Travel with Pam and Tina to Mali in January!

Mali Travelogue Complete

Update from Guatemala

Give Back and Kick Back in Mali - January 2010
Our friends Pam from Adventures in Rock and Tina from Women Worldwide have once again teamed up (as Give Back, Kick Back Travel) to put together their second annual volunteer vacation to Mali in January, 2010. They will be helping to create a school garden in the Dogon

Mukul's Gardens
Mukul is a very talented gardener, and we enjoyed the oases that he has created at his home in Agra and on the campus of Colonel's Brightland School. His garden at home consists of over 100 species of plants, along with turtle and fish ponds, lily ponds, and terra cotta birdhouses for parakeets. It was the perfect place to relax with a cup of tea first thing in the morning.

Deogarh, Udaipur, and Delhi
After leaving Jodhpur, we headed to Deogarh, where we stayed at the incredible Deogarh Mahal, a 17th century palace which is now a heritage hotel. It is owned by Rawat Nahar Singh II and his wife Rani Saheb. "Rawat" is a local title equivalent to "Raja". The room that we stayed in (Moti Mahal, room 227) dates back to the 17th century, and has beautiful 18th century frescoes depicting events in the life of Krishna. It also has marble archways and niches in the wall. It looked like the kind of museum rooms we had seen in some of the city palaces we had toured – yet we were actually going to get to sleep here? It was incredibly surreal.

Jodhpur
Yesterday we drove to Jodhpur. Along the way, we stopped in Pokhran, a village known for its terra cotta pottery work. We stopped in at the home of one terra cotta artisan and his family. They demonstrated some of their techniques for us, and they did some beautiful work.We arrived in Jodhpur in the afternoon, and checked into our extremely nice hotel, the Ajit Bhawan. At 5 pm, we went out on the town. The Hindu holiday of Diwali falls on the 17th, and people are busy  making preparations, buying sweets, fireworks, gifts, etc. So we went to the market in Jodhpur and just enjoyed the activity. It is somehow frenetic and laid back all at the same time. People are in a festive

Rajasthan
We have covered many miles since our last post. After our wonderfully relaxing stay at Mukul and Sunita's in Agra, we headed to Rajasthan. On the way we stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, capital of the Mughal Empire for 14 years under Akbar's reign. It was nice to revisit this site, as we had more time to spend than we had in 2007.We then crossed into Rajasthan. Our first stop was Jaipur, the Pink City. There we stayed at the home of Mr. Hemant Agrawal, owner of Deshantar Travel who helped to organize our trip. He and his family were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed our time there.  Mukul took us for drinks at the exquisite Rambagh Palace Hotel (absolutely incredible!!) The next mor