The Taj Mahal

Truly a Wonder...

Agra

The "Baby Taj," a smaller and lesser known mausoleum in Agra...

With my parents

My mom with tombs

Check out the intricate inlaid marble work on the exterior...

Onsite, young men polished and rennovated the tiny pieces of marble using the same techniques that were used to originally decorate the mausoleums hundreds of years ago.

Streets of Agra...

A wedding procession

Last Sights in Rajasthan

Camel yaaaaawning near Abhaneri

Tour group stopped at a um "camp" for the night. The tent I stayed in...(with toilet, sink, shower, bed, lights and hot water bottle)...wouldn't fit in my backpack so I left it behind. We played dress-up and then hopped on camels for a ride through mustard fields.

Our guide Anurag looks on during cooking demonstration...Tell me this: why are so many cooks at Indian guest houses from Nepal??

Traditional Rajasthani dancing...

Chand Boari step well in Abhaneri. This well is amazing and was historically used as a water source for the arid desert area. Rajasthani kings demonstrated their power and wealth by the size and intricacy of their step wells. This is one of India's biggest and deepest - (like 13 stories high). Just found more photos of it and more info at this link here if you want.

Staring at the side of this well made me think of M.C. Escher drawings.

More of the mobile party machines as seen from the bus

Cars share the national highway with camels.

School Visit

We visited an elementary school in Ramsinghpura near Sawai Madhopur near the Rathambore tiger park . The school is supported with money from the cost of our tour. All OAT trips support local schools through the Grand Circle Foundation. Here the kids sat on the roof of their school building and sang morning chants and songs.

And we then visited the classrooms.

A young boy outside showed off his scale. He was presumably skipping school to chat with us.

After the school visit, we split up and went to have tea in a home in the village. Here one of the sons dances in the house. I was suddenly very popular as my very limited Hindi proved to be useful in communicating.

Preparing many cups of chai

I hopped on a villager's camel cart for a quick ride.

At Dastkar, the local women's craft cooperative...

Women sew material for their cooperative.

Rathambore & Nahargarh

Dudes holding on to the back of a jeep

Moving the camels

Check out this ridiculous hotel, Nahargarh, an imitation of a maharajah's palace...

This musician played in the courtyard and would say hello and how are you to me in Hindi several times a day.

Members of our travel group relaxing with some chai after bumping around on the safari.

Decorating the hotel grounds with marigolds for a film shoot.

Here is our group preparing to leave our hotel for the Rathambore Tiger Park, in which we never saw a tiger. Our group leader Anurag speaks at the front of the jeep. In the background, a television series was being filmed on the hotel grounds.

In Rathambore Park, a monkey poses with ruins in the background.

There were ruins everywhere in the tiger preserve. And there was a huge old fort on top of a large mountain, where monkeys swarmed the walls and broken-down structures.

In the jeep, my dad is reflected in the rear view mirror.

Here's an attempt at writing a note to myself on my hand in Hindi. Dak ghar or post office it says to remind me to get stamps. This proved to be fun as the next day small kids at the school we visited were reading the text on my hand and asking me why I had "post office" written on the back of my hand. (And men of North India often have the Om symbol tattooed on the back of their hands.)

Hot Air Balloon Ride above Jaipur's Amber Palace

One of the perks of traveling with Mom and Dad is getting to do activities like this one...which I would probably never have done or paid for on my own.

If you're new to Overseas Adventure Travel, mention customer # 946347 when calling, and they'll give each new traveler a $100 discount off their first trip.  That's in addition to any other savings that are available.

When we landed in a field, many children ran over to gawk at us and our curious flying machines.