Photo post: forts, vegetables, independence

I’m trying to avoid typing too much as my arms hurt lately, but here’s a quick blog post ofsome recent sights. Last weekend we took a tour of the three major forts in the Jaipur area. This photo is on the road to Amer Fort:

Apparently you can take an elephant ride up to the fort, though we were such a big group that this was not an option for us.

The forts are, as usual, breathtakingly intricate and beautiful. If only we could rent one of these for our wedding reception! (Actually, we could, it’s just prohibitively expensive…)

India has such beautiful old buildings. Hundreds of years old, crumbling, and lived in. They’re fascinating to look at. I think I could just look at old buildings all day.

From Amer fort there is an old wall that extends around what used to be the capital of Rajasthan. It reminds me of the Great Wall of China except, well, smaller.

Beautiful.

Old, old, OLD paintings in the fort:

A view from the top of one of the forts out over the city of Jaipur:

I just liked the little turret thingies:

I was telling my friend Bill the other day that I’ve gotten rather fond of the fruit and vegetable carts that are pushed around the streets every day. We ran into this fellow outside our school one day:

On August 15th, India’s independence day, we went out shopping. We saw some people celebrating on the street. Ironically, a number of people wished us “Happy Indian Independence Day.” In English.

Okay, back to work! I’ve got a ten-page paper due tomorrow and I’m only on page 6!

A picture post: Jodhpur

We went to Jodhpur this weekend. It’s a desert city west of here, which means it’s a little bit closer to Pakistan, and has a bit more of a Muslim population. The night we arrived, we sat on the roof of our hotel at their rooftop restaurant. We had a spectacular view of the fort and the city, and as we were eating the Muslim call to prayer started. One by one these haunting, chanting voices arose from the city until there was a cacophony of heavy, rhythmic voices pulsing through the air. It was ethereal: the hot, dusty, dry desert air, the large and looming fort, and the chanting voices. Something I don’t have words for made sense at that moment.

The next day we went to visit the large and looming Mehengarh fort. It was beautiful, and the weather was hot and windy (as you can see from my dupatta billowing in the wind):

We entered the fort through the large front gate (the woman in the picture is Chloe, a fellow student, and the man to her left is the tour guide we hired):

Immediately inside the entrance is a wall where you can see dents from cannonballs that hit the fort (and a little of the local fashion, as well):

The fort is carved out of two types of sandstone, and has some incredible detail. The fact that the sandstone has survived in such detail for over 500 years is a testament to the desert climate of the city. In the third picture, you can see me, Chloe, and Clare (my travel-mates for the trip) standing in an archway inside a courtyard within the temple. Inside the fort there is sort of a palace, with exquisitely decorated rooms for the maharaja, his queens, his harem, his ministers, and so on.

Also, this is Rajasthan, which sits on the edge of the Thar desert. The Thar is on the border of India and Pakistan. It is pretty common for men here to wear turbans, and I don’t think I’ve yet posted a picture. This one doesn’t do them justice, as the turbans are often brightly colored or rainbow colored, but here is an idea:

I’m having net difficulty, so I’m going to see if I can post this and put the rest in a separate  post.