As I mentioned in my last posting, I received a call from my co-worker, a funloving guy from my same homestate, who just happens to be staying at the same hotel. We went for a walk to go to Copper & Spice, a Thai-Indian place. Closed. Ended up walking for a while and stumbled upon The Precinct, something of a classic Irish bar. I ordered a Bulmer's (i.e. Magner's) cider and enjoyed that while my - heh - mate ordered a Beemish. And we chatted with the bartender, a very cute young fellow and it was about the most quintessential Irish [View Full Entry]

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Well, I've been here long enough that my own thoughts are in an Irish accent. That is to say, about 12 hours. I arrived this morning after a sleepless flight, and checked in at our hotel - the Clarion Limerick. Hard to miss, really. We saw it from miles away and just headed in the general direction of the modernist tower over the Shannon. I don't think the Irish breakfast agreed with me. I'm a bit sick today. I must say, their bacon is phenomenal. It's like thick-cut ham. I filled up on the breakfast buffet so that I wouldn't have [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Verona this morning. Already I like it more than Padua. It has lots of wide avenues, marble sidewalks, and huge piazzas. The piazza Bra where the old Roman Arena is located is as large as Piazza San Marco. It is damn hot here. We are wilting in the sun. It is around 95 degrees. Today we walked all over, seeing the roman arena, Juliettes House and stood on her balcony, many palazzos and churches from the outside, and then the long long walk to the Chiesa San Zeno ' well worth it. San Zeno was built in the [View Full Entry]

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Today we are here in Padova, representing the first time we have gone some place new in Italy. Since Friday, we have been in Venice, that was just as wonderful as the last time we were there, and more comfortable. Yesterday, we went on a wine tour of the Venezia Friuli region, with the Collio wines mostly. These are wines grown on collinas or aka hills. Friuli produces many white wines and a few reds. One is the sweet pignoli, which is developed from a disease on the grapes and can only be made in this area. Another here is the [View Full Entry]

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The best idea I had today was to visit the Monkey temple. A gal from my bellydancing class told me that the monkey temple was her favorite part of Jaipur. It is out of the city to the east, set in some cliffs. You drive through an older area, full of crumbling old havelis and city walls. At Galta, there are some old temples, then a number of deep tanks. Tanks for water are common here, for storing the bounty of the Monsoon for the rest of the year in the desert climate. This tank is supposed to be very deep [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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The homesickness began a few days ago in Ranakpur, when I dreamed of eating a Mcdonald's hamburger. It increased in Bundi, when Alli and I ended up finally talking about the issues with India. But then we had a good day in Bundi. But our hotel in Sawai Madhopur (Ranthambhore) was the last straw. We had another sleepless night on hard beds in a cold room. Since we had already seen three tigers, we chose to leave early and go to Jaipur. I don't know if I mentioned that we ate at a very fancy hotel the night before - the [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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We are currently in Bundi. This is in a little-known corner of Rajasthan. From Udaipur, we travelled northwest through the abandoned fort at Chittogarh and many small towns and narrow roads to Bundi. Chittorgarh was an unexpected stop. As it was on our way, our driver mentioned we should stop at Chittor is supposedly the best fort in Rajasthan - but aren't they all "the best fort in Rajasthan"? Chittorgarh was the Mewar capitol before the move to Udaipur. The city was sacked by Akbar (Mughal) at last in the 17th century, and the buildings destroyed. The way they do it [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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