He have been keeping up a grueling pace working out details of our new tour to Madhyr Pradesh.
Prveen knows the area but it is new to me- so he is trying to show me all the wonderful things he knows as well as keeping us moving as my flight to Canada is very soon.
there is so much to see I can't wait to return... we have also travelled a lot of extra mile to track down interesting textile leads we had.
one disappointment was a place called Shivpuri, once know to prduce tie and dye especially in blue and white for the local market. we were all over the place but could not find an remnants of the old tradition.
a few visual highlights
Gwalior Fort- beautiful on the outside, with amazing subteranean spaces.
One room wasoriginally a room for the wives to swing in, it is just next a large pool room, the echoes and light must have been amazing; it was later used by an Emporer as a room to torture and murder his brother.
Tribal decorations local to the area.
we also visited the 200 year old modern Palace of Gwalinor , Jai Vilas Mahal[ The Maharajar still lives in much of it- we went to the museum 37 opulant rooms which would be less the one eighth of the palace.]
the palace is on an enormous scale and the areas we visited were rather like the Brighton Pavillion in the UK - over the top to say the least!
full of antiques, painted walls, things, so many things to see.
the dining hall is reported to have 58kg of gold leaf on the ceiling.
8 elephants were hung from the 2 chandlier hooks to see it they would take the weight of the crystal chandeliers!
they are beautiful and sparkly and still hanging there until this day!
the shells are powder horns from the armery of a long gone Maharaja....
some highlights of Gwalior
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