March 19-21 Rajasthan

We decided to leave for Rajasthan today because I found out that I had to start school early on March 24 instead of April 1st. School started early because India has a national election coming up in the middle of April and the government uses all of the school buses to bring people to vote in the polls, so we will have a week off in the middle of April. We're going to Chittorgarh, Rajasthan to visit Sudhir Sukhwal and his family. He lives in the biggest fort in Asia. Sudhir is my mom's friend. She lived in the fort for two years doing her research.

It is an over night trip on the bus. We will arrive in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan at 4:30 a.m.

This is us at a Krishna Resort rest stop where the bus stopped for dinner.

After we arrived at the Fort at 4:30, 2 and a half hours later me mommy and Joe went to a temple and here is one of the gods there.

In the temple we also saw some puja [poojaa] bells.

These are nagara drums also used for puja.

This is the outside of the temple.

I took this picture on the roof and it shows a woman cooking traditional Indian food.

This is a monkey on a corner of a house. In Hindi, monkey is "bandar" (bun-der). The monkeys come in big groups across the roofs and attack houses for food.

This is a big breakfast I had on the first day in Rajasthan. I know this is only two pieces of bread, but I had a lot more. We stayed in Sudhir's haveli, a big Rajasthani house that is a bed and breakfast.

This is what I'm talking about by big breakfast.

This is the city of Chittorgarh from the top of the Fort (the roof) where we stayed.

This is one of the ruins on the fort. It is the Tower of Victory after the people won a battle in the 1400s.

This is one of the carvings on the side of the tower.

This is a barbed wire to help plants grow across the whole roof

This is me playing with a group of kids on the streets with a ball. I'm trying to get the ball away from a guy that is much bigger than me, and I got it!

These are women on the streets selling flowers people buy to give to the temples.

These are some Indian pot sellers on the street. People are using umbrellas to cover them from the hot, hot sun.

These are some other fruit sellers on the streets in Chittorgarh.

Afterwards we went on a ride to some villages near Chittorgarh. In one of the villages, there was this guy on a bike carrying wheat on the back of his bike.

This is a little girl sitting in the middle of the street in the village.

This is a traditional way of greeting people on the doors.

This is one of the many cows in this village.

These are the fields of wheat that were over the rock wall that the cow in the picture above was standing in front of. We went through the field to see an ancient Shiva temple with engravings. It is over 2,000 years old. The picture below is from the inside of the temple.

This is me and Joe inside the jeep going another village.

In this village, we came to a wood working shop. These are some statues. The first small one is Ganesha, who is a god. He was a boy but his head got replaced with an elephant head the two  others are just Rajasthani wood figures.

This is me with some other big wood figures.

This is a wart hog in the middle of the street in this village.

This is a cow begging for good at a doorway, and it's really cute.

This is a temple in the village, and this is a black elephant carving in the temple.

Behind the temple there was a lake and a lot of kids were there trying to practice their English on me, and when they saw my camera they wanted pictures, so I got some shots. I took of these on my back because they were crowding me.

This is a picture on the wall of a temple.

This is me at a big field on the way back to Chittorgarh. The field is owned by Sudhir and his wife Parvati who own the haveli where we are staying.

This is Sudhir in the jeep on the way back to the Fort.

This is me and Parvati.