Making pots and weaving rugs in the desert.

The best things I bought

Beautiful hand embroidered trim - a metre of each

This is the first post you see but the last post I shall write.

If ever I am lucky enough to go back to India I can imagine heading straight for the little shop where I bought these fantastic sari edgings. 

Before I opened my Handmade Happiness shop in Petersfield I dreamed of owning a habadashery shop selling the most beautiful ribbons and buttons. Imagine selling something as incredible as these!

The lower trim is really old and the pink one seems quite new. 

If this is the first thing you read please scroll down to the first post titled 'Have yellow hat can travel' and read upwards. And if you find I've made a spelling mistake or you have anything to tell me, email jennystacy6@gmail.com

I'd love to hear from you. 

And if you want to read about my shop click onto Handmade Happiness top right. 

Thank you for reading.

What I bought in India

A goat's bell from the blacksmith and my name on a grain of rice from a descendant of the Udaipur palace artists

Printed cottons from the Tibetan market

My rug from the Bishnoi  rug weaver

'Silk' scarves

More cotton fabric

Inside the City Palace, Udaipur

Detail of painting of crocodile pool inside the palace

Coloured glass changing the light inside the room

Peeling paint has a strange beauty especially in these blues

Curved mirrored pieces in this mosaic

A glass room

This is huge, about the size of two average rooms

The artist's skill on walls and ceilings, sometimes using a one hair brush


Here are some of the 60 pictures I took on my last day in India at Udaipur. (See previous post.) The following morning we drove to the airport at Mumbai and got a plane to Delhi and from there another plane home to England.

Writing this will help me remember rich details of our trip that I would otherwise forget. I hope it will also entertain other people and who knows, perhaps encourage some to visit India for themselves. Thank you  for reading.

Day Fourteen - Udaipur - the City Palace and a Tibetan market

Looking from the winter palace across to the summer palace

A decorated archway

Our city palace guide with film star good looks!

So much detailled decoration to gaze at

A lattice window

Fantastic painting - with just one hair from a squirrel's tail

A day when I took 60 pictures. 

In the morning we visited the huge City Palace on the shores of Lake Pichola. The Lake Palace was where the ruler and his family decamped to for the summer months and there were boat rides out there but I was too entranced by the decorative walls, windows and ceilings of the larger palace on the shore.

There were rooms of coloured glass and intricately painted ceilings. Artists' finely painted scenes of  life as it was then. I'll do another post just of pictures to show you these things.

We were shown round by the impossibly handsome man pictured. Maybe he acted as guide round the City Palace when not starring in Bollywood movies !?

Each room inside the palace was a colourful thing of wonder, and outside there were guards on horseback dressed in red and orange and holding flags. There was also an enormous 'portable cage for trapping and keeping tigers.' 

This place is a feast for the imagination. There was a picture of an indoor pool containing crocodiles...and a room containing just cages for carrier pigeons.

All too soon we had to move on to the Jagdish white marble temple nearby dedicated to Lord Vishnu, preserver of the universe. Here for the first time we heard loud chanting and singing...

After lunch at the hotel we drove back into the town centre. It was the last day and still I hadn't got any cotton fabrics. We were taken to a plush building and were asked to sit down to listen to a talk by the textile house owner. I had a creeping sense of deja vu  (see Day Eleven) and quietly myself and several others left the building.

We had spotted a Tibetan market from the coach and here, at last I found the simple printed cottons I had been hoping for.

 I bought several of the largest size of long nightdresses in assorted prints and colours for between £2 and £4 each knowing that there here was lots of fabric that could be re-used.

 Feeling very happy we walked down the narrow shopping streets and found handmade banana paper and, best of all, some stunning beaded ribbons, that I am now wishing I'd bought more of. (pictures soon)

Day Thirteen - Jodhpur to Udaipur

The Royal Enfield Bullet worshipped at its own temple

Scaffolding of wood, not metal

I love these table runners where we stopped for lunch

Why don't we have signs like this in England?!!

Purple doors - love this colour!

The terrain was more mountainous on the way to Udaipur. And we were told there were lots of leopards and a few tigers in those mountains but we didn't see any. Lots of monkeys though. 

We stopped off at the Bullet Temple, picture above.

This motorbike has a history:

 One day the bike's owner had a terrible accident. He lost control of the bike and smashed into a tree, killing himself outright. The police took the bike back to the police station but the following morning it had disappeared. They found it propped against the tree where the accident had happened.

The bike was then taken back to the police station, the fuel tank drained and the bike wrapped in chains. But the following morning it had again disappeared and was found in the same place, propped against the tree. 

Since then the bike has been worshipped and young men wanting safe travel on their motorbikes bring their helmets to be blessed at this temple. 

Today I bought some fabric for the first time. I found 'silk' scarves at a 'comfort stop' on the journey and bought 6 at a very good price for future cutting up.

We stopped for lunch at an extraordinary 'eco building'. Sorry I didn't write down the name -but I did take a few pictures, it felt futuristic.

Then to the carved white marble Jain Temple at Ranakpur. The Jain people are just 2% of India's population but we were told they control 65% of the country's economy. 

To enter the temple we had to leave outside any leather items - belts, handbags, shoes and purses. And also any items of food or drink. Anne had her non-leather handbag searched and a tea bag confiscated at the entry point. It was very strict.

Once inside all was delicious coolness. Monks asked if they could pray for us and the carved pillars were interesting to look at.

Day Twelve - Bishnoi

The potter and his wheel

A Bishnoi house - although we didn't think it was actually lived in nowadays

Inside a Bishnoi home

A 'fridge' to keep food safe from animals

Looking down on the carpet weavers loom

A finished dhurrie or large rug

By jeep to remote Bishnoi village where the nature-worshipping Bishnoi people live. Apparently some soldiers once tried to cut down some trees here for firewood but the villagers revered their trees and tried to protect them. The soldiers then killed all the villagers near the trees including women and children. Since then the villagers themselves have been revered. The men wear only white and trees and animals are never harmed.

We watched a potter with his heavy stone wheel throwing pots. He set a heavy stick into a hole in its circumference and physically turned it, setting it spinning until it built up its own momentum. A large piece of clay was stuck onto the wiped clay in the centre and the potter pulled off bowls, their lids, even a money box.

A woman in our group wanted to have a go but she hadn't the strength to get the wheel spinning with the stick. 

Then to a typical Bishnoi house with cattle tethered nearby and a woman inside the house separating curds from whey.

The jeeps drove us to a Bishnoi carpet weaver who spoke perfect English. He said machines could never achieve what he could because of interlocking. The dhurries he worked on were made of cotton yarn and camel hair. The colours were natural dyes made from ruddle, a mined stone to achieve red; blue from indigo and black from a mixture of aubergine and cloves.

I bought a small rug from this man and it's sitting in my tiny hall right now reminding me of my fascinating trip to Bishnoi.

Day Eleven - Jodhpur - textile city

The 15th century Mehrangarh  Fort

At Jaswanth Thada - the memorial to Maharaja Jaswanth Singh II

Jodhur is the 'Blue City' with many walls this colour - both for coolness and to deter mosquitos

I went to India wanting to fill my suitcase with printed cotton fabrics.
Jodhpur is the place to buy textiles as apparently, anything elsewhere has been made in Jodhpur. So with much excitement I entered Maharani Textiles, a vast warehouse with floor to ceiling piles of folded fabrics.

Here was my opportunity to buy cottons, silk, even embroidered sari fabric... and they would take Barclaycard...

However before I could start to choose we were shepherded into a large room and sat down and offered a drink. The owner of this emporium wanted to personally show us his wares. First the handiwork of village women in embroidered and patchwork bedcovers. Then 'No photos please' - the Designer collection:

A Terence Conran  grey on white geometric pattern throw; a Kenzo grey silk with pale flower embroidery bed cover; an Anthropologie patchwork bedspread;  a Liberty red and gold paisley throw (my favourite). Finally the Hermes cashmere throws which he assured us would cost thousands in London but we could have today for just £140 each. Not part of their current collections apparently, these were older designs.

Many of our party bought these offerings. Especially the Hermes design which came in numerous colourways. They bought them for presents or for personal use. We were forbidden to sell them on. I wasn't tempted and waited impatiently for the chance to price some of the cottons and silk fabrics.

I got up to rummage just as the owner started to have scarves and pashminas thrown at our feet. However the owners' staff spoke no English and it was the owner who knew the prices and he was busy. I was so frustrated. If the price was right I could have bought there but the only price I succeeded in getting was the price for plain silk fabric - £25 a metre. I could get it cheaper in England so I came away very disappointed. This had been the first opportunity for me to buy fabric for the shop and I had come away empty-handed.

Then lunch at the Uttam Hotel - the best of the hotels we stayed at I thought, with steamed vegetables and mild dahls always on offer. Very comfortable beds, a powerful shower and luxurious bath.

In the afternoon we visited the impressive Mehrangarh Fort and then the cremation ground of the rulers of Jodhpr containing the white marble memorial pictured above.

Luxury camping at Manvar

Our tent

Windows, draped walls and twin beds

I slept in the left hand bed

Running water in the separate bathroom

A shower inside the tent!

On the odd occasion that I've been in a tent, most memorably on honeymoon, when the tent blew away several times during the night, it was never like this!

This is glamping, and if it hadn't been so freezing cold during the night - the temperature plummets as it gets dark in the desert - it would have been a luxurious experience.

The image that will stay with me is that when I pulled back the bedclothes (see above) a lizard shot on to the pillow. It had been comfortably asleep until I disturbed it!

Day 10 - Scary Jeep rides, camels and goats towards Manvar camp

A metal worker who sold us goat bells. Note how his wife's face remains covered.

Driving over sheer precipices!

Camels pulling us in carts

Standing on top of a sand dune

Boy goat herd chopping leafy branches for his goats below

Driving deeper into the Thar Desert, I noticed that many of the women we saw had covered faces. We were near the Pakistan border so the Muslim influence was strong. 

En route to Manvar Camp we stopped off at this blacksmith's home to watch him working with sheets of metal which his strong young grandson hit hard with a mallet to flatten and shape the hot metal. He sold goat bells for 100 rupees each (just over £1) and now I wish I'd bought more than one. Their sound is so evocative of the goat herds that used to pass our house when, as a child, I lived in the Middle East.

Next the jeep rides over the sand dunes to take us to the camels.

The open back jeeps took 8 people. Their drivers were competitive, macho types and I guess they scored points for making their passengers scream the loudest!

They drove innocently along until suddenly we would find ourselves on top of a sand dune with a sheer drop on one side. I inwardly pleaded with the driver not to attempt to drive down it. No use. It was terrifying and we screamed, clinging to one another for dear life. I feared the jeep would turn over but after many of these sheer drops I grew to trust our driver. 

Eventually we were dropped off near a group of camels and their owners. The more brave among us rode on top of the camels towards the tents where we were to spend the night, and the rest (me included) were pulled in camel carts (see above.)

Camels, 'ships of the desert' can apparently survive without water for as long as 14 days, storing what they need in their hump. They have a reputation for being bad tempered and for spitting. But these camels were docile and, although the head of the camel behind us loomed just inches above my head, it never spat or even dribbled. That camel ride was one of the nicest experiences of the holiday and the camels took us to our beautiful tents. (pictures soon) Definitely glamping not camping!

Day Nine - Desert breakdown

Driving into the desert. I think these are acacia trees

A tyre blew miles from anywhere but the driver and trusty co-driver were able to fix it

The  impressive foyer of the Gorbandh Palace Hotel

Jaisalmer  Fort

Colour

Sunset over the city of Jaisalmer

We were heading for Jaisalmer through the great Thar Desert when the road suddenly seemed very bumpy indeed. A tyre had blown. As we stood by the side of the road waiting for the spare to be fitted, a bunch of ragged children materialised as if from nowhere. 

The oldest of them, a girl of about 12 pointed to my mouth and then to her mouth. Thinking she wanted money for food I offered her money. But no what she actually wanted was a lipstick. Preferably a lipstick and some nail varnish. I wished I had a spare to give her. Living miles from the nearest shop, perhaps miles from any other people it must be hard for a little girl growing up and trying to have something of her very own. I realised that money was no good to her; nowhere to spend it. If ever I go back to India I will take things for children. 

The 'Sun City' of Jaisalmer is dominated by the massive fort, shown above. Inside the fort's walls are little shops. I saw china decorated door knobs like the ones sold in Anthropologie shops; a man making bed covers on an ancient Singer sewing machine outside his shop; and everywhere you looked colourful embroidery on bags and cushions.