Apr 23, 2013 - Jaipur, India

After our morning flight from Mumbai, we arrived in the “Pink City” of Jaipur in time for yet another great Curry/Masala lunch! This is a very good trend! Jaipur is a sleepy little city by India standards with about 6 million residents! It has far expanded past the pink sandstone walls that used to surround this beautiful city. You travel through a city that looks like any other until you reach the amazing endless pink buildings of the old town! Every building is made from the same pink sandstone that is produced locally making it the...

Apr 16, 2013 - Amber Fort in Jaipur ...and more

Our Mission today - Amer (or Amber Fort),Panna Meena Ka Kund step well, tiny village and ancient ‘in use’ village Hindu temple; view the Water Palace; drive through the Pink City and a late lunch at Maharini Hotel on the way back to Delhi. After our frazzled delivery the night before, Parwan was bright a cheery next morning to pick us up. His brother, who’s studying English as well as to be a school teacher, joined us for the day in Jaipur which added to the fun. Amer (or Amber) Fort is magnificent and so well preserved. Having a guide at...

Apr 15, 2013 - Overnight Jaipur

Overnight Jaipur Our driver nearly ripping his hair out, it was dark and roadworks and our accommodation a little out of the way. We did the round trip through a tunnel 3 times before we pulled up to retrieve Sunder Palace telephone number for Parwan to ring for directions. Close to 9pm before we arrived – but then still able to chill out with a vegetarian meal on the roof top restaurant. Food and room excellent. Loved Sunder Palace; and would have loved to stay a few nights and get to know Jaipur a little. (Prices unbelievably cheap for...

Mar 30, 2013 - Jaipur

Our morning begins with a discussion about a change of plans. Since shopping seems to be high on the agenda, we abandon the museum and ask that our time at the Amber Fort be shortened to the highlights. Again, Mansi is so wonderfully accommodating and gets on her phone to start changing our itinerary. At the base of the Amber Fort we joined a short queue for the elephant ride to the top ... giddy with excitement. The elephants are brightly coloured, apparently more so because Holi has just passed. Getting on the elephants is a bit awkward,...

Mar 29, 2013 - Agra to Jaipur

We're up early again to say goodbye to a beautiful city ... but we're off to another beautiful city ... Mansi's hometown of Jaipur. Throughout the trip, whenever we have asked where we should buy something, she always replies with "You can buy that in Jaipur." It was such a frequent comment that we all teased her. But, as we found out in Jaipur ... you CAN buy anything here. Our drive is long, but broken up a sightseeing stop at another fort ... I think many in the group are a bit road weary and feeling they just want a bit of down time....

Feb 27, 2013 - Mount Abu

Tuesday, February 25 We headed south from Udaipur toward Mt Abu. We were on a freeway for quite a while as we approached the mountains. Eventually we left the freeway to begin our climb into the mountains. We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant and had great food for low price—only about $5 for both of us. It was a restaurant that was geared more to locals and less for foreign tourists. Mt Abu is a popular tourist destination for Indians as it is cooler in the mountains, and there is a lake in the middle of the dry land. There are lots...

Feb 27, 2013 - Udaipur

Finally have internet again, so I can catch up. Friday, February 22, 2013 We headed out this morning for a 250k drive to Udaipur. The first part of the drive was over very flat land on fair roads. There was quite a bit of farming and we passed through several small towns. The practice here is that when you buy land, you put up a stone wall and gate right away, even if you don’t build or develop it, and we saw lots of that. Sometimes the gates were quite impressive, like there were big plans eventually. One village was having an event of...

Feb 22, 2013 - Jodhpur

Wednesday, February 20 Today was a driving day. After a lazy morning, we headed cross country to Jodhpur, the furthest west we will go. Leaving Pushkar, I noticed groups of women along the road. They had come to the water tap at the end of their street to fill containers to carry home for the tasks of the day. It is easy to forget just how hard life is for many of the people here. A family of four are sometimes riding one motorcycle if the children are small enough. Most people seem to have basic shelter, although we have seen tent/shanty...

Feb 21, 2013 - India - Jaipur

Thursday 21st February 2013 Left hotel at 5am for New Dehli railway station which is one of the 4 main stations in the city. The train windows were double glazed but tinted and dirty so difficult to see much of the journey outside, but plenty of rubbish was strewn across the tracks. The carriage was old but o.k. as we had reserved seats and fans. Hot drinks and a breakfast were provided. Train arrived in Jaipur just after 10:30am. Porters helped the girls with their bags by carrying them on their heads, two suitcases each! Young children...

Feb 20, 2013 - Pushkar

Tuesday, February 19 We set off in the car from Jaipur west toward Pushkar. On the way we stopped and met our driver’s wife. He is 34 and was married at the traditional age of 20. His was an arranged marriage—he only met her once before the ceremony. They live in his village of 600 several miles from Jaipur, and have three children. They seem very happy together,and think they were lucky. She was visiting him at his room in the city while he was in town, but was going home on the bus that day. By the way, he said that in the village, people...

Feb 18, 2013 - Jaipur

Sunday, February 17 Today I rode an Elephant. We drove a little north out of Jaipur to the old city of Amber. The city is surrounded by walls that snake up and over the hills, and on the highest hill sits Amber Fort. This fort and palace belonged to the maharajah of Jaipur. Rather than climb the hill, we rode up. There was a line of elephants waiting, and a platform to climb so you could get on. The saddle looked a bit like a baby crib on which we sat side-saddle and were closed in by a bar like at a ferris wheel ride. Then it was off up...

Feb 13, 2013 - Jaipur, Amber Palace

Wednesday 13th February. A comfortable nights sleep at the Hotel Bissau Palace (www.bissaupalace.com), with a rather chaotic buffet breakfast which consisted of curried potatoes and chapatis, and toast and jam. A quick stop to photograph a building, and then we were off to see the Amber Palace, a huge edifice on the top of the hill. We had a very pleasant couple of hours exploring that with the help of a local guide, and I have about 130 photographs of it to show when we get back. We stopped on the way back to Jaipur at the lake...