Weekend Trips

Margaret and I changed our plans a bit and arranged for a day trip to Agra from Jaipur this past Saturday. We had our own vehicle to take us to the Taj Mahal and then to Fatehpu Sikhri on the way back from the Taj as well as guides at both locations. The Taj was as amazing and spectacular as I had imagined. That white marble dome, when you first see it through a dark archway, takes your breath away.

With over 10,000 visitors each day, this is quite the tourist attraction for both Indians and foreigners. For foreigners it's a hefty Rs 750 to see it ($18). Indians can view it for Rs 20. The advantage to paying Rs 750 is that we get a bottle of water and very cool little surgical booties to wear over your shoes when walking around on the white marble. Personally, I'm happy to pay that much if it will help preserve and restore this treasure for future generations.

The King built the palace as a tribute to his second wife after she died giving birth to his 14th child. He meant to build an identical black Taj Mahal across the river, but his son imprisoned him before he could realize that goal. You can see the foundation from the back of the Taj.

Agra has banned all new industrial ventures around the city- since 1994- because the acid rain is deteriorating the pristine white marble. Despite these efforts, winds still blow, and you can see a haze of smog over the city.

We followed this amazing visit up with a visit to Fatehpur Sikhri, which is a palace built by Akbar, one of the Mughal emperors. He tried to unite religions by taking on 1 Hindu wife, 1 Christian wife, and one Muslim wife. His Hindu wife is the only one who bore any children. He attributed this to a blessing given by a local holy man, who is now buried in a separate structure next to the palace. Now, people bring offerings- money, flowers, and cloth- and visit his grave to make a wish. It was a very touching experience walking through the chamber and seeing people place their cloth and flowers.

Sunday we took a day trip around Jaipur and were able to see more palaces and forts. Unfortunately...I'm out of time and the pictures aren't uploading, so check back tomorrow for pictures of the Taj and Jaipur.

Updated Pictures

Jaisalmer in the morning hours...now imagine those cows roaming with motorcycles, auto rickshaws, cars, pedestrians, bicycles, etc. It's madness I assure you.
View of Jaisalmer Fort at dawn from the rooftop of our safari outfitter.
Crazy Jodhpur shopping district. (I fear for my life everytime I walk out onto the road. If I thought crossing the Bolgatanga road was tough, I was sincerely mistaken.)
Jaisalmer Fort at dawn. (sorry that's not very clear.)

Our camels waiting to take us through the desert

City abandoned 400 years ago by the population because of a dispute with the majistrate.
More ruins from the old city...you can see people have started to take the sandstone for their own homes.
Ken, Top and myself in front of a centuries old cemetary outside Jaisalmer.
The city part of Jaisalmer very early in the morning before the hustle of the day begins.
Overlooking the Golden City of Jaisalmer.

Melinda on her camel with our guide "in training." At just 11 years old he is starting to learn the tourist industry and no longer attends school. The money he makes is too much to pass up the opportunity for his family.
Yeah for Sand Dunes...Top, Melinda, and Margaret.
A better view of the Great Thar Desert.

We're working from Jaipur, but haven't had much time for sightseeing, so I don't have any pictures from here. I know it's hard to believe that we're actually trying to get some work done. I have managed to squeeze in a few shopping adventures though!

Camel Safari

We departed Jodhpur on Friday evening for Jaisalmer- the Golden City- to take our camel safari in the Great Thar Desert. Arriving in Jaisalmer at 5:15 in the morning we were able to call ahead and negotiate a tour with a hotel, so they picked us up at the train station. We proceeded at 6 in the morning to haggle over the price of the tour that we thought we had already negotiated. I thought we got a fairly good price when he said that we couldn't tell any of the other guests what we were paying- this was contigent on the price.

Our budget safari departed at 9am where we took a 2 hour tour of the sites between Jaisalmer and the drop off point which included a 700 year old Hindu temple and an city that was simply abandoned 400 years ago by thousands of people. Pretty cool stuff.

We got dropped off and each rode our own camel, soon realizing that when they say that camels are not as comfortable to ride as horses that's exactly what they mean. I don't think I could ever do a 5 or 10 day safari across western Rajasthan- ouch! Our guides were low key, cooked our meals and occaisonally sang traditional songs while we were riding.

We got to see the Royal Sand Dunes- a highlight- my first real experience in the dunes and the desert. Most of the Thar Desert is simply scrub brush with these sections of sand dunes popping out of no where. Very cool.

We had upgraded to real tents for the night instead of sleeping out under the stars as well as a bottle of cheap whiskey with our fireside dinner. Thank God for real tents because the desert is cold. (Something Melinda very much underestimated but remedied by spending a little money on textiles!)

The following day we took a leisurely tour back to the pick up point and were able to return to the hotel to shower and visit the fort before departing on the night train back to Jodhpur. The fort in Jaisalmer is very cool because it's actually a little neighborhood with homes, shops, restaurants, and crazy motorcycles. This was unlike the fort in Jodhpur which was preserved as a museum and tourist site by the Maharaja.

We've now arrived in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, for some final meetings before taking off for our "travel portion" of the trip. Yet another great shopping destination, it's well known for its jewels and jewelry. Margaret and I have very similar taste and both willing to spend quality time shopping with each other. This is probably a bad thing, but we're having fun!

No pictures with this connection, but I'll try as soon as I find a better one!

More Pictures

View of the fort from the palace lawn.
View of the lake behind our hotel- Bal Samand Lake.
Melinda, Margaret, and Martijn on the field visit with the Maharaja and Advisory Committee this past Monday.
Our royal tent that we stayed in the first three nights because the hotel was very full. It was quite nice though once our space heater was replaced on the second night.
A completely saline well that people use for drinking (TdS 2200- should be around 100). The ocean ranges from 15,000-20,000. This was during our village visit on Tuesday.

Pictures:

Melinda in her train birth before spending the night in the moving train bathroom.

Birthday Tea for the Maharaja's birthday on the palace lawn.
The Maharaja's palace (mostly a very posh hotel now). Fun fact: Brangelina stopped in Jodhpur and stayed here one night, promptly getting in trouble with customs for not obtaining the proper documents for their flight and stay.
Margaret and I after being greeted by the local villages in one of the most water scarce villages. This is the village where 75% of the peope migrate during summer because of the droughts.
Red Fort in Old Delhi.

Where to begin. . .

Well, our internet access is not as good as promised and it probably doesn’t help that we’ve been pulling 12-14 hour days since we got here.

Highlights:
· Red Fort in Delhi
· Having coffee in an upscale Taj hotel
· Indian driving
· Overnight train to Jodhpur (caught the flu and was not in the best shape- this will be another great story about awkward ill moments)
· BBC filming with the Maharaja
· Site visit to Agolai for potential WP site
· Maharaja’s birthday celebration at the palace
· Traditional music concert with Maharaja after birthday celebration- the Queen found a precious 5 year old girl who sings traditional songs and she was breathtaking
· Stakeholders meeting with people from nearby communities talking about their projects and challenges
· Lunch with the Maharani (Queen) at the stakeholders meeting
· Advisory board meeting at the palace showing JBF’s progress this past year
· Evening at the fort with a performance of Shakespeare’s 12th Night by a British acting troupe
· Dinner on the wall of the fort with the Maharaja
· Visit to the Thar Desert showing the extent of the water crisis in Rajasthan

Our visit yesterday to a community spread across the sand dunes of the Thar desert was striking. 75% of the population migrates during the summer season because there simply is no water. They fill underground storage tanks with rainwater, but few can afford to pay for them to be refilled by the government supply once the rainwater runs out. The government is supplying saline water nonetheless, so it’s not as if they are paying for high quality. There were three wells that were not too deep, 50-75 feet. All three wells had completely saline water- not potable by any stretch of the imagination.

This site was the main trustee with whom we have been working, Prithvi, ideal site for a waterpyramid- if it can work here it can work anywhere. While the conditions in Rajasthan seem to be perfect- an abundance of saline groundwater that can’t be used for most purposes- we have run across a technical barrier. The sandstorms during the summer season may proved to be quite a challenge. This is something Martijn has yet to come across in the Gambia and he will have to mitigate this problem accordingly.

The villages are highly motivated and have been working to increase the capacity of some of their existing rainwater harvesting structures. These mostly consist of large ponds with strong retaining walls and then building proper channels to divert the water into the pond and increase the catchment area. The water is then trucked to both household and community storage tanks before the summer season begins to reduce loss of water through evaporation. Most community water committees try to manage the supply for both animals and humans considering that livestock (cows and water buffalos) are the main source of livelihood.

It’s humbling the way these people live- in a truly barren region. People are supported mostly by livestock; however, when it comes to water people are first and livestock second. This means that livestock are left to die in the 4 out of every 5 years the area experiences drought.

We have some semblance of a plan for the remainder of our time here in Rajasthan. We’ll finish out our Jodhpur research this week and take the weekend to go on a camel safari in Jaisalmer. This is a true desert city and one stop on the famous Silk Road that runs through Asia to Europe.

Monday we’ll leave for a week in the capital of Rajasthan, Jaipur, where we’ll finish our research and write a short project proposal for Martijn in addition to the business plan. That means next Saturday we’re off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

Arrival in Amsterdam

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am not the best packer in terms of quantity. An attribute that I definitely get from my mother. Upon arrival at the airport on Saturday evening I discovered that the weight limit had been severely decreased by Northwest- and guess who's bag was 60 lbs., 10 lbs. over weight? Fortunately, the attendent let me take some books and such out of my bag to get it down to 53.5 and then let the bag go from there. It's things such as this that make me a little nervous at the beginning of a trip, but oh well.

We arrived Sunday morning without a hitch, although I did not sleep as much as I usually do, a meager 30 minutes. Martijn met us at the airport and took us on a tour of small villages to the north of Amsterdam. We visited the cities ending in "dam" and were able to finally understand the Dutch system of keeping it's citizens above water. The system of dams and canals is pretty amazing a true feat of engineering. Despite the rainy, 40 degree weather, we were off to a good start.

After getting some caffeine in our system, we proceeded onto a site where you could visit different kinds of windmills. We went inside one windmill that was used to grind various materials into powders for dying cloth. Most of the original windmills were used to pump water out of the canals and keep the water levels manageable.

Here I am on the second level where all that wind is turned into useful energy- pretty cool, huh? That may just be the engineer in me.

A much better view from the outside of the windmill.

Edam- known for its cheese was a fun excursion. Here's a cheese display we saw at the windmills.

We returned to the airport to meet our fourth team member, Top, before driving to Delft where Martijn, the entrepreneur, lives. We were able to see the big storm dam to be used in the case of a 50 or 100 year flood. These Dutch engineers will now be using their expertise to repair the New Orleans levies.

Delft is lovely with the cobblestone streets, canals, and 16th/17th century buildings. We had some productive meetings today with the IRC water/sanitation division that specializes in microfinance. This evening we'll be visiting Rotterdam for dinner.

Here are some of the days highlights.

View from Martijn's doorstep.

Second view from Martijn's doorstep of the canals and churches.

WP Team: Top, Ken, Margaret, Melinda (from left to right)

Yes, we really are doing work. . .tomorrow we're off to meet with the bankers. This is a real opportunity for Martijn to get the first 20 WPs paid for to scale up in India. We will then visit some museums - Van Gogh, Anne Frank's house- and then end our visit to the Netherlands by seeing Schubert's Octet in F major performed in Rotterdam.