Ginger Without Borders

While traveling in South India, most of our hotels included both a breakfast and a dinner buffet with the room. So we had labels to explain what we was displayed on the buffet. I still had to ask Kingston questions about many of the dishes but at least I could see what I was eating…

Lena and Dawn decided they needed a rest day after 21 days of “Kingston travel.” Lena had resisted visiting Hindu, Muslim or Christian religious sites, but Dawn and I have often remarked to each other that many of our European trips have centered around visits to Catholic cathedrals, because we both admire the artworks and…

On our return trip to Jaipur, we took a route along the Man Sagar Lake that borders Jaipur. In the center of the lake is a Rajput palace that was originally built in 1699, the Jal Mahal or “Water Palace.” The building and the lake were later renovated and significantly enlarged when Jai Singh II…

The Muslim Mughals were not the only Indian royalty with extreme wealth and an interest in building monumental architecture. Our second day in Jaipur began with a visit to the fortress built by the Hindu Rajput Amer dynasty during their alliance with the Mughal Emperors: the Amber Fort (also known as the Amer Fort), another…

Once we left Fatepur Sikri, we had a 4.5 hour drive to the third point in the so-called Golden Triangle of North India, the “pink city” of Jaipur. Jaipur is part of what was once part of the Mewar Kingdom (now India’s modern state of Rajasthan), once one of the most powerful Hindu Rajput Dynasties…