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Perhaps the highlight of the trip--aside from my friend's wedding-- Amer City was kind of an accident. We had Amber Fort on our agenda, but the city itself is what took the cake. We decided to set out for Amer City after befriending one of our cycling guides, Raju Meena. A resident of Amer, he proposed we give him a lift and in exchange, he'd show us around his neighborhood.
Upon arriving, we took a small hike up the backside of the fort that led up to an amazing view of Hanuman Sagar Lake, that was populated with monkeys (the nice ones, we were assured) and roaming cows (one of which peed on me). We sat up there for a while feeding the monkeys and chatting with Raju. He shared with us his experience of being the featured tour guide on BBC's Real Marigold Hotel and his ambitions to open a cafe on his rooftop.
We returned to the main part of the city, passing by the Step Well, which is now off-limits to tourists after one dropped his camera in the water and insisted on jumping in after it. Raju invited us to return to his home for lunch after our visit to the fort, which we did and througholy enjoyed (his mom made an amazing daal
Our second day in Jaipur began at 7am with a bicycle tour with the folks of Cyclin' Jaipur. Getting to see the city wake up was a real treat, and we were guided through the various crafts districts within the old city. Our stops included the marble district, open-air produce market, flower market, historical sites (i.e. Hawa Mahal as pictured above), and breakfast in a Rajasthani household--where I discovered Baati and fell in love. We also sampled a traditional Rajasthani dessert that is essentially cold, curdled sweet cream. I can't for the life of me remember the name.
We arrived in the afternoon and decided to take an aimless walk through the Pink City, while picking up a few essentials (Dant Kanti toothpaste and extra film) along the way. We kept it light as the next day we'd be embarking on a 6am cycling tour of the city.
sights
Red Fort
Humayun's Tomb
India Gate
shopping
FabIndia
National Crafts Museum
stay
Bloomrooms
food
Amici Cafe
Karim's
Rajdani Thali
Cafe Lota
Where does one start? Breakfast.
To describe my first trip to India as overwhelming would be an over simplification. It'd be more accurate to say it required [and deserved] the full attention of all my senses. As a result of the constant stimulation, I neglected my daily journal entries.
Now, one week later, I'm finally ready to dive back into the experience. This first post is to get the ball rolling. The following cities were visited & will be written about to some extent:
Delhi
Agra
Lucknow
Jaipur
Butte, Montana
Hot Springs, Montana
Kintla Lake
Glacier National Park
I went on a hike a few weeks ago with my buddy Hannah and thought it'd be a good opportunity to snap some pics with the Hasselblad 500c my grandfather left me. All of these shots were taken with an 80mm lens, but I also have been playing around with a 40mm, 50mm, and 150mm lenses. The good news: the body and all lenses work great. Bad-ish news: there's light leakage, but that can be easily fixed. All of these were taken on Portra 400 film.
