Only One Day

The last stop on our travels with Emily was a day in Mussoorie. After taking our taxi from Corbett National Park up into the hills Beth and Emily went up to see the snow-capped mountains in the distance. Thankfully, the weather was clear and they had a great view of the Himalayas.

To complement the wildlife that we'd seen in Corbett, they also saw some langur monkeys on the walk around the hillside.

After going out for lunch we traveled deep into the bazaar to take a ride on Mussoorie's man-powered Ferris wheel. Dave had to sit opposite Beth and Emily to make sure that the wheel was properly balanced.

After a spin on the wheel, we got our picture taken in some traditional costumes from our area of India. These Garhwali outfits really made us feel like locals.

From Mussoorie, it was back to Delhi to drop Emily off at the airport. We had a great time with her during the trip and we're definitely looking forward to being closer to family in a few months.

Dave and Beth

The Road to Mussoorie

After taking the overnight train from Jaisalmer to Delhi, we decided that we would take the long way back to Mussoorie. We got in a taxi at Old Delhi Railway station and took it right to Corbett National Park. It was a long ride, and we woke up early the next morning to take a safari through the park. The big draw of Corbett is India's national animal--the tiger. We were told that not very many visitors to the park actually see these big cats and we have some friends who've been a couple of times without a glimpse. We thought we'd try our luck anyway.

Our guides were able to show us some of the tell-tale signs of the tiger. If you look at the tree below, you may see the marks that one of them made to sharpen his razor sharp claws.

We even brought our binoculars to help us catch a view of the tiger if he made an appearance.

If you look closely at this picture below, you can see a paw print of one of the tigers in the park. We saw a few as we were driving around, but our guide assured us that this one was pretty fresh.

All of our searching did pay off. We didn't actually get a chance to snap a picture of the tiger that we saw and we're a thankful that we weren't as close to the cat as this picture implies, but we thought that it would be best to actually show an image of one in this blog post.

After our successful jeep safari, we went on a more laid back elephant safari. We saw a couple monkeys and lots of birds and butterflies, but it was nice just to have a slow, lumbering ride without the pressure of straining our eyes to see a flash of orange.

Dave and Beth

A Touch of Austria

After our rainy desert camel safari, we returned to Jaisalmer proper and checked in at the Artist Hotel. This was a quirky little place that had been founded by an Austrian hippie to give local artists a place to perform and present their work. Our room and the rooftop restaurant both had a great view of the fort in the center of town.

Our favorite part, though, was the Austrian food that they served in the restaurant. It was nice to get some good schnitzel, frikadellen, and spätzle.

We also had some great entertainment as we ate our dinner. These were some local musicians that gave us something to watch as we feasted. The video is a bit dark, but the music should come through pretty well.

Dave and Beth

Rain in the Desert

One part of our trip that we were really looking forward to was our camel safari in Jaisalmer. We arrived very early in the morning on the overnight train. After relaxing for a few hours, we took a jeep ride out to the start of our safari.

The camels were more than happy to carry us for a few hours as we trudged to some sand dunes.

They did get a bit tired along the way, though.

We stopped by a very remoted little village and had a chance to visit with the people there for a little while. It is definitely a different pace of life than what we're used to.

We also stopped to give the camels a drink, but we didn't get off. It was a wet and unstable experience.

Our three guides continued to lead us as we neared the dune where we would be camping under the stars.

We ended up sharing our safari with a couple of newlyweds from New Zealand. They were very friendly and we had some great conversation around the fire as our guides prepared our food.

As we were preparing for bed, it started raining. Our guides had packed a big blue tarp, so instead of sleeping under the stars, we slept under that. It wasn't the best night's sleep that we've ever had, but it was a great time.

If you would like to see more picture of our exploits (including Indian army tanks and giant beetles) you can visit our website.

Dave and Beth

The Blue City

Jodhpur is another one of the cities in Rajasthan. It is called the "Blue City" for obvious reasons.

We stayed in a neat haveli, which was an old mansion with a courtyard in the middle. The room was comfortable, but the door was a bit of a squeeze for Dave.

Most of our first day in the city was spent waiting for midnight. This was New Year's Eve and we had no Dick Clark or Time's Square. We ate dinner and played a few games before laying low.

We pulled ourselves away from our books shortly before midnight and went up to the roof to celebrate 2010. Though we have never experienced one first-hand, we imagine a warzone to be similar to Jodhpur at midnight on New Years Day. The shear volume of fireworks being set off was amazing. It was also remarkable to see how absolutely dangerous these celebrants were.

The next day, we went to see Jodhpur's fort. Like that of Bikaner, it was very well preserved and it even had a nice little gift shop at the end.

We also spent some time in the bazaar there and did some shopping for spices.

Judging by day one, it seems as though 2010 will be a great year!

Dave and Beth

Camels, Camels, and More Camels

The next stop on our tour was the city of Bikaner. This was a smaller and more relaxed urban center in Rajasthan, but it had one of our most unique experiences. To begin with, we visited the old fort that the rulers of the area used to occupy. It was really well preserved and the audio tour was quite nice.

After that, we went to the annual Bikaner Camel Festival. This was quite an experience! We were met by hundreds and hundreds of camels and camel drivers. Most were decked out in their finest.

There was an amazing parade of camels around Bikaner's municipal stadium. One of the best parts was that this event was not too touristy. The vast majority of the spectators seemed to be Indian with a few scattered Westerners. It was wonderful to see the camel beauty peagant.

There was also a contest to see who could shave the best design into their camel's wool.

We also really enjoyed the Mr Rajasthan contest that was held. I don't think that this little boy won, but it may have been a result of his attitude.

We spent a couple of hours in the hot sun, but it was definitely worth it. The only sad thing was that we had to miss the camel races that were organized for the next day because our train left too early. Oh well...maybe next year...

If you want to see more picture of these crazy camels, check out our website.

Dave and Beth

Block Printing

The second stop on our whirlwind tour of northern India was Jaipur. Again, this is a place that we've been to before, but we wanted to be sure that Emily got to experience it with us. To make us all happy, we visited a block-printing factory that we didn't have time for a year ago. Block printing is a beautiful traditional Rajasthani artform. You can buy these fabrics all over the place in Jaipur and we want to see some of it being made. It is a very labor intensive process that involves several different impressions with various patterns using different colors.

This man was a true artisan and made some beautiful pieces of fabric.

We also took a quick trip over to the palace of the winds. We saw this pink edifice from the outside when Dave's sister visited last year, but we actually had time to go inside this time.

It was a great chance to go to a place that was somewhat familiar, but see some new and interesting things. The rest of our trip to Rajasthan, though, is all uncharted territory for us.

Dave and Beth

Agra...again...

So the first trip on our travels with Beth's sister, Emily, was Agra. We arrived in Delhi and picked Emily up late before heading off to see the Taj Mahal for the third time. This first picture is about the only time that Dave left the hotel room because he got sick.

For Beth and Emily, though, the Taj was beautiful, as always. People were disregarding signs as is common practice in India, and they were able to find someone to take a picture of them.

The other mandatory stop in Agra is the great Mughal fort. Again...Dave was sick in bed, so Beth and Emily had to find someone else to take their picture in this red sandstone window.

This may have been our last visit to the Taj Mahal for a while, but it was nice to share the experience with Emily.

Dave and Beth

Road Trip

Well...actually we're going on a bit of a rail trip. Now that our Christmas celebrations in Mussoorie are over, we're going to be doing some traveling around the country. Beth's sister will be visiting us in a couple days and we'll spend two weeks with her. When she leaves, we will spend three more weeks traveling around southern India. It should be a great experience and we'll be sure to post lots of pictures and stories as we're able and definitely when we return after Christmas break is over. Have a happy new year!

Dave and Beth

Christmas Morning

We were watching closely online to see where the big guy was on the NORAD Santa Tracker last night and it seems that he found our house without much trouble. We finally opened the package that Dave's parents sent and were excited to find individually wrapped presents inside. We got cappucino mix, chocolates, books and other goodies from Santa (via the Bovens).

It was great to open these up beside the Christmas tree on Chistmas morning, but it did leave a mess.

Thankfully that mess was able to be put to good use. We threw it all into our wood stove and had a little fire to take the edge off the cold this morning. The Bovens probably didn't know what a great present that would be when they shipped it over (we burned the cardboard box, too).

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Dave and Beth