India 2023

 We started our morning with our third critique.  Again, India had provided us with a plethora of great photos to share with our group.  This may be the best workshop I have been in as far as all of the participants doing well from the start. After lunch, we loaded up to start our day of travel.  We flew from Udaipur to Delhi and then on to Varanasi.  There's not much to say other than KFC is an international food court staple and security is a pain no matter where you experience it. We had a late arrival into Varanasi which made our transfer to our hotel even more interesting.  Our bus dropped us at the top of an embankment with several sets of stone steps leading us into an area that looked like a resting spot for dead boats.  However, two of those boats would take us and our luggage to our hotel on the banks of the Ganges River.  It was eerily quiet as we made our way through a misty/foggy trip along the river.  We passed the area where pe...

 Our next stop for two nights was the city of Udaipur .  This city is distinctive for the number of interconnected man-made lakes surrounding the city.  These lakes were built because the leaders understood the need for a water supple during a siege by an invading army.  Our hotel,  Lalit Laxmi  that sits on the shores of Pichola Lake.  The view was quite stunning. Late in the afternoon we took a boat ride on the late.  The wealth of these ruling families was quite evident with one palace on the shore, the summer palace on the lake, and the monsoon palace high in the hills.  We visited an island that now serves as an exclusive hotel with four guest rooms and a restaurant reserved solely for the hotel guests.  We had a pleasant refreshment before boarding the boat to return to our bus.   This evening we were on our own for dinner but we all ended up eating in the hotel restaurant.  Two of our group shared a birthday today a...

 Our three hour drive took us into the countryside to the former hunting lodge of the Maharajas.  The  Rawlai Narlai  sits at the base of a mountain topped with an elephant statute.  We checked in and had lunch before taking a tour of the village. We boarded Jeeps to take a tour of the town.  This sleepy village was a refreshing change from the bustle of the larger cities.  That's not to say that there wasn't activity.  The villagers were out and about doing their choirs and appearing to enjoy life.  Cows roamed everywhere as well as the village dogs.   This is a farming community and the white turbaned men the farmers.  The pink/red turbaned men were the herders so there was a healthy mix of both.  We dismounted our jeeps to take a look around on foot.  In general the people were happy to have their photos taken by the American tourists.   Tonight we had a very special dinner.  The jeeps took us to a s...

 Today our bus ride took us to the second largest in Rajasthan, Jodhpur. Known as the blue city for the neighborhood with blue painted houses, we would find both extreme tranquility and chaos all in the same day. We stayed at  The Ajit Bhahwan Palace Hotel .  The original part of the hotel was the Palace that served the Maharaja until the new larger palace (purportedly the largest in the world) was built.  The uncle then took the parlance and added on hotel facilities and it is now one of the nicest hotels in the city. After lunch and checking into the room, we took the bus as close as we could go to the city center and then transferred to tuk tuks to venture into the heart of the action.  The open are moarket was selling everything from leather goods, to produce.  As with other places we have visited, dogs and cows roamed the streets along with a massive amounts of people.  We made our way through to less crowded streets to explore.   We returned...

After breakfast we boarded our bus for a four hour drive to  Thar Desert .  In this area, the people live a very simple life and have learned to waste nothing.  The landscape consists of scrubby trees and hard dirt.  There are crops grown here where water is available.   We're staying at   Manvar Kumat Desert Camp , a luxury camp with permanent tents that are airconditioned and have nice attached bathrooms.  A central building includes a bar, indoor and outdoor dining rooms, a large pit area with couches to enjoy a drink and and appetizers, and an infinity swimming pool.  If you've ever been to Africa, this is very similar. After a short afternoon siesta, we took open air jeeps to visit a couple of local families to see what life is like in this part of the world.  The first stop was at a blacksmith's home.  He makes bells and clay pipes wrapped in copper wire and his wife was spinning thread.  She kept her face covered mo...