Udaipur

Tuesday 12/02/2013 & Wednesday 13/02/2013 - UDAIPUR.

The City Palace.  Rajastan's largest palace, 244m long.

Lake Pichola, Jagniwas Island, with the world famous Lake Palace Hotel.

Once is was the Royal Summer Palace, now it is a top luxury hotel.

Not open to visitors.

Lake Pichola, Jagmandir Island.

Now an hotel with seven  hotel rooms, open to visitors.

Guardian of the City Palace.

Jagmandir Island, reached by boat.

  The grand Durbar hall, with the Crystal gallery (pictures not allowed).
The gallery contains an extraordinary, extravagant collection of crystal furniture and even beds.

Along with the admission ticket for the gallery goes an appreciated free cup of nice tea.

Mercedes 190, 1960 model... I know too well such a car!

The Indian power grid.

(Click here to consult the home page)

Ellora - Ajanta

Saturday 09/02/2013 - ELLORA, DAULATABAD & AJANTA.

Ellora Cave Temples, World Heritage Site.

30km north of Aurangabad. 

The epitome of ancient Indian rock-cut architecture.  These caves were chipped out labouriously over five centuries by generations of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monks.  Monasteries, chapels, temples.

The Ellora caves line a 2km long escarpment.  There are 34 caves in all: 12 Buddhist (AD 600-800), 17 Hindu (AD 600-900) and five Jain (AD 800-1000).

The grandest is the awesome Kailasa Temple, the world largest monolithic sculpture, built by 7000 labourers over a150 year period.

Daulatabad, 12th century hilltop fortress, straight out of a Tolkien fantasy.

15 km north of Aurangabad.

Ajanta Cave Temples, World Heritage Site.

    

   

 

 Sleeping Buddha.

Indian trains...

Hyderabad (Secundarabad station) to Aurangabad (Friday 8/2).

Ahmedabad to Udaipur train (connecting to Jalgaon to Ahmedabad, Monday 11/2),
halting in (too) many little villages. Here, woman selling sugar cane.

(Click here to consult the home page)

Nagarjunakonda

Thursday 07/02/2013 - NAGARJUNAKONDA.

A peaceful island in the Nagarjuna lake, 150km southeast of Hyderabad.
From the 3rd century BC until the fourth century AD, the Krishna River valley was home to powerful empires that supported the Buddhist community of monks and nuns.  It is estimated that this area alone had 30 monastries.
In 1953, when it became known that a massive hydroelectric project would flood the area, a six year excavation was launched to unearth the area's many Bouddhist ruins: stupas, monastries,pavillions, as well as some outstanding examples of white marble depictions of the Buddhas's life.
The finds are reassembled on Nagarjunakonda.

How to get there?
- wake-up early and skip your breakfast (anyhow, the restaurant is still closed),
- negociate the price, and take an autorickshaw to "MG bus station" (Gandi station),
- be so lucky to find the bus on platform 76 ,ready to leave,
- spend four hours seated in a 30 years old bus, that will drop you at a crossroad 6km from the lake, in the middle of nowhere,
- walk one minute on the road, before a kind school teacher will invite you on his scooter,
- the school teacher will drop you at his destination (the school), which is right in front of the boat landing,
- buy the three tickets (boat return, island, and museum), rush to the boat because it will leave a few minutes later,
- visit the museum and part of the island (it is very hot and sunny over there),
- take a ten roupees ice cream in the "canteen",
- take the return boat for 50 minutes,
- take a collective autorickshaw to the bus station of Macherla,
- find the bus for Hyderabad, and quicly jump on it, because the bus is leaving,
- consider five hours for the return to Hyderabad's Gandi Station because of traffic jam,
- take a motorrickshaw to the hotel, do not forget to negotiate the fare!

 Embarking.

Fishermen.

Fishermen out in their dish-shaped oracle boats. 

Disembarking. 

Map of the sunny island.

The fine museum on the island.

The rebuild ruines of the monastery. 

Buddha statue.

People believes that Buddha stayed in this area.

The collective autorickshaw taken for the return.

At some time we were 12 passengers, including the driver. 

Political enthousiasts (picture taken from the bus).

(Click here to consult the home page)