Amanbagh Notes

First full day in Amanbagh. Breakfast at 10:30, then reading poolside. Lots of birds here, including green parrots that fly down to drink from the pool.

In the afternoon we hike. See goats, peacocks, monkeys, cows, sheep. All of the animals look so much healthier here than near the cities. The hotel sits near the edge of a tiger sanctuary and panthers are even more common, but we neither see nor hear any cats. The goats are being herded by emaciated old men.

On the way back to the hotel from our hike we pass a mosque, with presumably occupied covered caskets in the front courtyard. Kids walk past and say "hi" and want to shake the mens' hands. Families drive past, three or four to each 100cc motorbike. Men and women walk in lines out of the fields, retiring from work for the day.

Day Two. 8ish a.m. Sitting on the terrace. Reading this month's Harpers. Tractors drive by outside the wall, blaring music with strange scales, the singers squalling in Hindi. The locals - the ones who aren't among the 200 who work for the hotel - are headed for work in the fields. Every other tractor has a loud stereo. We counted 20 monkeys walking by on the hotel wall before we even got out of bed.

Drinks and hors d'oeuvre the previous night with the GM of Amanbagh. He had smuggled back some good salami - very difficult and expensive to get in India - from France with him and he served us generous portions of it.  The drinks were unexciting, though.  Cocktail culture has not caught on in India; drinks, when offered, are typically sweet fruit drinks with an undetectable splash of alcohol.  Moreover, because of high import tariffs, a modest-sized tolerable Scotch is $20 just about anywhere in this country.  So, we drink local beer. The GM has managed hotels in Maldives and Morocco, and being a schoolmate of D he is not afraid to share with us good stories of hotel management.

He had informed us that "our garbage truck is a camel." This is confirmed at 10:46 when our garbage truck can be seen passing behind the wall, heavily laden with plastic bags.

Goatherds

Parrot drinking pool water.  Seems like a bad move.

There are old forts everywhere in Rajasthan.

The pool at Amanbagh.

Fried potato-stuffed squash blossom

Camels are everywhere in Rajasthan, usually being put to actual use

In India, it's a good bet the monkeys are watching you.  It can get creepy.

You get used to seeing this kind of thing.

Another old fort.  After a while, you don't even bother to ask the name.

Lakshmi was the docile star of our polo match.

The girls won, 5-2.