Today, our 2nd day in Udaipur, was less magical. I believe we have learned a lesson again. That the most wonderful things about a place are not its tourist attractions, but rather its ambience and people. yesterday we met many wonderful people and enjoyed the beautiful lakeside. Today, we went to the City Palace to meet the guide we arranged yesterday. He was a Rajput man, formerly a landowner, now a tourist guide. He was very proud of his culture and history, as he told us about the great leader Maharana Pratap and his victories against the Mughal emperor Akbar. We [View Full Entry]

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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 fligh [View Full Entry]

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Today, we went to Ranakpur. I was glad to leave Jodhpur, a busy polluted city. I had not expected to dislike the cities so much. It was only a three hour drive to reach our next hotel - the Ranakpur Hill Resort. It was a pleasant retreat with expansive green lawns and views of the mountains, but not much compared to the Balsamand Lake Palace. It seemed like the kind of place that Indian families would go for relaxation, to get away from the bustle of Jodhpur. The buffet lunch here, however, is not recommended. It is made for a Northern [View Full Entry]

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i am now writing on a very sticky keyboard in jodhpur. Travelling with a driver so far has been both a blessing and a curse. First, the positives - we have a level of accessibility into indian culture. We have dined at roadside dhabas together, visited hindu temples, and had a helpful interpreter at the tailor's and when we met tribal people on the road to bikaner. he also got us into a crumbling haveli in the village of Fatehpur and interpreted for us with the guard of the home. Being in a car means that you can go anywhere you [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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My birthday was a very full day, in the way that only travel can make it. We began in Jhunjhunum, skipping the western breakfast our hotel offered, and drove to Mandawa. Here,we saw so many crumbling havelis and we asked our driver to stop so that we could take pictures. We did not go into these because he did not know the owners. I suspect that we could have knocked, but I am ever polite. In Fatehpur, we did stop to visit an old haveli in the process of restoration. A wizened old man in a green shawn with a white [View Full Entry]

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We begin the day in the capital city of Delhi, make our way through the endless mustard fields of Haryana, and finally arrive in the dusty towns of northwest Rajasthan. December 29th, 2005 We met our new driver, Hukam, and tied our suitcases to the rack on top of the car. We would tie and untie those suitcases many times over the next few weeks. I was really worried that the suitcases wouldn't stay on top of the car. I also had an irrational worry that a passing elephant would poo on the suitcases. That turned out to be an ill-founded [View Full Entry]

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It was very difficult to sleep last night with the constant horns outside and all sorts of weird noises in the hotel. The hotel is the downer of the trip so far. We have very little hot water, only a trickle. However, the breakfast was great - chai, masala dosai, and uttapam. Sanjay picked us up in a white ambassador. First, we went to the Laxshmi Narain temple, but we didn’t go inside as it required us to leave our cameras at the door. First day of the trip and I am not that trusting yet. Next, we went to Qtab [View Full Entry]

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India. The highways and streets were quiet at our 12pm arrival. I expected there to be elephants along the roads and beggars on the streets. Instead, it was a quiet, empty drive to Karol Bagh. Our current driver Sanjay is already teaching us Hindi. Namaste ji! The hotel was a surprise. We thought we would have a nice luxury hotel for our first night, after 17 hours of flying. The Hotel Good Palace is nice enough, but it feels very foreign. Example: there are no towels. Also, no hot water. The toilet is western but has both the tap-water for washing [View Full Entry]

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We depart at 6pm and I have been having trouble sleeping for two days. As I wrote in my other journal, India has always caused the dual emotions of fear and fascination, sometimes for the same reason. I have read about and will try to understand the things that bother most first-worlders when they visit, but will that understanding prevent me from having a knee-jerk reaction? A humorous example - I can understand the concept of a Holy Cow and be prepared to see cows, but when that cow rams me in the butt (as happened to a friend of mine), [View Full Entry]

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