Rock on
I keep this post PC, despite the opportunities
Today we were going to go to Amritsar to visit the "Golden Temple":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmandir_Sahib, but this morning my brother threw up a lot. This implied morning sickness, which meant he was pregnant. As it turns out, though, he just got food poisoning. I was hoping he'd get over it by lunch time which would've meant we could actually go to Amritsar, but he did not, so I was stuffed. Instead I went to the Rock Gardens.
The rock gardens are a whole area made of rocks. It was made by a whole bunch of people over (I guess) a long period of time. The area is very large, and takes maybe half an hour just to walk through. We took about an hour with pictures, and we were moving fairly fast. The number of sculptures, terraforming, and other things put together is staggering. Simply wheeling in the amount of material it would've taken to build the gardens is mind boggling. Later, the cement bags which were used to keep the rock gardens together are used themselves to create walls and pathways. There are a lot of them.
The rock gardens are sort of a communal area for Chandigarh, and contain two amphitheaters for small performances, as well as a courtyard with more amphitheaters, seating, etc. Someone who lives in the area can get used to the place, but to someone who has never seen it (or in my case, has seen it after a long time) it's beautiful.
The place has become more of a lovers' joint rather than a tourist attraction, though. I can understand. Despite the experience of being there, the _idea_ of a rock garden sounds unappealing to a tourist. However, if you're a resident and you've been there before, you know all the high walls and small crevices in the caves form this intimate experience that's difficult to actually get in India. You can actually sit somewhere and look at a waterfall, and _be alone_. There's also sculptures of monkeys. I can see sexy times.
The rock gardens are a whole area made of rocks. It was made by a whole bunch of people over (I guess) a long period of time. The area is very large, and takes maybe half an hour just to walk through. We took about an hour with pictures, and we were moving fairly fast. The number of sculptures, terraforming, and other things put together is staggering. Simply wheeling in the amount of material it would've taken to build the gardens is mind boggling. Later, the cement bags which were used to keep the rock gardens together are used themselves to create walls and pathways. There are a lot of them.
The rock gardens are sort of a communal area for Chandigarh, and contain two amphitheaters for small performances, as well as a courtyard with more amphitheaters, seating, etc. Someone who lives in the area can get used to the place, but to someone who has never seen it (or in my case, has seen it after a long time) it's beautiful.
The place has become more of a lovers' joint rather than a tourist attraction, though. I can understand. Despite the experience of being there, the _idea_ of a rock garden sounds unappealing to a tourist. However, if you're a resident and you've been there before, you know all the high walls and small crevices in the caves form this intimate experience that's difficult to actually get in India. You can actually sit somewhere and look at a waterfall, and _be alone_. There's also sculptures of monkeys. I can see sexy times.