Tuesday, April 3, 2007: Bharatpur & Agra

We woke up at an insane hour to visit Keoladeo National Park near the town of Bharatpur. Migratory birds come to this park every year, but with the weak monsoon this past year, their numbers were down considerably as compared to past years. There were still alot of birds, but apparently during the "high" season it is just unbelievable. For the most part, I have no idea what kinds of birds these are in my pictures. No one could catch the Kingfisher on camera though. it was a beautiful bird and there were a fair number flying around--but that was the problem: they were flying. We needed them to sit still! After the birds, we boarded the train and headed on to Agra to see the famed Taj Mahal.

This bird was TALL--nearly 5 ft. It could look me in the eye.

This little owl posed for the camera. He was small--about the size of a soda can.

This was how we got around the bird park. The men that give you the tours line up every morning with their buggies and it is a lottery to see who gets to work for the day inside the park.

Wildlife inside the park.

I thought this was cool--a jackal just chilling out in the grass.

This is the Agra Fort in Agra. It is on the west bank of the Yamuna River, opposite the Taj Mahal. This fort by far has the most crippled people, beggars and kids selling random junk surrounding the entrance. I assume they are taking advantage of the forts proximity to the Taj Mahal to increase their opportunities with tourists.

Inside the fort looking at the Jahangiri Mahal--the only major palace in the fort that dates back to Akbar's reign.
This is the Diwan-i-Aam, which is a hall that was used for the emperor's public addresses.

This is the Khas Mahal, a marble hall with a painted celing.

Up close inside the fort.

The Taj Mahal. What an absolutely amazing building. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife who died in 1631. it is described as a sublime garden-tomb, and it cost nearly 41 million rupees and 500 kilos (1102 lbs) of gold to build. About 20,000 workers labored for 12 years to complete it in 1643.

The view from the mosque.

Another view from the mosque.

A photo taken up on the platform, level with the main tomb.

A view of the gateway taken from the tomb.

Another picture...it may be difficult to understand, but I have over 65 photos of this building. It was just impossible to stop taking pictures, almost like the more you had would make it more believeable that you were actually standing near it.
Me at the Taj. I was standing midway between the gateway and the tomb near the charbagh that holds irrigated water from the Yamuna River.

At the main entrance are calligraphic panels. The size of the Koranic verses increase as the arch gets higher, creating a subtle optic illusion of uniformly flowing script.

A shot of some of the carved relief work that covers the lower portions of the walls. the band above and below the carving is pietra dura, a Florentine technique where minute slivers of precious and semi precious stones are arranged in complex stylized floral patterns set in a marble base. A single flower can often times have more than 35 variations of the same stone to get the color shading as realistic as possible.

A close up of the pietra dura

Monday, April 2, 2007: Udaipur

Monday was spent touring Udaipur, the city of lakes, which was founded in 1559 by Maharana Udai Singh. The landscape was something out of a fairy tale--there were multiple lakes which were dotted with islands, and lining the shores of Lake Pichola are picturesque marble palaces and temples, all surrounded by a ring of hills.

This is a picture of Jag Niwas, or lake palace, that appears to float on the surface of Lake Pichola. It was built between 1734 and 1751 and was the summer retreat for the royal family. it is now one of the world's most exclusive hotels, and is a favorite spot for film shoots including James Bond's Octopussy.

I snapped this photo on the boat tour around the lake. People from the city come here to do their laundry. Even the upper classes do not have washing machines and dryers as we know them. They hire someone to come into their home and wash all their clothing by hand, and then line dry it. While I was at Sharad's I had a few things laundered. this lady was able to wash inside the house, as there was no huge lake nearby. She had a huge tub where she soaped up the clothes, and then proceeded to beat each article of clothing with a long, flat stick. Then she rinsed the clothes in another bucket of water and hung everything up to dry in the upstairs corridor of the house. I am pretty sure she thought I was totally weird the way I watched what she was doing, but I don't hand wash anything--not even when the tag inside says to. That takes way too much effort... I also have no idea what type of soap was used, although it was a powder of some sort. I can tell you they have no idea about fabric softener. The pair of jeans I had washed could nearly stand up on their own afterwards. On top of that, the whole concept of "April freshness" is lost too. Prior to this trip I would never have thought twice about this, but if you think about it, our idea of what makes clothes clean has a lot to do with how they smell and how they feel. Stiff as a board and carrying the odor of non-filtered desert water just doesn't do the trick...

We had tea at Jag Mandir, which is a lush garden built on an island in Lake Pichola in the 1620s. The island palace was used as a refuge for the prince when he rebelled against his father. Eight stone elephants stand guard at the entrance. YOu can see the lake palace in the background.

Here are 4 of the eight elephants.

This is a photo of the City Palace from a boat tour we took around Lake Pichola. It streches along the eastern shore of Lake Pichola. It is actually the largest palace in Rajasthan, covering more than 5 acres. Much of it is now a museum, and parts are also a luxury hotel. We ate lunch in a portion of the palace called Fateh Prakash, which is now part of the hotel. I am including a few more pictures from the City Palace a little farther down.

This is a photo of a 5 star hotel along the lake. I can't recall its name at the moment. I'll post back if I can come up with it.

This is looking out over the city of Udaipur, with the hills in the background. I liked how lush and green this city was in comparison to so many of the rest.

The outside of the palace is very fortress-like, while the inside is decorated with Mughal techniques. There are all sorts of balconies, cuploas and turrets through out the complex.

A close up of the mosaics.

This is Kanch Bari (means Glass Turret) which is inlaid with red and silver glass. It is a chamber within a part of the palace called Bari mahal which was built in 1699.

Here's a picture of the gardens within Bari Mahal. It is built on a terraced hillside that is completely enclosed within the palace walls, so this is on the 5th or 6th floor of the palace. I thought it was pretty cool--notice the full grown Neem trees lining the marble pool. It's impressive to have fully grown trees thriving inside a palace...on the 5th floor.

This lady stopped to pose for a picture while we visited Saheliyon ki Bari, which means Garden of the Maids of Honor. Basically the women of the house were bored, so the Maharana built them a garden on the edge of town and took them out there each day to tend to it. Today you can visit it, although none of the "Maids" work there anymore.

Did you know you can tell how old a palm tree is by counting the rings in its bark? I had no idea.

A picture of one of the ornamental fountains

A random picture--this is a Golden Rain Tree. My mother tried desperately to grow one of these where I grew up in southern PA. Needless to say, the summers just weren't long enough or warm enough. I never would have know this lush tree to be the same thing as the spindle-ly stick that used to be at the corner of the back garden at my parents house.

Here's another plant that never grew right in southern PA...a Bougainvillea.

This is a photo of the monsoon palace (upper left on top of the mountain) that overlooks Fateh Sagar Lake in Udaipur. The royal family had a house for every season--they stayed here during the monsoon, at the lake palace during the summer and at the city palace the rest of the year.

Another photo of Fateh Sagar Lake...

Me & my fellow Pennsylvanians, Ron & Diane.

Welcome back to reality! I snapped these next few shots as we traveled through Udaipur back to our train. These people are not the lowest class--they actually have a roof over their heads at nighttime. Also keep in mind I didn't take these in a bad part of town, nor is this similar to Tent City at Pratt & President in downtown Baltimore where the homeless are known to congregate. These people most likely have jobs and everything.
Another pic... Notice the well to the right of the green door, near the woman and the child in blue pants. People fill jugs with clean water daily to take back to their homes for cooking, etc.

Sunday, April 1, 2007: Ranthambhore & Chittorgarh

Here are a ton of photos from Ranthambhore National Park. This place was AMAZING. Here's the link to the website--please visit it. http://www.ranthambhore.com/ Ranthambhore is one of the best parks to see the Bengal tiger. They were nearly extinct when the land was designated a reserve, and have had a rough go of it building their numbers. There are still a number of villages within the borders of the park, and poaching and disease are constant threats. In 2005, with the population below 26 tigers, the Indian government intensified protection and policing in the area and a large number of cubs were born between summer 2005 and summer 2006.

A number of these photos were taken by Ron--he is a far superior photographer as compared to me, and he had a great camera for capturing wildlife whereas I just have a high end point and shoot. So I'll let you know when I took a picture, but otherwise assume that they are his pics. There are a few that I took that were pretty nice. Plus we were also in separate trucks, so Ron & Diane caught things I did not and vice versa.

Ron took this photo at the entrance. This was another day we had to be up with the roosters.

Another of Ron's...the sun rising over the park.

Some birds by a lake.

Anothe rbird--check out his super long beak.

This is a Sambhar deer.

The amazing tiger.

I wish there was a way to help protect them. They are just majestic animals.

The environmental conditions in Ranthambhore make it a great place for seeing wildlife in general. It is pretty dry and brushy so you can see animals pretty easily. Although the tigers should be trained toNOT lay behind the bush....haha just kidding.

Here kitty kitty...

Besides tigers, there is all sorts of wildlife in the park. Here's a Marsh Crocodile.

A bird of some sort and his reflection...

That same crocodile in the water...

One of the structures within the park.
Another bird of some kind...
Another bird of some kind...
Another bird of some kind...
I snapped this picture of wild boars. They are kind of ugly animals...
This peacock posed for me. None of them would spread their feathers though.
I took this of the landscape within the park. It is an interesting terrain; very rocky and craggy with lots of low vegetation.
There is a mongoose in the upper right hand coner of this shot. I was really far away and was snapping wildly trying to get a shot of it. The mongoose was having some sort of an "argument" with a porcupine and they were both running all over the place.

A green parakeet--you see these in India like you see pidgeons here.
See those webby things??? SPIDER NESTS. That's all I have to say about that. (I took this)
Another one of my landscape shots.
So there was this German lady (not Gretel from my previous post) in the truck with us and for whatever reason she had bread in her purse. Well, she decided to feed the cute little monkeys. Let me just say that that is a bad idea all around. She pulled that bread out and it was like a scene out of Congo. The trees started shaking as the monkeys lept from branch to branch trying to get to the truck for the bread. The chatter picked up to a crazy level too--they were definitely hollering at each other that there was a nutty woman with bread nearby. I was shocked she would even think to feed them. Didn't she see Outbreak??? (I took this)

This is a Banyan tree--a ficus tree. It is the same family as the kind we put white Christmas lights on and stick in our living rooms for decoration. They also call them walking trees--they grow down into the ground and appear to walk as they get bigger and bigger. (I took this)

The truck thing we rode around the park in. (I took this)
This was as close as I got to a tiger personally. We smelled something rotting and thought there might be one nearby, but there ended up being nothing to see but a foot print. Of the 4 trucks that were people from the train, we were the only truck that didn't get to see the tigers.
Another Sambhur deer (I took this)
Another landscape (I took this)
Here's a neat bird of some sort--they were really tame. Crazy German Lady that fed the monkeys also fed these birds. (I took this)

So coming soon will be Chittorgarh. I have to get back to work now...