Amber Fort part one...elephants !

our second stop yesterday was at the Amber Fort...Amber, Amer was the capital of Rajasthan up until 1727 when it was moved to Jaipur....Amber is about 13 km north of Jaipur...

I think this is the tourist attraction number one if visiting Jaipur...so if you visit get here early in the morning..like we did !.. I have so many pictures I want to show you so I decided to make it into at least two parts...and since the connection is REALLY SLOW I have to do it..otherwise I'll be sitting in front of the computer the whole day and I don't want to do that...

early morning haze surrounding the fort...

elephants waiting to take the tourists to up to the fort along the cobbled pathway...they only work in the morning because later on it gets to hot...so between 9 and 12 something( this is still India) you need to be here if you want to have a ride...we where there around 8 and they where already at it so....

look at that beauty and what she has done to here trunk...

while we where waiting I looked up and saw this caravan of elephants and it was  just so cool...

proud mahouts...what I didn't know was that second elephant from the left got to be ours...

she greeted us....what a cutie....and our mahout wasn't bad looking either...

up up we rode....from side to side...kind of difficult o take any pictures....the view was just so beautiful..

how do you get off an elephant....of course they have built a wall.....but it would be cool to get off using the trunk....oh well....I have got to try that also....the list keeps getting longer an longer off things i want to do....

someone was looking at all the tourists...hmm...wonder if they have anything to eat ?

isn't she pretty ? her name was Sharik....by the way all the elephants working here are females of course...

they are such cool animals and to get to touch the trunk....all warm....it's just an amazing feeling...

this was one of the smaller ones and she was adorable with here ears flapping....

have a great day dear reader....I'm off to eat the breakfast buffé....best thing of the day when staying at a hotel..isn't it? and then we're off on new adventures...next post will be about the fort itself....not sure if I will post it today though....we'll see....

Jal Mahal, the water palace

it's getting late and my internet connection is not the best and I have many many pictures to go through after today.....amazing.....so tonight you will have to do with Jal Mahal, the water palace in Man Sagar Lake...

first we drove by it really early this morning...

it was magical....the sun and the haze...during the monsoon water fills the Man Sagar Lake and the Jal Mahal, the water palace seems to rise from it....built in the mid 18th century by Madho Singh....and inspired by the Lake Palace in Udaipur....guess we have to go and see that one also....

then we saw it going down from one of the forts....so beautiful...the view was amazing...

 this is about 4 hours after the first picture was taken....

not a bad view ha ?

hope I have inspired you to see lots more from Jaipur....tomorrow is new day and new sights to see and hopefully new pictures for you to see....

good night and once again

THANK YOU !

In a little village I found this temple

temples are found everywhere around here....some very plain and simple and some big and delicately ornated....some with almost no colour and some very colourful..... what I've learnt so far is that the temples are destined for different gods, different deities.....

I saw it from far away and it was the colours that made me want to look closer....

this was destined for the "peacock god"....at least that's what my driver told me....

think i need to find out more about this one....

funny thing is that someone was washing their car just in front of the entrance inside on the temple grounds therefore kind of difficult to take any pictures.....felt like I was on someones private grounds...maybe I was.....

I talked to some of the villagers and they where so curious about me and where I came from and most of all what I was doing out on the countryside in this temple...

a holiday is coming up ...on friday it's Maha Shivaratri...the night of the worship of Shiva  occurs on the 14th night of the new moon during the dark half of the month of "Phalguna" february-march.....well at last here in the state of Haryana...it differs from state to state which holidays are celebrated....
that means no school and no work so we're going on a little trip....and where we are going they don't celebrate this holiday apparently....
oh, you want to know where we're off to ?
be sure to look at my next post and you'll find out
(hopefully....meaning I never know what kind of internet connection I'll have or if I will have any !)

Shopping with the experts at Indian crafts in Okhla

the experts being my swedish friends....the house wifes of Delhi...why haven't they thought about making a TV serie about that....sounds quite intriguing, The Swedish house wifes of Delhi !

imagine what a good travel guide that would be...what to do,where to shop,what to eat,etc...ok back to reality...

todays shopping was all about Indian crafts...HUGE warehouse with tons of wooden furnitures,wall hangings,lamps,brassware,ironware,glassware,old colonial furniture and tons of other nice things....it was dirty and dusty  but it was so much fun.....

I love to look at all these wonderful furnitures...I just have to go back....

white, black, natural and painted....I could find it all...and if I couldn't find it...they will have it made...customized...

lots of colours and patterns

hard to choose.....

love these huge old doors...I wish I had space for these....

mirror mirror on the wall...

one of the experts...thank you so much Ann for showing me all this..

wouldn't mind one of these.... .black and white... intarsia ....beautiful

I can see these standing at an entrance to a house...with a tree and some plants in it....they where almost a tall as me.. I'm not that tall but, well you get it....

me in action....this was so much fun....and I did find some treasures...

some small gifts and ....guess I'll show you what in another post....

I'm off to bed so I bid you good night...see you tomorrow !

Found the most beautiful IKAT fabrics, pillows and lovely carpets

at Sarita Handa along Mehrauli Road , I wasn't aloud to take any pictures

inside though....

It was quite the showroom...so if you like me like to see really nice IKAT fabric you have got to visit this place....

I did sneak some pictures from their entrance....

Can't wait to see more prints and fabric when I visit Jaipur in Rajasthan

Now I'm off to look at vintage looking furniture....who knows, maybe I'll find some new treasures ?

This morning I had an unexpected visitor on my kitchen balcony

guess who ?

my maid came running saying " mam mam monkey on the balcony"...what....I must have heard wrong....but when she pulled away the curtain...there he was sitting on my gastank on the balcony...

I mean we live 20 floors up..about 60-70 meters in the air....I never ever in a million years thought that I'd have a monkey up here...

of course he got scared when we both started to laugh...so off he went and off I went to get my camera...

he started to climb down and I dared to stand there with an open door to see if I could get some pictures of my visitor...it was hard to keep track of him though because he can climb on all the sides...

I lost him and then found him a couple of floors down....

guess he found me also....then my maid Rajni and I locked all the windows and closed all the doors because you don't want a monkey coming into your apartment....some friends of ours have and they emptied their refrigerator !...I'm not sure if they lived on the 20th floor though...

then we started laughing because it was so surreal.....Rajni has worked here for three years now and she has never experienced this before......anyhow...she was then out to clean the balcony and I followed as her watchdog....you never know where those monkeys are !

but it sure was a memory for life

A pimped auto rickshaw

when I was on my way home along the Faridabad route I saw this auto rickshaw that really stood out...I guess this is what you call a pimped auto rickshaw....from behind I saw that it looked like a shrine...a little mobile temple....

I just had to get out and see if I could get a shot of the shrine....

but as soon as they saw me, a white woman, they started to scream about the amount of money they wanted for me taking pictures so...no pictures...it wasn't that interesting...

hope your sunday is treating you well so far....I hope it's stays that way since today is the olympic final in ice hockey....Sweden-Canada !...I'm trying to figure out if we can see it all....not that I'm a hockey fan but it is the olympics after all...

Go Sweden Go

I need your help to make it all the way in the blog awards

tomorrow the 23 february is the last day to vote....it's time to sprint to the finish line...so gear up...gather friends and family and lets get sweaty.....push those power buttons....
 and vote

1.click on the link below

2.click on the purple one/best photoblog/bästa fotoblogg

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5.you will get a mail that you need to confirm before I get my vote

thank's to all and everyone 

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