I recently was looking through pictures of the Amber Fort from our visit to Jaipur last December, and remembered that I had wanted to do a post on the insane variety of walls and window structures. Each wall, gate, and window was beautiful and completely different – both in design and from years of age. Here are some snap shots above of just a few of these walls that made me stop in my tracks.
Each place I live is associated with a specific drink – in San Francisco it was sadly PBR, in Washington DC it was bourbon, and now in Delhi it is fresh lime soda with sugar and salt. Fresh lime sodas are a common drink here you can find at any restaurant, which is basically soda water loaded with lime juice. You can order it “sweet,” “salted,” or “sweet and salted” for a healthy dose of added sugar and/or salt. If you ask me – adding both is best. To be health conscious though I’ve been trying to order it plain, which is still refreshing. At home my adult version of this has vodka – also highly recommended :).
{A new rural road being constructed in Uttar Pradesh}
My role at work hasn’t changed since I moved to Delhi, but the workload has pretty much exploded. Being based in Delhi allows me to regularly interact with clients (government officials), attend meetings, and learn what is happening in real time. It is a huge improvement to say the least. This past week I traveled around Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh (more on that later) for work to visit a World Bank-funded rural road development program. While sitting for hours on long bumpy car rides isn’t always great, getting to talk to people directly about the roads that they are going receive is the best part of my job. And the scenery isn’t too bad either.
{Construction equipment resting during our visit.}
{A pretty landscape at dusk just before we begin a long drive back to the capital.}
If there is one thing to love about South Asia, it is the bangles. My first time to the region, a girlfriend told me that I had to buy some – the first ones I bought were gold colored, made of glass, and I wore them to pieces, literally. Note: glass shatters easily.
I am working to get up my bangles collection. Wearing them is great way to accessorize an outfit, and buying them is a great way to get retail therapy for just a few bucks. I went bangle shopping recently with my mother-in-law where we wound ourselves in and out of many narrow shops lined with bangles head to toe. Above is a picture of one of the better lit displays we had fun choosing from.
One of the amazing doorways hidden in the Amber Fort.
The highlight of our trip to Jaipur after Christmas was visiting the Amber Fort. It was enormous, beautiful, and I felt like I could have spent days there. It was fun getting lost in the millions of stairs and hallways, but also so content to just sit and relax in the various courtyards watching so many people from all over the country wander around the fort. The weather was perfect, and even though we missed the elephant rides (we caught them on their lunch break), we had a pretty full day.
Nate and Shash in one of the Amber Fort courtyards, looking like they are waiting for a bus :).
The Fort sits on top of a hill outside of Jaipur, making for a dramatic arrival.
Nate peeking up a dark, cool stairway.
A picture of me with my favorite boys right before we entered the fort.
You can find people roasting peanuts just about everywhere in Delhi. The aroma is smokey, and the flavor is out of this world. It is one of the few street foods we have let ourselves enjoy as we acclimate to Delhi belly. When visiting Jaipur with Evan’s parents and brother we found even more flavored varieties, one spicey (middle), and one coated in a sweet, fried coating (left). I however always still prefer the classic smokey roasted.
The best part for me though is watching the vendors artfully weigh and toss the peanuts before serving them in delicately folded newspaper holders.
In September 2011 I moved to Washington, DC for a job with the World Bank to work on transportation development loans/projects in South Asia. Many plane rides and hotel rooms later it was July, I had just gotten married, and was looking forward to a year with only more days away from home. “If only we could just move there instead,” I remember sighing in bed on our honeymoon, saying it more to myself than to him. To my surprise, Evan was intrigued, wanted to learn more, and kept growing more supportive. Making big decisions like this together don’t happen overnight, and took a lot of comprimise and understanding from both of us as we began to plan our life together. Months later, we moved out of DC and flew into Delhi to a whole new world of possibilities. And I don’t have to go through customs to come home anymore.
In Jaipur we managed to get some spontaneous and disconnected shopping done (much like I always do in Delhi – where I leave with a 20 item shopping list to only return with soap and limes). We wandered into a music store, which had an awesome assortment of traditional instruments, including these bells. They are supposed to be used to put onto bracelets and anklets for dancing, but I decided to just buy a creative and unattached bundle for a solid US$7. I came home and just stared at their beautiful color, handmade dents full of character, and delicate glass center bulbs. Hopefully this will inspire me to start really decorating our apartment.
I am hoping to use them to decorate, either in fun bowls or just scattered across a table while entertaining. Otheriwse I guess I’ll just have to take them dancing.
When we first arrived to Delhi we lived in a hotel for just over two weeks. We roughed it at the Imperial hotel, which was decadent, beautiful, and had amazing service. But at the end of the day, living in a hotel is still just two people in one room, eating crap from the mini-bar late at night while talking about all the things they will get when they finally have a place. Over the past few years I have clocked in a lot of times in hotels, and though it was INFINITELY better with Evan there (we can be quoted on multiple counts over the first four days saying, “We could get used to this,”), the lifestyle still wore on us. But we still had some amazing times as captured in these photos. If only we could have spread those first two weeks of hotel nights across the first several months of Delhi.
A neat, and impressive back entrance to the hotel.
The ornamental (and ahem, colonial) touches to all the architecture and lanscaping.
One of my favorite parts of the hotel when we arrived: a lobby full of fragrant orchids. Beautiful, and made the whole hotel smell amazing.
I make a point to using all hotel amenities I can, down to the very last robe :).
This week marked my and Evan’s one month anniversary of living in India. While it seems like a lifetime ago, we came in after two planes and with nine Large (i.e. Evan sized) suitcases. When arriving at the airport, I sheepishly ran into my boss off of the same flight as we were collecting all our luggage. His eyes definitely widened when he saw all our stuff, particularly when I told him to go ahead of us since we were still waiting for more. My favorite part of these pictures are how the suitcases look much, much larger when compared against me as opposed to against Evan. Same exact suitcases. The optical illusion is just us.
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