The Trident, Jaipur

This is the big one, the thing everyone comes to this part of India to see, it took 6 hours to drive here from Ranthambore, arriving mid afternoon on the 18th. We sent the rest of the afternoon checking out the local area - not much to report, Agra is a dump, so we got an early night so we could be at the Taj for 7am at sunrise. We arrived just before the sun started to rise and positioned ourselves in a great spot to watch the Taj go through its various colours as the sun hits it, there were...

Our Agra guide left us after Fatehpur Sikri and we got on the road for the long 5-hour drive to Jaipur. The roads between Agra and Jaipur were a complete mess, with potholes and debris scattered everywhere, causing our driver to zigzag constantly for the entire journey. It was amusing to finally see the reason for all the horn blowing we had encountered during our travels - hardly surprising when the trucks actually ask you to do it! (PIC) Arriving into Jaipur we got our driver to take us str...

During the drive from Jaipur to Jodhpur our driver found that he had to take a number of detours (for some unknown reason several of the main roads were blocked) and these led to further detours when our driver had no idea where he was going. He would stop every 200 yards and ask for directions from various local people, most of whom seemed to have less idea than our driver! The one benefit of these detours was that we got to see the real India. We drove for hours through untouched rural vill...

I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, or maybe I ate something bad, or maybe I was stung by a bug, or maybe... no matter what happened I feel awful! We pass on the morning safari in exchange for a nice walk around the local area. We stop in a local women's collaborative and while we see no women, we do see plenty of nice handicrafts. We buy a few pieces and finally see a woman come in as we are on the way out. She shows us how she block prints and then we are off. On to Jaipur via one of th...

Saturday, November 17, 2007 Homeward Bound Dear Readers: I wake up this morning to receive the heartbreaking news from my partner, Jonathan, that his brother's son, Mason Lewis, has been killed in the Iraq war. Such a loss of a fine young man for our family and the world! I join the group for breakfast all teary eyed, and they think it is so sweet that I am sad over the fact that the tour is over. It takes me a while before I can get out the true nature of my sorrow; they are very sympathetic...