udaipur...part 2

Just a few more random shots for you to enjoy!

Bright colors...our hotel.

Inside the City Palace.

Doors....love them both. 

Costumes at the Shilpgram Festival.

Camel!

 

The most amazing thing EVER! The man in the middle of this ferris wheel was the "engine" as there was no motor on it.  It went round and round and he was able to pick up some speed by jogging! Seriously AWESOME! Five kids on a seat...only in India. :) I have to say that I stood and watched for about 10 minutes and could not stop laughing.  It just was remarkable and so comical to me.  Sadly I did not get on it...terrible, I know.

udaipur

We flew from Jodphur to Udaipur.  The in-country flight was a short one, but it was delayed for about 2 hours.  Luckily it was an amazing airport...not really.  Anyways, our time here actually fell on Christmas, so we planned ahead and put in an extra day in order to have Christmas free.  After all, who wants to be traveling or rushing around on Christmas? Instead, we enjoyed Christmas this year by relaxing and taking a lovely boat ride around Lake Pichola.  It was a wonderful day...not that Christmassy, but still wonderful!

As a side note, this was actually my first Christmas away from my family, so it was a bit odd.  To be honest, it felt really bizarre and I did end up feeling bad about not being with my family.  It didn't feel like Christmas as we were away from family, the food, and of course all of the decorations and music.  Thankfully I had Matt and we managed to still have a fantastic Christmas together.

One highlight was that we had some of the best Indian food in Udaipur.  Just thinking about it makes me hungry....YUM! Since the food was so good, we kept going back and gosh it was really delicious.  Another cool thing we fell upon during our time there was the Shilpgram Festival which was full of local crafts and performances and the coolest ferris wheel ever!  An image of the ferris wheel can be found in my India post.  It had me laughing for the longest time.  This ferris wheel had no motor and went round via the man standing in the middle of it.  Brilliant.  

City Palace, a view from our boat ride around Lake Pichola.

Inside the complex

Posers!

Jagdish Temple

 

There were very ornate carvings on this temple.

Shilpgram Festival...sadly we did not go on a camel ride.

Some of the performers...we did not ever find out why the men were dressing up like the women.

The Lake Palace and The City Palace

The Lake Palace...the location for one of the 007 movies.

Jagminder Island...it is in the middle of Lake Pichola.

A self-portrait on our boat trip on Lake Pichola on Christmas Day!

Image of the city from our lovely restaurant.

Daily washing

If you are looking for a spouse, matrimonials is the way to go! This was one of the sections found in the newspaper.  Individuals or families both can write ads for spouses and they actually were really specific including preferences for skin color, occupation, and caste!

india

We went to India and it was amazing.  It was stunning, exotic, mind blowing, and truly incredible.  I could go on with more adjectives, but I think you get my point.  It was a special trip and we had a fabulous time!

Before we left for India, we were both extremely apprehensive about this trip.  It was the one trip that Matt and I both wanted to go on, but was also the one we were also both terrified of.  We’d both heard such conflicting reports from friends that had us worried about our health, safety, and sanity.  Needless to say, we were one of the lucky ones and we had a terrific time.  No sickness, great weather, delicious food, and fantastic people…it was so awesome.  Seriously.

We spent two weeks in the northwestern parts of India.  We planned ahead and decided to just see a small part of India, the Rajasthan region.  The rational being that we really wanted experience the cities rather than just catching a couple of sights and then moving on.  That said, we barely scratched the surface.  We could have spent so much time in each city and have already talked about a trip back one day!

Our trip started in Delhi where we spent a few days exploring and getting used to the craziness that is India.  From Delhi, we took a night train (yes, you read right) to Jodphur where we spent a few days sightseeing in one of my favorite Indian cities so far.  After Jodphur, we took a plane to Udaipur, which is where we celebrated Christmas and had some of the best Indian food on our trip.  Following Udaipur, we flew to Jaipur and had fun haggling with shopkeepers.  From there, we ended up sharing a 10-hour ride in an ambassador, which is one sweet ride, across country roads with a random couple to Agra.  After enjoying the two main sights in Agra, we headed back to Delhi for one last day before going home.  Everyday was truly spectacular.

Here are pictures from each of the cities we visited.  That said, one is simply not enough and cannot do the cities justice, so I’ll plan to post more pictures for ya’ll.

Map of Rajasthan

The craziness that is Old Delhi!

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Jodphur, the blue city!

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A ferris wheel in Udaipur that seriously made me laugh for a solid 10 minutes!

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Bangle shopping in Jaipur...drove me nuts!

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Matt and I at the Taj Mahal in Agra.  Stunning.

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