A look back at Udaipur - pics from a couple of short walks.

These are an assorted group of pics from a couple of days where I just went out for short walks for a couple of hours in the afternoon into the west side of Udaipur and down to the 'clock-tower' and the jewelry area .   I really like the warren of streets in Udaipur -  easy to just get lost wandering in these areas.

Please click on a pic to embiggen.

If it isn't scooters parked along the streets, it's cows! 

Often enough, people have greetings painted in the street on the way to their homes.

A lady hanging out on the elevated 'stoop' at the main entrance to her house (often access is via some very narrow steps on the side of the building leading up to the home entrance.)

Typical alley-way in the residential streets.  More often than not, the streets are quite narrow, maybe only wide enough for a scooter to drive down (which makes manoeuvring down them with the addition of wandering cows etc a little tough.)

Some streets get really narrow - squeezing down to a door width often.

A lot of streets have lovely paint jobs, with gorgeous painting and features next to the entrance doors. The paintings are pretty well all Rajput themed, as below.

.....and some paintings are much simpler!

For the cows wandering through the streets people will have containers like this near their front doors, where residents will put leftover food to feed them, or frequently people just dump organic food wastes on the street for them.

Afternoon snooze in a shady spot.

A frequent sight most anywhere around India, dogs crashed out on the top of cars in the shade.  They just jump up onto the vehicle and just settle in.

Lots of little side of building temples/offering places. Quite often they have closing iron frames to protect them, but open at different times of the day.

An older lady sweeping leaves at the front area of a temple, and (below) a close up of her.

After school hanging around in the street.

A flour grinding shop.  People bring in stuff for them to grind up fresh.

A little electronics shop - nice guy, who seems to cover all your photo and electronics needs!

Lady taking care of her shop - just about anything you could use!

Lady sitting in her open 'bicycle' shop - it can be wheeled around if needed. (close up of the same lady below).  She invited me to take her pic. 

Chai shop I stopped in for a quick tea and snack.

Little girl getting water from the communal water pump in the street in a residential block.

Just relaxing in the shade.

Ad for an old wrestling game still popular.

Somewhat strange self-portrait (in a round mirror near the city palace.)

Another posting of Varanasi

When we were in Varanasi I couldn't edit and post any camera pics (just cellphone pics) due to the electrical system there blowing my computer's power brick.  We've been back some time, but I thought I would put up some pics that over time I had prepped for a posting.  These pics are mostly a cross section of 'environmental' image I took (and I took a LOT of photos).  I will do another at some point focusing on the Sadhus that were hanging out in Varanasi post the nearby Kumbha Mela, and during the Maha Shivaratri.

Please click on the pic to Embiggen!

A view from our hotel roof looking south on the Ganges bank.

Looking  away from the river shore into the warren of buildings.  No straight 'streets' here!

A view from the river to the main burning ghat, with the modern gas-powered burning area behind.

A couple of the famous Varanasi doors.

Odd sight - a small  closed temple  with a mailbox!

Now for some typical scenes in India - side of the road sellers.

The odd couple, keeping each other company.

A small tailor shop - need something made or repaired?

Find the shop lady!

A dhobi couple, bringing laundry down to the shoreline to wash and dry.

Making up some fresh chai and idli at a little stall on the  river bank.

A somewhat more laid-back chai wallah.

A little food stall in one of the tight streets (the streets are more like very skinny alleyways).

A groom leading his bride  (note they're tied together) away from the main Ghat after a ceremony.

A bride from another wedding party.

An extended family from Rajasthan visiting Kashi (Varanasi is equally referred to as Varanasi, Kashi, or Benares).

A couple of school girls covered in coloured powder well before Holi, when this stuff fills the air! (which is a time I don't like being around in India - kids will wack you with balloons filled with coloured water, these days made with a lot of heavy chemical dyes - want to ruin a camera?)

The manual labourer from the background of the pic above, who asked me to take his pic.

A Sadhu looking for some loose change!

Receiving a blessing bindi on her forehead from a Sadhu.

Here are a few pics of the Sadhus filling the ghats (river-side steps) .  Quite a  few of them - I'd say the majority at this time - were naked 'Naga' sadhus, who wear the least possible amount of clothing, and cover themselves with holy ash.

Interesting encounter.  At one of the ghats there were three foreign sadhus, all with big dreads.  A local fellow came up to one and pulled a cobra out of his bag, wrapped it around one of the folks, then held it so the foreigner could hold the snake.  Being devotees of Shiva, they should have no problem with handling the snake. Check out the sadhu behind him watching!

This is from a series of pics I took on one of our frequent boat rides on the river, looking back to the ghats along the river and a bit of the activity.

We felt so lucky to come upon this puja happening in our hotel.  This image is looking down through the central air-shaft of the hotel down to the owner's living area, where they were having the puja done by a Brahmin and the family.

The owner of our hotel, goofing around a bit, as he never works in the restaurant.  Found him to be a nice guy.

Just typical of the small things you see everywhere - a tree toots with a blessing.

Unfortunate that India is so plagued by plastic - it's been a real blessing and a curse to the place (like everywhere).