Location: Jodhpur, Rajastan, Inida

20-23.11.2009

Day 1

We arrived to Jaipur, a city in Rajastan, which is in the north-west of India, early in the morning. Because of an outbreak of Swine Flu in this area, we decided to use this city as a transfer to another town. We took a bus to Jodhpur, which took approximately eight and half hours and drove through an extremely dry and dusty landscape. There was an interesting area we passed with smooth rocky hills and cute little villages and cute little houses made from clay.  We arrived to Jodhpur after the sunset, where auto-rickshaw driver drove us to a hotel, which he recommended to us. We really liked the hotel, it had maybe the nicest room we have had since coming to India. After we settled down with our bags, we went to eat to nearby Vishnu Guesthouse Restaurant. From the roof-top of the restaurant we had a romantic view over a nearby fort  and roofs of other buildings were people were sitting, and having their family stories going on. When we came back I was very tired and didn’t feel very well. I woke up later in the night feeling strange. The rest of the night I spent between the bed and toilet having diarrhea and vomiting. It was awful!

Day 2

The next day I didn’t feel better, nor worse. I was too weak to do anything and visits to the toilet continued. Arne took his day off today too just relaxing, looking for medication for me and reading a book. In the afternoon he went to the Internet Cafe and saw a dead cow in front of it with flesh rotting away, flies flying in and out  and maggots feeding on it. You know just laying dead in the middle of the street on the pavement in front of the shop. Is anyone surprised? I doubt. Arne asked a guy from the shop what is going to happen to the cow. The guy said that the council will remove it, but it sometimes takes a few days. Ha! So that what happened today, apart from it nothing.

Day 3 

Today I started to feel a bit better, but not perfect. I wanted to make the most of the time  in the town, before we leave tomorrow. We had a breakfast in our hotel and took a stroll around the fort. The whole town was yet again dirty with sewerage running along the roads and animals walking on the streets.  Men were wearing turbans, but not the same once as Sikhs in Punjab, because people here are mostly Hindi. Most of the women were hiding their faces behind colorful veils, which we didn’t understand why, because their are not Muslim. We went up the fort and didn’t feel like to go in, because for the passed weeks we had seen many buildings. But is supposed to be a captivating fort with a palace inside and several different buildings. Instead we walked around it and its old city walls. The day was hot and dry and walking slow. From the top we had seen the city of Jodhpur also called the Blue City, because of its blue houses. The stroll was very pleasant and on the way we were observing people and the town  in their daily life. After that we returned to the hotel, where this time Arne started to feel not very well. Now I was running around looking for medication, fruits and looking after him. During the night he also had diarrhea and had lots of winds.

Day 4

We took a bus to Jailsamer in the late morning. We drove through the dry rocky desert of Rajastan, the Thar Desert. We saw sand dunes scattered at different locations and between them was a dry rocky and dusty landscape with one type of cactus and different trees and bushes we haven’t seen before. We also saw wild animals running through the desert including deer, gazelles and peacocks. We arrived to Jailsamer in the afternoon. Arne still didn’t feel well and he even felt worse. He had a fever of 39 degrees, so he stayed in bed.

Zdjęcia z warszawskiego centrum handlowego Blue City wykonane tuż po wymianie tablic informacyjnych (plastikowych plansz na stojakach z mapą pięter centrum, spisem i lokalizacją sklepów oraz punktów usługowych) na telewizory. Dodatkowo w tym samym czasie powiększono znacznie liczbę punktów, w których telewizory wiszą – nie było tam wcześniej statycznych plansz. Obecnie telewizory wiszą nad windami i stoją (po dwa, mocowanie obustronnie, w sumie 4 ekrany) na stojakach rozstawionych licznie w korytarzach i traktach komunikacyjnych. Dla dodatkowych telewizorów wybrano miejsca, w których widz przebywa dłużej: jedzie schodami ruchomymi, czeka na windę. Zwiększa to szanse na dotarcie do oglądających z przekazem (co jest utrudnione, gdy klienci centrum po prostu przechodzą obok ekranów).

Telewizory nadają programy proste, krótkie, o charakterze reklamowym, informacyjnym i rozrywkowym. Można obejrzeć prognozę pogody, proste animacje “czy wiesz, że…”, czasami reklamy, czasami neutralne widoki (zachody słońca, wyładowania atmosferyczne na nocnym niebie itd.). Nie są to treści atrakcyjne. Widać, że medium jest gotowe, i czeka na zapełnienie czasu antenowego.

Choć to nie marzec, 24-25 Października obwołano Women’s Day. Parking podziemny na pow. ok. 8 tys. m2 w centrum Blue City w Warszawie zostanie zaadoptowany na swoiste „miasteczko” – oczywiście kobiece miasteczko pełne tego wszystkiego, czego pragną kobiety. Wyłożony kolorowymi wykładzinami labirynt, zostanie klimatycznie oświetlony. Dodatkowo organizatorzy zadbają o odpowiedni zapach, muzykę, a nawet smaki towarzyszące poszczególnym strefom.  Przewodnikiem po nich, mają być nasze zmysły…

Odwiedzić można będzie strefy:

Truskawki (LOVE),
Soczystej Pomarańczy (PODRÓŻE),
Cytryny (GADŻET),
Kwiatu Wanilii ( LUKSUS),
Zielonej Herbaty (ZDROWIE I URODA),
Kropli Wody (FITNESS),
Ziarna Kawy (CAFE & BAR).

Women’s Day będzie niepowtarzalną okazją do spotkania z wyjątkowymi ludźmi, chociażby najpopularniejszymi gwiazdami tańca w Polsce. Zobaczymy m. in. Katarzynę Krupę, Cezarego Olszewskieg, Blankę Winiarską, Michała Uryniuka (z Tańca z Gwiazdami), Marię Foryś, Wiole Fiuk, Roofiego, Paulinę Jaksim, Tomasza Prządkę (z You can dance). Egurola Dance Studio, partner wydarzenia, zaprezentuje pokazy tańca brzucha, salsy i tańca towarzyskiego. Trenerzy szkoły poprowadzą również lekcje tańca dla zgromadzonych.

Natomiast Małgorzata Foremniak wspólnie z uczestnikami wyprawy na Kilimandżaro opowiedzą o niedawno zakończonej wyprawie, zaprezentują film z wyprawy oraz opowiedzą o sile kobiet i potrzebie wzajemnego wspierania się.

Inna atrakcją będzie możliwość wymiany ciuchów z innymi uczestniczkami Women’s Day. Przy wyborze pomagać będą styliści.

W nocy z soboty na niedzielę podczas After Party występią Sonique i Afromental.

Sponsorami wydarzenia są: Blue City, PrimaPharma, Portfel.pl

Liczba miejsc jest ograniczona, więc chętni powinni się pospieszyć z zamawianiem wejściówek w cenie 25 zł na www.eventim.pl , w Empiku w Blue City lub w kasach w dniu imprezy.

Exactly a year ago I was traveling to Jodhpur in India. Although I had looked very much forward to photograph in “the blue city”, not much of that happened unfortunately. We actually enjoyed just one day of sightseeing, which was supposed to be three. My wife and I both fell terribly ill and had to stay in our hotel room for 48 hours before we were allowed to travel onwards from our local doctor. I will spare you the details, but it was not pretty.

Thankfully we stayed in a wonderful hotel, the Ajit Bhawan Palace Resort. This beautiful residence of the family of the late General Maharaj Ajit Singh is turned into a heritage hotel, and I could wish no better place to be ill. I highly recommend this hotel might you be planning to stay in Jodhpur.

The one day we did spent in the city was to view the fort. In the early morning we traveled towards it and first enjoyed the view from a distance. Some local musicians and dancers were entertaining and I managed to make the attached environmental portraits of them.

After the visit to the fort we went literally and figuratively downhill, and had to go to a local pharmacy to pick up some medicine. In the small street in front of the pharmacy I had to hide between two cows to disguise what nobody wanted to see… 30 minutes later I was happy to just be in bed and let Jodhpur for what it was. I would love to go back to Jodhpur and shoot much more of the city, despite the memories I have from this place, but not this year…

Tomorrow I will be off to Cuba for a three week journey. I hope I will stay well and able to shoot some more compelling environmental portraits in a completely different part of the world. It will be quiet for this coming period on my blog, as I do not know how well Cuba nowadays is equipped with internet access, but please come back end of October to read on.

Have some great weeks!

What exactly are giclee prints?

Giclee prints are prints made with archival (fade resistant and acid free), pigment based inks using a professional ink-jet printer. Giclee prints have a quality that surpasses posters and other mass produced products.

Earth Songs Three

Art Bylt offers an assortment of giclee prints that are both original and a limted edition.

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Happy Trials

Blue City

Night Songs

I Fancy

Souvenez-vous…

Centrum handlowo-rozrywkowe Blue City to unikalny w skali kraju projekt centrum czwartej generacji, łączący w sobie funkcje handlową, rozrywkową i biurową. Blue City to ponad 230 sklepów, restauracji, barów, kawiarni i punktów usługowych, duże centrum rekreacyjne, bogata oferta sportowa i atrakcje dla dzieci.

Who are you?

I am Bond …

James Bond ?

No…. BC Bond ..

Blue City Bond !!! Is that really you?

Yes ….it is me again ..

This is the latest chapter in the story of our good friend BC Bond …. You see … he is back in the news again … this time unfortunately, its not good news …. BC Bond is in trouble … The problem with BC is that he went and promised a lot of people a lot of things… Promised some people to give them a return on their investment …. And then he went and promised some other people that he will pay for building phase one of their project … now people are saying that BC Bond might not be able to live up to his promises … They are not saying he wont .. but they are saying he might not … and as result …. He has been downgraded ….

Yes , I am talking about the latest news on The Blue City Project … I will not go into too much details on this as I am sure our good friend UD will be more than happy to give you the real scoop with a few of his thoughts on this… They basically financed phase 1 through a bond issue and now the bond is not yielding the returns it was supposed to yield and as a result the Bond has been downgraded to the lowest level investment grade there is …. I am not an expert on this but this sounds pretty bad as a warning was issued as well saying that if performance is not improved the whole thing might go down hill … sales apparently, were 47 percent below the business plan ….. don’t have any links for this news… It’ll be interesting to see how the Blue City Drama unfolds as we move well into the summer … I received it as an email forward published by Bloomberg on July 05, 2008, 23:14

22.May.2008

We spent the first part of the day bumming around the hostel eating breakfast, chatting with Michelle and packing up to move on out…we then headed out to wander the city for a couple hours before our bus ride to Jodhpur. It was quite hot out but refused the many offers for a rickshaw and walked around looking in shops and enjoying the beautifully carved homes interspersed throughout the city, time quickly ran out and we booked it back to Moti Palace to grab our bags and jumped in a rickshaw to get us to the bus depot.

When we got there a hoard of people asked us where we were going, we showed them our tickets and they pointed us to the bus directly in front of us and then the fun began. A guy put our bags under the bus and demanded 10 rps per bag, we refused, it just didn’t sound right. We have ridden many a buses and never has there been a fee for bag storage. Dave kept an eye on the bags and made sure they didn’t do anything fishy. The bus ride was 5 hours long and a dusty journey indeed, but the scenery was spectacular, with desert interspersed with rural villages and women in beautiful sarees carrying water in bronze jugs on their heads and of course the occasional camel hanging around for good measure.

We got into Jodhpur around 6pm and called our Couch Surfing host Amit and he gave directions to our rickshaw driver to the house…this didn’t seem to help much. Our rickshaw driver went in circles for 10 minutes or so asking people along the way where to go (actually none of the rickshaw drivers we took were able to find the house without getting lost first). We were greeted warmly by Amit and his family and we went and collapsed into the sofas and his mom brought us cold drinks and snacks…feeling at home already. We spent the evening chatting with Amit and eating a delicious dinner prepared by his mom of lentils, okra, fresh chapati and mango cubes…so good I thought my stomach was going to explode from eating too much (a common theme of our stay here)!

23.May.2008

Waking up with a migraine and no desire to brave the heat after sleeping in we decided to make it a lazy day and hung out around the house doing a whole bunch of nothing. Our day consisted of reading, catching up with things online, napping and eating way too much….how can you refuse a mother cooking you delicious meal after delicious snack after delicious meal. We briefly mentioned our love of lassi’s and gulab jamun and later that afternoon she had brought back from the market the best lassi’s and gulab jamun in town…sugar over load but how could we refuse?

In the evening we took a short scooter ride over to a musical fountain, a cool place to hangout in Jodhpur. Lots of families and couples on dates sitting in the grass. A small sand storm descended on us so we decided to go back home, but not without stopping at a cute dinner for ice cream, which was surprisingly good! Ahh it feels great doing nothing…

24.May.2008

Today we got up a bit later then we planned, thought we set an alarm clock but guess not, so we decided to hold off on the fort for one more day and go to the Umaid Bhawan Palace and explore the blue city a bit. But before we leave, we were informed we would have to have some lunch, which Amits mother was already preparing. So we hung out for a bit, had some lunch and then grabbed a rickshaw to the palace, but not before Amit bargained a fair price for us.

The palace is situated on a big hill and very stunning from the outside, unfortunately we don’t really know what it looks like from the inside because it is a very expensive hotel and they don’t let non-guests enter unless your willing to fork out 3,000 rupees per person….and as you may have already guessed we weren’t. A very small part of the building is occupied by a rather unimpressive museum, which we browsed, but didn’t give a good idea of what it looks like inside…oh well we’ll have to come back when we are rich and famous. Our rickshaw man then drove us down to the Clocktower, which is sort of the epicenter of a main market area. We went and had a lassi at a little place known for their delicious snot color lassis, pretty much the only thing they serve. It was packed with people and no one had anything else in front of them but a tall glass of thick yellow liquid, reminiscent of some 1950’s ice cream shake joint. From there we wandered around a bit, kids wanting us to come to their uncles spice shop and such…but my stomach was feeling very achy so we soon headed back to the house for some rest and relaxation.

The rest of the afternoon was sprent hanging out with the family (and me napping in the room)…everyone was concerned about me. They gave me some stomach salts which helped a bit. Another hot day in Jodhpur!

25.May.08

(Now Dave is typing) We finally managed to awaken at a reasonable hour and set off for the Jodhpur fort. The fort and it’s view of the city was extraordinary. Long ago the Brahmins (upper caste of Hindu society) painted their houses blue to show their status (and supposedly to keep bugs away). Enough Brahmins lived here that the city had a gorgeous blue tint, and now anyone and not just Brahmins can do so, making a sea of light blue homes. We had a great audio tour of the fort which we took very slow and drew it out a few hours just wandering through the splendor of this magnificent fort. It is by far the best maintained monument we have seen in India and one of the more stunning in size, history, and intricacy.

After feeling fully satisfied with the fort; it’s view, tour, and museum, we headed across the way to the burial temple of a bunch of dead rich people. It was also magnificent with a huge city wall in the background of this marble domed, white mausoleum. We were greeted by some kids in terrific costumes, one playing the sitar and the other dancing with her head popping side to side like a Mexican jumping bean under a hot sun. Both kids were super spunky and made a terrific welcoming for us. We spent some time at the mausoleum getting the perfect shot of pigeons as we scared them to fly in front of the structure. Then we relaxed on the lawn to the background sound of our favorite bird noise, and the beautiful prayer hymn of a Muslim mosque from the city.

We then walked in scorching heat down to the city (which Indians driving by thought was the craziest thing they’ve ever witnessed to see two white people walking in such heat). On the way we met a goat just hanging out in a parked auto rickshaw (Tuk Tuk). We thought this was hysterical for some reason, especially when we tried to pet it (like we always do) and it kept trying to butt us with it’s horns. When that got old we continued wandering to find food whereupon I came to a street cow in a twisting alley with really full udders. Always wanting to, I reached down to grab a nipple to squeeze out milk only to be charged by this angered bovine. Thankfully I picked one with small horns, and cows happen to be stupid and slow so I deftly dodged it’s mad attack to live another day. Laughing hysterically from the goat and cow, we moseyed into a decent looking place, grabbed some great tandoori chicken (our vegetarian hosts would be mad) with a nice rooftop fort view, then left and got a Tuk Tuk back home.

We did the usual back at home. I spent too much time using the computer as it felt SO great to have one readily at my fingertips, and Jessica read, napped, and chatted with Amit. At some point Amit and I headed out on his motorbike to pick up stuff for dinner and his friends car. When he found out his friend didn’t have space for the bike inside the garage, Amit asked if I could ride it home behind him as he drove the car…”yes, no problem” I responded, not taking into consideration the INSANITY of driving in India. But alas, it was later in the evening, without too many crazy drivers on the road, and not too great of a distance. After a lot of dust in my face and massive stomach cramps I arrived home safe. The stomach cramps by the way were something we both experienced while in Jodhpur from microbes in the water that was supposedly “filtered.” Once we started using our own UV filter on their water we started feeling a lot better.

26.May.08

We went with the family to some very kitschy modern Jain temple with colorful statues of gods from many religions, and many rooms for meditation, teaching, and prayer. Afterwards we went to a nice lake and wandered around in some nature for awhile. Back at the house we did more of the same lazy routine, had some final delicious farewell meals, which I just realized we haven’t been describing well. So here goes: All meals had chapati (flat bread like tortilla), Papar (Papadum: crispy, spicy flat bread), Dhal (Lentils in sauce), and always some delicious vegetable dish most often with lots of tomatoes, onions, incredible spices, capsicum (green bell pepper), etc. We also drank too much Rose water (well me rather, as Jess wasn’t fond of it) and ate lots of succulent Alfonso Mangoes (which I learned to cut well).

Soon we were saying our goodbyes to our lovely hosts and hopping on a bus in the middle of nowhere. Our next destination is Udaipur, and we were nervous about being able to get there as in the last couple of days protests and riots have sprung up in rural villages outside major cities in Rajasthan, many of which stop all buses and trains to get in the newspapers for their cause. It is all due to some legislation being overturned that would be similar to affirmative action in the US, but in this case be for the poor not the black. Anyway, the bus agency, and locals say it should be fine now and protesters haven’t hit this area yet, and we hope they our correct as we climb into our hot & tiny sleeping box (where luggage usually goes on a bus and is now our bed), and attempt to sleep through all the noise and bumps.

Udaipur – उदयपुर

Udaipur, miasto leżące w południowej części Radżasthanu, ze względu na błękitny kolor większości nazywane jest często niebieskim miastem. W połączeniu z dość czystymi ulicami (w porównaniu do Innych miast w których byłem w Indiach), i extra architekturą (pałace + jeziora) naprawdę mi się podobał. To miasto ma klimat. Klimat …. który rzeczywiście pasuje do nazwy “niebieski”. Nieco marzycielski, taki chill out. Ludzie są bardziej zrelaksowani i milsi niż w Delhi czy np. Agrze … byli przynajmniej mili przez te dwa dni które tam spędziłem .

Punkt Widokowy

Sporo słyszałem o fantastycznym widoku (zwłaszcza podczas zachodu słońca) z jednego ze wzgórz otaczających Udaipur. Postanowiliśmy się wybrać tam pierwszego dnia….. po kłótniach z Rikszarzami (chcieli nam wmówić że punkt widokowy jest w połowie drogi do niego ) dotarliśmy w końcu do podnóża wzniesienia, gdzieś w połowie drogi na szczyt był oficjalny punkt widokowy … widok fajny ale…. kilkaset metrów w górę zobaczyłem około 30 metrową wieżę (niestety nie mam zdjęcia)…. jeszcze kilka lat i będzie to ruina, myślę że jakiś fan tego widoku zbudował ją jakoś na początku 20-tego wieku… tak przynajmniej oceniłbym jej wiek.. teraz stoi i niszczeje, odpadające schodki, zardzewiałe barierki ….. mimo to udało się nam na nią wdrapać i stamtąd widok był naprawdę niezły.

Droga na wieżę:

Widoki:

Wioseczka

Słyszeliśmy o ciekawym miejscu około 5 kilometrów za Udaipurem, wioseczce / skansenie zbudowanym po to, żeby pokazać turystom tradycyjne warunki w jakich mieszali / mieszkają mieszkańcy stanów Rajasthan, Gujariat i Goa. Pomimo iż warunki które są tam ukazane (wypaśne chatki) to najprawdopodobniej są zarezerwowane dla 1% ludzi którzy tam mieszkają w tradycyjnych chatkach to nawet fajna sprawa zobaczyć takie miejsce.

Oprócz Chatek byli tam też ‘tradycyjni” muzykanci. Przy jednym z takich domków oprócz muzykantów była też tancerka ….. z niezłym wąsem. Jak się okazało później by spodziewająca się dziecka żona ‘tancerki’ nie straciła pracy przyszły tatuś musiał ja zastępować .

Na Koniec zdjęcie z Indyjskiego pociągu. Klasa – ’sleeper’:

Pozdro

Kuba

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