Today we woke up with the sun beaming down over the Jal Mahal outside our window and had a wonderful buffet breakfast at the hotel. At 10pm, our driver picked us up and brought us to Amber Fort. In the past, most people rode elephants to the top of the fort. When we arrived, elephants painted in colorful designs waited to take people to the top. However, due to recent events, the number of times an elephant can climb to the top has been limited. We also had been reading about the plight of the Amber elephants and how they are overworked here. So we decided we would walk to the top. It was an easy walk, especially compared to the fort at Bundi. Many hawkers stopped us along the way, but all were easily dissuaded ... read more

Today we visited Rathambore National Park. This was the park that President Clinton visited on his trip to India, and it is one of the parks where you are most likely to see a tiger. It is no guarantee however, as of the many acres of parkland set aside, visitors can only see a small part and there are only a few dozen tigers left. Sadly, poachers have been killing these gorgeous creatures for Chinese medicine and their skins. Knowing this, we did not fully expect to see a tiger at all. Some people stay for weeks and never do. We arrived in the afternoon and were disappointed to find that Hotel Tiger Safari Resort was a concrete block hotel, and our room was dank, dim, and windowless. One saving grace was that it has afternoon ... read more

Although I’ve already written two entries on Udaipur, there were additional items I had wanted to share. Any entry written from India was necessarily shorter, because we had limited time on the internet. We arrived in Udaipur on January 3rd and stayed through the 5th. The city is delightful, everything that it was advertised to be, a paradise for travelers. The well-worn tourist trail can feel so good to the travellers’ feet. The so-called White city really does gleam, reflected in two man-made lakes. Every other storefront has a rooftop restaurant, with three or four flights of narrow stairways leading up to a glorious view over the city. Our first hotel, the Raj Palace, was a bit disgusting and rundown. The lights did not work and there were stains on the walls. I had originally asked ... read more

We're currently in Udaipur. It is a wonderfully romantic city, with white buildings reflected in blue man-made lakes. The labrynthine streets of the old city are easy to walk, and filled with the stuff of traveller's dreams - internet cafes, rooftop restaurants where you can dine for less than a US dollar, and plenty of little shops. We arrived yesterday and have decided this is our favorite city in India. Finally we were able to walk around and explore without having to be driven everywhere. First an update on NYE. It ended up being rather unique and fun. We went to a budget hotel called Ajit Mansion and they let us eat up on their rooftop. They do not have a restaurant there, it's just a few plastic tables, and higher up - it's just a ... read more

On the last day of the year, we visited three temples around Bikaner. The first day, we visited a busy Vishnu temple in Bikaner. The approach was lined with beggars waiting patiently with their bowls for visitors to offer them coin and food on their way out. There was a parking lot for this temple, if you can believe it. We hid our money in our clothes and removed our shoes and cameras. We were still wearing our socks to cross the gravelly parking area to the white stone steps of the temple, where many worshippers were to be seen that morning. One man yelled us for wearing socks, so we quickly removed them. I followed all the actions of Hukam (our driver), from putting a hand to the steps and then to my forehead, to ... read more