The women of India are breathtaking.
Their colorful Sari's and dark mysterious eyes, I
was captivated by their beauty throughout my trip last summer.
Whether draped in diamonds and expensive fabrics or
standing on the side of the road in rags of vibrant shades of red & yellow I couldn't help but look and smile at them. Their beauty was everywhere.
During our trip through Rajastan the adults took a day trip to the magical Jain Temple,
Ranakpur. If you ever visit India it is one of the MUST SEE DESTINATIONS on my list. The road was long and steep and extremely narrow, we got into an accident (head on) in our bus and as you find out quickly the men don't exchange insurance information, they fight than go their separate ways. It was very dramatic.
Upon our return from the forest as we slowly made our way back to civilization we stopped for a cold drink and stumbled upon this group of young women mixing concrete. They all stopped when we exited the bus and watched us walk towards them, cameras in hand. My husband (luckily for us he speaks Hindi) asked the men if we could take a few photos of the girls and they nodded and smiled.
The girls kept giggling. I thought they were beautiful. They thought we were strange.
Ranakpur was the highlight of my trip. Well I had many highlights, all of which I will share here, someday. But Ranakpur was so amazing in that I had absolutely no idea what to expect. My mother-in-law insisted that we (Me, hubby, father-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law) take the day and drive to Ranakpur, she would stay home with the children so they could play in the pool and have one day off from being dragged around town. None of us researched where we were going. About an hour into our drive we slipped off the main highway onto a very narrow road and crept deep into the forest.
As you can see in the map here Ranakpur is very isolated. Our guide/priest explained that the temple was abandoned and all the villages surrounding it were destroyed by the Mughals some 500 years ago. It was cut off from life until this road was built. I believe it has been in the past 40 years that people can access it by car. It was amazing.
Our Desination: Ranakpur
Feed Me.
Their colorful Sari's and dark mysterious eyes, I
was captivated by their beauty throughout my trip last summer.
Whether draped in diamonds and expensive fabrics or
standing on the side of the road in rags of vibrant shades of red & yellow I couldn't help but look and smile at them. Their beauty was everywhere.
During our trip through Rajastan the adults took a day trip to the magical Jain Temple,
Ranakpur. If you ever visit India it is one of the MUST SEE DESTINATIONS on my list. The road was long and steep and extremely narrow, we got into an accident (head on) in our bus and as you find out quickly the men don't exchange insurance information, they fight than go their separate ways. It was very dramatic.
Upon our return from the forest as we slowly made our way back to civilization we stopped for a cold drink and stumbled upon this group of young women mixing concrete. They all stopped when we exited the bus and watched us walk towards them, cameras in hand. My husband (luckily for us he speaks Hindi) asked the men if we could take a few photos of the girls and they nodded and smiled.
The rag on the girls head is for the bowl of concrete that she will carry down the road to the site of construction.
This photo courtesy of Payal's iPhone
The road in and out of Ranakpur.
As you can see in the map here Ranakpur is very isolated. Our guide/priest explained that the temple was abandoned and all the villages surrounding it were destroyed by the Mughals some 500 years ago. It was cut off from life until this road was built. I believe it has been in the past 40 years that people can access it by car. It was amazing.
The Jain's built the temple around this magical tree.
Each column was hand carved and no two were the same. There are over 1444 marble pillars. It is said it is impossible to count them. We didn't try.
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