Udaipur-from August

Ok WAY back in August, we went to lovely Udaipur, a wonderful gem in Rajasthan, with our friends Caitlin and Bion.  It is known for its Lake Palace and beautiful scenery, much of which was used for the Bond movie Octopussy.  Which I might add is this movie is shown on a movie screen at almost every bar/restaurant each night.

Walking around Udaipur

Cow, lake, random old palace.  Why not.

Men bathing in the lake

Jagadish Temple.  They are gearing up for a celebration happening that weekend.  The corner where this temple is, as well as the temple, is in the movie Octopussy.

Random guy who looks like a a priest (and may or may not be one) at the temple.

This is the temple the next evening, with the big lights, totally decked out.

along the streets.

Lake Palace

Dogball and Duck make an appearance.

Jag Mandir Palace

Also a lake palace, though not THE lake palace.  Shah Jahan apparently took refuge here while revolting against his dad.   Whoa -stop the presses.  Did I say that right?  Shah Jahan, builder of Taj Mahal, whose son Aurangzab revolted against HIM and imprisoned him for the rest of his life?  Yep like father, like son.

The City Palace

This is on the lake, overlooking both lake palace and Jag Mandir.  It is so beautiful.

You can see the stained class and imagine if it was all full of this wonderful color.

Cages for the carrier pigeons.

Much needed fuel stop for the weary bodies!

Outside view from one of the courtyards

A group of tourists from the state.  I can tell by their headwraps and clothes.

Outside view of the city palace from across the lake

Night view of city palace from our hotel

Hotel that Octopussy also filmed at.

I don't remember the name, but this is clearly it.  Not very helpful I know.

A spectacular sunset

What better place than a great lakeside bar with friends to enjoy the sunset?

Really majestic

Our Hotel Chunda Palace

Chunda Palace was a great little place that Caitlin found, with fantastic decor and views, as you will see below.

There was a party at our hotel that night.  Our invitation must have gotten lost in the mail...

Views form the breakfast area

Monsoon Palace

Final place I will show you from Octopussy movie.  Up on a hill, and kind of run down, but still neat.  Click here for more info.

Horseback Riding outside Udaipur

Us with Caitlin and Bion all ready for our adventure.  We were definitely not as experienced as our other companions who came every year to ride these horses.

Ok, these guys walking the horses were so annoying.  but it overall experience was great!

There was a male horse particularly interested in the females.  He is not in this picture because they had to keep him far away.  Especially from my horse.

Random Rajasthani guy in field

The End

Ajanta and Ellora Caves-post 2

Ok you saw the highlight.  Now I have finally had time to do the rest of the Ellora caves, the Ajanta caves, and the city between the two and in which we stayed, Aurangabad.

The rest of Ellora
So in the last post I didn't mention Ellora is a big horseshoe, with the big monolith, the Kailasanatha, in the middle.  As we went to the right of that monolith were more Hindu caves (in which monks actually lived) and then the Buddhist caves (same deal, monks lived there).  To the left were the Jain caves.  Just having the three next to each other is pretty remarkable and speaks to the harmony of religions that has been and still is possible in India.


Hindu Caves

Inside from the cave

A picture of a cow for mom.

I think this is Kali, also a destroyer, though not the consort of Vishnu the destroyer.  Kali is a woman.

There were guys like this everywhere hanging out, as you see here at the cave entrance.  Kind of like the American equivalent of going to the mall (except they had no women to chase after as Sandip is pointing out as I type).  It was kind of annoying, but what can you do?

Family just having a picnic at the entrance to one of the caves.

Buddhist Caves

Older, still cool.

The Buddhist caves

This is a photo of the group, taken from where I took the above photo.

The caves

Sandip and Shannon standing outside an entrance.  There is a huge Buddha behind those screens.

This is one of my favorite shots.  This yellow sari was so vibrant against the backdrop, but I couldn't quite capture it but it was magical.

Another shot of the inside.

seriously, how cool is this?

Really awesome

Jain Caves

Jain temples in India are among the most spectacular, awesome, ornate things you can see.  With all due respect to the Jains out there, these caves are not.

Everyone is so over the caves.

View looking down at the most magnificent of the Jain caves.  Uninspiring.

Mahavir

Ajanta Caves

Ok it took an hour to drive here, then we had to either wait another hour for a shuttle or walk (we chose walk) to see another set of caves.  These are known for their paintings, not sculpture.  Equally impressive however.  And the wild thing is they were rediscovered by a British guy who literally found them while out riding his horse.

Less photos here because it was dark inside and they tried to keep light off to preserve the art.

Our walk to the caves

Here we are at the set of caves

Ok, there was some scultpure

A photo of the paintings

Another photo

Sandip's brilliant attempt to fix his broken flip-flop.  It worked.  For about  5 minutes.

There were many monkeys on the way out, and some people were feeding them.  Idiots.  

Our "short-cut" through the field on the way back.  It was shorter actually, just a bit rougher

Our driver stopped at this mosque in the middle of the countryside (as close to middle of nowhere as you can get in India) to do his sunset prayers

In and Around Aurangabad

Tomb of Aurangabad.  Remember he is Shah Jahan's kid, imprisoned dad, killed all his brothers and sisters, and ruled the area with iron fist.

This is Aurangabad's tomb (compare to Taj Mahal, just a generation before).  One of Aurangabad's big things about dad was that he spent too much state money on these ostentatious monuments.  So here is his tomb. 

We had to stop for the goats.

This is called "Poor Man's Taj"  Can you see the resemblance to Taj?

Bamboo scaffolding

Us at the restaurant at our hotel Lemontree.  All the managers had ponytails.