India (Jan 14 - Feb 11, 2017)

After more than 2 years away from this blog site, we decided to revive it for the next few months to record aspects of our travels and share with family and friends a bit of what we are seeing and experiencing.

On Jan 12 we departed cold and snowy Alberta, Canada stopping over in London for a day before heading to our first destination on this journey, Delhi, India. After a day of rest, we met with a representative from a medical supply company that specializes in designing new products for improving healthcare. We are interested in having this company design a new surgical instrument basket that we can put into a pressure cooker sterilizer to improve sterilization methods where autoclaves are unavailable for clinics and smaller hospitals in developing countries. For more information about this work see our website (www.spectrust.org). While the designers were creating their design, we booked a 5-day exploration trip to see the Golden Triangle - Delhi - Jaipur - Agra. Here are a few photos of this trip.

Vishnu - one of the principal deities of Hinduism. Small shrines, temples and large statues can be found everywhere. This is on the way from Delhi to Jaipur 

A popular roadside place to stop and feed monkeys in honor of the monkey god Hanuman

Hawa Mahal, a palace in Jaipur (the "pink city") with essentially a high screen wall built so that the women of the royal household could observe street festivals while unseen from outside.

I was fascinated by the colors of these steps down to a large well, would make a good jigsaw puzzle

Panoramic view of the well

Popular way to climb the steep hill up to the Amber Fort just outside of Jaipur.
100 female elephants are used for this purpose.

View of the countryside from the Amber Palace

Amazing architecture influenced by the ancient kingdoms of India

Incredible designs with paintings and inlaid precious stones

Amber Fort panoramic

Hall of Mirrors in the Amber Fort

A lot of symmetrical designs in the gardens and buildings

Jal Mahal the Water Palace in Man Sagar Lake in Jaipur

World's largest sundial in Jaipur, has a 2-second margin of error

We are using only authorized guide!

Quite the charmer!

Great feeding place if you're a pigeon

Went on a safari hoping to see tigers; saw lots of deer, ibex, chinkara, antelope, birds, mongoose and large tiger paw tracks but no tigers! Closest sighting came when we found a newly killed deer but in the dense forest, tiger wouldn't show itself

Cow patties drying in the sun then stored in the structure I'll call the "Schmidt" house

Colorful dress of a Rajasthani woman

Hazy early morning visit to the Taj Mahal

Mid-morning photo of this incredible place beyond words to describe

Agra Fort

The Taj Mahal as seen from the Agra Fort. The Mughal emporer who had the Taj built for his favorite wife was arrested upon its completion by one of his sons who banished him to this fort to spend his final days here. This was his view of the Taj. He is entombed at the Taj beside his wife.