India
 

This Christmas we were lucky to have lots of family visit! My sister (Brett) came first with her husband (Pat) and two kids (Spencer and Murphy). We traveled with them for about 10 days through Varanasi, Khajuraho, Bandhavgarh and Orcha. We returned to Delhi where we picked up my parents and my brother (Erik) and his family (Shona and his son Kiran).

I checked out a school van and drove the combined family of 12 to Agra, Bharatpur and Hill Fort Keseroli. It was great fun to have the family here! Zoë especially enjoyed getting to know here cousins.


We had fun exploring the temples in Khajuraho
The temples in Khajuraho are sometimes called the "Karma Sutra" temples, because they are covered with erotic sculpture. This is one of the more family friendly sculptures, Pat noted that many of the acrobatic feats depicted seemed to have little to do with procreation!
Why do safari's always start at ungodly cold hours of the morning? Our LP stated that we were almost assured of seeing tigers at Bandhavgarh, but such was not our luck.
Touring the impressive palace at Orcha. We had a great guide here, who helped me figure out how to distinguish between some of the Hindu gods.
We stayed at the Snow Leopard (a company) camp in Orcha. The camp was great! Right on the river, very relaxing and fantastic staff.
Returning to Delhi, we met up with my brother and his family and my parents. We spent a few days looking around Delhi, including these Dhobi ghats near the Imperial Hotel.
Visiting the Sufi singing on Thursday night at Nizam-ud-din's shrine - my favorite thing to do in Delhi. The place is a trip!
Fatehpur Sikri is one of our favorite places. This time there were many more tourists than when we visited in the middle of the summer 17 years ago!
Princess models the correct use of her new Kindle in one of our fun rooms at Hill Fort Keseroli.

 

We started our trip in Varanasi -- our third time to one of our favorite cities. We spent an afternoon wandering down the ghats to the southern side of the city, and then returning by boat. This time, we stayed in Hotel Alka, in the heart of the old city.
Inside one of the temples at Khajuraho.
Finding South Indian restaurants to eat Dosa at is part of our travel routine in India.
Going for a bike ride in Orcha nature reserve.
Dies in the market in Orcha.
Zoë and Murphy at Humayan's tomb in Delhi.
The scene inside Nizam-ud-din's shrine. The men around the open space are singing. Behind us we could see the fingers of shrieking women through a marble lattice screen - women come to the shrine to exorcise themselves of demons.
The requisite photo at the Taj Mahal. The fog was so thick we could barely see it! We had an excellent guide that made the visit very interesting.
We spent a morning in the bird park at Bharatpur
page created on December 27, 2010