Palaces and Temples of Rajasthan

We went to the majestic old palaces of Rajasthan.

There were real and non-real elephants.

There was glitzy glam and also local mustache art in the bar.

This is the prettiest building, however many people agreed and got in the way of our picture.

Artsy palace shots, obviously:

We also went to Ranakpur, an ancient Jain temple, which looks like this.

We got audioguides that failed to teach us about the Jain religion beyond the following facts.

1) You should wear a facemask to avoid inhaling bugs.

2) You can't eat root vegetables because it might harm micro critters.

3) Each of the columns in Ranakpur is unique

4) The carved corner animals have strange numbers of appendages.

We stayed on the (man made) lake in Udaipur, and gazed upon the island palace like this, rather than going to the local rooftops.

Barry took a good picture for the cover of his next album.

And also found his new favourite frindly gas company.

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Nepaloddities

Behold, the best picture of a Nepalese Buffalo I've ever taken. The wet look is flattering. It's a water buffalo after all.

Speaking of farm animals, Kathmandu has some fantastic shopping, including these woollen delights.

Despite its name, this store was not Sold Out.

Butchers offer convenient signs for those with or without reading skills.

Some of the clothing, however, required more advanced linguistics.

This RetroLovement Spankle Chaetosionc shirt includes Cyrillic characters in the fine print.

This one evokes easier times.

Some motivation from American University. Can stop you now.

Beyond shopping, there are other leisures, like this human bartering.

Our hotel had a crystal room and a salt room where you could do fictitious things like "absorb the energy" and "detox your aura". I wondered how they cleaned the salt rocks without melting them.

Lotsa rocks.

Anyway, back to food. Gazzabko Snacks: Fresh Snacks where you Rely!

K-town Stick Food: Delicious - Jumping into the mouth!

Oh, gotta go, the toast is done!

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Carvings and Dentists in Kathmandu

Beautiful views in Kathmandu.

The Himalayas came to say hi.

Kathmandu is full of beauty in a dusty kind of way.

Sculpture is everywhere.

Mostly temple-related.

These are my favourites by far. They have opinions.

I appreciate the anatomical detail as well.

Let's zoom in. Good times at all levels.

And the doorway is rimmed by little skeleton heads, so cute!

I am inspired for a modest carving for our home doorway. The veneer needs replacing anyway.

But Barry said it was "not feasible" and "inappropriate".

There was also propagandational art. I'm no expert, but I think they should maybe arch their backs less.

For anthropological completeness, most of the buildings looked more like this.

6 dentists, but they only work 5 hours a day.

Oops, is my building blocking your road? There is also still evident damage from the 2015 earthquake.

Many buildings and temples had extra support.

So in the end, you get dusty, artsy, and mismatched.

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