Anish and his family

When we moved into Eldeco Mansionz, among the first poeple we met were the Raman family. They had moved here from California (where both kids were born). Their son Anish was in Isaac's class at school, and was his buddy. Mom Suba was a big help to me, showing me where stuff was, explaining things, translating, and Diwaker helped us get our driver a place to live, and explained stuff to us. Their daughter Rhea was part of the little gang of girls that Miranda hung out with and went to dance class with. Unfortunately for us, after the school year was over they moved back to California.
Near the end of their time here, they took a trip to the southern part of India and Suba brought back a GIANT souvenir! These are brass lions, and yes they are VERY heavy!

She had only unwrapped the one , and left the other packed to ship to the US. I wanted her to stand beside it for scale but she wouldn't :) Trust me, they are huge. How cool is that!? I think the plan is to put them at the front door. An impressive entrance!

EASTER

We did all the traditional stuff for Easter - I had brought egg-dye kits so we were prepared! You can buy a flat of eggs (2.5 doz) for less than $1.50 (altho, you sometimes have to wash the feathers and mud off the shell!) so we had lots to decorate. The Easter Bunny came too - he hid the baskets but they were found pretty quickly - he must not have tried too hard!

Alex's basket was way up in the top of the stairwell by the maid's room. Miranda's was in the steel almirah (that means cabinet) with all my scrapbook stuff. Isaac's was under the chair and he went right to it like he had x-ray vision! Sam's was hidden in the desk with all the school books.

Everybody got swim goggles - now THIS is a good looking group!!
There was also books for everybody, and a bit of candy.

part XV is it over? can we get out of the car now?

On the drive home, we saw so many crazy things - weird vehicles, overloaded vehicles, people working in the fields. The working in the fields was bothering me, because it was hot out, it is all totally manual, and all done by WOMEN. And more than once we saw men laying around on beds in the shade drinking something while across the road women in sari harvested grain STALK BY STALK! I am not kidding - we saw areas where they had obviously cut the heads that were mature and left others still growing - it looked like thinning hair! I guess when you cut it by hand you can do that. They would make stooks (is that how you spell that??) and in other fields we would see crews (of women again) gathering the stooks and once in a great while we saw a tractor. But never with equipment, only to haul a load.


Look! Palm trees!

I think seeing the guys that ride on top of the buses is one of my favorite things. So safe, eh?

This photo answers the question of what is in those puffy loads, and we are surprised the bursting at the seams thing doesn't happen more often. I don't think it is grain, tho, it must be chaff or it would be way too heavy.
Randy and I kind of like a road trip, because there is just so much wacky stuff to see out the windows! However, the roads are so narrow and windy, and are so full of bumps and potholes, and the driving is so bad (speed up, slam on the brakes to go over a sppedbump in the middle of nowhere, floor it, come up behind a tractor and slam on the brakes again, swerve around some rocks, honk the whole time, speed up again, drive fast thru a little village where small children walk in the road, swerve around a cow or a camel, repeat 35 times each hour) that being in the car is not that fun. And Isaac seems to have some motion sickness issues. So he barfed the whole drive home. Lots of fun for everyone! Luckily, not our car :)

Apparently this method of travel is very common in Rajasthan (the state we were in) and you hear often of accidents where a jeep-thing goes over a cliff with 25 people killed. The roads are narrow, there are many hilly areas, and it is a recipe for disaster.

More massive flocks of sheep and goats.

What kind of crazy vehicle is THIS?


This guy is going to a wedding - probably not his own, since he is not all decked out. But someone has to deliver the horse! It is traditional for the groom to arrive on a white horse.

The auto rickshaws we saw in Rajasthan were way more fancy than what we see in Delhi - all chromed out, with fancy colours and designs.

We were very happy to arrive at our little oasis of normal, Eldeco Mansionz, and just go to bed. And thus ends tha saga of our first (disastrous) vacation in India. whew. Glad that's over!

part XIV the private bath on the side of the road

OK so here is something we saw SO much during the drive - people washing at the village pumps. All the pumps looked the same, and each village seemed to have 2 or 3, right along the road. Now in Gurgaon and Delhi, you see men washing behind water trucks, and in streams, but I had not seen women or children, and I had never gotten a decent photo. And this is not to be a voyeur, I just find it so amazing that this is how it is done. And in all these villages we drove through, it was going on constantly. I guess when 300 people have one pump...

The men strip down to their underwear and get right to it - lathering up and rinsing. They just get dressed again wet. The women have a more difficult time (typical. This is NOT an easy place to be a woman.) They use their sari to cover up while they wash one side then move the sari and wash the other. There really is no privacy - we saw it several times as we drove by - and the sari is not a very efficient cover.

This was the first time I had seen these water pots made of metal. I wonder how far these girls haul water every day and how many trips thay have to make.

We saw these elevated beds in the shade all the time. I do not know what the deal is, I don't think it is a residence, but there was usually someone having siesta.

part XIII Ranthambore Fort

Inside the National Park is Ranthambore Fort - a VERY old, VERY large, VERY well fortified structure. It was built in about 944 AD and has a 7 km circumference. You can see in the photos haw high on the edge of the rock it is built. The climb to the top is a pretty good hike - it is 700 feet up.

This fort was fought over many times, but it is very difficult to conquer (even in a seige, it is a great location - there is a stream running right into the complex). The story goes, tho, that in about 1380 the Fort did fall, and 10,000 women committed mass suicide rather than be taken by the enemy!

The view from the top was great - you can see forever. It is pretty popular - there were lots of people there. We got talking to some older people, since the man was wearing a Seattle Mariners hat! Isaac told him he doesn;t like cricket and misses baseball, and they were sypathetic. One thing about being so far from home, you are not afraid to strike up conversation with strangers that look or sound like they might be American.

There were lots of monkeys here. And they didn't move out of the way!

Stairs, stairs and more stairs. And this is just the main biulding. There were structures all over the place - temples, living areas, etc.

One area was nicely grassed, and there were quite a few peacocks strutting around. Cool!

The area that is now the National Park was once the Royal Hunting ground.

This is in amazing shape for its age. Too bad about the graffiti.