Udaipur, Kumbalgarhhhh, & Ranakpur

Udaipur is famous for its big lake with a white "floating" palace in the middle -- romance enough to make it a setting in the James Bond Octopussy (which claim to fame the town apparently embraces: the movie is shown at 7pm every night in half of the old town's cafes and restaurants!). It has plenty more to offer on its own though, with hilly, winding streets, and a great City Palace and museum which cover a lot of the history and artwork of the region.

After visiting the palace we spent the late afternoon making friends with a lakeside musician and getting a little lost in the back lanes of the old city. The next day the four of us hired a car and set out on an adventure to two places we knew nothing about: Kumbalgarh fort and Ranakpur temple.

Kumbalgarh was so much more than just another imposing fort palace set on top of a hill. It was an enormous compound with a great wall surrounding some 36 sq. km. of hilly territory and enclosing many temple ruins, old cisterns, and fields. After following the walls awhile, we rambled through the fields and brambles, explored temples, and eventually made it up to the top of the fort itself.

It was a fantastic morning -- we had so much fun, and had found this almost deserted place which would have been the historical highlight of many another country.

That afternoon we arrived at Ranakpur, a Jain temple of magnificent proportions. Here's what the guidebook says: "carved, as always, using milk white marble, the complicated series of 29 halls, supported by a forest of 1444 pillars (no two alike), is the finest in Rajasthan...". Here's what Ben said: "The most amazing man-made building I've ever been in." Here's what it looked like:

Outside was another, smaller, stone temple with a small sampling of India's famous erotic carvings. The teenage school boys there were absorbed in finding and giggling over all the dirty details.















Sidenote: over the course of our drive that day, we frequently had to stop for animals, but whether our next obstacle would be a dancing horse, a herd of water buffalo, a lazy cow, a donkey cart, some goats, dogs, camels, or monkeys, was anybody's guess. India is fun!

Jodhpur

Between Jaisalmer and our next stop, Udaipur, is the city of Jodhpur. Jodhpur has a spectacular fort as well as a distinctly blue flavor to its older areas, a paint job which represents the Brahman caste as best we can tell. It also has a bigger train-station where we hoped to get some help in booking some tickets for the following weeks. We decided that it was worth a stop.

After a long morning on a crowded bus that was just packed with the colors and style of Rajasthani dress (think brilliant colors, many loose layers, spectacular turbans and lots of jewelry...), we arrived in the early afternoon. Our visit to the train station was fairly fruitless, but we did achieve our visit to the huge fort there, Meherangarh. It has a commanding location that overlooks the whole city, offering great views, and while we were there the late afternoon sun washed the entire structure in gold.

Jaisalmer

Beautiful Jaisalmer is located in western Rajasthan and has all the romance you could hope for from an ancient desert fort town. Once a major stop on the silk road, it was an important outpost and trading center, and the fort and havelis (spectacular homes built around open air spaces, generally built by important merchants or political figures) -- built of sandstone and looking like they are a part of the desert itself -- bear testament to the town's history. We stayed in the walls of the forts and had spectacular views of the castle inside as well as the town below. This is the view a $6 room can get ya:We spent time wandering the alleys inside the fort where homes and shops are tucked into all sorts of nooks and crannies and converted parts of the old castle and ramparts. We also visited an incredible haveli built by a prime minister whose home had served as a military outpost, storeroom, family home, and political center. The house was designed to have 10 floors, each one smaller and smaller until the top floor which was just the big guy's bedroom. Later, the king of the time, affronted by the audacious scope of the home, had the top two stories lopped off. The technology that went into constructing the building was amazing ; work with the stones was incredibly intricate as well as versatile, with secret storage places, interchangeable stone decorations, and blocks which fit together almost like Legos.

Pushkar

After a long night on the bus, we arrived in Pushkar the day after its famous camel fair came to an end. While some people literally come to India just to catch the market-livestock-holy men extravaganza, the little town swells by tens of thousands and room prices skyrocket, so we probably lucked out not to have stumbled into the middle of the fair by accident. Instead, the town was returning to its usual tranquil state.

Pushkar is a very holy place (no meat, no booze, no kissing), with many bathing ghats around its small jewel of a lake. At the ghats people bathe themselves as well as give puja (usually flower offerings). Here we luxuriated in the peace of the place -- especially after Delhi -- taking it all in from our breezy hotel rooftop cafe and in walks through and around town. We also had our first introduction to India's very cheeky monkeys who roam the rooftops of many towns. The black-faced monkeys, such as those mingling with the kite-flying kids above, were friendly, but you have to look out for the red-faced ones: one of them jumped onto our rooftop, grabbed Ben's coke, poured it out onto the ground and slurped it right up!

Delhi

Delhi: a chaotic, filthy, overwhelming introduction to this most amazing country which we fell in love with.

We arrived in a cloud of smog that obscured entire buildings only blocks away, and spent our second day checking out the downtown area of Connaught Place and getting our bearings. In the several hours we spent walking around that afternoon, we were followed by no less than 3 different men and several bicycle rickshaws, as well as baffled by a proliferation of "official" tourism offices in the neighborhood where the guidebook assured us only one existed. It was most definitely the India we'd been warned about. The cheap shopping street of Paharganj where we were staying didn't help either -- simply trying to step onto the street, much less walk down it away from the hostel, left us all feeling like we'd just survived an obstacle course with serious stakes.The next day, though, we wandered through the market district and were swept away with the colors and sounds and smells of saris and bangles and hawkers and bells and sweets and spices and cow shit. It was heady stuff. I only wish I had photos to show you of that crowded walk that we took because it left such clear snapshots in my mind... an old lady feeding deep fried breads to a cow loafing about in the middle of the street... a barber and his customer sitting indian-style, facing eachother on the sidewalk-blanket that serves as the barber's place of business... families of women overflowing sari shops whose rafters dripped with colored silks... Instead I have only a few photos of the more official sights which we saw that day, the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid, largest mosque in India. Outside the Mosque we met a family from Mumbai. The children were adorable and the old ladies shyly gruff. We were mutually thrilled to take a few photos together.Our last day in Delhi we met a friend of a family friend for lunch. Mrs. Jain not only treated us to a wonderful meal and some political insights, but also a personal historical tour of the Lodi gardens and tombs.After an informative afternoon with Mrs. Jain we made a final stop at Humayun's Tomb, an architectural pre-crusor to the Taj Mahal and a peaceful garden complex. Its symmetry and presence were just so beautiful; I had never been anywhere like it before.

To top off a full few days, we set out on the first of our many overnight bus rides in India -- it was probably the ride on which I got the most sleep, in retrospect, and it brought us away from the hubbub of Delhi and straight to the chilled out serenity of Pushkar.

public service announcement

We are sitting in Mumbai with butterflies in our stomachs because our flight to the US tonight marks the end of the most amazing few months... few years... but at the same time we are thrilled to be heading home at last, and to finally see much missed friends and family.

What about India you ask?

India has been a wild ride but we have loved every bit of it and have tons of photos and stories. The stories are written, but the addition of photos has unto now been thwarted by slow internet speeds. Stick with us a few more days as we sort ourselves out and we'll dazzle you with the things we've seen and done... really, it's been spectacular... before we say our goodbyes.

Georgetown and Kuala Lumpur

After we reluctantly came down from the coolth of the Cameron Highlands, we found ourselves on the ferry to Georgetown, the main city of Penang, an island off the west coast of peninsular Maylasia. Georgetown has a reputation as a culinary and cultural center of Malaysia, and held an important role as a trading center in the past. With Bart and Sabine and notherBelgian friend, Stijn, we made merry at an open air food court where we could sample all different kinds of snacks, and attempted an historical walking tour of the town. A small place, Georgetown seemed most special to me for it's architecture, a hodge-podge of chinese temples, mosques, colonial architecture, rich old merchant mansions, dusty concrete store fronts and apartments, etc.

We had just this short visit in Georgetown to get the flavor of the place before heading back to KL where we planned to have a quick visit around the city before catching our flight to India. Once back in the big city, we were amazed by the efficient public transportation, easily navigating the metro to criss-cross town, going first to the KL tower for it's panaramic views of the city, and then over to a museum and garden complex where we got a good overview of Malaysian history - particularly interesting in light of the great diversity within the country as well as its fast development. Finally, we raced back to the guesthouse to pick up our bags before taking the commuter train out to the suburbs where a family friend of my parents hosted us to a great dinner, interesting discussion, warm showers, and a ride to the airport the next morning.