After two and a half weeks of high tech business networking in Bangalore, we left on a 44 hour train ride for Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, where we spent a week visiting textile stores, clothes shops and historical sites.
We made some block print cloth purchases and added a new facet to our trip: sourcing, negotiating, making and shipping wholesale clothes to my son Kevin, who started selling Indian objects on the markets in the South of France.
We visited the timeless monuments of the Mughal era. In Jaipur, the Maharajah’s City Palace; Hawa Mahal, the Palace of the Winds built for the Maharajah’s wives; Jantar Mantar, the Royal observatory that has told time for over 200 years with a precision of two seconds. A few miles away we extensively explored Amber Palace, where the Maharajah was established before moving the capital to Jaipur.
Jaipur City Palace
Jantar Mantar, the 18th century royal observatory
http://picasaweb.google.com/Frenchyrjm/RajasthanJaipurAmber#
Jaipur, Hawa Mahal, the Palace of Winds
Amber Fort and Palace
The following week we spent moving from place to place, experiencing shifting realities while discovering some of India‘s most beautiful sights. From Pushkar, a small holy town on the edge of the Rajasthan desert, we headed by early morning bus back to Jaipur, bustling, noisy, hot, dry and dusty; a day later another bus took us to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, the next day a train brought us to hectic Chowk Bowli, the main bazaar in New Delhi, for our last night in India. Finally, a plane flew us to Kathmandu in Nepal.
Sunset in Pushkar
Taj Mahal
In Agra, the all white marble Taj Mahal reflecting the early morning sun, shifting from pink to orange to yellow, awakened our hearts by its perfect proportions and the finesse of its semi precious stone inlays, expressing ultimate beauty, permanence and eternity. The Agra fort and Palace revealed to us how the Mughal emperors brought refinement to its culmination, before their decline.
Agra fort - Haziz, our vivacious 70 year old guide
http://picasaweb.google.com/Frenchyrjm/TajMahalAndAgraFort#
Thirteen months after debarking in Calcutta we landed in Nepal, leaving India and its overwhelming turbulence behind us. We gave up the restless masses of people in every town or city, the chaotic traffic where crossing any street spurs a heightened sense of danger and self preservation and where any open road space around you is immediately filled with a vehicle, most often blowing its horn.
We turned away from the staring looks, from the haggling rickshaw drivers and the “everyone pushes to cut in front of everyone” approach, encountered on the road and every time we had to wait at a restaurant, post office, shop or ticket counter, or enter or exit a bus.
Jaipur traffic - Agra: 3 tourist vendors to each tourist
We abandoned the trash, strewn in the streets and the sidewalks, heaped in the ditches and vacant lots and its indescribable odors. We walked out on the broken plumbing, flawed electric outlets, the short circuits and power surges that burnt-out three of my power supplies and melted four of my power cables.
We also left temperatures well into the 100’s that combined perfectly with the Rajasthan desert dust to completely dry us out. This year in India has been a challenge to our sensory tolerance level, to our mental adaptability, a strain on our physical health and hygiene standards, and has shaped our resilience day, after day, after day.
We have come closer to accepting what is and letting go of our expectations of what things could or should be. We’ve learned about ourselves as much as about the world around us; we’ve focused on cultivating patience, “radical acceptance” and open-mindedness, while dropping our wish lists and secondary needs.
Sweet family rickshaw greeting – Women in beautiful saris recycling cow dung
Last morning in India: School rickshaw ride – Comic and efficient Indian freight…
Thirteen months have for ever bound us emotionally and in spirit to Mother India with her infinite diversity of colors, prints, shapes, tastes and faces; her lively, colorful, welcoming and engaging people, her timeless wisdom, her heart beating with devotion at every street corner, her enchanting music and rhythms, temples and rituals...
Evening sari shopping in Jaipur – Rajasthani bangles shop
We now have a third mother-land in our lives to which we will return and who will continue to nourish our minds, inspire our dreams and challenge our assumptions.
After a seamless check-in at Indira Gandhi International airport, a quick flight and a swift Nepalese immigration process, we took an epic “taxi” ride to the neighborhood of our guest house, finally parking alongside a torn down main road that covered it with dust in a matter of minutes. Just off of the dirt street stood a gate and an alley, leading to Kathmandu’s “Boudha” neighborhood.
The ripped up dirt road and the gate to the Boudha area, barely noticeable
The shift of realities we had been experiencing during our week of moving from one place to another culminated when we hauled our luggage across the 4 lane dirt road and entered the Buddhist area of the stupa, through the decorated white gate.
All noise ceased; the air felt clean. Tibetan music was playing from the shops around, bells were ringing in temples, and the biggest stupa in the world revealed itself to our eyes with its procession of monks clad in red or orange, traditionally dressed Tibetan refugees and young people wearing jeans.
Passing the gateway to Boudha – The 1500 year old stupa, biggest in the world
Hundreds of people were circumambulating, reciting mantras, counting beads on their mala rosaries, turning the multitude of prayer wheels in the walls as they paced around the immense shrine, earning merit on the Buddhist way to wisdom and realization.
Just like the millions of others before them, right here, every day, for the past 1500 years…
Circumambulation around the stupa – Setting sun behind the thousands of prayer flags
We made some block print cloth purchases and added a new facet to our trip: sourcing, negotiating, making and shipping wholesale clothes to my son Kevin, who started selling Indian objects on the markets in the South of France.
We visited the timeless monuments of the Mughal era. In Jaipur, the Maharajah’s City Palace; Hawa Mahal, the Palace of the Winds built for the Maharajah’s wives; Jantar Mantar, the Royal observatory that has told time for over 200 years with a precision of two seconds. A few miles away we extensively explored Amber Palace, where the Maharajah was established before moving the capital to Jaipur.
Jaipur City Palace
Jantar Mantar, the 18th century royal observatory
http://picasaweb.google.com/Frenchyrjm/RajasthanJaipurAmber#
We were in awe at the beauty of the Mughal architecture of turrets and ramparts, archways and galleries, terraces and interior gardens, waterways and fountains, geometrical vaults and inlay marble work, built-in cooling systems, and ceilings of convex mirror mosaics reflecting evening candle light like stars in the sky.
Jaipur, Hawa Mahal, the Palace of Winds
Amber Fort and Palace
The following week we spent moving from place to place, experiencing shifting realities while discovering some of India‘s most beautiful sights. From Pushkar, a small holy town on the edge of the Rajasthan desert, we headed by early morning bus back to Jaipur, bustling, noisy, hot, dry and dusty; a day later another bus took us to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, the next day a train brought us to hectic Chowk Bowli, the main bazaar in New Delhi, for our last night in India. Finally, a plane flew us to Kathmandu in Nepal.
Sunset in Pushkar
Taj Mahal
In Agra, the all white marble Taj Mahal reflecting the early morning sun, shifting from pink to orange to yellow, awakened our hearts by its perfect proportions and the finesse of its semi precious stone inlays, expressing ultimate beauty, permanence and eternity. The Agra fort and Palace revealed to us how the Mughal emperors brought refinement to its culmination, before their decline.
Agra fort - Haziz, our vivacious 70 year old guide
http://picasaweb.google.com/Frenchyrjm/TajMahalAndAgraFort#
We could appreciate a taste of the palace lifestyle they created, cultivating and integrating arts in every form into their daily life. We felt its inspiration, traveling across centuries, and calling us to bring some of this intentional creation, this quest of refinement and beauty into our own lives.
Agra fort, details of semi precious stone inlay in white marble
Agra fort, details of semi precious stone inlay in white marble
Thirteen months after debarking in Calcutta we landed in Nepal, leaving India and its overwhelming turbulence behind us. We gave up the restless masses of people in every town or city, the chaotic traffic where crossing any street spurs a heightened sense of danger and self preservation and where any open road space around you is immediately filled with a vehicle, most often blowing its horn.
We turned away from the staring looks, from the haggling rickshaw drivers and the “everyone pushes to cut in front of everyone” approach, encountered on the road and every time we had to wait at a restaurant, post office, shop or ticket counter, or enter or exit a bus.
Jaipur traffic - Agra: 3 tourist vendors to each tourist
We abandoned the trash, strewn in the streets and the sidewalks, heaped in the ditches and vacant lots and its indescribable odors. We walked out on the broken plumbing, flawed electric outlets, the short circuits and power surges that burnt-out three of my power supplies and melted four of my power cables.
We also left temperatures well into the 100’s that combined perfectly with the Rajasthan desert dust to completely dry us out. This year in India has been a challenge to our sensory tolerance level, to our mental adaptability, a strain on our physical health and hygiene standards, and has shaped our resilience day, after day, after day.
We have come closer to accepting what is and letting go of our expectations of what things could or should be. We’ve learned about ourselves as much as about the world around us; we’ve focused on cultivating patience, “radical acceptance” and open-mindedness, while dropping our wish lists and secondary needs.
Sweet family rickshaw greeting – Women in beautiful saris recycling cow dung
Departing from India we’re also renouncing the beautiful smiles and the laughter, the “Hello, what’s your good name?” or the post office manager who stops his work to take me on his scooter to an ATM, the elegance of Indian women -even when hauling cow dung -, the impeccable uniforms of school children and the courage and relentless, selfless labor of the lower social groups.
Last morning in India: School rickshaw ride – Comic and efficient Indian freight…
Thirteen months have for ever bound us emotionally and in spirit to Mother India with her infinite diversity of colors, prints, shapes, tastes and faces; her lively, colorful, welcoming and engaging people, her timeless wisdom, her heart beating with devotion at every street corner, her enchanting music and rhythms, temples and rituals...
Evening sari shopping in Jaipur – Rajasthani bangles shop
We now have a third mother-land in our lives to which we will return and who will continue to nourish our minds, inspire our dreams and challenge our assumptions.
After a seamless check-in at Indira Gandhi International airport, a quick flight and a swift Nepalese immigration process, we took an epic “taxi” ride to the neighborhood of our guest house, finally parking alongside a torn down main road that covered it with dust in a matter of minutes. Just off of the dirt street stood a gate and an alley, leading to Kathmandu’s “Boudha” neighborhood.
The ripped up dirt road and the gate to the Boudha area, barely noticeable
The shift of realities we had been experiencing during our week of moving from one place to another culminated when we hauled our luggage across the 4 lane dirt road and entered the Buddhist area of the stupa, through the decorated white gate.
All noise ceased; the air felt clean. Tibetan music was playing from the shops around, bells were ringing in temples, and the biggest stupa in the world revealed itself to our eyes with its procession of monks clad in red or orange, traditionally dressed Tibetan refugees and young people wearing jeans.
Passing the gateway to Boudha – The 1500 year old stupa, biggest in the world
Hundreds of people were circumambulating, reciting mantras, counting beads on their mala rosaries, turning the multitude of prayer wheels in the walls as they paced around the immense shrine, earning merit on the Buddhist way to wisdom and realization.
Just like the millions of others before them, right here, every day, for the past 1500 years…
Circumambulation around the stupa – Setting sun behind the thousands of prayer flags
We felt like we were passing through a portal of parallel realities that instantly affected our senses, emotions and state of mind. The air had become soft and protective; everything our eyes met inspired inner contemplation, quest of harmony, divinity and peacefulness. We had arrived at a very special place on our journey, where time was at a standstill.
Our intense weeks’ travel, lugging baggage on and off the bumpy rickshaws, bustling taxis, buses taking dirt trail detours, hectic train stations, narrow trains, up and down the stairs of one-night guesthouses, in one instant, was all behind us.
Arriving at Boudha, we at once felt at home in this yet unknown place. We were secure, relating to and uniting with the world around us at a subtle, compelling level. We circumambulated the stupa, turning each of the hundreds of prayer wheels; the first drops of rain we had felt in more than six months started to fall.
This was an auspicious welcoming to Nepal, where our Asia journey is coming to an end… for now.
Our intense weeks’ travel, lugging baggage on and off the bumpy rickshaws, bustling taxis, buses taking dirt trail detours, hectic train stations, narrow trains, up and down the stairs of one-night guesthouses, in one instant, was all behind us.
Arriving at Boudha, we at once felt at home in this yet unknown place. We were secure, relating to and uniting with the world around us at a subtle, compelling level. We circumambulated the stupa, turning each of the hundreds of prayer wheels; the first drops of rain we had felt in more than six months started to fall.
This was an auspicious welcoming to Nepal, where our Asia journey is coming to an end… for now.
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