Celestia Forums

Just to let you know that I'll be VERY far away from Celestia for about a month. Tomorrow, I'll be leaving for India, to do some trekking in Rajasthan. I'll be visiting also Agra and Varanasi (Benares). During the fourth week, there are some chances that I'll be visiting the forum, from some internet caf?©. But no more testing for Celestia during the next couple of weeks.

Don't worry, I'm not going there to smoke grass or to sell weapons, as someone may be thinking !

I'll try to make some good pictures of this kind of stuff :

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/I ... /page1.htm

So, in the meanwhile, I wish you all a merry Christmas and a good year 2008.

Definitely take pictures!! I'm quite envious.....

Have fun.

...John...

Have a nice trip me old...

Have a great trip Cham! And Happy Holidays to you!

Cham,

have a great trip with lots of new perspectives! Long time ago we also made a shorter detour (after extensive trekking in Nepal) to the North Indian back country at the foot of the Himalayas. I am sure it's going to be quite an impressive trip.

Take care,
Fridger

Photos, photos ...and don't forget to buy a sacred cow in souvenir!

Due my connection fails I see that with delay. However, have a nice trip.

Smoking grass in front of the Ganga river it's not bad...

Oh my. With the recent events in Pakistan, the assination of Benazir Bhutto, and the violence which is reportedly also occuring now in India as well as a result... I do hope Cham fairs well in his travels.

Just to say that I'm still alive in this **crazy** world !

I'm in Varanasi (Benares) right now, after three weeks in Rajasthan's desert. Internet connection sucks. There are electric shortages very frequently. There is so much to say about India, this country is completely crazy !

...

Hi Cham, nice to see you again !

Yes, good to know you are doing well! I'm looking forward to tales of your travels (and pictures ) upon your return.

I'm back home. Not in a very good shape, however. Got sick two times in India, because of the food. The pollution there is simply unbelieavable. Don't go there guys, air is way too much polluted and unbreathable in most towns I visited (Delhi, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Agra. Varanasi is also very polluted, but at least it's not so bad).

My pictures are already classified and ready to be printed. I just need to fight the 10h30 hrs of time shift.

I'll compile a new fresh version of Celestia today, to see all the changes that have been made since the last month. I'm now so dephased.

Cham wrote:I'm back home. Not in a very good shape, however. Got sick two times in India, because of the food. The pollution there is simply unbelieavable. Don't go there guys, air is way too much polluted and unbreathable in most towns I visited (Delhi, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Agra. Varanasi is also very polluted, but at least it's not so bad).

My pictures are already classified and ready to be printed. I just need to fight the 10h30 hrs of time shift.

I'll compile a new fresh version of Celestia today, to see all the changes that have been made since the last month. I now so dephased.

Sorry to hear that you got sick, but welcome back! We've missed you around here.

--Chris

Cham wrote:I'm back home. Not in a very good shape, however. Got sick two times in India, because of the food. The pollution there is simply unbelievable.

Welcome back! By sheer coincidence, my folks back home also went on a trip to India last month. While the photos they took look bloody awesome, they got sick afterwards too. But that could easily be chalked up to the stress of travel, no?

dirkpitt wrote:But that could easily be chalked up to the stress of travel, no?

Not just the stress of travel. The food too : it's way to spicy all the time (after a while, it's gettting very heavy on the stomach). In India, there are all kind of spices in everything, all the time, even in the breakfasts ! And India is so polluted ! In most towns, the air is unbreathable. And there is so much scrap and dirt everywhere (cows, pigs, dogs, monkeys and even human shit everywhere in the streets, etc). It's not surprising people are getting sick in India.

Cham wrote:And there is so much scrap and dirt everywhere (cows, pigs, dogs, monkeys and even human shit everywhere in the streets, etc).

I guess this means Indians on average are at least pretty resistant to allergies... I heard that too little exposure to dirt and stuff makes you more prone to asthma for example. I've definitely noticed that many well-to-do Americans and English have asthma, weird peanut allergies and what not that are almost unheard of in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China.

Cham wrote:

dirkpitt wrote:But that could easily be chalked up to the stress of travel, no?

Not just the stress of travel. The food too : it's way to spicy all the time (after a while, it's gettting very heavy on the stomach). In India, there are all kind of spices in everything, all the time, even in the breakfasts ! And India is so polluted ! In most towns, the air is unbreathable. And there is so much scrap and dirt everywhere (cows, pigs, dogs, monkeys and even human shit everywhere in the streets, etc). It's not surprising people are getting sick in India.

Hey, good to heard from you! (From my side I'm in France for 2 weeks and things are a bit different I think! ) Concerning the spices, they eat this way to avoid quantity of germs... Now of course if one don't have the stomach for this it's a bit problematic...

I had recently seen a documentary about the pending severe clean-water crisis India is facing - Delhi the most hard to be hit if I recall. They've power problems as well I understand. Did you run into any of this?

Anyway - welcome home! I'm told pizza and beer is great for curing all manner of illness, including jet-lag!

Here are some pictures from the trip (I'm also trying some free picture files server)... In brief, the trip was the exploration of all Rajasthan (Jodhpur, Barakpur, Thar desert, Ja??salmer, Uda??pur, Ja??pur ...), followed by a jump to Agra (Taj Mahal) and few days in Varanasi (Benares). You'll understand why there are electrical power shortages all the time, in India (several each day, in any town !). Click the thumbnails to enlarge :

Since this is an astronomy board, here are some views of the large solar and moon observatory of Ja??pur, built by the Maharaja Jai Singh, few centuries ago. I took few pictures only, since it wasn't very interesting to watch.



Here's a web page describing the site in more details :

http://www.travelogues.net/India/index_ ... vatory.htm