Urban poetry

I'm not sure what this is -- an elaborate gate acting as the entrance to a park?

In Jaipur, coming to end of the India pictures.

Backyard, Jaipur style

Two pictures of the same backyard, because I liked both of them, and the idea of having a backyard is more attractive than ever these days.

Okay, it probably has snakes. I'd still take it.

Color or black and white?

¿Por qué no los dos?

Some pictures just work better in black and white, even in India, like the roadside stand in Jaipur on the right. Black and white makes the detail pop in a way it didn't in the color version.

But most of India can only be captured in color, like the picture on the left, which I took from the car on the way back from Keoladeo National Park. I love those lavender and turquoise bricks.

Monday elephant blogging

And here is Sampa, the beautiful rescue elephant I got to spend an afternoon with in Jaipur.

She looks a lot smaller when she's in a picture by herself, but standing next to her, I only came up to the top of her trunk. I hope she's still enjoying her retirement, and grabbing all the extra alfalfa she can get.

Random Amber Fort

Two last pictures from the Amber Fort -- I like the symmetry of the stairs and the domes in the picture on the left, and I am always a sucker for scaffolding.

You see bamboo scaffolding all over Asia, and though it looks dangerously flimsy, it's apparently quite strong -- I was once startled by window washers taking a cigarette break outside my 13th floor office window in Hong Kong, completely oblivious to the fact that only a few spindly stalks of bamboo lay between them and a grisly death on the sidewalk far below.

I couldn't do it, but then I can't think of any scaffolding I'd be willing to climb, no matter how strong it looked.

Urban poetry

The temple in the corner is a clue that we're still in Jaipur.

The detail that I love in this view from the Amber Fort is that clothesline towards the center of the picture, and the brightly colored laundry in green, red, and white.

Flashback: the Amber Fort

The picture on the right is cropped from a larger panorama -- I just love the detail of those walls and towers snaking over the mountains.

I don't think I ever actually walked through that garden; there was too much to see in the few hours that I had there. At least I have pictures.

Monday flashback

These arches at the Amber Fort in Jaipur were marble, so there was none of the typical Indian bright color to distract from the design, but the image still works so much better in black and white. 

Saturday reflections

This puddle in Jaipur created the only reflection I've found in the India pictures.

At least it does have that beautiful Indian house crow in the vicinity. It's gorgeous and a little gaudy, like so much of what I saw in India.

Urban poetry

If you're going to have “urban” and “cow” in the same post, we must be in India.

This particular cow was hanging out near the City Palace in Jaipur.

Flashback: Jaipur

I have not gone through many of my remaining India pictures yet, though I couldn't tell you exactly what I've been doing instead. Like most of us, I'm completely losing my sense of time, feeling as though I deserve a medal for remembering what day it is. (When Thursday is exactly like Wednesday, which was exactly like Tuesday, keeping track does seem as pointless as it is difficult.)

But here's one I like -- outside the Amber Fort in Jaipur.

Urban poetry

This photo is a little blurry, but still worth posting  -- directing traffic in Jaipur.

Attempting to manage traffic in India is yet another on the very long list of jobs that I would never want to do. I imagine you'd die of shock if any of the drivers or motorcyclists ever actually followed any of your directions -- and if the shock didn't kill you, a random tuk-tuk trying to avoid a cow might.

Urban poetry

Continuing with the theme of interesting sidewalk seating, here are a couple of chairs (plus motorcycles) outside a walled garden in Jaipur last January. This was an access road, separated by a line of trees from a very busy street. So it was noisy there, but also cool and shady, which may be why the residents would choose to sit there instead of in the very pretty -- and sunny and hot -- garden.

Urban poetry

Here's a street in the modern part of Jaipur, with one of the ubiquitous tuk-tuks next to an ornamental screen.

Welcome to the working week

I meant to post this picture this morning -- the proprietor at the shop in the Amber Fort in Jaipur hard at work -- but forgot to click on Publish.

Which was lucky because now I get to include this item from today's cafeteria menu at my firm:

     Beer, Battered tilapia

Which made me laugh, imagining plates of bruised but brave whitefish accompanied by bracing mugs of beer. Needless to say it was ordinary fried fish, no beer in sight. I had a salad.

Imagine if I had actually spent some time in India

...instead of a mere five days. 

But I'm done for the moment (except for the birds of course.) Here's one last view from the Amber Fort, with that beautiful temple in the foreground.

On to Jordan.

Street scenes part 2

Street scenes

The backlog of Indian images does not seem to be getting much smaller, and my efforts in that direction have been less than diligent. I've had a cold, my job has been insanely busy, and most of my spare time has been spent sleeping.

But before I start on Petra, there are some more pictures from the streets in and around Jaipur that I have to share.

Welcome to the working week

Lunchtime at a textile company in Jaipur.

One problem with taking any kind of tour is all of the shops they manage to include, where in addition to learning about traditional crafts you have the opportunity to spend large amounts of money. Not that there's any obligation, of course. It's all educational.

It's purely coincidental that several of my co-workers now own hand-printed textiles from Jaipur.

Streets of Jaipur

So much of my time in India was spent driving somewhere that a lot of what I saw of Indian life took place on the street or along the highway, and the pictures I could take were shot through dirty windows while speeding down a highway. Some of them came out, most of them didn't. Some of them aren't great but are interesting enough to post anyway, because when I see them I smile and remember, Yeah, that's what it was like.