in her bag. But sure enough, a monkey was intrigued by her sweater that was dangling – the monkey was so curious that he pulled at the sweater and, in turn, got the whole bag! He proceeded to search threw the side pockets and luckily couldn’t open the clips to get into her actual bag. Frantically she went towards the monkey to scare it off and his buddy ran towards her in hopes of snatching her scarf! Thankfully a mountain man was walking down the hill and she pleaded for help. He scared off the monkeys with his imposing size and demeanor.
Mountain Man: 1
Monkey: 0
Written by: Jennifer Isaza
Click here to read more of Adventures in Bangalore
One of the most memorable thing we saw in Northern India was the Golden Temple.
The Harmandir Sahib or Darbar Sahib, informally referred to as The Golden Temple, is the holiest shrine in Sikhism. It is located in the city of Amritsar, which was established by Guru Ram Das, the fourth guru of the Sikhs and is known as “guru di nagri” which means city of the Sikh Guru. (thanks Google!)
The Golden Temple was everything a holy shrine should have — and more.
In Sikhism to enter the Guruduwara, you must remove your shoes and go in barefoot. You must also rinse your feet with holy water and cover your head (both men & women ). I can literally talk about the religion for days so I will tell you the highlights of what we saw during our visit.
The water surrounding the Guruduwara is also considered Holy — so much that people bathe in the waters as a blessing. Men and children line up to rinse off while women have special buildings that were made so that they may have privacy when removing their clothing and bathing. People will drink the water as well.
Incase you didn’t know, Edith (from the School of Fashion PR department) lived here in Bangalore for three years. She put us in touch with her tuktuk driver Rasool. She said he was a lifesaver for her while she was living in India and he has lived up to his great reputation! He is so helpful and understanding. His son got married at the end of September and Adriane and I were invited to the festivities so we can see a traditional Indian wedding!
Check out the video of us getting Mehndi the day before the wedding!
Follow the jump for pictures of us at the wedding. Read more…
Here are some photos of our Surface Techniques class. We learned embroidery as well as tie-dye & a method called batik (a method in which you apply wax to the surface of the fabric prior to the dying process and then boil the wax out.)
We just finished this class this past Friday! It’s so exciting to be done with one class — but I am so exhausted. For our final in that class we had to do 4 creative swatches (in about 2 days!) We needed to incorporate at least two techniques we learned throughout the class.
Currently we are taking surface techniques. The classes here are a bit intense — they go by block scheduling so they have them for about a month at a time. We have classes Monday through Friday and yes, we sometimes have class on Saturday.
This week in surface techniques we are learning embroidery and all the different stitches for it. We had to execute 30-plus stitches to perfection and had to have them mounted mounted and present by this Friday. We also have 10 swatches for just the embroidery section due next week.
And P.S. The materials for the class cost me about 105 Rs. (rupees). In U.S, dollars it’s about $2.28!
Written by: Jennifer Isaza
Click here to read more of Adventures in Bangalore
It was absolutely amazing to see them out and about today. Some had ornate horns decorated with gold, but the most amazing thing was how they literally got to do anything they wanted.
So if they wanted to walk straight into traffic — they can…and cars must move around to them!
Enjoy the photos of cow around town.
Side note: I have yet to see that those elusive monkeys I hear at night and early morning, but a nice addition to this morning’s animal call alarms was a small goat.
Written by: Jennifer Isaza
Click here to read more of Adventures in Bangalore
Jennifer and Adriane were nice enough to send us some of their first adventurous 24 Hours in Bangalore:
- “We almost died, like seven times!” (in regards to their wild taxi drive from the airport)
- A troupe of monkeys outside their B&B were screeching all night. “We woke up to the sounds of monkeys, parrots, cows, and some other animals this morning.”
- The fusion European and Indian food is “delicious.”
- They hired personal auto rickshaw driver, Rasool, for day of power shopping (see photos). “We went insane; the colors are amazing!” Purchased: multiple saris, salwar kameez, bedding, scarves, etc.
If you want to know how it is to ride in an auto rickshaw, check out the following video:
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