North India Trekking Trip 北印度行山之旅 (23 Aug - 11 Sep 2002)

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Outside the Amber Fort in Jaipur.

(9 Sep 2002, 70mm, F2.8 A-mode.)

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Outside the Amber Fort in Jaipur. Mainly selling offerings for worshippers of the Hindu Temple.

(9 Sep 2002, 85mm, F1.4 A-mode.)

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Voyeurism is normally not my favorite subject, but on the other hand I wanted my pictures to record the real life. The people here clearly aware of my presence and camera. I felt that they did mind about being photographed. But after some struggling I took this picture, in the name of recording the reality.

The water puddle here was actually the Water Garden at the Amber Fort. At the time of visit, the Water Garden was almost completely dried up. This family just walk down to the bottom of the water garden and bathed.

Unless someone can tell me that this was in fact a religious practice, otherwise to me this clearly symbolized the in-your-face poverty in India, and the general lack of sanitation facilities.

While some people feel proud about the Mark II Water Pump, shouldn't someone also wonder why after 50+ years, the Pump is still needed, and worse yet there are people who don't even get to enjoy the use of a Pump?

(9 Sep 2002, 200mm, F2.8 A-mode, crop from large picture.)

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Inside the City Palace in Jaipur is a guarded entrance to the residence of the current Maharaja (King). Parked next to the entrance is perhaps the Maharaja's vehicle. See the license plate and the covered flag pole in front right.

All the forts we visited were built by or for the Maharaja. Now the largest democracy in the world, India is no longer ruled by the Maharaja or the Rajas (lesser Kings). The Maharaja and Rajas still widely enjoy respect of the people, and many of them Member of the Parliament, we were told.

(9 Sep 2002, 28mm, F2.8 A-mode)

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Whose feet fit which shoes?

(10 Sep 2002, 28mm, F2.8 A-mode.)

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Paul shopping for "Indian Prince Shoes".

(10 Sep 2002, 28mm, F2.8 A-mode.)

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Paul enters S&M shop?!

(10 Sep 2002, 28mm, F2.8 A-mode)

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Lentils vendors in Jaipur. The shopkeepers would occasionally drop lentils at the back of the stall, thus attracted hundreds of pigeons hovering and walking around.

At the first sign of intrusion, hundreds of pigeons would fly up.

(10 Sep 2002, 28mm, F2.8 A-mode.)

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Picture taken from inside of our air-conditioned van. This is a very common scene on Indian highways. Again, not easy to provide for 1 billion people's need.

(10 Sep 2002, 200mm, F2.8 A-mode.)

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Me. Not shaved for 3 weeks. Nice & comfort at home.

(12 Sep 2002, 85mm, F1.4 A-mode)