Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer is my favorite city so far! The city is in and around a fort, which rises up from the desert like a magical sandcastle. The city seems to have become wealthy from the caravans that would come across the desert. The detail work in the sandstone is beautiful even in normal people's homes (which were probably owned by statesmen hundreds of years ago). Jaisalmer is said to have the only living fort in the world--the fort itself is filled with private residences, hotels, and tiny shops. The largest landmark within the fort is the Maharaja's Palace, below.

As I mentioned, the sandstone carving is amazing. The photo below is a detail shot of the Maharaja's Palace, and the shot below is from outside one of the five Jain temples within the fort.

We are privileged to be staying in a hotel right on the fort walls. Below is a picture of it--Hotel Khilla Bhawan. With only nine rooms, it is small and intimate.

We have a beautiful room, balcony, and private bath, but common terraces and lounging rooms abound where guests can enjoy the evening breeze and a fresh-brewed cup of masala chai.

Jaipur Photos

Every city we visit is better than the last! We are in Jaisalmer now, but I'm a little behind on photos, so I'm posting some pics from Jaipur.

The next several pictures are inside Amber Fort, about a 20 minute drive from Jaipur's old city. We hired a tour guide to take us through, and it was worth it just so he could take pictures of us (we usually don't have that many pictures of ourselves). The fort was beautiful, with hand-painted surfaces, carvings, and inset mirrors to reflect the light of candles.

The next three shots are just random pictures I got in Jaipur--a pottery shop, snake charmers, and an elephant. Supposedly, Rajasthan represents the "real" India. Every region of India is different, but it is neat to be thrown back to a desert world of camels, elephants, turbans, and saris.

Agra and Jaipur

Doug and I are taking a week off of work to travel around India. Our first stop, of course, had to be the Taj Mahal in Agra, which we visited yesterday. It is an amazing work of architecture--it is all carved out of white marble, and the parts around the main mausoleum have inlaid stones, as many as sixty-six stones making up a single four-inch flower.

We spent less than one day in Agra and then headed to Jaipur, the former capital of the state of Rajasthan. We're nearing the end of our 24 hours here, but we stayed at a beautiful estate house (Samode haveli), which has been converted into a hotel, in the old city. While we were not fighting traffic or trying to confirm our tickets for our next train leg, we enjoyed touring the City Palace and Amber Fort.

More pictures to come...

Enemies

In Psalm 3, David cries, "How many are my foes! How many rise up against me!" But I've never really felt like I had many enemies, and this Psalm has not been particularly meaningful to me as a result. In a way, I still don't feel like I have many enemies, but in the work that we do, we have many. Those people in power who abuse that power certainly are our enemies. By rescuing victims and working for better enforcement of laws, we weaken their power.

The problems here are so widespread that we can't even count our enemies, but I am sure many of them know us and hate us. We must be wise in what we can take on with our resources; yet, as David says: "I will not fear the tens of drawn up against me on every side.... From the LORD comes deliverance."