Pat’s Favorite India and Hong Kong Photos

Monday, 11 April 2011 | by Pat's Picks

I just got back from a two week family trip to Asia. I’ve got a few different blog topics in mind that I’ll put together over the next couple of weeks. But first I wanted to share some of my favorite photos from our trip.

The photo above is from our amazing tiger sighting in Ranthambore National Park in India. We bounced around in a jeep for 3 hours with little luck in spotting a tiger. The sun started to set and we’d pretty much given up when one of the park’s 30 tigers wandered right past us. Even our tiger-spotting guide and his driver were stunned at how close the tiger got to our jeep.

Earlier, the best we saw was the back of a tiger from 300 yards away. And there were dozens of other tourists there fighting for the same glimpse.

Our trip included mandatory tourist sights such as the mayhem of Old Delhi traffic:

And, of course, a sunrise visit to check the box that we had visited the Taj Mahal.

The colors worn by the women in Rajasthan are amazing:

Two segments of our trip involved train travel. After seeing the competition for space on one train, I was grateful that I paid up for the coach with reserved seating.

I was amazed at the extent to which camels are still being used to haul cargo, evin in urban settings. This scene was repeated hundreds of times in a one-week visit.

The more rural the village in India the more unusual it is to see a light-skinned family. So often we took pictures of the locals while they took pictures of us.

It’s been more than a decade since I was in Hong Kong, and after our time in India it was great to be in a city that runs so efficiently.

My daughters were particularly intrigued by the notion that the escalator is a commuter transportation option in Hong Kong.

We spent our final afternoon and evening of the trip at Hong Kong Disneyland.

I’m a huge Disney fan, so even though the park is small compared to the US locations, it was fun to see. I love Disney’s attention to detail, which includes Mickey Mouse hand grips for straphangers on the access train.