Rajasthan with Dad - Mandawa

(Text from my father's travel log.)

Hi All

It is Thursday morning here in Jaipur.

I arrived in India at noon on Monday. Helen's plane was 4 1/2 hours late, so we got a very late start on our departure from Delhi to Mandawa.

As it turned out, the road to Mandawa was not the best. We probably averaged only 30 mph. We finally arrived at midnight. However, our hotel turned out to be a delight. A unique feature of the town are large ornately decorated houses called Havelis. There are about 40 of them. Our hotel was a converted Haveli.


Our hotel


Beautifully restored Rajasthani paintings everywhere



The morning after we arrived we went for a walking tour of Mandawa to see all the restored Havelis, some were amazing. The town of Mandawa used to be on the spice route but then fell off the map and now these "manions" are owned by Delhi business people who use them as vacation homes.



We paid Rs. 100 to see the "gold room" of this Haveli - portions of the ceiling were painted using real gold. Parts have been restored, the rest of the room was still in disrepair.



Every Haveli had two courtyards - the first courtyard for receiving visitors and for the men to talk business, the second courtard was for women only, those were off limits to the tourists.



This girl was cleaning a courtyard of a Haveli, when I asked if I could take her picture she covered her head with her scarf. I asked our tour guide if she could show her face and smile for me but the guide said she had to cover her face because her father-in-law was present. After I took her photo she came over and asked for Rs. 20.

And everywhere in India we manage to find puppies... we were playing with this group when a few bulls came running through and nearly got us! I grabbed the kids and ran to a lamp post hoping we'd be safe near a stationary object but the bulls ran within feet of us. It was a bit scarry.

Loved Mandawa! What a spectacular stop on our journey!