With Corryn busy at work and my studies over, I guess it's my turn to do a blog update.
We have been in India now for about 3 months and have about 7 weeks left here. Amongst the chaos at Uni and Corryn's office we managed to get away for a short break. We met Vicky at Dehli airport and embarked on a 10 day trip from Dehli to Agra and around Rajasthan, the heart of the Indian Moghul empire (aka the land of Kings).
In Dehli we met our driver, Sampat Gaur, a tall Brahman male of 29 years old who had a very quirky sense of humour. Many interesting times ahead.
Dehli is a busy place but much cleaner than Kolkata. We spent a few days in Dehli checking out the main sights including Jama Masjid which is the largest mosque in India built in the middle of the 17th Century. The pic of the left of Corryn & Vicky in front of the main section also shows the
southern minaret that we climbed up. The view from the top was amazing but the journey up and down the tower was more memorable. It was a dark spiral staircase that was built for single file only. However, we managed to pass at least a dozen people in there and the girls informed me that hands do go a wandering! Pic on the right is inside the mosque. So intricate and ornate.
After leaving Delhi we headed south to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. On the way, we stopped at King Akbar's tomb, one of the most famous Moghul Kings (pic on left). They have just released a Bollywood movie about him, which we saw on the weekend. Akbar (Muslim) had 3 wives, each of a different religion. One Muslin wife, one Hindu wife and one Christian wife. It was great to see some of the sights that we visited in the movie, all decked out as if it was 400 odd years ago.
Okay the main event. We finally got to Agra and our heads were poking around in every direction until we finally caught a glimpse of the magnificent structure. For tho
se of those into a bit of history, the Taj Mahal was built by Emporer Shah Jahan as a memorial for his 2nd wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child in 1631. It took over 20 years to build and is by far the biggest, most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The marble work is so intricate and just looking at it from a distance is so surreal. As the sun was setting, the marble was changing colours from white to grey, to blue, to pink. You could have just sat there for hours looking at it.
It might be pertinent at this point to mention that simply travelling around India and going from place to place can be just as interesting as the main sights. The pic on the left is a common form of transport that you overtake while travelling along the state highways.
After Agra we headed south towards the state of Rajasthan. However before getting there, we stopped in at Fatehpur Sikri, which was once the Palace of King Akbar. It is now a fortified ghost city but in its day (mid 16th Centruy) Akbar ruled Hindustan from here. What's amazing about the place is that he has incorporated Muslim, Hindu and Christian achitecture into the place for
his 3 wives. Pic of Corryn & Vicky on right.
Okay so we finally made it into Rajasthan and our first stop was the city of Jaipur, also know as the pink city. In 1876, the city was painted pink as a ceremonial colour of welcome for the arrival of Prince Albert. It was a pretty cool town but I would have to say that the colour was more of a rustic orange / brown than pink. Jaipur has a few attractions so I'll try to summarise as best as I can.
The Palace of the Winds is only one room deep and was basically
built so that the ladies of leisure could sit in their rooms and watch the processions going on in the streets below. Pic on
left.
The cinema on the right is Raj Mandir, which is where we watched out first Bollywood movie called “Sunday”.
There is also a pic of us at this folk town come handy craft village. It was 
a little bizarre but I got to wear a turban which was cool.
The main attraction in Jaipur was the Amber Fort. This is another one of Akbar's creations built in the late 16th Century. It was also
huge and really impressive. The pic on the right is looking across the central garden to the main building. You could imagine what it looked like when the fountains and gardens were cared for.
The City Palace also had some really interesting rooms with ornately decorated doorways. Pic on left of Corryn & I sitting under one. (If you haven't noticed by now Corryn has developed a scarf fetish since we've been in India).
On our way from Jaipur to Jodhpur we passed this mass of red and were amazed to find out that they were chillies being dried out in the sun. Pic on right.
Jodhpur is known as the blue city and the pic on the right may help illustrate this. Basically the Brahman's (an elite class) paint their houses blue. When you look down on the city from the Meherangarh 
Fort, the city literally looks blue. The Fort itself is the also pretty huge and impressive. Pic on the right is looking up at one of the sections from the main gate. Very intrusive!
Once you get inside though, the rooms are still very well maintained given their age (over 150 years old). Pic on left is one of the Maharaja suites. There's even gold on the ceiling.
To give you an idea of how these fort's sit above the cities, have a look at the pic below.
After leaving Jodhpur, we went to a small town called Ranakpur, which is in the hills. There isn't much in Ranakpur except one temple to visit. I'll tell you what though, It was definitely a highlight of the trip. The temple was built by the Jain people. Jain is an extreme form of Hinduism. The Jain's live a pure vegetarian diet and do not believe in killing anything. they even walk everywhere and wear a cloth over their mouths so they don't breath in insects. Fascinating stuff. 
Anyway, the temple was absolutely beautiful. It's all marble and hand craved. The pic on 
the right is a broad pic but the one on the left is an example of some of the intricate marble work within the temple itself.
There were also heaps of monkeys around so I thought I'd include this
pic of one having a snooze while its mate attends to some grooming.
Last stop on the journey was Udaipur. This is a small town on a lake and even though the lake was small, it makes the place very picturesque. Our hotel had a great view and the photo on the right doesn't do the sunset any justice.
There was a main palace and Museum on the lake and whilst going through it was fantastic, the view form the lake was
much better (pic on left).
Waking up and looking over the lake with the 
morning sun on it was a great way to end the trip. Watching the locals washing their clothes in the lake and just enjoying the cool air was a nice break from Kolkata.
Before I forget, we organised our tour through a company called Real India Tours www.realindiatours.com they tailored the whole thing to our requirements and Sampat, our driver was great. Definitely recommend them for any of your Indian travels.
Anyway, as I said earlier, we have 7 weeks to go. We'll try and do another update before we leave.
Love to all
Rich & Corryn
