 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
| Here we are looking down one of the streets that intersected the highway in a small town not far from Jaipur. Traffic is lighter in the smaller towns. | I liked these Joshua-tree looking trees, didn't see them in many places besides this. | These ads for Lux were also very common (Lux makes "skin-friendly vests and briefs."). Notice the hand-painted rendition of Sir Salt-and-Pepper, the aforementioned Bollywood star, pointing authoritavely in support of another product to the left. |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
| This handsomely-painted building advertises Shree Ultra, which as far as I can tell from Google, is a brand of cement. Hence the turtle. (?) I would've guessed cigarettes by the bad type in the logo, but I would've been way off. | Arriving in Jaipur, a scene on the outskirts of town. Saw a VBB-style scooter nearby that was so used that the tops of the cowls were shiny bare metal from being rubbed against (no wonder most have covers!). Missed that photo. | This was a map of Rajasthan (the state Jaipur is in) at our hotel, Khasa Khoti. Some great little handpainted details, see next shot of Tatsu. For a lovely site covering Jaipur and its attractions, see www.jaipur-india.com. |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
| Here's a shot of the Jaipur area with the Hawa Mahal in the circle and Tatsu waiting in the tall grass nearby. Actually they have several tiger reserves nearby and that's one of them between Jaipur and Agra. | Exterior shot of Khasa Kothi Hotel in the evening. This place was an oasis from the noise, pitchmen and beggars on the streets of Jaipur, residing on a large grounds with fence all around. It's owned by the government but used to be a wealthy villa. | Here we are taking our first autorickshaw ride. This guy couldn't get it started for a few minutes (you pull a lever to "kickstart" it), and it rambled once it got going, but what a way to travel. He had a radio in there that treated us to Indian music. |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
| Hand-painted sign for some kind of scooter shop, Jaipur. One of the better renderings of a scooter I saw on such signs, this one appears to be a Sprint-style Bajaj with 8-inch wheels (or at least a 4-nut hub pattern). | Gorgeous specimen of pattern at the City Palace Museum, Jaipur. This was a pretty worthwhile tour and we got a tour guide for about $3, which ended up being a little over a dollar per hour! | Here's the "peacock gate," City Palace, Jaipur. |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
| City Palace courtyard view. I think this is the part that the current Maharaja lives in. | I think this was our favorite doorway in this Pitam Niwas Chowk courtyard, this one was for Monsoon season and was made of lotus leaves or something. | Another symmetrical doorway shot. I love the white outlining of the contours. I wonder if the "handicapped ramps" were original design elements or added later to be in compliance? |
 Thu, Jan 20, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| Still more beautiful arched doorways, this time in nice shades of yellow, City Palace Museum. | Our tour guide, this guy was a champ. At first he declined to give us a tour for fear of his English not being good enough (and said "only pay if you're satisfied"), but he spoke it wonderfully. I wonder if they get commissions from the craftspeople...? | Vendors selling grain outside of the city palace. Not sure if this is for human or animal consumption, but the pigeons seem to be pretty into it. |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| Average 2-stroke autorickshaw with a few nice touches and accessories. Crashbars are a must here! | We went to the Hawa Mahal (Wind Palace), one of the landmarks of Jaipur, and this was a street view from about halfway up. | More arched doorways! This place was built as a sort of observatory for the royal women to peek at parades and such on the streets below, as they were apparently forbidden from being seen. Beautiful colors. |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| Hawa Mahal, looking up towards the top. | One of many photos of pleasing patterns; it must've been hard to make that window out of clay... | This was a little turret on top of the Hawa Mahal. This place could use a little restoration in areas, perhaps they should charge a little more and fix it up...it's still beautiful either way, as long as it's safe. |
 Wed, Feb 2, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| Here's a panorama from the top of the Hawa Mahal, this is facing away from the main street it overlooks. Note crazy astronomical observatory thing (sundial ramps) in the background, built by the founder of the city. | More Hawa Mahal innards. | This is a street scene looking down from the top towards a busy street, get a load of that snarling traffic! |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| Detail of the beautiful colors used at Hawa Mahal. | Vanessa poses near one of the lookout windows, Hawa Mahal, Jaipur. | View from the rear towards the front, the building is basically just a courtyard with a wall of shallow obervatory rooms at the front of the building and some rooms to the sides of the courtyard. |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| Here we are looking at crowded 2-wheeler parking and a large cow meandering down the main drag, Jaipur. | This Bajaj Chetak is one of the nicest-looking scooters I saw on the trip, VERY few were in this pristine condition. Not sure if this is new, well-maintained or a respray, but it's a great color and great-looking bike (save the horncast). | Typical thrashed-looking scooters. Note how most have metal wire accessories covering the taillight; this is due to the accidents and scrapes that are a given in the insanity of Indian traffic. |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| Nicely-decorated autorickshaw, Jaipur. Wel Come! | Faded handpainted sign in an alley where I used someone's STD phone, Jaipur. | This car was very popular in India, we saw them (and ads for them) everywhere. It's the Maruti Suzuki WagonR and it's totally cute. I'd get one if they sold 'em in the US and I needed a car. I took another shot of one later on. |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| V.I.P. Lounge Company Showroom, Jaipur. I think I saw this logo relating to travel or airline tickets somehow, but not sure what they do. Great logo in any case. | Kamal Bajaj dealership in Jaipur. This was fairly large but a bit confusing in layout. They had mostly small-displacement motorcycles, since that's the trend in the Indian market. Their 180cc Pulsar cycle is nice-looking and very popular. | I stumbled across this spare parts stall on a sidestreet in Jaipur. There are thousands of these little places selling spares for all manner of 2-wheelers, this one specialized in LML but had other stuff too. I talked with them for 15 minutes or so... |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| Interior shot of this spare parts place. You can't walk in, you just tell him what you want. I bought a few badges and a horn that plays a Bollywood song and tried to explain that I worked for a US scooter shop and was visiting LML the next week. | The guys were gracious and one of the customers even let me ride his LML NV around the block. He was proud to tell me that he'd been to Kanpur twice to train at LML and he was a certified, "LML-only" mechanic locally. | Note the weird rear turn signals, the crash protectors for blinkers, the spare tire ad, cowl louver protectors and most notably, the little cushion/seat in the footwell for a child passenger! No doubt this is the Family Car for its owner. |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| The Indian equivalent of Rob Hodge's Stella; thrashed to the max and very well-used. It even has the same broken headlight! | One of only two Lambretta-style scooters I saw in India during my trip; I think they're either regional or the numbers pale in comparison to LML/Bajaj/Priya. | Just to prove that something with the Vespa/Piaggio name wore a similar ugly horncast to the one that everyone complains about on the US-market Bajaj scooters. No, it's not "classic," but if you see enough of it, it's just another variation. |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| Abandoned (junk) autorickshaw on a sidewalk in Jaipur. I should've unbolted the headset and kept it as a souvenir... | Hotel New Pink City in Jaipur had this fantastic sign. In the same alley as the LML spares shop I visited. | We ordered this food for room service in our hotel, it was s splurge but well worth the $6 US or whatever it ended up being. Dal, Mixed Vegetables, rice, parantha, papad, sodas in bottles, etc. |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| A taste of what it took to charge my camera battery. I had to buy a special adaptor plug to plug my "World Voltage Converter" into since India uses a weird plug not seen elsewhere, and has a few variants of it at that. Outlets have On/Off switches too! | Strange but handsome standing closet in the bathroom of our hotel room, Khasa Khoti. More tall ceilings and bad drainage where shower water gets all over the bathroom...and yes, a switch for the hot water. | Looking into the bathroom of our hotel room, Khasa Khoti. Most showers had a little bucket/pitcher, must be a part of the traditional indian bathing ritual. |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
 Fri, Jan 21, 2005 |
| Our room, looking in from the doorway/entrance. Two hard beds pushed together, some weary carpet...but at least this one came with a little heater! Actually a pretty nice place, and quite affordable at $20-30 a night. | One last shot of our room, looking from the bathroom towards the entrance. I liked those two chairs. | Outside of our hotel Khasa Kothi. There's some big new lame tourist hotel they've just built, a Ramada or Best Western or something. |
 Sat, Jan 22, 2005 |
 Sat, Jan 22, 2005 |
 Sat, Jan 22, 2005 |
| Here's another shot of the Maruti Suzuki WagonR. Isn't it cute and little and boxy? Much better than the Honda Element or big US minivans. | Interesting blinkers on this Bajaj, as well as an accessory helmet/hand holder. | Fare meter in an autorickshaw. I don't know if any of these are accurate, we negotiated prices beforehand. Besides, this only goes up to 99 rupees (a little over $2)! |
 Sat, Jan 22, 2005 |
 Tue, Feb 1, 2005 |
 Sat, Jan 22, 2005 |
| Vanessa and I in the autorickshaw. | A little clip of the rickshaw navigating through traffic in Jaipur. These things have remarkable turning radii, as we found out many times over when avoiding a crash by millimeters. | Here's a cow eating garbage on our way to Amber fort outside of Jaipur. |