After exploring Northern India at a frenetic pace for the past week or so, Ramya and I are unwinding at a beautiful resort in Goa. They also have decent internet here, so we’ve finally managed to upload some more photos and videos. Check them out on the map, or click here for the Flickr feed! (We’ll try to get Taj Mahal photos up ASAP but we’re having some technical difficulties with that camera!)

Check out our new photos and Trippermap! (We’ll try to get more up when we find a faster connection!)

Today began with a quick elephant ride up to the huge fort in Amber (a 400 year old fort) just outside Jaipur, along with all the other tourists (most of whom are actually Indian). I felt bad for the elephants the whole time, especially when I saw one of the elephant drivers with a sharp metal spike — it definitely seemed like some sort of torture device.

At the fort I was most intrigued by the ornately mirrored walls of one of the rooms, while Jamie was mesmerized by the advanced plumbing, cooling and air filtration techniques used throughout the compound by the Rajputs (he watches way too much Modern Marvels). We also hiked up a long steep path to the top of the fort and got a great view of the city (I felt like we earned the lunch that followed).

Now we’re back at the hotel and excited for some chill time

The good news is I got to India…the bad news is my baggage didn’t. It got stuck in Beijing but will be delivered to Lataa Chitti’s (my aunt’s) house.

Not deterred, I raided Lataa Chitti’s closet (3 AM - photo at right), Mehar Singh drove us to the train station (4 AM — the title of this post is derived from the incredibly annoying and repetitive message that played over the station’s loudspeaker when trains were delayed) and we hopped the train to Jaipur (6 am). The service on the train surpassed our expectations (on time, lots of legroom… way better than Amtrak!). When we got on board we received tea and biscuits, a copy of the Hindustan Times, followed by a delicious lunch of vada, and sambar (Jamie looked confused so I showed him how to eat them).

After getting off the train we met up with Jamie’s family (David, Rusty, and brother Dan) at the luxurious Le Meridien. From there it was off to the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar and the Palace of the Winds.

The Jantar Mantar is an astronomical/astrological observatory, which includes a huge (27 meters high) sundial which can tell time up to 2 seconds. It was also interesting to see the dials which are used to calculate the ascending star sign in Hindu astrology. My grandfather was an astrologer and I’ve been hearing about Hindu stars and signs since birth so it was very cool to see how the calculations are made.

  

God(s) know(s) the Taj Mahal has been photographed millions of times (and we’ll snap a few of our own) but we also want to know what images you think we should capture while we’re in India.

From the artful to the obscure (and downright ridiculous) we’ll do our best to fulfill your requests — just leave them in the comments