Going through one of the million toll booths on the “freeway” we passed this van.  Who knew?

 

At the Amber Fort these guys sat and watched us.  You can just tell they’re thinking ‘crazy tourists!’

 

The garden inside the Amber Fort.  These were in the part where the harem was.  My finger on the top of the picture is over the harem.

 

The pool at Naharaja Fort, but it was way too cold to go swimming.

 

 Camels shared the freeway with us as did ox carts, tractors, tuk-tuks,  scooters, bicycles, people walking, motorcycles, rickshaws, trucks  large and small, cars, buses, and the occasional cow, dog, goat, donkey, and elephant.  Traffic rules are merely suggestions.  We have driven down the side against oncoming traffic, ignored red lights, passed on hills and curves, gone the wrong way on one way streets, anything you can imagine.  So far we’re safe and have only slightly grazed an old guy on a bike pulling a trailer.

 

 Mark likes to take pictures of street scenes. Here is one of them.

 

 Anyone who knows me knows that I am petrified of snakes.  Rounding a corner one day I stepped into this scene.  I busted through a line of tourists 3 people deep to get away before the snake charmer let one of these Cobras loose.

 

 

 We went to a shop where they made carpets and other textiles.  This is a man block printing a piece of cotton.  He’s on his third pass with about four more to go.

 

This man is shaving the knots off the wrong side of a rug.  This co-op sends woven pieces to the main building for finishing.  After this step he uses a flame thrower on it to burn off any remaining knots and to make sure no polyester was used in the carpet.  Yes we bought one.  Well, three.

This is Mr. Smarmy who gave us the talk on types of wool and carpet quality.  He plied us with rum, chai, and soda beforehand.  Smooth!

 

 We stopped at a small school somewhere in the dust to give these children notebooks and pencils and scare the bejezeesus out of them.  The little girl in front with the blue scarf just started crying uncontrollably.  We big, loud, ungainly white people were just too much for them.

 

 

Finally,  we stopped at this largest step well in India.  Built centuries ago, it is still occasionally in use.  The water rises and falls with the rainy season.  They used to let tourists go down to the bottom which is 90 feet deep until some woman fell and sued.  Bet she was American!  Anyway, it was a really amazing sight.

 

I can’t figure out how India seems to be stuck in the Middle Ages but has electricity.  Roads are mostly dirt over cracked cement, plumbing is really sketchy, toilets are pretty much a gamble, there are animals roaming all over the streets, most people are thin, there is garbage everywhere, and yet this is a really beautiful and mesmerizing country.  You judge from the pictures.  Next stop, Agra and the Taj Mahal.