A Royal Holiday at Rajasthan - Part II

All those of you who read Part I and asked for the continuation.. thank you and here goes :)

Day 4: As Jodhpur was enroute to Kumbalgarh from Jaisalmer, I had decided to stop there for a few hours and try to catch the main attractions. The highly recommended one was the Mehrangarh Fort and we managed to get here quite bright and early. It was a different experience from Jaisalmer, as it is a very tourist friendly fort - the only mixup being that as it was the start of Navratri we ended up getting into these male/female queues (all the while wondering what was going on) and then had to backtrack to get to the actual museum/entrance. On the way out, we somehow managed to walk down past the entrance and then had to trudge back uphill to get out :P - a lot more cardio than I had intended.

Nice shot by D.. with my direction of course ;)

View from the top

One of many doorways that I used to frame my photos

Next stop was the Umaid Bhawan palace where we were charmed by the grace of the personnel who act as guides. This photo was directed by the gentleman who was taking us around - he made me click multiple times with moving G and the kids until he was satisfied :).

There was also this lovely set of paintings/murals with scenes from the Ramayana but interpreted in a Greek style as that was the nationality of the artist (as told by our guide, have not substantiated it with Google ;)).

Sita and Mandodari at Ashokavana

We spent the rest of our time in Jodhpur checking out(for rather too long ;)) the local Bandhani and Lehariya work at a Handicraft emporium before finally making our way to Kumbalgarh. The roads to get there passed through some ghat areas and for kids who used to be badly car sick in their early years, both D and S were troopers and we reached there without much ado. Much thanks to G who sat in the back seat and gave them someone to hold on to, instead of me being there and getting a bit green myself!

Day 5: The main and nearly only attraction in Kumbalgarh is the Fort and it has quite a history behind it. From Umaid Singh who was saved by Panna Dhai and brought there to safety, to Maharana Pratap in later years, it has played a major role in the history of Rajasthan. It was also one of the most fascinating forts to explore, simply because it is not as crowded and we could just meander here and there trying to look at things. We went to the fort in the daytime, so it was decided (as recommended by our driver) to do the Sound and Light show on another day.

The wall of the fort seems to go on and on..  

Lovely view of the hills around

Lots of such vantage points along the climb

Could not and did not resist taking photos of all the arches ;)

Are you done with your photos? Let's go!

Please bear with me.. this is getting longer and longer so going to end with a Part III :).