Oh, the Jewelry of Jaipur! I'm so jealous. I really need to go back and just wander about the jewelry shops.

I am still dreaming of one piece I saw.

A necklace with Cabochon cut beads (huge) of precious stones. Yes, it was expensive, and I probably would have rarely (if ever) worn it, but ahhhhhh, it was gorgeous. Drool.

Now, the elephants. I kept getting scolded by the mahout because we were both sitting on one side (with no one on the other side) and I guess I wasn't sitting back far enough. Like the elephant was going to tip over?

However, we have arrived at the fort just a few weeks after the tour guides had been stomped to death by one of the male elephants so everyone was a bit skittish. Not to worry. They only use girl elephants now.

I hope your stomachs have calmed down and the elephant ride to the top was great.

It sounds like you are having a great time. Keep the details coming.

Sunday Nov 13


Another bright day overlooking Jaipur from our 7th floor room. It will be an excellent day for some sightseeing around Jaipur today.


I forgot to mention that when we arrived yesterday, we were greeted at the hotel by our guide from 6 years ago—Mahadev Kashana (Dev). With him he had brought a lei for each of us of a fragerant red flower and an arrangement for our table. It was great to see him again. Sunday we would be spending the day with him. Dev is a private guide, with good English and a pleasant personality. He can be contacted at: [email protected] or [email protected]. You would not be disappointed. He specializes in the jaipur region, but does other areas as well I believe.


We met Dev and Krishna outside the front door at 9. We headed across town towards the Amber Fort, the huge complex of buildings built atop a number of hills. On our way we passed the ornate Albert Memorial Building, the Rambaugh Palace and its neighboring palace, the Palace of the Wind (a façade of a building and one of Jaipur’s most famous monuments), tons of local markets and shops, camel wagons, a couple of elephants and the famous pink (tera-cotta) buildings of Jaipur’s old city.

As we neared the fort, we began to see remnants of the outer buildings and the wall that reminds me of the wall of china stretching over the hills. The closer we got the clearer the elephants transporting tourists up to the main fort came into view. For us this is a highlight of visiting Jaipur. We had done it last time and K especially wanted to repeat it again. We waited less than 10 minutes for our elephant. Getting on is easy from a platform, but staying on in that uncomfortable perch is less easy. In fact it is downright uncomfortable. The ride takes perhaps 20-25 minutes of lurching and swaying. Each elephant is allowed only 5 ascents per day. There was something new this time however. Two NY women were riding the ellie in front of us, who evidently had food which was either too rich or too spicy because it kept pissing, which is a bit like a surprise shower and doing #2 which flies all over your legs and shoes. I yelled at the girls that the red sox will wallop the Yankees after this—no response… They got sprayed too several times.

Krishna picked us up near the top of the hill. We did not want to visit the fort as we had spent 2-3 hours there last time. It is a must see. On our way back to town we stopped to view the lake palace---last time there was no water, this time there is plenty of water.

From there we wanted to visit the city palace complex, the home of the current “king”, a 14 year old—the son of the only daughter of the last king. He attends school in England.
This palace encompasses 1/7th of the area of old Jaipur. Many things have been refurbished in the last 6 years. We were able to visit the elaborate room where state business had been conducted prior to 1947—it was closed on our last visit. K visited several other areas which I had no interest in. We again viewed the 2 largest silver jugs ever made, each able to hold 500 litres?? The palace is a very peaceful place to visit, even with the hordes of tourists visiting every day.

While we were resting on a bench, a bronze gate opened next to the king’s apartments and out drove the mother of the king in a Honda.

Following our palace visit we stopped to have my memory stick copied to a cd. I had forgotten my additional sticks at home---1500 pics. Ten minutes—150 Rs ($3).

Following this it was lunch time. We returned to a very ordinary restaurant we had eaten at twice on our last visit-- AC Restaurant Maharaja Foods, back on the road to Amber Fort. Krishna took us a back way so we were able to see some more local scenery: milk collection market (both cow and buffalo), local shops, fab veggie stands, etc.

K had white rice and chicken korma and I had a plain chicken soup which I put some rice in, along with the whole egg in the soup. I had a mix your own lime soda and K had coke. 1000 Rs---best of the trip thus far. Plus Naan of course.

After lunch we visited the famous Gem Palace. This shop has been in the same family for 7 generations and its customers range from Princess Diana to Jackie Kennedy to the current titled ladies of the middle east, plus Karen Kimball. The shop was not at all what I expected. It consists of several small rooms of display cabinets, maybe 3, a couple of private offices and sales rooms and nothing more. Faded elegance comes to mind, but plenty of lux still in existence.

Dev had mentioned to our saleswoman (we were the only customers) that K had interest in seeing some of the old creations. She showed us a number of things that ranged from 100-350 years old. First was a series of finely enameled solid gold chest pieces. Next was an enameled full sized bird which was actually a flask that the king could use to drink alachol without others knowing. Next was the 350 yo piece. It was a gold head plate with huge old cut diamonds on it---perhaps 5X7”, all set in gold. K looked with interest next at the elaborate new earrings, long dangling. Not her style.

Then I suggested something more practical, like normal earrings. First she tried on a pair of large pearl earring which had a small bezeled emerald mounted on it. They were too heavy for her. Next the saleswoman brought over a simple ear wire with a single whitish aquamarine with a gold bezel and a tiny diamond mounted above it. Perfect… Merry Christmas.

The owner entered our room and I introduced myself. He was very pleasant, mid-50’s, and we spent quite a while with him. He took us into the back room where modern master pieces were being developed and just laying around. He told us most are purchased by women from the Gulf.
First was a round box with a pointed top. It was perhaps 5” high and 3” in diameter. The surface was entirely covered with large diamonds. A gift for some person who has everything. Next was a similar round box, this time without a bottom. The sides have a spring from top to bottom and are a diamond encrusted snap cuff bracelet. Next he showed us a wide (3”) heavy mesh gold belt with a huge buckle, encrusted with diamonds and a 103 C emerald. It was completely garish.

Lastly he showed us a necklace which K has just redescribed to me which is just to outrageous for me to describe. Come to the Boston GTG to hear about it.

Then he said I have something else to show you. He took us outside into a huge car port to see his vintage cars: a 1956 white Cadillac Convertible, a 1937 Mercedes, a fabulous Studabaker/Packard touring car, a large 194 something green Packard, a rare 1960’s English Rover, and a couple more. He maintains a mechanic and a pit on site. WOW!! What fun.

We left after what had to be a unique experience---right up there with Boston Hrb’s invite by the Maharaja to a polo match.

I think my sequences are off but it does not matter to the story. Finally we visited a local village just short of the Fort. We saw a woman pumping water in her sari—she covered her face. We walked further into the village and an old man welcomed us after Dev told him we were tourists. We saw quite a few kids and more gathered. We saw a man milking a buffalo and he told dev we should enter from the next gate. Another elder (early 70’s) welcomed us. He was wearing a turban and after I took his picture he went and changed his shirt and asked me to retake it. I took pics of the milking and some of the other animals. The turban man offered us a seat, and offered me his water pipe. We sat for a few minutes and then departed.

We encountered the growing kids group. I did not have any candy for them. We did hi and low fives and the older ones used some English. I gave the eldest boy 100 Rs and told him to buy candy for the others.

We headed to the hotel.

Krishna will come back for us at 7 to take us to dinner at Niros.. This is a very nice small restaurant with a good menu, including Indian, Chinese and western dishes. We will go back again.

Can't wait to hear about the necklace at GTG! There are quite the exodic contraptions in India.

Monday Nov 14


Standby for a day of shopping…

After breakfast, Krishna picked us up at 10:30. We headed to Anokhi, a charming shop which caters to the western style. Primarily the shop stocks clothing made of cotton. It was K’s favorite India shop last trip. BTW, it is no longer housed in the charming one story building of year’s past, but moved 4 years ago to the 2nd floor of a modern commercial building, which has ample parking.

K was not disappointed and we spent over an hour there. From there we headed to FabIndia, which is not far away. This is a similar shop, but also sells a fair amount of home decorating goods and furnishings. Both A and FI have shops in major Indian cities. We had been disappointed with the Fab shop we had visited in Delhi 6 years ago, but this shop kept K busy for another hour or so… Her purchases were all cotton wearables, mostly for herself, but they also have men’s and silk items.

Next on the list was Hot Pink. This is a designer shop representing a number of young designers. HP is located on the grounds of a lovely old hotel. We did not hold out much hope for K here---and we were right. The designs were quite youthful and wildly expensive---like the cotton coat dress she tried on for $500 which made her look like a bag woman. Next door is a bright home/fashion shop called Aashka which we spent a few minutes in---quite lovely.

From there we headed back to Niros, where we had had dinner last night. K had a rice and kabob plate and I had a grilled chicken sandwich. Fabulous. Right across the street is the famous Lassi Walla, the best in town.

And lastly we headed to Cottons, another cotton shop, which is located next door to the Spice Court Restaurant. We spent at least an hour there too.

With no credit left, we headed back to our hotel. All day traffic had been heavy. In Indian style we had one fender bender with a small red car which raced off, and a man rushing for a bus in the middle traffic lane banged into our hood with his body and motorbike helmet… C’est India… We did not count any near nisses.

Dinner tonight will be at Indiana, a restaurant which we missed on our last trip…

Tomorrow we continue our road trip heading SW to Udaipur, the lake city.

BTW, in discussion today we decided that we do not know how anyone can travel India without a car and driver…. Either you don’t do and see anything, are on a bus tour (ugh!!!), or stay in your hotel all the time. Things are so spread out and traffic is so heavy, that attempts at good organization are difficult at best.

Sounds like Karen got a good shopping workout!

Wow...what a shopping frenzy!

You get the Traveler Husband of the Year award. I cannot imagine Mr. Crosscheck even entering one shop with me while on a trip, let alone spending a whole day. I always have to leave him in a food market where he can look at spices and intestines, while I have fifteen minutes to pick something up in the vicinity. And I can never tell him what I really paid.

Bob- I'm loving your report. Now let me get this straight. You guys paid good money to ride rather uncomfortably an elephant during which you got peeded on and pooped on?
Only in India!

I'm thinking the jeep ride we took was a wonderful idea.

Loving your report style....totally agree that you must travel with car and driver in India. Wouldn't do it any other way....besides it's very reasonable. Why bother driving yourself.

Marge just loves riding aroung central Delhi in a tuk tuk. Not a car taxi, but here's the rest of the story. Last year, during construction to put in the metro in central Delhi, we were stuck in a traffic jam at rush hour around Connaught Circus....just trying to go for "chat" to a certain restaurant. However, we had this fabulous driver who weaved in and out of this stopped traffic jam. Tuk tuk ride is like you are on a roller coaster, plus Mr.Sharma (tuk tuk driver)crazy as he was, but safe since traffic was essentially stopped, worked his skill at manuevering in/out of traffic and gave Marge & I a thrilling ride for about 30 minutes going a distance of about 1 mile. We tried to hire him for the rest of the day, but he did not want to go outside the Connaught Circle....he said that's the area he specialises and is not interested in going outside. Oh well!!!

How can one enjoy a tuk tuk ride in heavy stopped traffic? Well, you have to ride with Mr.Sharma. That's all I have to say. I know...we are easy to please. Riding an elephant...now that's another thing.

Glad you are letting K do her version of "shop till u drop". And India is THE best place to do that.

Elephant Riding - Rule #1 - always get on the lead elephant, otherwise walk away!

The shopping sounds fabulous. Can't wait to see the bracelet!

Sounds like Karen is having a great time, and with such wonderful support. "He with the credit cards can't help but be wonderful!"

Love the vicarious living.

Sandra

Regarding the Car and driver we didn't book anyone before our arrival and on our 1st morning in Delhi told the concierge we wanted a taxi for the day to explore the city, he haggled for us with a driver outside the entrance and we got a taxi for 700 rupees for the day but we found that we were mainly stuck in traffic and although we did see most of what we had planned we didn't repeat the experience the following day and instead used a tuk tuk for 500 rupees for the day, what a difference; we whizzed past all the taxi's in queues and managed to visit also half of the places planned for our next days visit and realised that this is the way to go in Delhi, some might argue about the smog but we never noticed it in our tuk tuk and our driver doubled up as a guide whereas the taxi driver only drove us to the places so that would be our transport if we ever return to Delhi.

Getting back to Bob and Karen, keep the reports coming, I so look forward to them.

Try planning to be in Delhi over a weekend. The traffic is much lighter and it is easy to get around in a car. We also love using tuk tuks.

Bob - you are a gem doing all that shopping. Wish I could get my husband to cooperate more. My pictures are my souveneers and a few small trinkets for the family.

Tuesday Nov 15


We had a decent dinner last night at Indiana. Krushna told us that they had closed recently and 5 guys have just reopened it. We had a wonderful sweetish potato dish, a chicken tikka, a dal dish, white rice, Kingfisher, water, and kulfi for dessert. There is a lame dance show as well, some involving fire. The food was tasty, but not inspired. We sat outside.


Krishna picked us up about 8:30 AM for our long drive to Udaipur, about 6+ hours.
As we left Jaipur the scenery slowly changed to a much more rural setting. Huge factories were along side farms, open space, cotton fields, and lots of green crops which were just beginning to grow. Rolling hills surrounded the flat ground which we drove through.

Lest you think that the traffic patterns are any different outside the city, I can assure you that they are not. Cows everywhere (on the streets/highways, on median strips, sauntering across the highway with no notice or blinker…. Cars coming towards you on the wrong side of the road, even a school bus. Motorbikes racing everywhere. Tuk tuks with as many as 10 people in them cruising along in the passing lane, slowly. Huge and huger trucks in all lanes. I will say, however, that the road service was 98% excellent, some of it brand new.

We made one pit stop and drank water and soda in the car and had fresh oreo’s and some other cookies, but no lunch.

I slept quite a bit and K listened to some music, plus we chatted constantly with Lord Krishna.

When we arrived to Udaipur, it was quite obvious that we were in a very different city. It has a totally different feel. For one thing there are a number of lakes, the city seems very clean and organized.

We arrived at our hotel, the Udiapur Sheraton Palace, a little after 3. It is perched on a knoll looking down onto the Fateh Sagar Lake. The building is about 4 years old and is on the exterior a Mughal Palace with turrets, pointed windows, and designed to look all white marble. The grounds are lush green and there are a variety of different garden areas including a decent swimming pool.

The interior strikes me as a bit odd. I am now thinking that the interior may resemble the interior of an ocean liner. The main chandelier is a Chuohli (sp) look alike (hand blown glass) in pink, hanging in an atrium. The marble floors are a gleaming marble and the seating areas are comfortable. The rooms are located down long corridors, some with an atrium in the middle. They are oddly lit. Next comes the club rooms where we were, a continuation of the earlier corridor. They are carpeted, have very dark wooden walls, and even less lighting, except that the room numbers are back-lit on huge glass panels. Our room is the next to the last room.

The room is large, except that the bathroom takes up 1/3 of the room and has two floor to ceiling picture windows in it. It is long and narrow, with tub, hand held shower next to and outside of the tub (totally odd) and a huge rain shower head in a square room at the end where the picture windows are. There are electrically controlled curtains in the shower area. The room has a lovely view out onto the lake and Nehru Park/Island. The closet is two sided with doors opening both into the bathroom and into the entrance hall.

Thus far we are quite pleased. We are staying on Starwood points and cash—2800 pts and $45 per night. Amazing value. We receive breakfast as well.

We strolled around a bit, sat by the pool, checked out the rooftop area where a wedding will be held tonight, checked the limited restaurants (2) and made ourselves at home.
We will eat tonight in the hotel’s Indian veggie restaurant. There will be fireworks later celebrating a celeb’s birthday and attended by people like Victoria Beckham.

We missed whatever fireworks there might have been, but we did see the search lights in the sky.

We stayed in the hotel for dinner, eating in their north Indian veggie restaurant. We were one of two tables. There was no white wine, which disappointed K, so we had Tuborg which was the coldest available.

K ordered: samosa’s, which were a free form salad and very delicious, followed by roasted corn, spinach and tomatoes in yogurt, and dal, plus a birayani (sp). All was delicious. We split a fancy kulfi for dessert.



Wednesday Nov 16

A great night’s sleep in our Sheraton bed. Breakfast is included with our room. It is an ok buffet, but nothing special.

The guide and driver were coming for us at 10. We first visited the Crystal Gallery and the Durbar Hall (former throne room) in the City Palace. I was a bit under whelmed with the crystal in all honesty, and I love glass. The Durbar Hall was very nice, with huge chandeliers.

We had a drink in a new enclosed porch area overlooking the lake and the Lake Palace. Within the city palace today is a huge museum, two major hotels and the residence of the current Maharana (67 yo). He has turned his interests and his fortune into the tourism business and his empire runs many hotels, etc. You know he is in residence if the fountain in his courtyard is running or at night a red light is illuminated at the top of a turret, which it was.

From there we entered the area of the museum, where K and the guide spent 1.5 hours. I was very comfortable in the shade in the courtyard. K said it was a bit of a climb, up and down, in and out, but overall was interesting.

From the palace we drove across town to visit the Queen’s Garden, an area the women of the court would come to during the afternoon to relax. It is very green with many small areas to sit and several hundred water streams shoot 11 feet in the air. The water was propelled by gravity until 5 years ago when pumps were installed. There is also a large enclosed square swimming pool. The plantings and flowering vines were really nice and the noise of the water drowned out any street noise.

From there we headed back once again into the old city. K and the guide would visit the Jagdish Temple, with its wonderful carvings and black Vishnu image. In this same area our guide, Virendra Singh ([email protected] www.udaihaveliguesthouse.com) runs a guesthouse, and his wife who has a small sari shop. We were very pleased with him and would highly encourage you to use his guide services. The guest house which we visited makes a wonderful backpacker place—private shower and bath… 200-250 Rs.


We bought a very nice sari to give to Krishna for his wife. 1200 Rs. From there we drove around the lake a bit and returned to our hotel.

On Craig’s and other’s suggestions, we are going at 7:30 to Ambrai, located on the edge of Lake Picchola for dinner.

OMG, what a fabulous place. Getting there can be a bit of a challenge in an SUV, because it is located on the lake and you have to pass thru very narrow and busy streets/lanes. We ordered Kingfisher beer and then K ordered the following: a stuffed potato dish (cashews, cheese and yogurt) cooked in the tandori oven; house special chicken (boneless chicken pieces in a tomato sauce, yogurt, nuts and fruit and decorated with hard boiled eggs), served in a brass charcoal warming dish; and finally whole baby eggplant with herbs cooked until tender. We split a pancake (crepe) filled with fresh banana and pineapple, sugar and chocolate sauce. The best part was the price 1600+ Rs.
Our lakeside table looked directly across at the Lake Palace and the City Palace, both of which glimmered from the lights, fire torches and water. The haveli looks fantastic too---Amet Haveli. I would investigate staying there another time.


This is a lovely city and near the top of our list of places to visit. We are undoubtedly missing a great deal, as we are not strolling the lanes and back roads. For us, there is a limit to what you can do.


BTW, we do not have free internet that is why the reports are sporadic.

So glad you and Karen are enjoying your trip. Udaipur was like a different world to me from the other parts of India we visited. More organized, more space and more relaxed. We loved it. Enjoy!
We leave tomorrow for revised route to Seoul and Hong Kong instead of BK.

Can't believe that the Indiana restaurant was taken over by new people. We spent a memorable evening only a month ago with the original owner, an elderly gentlemen in his 80's. Food was wonderful, but show tacky as you said.

june, maybe we were given bum info.

Thurs Nov 17


The car came for us at 10 again today. We headed out of town and up in to the hills a bit to visit an area that many very old temples are located in. This is the area of the original Mewar capital. The main focus was on the Nagda Temple (mother-in-law and daughter temple). Dating from 626 AD, the carving is very ornate and very detailed. Bordering a small lake, formerly a river, the area is very peaceful. After our visit there we went to the nearby Ekling Temple, which is located on a busy road in a small village. The silver decoration is interesting. The royal family comes to this temple every Monday.

We headed back to Udaipur thru the Aravalli Hills, passing many marble companies. We ended up at the dock for the City Palace where we embarked on a small boat for a trip around the lake and a stop at Jagmandir Island for a lunch break.

We returned to the hotel and said our goodbyes to Singh and thanked him for his guiding. Please use him when visiting Udaipur.

Dinner tonight is still up in the air. K has just returned with res for dinner the next 2 nights.

Have I mentioned the Indian wedding season? Well, we are in the midst of it. No holes are bared… lighting, fireworks, dinners for 2500, bright elaborate cloth décor, flowers, flowers and more flowers. Every night the Sheraton hosts at least one wedding and sometimes more. There was brunch at 11 today for 2500. The staging for tonight’s wedding is unreal. They have built a 3-4 story white fabric tent out front. Two flower clad archways with crystal chandeliers welcome guests---and it goes on and on. Glad our room is on the other side of the hotel as many people are complaining about the noise from last night’s wedding.

Looking at a quiet day tomorrow.