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Great Pyramid of Giza
Unbelievable to see the Pyramid from BC with some much secrets and treasures. There are no answers how they built the Pyramids. 95% of the life is around the Nile. They got the stones from Aswan Quarry to build the Pyramid. Granite stones are shipped on the small rafts from Aswan to Giza along the Nile using the rain floods.
Location : Giza, Egypt
Complex: 8 Pyramids in one location in Giza.
One of the 7 wonders : Pyramid of Giza (Pyramid of Khufu)
Construction : 2500 BC
Height : 481 ft
Material : Limestone and Granite
Still unknown : Lot of facts
The large limestone blocks weighted 6.5 – 10 tons and the smaller ones about 1.3 tons. An average weight of 2.5 tons for stones.
Sphinx and Great Pyramid Complex
Inside tour of Great Pyramid…
Our family at Great Pyramid of Giza.
Trip on : Feb, 2018
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Tower of Pisa is a bell tower for the Cathedral in the Pisa. Initially the tower was angled at 5.5 degrees, but after restoration work in 2001 they adjusted and made it stable with angle of 3.99 degrees now. With this restoration this tower has another 200 years of life.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the seven wonders of the medieval world in Italy.
We took a tour from Florence to reach here.
Location : Pisa, Italy
Specialty : leaning at an angle of 5.5 degrees and now to 3.99 degrees.
Material : Line stone and Marble Facade
Current height : 56.67m – highest side, 55,86m – lowest side
Age limit : min 8 years to go top (Book tickets in advance)
Trip on : August, 2011
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is the world’s longest wall. It goes through different mountains and rugged country path across. Major portion of the wall is built during the Ming Dynasty. There is no worlds when you are walking on the Great wall. It is seen as far as you can see from any point.
We went to less crowded portion of the wall, Badaling section.
Location : Beijing, China
Length of the Wall : 21,196.18 km (13,170.7 mi)
Years : more than 2300 years old
Trip on : July 2012
Chichen Itza
Chichén Itzá is a complex of Mayan ruins on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. A massive step pyramid, known as El Castillo or Temple of Kukulcan, dominates the ancient city, which thrived from around 600 A.D. to the 1200s.
We booked a guided “Day Trip to Chichen Itza with Cenote Swim and Lunch ” from Cancun. This includes a stop at cenote ik kil, Lunch and Chichen Itza. A 3 hour drive from Cancun to Chitchen Itza.
Sun God is the main God for Mayans. There is lot of history in this place. Main places to see are…
- The serpent effect
- The Great Ball Court.
- Skull Platform
- The Sacred Cenote
- Temple of the Warriors
- The Osario staircase.
Location : Yucatan, Mexico
Also known as : Kukulkan Mayan Pyramid
Height : 98 ft
This step pyramid stands about 30 metres (98 ft) high and consists of a series of nine square terraces, each approximately 2.57 metres (8.4 ft) high, with a 6-metre (20 ft) high temple upon the summit.
At the base of the balustrades of the northeastern staircase are carved heads of a serpent. Around the Spring and Autumn equinoxes, in the late afternoon, the northwest corner of the pyramid casts a series of triangular shadows against the western balustrade on the north side that evokes the appearance of a serpent wriggling down the staircase, which some scholars have suggested is a representation of the feathered-serpent god Kukulcan.
It is said to be there are religious rites done in this temple on top to get good agricultural results.
We remembered the Movie “Apocalypto ” when we were in this place. According to Mayan culture they sacrifice people to worship the sun god on top of this temple and push the bodies down on these steps. There is a similar scene in that movie.
I sacrifice my name to make my name… “I am Kukulcan”
The Colosseum
Italian name: Colosseo
The Colosseum is the main symbol of Rome. It is located just east of the Roman Forum and was built to a practical design, with its 80 arched entrances allowing easy access to 55,000 spectators, who were seated according to rank. The Coliseum is huge, an ellipse 188m long and 156 wide. Originally 240 masts were attached to stone corbels on the 4th level.
Remember the movie Gladiators..
Roman gladiators were usually slaves, prisoners of war or condemned criminals. Most were men, but there were a few female gladiators. These combats were attended by the poor, the rich, and frequently the emperor himself. As gladiators fought, vicious cries and curses were heard from the audience around the Roman Colosseum. One contest after another was staged in the course of a single day. Should the ground become too soaked with blood, it was covered over with a fresh layer of sand and the performance went on. The gladiatorial games continued until Christianity progressively put an end to those parts of them which included the death of humans.
The Colosseum was damaged by lightning and earthquakes in medieval times and, even more severely, by vandalism. All the marble seats and decorative materials disappeared, as the site was treated as little more than a quarry for more than 1,000 years. Preservation of the Colosseum began in earnest in the 19th century.
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal — A Symbol of Love. Love of a man to his wife. An ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra. Taj Mahal is built in 17th century by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal. It took more than 20 years to build this. It costed around 32 million rupees at that time. Imagine how much that will be now.
As we are growing up everyone always talk about Taj Mahal as India’s Pride. We learned history about this place. Teenage kids talk about this as symbol of Love. Always proud to be part of country’s representation in the Seven wonders of the world.
In 2008, Jan, we planned a day trip to Agra from New Delhi. We started early in the morning. Unfortunately, our taxi tire got punctured and it delayed our trip to reach Agra on time. We took a camel cart from parking lot to the entrance of the Taj Mahal.
First views of the Taj Mahal.
“The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia. It is believed over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials. The translucent white marble was brought from Makrana, Rajasthan, the jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. In all, twenty-eight types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble.”
An amazing view of the Taj Mahal as walking close it it, we are in awwwwhhhhh…
The structure was made of sandstone and then covered in marble and embedded different precious stones on the marble for ornamental look. These precious stones seems to be jasper and jade. The finials were made of solid gold (Read some where that , British Imperialists later replaced these with brass).
Exterior Decorations
Each minaret is about 130 ft tall and the whole building is symmetrical with arch shaped large door way. Plinth area is a huge square and the amazing dome structure at the top. The top is like a lotus design.
Decorations
You will see so much of delicate work in the marble, flowers were hand crafted in the marble. There is so much effort went in to the details every where. This Marble art is still carried by few people in Agra even now.
When the Taj was completed, Mumtaz Mahal was entombed here, just as she wished. Shah Jahan became ill for sometime and his third son Aurangzeb, took his throne. Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb in Agra Fort, across the Yamuna River, for 18 years. You can see the Taj Mahal from Agra fort. When the Shah Jahan died in prison, he had one last request. Shah Jahan wanted to spend eternity with the woman he loved. He wanted to be buried at the Taj Mahal with Mumtaz. His family honored his dying wish and Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal now lay side by side at the Taj Mahal, the most iconic tribute to love.
Some of the pictures people take at Taj Mahal , holding the top or trying to fit in the fingers..:)
My Family @TajMahal
Things to avoid
- Avoid Shopping : Avoid shopping near the tourist places. That’s what we learned after the visit here. Our Camel cart person cheated us saying entrance is closed until 12PM or so and took us to a shop. That shop owner was not letting us go and we end up buying some saris (After showing to my mom realizes there are not good quality ) and some Marble souvenir ( Taj Mahal and Ganesha) . Same story for Marble stuff, they are made out of powder marble not actual stone. We also lost lot of time there.
- Don’t listen : Do your research and don’t listen to any local people there.
- Crowd : Go early in the morning first thing to avoid crowd and to get good pictures.
Note: If possible go with Guide.
Thank You for reading.
Shanghai – Explore
July 4 , 12 – Day 1 – to Shanghai
Reached Hongkong @ 6:15am and started from HK @ 8AM in CX 6832 . Reached PVG Shanghai @ 10:30am.
Stayed in “Shanghai Marriott Hotel City Centre”
Walked to The Bund from hotel. Spent some time along side the Bund and walked back to hotel.
July 5, 12 – Day 2 – Shanghai
Due to jet lag we woke up at 2AM and we went to breakfast at 4AM in the morning. Buffet was good with lot of food options. Our favorite food was hot custard buns in the morning.
Full day tour booked for today.
- Jade Buddha Temple
- Shanghai art museum
- Shanghai City Tour
- Jin Mao Tower (tour to the top floor of Jin Mao Tower – 88th Floor)
- Oriental Pearl Tower
- Shanghai world financial center (Bottle openers shape building0
- The Bund
We picked up food from Pizza hut for Dinner.
July 6, 12 – Day 3
We took Big Bus Tour in the morning and Yuyuan garden.
- Yuyuan Garden
- Yuyuan Market
Yuyuan Garden is composed of six scenic areas: Sansui Hall, Wanhua Chamber, Dianchun Hall, Huijing Hall, Yuhua Hall, and the Inner Garden.
The highlights of the garden are: classical Chinese architecture, exquisite sculptures and carvings, and the busy Yuyuan bazaar. Yu Garden was a private garden of the Pan family in the Ming Dynasty. It was the largest and most prestigious of its era in Shanghai after it was completed. The garden is unique in its design. It perfectly blends decorative halls, elaborate pavilions, glittering pools, zigzag bridges, pagodas, archways, and impressive rockeries.
Feel relaxed as you wander through the corridors and archways; stop to gaze at the famed Exquisite Jade Rock, a 5-ton, porous, beautifully-shaped, spiky rock; or climb to the top of the Great Rockery.
If you are looking for a glimpse into ancient China, as reflected in movies and books, this is the place. Exquisite Sculptures and Carvings.
Yuyuan Bazaar
Yuyuan Bazaar is right next to Yu Garden. It has a great number of small streets and lanes where you can find many restaurants, tea houses, and shops. It is a good place to sample some local snacks and buy some souvenirs.
We flew from Shanghai to Beijing. We booked from Expedia in Air China. Flight duration from Shanghai to Beijing is 2 hrs 20 mins.
Day 4 & 5 spent in Beijing.
July 9, 12 – Day 6
Morning we took taxi to go to Lama temple. We came back to hotel after the temple visit.
In the afternoon we flew from Beijing to Shanghai
July 10, 12 – Day 7
We booked a half a day tour for “Zhujiajiao Water Town” . It was 4 Hours tour.
Time: 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Cost : USD105/adult (RMB660/adult)
Morning, the tour guide picked us from the hotel in Shanghai. We drove to famous Ancient water village–Zhujiajiao water town on the outskirts of Shanghai, which was formed about 1,700 years ago. Archaeological findings dating back 5,000 years have also been found. 36 stone bridges and numerous rivers line Zhujiajiao, and thousands of ancient buildings still along the river banks . Till today, old historical buildings such as rice shops, banks, spice stores and even a Qing dynasty post office can still be found there.
We had lunch served and dropped us at the hotel as part of tour.
Spent time in hotel in the afternoon.
July 11, 12 – Day 8
PVG Shanghai CX 0369 @ 5:35PM -> HK 8:10PM , HK CX 0631 @10.45PM -> Chennai 1:30am
Beijing – Explore
6 July,12 – Day 01
Arrival at Beijing CA1884 Arrive time: 18:40pm
We arrived in Beijing and transferred to hotel (Shanghai Marriott Hotel City Centre555 Xi Zang Road (Middle),Huangpu District, Shanghai, 200003 China) . The rest of time was free.
Hotel : Crowne Plaza, Beijing
7 July,12 – Day 02 – Beijing
- Tian’anmen Square
- Forbidden City
- Temple of Heaven
- Chinese traditional medicine culture
- Lunch
- Summer palace
Tour Pick up from hotel was between 7:20am and 8:30am.
Tiananmen Square :
First we headed to Tian’anmen Square. Tiananmen Square is the heart and symbol of Beijing and the biggest square in the world.
Forbidden City : Then drove to the Forbidden City, the largest and best-preserved ancient imperial palaces group with 500 years history in the world. Visited the Forbidden City along the central axis from south to north for 2 hours.
Temple of Heaven : On the way to Temple of Heaven, we had chance to visit the Chinese traditional medicine culture.
We visited the Temple of Heaven — the largest ancient imperial worship architecture group in the world where the ancient Emperors prayed for peace and harvest. The visit to Temple of Heaven took about 1 hour.
By the time we go to restaurant our food was ready. One thing we observed is there is lot of food ordered for us. It was a combination of Western and Chinese buffet lunch in Bangfuchun Restaurant. After that we went to pearl market .
Summer Palace : Drove (30minutes) to Summer Palace, the largest and most beautiful Chinese imperial garden. It is regarded as a museum of gardens in China. The visit took about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
We were tired by the time the whole day is done. We got transferred back to our hotel.
Whole day there were so many random people taking pictures with us. At forbidden city there were 3 people waiting to take pictures with us one after the other.
8 July,12 – Day 03 – Beijing
- Ming Tombs
- Jade Carving factory
- Lunch
- Badaling Great Wall
- Bird’s Nest – Olympic Stadium
We got picked-up from our hotel between 7:20am and 8:30am.
Ming Tomb: Ming Tombs (50 miles away from downtown about one hour driving). The thirteen Ming Tombs are the best-preserved Chinese imperial tombs with 500 years history. We have visited Changling, the head and the largest tomb of Ming Tombs, where Emperor Yongle (the first emperor in Beijing) and his Empress Xu were buried. The sightseeing on Changling of the Ming Tombs took about 1 hour. The visit to Changling finished around 10:45.
Before having lunch (11:30 am), we visited Jade Carving Factory. The jade carving factory had famous special Chinese products, a blend of the excellent skill on carving and Chinese traditional cultures.
After lunch, drove to the Badaling Great Wall. The hike on Badaling Great Wall took about 2 hours. Badaling section is the most famous and best-preserved wall. Its highest point at Badaling is some 800 meters above sea level.
On the way back to our hotel, we passed by the “Bird’s Nest” – the main Olympic Stadium built for the 2008 Olympic Games. After that, we went to Chinese traditional Silk arts factory.
Tour was done at 6PM and were back to hotel.
9 July,12 – Day 04 – Beijing
We flew back to Shanghai in Air China flight around 2 hours 10 mins.
The tour cost: US $120 per person for pick up from hotel, 2 full days tours and drop to air port in 2012.
Thailand – Wild life
A Day with Elephants at Elephants Sanctuary
We have explored few options before deciding on the Elephant world in Kanchanaburi…
1. Elephants Sanctuary in Kanchanaburi – ElephantsWorld
- 1 Day program from 9AM to 4PM
- 2500 THB for Adult, 1500 THB for Child
- Drive from Bangkok to Elephant World – 2 and 1/2 hrs
- They arranged round trip taxi (4000THB) from Bangkok to Elephant World. Pickup from Bangkok at 6:30AM
2. Elephant Sanctuary near Pattaya – “elephantjunglesanctuary”
- Half a Day programs
- 2500 THB for Adult, 1900 THB for Child
3. Elephant Sanctuary near Krabi
- you need to stay in the Krabi town for this and we had only 2 days in Krabi.
Out of these 3 options we end up booking the Elephant World Sanctuary in Kanchanaburi.
Our taxi driver pick us at 6:30AM from hotel. We barely had time to eat breakfast. When we came out of the hotel, already life has started in the streets with food stalls, food deliveries and vegetables etc., We reached Kanchanaburi around 9:15AM.
We paid the fee in the office at the entrance. We all got water bottle bags and water bottles. Once we enter inside, we got instructions and then had to wait for other members to join in the group.
We are not allowed to ride the Elephants here. Only Mahout (a person who works with, rides, and attends an elephant) can ride on the Elephant.
Elephants feeding time :
They can eat single banana or a bunch of banana’s or a whole watermelon…For some of the old Elephants volunteers were peeling the watermelons and giving the inside part only.
They have names for each Elephant and their diet plan.
Play time…
One of the Elephant was playing with tire. Rolling it, kicking it and lifting it with trunk . When the tire rolled in to mud with slight slope like one feet deep, it was so hesitant to go down to get that tire. It was an amazing feeling to watch these big animals in their natural habitat. Even for a big Elephant, one feet seems like a big thing.
Very nice location with a stream of water. Location suites very well as the river serves as natural source for water.
Cooking a pumpkin sticky rice for Elephants. They mixed vitamins or any medicine for Elephants in this sticky rice dessert and feed them.
Mom and baby
1 month old baby below. It was living on milk still. It can’t bite the peeled banana. It was very playful. All wires or watches it is pulling with trunk. We touched it and played with it. It was so ticklish to grab on to it.
Bathing time…
What an awesome experience with Elephants. It’s a life time experience for us and kids. We all had fun day here. These are unique experiences.
Damnoen Saduak Tiger Zoo
Before our trip, I was doing some research on Tiger temple in Thailand. There was a BBC article and also some videos on this tiger temple. I did some research and there was not enough good reviews. I read they don’t treat tigers good and sedate them etc., So we didn’t plan to go there.
After our Damnoen Saduak floating market trip, while coming back our driver told that there is another Tiger Zoo which is open. I quickly look it up and it was closing at 4PM . We thought we will give it a try and we reached there at 3:50PM.
There was a registration desk at the entrance and they had different packages. You can go inside if you buy one of the package. Packages are like taking pictures with Adult Tiger, baby Tiger, feeding baby Tiger etc.,
We decided to do pictures with Adult Tiger and bought the ticket.
We walked inside and went towards the rooms where they kept Tigers. There was a baby tigers in the first room. We went near to window and it was so aggressive, one of them jumped towards us to the window.
Next we walked towards the big area where they were planning to take pictures. There were lot of Tigers, some playing in the water tubs and some in the rooms. They opened one of the room door and 4 tigers came out in to that area. Tiger trainers were inside the area with those tigers.
Tigers were ferocious walking inside the area. We asked trainers their age and one of the Tiger is 4 years and 400 pounds. We were scared and a thought came in my mind to go back. But then told to my self lets do it.
Trainers sprayed water on the grass and let them relax. We are asked to remove shoes and socks. They gave us some instructions like , No running, no looking in to their Eyes, no going in front of them, no flash, and etc.,
One of the Tiger sat down in the water and relaxed for some time. Trainer went and drive that Tiger towards the table. Tiger came and sat on the table. Then we took some pictures with Tiger.
They were giving a small chicken piece with a straw to look up and give a good pose.
After the pictures at table, another Tiger was sitting on the grass. We went there to take pictures. There are 4 people inside with us. another 3 people just outside walking and making some noise for Tiger to look.
A once in a life experience to go stay that close with the Tigers. Unforgettable and unbelievable. Some of my relatives didn’t believe this is real , some shouted not to do this again and some had question why risking life?
But I would say go for it and do it… You won’t regret it…:)
Trip Dates : July 07, 2018 to July 12, 2018