Random images

Here are some of my favorite images. Most of them were taken from a moving car as we drove from city to city.

Neemrana Fort Palace

We have never stayed in a hotel like this in our lives! It's an old fort built into the side of a hill. Since it was never really meant to be lived in, there is no rhyme or reason to the layout and reminded us of an Esher drawing where stairs are all over the place and go off in all different directions. It's lit up an night and they've added a swimming pool and amphitheater that stick to the original architecture and fit right in. Our rooms had balconies over looking the pool! The food and service were outstanding. We rented an audio tape that walks you all over the fort and gives you some good history. Parts of it reminded me of scenes from Lord of the Rings - to get to the reception desk you have to walk up several levels on a rock/cobble ramp originally made for elephants. The huge doors have spikes on them originally meant to keep elephants from knocking them down! They really care about their heritage and the surrounding community as you can add a donation to your bill that will be used for the children and women in the local village.

Shekawati - Piramal Haveli

Wonderful retored Haveli near Shekawati. You can take tours to nearby havelis, stepwells and temples, but we were so tired we just stayed here and rested. All the little boys in town fly kites from the roof tops and the boys in this picture saw me taking pictures so they asked me to take their photo.  This place - Piramal Haveli - is part of the Neemrana chain. It doesn't have heat so the rooms and dining out in the courtyard were chilly at night, but the food and service were exceptional. They brought in a local magician to sit in the courtyard and put on his show. Even though we didn't speak Hindi, we understood what he was doing and he was funny, charming and a darn good magician. It was quite an evening to sit in a courtyard with braziers at each table to keep warm, Indian snacks (roasted peanuts, bellum - chunks of molasses type candy, and hot masala chai) and our own private magic show. Guess we'll have to go back to see the other havelis and Jhunjhunu.

Abhaneri

A small village several hours from Jaipur, this place was amazing and one of our favorite places. We were the only visitors and the guide was very friendly, spoke English and was very knowledgeable. Chand Baori is a step well built over 1000 years ago. Step wells were built for gathering water and this one is 11 stories deep. There are remnants of a temple next to it and there are huge chunks of the old pillars from the original temple laying about everywhere. 

Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary

This is a bird sanctuary created in the 1700's by the Maharaja of Bharatpur by flooding the area with water from nearby rivers. He created the area so he could hunt birds - not protect or watch them. They are going through an extended drought right now, so we didn't see too many birds, but it's still worth a trip. We hired a park designated ornithologist and the 5 of us went thru the park on a tonga (horse pulling a wooden wagon). The guide was very nice, spoke excellent english and really knew his stuff. The python was 12 feet long and was sunning itself. Our guide had us remain quiet and walk softly - the vibrations of our footsteps could disturb it. They wanted to make sure the snake stayed put so other visitors could see him. I guess if it felt disturbed, it would slither away to a porcupine hole. Cool!

Taj Mahal

Pictures just don't do this place justice. It's a tomb built by Shah Jahan for his 2nd wife. It's about 20 stories high (notice how tiny the people are at the bottom of the 3rd photo), took 23 years to build by 20,000 artisans! The details are amazing with carvings, semi-precious stones and marble inlays of writing encompassing 14 chapters of the Koran. This place looks like it was built yesterday instead of 1653. Since we saw it in winter, there was heavy haze and fog most of the day, so it was white marble against white skies, but that gave the pictures a kind of old postcard  or painterly look. We saw it in the morning the first time, then went back at sunset to view it from the back side at a park across the river - no entrance fee, no crowds and almost a better view (the Taj is symmetrical, so the back is just like the front). We've heard that Shah Jahan intended to build another Taj for himself out of black marble and planned to link the 2 by a bridge over the river where their souls could meet again in the afterlife. Don't know if that's true, but it makes a great, romantic story. In case you're wondering about the last photo - we always do our "shadows" on vacation and this one is on the marble platform of the Taj with all of us doing the "Namaste" greeting.

On our way home!

It's the last day of our trip to India - what a great trip it has
been! We are visiting with Sunil, Shalini, and Tanvi today (and doing
some last minute shopping and eating). See you soon!