Harbin Ice Festival

Up in the Northeast corner of China is the province of Heilongjiang and its capital city, Harbin.  Being SO FAR NORTH, that it's basically Russia, means that in the winter it is COLD.  And the cold means ice and therefore the people of Harbin celebrate the ice with an AMAZING festival of ice.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

So, how cold was it?  This was the ice on the INSIDE of the window on the bus from the airport!

The theme of this year's ice festival was (probably, not confirmed, but from what I saw) religious buildings from around the world.

My travel companions, John P-C (on right) and Tao W. (left)

Lots of ice slides!!

A "luge" run.  Unfortunately the line was too late and the park was closing.

What's this?

A giant Angry Birds game of ice!

My favorite, was the simple, yet elegant ice recreation of Hadrian's Villa (at least that's what P-C and I think) in Tivoli!

REI -- Beijing

Thanks to Mom and Marl, I am now essentially an outpost of REI here in Beijing.  I met my the husband of my sister's friend here in Beijing who was courier to some outerwear I asked for.  When we met, he handed me a duffle bag STUFFED with items.  I model them for you here.....

A lounging around grey fleece vest.

A nice vest to wear while teaching in my chilly classroom.

This green fleece, along with gloves and a hat are perfect for biking to work and around town.

There is sun, but it's still cold and snow is on the ground.  This down jacket, along with wool hat keeps me warm throughout the day.

The this color fleece provides many layering combinations with items I already have in my outerwear wardrobe.

Feet up in my new shoes as I am giving an exam.

Get me to the airport on time!!!

Date: January 5th, 2013
Time: 645AM
Place: Aman's Homestays, Agra, India

I wake up early for Kumar to take me to the Agra Cantt train station for my 823AM train back to New Delhi, where I am to meet a pre-arranged guide to take me around New Delhi for the day before heading to the airport for my midnight flight back to Beijing.  However, it is a WALL of fog, and Aman checks the Indian Railways website which reveals that my train is running 3 hours behind and is scheduled to arrive in Agra around 1130AM.  It's a bonus because this gives me the opportunity to actually go and see the Taj Mahal, whereas the day before, I simply saw it from the outside as the Taj Mahal is closed on Friday's.

Time: 11AM
Place: Agra Cantt Train Station

I am at the train station on the platform and see that my train has been delays until 12:00PM.  No problem, it's a three hour train ride to New Delhi.  Plenty of time to get a bit of sightseeing in before heading to the airport.  Kumar hands me his card in case I ever come back to Agra!

Time: 1145AMPlace: Agra Cantt Train Station

Now the train is scheduled to arrive at 1230PM.

Time: 1215PM
Place: Agra Cantt Train Station

The train is now scheduled to arrive at 1PM.  At this point, I am starting to do the math in my head.  Who KNOWS when the train will actually arrive and who knows if it will even be 3 hours.  The worst case scenario is that I get on the train and then it takes an inordinate amount of time to actually arrive in New Delhi and I could possibly miss my flight.  Any touring of New Delhi is out the window.  I make eye contact and start talking to a Japanese traveler, named Masaru.  He too is waiting for a train to New Delhi and then on his way to the airport for an 1120PM flight.  We discuss the idea of getting a cap

Time: 1245PM
Place: Agra Cantt Train Station

Masaru and I agree to forget taking the train and to get a cab to the airport.  I call Kumar, who gives a price to drive to the New Delhi airport and we agree on it.  Kumar picks us up but then tells us he is dropping us off back an Aman's because Kumar has a previous appointment.

Time: 1PM
Place: Aman's Place

Kumar (L) and Aman who is on the phone working his magic!

At this point, Masaru and I's fate is in the hands of Aman, who starts working his magic.  Aman gets on the phone, and along with his father, find us a driver AND find us a free taxi to drive us to the airport.  It takes and hour for things to get all sorted out, but Masaru and I are ok with it as it's only 180km back to New Delhi.  Everyone quotes us 3 hours.  I think that's slow, being 60km/hr is actually some 40MPH.  Seriously, we should have no problem.  Plenty of time.  We do, however, have one errand to run and that is to go to Masaru's hotel in New Delhi to pick up his suitcase there.

Time: 2PM
Place: Aman's Place

Things are all set and we are OFF!!!

Time: 2PM-6PM
Place: Agra to New Delhi

Ahhh, there is a reason 180km takes 3 hours.  Turns out I was picturing a freeway/highway/road dedicated SOLELY for automobiles.  Nope, I made a huge assumption.  The road is mostly a divided four lane highway, with some fairly large potholes in places.  Sometimes there were stoplights on the highway, but mostly, the issue comes with the fact that cars share the road with motorcycles, little three seater vehicles with 7 people crammed inside, the occasional tractor and the ever imposing, yet traffic flow inhibiting camel towing a HUGE load of covered hay that actually spills into the airspace of the other lane.  It was a huge victory to get more than one minute of continuous full speed (i.e. 50 KMH) driving.

Time: 630PM
Place: Southern Outskirts of New Delhi

We all stop for a pee break (the sight of myself, a Japanese guy and our Indian driver peeing on the side of some building is a visual I'll have forever).  We get into the car, get on the road and BAM completely wall to wall cars.  Traffic that doesn't move.

Time: 730PM
Place: 2KM from our pee break

Still in traffic.  I'm starting to worry about us making it to the airport.  Masaru has his GPS turned on and it's NOT looking good.  Considering how far we have to go and how little the little blue arrow on his GPS screen had moved, I'm already mentally trying to figure out if I'm going to have to buy a new plane ticket?  How do make a call to my boss at school? (My phone for some reason stopped working while in India.)  I am working through all the worst case scenarios.

Time: 8PM
Place: Still in Traffic

"OK, I sacrifice my luggage!!' -- Masaru
I was thinking to myself..."Damn, if we didn't have to go get his luggage it wouldn't be this much of a close call."  But I never would have said that to him.  But Masaru, who turns out thinks just like me, did the economic analysis that his luggage was not worth nearly as much as missing his flight.  At this point, I could have HUGGED Masaru.  So, we told our driver, "AIRPORT."  And lo and behold, about five minutes later, he turns off onto another road, NO TRAFFIC and at 845PM we are at Indira Ghandi New Delhi International Airport.

Masaru, without his luggage, and I happily at the airport ON TIME!!

Time: 9PM
Place: Check-In Counter New Delhi Airport

I check-in with no problem and then the ticket counter agent tells me to go stand in line over to the side.  Why???  My flight was delayed.  And it wasn't just delayed, the plane had yet to leave Beijing.  So I spent the night in a hotel and then our flight finally left at 1645 the next day, a full 16 hours late.  But I arrived in Beijing at 1245AM and was home at 2AM. 

What a trip to the airport.  Full of highs and lows.  I was thinking about how much it felt like a really close nailbiter of a playoff game.  One minute I'm so low that I can't bear to thinking about what was going on and then, seconds later, something good happened and ELATION.  I have to thank Masaru for sacrificing his luggage. 

The Taj Mahal

Agra Fort

After the visit to Fatehpur Sikri, the day cleared up and Kumar drove Aman and I back into Agra and dropped us off for a visit to the Agra Fort.  As you can see from the pictures, the fog lifted and the day was clear and beautiful  Akbar (same Akbar) started construction on the Agra Fort in 1568 and over the course of a century, some 500 separate buildings were erected in the Fort.

Agra Fort

The Amar Singh Gate

Psyche!  It isn't the actual entrance to the Agra Fort. You have to enter this second gate, which is actually at a different angle.  It is hypothesized that this "dogleg" entrance was designed to confuse invaders and attackers.

As you enter up to the main plateau of the fort, we'll take a counterclockwise tour of the Agra Fort.  Here we have Jehangiri Mahal. Jehangiri was Akbar's son.

What's this big bowl thing here?

Looking inside, you'll see steps.  It was a portable bathtub, called Jenagir's Hauz.

The front facade of Jenigiri Mahal.

The riverside courtyard of Jenagiri Mahal.  To the right, you can look through the windows of the Agra Fort wall and see, in the distance, the Taj Mahal.

Any white marble building in the Agra Fort was constructed by Shah Jahan (of Taj Mahal fame).  He was Akbar's grandson.  This octagonal structure called the Musamman Burj, is the easternmost part of the Agra Fort.  It is also where Akbar was imprisoned by his son and where he, Akbar, spent the last 8 years of his life.

The Diwan-i-Khas (the private audience hall)

The Diwan-i-Khas overlooks this internal courtyard, the Anguri Bagh.  This area was the women's quarter and where the women had their bazaar and could do their shopping.

The women's mosque.

Moving counterclockwise, now we are standing in the largest courtyard of the Agra Fort.  This is the Diwan-i-Am, the public audience hall.

This is the gate through which we exit the main courtyards of the Agra Fort and go down the ramp to the main gates.