Jodhpur –
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Hi –
I can’t remeber the last thing we wrote, but we’re sitting in Mehrangarh Fort, in an air conditioned room inside the fort gate. The fort is enormous, and it’s built with a wall system around it much like the Great Wall of China. It’s built on a 125m high rocky outcrop above the city, and it’s the only place you want to be here – the rest of the city is a cesspool.
From Delhi to Jaisalmer
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Hi – We’re 60 km from the Pakistan border in the Thar desert, in a town called Jaisalmer, which may be the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. This Golden fort town is carved entirely from yellow sandstone, and every surface of every building is intricately carved in the most ornately detailed patterns and flowers. Every balcony is screened in stone screens (so the ladies of the court could look at the people outside without themsleves being observed). This is a former royal city, and the royal Rajestanis still own and occupy several of the Palace buildings within the fort walls.
There are several Jain temples here – a religion that is a mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism. The temple are amazing – they’re like sandcastles taken to an insane level.
I can’t trust this connection not to conk out on me, so I’ll leave it here – but so far, so good. We’re drinking 8 liters of water a day each, it’s so hot. We wake up in the middle of the night to hydrate the same way a junkie would look for a crack pipe. Other than the heat, India is far better than we were led to believe it would be… don’t drink the water from the tap, but the food is great, and the hassels have been minimal.
We miss our friends and our doggie –
Noel & George
Summer 2009 Travel Map
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Well here it is, our summer 2009 trip to India, Tibet and Nepal. I plotted most of the places we are traveling to, with a couple of minor exceptions.
Summer Photos Finally Posted
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Well I finally got around to posting our pictures from our summer trip to the Middle East (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey). They can be found by clicking on the Photographs Link at the top of this page. The individual links for each area are listed below:
Hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
Geo & Noel
Last Days in Istanbul
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We have been having a great time in Istanbul. We have gone back to the Blue Mosque, visited the mosaics that have been excavated under the mosque, and finally seen the underground water cisterns for the ancient city of Constantinople. Who knew they would be full of fish these days? It still amazes us that the ancients could channel water from over 30 different rivers, build aqueducts and bridges to allow it to flow properly… for thousands of years, yet modern plumbing seems to elude the entire Middle East.
