Blogs from Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 338

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Asia » India » Rajasthan » Udaipur January 30th 2006

Hello all, we have now reached Udaipur which is the last stop on our chauffer driven tour, and we have waved off our driver back to Delhi. HOwever, before we arrived here we made another stop in a place called Ranakpur which is home to the most beautiful Jain temple. (Jainism is a form of Hinduism that split off rejecting the rigid caste system of india) The temple was incredibe - the most beautiful thing I have seen in India to date. It was full of carved pillars- over one thousand, no two alike (well, so I am told - I have to admit I didnt bother to check them all!) THe light and space were incredible but confusingly although Jainism is meant to have no priests, there were several guys in saffron robes claiming to ... read more
Ranakpur
Udaipur

Asia » India » Rajasthan » Udaipur January 30th 2006

Well here we are in Udaipur, at the end of our tour of Rajasthan. After today, we are heading down to Mumbai on a train, which will be our first experience of Indian railways.... Apparently they're an unmissable part of the authentic Indian experience, although I'd probably be more excited about the prospect if we didn't have to do 8 hours on one train, get off at 4am, then onto another train for the rest of the day at 7am. I'm sure it will be character-building anyway.... Udaipur has been quite nice, although everyone is dying to tell you how the James Bond film, Octapussy, was filmed here. Naturally, everyone you speak to was pivotal to the film and had some kind of starring role. My favourite example of this is the owner of a bag ... read more
Ranakpur
Ranakpur

Asia » India » Rajasthan » Pushkar January 30th 2006

We're now in Pushkar, home of the famous camel fair that happens every November. The town is small and quiet compared to the other Indian cities we've been to, and this is a blessing! From Agra we drove to Jaipur, stopping off at Fatehpur Sikri along the way....Fatehpur Sikri is an ancient town that was at one time the capital of Mughal India, but has since been abandoned and the whole complex has been preserved in immaculate condition. Where once there must have been thousands of courtiers, now the pigeons rule the roost, making for an interesting experience in this ghost town. After a rather quick visit there we continued on our way to Jaipur, driving along the scariest road yet! Normally the "highway" is one lane in either direction, but since they decided to improve ... read more
Palace of Winds
The Amber Fort
Jaipur's Jantar Mantar

Asia » India » Rajasthan January 29th 2006

January 19 to January 29 Udaipur; peace, quiet and Bond. A wonderful place to relax and kick a Bombay cough. With wedding season in full swing, the town is also filled with wind carrying Hindi pop and Christmas lights topping dozens of roofs spotlighting celebrating families. You get the full range here, P-Diddy and the Clintons in town to celebrate a New York Hotellier's big fat Indian wedding at the Lake Palace or a couple of lights, horns, dancers and a horse - simple but still colorful in ways only India can provide. Weddings are hard to get away from and be invited to as celetial circumstances make for few dates permitting marriage and Udaipur provides a romantic feel I wouldn't describe elsewhere in India. So I head to Mt Abu next, Rajastan's only hill station ... read more
Lake Palace Udiapur
Fun in a film case
City Palace

Asia » India » Rajasthan » Pushkar January 29th 2006

We arrived in Pushkar late in the evening. We were glad to have an experienced driver. Daytime driving is hairy enough, much worse at night, especially on the curvy road from Ajmer to Pushkar. Our driver found a beautiful hotel in the fashion of a fine mansion (Haveli) on the edge of town, with floors made of marble. Cost: less than $C15 per night for two of us. We planned to stay 2 nights. Pushkar is a holy city of about 15,000, with anywhere from 200 to 1000 temples (depending on who you talk to). IN the morning Jamie and I walked down to the lake, supplied by groundwater (there has been hardly any rain in recent years), and considered holy - a little like the Ganges. Accordingly the townside of the lake contains ghats or ... read more
Hiking through villages to reach the hill
view from the summit
Hilltop views

Asia » India » Rajasthan » Pushkar January 29th 2006

Before we even checked into the hotel yesterday we were taken to another "friendly" travel agent and it was suggested we go on a Camel trek. Neither of us were particularly bothered so we said no. It was amazing how quickly the price came down! We ended up paying about half the orginal price just because we weren't that bothered about going! Checked into the hotel which is very nice (but it should be at the price we paid!). And then pretty much straight away went out on the Camel trek. Neither of us had even asked how long it was or anything but I was a little worried when our camel driver(?) said it would be 3 hours before we got to where we were going to have dinner. On the way we stopped and ... read more

Asia » India » Rajasthan » Jodhpur January 28th 2006

Woke up early and was really lookig forward to our visit to this famous 'wonder of the world' Taxi took us to within a mile then we had to transfer onto a pony and trap to take us to the Taj. Paid 1500Rp to get in and our guide explained that it had taken 22 years and 30 million to build it about 350 years ago. Apparently some love sick Maharaja built it for his dead wife as a token of his love (might have been better to give it to the poor people) When we finaly saw it I have to say it was a magnificent white marble structure which captured the light in a very special way making it seem to glow. The architecture was fantastic with brilliant carvings and marbles inlaid with semi-precious ... read more

Asia » India » Rajasthan » Udaipur January 27th 2006

Hello everyone. Well the last few days have been just grand. Our stay with the Maheshwari's was wonderful, and after getting a firm grasp on the (partially skewed) rules of cricket from eight year old Akosh, and having our palms read by his father Alok in Jaipur, we headed on to Pushkar. First, our palms: Apparently I (Keif) will have a long life, become a great scientist and inventor, and will only have one wife and one child. Blythe will be the money maker with a very good job and will only have one husband and also only one child. However (here's the disclaimer) only 7% of these predictions come true, the rest relies on environmental factors, so who knows what's to come. In Pushkar we enjoyed the beautiful holy lake from our hotel perched on ... read more
The Ghats
Kites of Jaipur
Dodging Traffic

Asia » India » Rajasthan » Jaipur January 27th 2006

Jaipur again is a very busy city. It seems very dirty even compared to Delhi. We rove through a couple of nice areas yesterday but in general it has been dirty and very polluted. On the way in we stopped at the "Monkey Temple". It was a bit of a trek up past a series of temples and up e steep hill but once you got to the top there were amazing views over the whole of Jaipur. Today we have been to the two hill forts (Tiger & Jahgir). These were huge and also gave great views over the city and surrounding area. We didn't go to Amber fort as we ran out of time. We just saw an procession going down the street and followed it for a while. From what we could gather ... read more

Asia » India » Rajasthan » Pushkar January 26th 2006

I'm writing this from Pushkar, since my last posting I have travelled from Rhanthambore National Park to Jaipur and then to Pushkar. On the way from Rhanthambore to Jaipur, Juan - our travel-mate - suggested that we leave the main road and visit a more isolated small village away from the highway. We had been driving through innumerable roadside villages, but we wanted to see a smaller one. Our driver turned off onto an unpaved road, drove about 2 km and entered a very small village. When the four of us got out of the car, we were suddenly the centre of attention and were soon surrounded by children as well as adults. We were invited into a home, consisting of mud huts around a compound. The village was basic, but clean. The villagers were fairly ... read more
Ancient hindu temples from Amber Fort
Young women in Jaipur
Women de-husking chili in field




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