Himachal (India's Himalaya)

Himachal, is a state north of India which includes the Himalaya's part that is in India's territory.

Shimla

Shimla is the capital of the Himachal state. It was built by the british and it was the summer's capital of India.

It is about 2400 meters hight and it has therefore a very nice weather compared to the hot temperatures in Delhi. This makes it a very popular resort for Delhi's people to go during summer vacation.




Manali

From Shimla a bus took me to Manali, a small town about 200 kms away from Nepal border.

Here you can see high mountains and very beautiful valleys and forests.

Many Tibetan refugees live here, so there are many buddist temples. The Dalhai Lama himself lives in this region (in the town of Dharmasala).

New Jaipur

Just few kms away from the old town there is the new Jaipur, the capital of Rajastan.

It was founded 300 years ago when the old Jaipur was abandoned by its inhabitants.

It is a busy 3 million people city, with heavy traffic and intense life.

It is also known as the Pink City because all the buildings are pink.



This is the palace of the Maraja. He and his family is actually still living here so it is possible to visit only some parts of the palace.

Inside the palace there's a museum with many paintings, weapons, furnitures, clothes and many other kind of items that were of common use in the past.


Don't have so many pictures here couse we actually spent most of the time in the car (damned traffic) and in this palace, inside which it is not possible to take pictures.

Old Jaipur

This is the Old Jaipur, the ancient capital of Rajastan.

It is about 300 Kms south of Delhi, less than 10 Kms from the new Jaipur the modern capital.

This city was abandoned 300 years ago mainly because of the lack of water.

Now it is still inhabited by 20 000 people and there is a very beautiful palance that once was the residence of the Maraja.





This is one a garden inside the palace.

There are different buildings inside and each building has a different function.

Part of the building is the actual residence of the maraja's family, other is dedicated to the public functions and were open to anybody.
There is also a temple.




This part of the palace was the actual residence of the Maraja.

It is the highest part, on the top.

It is built to be as comfortable as possible and it even had running water and some primitive cooling system.

From the windows it has a very nice view of a park and an artificial lakes where elephants usually take bath.




This is the courtyard where the maraja and its courts could talk to the people. The maraja himself could appear from the window of his palace while his ministers sat on this porch you see on the left.
The people were standing on the courtyard around it.

Red Fort (Delhi)

The Red Fort is the most famous momument in Delhi.
It was the residence of the Moghaul emperors and it was built by the same king that had built Taj Mahal.

The first picture is the entrance of the Fort. The door at the entrance takes you to a nice market where you can do some souvenir shopping.

I bought some paintings here, Moghaul's style paintings in rice paper... very nice ;-)









This is the second door (after the one above) to pass to enter the real palace.

This door is made using three different architectural styles: islamic, hindu and tamil.

When the king sat on his throne this door was the first thing it could see. This reminded him that every decision should be taken considering all the cultures that were part of his kingdome





This is the palace where the emperors used to live. You can even see the throne in the middle.

The merge of the 3 cultures of the empire is actually the main theme of the whole complex. You can notice, if you pay attention to details.










These are the buildings behind the palace. There's a mosque, a palace for guests and a palace for women (since the were muslims women had to live separately).

In the middle is the garden where there where shows with hundreds of dancers.