Travelog for: MaryLouise

MaryLouise, a very sweet and adventurous bunny,  started her life in another land where she was taught to be kind and gentle.  Like most little rabbits her age, she thought of traveling one day.  She wanted to travel very far away.

She climbed into a traveling container and before she could turn around and stomp 3 times,  she was on her way.  She traveled through the sky and over the land to start a new life in a place where there were big trees and great rivers and where little rabbits are always welcome.

She carried with her a tin full of tiny eggs which are called "friendship eggs".  Colorful and creamy inside, she knew they would help her find a new friend wherever she went.

Then before she knew it ---she was there.  In this place called Oregon.

MaryLouise was surprised to learn that now being a toyvoyager she must write down several life missions that she would like to accomplish before she sets out to travel.  Then she must let other hosts know where she would like to go besides Oregon.

She will stay in Oregon for a while and learn about this state first.  Then maybe she will visit some of the other states in the USA before making another long voyage across the sky and oceans again. 

She is just starting her life in this big world and she wants to make sure she is careful to write down exactly what she wants to do and then meet very special people that will help her travel. 

MaryLouise has met another little bear that has become a toyvoyager just like her this very day.  This little bear is called Eugene.  That's because he lives in Eugene, Oregon.

MaryLouise thought he was a darling little bear and wanted to make friends with him right away.  There was just something about him that made her think he was the most friendly little bear she has ever met.

That's when MaryLouise thought it would be a good time to share in some of the little "friendship eggs" that she has brought along on her voyage.

MaryLouise has just received an invitation to travel to India.
Oh what a great place for a little rabbit to visit. 

She is packed and ready to go already.  She will be leaving tomorrow on the first flight out of Oregon.

We wish her luck in her flight and hope she has a great time viewing all the things we wish we could see in India.

Good Luck little MaryLouise. 

Hello Mommy....

I made it.
I am save and healthy landed at my new hosts home.

You cannot imagine, how excited I am!
INDIA is soooo far away from home, but guess what, I found immediatly some new friends....

There are two other Bunnys, one is Jubilee Bunny and the other one is Lakshmi and both are so friendly girls....

Jubilee Bunny will also be my travelpartner on our big trip into the north of india end of may.
We will take care of each other, to make sure, no one get lost on the track.....

Lakshmi is a extreme brave bunny, she said, she wants to make an even bigger adventure by be released into the wilderness.... We will leave her at the Taj Mahal.... I hope, she will make it.... 

For now, mom, I am sending you
a big hug and lots of kisses,

yours Mary Louise

(My host said, I should tell you, she totally loves to tough me, because I am sooooo soft.... I hope, she'll get bored of it real soon, so I do not loose my fur... )

Today we made a little trip around the city of Chennai...
Imagine, 7 Million people live here, but when we drove thrue, it seemed more to be a very very huge villiage...

And I was really toughed, as we passed by the fishermen area. These people are one of the poorest who live here and they are not really accepted by the other citizens.

The Tsunami in Decembre 2005 destroied a lot of their houses and about 13.000 people died along the beach area of chennai.... Kumar, our driver, told us, that there were everywhere dead bodys laying on the streets and still today, the families are faced with problems.... Some still have no actuall home, but just tents from plastic bags.....
That's so sad....

Near this area, there is the St. Thomas church, we actually wanted to visit and how give so much hope to this people....
This building is really beautifull, don't you think?!

Finally, we all were waiting so long for it.....

Tomorrow we will start our trip into the north of India.....
jiiiipppiiihheee....

Jaipur - Agra (Taj Mahal) - Delhi - Manali - Keylong- Sarchu - Leh ..........

We will be back at the 9th of June.....

Today we all helped packing the suitcase, everyone is now in charge of something.....

Jubilee Bunny and I are in charge of one tvs dairy.....

Thanks to god, we don't have to travel in the suitcase, we have our very own, very comfortable backpack..... (as comfortable as if can be, with such a travelbunch!)

We'll surely have a lot of fun..... I will tell you everything later.....

BYE BYE.....
...we are off.....

Hey mommy,
we are back..... and it was sooo exciting!
I saw a lot of the north of india and will show you also as much as I can.....  it will take a while, I guess..... Mona and Uli alltogether took arround 900 picures just of us tvs.... pfeeew...

After we had a long journey, because one flight from Mumbai to Jaipur was canceled, we arrived in Jaipur very late.
We enjoyed the warm welcome at the beautifull Jai Mahal Palace Hotel, ate something and went straight to bed.

The others slept very long, but I crawl out of the bed to explore the Hotel, because it was just so beautiful.

Later we ent together into the city, and I saw the red Windpalace. I liked that.

Near by Jaipur there is the big fort-palace of Amber, a beautiful, ethereal example of Rajput architecture, rises from a rocky mountainside.

Amber was the ancient capitel of Jaipur state. Construction of the fort was begun in 1592 by Maharaja Man Singh and it was later extended by other rulers, so you can see a lot of very different buildings there.

In one corner I found a little girl with her brother. He was making music, while she danced to earn some money.
She was really cute, but I felt very sorry for her. She is just one of many 1000 of children, who are sent by their parents to earn money instead of going to school... That is really sad.

Monday we spent on the road....

Because there were some people called Gujjar, who demonstrated in a town near Agra and killed several others, the normal road from Jaipur to Agra was closed, so we had to take the long way over Delhi....

It took us 10 hours, so we arrived in our hotel in Agra again very late.

But it was not as boring as it sounds. We saw a lot of funny vehicles at the so called HIGHWAY....

And we rest next to a group of friendly cows...

Oh, this should be the great day!
We woke up very early on tuesday, because we were all so excited to see the Taj Mahal.

Imagine, we could even see it from the hotel's room, far far away....

We made as much noise as we could to wake up our hosts, we just couldn't wait!

But than the big disapointment!
At the entry to the place of the Taj Mahal, the guys said, we tvs are all not allowed to go inside. In fact, humans are only permitted to take their camera with them.

These guys were very rude and sticked to their silly rules, Mona and Uli couldn't do anything.

That was soooo sad!

But our hosts went in and took some pictures for us.
And they told us a little bit about the history of the Taj.

Did you know these facts:

The Taj was built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child. in 1631. The death of Mumtaz left the emperor so heartbroken that his hair is said to have turned grey overnight. Construction of the Taj began in the same year and was not completed until 1653. In total 20.000 people worked on the building. The construction bill is believed to have run to 3 Million Rupee equivalent to about 70 million US dollar today.

As the Taj was ready, Shah Jahan let cut off the right hand of every worker, who built it, because he wanted to make sure, that they were not able to built another copy of Taj for any other man.

And soon after the finishing, Shah Jahan's son became the Emperor and put his father into jail.
He said, it is a big crime to built such an expansive building, while the folks have nothing to eat and die because of hunger. He put Shah Jahan into the Agra Fort from where he could see the Taj from his window every day, untill he died.

We went to this place, and Shah must had the same view, we had as we took this picture of me and the Taj in the far.

Still today it is a shame, that the goverment earns so much money every year from the visitors of the Taj Mahal, but Agra is still such a poor city.

It is very dirty and many people have got nothing to eat.

Around the place of the Taj a lot of beggars are, and you have totally to watch out, not to be cheated by shopowner and other people on the streets.

So this was a not so nice expierience allover....

On our way to Delhi we than found another nice building. It is not as old as the Taj, but looks a little bit like it....
It's a hindu Temple near Agra.

On wednesday we went to a very interesting exibition called "Fluxus in Germany" at The National Gallery Of Modern Art" with the famous artist Joseph Beuys.

It was some kind of weird, but I really liked it!

Later we visited some tombs, like the Humayun's Tomb, which again remind me a little bit of the Taj Mahal, although it is made of red sandstone instead of marble.

Today we saw the Red Fort in Delhi, but because of the security check at the entry, just Roderich and Carl, could slip in.

I had a little look at a nice hindu temple near the fort, which is build with the same red sandstone.

Later we walked thrue the market streets of Old Delhi...and.... mmmmh.... were a little surprised by some disgusting smell, till we saw the reason for it.....

To be honest, I felt a little sick after that....

On our way back to the hotel, we passed by New Delhi with it's goverment buildings, but the car were not allowed to stop here, so I took some pictures for you from out of the car.

ooooooh yeaaaah... today we fly north of Delhi to Manali, which lies at an altidude of 2700m in the himalaya mountains and it was muuuuuuch less warm..... I loved that!!!

In Manali we took a little walk to the town and than enjoyed the beautiflu view from the hotel room's balcony.

Today was great.

We first went to a place, where Mona, Uli and Repa gone for a white-water-rafting.... Taht was nothing for me, but we watched them.

And I wondered about the smell, that lies over the valley...???
Than I found some plants, that grows there on every corner, like herbs.... Strange greens, don't you think?!

I tasted some of this plants, but Mona took me away from that place, she said, that this plants are forbitten to taste by law and that it is nothing for small bunnys like me.

Later we visited some other places in Manali and, near by, the village of Vashisht.

In this area lives a lot of tibetan refugees, so you also find typicall tibetan houses and buddism temples. 

Oh, I love the area of Manali.
Everything is green, the weather is chilly and the people are friendly.

Today we first visited some old temple and a cute, little castle.

Naggar castle was capital of the Kullu Valley for nearly 1500 years and the castle was built by Raja Sidh Singh about 500 years ago in the classic Himachal wood ans stone blockwork style. The castle's courtyard contains a tiny Jagtipath Temple, which houses a slab of stone said to have been carried here by wild bees.... and a small museum.

About 2 km uphill past the castle is the Roerich Gallery, a fine old house displaying the artwork of eccentric Russian painter Nikolai Roerich, who died in Naggar 1947, and his son Svetoslav Roerich.

The distinctive Roerich style falls somewhere between surrealism and russian icon painting.

It was very interesting!

A five minute wark uphill from the gallery (which was extreme steeply), is the Urusvati Himalayan Folk & Art Museum, which houses a collection of embroidery and folk art.