The Crowning Touch

When last I writ, I was in Pushkar one of the holy cities of India. It is a smallish place but more than a village. I liked the market area and of course I contributed a bit to the local economy. I really gotta stop doing that. Although I'm getting pretty good prices on things because I will barter a bit now, my pack runneth over! And I've got more than a month and six more countries to visit before I head home!
I visited the temples that I wanted to visit including Sitivri which is the temple of Buddha's first wife and is waaaaay at the top of the hill and you have to get past a bunch of monkeys who can tell if you have food in your hands so don't walk up there carrying munchies! and since I had made my contribution to the local economy at the markets me and a few other Intrepid travels decided to try out the pool at the hotel neighboring ours. It cost a few rupees but we took the plunge. I remember seeing some folks swimming in the Atlantic Ocean when I was in Biarritz or Bilbao way back in November or December. I think I had them beat temperaturely speaking with the dip in the pool! WOW.
After thawing, I decided I'd stick closer to home (the hotel du jour). The Kishna Palace has a sort of 'dinner and a show' sort of thing. That is to say they have a big screen TV that they set up in the rooftop dining room (every hotel has a rooftop dining room!) and they show movies. I finally got to see Slumdog Millionaire. And here's a bit of fun news-one of the other members of our group is the cousin of the editor of that film and that fella just won the BAFTA award for Editing so congratulations to Chris Dickens from your one of your cousin Mike's fellow travelers!

After Pushkar there was a bus to Jaipur home of the Amber Fort. Some of the forts and cities I have visited have been named based on the color of the stone the city/fort was built from. Not the case with the Amber. While there is a kind of pale yellowy tint to this fort's stones the word Amber has a Hindi pronunciation because it is the name of a god and not a reference to color. The king of this fort had two wives and each queen had her own space in the palace inside the fort. According to our guide the king flipped a coin each night to decide who to spend the night with. Other entertainment involved alcohol and elephants and surprisingly the alcohol was for the elephants. I guess they are angry drunks and like to fight.
Jaipur is also home to the largest movie house in Asia and I went to my first Bollywood movie! As far as the spoken language was concerned I only understood the few bits that were in Hinglish but the story was fairly easy to follow. Also, one member of the group is very up on the Bollywood scene and was able to provide some fun insites into the film in general pointing out the kind of things that you'll always see in them such as references to Charlie Chaplin and how often to expect a song and dance.

From Jaipur there was a one night stand in Bharatpur, home of the Keoladeo Ghana Bird Park. I've visited a more than a few bird parks and sanctuaries in the States. This one probably tops the lot of 'em. I don't know what amazed me more-the quantity of birds or the variety of species. I saw so many storks and herons gathered together that the place looked prehistoric. Hundreds of Painted Storks perched in trees looks pretty strange if you've never seen that kind of rookery before. I saw some massive pelicans and wee small owls plus several kinds of deer and a monitor lizard. Our guide went in search of a python and I've not decided yet if it was good or bad that he didn't come back with one!

From the birds it was onto the jewel in the crown of India. Agra and The Taj Mahal. We arrived in Agra early enough in the day to do a bit of touring. First I went the Red Fort and because I foolishly didn't get a guide I can't tell you much about what I saw. I have to Wiki that one when I get home. From there I vsited the Baby Taj which is a similar mausoleum but was constructed for the Grandfather of the Lady buried at the Taj. The Taj Mahal's designed is based on the Baby Taj. From the Baby Taj I traveled to a scenic viewpoint to see the real Taj Mahal at the golden hour, the time just before sunset. I was on one side of the river, the Taj was on the other and the sun was waaaaay off to the west and obscured by smoke, pollution, clouds, haze or whatever but it didn't really cast any kind of a golden glow but it was my first view of the Taj and it was still majestic. The next day was a visit to inside the real thing. I'm at a loss as to what to say to the grandeur of the Taj Mahal. And I gotta go anyway. Check back to see if I can get the words together in the right order to tell of my visit and also to learn why the city I'm in now (Veranasi) is just to die for!