Category: India

Day 235: Agra

Today was a long anticipated day – the day we finally got to see India’s #1 attraction: the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely acknowledged as the crowning achievement of Mughal architecture and is one of the most recognizable monuments in the world. Built in the mid-1600s by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his wife (ahem, *third wife*) Mumtaz Mahal, the Taj is often referred to as a monument of “undying love” (a reputation the tourism board of India is playing up, by calling Agra “the city of romance”).

Even though Mumtaz was the king’s third wife, she was by far is favorite, probably because she was the most fertile. During 19 years of marriage, Mumtaz gave birth to 14 children (dying in childbirth of the last), seven of whom survived to adulthood and of those, four were boys (King Henry VIII would have been so jealous…). When she died, Shah Jahan was supposedly overcome with grief and immediately started constructing his magnum opus – the most beautiful mausoleum India has ever seen, or ever will see again. Mumtaz was interred in the exact center of the crypt in 1643 – a good 12 years after her death – and her husband joined her in 1666. The king’s sarcophagus is off to the left of Mumtaz – one of the only non-symmetrical aspects of the complex.

But what about the other wives, you say? They are all buried just *outside* the Taj Mahal, in red sandstone buildings. Neither of them produced any sons, so…burn.

 

What a stroke of good luck! We arrived in Agra on the first day of World Heritage Week, meaning admission to all UNESCO sites is FREE!

The only downside to free admission is that everyone and their mother wants to visit the monuments as well. Luckily for us, the Taj has a “High Value Ticket” Line (AKA – “Foreigners Only”) so we don’t have to wait long

The red-standstone Entry Gate to the Taj Mahal garden. In an effort to “blend in” and avoid getting hasseled for pictures with random Indian tourists, Lindsay decided to wear a headscarf all day today – it worked! Not a single person asked for a picture! Whether it’s beacause she was flying over their radar or because she looked so ridiculous people were avoiding her, we’ll never know…

Saving the best for last! After nearly two weeks in India we *finally* reach the pièce de résistance – the TAJ MAHAL

Boo! The Taj is undergoing restoration work on one of the minarets and the right wall – kinda ruins the symmetrical effect of the magnificent palace

We have to cover our boots with disposable booties in order to visit the inside of the mausoleum (not for religious purposes, but to help keep the white marble floors of the building looking clean!)

The Taj Mahal is decorated with beautiful floral designs and calligraphy. From far away it looks like paint, but when you get up close you can see the effect is made by millions of pieces of inlaid stones – each stone is hand-carved and glued into holes gouged out of the marble wall by hand. Over the years, some vandals have picked out some of the decorative stones to keep as souvenirs, so now security at the Taj is *extremely* tight to make sure no one brings in anything that could be used to damage the monument

 

The Yamuna River flows behind the Taj Mahal

 

The mausoleum is flanked by four decorative minarets – though they look perfectly straight from a distance, up close you can see they are leaning ever-so-slightly outwards – this imperfection was deliberately done, so that if there is ever an earthquake the pillars would fall *away* from the main building

 

A mosque and a faux-mosque sit to the west and east of the Taj (the faux mosque was built simply to provide esthetic symmetry to the complex – the building serves no other purpose)

 

We visit the fake mosque first, thinking it might be less crowded (nope – both are pretty much the same, although you don’t have to take your shoes off in the fake mosque) – since this building isn’t really used for anything, the interior isn’t kept up as well – we could some damage to the incised painting on the ceiling

  

We visited the mosque next, where we could easily spot the differences between the two interiors – the floor of the mosque is covered in rectangle outlines for worshippers to lay down their prayer rugs, and the western wall has a mihrab (an alcove that points toward Mecca)

 

TEN YEARS have gone by between these two pictures! And wouldn’t you just know it? I got another red pimple on my forehead.

After our visit to the Taj Mahal, we had just enough time leftover to visit the Agra Fort. The original red sandstone structure was primarily used by Akbar the Great as a military fort – when his great grandson Shah Jahan took the throne, he expanded it (using his favorite building material: white marble!) to include the royal palaces for himself and his queens. At the end of his life, he spent 8 years imprisoned in in the Agra Fort after his power hungry son Aurangzeb killed off his older brother and unseated his dad as emperor (kinda wishing Mumtaz hadn’t been so fertile now, am I right?).

After the British conquered India, they took over the Agra Fort and used it for their army barracks. While some of the fort has been reopened for tourists (mostly the palaces), over half of the complex is still used by the India Army today.

The open-air, sandstone Public Meeting Hall and the fancier, white marble Private Meeting Hall within the Agra Fort

View of the Taj Mahal from the Agra Fort – during his long imprisonment, Shah Jahan could see (but never visit!) the monument he built for his beloved wife

 

The interior of the king’s palace was once covered in painted frescos – one of the British viceroys started to restore the paintings in the early 1900s, but the work was quickly abandoned once he was transferred to a different region of India

 

The royal library in the Agra Fort has a “whispering wall” effect! Outside, the family courtyard is beautifully decorated with hand-carved red sandstone (although sections have been restored by machine/stencil)

Our final stop of the day (of the country!) was a storeroom/workshop where local artisans were producing inlaid stone marble . Like many of the artists we’ve met throughout our tour, these families have been involved in their craft for generations and were direct descendants from the original craftsmen who built the Taj Mahal. Everything in the shop was still made by hand, just like it was in the days of the Mughal empire.

 

Pietre dure – inlaid stone decoration – is an artistic specialty in Agra. We get to see a sample of floral designs – each petal is a separate, hand-carved & polished stone. Here Igor holds a miniscule flower bud, made of five pieces of stone!

 

Artisans at work: 1) sanding down each individual stone, 2) drawing an outline of the finished stone & then gouging out a fitted hole by hand, and 3) gluing each stone into the holes, one at a time

Our final night in India – cheers!

Day 234: Ranthambore National Park

Imma save you the suspense and tell you right now: we didn’t see any tigers. Part of is our own fault though – our original itinerary was supposed to include two games drives: one today in the afternoon and a second one tomorrow morning before driving to Agra. However, we accidentally booked our flight to Bangkok too early in the day on the 20^th, meaning we had to cut a half-day of activities in order to get back to Delhi on time. Sadly, the morning game drive was nixed which is a huge shame as our time in Africa taught us that Big Cats are lazy motherf*ckers who are only active in the early morning. No matter how good our safari guide was, we knew it was a long shot that he would be able to find a sleeping tiger in the afternoon heat.

It didn’t help that our driver and guide (two different people) were complete sh*t. According to our local contact in Ranthambore, we were supposed to be picked up from our hotel between 2:15-2:30PM for our afternoon game drive. After waiting in the hotel lobby for 45min and making two calls to the guy’s cell phone, we were finally the last two guests picked up at 3:00PM. Once we were in the safari “gypsy” we had another 45min drive to the park entrance, where we picked up an official park guide to join our game drive…expect the guy barely spoke English. There was an Indian couple in the car with us, along with a British couple, but the guide only told the Indian couple what was going on *in Hindi*. The British couple got pretty annoyed (as did we!) and constantly had to ask the guide/Indian tourists to please translate for the other 4 people in the car.

However, under different circumstances, I’m sure Ranthambore would have been great. Situated 150KM outside Jaipur, the park used to be the royal hunting grounds for the Rajput maharajas. In 1980 it was designated as a national park and part of the “Project Tiger” program established by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in an effort to conserve India’s remaining population of wild Bengal Tigers. There are around 40-60+ tigers in the park, and it has the reputation of being your *best shot* at seeing these elusive animals in the wild. In an attempt to prevent overcrowding, the park is divided into 10 safari zones, each with a cap on the number of safari vehicles allowed at any one time. Had we had a *better* guide, we would have been told at the time that each zone has a certain number of tigers living in each territory – the zone we drove through supposedly had 2 adult tigers, one of which was spotted during the morning game drive with 2 cubs. After our disappointing safari, we did a little research online and found out that some of the other zones have 5-7 adult tigers and are therefore much more reliable for sightings (the website tigerwalah.com has a very helpful breakdown) – although we’re not sure how helpful the information would have been ahead time as we’re not sure if visitors have any ability to request which zone they visit.

We reached our hotel in Ranthambore just in time for their *awesome* buffet lunch! Having major Africa flashbacks – feels like we’re back at the Sopa Lodge! (Too bad that’s where the similarities end…)

 

Ranthambore is divided into 10 safari zones – our tour took us to Zone 8 “Balas,” where there are supposedly 2 adult tigers, one with two cubs

 

Sadly, these stuffed animals were the only tigers we saw in Ranthambore

 

There are two types of safari vehicles – a 20-seater open-top bus or a 6-seater open-air truck. We made sure to request the smaller car, so that we could get a better view, but ended up sitting apart as we were the last two picked up from our hotel. Lindsay at least had polite seatmates who scooted over make room for her – poor Igor was seated next to a very self-obsessed Indian girl who was constantly taking selfies

 

Our first wildlife sighting – a huge Sambar Deer – apparently one of the tigers’ favorite meals

 

A good 20min of our 90min safari was spent at a sunset lookout, where there were *clearly* no tigers as the guides told us it was fine to get out of the safari truck

Panoramic view of the Sawai Madhopur region of Ranthambore Park

 

Viewpoint in Ranthambore National Park

 

Igor looking for tigers – how many did he see? ZERO

 

Our final wildlife sighting – a herd of Spotted Deer (can’t believe we broke out the zoom lens for this..?)

Days 232 – 233: Jaipur

We had a pretty short drive from Pushkar to Jaipur, which was good as we had to make a stop at the tour operator’s main office in order to pay for the balance of our tour. We had pre-paid about 50% of the tour by credit card in advance, and were planning to pay the remainder in cash when we arrived in India…but then of course, Modi happened. Not only was it impossible for us to get enough cash from the Indian ATMs, but we had stupidly taken out several hundred dollars worth of *Nepali Rupees* out of the ATM in Kathmandu two weeks ago, intending to exchange them at the airport. We now know why the exchange counter in Nepal wouldn’t give us rupees (in an effort to prevent counterfeiting, it’s illegal to take Indian Rupees out of the country), and we’ve had ZERO luck finding an Indian exchange counter who would take Nepali rupees. We understood that Indian currency was now scarce, but even when we tried to exchange Nepali rupees for US dollars, Euros, Pounds – ANYTHING! – we had no takers. So we finally decided to pay by credit card.

Once we got to the office, however, we discovered that the price we had been quoted was the “cash price.” We expected to be changed an additional 3% (that’s the standard fee credit card companies charge vendors for their services – in the USA vendors are not allowed to pass that charge to the consumer, but it’s been pretty common throughout our travels), however we were *shocked* when we were told it would be an extra 10%! Turns out the tour company typically doesn’t declare their cash income and therefore doesn’t pay the 7% government tax on services (BLACK MONEY! RIGHT THERE!). After a bit of back and forth negotiation, Igor convinced the tour manager to lower the upcharge to 5%, since neither of us could have foreseen the demonetization crisis, and it was only fair that both of us suffer a little. Once our account was settled, Avinash dropped us off at our hotel where we spent the afternoon at leisure.

Without fail, no matter which side of the car Lindsay chose, everyday the sun would be blasting through her window while Igor was in the shade. She finally had to MacGyver her scarf into a window shade

The next day, we met up with Avinash and our local tour guide to explore Jaipur – the capital of the state of Rajasthan. There is a lot of see in Jaipur, and we covered a lot in one day, starting out with a drive-by of the Hawa Mahal in the Old City (also known as the “Pink City”) as we made our way to the Amer Fort – the ancient capital of the Kachwaha clan (founded in the 900s), later taken over by the Rajputs in the 1500s.

The Hawa Mahal AKA “Wind Palace” – a faux palace which is really just a screen-covered façade to allow royal women to observe festivals and daily activities in the street while keeping their faces hidden, per the “veil tradition” of purdah. The terracotta color of the Hawa Mahal is the same color used for all the street-facing buildings in Old Jaipur, giving the city the nickname, “The Pink City”

The Amer Fort – the ancient capital of the Jaipur maharajas – sits on a hill above Lake Maota

 

The Amber Fort (sometimes called the “amber fort” due to it’s sandstone color) – another UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

There are two ways to enter the fort – driving up to the Suraj Pol (Sun Gate) and entering on foot, or taking an elephant ride up the back gateway. While our tour included the elephant ride, we decided to pass – we’ve been reading a lot of disturbing reviews about animal abuse, particularly with elephant rides in Asia. True, these elephants looked pretty healthy (some of them were quite stunning, with brightly colored body paint!), but we hadn’t done any research on this operator so didn’t want to risk supporting inhumane practices.

 

Lindsay the Leo climbs the stairs to the Singh Pol (Lion Gate) to enter the Amber Fort

 

The beautifully painted Ganesh Pol (a gate dedicated to the protective Hindu god, Ganesha), and the serene lake-oasis of Kesar Kyari (Saffron Garden)

 

The amber sandstone exterior meets up with pristine, white marble inside the Diwan-i-Aam (Public Audience Hall) – even though the Rajput maharajas were Hindu, the pillar designs show a blending of cultures: elephants (a Hindu sign of prosperity) holding lotus flowers crown the top while elegant flowers (a popular motif in Islamic art) decorate the base

 

Stunning frescos decorate the Ganesh Pol – the paint on the outside is made from plant-based dyes, while the interior uses mineral-based colors, including real gold-leaf

 

The inner courtyard of the palace was reserved for the king’s private quarters, including the spectacular Sheesh Mahal (Mirror Palace)

 

The curved ceiling and walls of the Sheesh Mahal are covered in tiny mirror tiles – back in ancient days when the courtyard was illuminated by candlelight, the ceiling would look like it was covered in stars! (Our guide was able to give us a mini demo by flashing his cellphone flashlight at the roof) While many of the mirrors have been broken over the centuries, the palace is undergoing restoration work to help bring back its luster

 

The jali screen-covered windows within the Queen’s quarters of the palace – due to the purdah “veil tradition” the royal women could only observe life outside the palace from behind these (admittedly beautifully carved) barriers, so that no stranger could glimpse their faces

 

Now *that’s* a big wok! Dude, how many people did this king invite over for dinner? You could feed an entire village with the amount of food that would fit in there (although on second thought, Indian weddings do tend to have a high head count – good thing the guy actually had TWO of these in the palace courtyard!) – needless to say, Lindsay and Igor had a much more modest (but delicious!) lunch that afternoon

We passed another drive-by attraction – the Water Palace – on our way to visit an artisan workshop where traditional block-print fabrics are made. The shop manager was really great – not only did he give us a demo of his craft, he also let us try out the block-print technique. He then took us for a tour of his showroom and taught us how to distinguish real, handmade block-print work from mass-produced screen-print knock-offs (it’s interesting – the machine-made fabrics have “imperfections” deliberately added to make them look “authentic”).

 

Photo-op at the Jal Mahal (“Water Palace”) – a pretty building in the middle of Lake Man Sagar. Currently undergoing renovations and closed to the public

 

It seems that each city we visit in Rajasthan is known for a particular craft – Jaipur is particularly famous for its block-print decorated fabric – our guide takes us to Arawali Exports where we not only get a demo, we get to try block printing ourselves!

 

For multi-colored designs, several stamp-like teak-wood blocks are dipped into paint, then carefully placed over each other to create a layered effect. After the design in finished, it is laid out in the sunshine to set for a few days, then washed twice to make sure the color doesn’t run

The Rajput king who founded Jaipur, Jai Singh, was an avid astronomer, and built the Jantar Mantar – a collection of geometric buildings that monitor the movement of the sun, earth, stars and planets. To be honest, a lot of the instruments went right over our heads, but we were smart enough to figure out the biggest sundial in the world (which tells the time in 2sec intervals).

 

The biggest sundial in the world!

 

Even though this sundial is incredibly accurate and detailed (it tells the time down to 2 seconds!), for some reason it is EXACTLY 12 minutes off the official time (which makes you wonder…what has the Indian government done with the extra 12 minutes?!?) – meaning it was exactly 12:09:24PM when these photos were taken

 

The Jantar Mantar had 12 more sundials, each with an astrological sign (we each found our respective signs – Aries & Leo)

 

Not gonna lie – I had no idea what this thing was supposed to be then, and I still don’t now. Even reading the explanatory plaque…nope.

Our final monument of the day was the Jaipur City Palace. We’ve seen quite a few “city palaces” at this point, so I’m sorry to say we were getting a little bored. There was a museum section (no pictures allowed) where a HUGE set of pajamas was on display, belonging to a Rajput king who ruled in the mid-1700s – the guy was 550+lbs, so…yeah…kinda funny as the PJs were enormous. To us, the most interesting part of the Jaipur City Palace was the “Friends of the Museum” artist bazaar on the premises. These artists are descendants of royal artists who used to make a living off commissions from the Rajput kings. Once India gained independence, the Rajput royals lost their royal titles and no longer had the wealth to patron dozens of artists. In an attempt to continue the livelihood & artistic tradition of these painters, weavers and jewelry-makers, the Indian government subsidizes their work and allows them to use the City Palace as a studio, rent-free.

 

A painter within the Jaipur City Palace gives us a quick sketch made with a squirrel-hair brush, typically used for miniatures

 

A weaver sits behind a giant wooden loom and expertly threads different colored wool threads into the loom, then flattens them with a metal comb, creating a beautiful pattern – when he noticed Igor and Lindsay admiring his work, invites each of us to give it a try!

 

Marble elephants (each carved from a single block of white marble) guard the entrance gate to the Jaipur City Palace

 

Talk about baggage! When the Rajput king traveled to England for George VII’s coronation, he brought TWO 900-gallon silver jars full of water from the Ganges River so that he could bathe in the “holy” waters throughout his trip!

Rajasthan has got a LOT of history, and to be honest, we were experiencing a bit of a building-overload after a week and a half of touring. Our next stop tomorrow was Ranthambore National Park – home to a sizable population of wild Bengal tigers! Jaipur was interesting – we are glad we got a chance to visit – but we were looking forward to a change of pace and more nature-tourism!

 

Igor is super excited to be in our cozy, air-conditioned haveli hotel

 

Dinner & cocktails on the rooftop bar of the Traditional Haveli hotel in Jaipur

Day 231: Chittorgarh and Pushkar

We had a whopping 6hr drive ahead of us today, so we departed Udaipur just as the sun was peaking over the horizon. We reached our first destination, Chittorgarh, by mid-morning. Chittorgarh, or “Chittor Fort,” is a huge 7^th century compound – one of the biggest and oldest forts in India. While there is a ticket collector at the entrance to the fort, the rest of the complex is pretty unregulated – no museums, no guides, no guards and no crowds – which meant we were free to roam around the ancient ruins at our leisure. The freedom to “play archaeologist” was especially appealing to Igor (just by coincidence, we caught Raiders of the Lost Ark on TV the night before)! We spent a couple of hours exploring the Rana Khumba Palace, the Hindu temple & Victory Tower, and the watery Padmini Palace, before heading back on the road.

 

After a spectacular supermoon the night before, Udaipur sends us off with an equally gorgeous sunrise over Swaroop Sagar Lake

 

The Chittor Fort is a huge, crumbling stone playground, which Igor gleefully explores (I think he was imagining himself to be Indiana Jones)

 

The Chittor Fort was abandoned in 1567 when the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great attacked, forcing the relocation of the Mewar capital to Udaipur. It was returned to the Rajput kingdom in the 1600s, but was never resettled, so it has been slowly crumbling ever since

View from the Chittor Fort – the Meera Temple and Victory Tower can be seen in the distance

 

Lindsay peeks through the balcony windows

The ruins of the Rana Khumba Palace – the oldest structure in the Chittor Fort complex

 

The Chittor Fort was built on the top of a hill, 180m above the city below

 

A statue of Ganesha sits inside the walls of the Meera Temple – a Hindu temple built in the ornate Indo-Aryan style with tall, beehive-shaped sikharas on the roof

 

Shoes are not allowed in temples, so Lindsay walks inside wearing socks – she keeps her visit short to spare other visitors the smell!

 

A large troop of gray langurs live on the temples grounds. The monkeys are big and a little aggressive as tourists keep feeding them in order to take pictures (people, stop it!)

 

The Vijay Stambha (AKA “Victory Tower”) – a huge 120’+ monument built by the Mewar king in the mid-1400s to celebrate his victory over the invading armies of two Muslim empires who united in an attempt to take Chittor

 

The Padmini Palace – a small, pretty building surrounded by a huge moat – it’s not the most impressive palace we’ve seen, but turns out it has a great story…

 

…the UNESCO World Heritage Chittor Fort was the scene of the Indian version of “Helen of Troy.” In the 1300s the sutlan of Delhi was visiting the Mewar king and requested an audience with the Queen Padmini, who was rumored to be “divinely beautiful.” The king and queen were suspicious of their vistor’s intentions, so they only consented to let him look at the queen’s reflection in a mirror. That glimpse was enough to drive the sultan mad with lust – he declared war on the Mewar kingdom in an attempt to steal the queen and make her a part of his harem. Unfortunately, the Chittor Fort could not withstand the siege, and fell to the Muslim invaders. However, the sultan did *not* win his prize as the queen and the other royal women committed jauhar, preferring suicide to captivity. In commemoration of the story, an old mirror still hangs in the empty palace.

Since we didn’t have a set time when we needed to arrive in Pushkar, we finally made time for a much needed errand – braving the exorbitantly long lines to exchange our voided 500 Rs. notes for new, valid currency. Everyday when we passed by banks and ATMs, the lines seemed to be getting longer, not shorter, as the country is in *dire need* of more bills to replace the invalid 500 and 1,000 Rs. notes. To help with the overload, government-run post offices were helping banks exchange bills – for our purposes this was the better option as we had no need to deposit cash to an account.

Our hearts sank when we saw the long line spilling out of the building, but we needn’t have worried. In an attempt to mitigate the damage on the tourism industry, foriegners were allowed to cut the que when exchanging old bills – thank goodness! Surprisingly, the locals waiting in line didn’t give us too many nasty looks as we edged by. It still took us a good half an hour to fill out the necessary paperwork and the 4,000 Rs. limit per passport meant we would still had one old bill leftover, but we could take all that in stride. What REALLY pissed us off was that the post office manager rejected one of our 500 Rs. notes because it had a centimeter-long tear in the middle. SERIOUSLY?!? This bill has been demonitized – your government is going to DESTROY it anyways! Why does it matter if there is a tear? We tried to argue that it’s not our fault that the ATM dispensed it that way (although Igor started to suspect that the torn bill was actually one of Avinash’s). Finally we just pocketed the torn bill and exchanged a different one instead. Whatever, we finally had REAL money that monuments, hotels and restaurants would HAVE to accept! We were still short on change, but we were confident we would break the 2,000 notes eventually. With our cash worry finally off our backs, we jumped back in the car and continued our journey to Pushkar.

 

Cutting in front of about 200 locals who are desperately trying to exchange their cash – sorry, guys!

 

Each foreign passport holder can exchange a maximum of 4,000 Rs. at a time (about USD $30). We were down to 4,500 Rs at this point, so Igor exchanged our cash while Lindsay exchanged some of Avinash’s. The process was incredibly inane – we each had to provide a scanned copy of our passports (Avinash ran to a copier while we filled out paperwork), and write down the full serial number of each bill on an official form before they would exchange our money

 

The Post Office has been inundated with customers trying to exchange notes – they have a huge pile of empty government cash bags that were used to deliver the shiny new pink 2,000 notes. Once we got our valid cash, we carefully tucked the valuable paper away and crept out of the building as discreetly as possible

 

On the road again, we pass a tuk tuk that is packed like a clown car with so many passengers, two guys are riding on the roof!

 

Avinash believes in justice – not matter how small! When a toll collector claims he doesn’t have change for the 60 Rs. fee, Avinash spends a good 10min arguing with the guy. When that doesn’t work, he pulls over 2KM down the road when he finds the local law enforcement (chillin’ under a tree) and complains, resulting in the official radioing back to the toll guy, telling him to give Avinash change or a free pass. We then *doubleback* to the toll guy and get Avinash’s money back – hey! 40₵ is 40₵.

It was late in the afternoon by the time we reached Pushkar, and to be honest, we were pretty exhausted. We didn’t have a local guide arranged for today – Avinash dropped us off at our hotel and told us that the main street in Pushkar was within walking distance so we could self-explore. Lindsay looked longingly at the quiet hotel pool, but Igor reminded her, “We came all the way to India to see INDIA,” so we gathered our strength and headed out into the bazaar.

Pushkar is particularly famous for its ghats (religious bathing pools), the Brahama Temple (one of the few Hindu temples dedicated to Brahama – most are dedicated to Shiva or Krishna), and the annual Camel Festival which we missed by mere *days*! (Too bad – it’s supposed to be quite a spectical with snake charmers, acrobatics, and THOUSANDS of camels) We made it to the ghats – the scenery was beautiful…from a distance. Up close? Look, all due respect for other cultures and religions, but the water in Lake Pushkar is not exactly clean, and not only did we see people bathing in it, many were drinking it too! Hope it works out for them…but that is *so* not for us.

We finally found the Brahama Temple after wandering around the hot, dusty and noisy market streets. Don’t tell Avinash, but we got all the way to the temple stairwell, took one look at the huge crowds of pilgrims pushing their way in and out of the entrance, and turned back to the hotel. Without a guide, we decided it wasn’t worth the time or aggrivation to push our way through dozens of tourists just to look at religious icons we wouldn’t understand. But when Avinash asked us what we thought the next day, we told him it was great!

 

Navigating the crowded mayhem of the Pushkar marketplace to find the Braham Temple and ghats

 

The waters of Lake Pushkar are sacred to Hindus – a bath in the holy waters is believed to wash away sins and even cure diseases

 

The sun setting over the ghats (holy bathing pools) in Pushkar – while the photos make it look beautiful and peaceful, the city was a loud and crazy sensory overload!

Day 230: Udaipur

Today we explored Udaipur – the City of Lakes. Surrounded by a series of artificial freshwater lakes, Udaipur is definitely the most beautiful city we visited in Rajasthan. Numerous palaces, temples and havelis border the lakes – some are even built in the middle of the lake! – it feels like an Indian version of Venice. The Lonely Planet calls it, “the most romantic spot on the continent of India,” and it truly deserves the title. (James Bond fans might also recognize Udaipur as one of the film locations for the movie Octopussy.)

We started off our tour of Udaipur with an hour long boat ride on Lake Pichola (thankfully we were able to buy the 400 Rs. boat tickets with credit card as we were running dangerously low on valid cash!), floating by the gorgeous buildings along the bank before landing at Jag Mandir Island where the king’s “pleasure palace” was built. After wandering around Jag Mandir for about half an hour, we returned to the shore and met up with our guide to visit the enormous City Palace.

The Lake Palace on Pichola Lake – now a luxury heritage hotel (no, we didn’t stay there 😛 )

 

Lake Pichola – an artificial lake first created in 1362. It it only about 14′ deep on average, and can completely dry up in drought year, but luckily for us the water level is nice and full right now

 

As we pass by the shore, we see women washing clothes and men jumping into the lake for a bath. While there are many “holy” rivers and lakes in India where Hindus bathe for religious purposes (which we visit the next day in Pushkar), Lake Pichola is just free water J

 

City Palace and Lake Palace

 

The Jag Mandir Palace – while it was originally intended to be a party place for the Mewar king, its first occupant was Prince Khuram (AKA Shah Jahan, the future builder of the Taj Mahal) while he was in rebellion against his father and stepmother (who was plotting to have his younger brother succeed the throne). By letting the exiled prince sofa surf, the Hindu kingdom earned a major alliance with the Mughal kingdom once Shah Jahan became emperor

 

Exploring the Jag Mandir Island Palace – there is a restaurant, café and even a spa (all at exhorbitant prices). The garden area looked like it was being set-up for a swanky wedding – wish we could gate crash, but the lake makes sneaking out here a bit tricky!

Panoramic view of the Udaipur City Palace from Jag Mandir Island

 

Jag Mandir Island – the “garden palace”

Returning the shore for our tour of the magnificent City Palace

 

A good-luck statue of Ganesha – framed by an elaborate tile & glass mosaic – welcomes us as we enter the City Palace

 

The Badi Mahal, or “Garden Palace”, within the City Palace complex had a lovely garden with huge trees inside – which seemed odd considering we were on the 4^th floor. Turns out, the palace was built around a natural hill, so there is no 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd floors underneath this section of the palace, allowing the gardeners to plant whatever they liked! From the balconies, the royal family had a view of the courtyard below where they used to hold elephant fights where two elephants would go at it across a stone wall (looks a bit like medival jousting in the picture – apparently the last fight was held in the 1950s)

 

Looking down at the city of Udaipur from the top of the City Palace. Down in the courtyard we see chairs and sofas being set-up for the Hindu/Jain festival Kartik Purnima (a full-moon festival held every year around Nov/Dec) – tonight should be extra special as it’s a SUPERMOON! The Udaipur City Palace is pulling out all the stops with an all-you-can-drink cocktail hour, a performance by a Bollywood dancer, and a VIP seating section where you can rub elbows with the Mewar royal family!

View of Udaipur from the City Palace – the outside walls of the City Palace are decorated with blue, hand-painted Belgian tiles

 

Touring the swanky interior of the City Palace – the mirror-covered cupola inside the Manak Mahal, the queen’s elegant dressing room, and a study with a circa-1900s electric fan

 

Checking out the palace kitchen – they must have liked to host a lot of parties as those pots where big enough for Lindsay to climb inside!

 

Two very different royal “thrones.” The first was a special chair made by the British government for the Mewar prince to sit in while participating in King George’s the welcoming committee during his 1911 trip to India – however, the Mewar prince was the *only* Indian prince to snub the king and not show up (not sure why they sent him his chair afterwards – seems the British should have been pissed off…?). The second is a handicapped toilet made for the final ruling king of Mewar, Bhupal Singh, who was paralyzed by polio when he was a teenager.

 

A portrait of Bhupal Singh, the final Maharana of the Mewar Kingdom, until the independence and partition of India in 1947, and his custom-made wheelchair. The Udaipur palace was also the first building in all of India to install an elevator, making it easier for the king to move around his home

 

The ancient Mewar kings were “sun worshippers” – every morning the king and his subjects would look at the sun and give thanks. During the monsoon season when the sun is hidden behind clouds, the king would pray to a giant golden sun he had installed on his dining room wall (next to some exquisite peacock mosaics). To be nice, he installed a second sun on the outside wall of the palace for the villagers

After visiting the City Palace, we stopped for lunch at a lakefront restaurant (whew! another credit card-friendly establishment!) before heading over to the Sahelion Ki Bari – the “Garden of Maidens.” Since the maharanas of Mewar practiced the “veil tradition,” royal women were not allowed to be seen by any men outside the immediate family, which often meant they were secluded indoors all the time. In the early 1700s, the king Sangram Singhv built this huge, private garden for his new bride and her 48 ladies-in-waiting so that they would have an outside space where they could walk (and even swim!) freely without worrying that a man would see them (the king was the only male over the age of 5 permitted in the garden – all the gardeners, musicians, and even security staff were all women).

 

The lush, fountain-filled gardens of Sahelion Ki Bari

 

A lotus-filled pool in the Queen’s private gardens

 

Lindsay posing for pictures with random Indian tourists. Like in China, Lindsay is constantly asked to take pictures with strangers. While she found it flattering 10 years ago when she visited India the first time (she vainly thought people were mistaking her for someone famous!), now it feels more like she’s a weird animal in a zoo. The couple on the left tried to make Lindsay hold their baby for a picture – Lindsay finally had to put her foot down and say, “No.”

Throughout the trip, we have been upfront with our local tour guides telling them we didn’t want to go shopping for souvenirs and made it clear that we didn’t intend to buy anything when they insist on visiting a shop, “just to look.” But the places our guide in Udaipur took us to were worth the stops as they were actual *workshops* where we got to see the artists producing the products before visiting the storefront. We visited a studio where painters used squirrel-hair brushes to make miniature masterpieces (the brush strokes are so fine, they were able to paint our names on grains of rice!), as well a jewelry store where silversmiths were fashioning earrings, bangles and belt buckles by hand. Afterwards, we took a walk through the bustling outdoor marketplace before concluding our tour of Udaipur. Definitely one of our favorite places in India so far!

 

Artists of Udaipur – painters and jewelry-makers – using the same ancient techniques as their ancestors

 

Fresh fruits and fresh-squeezed sugarcane juice for sale in the marketplace

 

“Fresh” baskets for sale! Seriously – the basket weavers are sitting a few meters away cutting bamboo and making new products

 

Lots of specialized sellers in Udaipur – there’s a “guy” for anything you need: a pasta guys, a tea guy, even a cups guy!

 

Oooh, the desserts guy! Gulab Jamun (think donut holes floating in sugar syrup) and silver-leaf-covered milky cakes

 

Enjoying a bottle of Indian wine and a gorgeous lake view for the 2016 Supermoon!

Day 229: Ranakpur Temple

The majority of the day was a driving day, travelling from Jodhpur to Udaipur (a good 5+ hour trip). About an hour outside Udaipur we stopped at the Ranakpur Temple – one of the most renowned Jain temples in India. No doubt it was a marvelous building: commissioned in the 15^th century, the hand-carved white marble temple was a stunning complex full of elaborately decorated pillars, cupolas and wall reliefs. Every statue was a unique piece of art.

We arrived at the Ranakpur temple at noon, when they opened the ticket office for tourist visitors. Once again, we saw a posted sign that said 500 rupee notes would not be accepted, which was REALLY annoying as the admission price for two people with one camera permit was EXACTLY 500 rupees. And of course the temple didn’t take credit cards. After unsuccessfully arguing with the ticket agent that he should really accept the old bill (since he can still deposit it up until Dec. 30^th), we grudgingly forked over 5 of our precious 100 rupee notes and started our tour of the temple grounds.

  

Starting the day with a delicious breakfast at our beautiful hotel

 

We arrive right around noon, when the temple opens to non-Jain tourists, meaning we have to share the beautiful surrounding with dozens of other visitors

 

Since the admission ticket includes an audio guide, we explore the temple independently. Unfortunately, Igor is still so irked by our currency issues it sours the whole tour for him.

 

Exquisitely detailed stone carvings decorate the ceilings

 

The elephant is an auspicious symbol in Jainism – foretelling power and wisdom in dreams

 

More marble ellies in the Ranakpur Temple

 

Holy footprints of tirthankaras (holy teachers – kinda like the Jain version of Buddha)

 

The complex and intricate mythologies of Jainism are loving brought to life with equally detailed illustrations in marble: the decorative circle (made out of interlocking snakes) on the left frames the 23^rd tirthankara, Parshvanatha; in the middle is a representation of the holy mountain Shatrunjaya, where the 1^st tirthankara gave his first sermon on the hilltop; finally, each of the 24 tirthankaras are represented throughout the temple by Buddha-like statues sitting in the lotus position

 

The Ranakpur temple is intricately detailed and seems to be geometrically perfect – the beehive-like shikharas that top the temple are incredibly ornate, and each of the 1,444 pillars inside the temple are unique. In fact, the temple seemed too perfect, even to the builders, so they intentionally included one pillar that is not straight. Pitching to an ever-so-slight 94⁰ angle, this crooked pillar is supposed to ward off the “evil eye”

After visiting the temple, we met up with Avinash at the car. When he asked us how we liked the temple, Igor admitted that he was still really pissed off that the ticket counter wouldn’t let us pay our 500 rupee admission with the 500 rupee note, since giving us change was not an issue and they still has a month to deposit the cash into their bank account. Avinash insisted that we stop at the temple’s main office and lodge a complaint. We didn’t get our change back, but Igor felt a small sense of satisfaction that they had to listen to his grievances.

 

Still angry at the ticket-guy, Igor demands an audience with the temple administration while Avinash backs him up with his FBI sunglasses on

 

A tasty lunch and a goat on a motorcycle help turn the mood around for the rest of the day

Day 228: Jodhpur

It was Day 4 after Modi’s ban of the 500 rupee note, and things were not looking good. Lines at the ATMs seemed to be getting *longer* not shorter, so we were still unable to get new cash. We were starting to worry that we wouldn’t have enough valid cash to last us the whole trip, so we started to get very stingy – we insisted on only eating at restaurants that took credit cards and flatly refused to buy any more souvenirs (actually, we were glad to have a good excuse to ask guides to stop taking us on shopping trips). Luckily for us, both the monuments we visited in Jodhpur took debit cards for the admission tickets.

Our first stop was the Jaswant Thada – a cenotaph (tomb-less memorial) dedicated to Maharaja Jaswant Singh II at the turn of the 20^th century. The memorial grounds are absolutely beautiful – the main building and surrounding gazebos are made from white marble, decorated with stunning lattice screen windows and topped with whimsical domes. The park (which is still owned by the royal family of Jodhpur) is an oasis from the heat and hustle of the city – easily one of the most peaceful memorial locations one could imagine.

The glowing white marble façade of the Jaswant Thada

 

The grounds of the Jaswant Thada are peaceful and beautiful, full of gorgeous gazebos and a cooling fountain

 

The royal memorial is perched on a hill with a view of the city of Jodhpur below. Behind the Jaswant Thada is a small lake where the royal family cremates the remains of their dead (per Hindu tradition) – still in use to this day

Beyond the lake, we can see the Mehrangarh Fort next-door to the Jaswant Thada

 

Inside the main building is a roped-off marble dais with portraits of the deceased royalty. Some Indians believe that the spirits of the family can bestow good luck, so the rope is decorated with bangles, cash and ribbons that visitors have left behind with a hope that their “wish” will come true

 

The cenotaph is exquisite – windows and doorways are framed by whimsical floral patterns carved into the stone, and even the delicate jali screens have flowers incorporated into the design

Of course, the main attraction in Jodhpur was the magnificent Mehrangarh Fort. Similar to the Jaisalmer Fort we saw the day before, the Mehrangarh Fort is an impressive castle towering above the city on the top of a rocky hill. Unlike the “living fort” of Jaisalmer, the Mehrangarh Fort no longer has residents, leaving the interior of the fort protected from motor traffic and overdevelopment. We enjoyed the tour of the fort and the museum with our guide, wrapping up our sightseeing activities by early afternoon, which was great as we had a really luxurious hotel room that night and we were looking forward to some R&R in our own air-conditioned “fortress.”

 

The imposing outer walls of the Mehrangarh Fort – one of India’s largest and most magnificent forts

 

The fort is covered in battle scars – circles of paint point out several cannonball marks left over from a 19^th century battle against the Jaipur army (Jodhpur succeeded in driving their enemy away), and more red hand prints memorialize royal widows who performed sati after their husbands died

 

The museum has a great exhibit of Marwar paintings (most depicting scenes from the Hindu epic the Ramayana) – best of all was a display showing the traditional stones used to make the different colored paints used in the 16^th century

 

Super bling! The bedchambers and the royal reception hall of the fort palace are decked out floor to ceiling with shiny mirrors, semiprecious gems, gold leaf painting and stained glass windows

 

The armory within the fort museum contains a collection of the personal swords of many emperors, including Akbar the Great! The Arabic-style swords are by far the most beautiful – the blades are gracefully curved and the hilts are each unique pieces of art

Jodhpur is called, “The Blue City” due to the house paint color of choice used by the many Brahmin residents (originally the paint color was used by the upper caste to distinguish their homes from those of lower caste – nowadays many residents pick the color regardless of caste identity) – we get a great panoramic view of the city from the ramparts of the fort

 

Those turbans…those MUSTACHES! These museum guards are totally rockin’ the Rajput fashion and kindly pose for our camera

Days 226 – 227: Jaisalmer

We had a good 6+ hour drive to the desert outside Jaisalmer, where we had a sunset camel ride scheduled for the evening. Our driver broke up the long drive with a few roadside curiosities along the way. First we visited a desert oasis which is a wintertime nesting ground for a couple thousand Siberian Cranes. Next, we visited a Jain Temple decorated in glass, “like something you have never seen before!” Avinash assured us.

 

A large population of Siberian Cranes migrates to India during the winter

 

Visiting the “Glass Temple” – a Jain Temple decked out floor to ceiling with colored glass, mirrors and painted tiles

 

The glass-covered dome within the temple glitters in the light, and scenes from Jain religious teachings decorate the outer hallways

 

Since Rajasthan was a stopover on the Silk Road, many temples and palaces in the area incorporate decorations imported from Europe – the Jain Glass Temple features colored glass from England and hand painted tiles from Belgium

 

We stop in a curio shop after the temple. Normally we get annoyed when brought to the obligatory souvenir shop at the end of a tour, but the huge collection of antiques and oddities made the shop feel more like a museum! In general, the guys doesn’t like people to take pictures of his stuff, but he did let us snap pics of the restored wooden doors and the colorful wooden tubes used to protect documents sent between Europe and the Far East during the days of the Silk Road (Desert E-Mail!)

 

Cows! Cows everywhere! Apparently their owners just let them wander the streets for food all day – sadly, there’s not much greenery for them to eat, and we see many cows chopping down on trash. This hungry fellow found a soiled piece of cardboard…a few seconds later another bull comes by and takes it away!

 

We reach the desert outside Jaisalmer just before sunset – we quickly jump on our camels and ride out into the dunes

 

Sunset camel ride in Jaisalmer – we are less than 100KM from the boarder with Pakistan (a 5 day journey by camel if we are interested, our guide tells us)

 

A desert dinner show! Sadly, we didn’t notice our camera battery was dying when we started the camel ride, so we only had Igor’s cellphone to record the firelight festivities

 

We watch a traditional Rajasthani dancer twirl around the fire pit. After a fantastic performance, Lindsay is horrified when she starts pulling audience members up to dancer with her! Igor gleefully videotaped the whole, embarrassing spectacle

The next day, we tour the ancient city of Jaisalmer. Nicknamed “the Golden City” due to the honey-colored sandstone used for the fort and surrounding city, Jaisalmer is one of the oldest settlements we visited in Rajasthan. It was established in the mid-1100s by Rawal Jaisal. We learn that the names of most of these cities follow a pattern: the founding king always names the city after himself (it’s good to be the king!) and the suffix “-mer” means “city” if the king was Hindu (if he was Muslim, the sufflix “-pur” was used instead).

Jaisalmer was a Rajput territory – belonging to the “warrior caste” of northern India. The Rajputs had a “death over dishonor” mentality, and no prisoner was ever taken alive. There were 3 times during the fort’s history when the kingdom was under siege for so long their supplies ran out. In those cases, the women and children of the aristocracy performed jauhar (mass suicide) before the soldiers rode out to die in battle.

The Jaisalmer Fort – it looks like a giant sandcastle rising out of the desert!

 

The Jaisalmer Fort is a “living fort” – dozens of families still live inside the ancient city, and tons of havelis have been converted into hotels. As such, motorcycles, tuktuks and cows join the crowds of tourists trying walk through the gates

 

The Fort Palace, inside the Jaisalmer Fort. In the doorway to the palace, we see about a dozen red-stained handprints – these are memorials left by aristocratic women who performed sati (widow suicide) after their husbands died

 

Our admission ticket includes an audio guide, so we explore the palace alone while our local guide waits for us at the exit

 

Dozens of kings have lived in the Jaisalmer Fort Palace since it was built, over 800 years ago. Playing up their “divine right” to rule, the rajas claim they can trace their family tree back to the Hindu god, Krishna

 

Admiring the view of the Golden City from the top of the Fort Palace

Jaisalmer – The Golden City of Rajasthan

 

The famous collection of Rajput stamps and a sword are absent from the tour – we want a refund! At least we got to see the king’s work-out equipment in the form of two wooden “dumbbells” by the royal bed. Dude must have been ripped

After touring the fort, we had a quick stop for lunch before continuing on foot to visit some of the stone-carved havelis in the old city. Unlike the havelis we saw in Mandawa, these are not known for frescos, but for the intricately carved jali screened windows, elaborate doorways and tiered balconies.

 

So, cannibis is legal in India (guess we don’t need to rush back to California! LOL!) – we see Governemnt “Bhang” shops outside the fort on our way to lunch, advertising milk shakes and lassis – apparently bhang (an edible mix of marijuana buds and leaves) mixed with milk, mangos and spices is the Hindu alternative to alcohol (which is forbidden for many Hindu casts). Thanks, but no thanks for us – Igor orders an intoxicant-free pineapple juice to go with our chana masala – YUM!

 

A sweet puppy naps outside the Nathmal-ki Haveli – one of the many sandstone mansions that populate the city. This haveli was built by two brothers – each brother designed one half of the home, competing to out-do the other. As a result, the left and right sides of the building are ever-so-slightly different from each other

 

Inlaid mirrors and gold leaf paintings decorate the interior of the Nathmal-ki Haveli, which was once the home of the Prime Minister of India

 

The granddaddy of all havelis – the Patwa-ki Haveli

 

The Padwa-ki Haveli is made up of five sections, built by five brothers between 1800-1860

 

The inside of the Padwa-ki Haveli is pretty bling – mirrors and colored glass create colorful floor to ceiling mosaics. A set of stone carving tools like those used to build the haveli are on display in the museum

 

3 days after the 500/1000 rupee ban – some ATMs have finally been restocked with small 100 rupee bills, however machines can only hold a maximum of Rs. 880,000 (8,800 x 100 notes). Even with a 2000 rupee withdrawal limit (about USD $25) per transaction, the ATMs were running out of cash within a few hours

 

In addition to all the cows and stray dogs wandering in the streets, we see wild pigs and piglets rooting through the trash

 

Enjoying the rooftop view of the Jaisalmer Fort and the cozy alcove at our swanky hotel, the Fifu Haveli

Day 225: Bikaner

Not gonna lie: Lindsay did not take the news of Trump’s victory well. Once Trump was 6 votes away from the presidency, Igor told her, “It’s over,” and she burst into tears.

“But I don’t want to move to Namibia! I…want…to…go…HOME!” She wailed, convinced that America was spiraling into an anarchistic wasteland, ruled by a misogynistic despot. Igor tried to reason with her that things were not *that* bad, and that we would definitely be going home at the end of our trip, regardless of who was president. It took a couple days to talk her down from the imaginary precipice of expatriatism, during which time our driver was perpetually worried as to why Lindsay was so upset.

“Madam…why are you so angry?”

 

The day started so well, with half a dozen different fresh fruits for breakfast…too bad the election results made Lindsay want to hurl like the previous passenger of this bus…

In addition to Lindsay’s political worries back home, we also had the more immediate problem of the ban on Indian 500 and 1000 rupee notes to worry about. We had only broken one of our 500 notes so far, so we only had about USD $6 in valid liquid cash. Luckily, our driver is a very crafty fellow, and cleverly forced toll agents and restauranteurs to not only continue taking our big bills, but also getting change! By the time we reached Bikaner that afternoon, we had *just* enough money to buy our entry tickets into the fort.

 

Trying to pay for tolls and monument admission fees is proving very difficult with our now worthless 500 rupee notes. Many toll agents eventually let us through without paying (a few days later, Modi decides to suspend all tolls for a week until people get access to more cash). Monuments, however, have no sympathy for tourists without small bills. Luckily for us, we had just enough 100 notes to get into the Bikaneer Fort – we passed dozens of disappointed tourists who were on a bus tour standing outside the entrance after being denied tickets

 

The Junagarh Fort in Bikaner is too pretty to be a military base!

 

The fort contains several palaces. Apparently each new raja didn’t want to live in his predecessor’s “leftovers,” so new and more elaborately beautiful courtyards were built. The resulting fort is a mosaic of architectural styles that span over 300 years

 

Fancy doors decorate one of the many courtyards – some colorfully painted, others made from silver

 

Swords on display within the palace – Igor loves the gem encrusted hilts

 

The private meeting room in the Anup Mahal palace is insanely bling – the walls are covered in gold leaf and mosaics made of rubies and diamonds!

 

From the rooftop of the palace we can see into the private interior gardens

 

The grand, cathedral-like coronation room is decorated with intricately carved wood panels

 

One of the rajas fought in the British Army during WWI and brought home an aeroplane as a souvenir

After exploring the fort, we drove to the National Camel Research Center just outside of town. The compound is home to over 400 camels, of which there are three different breeds (but all are dromedaries). Since this area of Rajasthan is within the Thar Desert, camels are extremely important livestock to the local people. Obviously, transportation is at the top of the list for uses (the camel is called the “Ship of the Desert” out here), but they are also milked, their fur is used to make wool carpets and clothing, and once they die of natural causes, their bones are used as an alternative to elephant ivory (which is a banned substance in India) for handicrafts.

The Research Center’s mission is mainly focused on husbandry and disease treatment and prevention, but according to our guide, there is also a “loaner program” with local farmers where they can “swap out” sick or old camels for healthy ones! Of course, they also provide tourists activities such as camel rides and a Milk Parlour where you can taste camel ice cream! We couldn’t try any of the milk products for sale as we didn’t have enough change – Lindsay was disappointed to miss out, but Igor was relieved as the milk isn’t pasteurized.

 

Igor is absolutely delighted to visit the 400+ camels at the National Research Centre on Camels – he’d pet every single one if he could!

 

It’s like a big dog! This camel doesn’t spit – he just wants some affectionate scratches

We finished up the day with a quick visit to the marketplace (where we were able to get a little more change!) before heading back to our hotel. Despite the political and financial drama in America and India, the sun continues to rise in the east and set in the west…tomorrow will hopefully be a better day.

 

We take a short walk through the marketplace where a spice merchant agrees to break one of our defunct 500 rupee notes for change…provided we purchase 200 rupees worth of cinnamon bark and cardamom pods

 

We both desperately need a bottle of beer tonight – we order dinner at our hotel’s rooftop restaurant and try to (calmly) come to terms with current events

Day 224: Mandawa

Sigh…Election Day. The day when the world turned topsy-turvy – light became dark and everything we took for granted in the world was blasted into smithereens (Igor thinks I’m being overly dramatic – hope he’s right). Since we were 12hrs ahead of the US, we didn’t really start watching the election coverage until the next day (although a different disaster would strike us by the end of the day).

We started our journey to Rajasthan at 7AM in an attempt to beat the Delhi traffic, and were on the road all morning. We reached our destination – a tiny town called Mandawa in the northern part of the state – in the early afternoon. Long ago, this little settlement was a trading outpost on the Silk Road. Its main draw is the fresco-covered havelis: grand homes built by merchants to show off their wealth. While this area of Rajasthan is known for many beautiful and elaborately designed homes, those of Mandawa are particularly famous because of the murals decorating the outside walls, making the town into an “open art gallery.” After checking in to our hotel (which was a restored haveli!), we met up with our local guide, who led us around the town, visiting a few restored and in-progress buildings over the course of about 2 hours.

 

Our hotel in Mandawa is in a beautifully restored haveli

 

The courtyard and bedroom are charming – old wooden doors are repurposed as coffee tables, and the walls are decorated with paintings

 

The town is *full* of havelis – gorgeous homes built by wealthy merchants in the 19^th century (so not that old, compared to most of the buildings we will visit in Rajastan). Sadly, when business dried up in Rajastan, all the families moved to bigger cities like Calcultta and let these beautiful buildings fall into disrepair

 

While a handful of havelis have been restored and converted into hotels or museums, most are quickly crumbling – the foundations rotting from the monsoon floods and the frecso-covered plaster walls falling away in chunks

 

We visit one haveli that is currently undergoing renovation (the owner has given permission for the locals to use it as a museum). When we ask how long the restoration work is supposed to take, we are shocked to learn that is only takes about a year! What a shame that so many of these old homes are falling apart, when a little time and care would return them to their former glory!

 

Elephants are a sign of prosperity in Indian art, so we see a lot of them in the haveli frescos. The one on the right is a popular rendition – Krishna (the blue dude) sits on top of an elephant made up of his many girlfriends

 

Since the ceilings are better protected from the elements, many of the frescos remain in good condition

 

Looking out the second-floor windows into the courtyard

 

The haveli’s master bedroom – painted floors and built-in cabinets!

 

A bird’s eye view of Mandawa from the haveli rooftop – if you can ignore the powerlines, it’s as if we’ve travelled back in time

 

The Hotel Royal Rest: not just another restored haveli – apparently this building was originally built as a mausoleum, not a home! A little freaky to think who else is “resting” there – glad we’re staying somewhere else

 

Admiring the view, and the nudie pics! We find a restored fresco depicting that wily character Krishna – here he has stolen all his girlfriend’s clothes while they are bathing, leaving us with an eyeful of boobies

 

Mandawa has the least motor traffic of any town we visit in India – it’s so quaint and a little bit magical to see the locals getting by on camel-drawn wagons (and what a pretty camel!)

 

Water in the desert: throughout the town we see cabinets of earthenware jars – turns out they are full of drinking water that is free for any thirsty traveler to drink. Our guide also takes us to an old well – though it is now dried up, as recently as 10 years ago, this well and others like it were the lifeblood of this Silk Road town. The four large columns surrounding the well were a landmark for travelers, helping them find water during their journey

 

We pass a collection of puppets for sale as our guide takes us to the local “art school” – which turns out to be just a storefront selling paintings from the students. Disappointed (we thought we would get to see the artists at work), we refuse to buy anything

Our hotel had pretty fast Wifi, so we hung out in our room after dinner, trying to follow the election updates. When it became clear that nothing would really be decided until the next day, Igor fell asleep while Lindsay intermittently continued working on the blog and surfing the web…and that’s when she saw the announcement: with absolutely no warning, at midnight that night, all 500 and 1000 rupee notes would no longer be valid tender.

Lindsay reread the article multiple times, then shakily reached over to Igor’s wallet. We had just arrived the day before, so the currency was still new to us…maybe the 500 note was something obscure? Lindsay’s heart dropped as she pulled out a fistful of 500 notes out of the wallet. We were broke! Turns out tax evasion and counterfeit money is a huge problem in India, and the demonetizing of the two biggest bills were an attempt to reform the country. The government would accept deposits of the old bills until the end of the year and replace them with new 500 and 2000 notes…eventually. As part of the transition, all banks would be CLOSED and all ATMs would be TURNED OFF for the next 2 days. Until then, everyone would just have to get by with whatever cash they happened to have in their pockets.

FUCK.

 

Neither of these is funny.