Delhi - Pics! and some more pics

Hello all,

how are things?

We are fine. In Delhi at the moment... We spent a few days in Jaipur - Rajastan's Capital, mainly for SIDURIM (Neely we didn’t buy anything... :) Mainly developing our 15 rolls of film...

YES that’s right, we have finally developed our photos and you can all see them... there are lots! So don't be lazy and try and see them... (We of course only uploaded a small selection of what we actually have...)

Jaipur itself was a bit of a disappointment to us. We expected the capital of Rajastan to be the most impressive. But it wasn't. Its Historic attractions were pretty run down and although its called the pink city, it's more brown then pink. The Lonely Planet calls it a seductive city, well... It ain't seductive, it's more... repulsive actually... It’s a large Indian City with too many people and too much pollution.

You walk out the door of your guesthouse and are immediately attacked (yes literally attacked) by people trying to sell you something or asking you for money... I think it was the worst example we had witnessed in all of the Indian cities we have been too so far.

We actually traveled the city streets in a parade - Me and Hila, 4 cycle-rickshaw drivers asking us to hop on their cycles, 3 autorickshaws promising to take us anywhere for only just 10 rupees, 3 beggars (at least 2 under the age of 10, with the occasional leper) and sometimes a puppet seller or two.

The only nice attraction in Jaipur was Amber - which was the old capitol before Jaipur. It was a nice half-day trip from the city and is a nice fort/palace. But still the fort in Jodhpur is much more impressive. We did have the usual big city treats, like Pizza Hut, Barista (a coffee shop chain) and Baskin Robbins ice cream.

We catched a local film (Bewaffa is the name), which was an interesting, experience though we didn't last the whole length of the film (we left after 1.5 hours, which was the middle break). Every time one of the big actors appeared on the screen there were 2-3 minutes of shouting and whistling from the crowd. It was the usual family drama about a young girl being forced to marry her sisters’ husband (her sister dies at childbirth - twins) causing her to abandon her true love (an Indian-Canadian rock singer).
It was of course filled with sticky sweet Indian song and dance throughout the film in a very loud volume... just what an average Indian considers as entertainment (try standing in a local bus next to the speakers). It was fun, very well produced and colorful, but an hour and a half was more than enough. We asked one of the staff at the cinema and to our great relief it has a happy ending :) (I'm sure you were all worried ;)

From Jaipur we catched a train to Delhi, leaving our beggars and rickshaw drivers behind... We haven’t seen any of Delhi's attractions yet (we are waiting for my dad), just did a bit of window shopping, applied for a Chinese visa and had a hair-cut.

OK now for the pics: Below is a bit of a description of what you are seeing, they are a bit mixed so each section might bounce around places.

And the pics are here.

Banglore, Mysore & Trichy:
Here you will find the park and the market in Banglore, the market and maharaja palace in Mysore, a few photos from the Somnathpur temple near Mysore (its the old looking one) and the big temple complex in Trichy (its the multi-colored ones in the end of this section)

Ooty, Hampi and Goa:
This section begins with Hampi (the first 7 pics) green paddy fields, the lake view amongst the boulder hills landscape and the tall temple.
Then we have a few from old Goa (The Church of our Lady of the Immaculate Conception is the white one with the bell on top and the stairs).
Pics 15-17 & 45-50 are from Pallolem beach in Goa.
Pics 18-39 are from the lake and the rolling green tea plantation hills surrounding Ooty - lovely green aren't they...
Pics 40-44 & 51-67 are again from the temples and beautiful boulder landscape of Hampi.

Udaipur and Ranakpur:
This section starts with the Maharaja's palace in Udaipur (the white lake city with a dry lake - pic 14 has Hila standing in the middle of the lake)
A few photos of a parade for tourists organized by one of the big hotels that we happened to stumble upon. And finishes with the amazing Jain temples at Ranakpur (3 hrs drive from Udaipur).

Jodhpur:
This section is devoted entirely to the city of Jodhpur in Rajastan. Indeed it has the most impressive fort/palace (with a very good audio tour) and all together was a very pleasant city.
Amongst the photos you can see views of the blue city, and of the tomb of one of the maharaja's (its the white marble building surrounded by gardens).

Jaisalmer & The Festival:
In this section you see the photos taken on our camel safari - lovely smelly beasts aren’t they... some views of the castle fort we slept in and of colorful photos from the desert festival (we particularly like number 60 - F1110030a)

That is a roundup of our travel in India so far; we still have the sights of Delhi to see, the great Taj Mahal, and Varanasi. We hope you have enjoyed the pics and are welcome to donate lots of money to our Divluly, the merry gibbon, and rehabilitation center. Joe Camel has already donated 2 kgs of dry straw, what have you donated so far ???
Donations are welcome at:

Divluli Sleazy May,
The 3rd tree on the right after the big boulder just after the second left turn
as you enter the Kao Sok National park,
47633,Thailand.

We have not received any donation here or to our bank account yet...
Neely? do you want a nice Sari?? I'm sure you don’t want a yellow one right?? ;)
btw Sis alu-gobi sucks... (alu is potatoes and gobi is the cauliflower) ;)

That’s it for now, we would very much appreciate your comments on the pics, and it’s very easy to comment you don't even need to sign up!!! (I checked it myself). Its nice to see that some people have addressed our disappointment - we won't be mentioning any names Ruti & Orly ;)

Catch ya l8r after our parents chase us around Asia for a bit (just kidding folks ;)

Lots of love and kisses,

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.

P.S. We hope no one has been offended - just being a bit cynical ;) it's all from LOVE