The Anokhi Museum is not one of the main tourist attractions of Jaipur. But we decided we’d had enough visiting historical sites, and it was time for some culture. Jaipur is recognized as a hotbed of hand printing in India. Hand printing, or block printing, is a textile craft where people take large pieces of fabric… Continue reading Jaipur, Part 4: The Anokhi Museum

Since he gave us the creeps, we decided to decline Sameer’s offer to drive us around sightseeing. Instead, we found a TripAdvisor listing for a guy named Moin who sounded like the exact opposite – mellow, older, and never pushing tourists to go see things they aren’t interested in. So we hired him for the day… Continue reading Jaipur, Part 3: Amber Fort

On December 14, Beth and I visited what’s called the City Palace in Jaipur. She had already walked by there earlier, on her way to find a place to watch birds. City Palace is one of the top three tourist spots in Jaipur, so we figured we should go. This one was within walking distance… Continue reading Jaipur, Part 2: City Palace

Here’s a funny little story. One of the things on our “things to do in Asia” wishlist that we accumulated over the course of a couple years was to visit a place called Barefoot College. This is a school somewhere in the middle of nowhere in India where women from all over the world come… Continue reading Tilonia and the Barefoot College

I have so many things to say about Jaipur. Where do I begin? We arrived by car from Bharatpuhr, where we’d spent the night after an afternoon of bird watching. I had made the hotel arrangements in Jaipur online, as we’ve done in every city we’ve visited so far. Although I like to leave flexibility… Continue reading Jaipur, Part 1: the first half

You can’t turn around in India without running into some historical site or ancient temple or something. Early in our month in India we had to come to grips with the idea that there’s just no way we could see all the things on our wishlist in 30 days. We couldn’t even see half of… Continue reading wild birds of Bharatpuhr

I already wrote about getting to Agra, and the main reason for visiting Agra. But let me mention a few other small things about our trip. Our lodging in Agra was our first Indian homestay. We stayed with a middle-aged couple named Anil and Sandhya. They have a daughter who is in college. When she… Continue reading Agra, Part 3: Other Experiences in the City

This post is about a long day of sightseeing we did on December 5, 2015, where we took in all the major sights in Agra, with the aid of a very good guide named Sudhir, and a driver who did not run into anything I noticed. The Taj Mahal The main reason for going to… Continue reading Agra, Part 2: The Great Sights (or Sites)

I know most of you just want to skip forward and see my photos of the Taj Mahal. Don’t worry, they’ll come in due time. But first, I’m gonna tell the story of how we got to Agra, the city of The Taj. My last post was about our foodie tour of Old Delhi, called… Continue reading Agra, Part 1: Getting There Was Half the Battle

They say there have been seven cities of Delhi. The first five I know nothing about. But the sixth one is what we call the “Old City” nowadays. It was designed and built in the 1640s by Shah Jahan (the king), who wanted a new modern planned city for his capital. The “New City” is the one designed… Continue reading our foodie tour of Old Delhi