Portfolio

AMBER INDIA

Amber was the ancient capital of Jaipur state before the move was made to Jaipur.
The fortress palace was constructed from 1592 by Raja Man Singh. The fort is a superb example of Rajput architecture, stunningly situated on the hillside overlooking a lake which reflects its terraces and ramparts.

FATEHPUR SIKRI/ UTTAR PRADESH

Fatehpur Sikri was a Mogul Empire situated here about 40 km west of Agra. A city was built up and then abandoned, it was said due to difficulties with water supply. A mosque was built here also its said to be a copy of the one in Mecca.
A beautiful building in elements of Persian and Hindu design.

KARNI MATA TEMPLE

Karni mata temple at Deshnok on the Jodhpur road this temple is dedicated to the mystic Karni Mata.
The huge silver gates to the temple and the marble carvings were donated by Maharaja Ganga Singh and the golden umbrella tops the temple, but the main interest here is the rats.
The temple is infested with holy rats, which are fed and cared for in the belief that they will reincarnate as mystics or holy men.

KURI THE SMALL DESERT VILLAGE

Kuri about 40 kilometres southwest of Jaisalmer, it's a delightful,peaceful place with houses of mud and straw,
decorated like Persian carpets.
You should absolutely come here
and stay here for a while, enjoying
the camels, desert and the
wonderful hospitality of the owner Raju.
To be around and watch the traditionally dances
and eat a menu of wonderful food is an experience
I would not want to be without and I know I will return.

MANDAWA

A small picturesque city in Rajasthan. A place i never heard of before but a place well worth visiting.
Peaceful and laid back, with beautiful haveli houses.

SPIRIT OF INDIA

India they say very often is not a country but a continent.
From north to south, from east to west, the people are different, the languages are different, the customs are different, the country is different.
There are few countries in the world with this vast variety that India has to offer and it's a place which somehow gets into your blood.
Love it or hate it, you will never be able to ignore India.
It's not an easy country to handle and more that a few visitors are only too happy to fly back home again. Yet a year later or more they might be back again.

It all depends on the amazing variety - it's as vast as it is crowded, as luxurious as it is poor.
The plains are as flat and featureless as the Himalayas are high and spectacular.
The food is as terrible as it can be magnificent, the transport as exhilirating as it can be boring and uncomfortable.
Nothing about India is quite the way you expect it to be.

India is far from the easiest country in the world to travel in. It can be hard going.
The powerty gets you down, Indian bureacracy would try the patience of even a Hindu saint and the most experienced travellers find themselves at the end of their tempers at some point in India.
Yet it's all worth it.
Basically India is what you make of it and what you want it to be. If you want temples, there are temples and then with enough styles and types to confuse anybody.
If it's history you want, India has plenty of it and the forts and the abandoned cities, ruins, battlefields and monuments all have their tales to tell.

If you simply want to lie on the beach, there are enough of those to satisfy the biggest of sun worshipper.
If walking in the open air is your thing, then head for the trecking routes of the Himalayas, some of them are as wild and deserted as you can ask for.
If you simply want to meet the real India, you'll come face to face with it all the time - on Indian trains and buses, getting there may not always be half the fun but it certainly is half of the experience

A visit to India is just that, it's not a place you simply and clinically see. India is a total experience an assault on all the senses a place you'll NEVER forget.

I am the kind of person who keeps coming back, this last journey to India was 2006, that is the fifth one and it will be more, many more.

THis time it was a diffrent journey in many ways. Travelling in a car for 14 days with a driver that was absolutely divine. Annette my travelcompanion and I had met in India 1987 and when I asked her if she would make this journey with me, she said yes. Two fifteen year old boys were along as well, sometimes one could have wished they were not, but on the whole this was a fantastic journey.

There was so many things to see, so many pictures to take, so many people to meet, people who were so fine, I will never forget them.

We visited palaces, slept in palaces, we saw all kinds of temples, all sort of landscapes, high roads, the desert and citys.

We slept under the stars out there in the Rajasthani desert after riding out on camelback from Kuri.
I could once more visit an old friend in the desert city of Jaisalmer.
And we got to meet Radju the man who owned the small place at the edge of the desert, he will be somebody whom I will always remember.

Coming down to Udaipur and sleeping out there at The Lake Palace Hotel was something you always will remember. Compliments of a wonderful man Raymond Bickson a good friend of Annettes, and the top manager of all the Taj hotels in the world. Mr Bickson made it possible for all of us to stay there so even our driver Deepak, who never thought it would be possible for him to do something like that in all his life.
But we told him something he taught us and that was
"EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE IN INDIA"

Since everything was possible in India he could now share this experience with us.

We travelled down south to the Arabian Sea, we ate good, we listen to the most fantastic music , which is haunting, sensitive and carries a kind of sadness.

We spent time in the sun and we met more wonderful people down there.


Suraj, who worked at the small huts we lived in,Antonio the taylor, who made fanatstic clothes.
Ashok who rented out the sunchairs at The Sweet Lake.
We met Katrin from Sweden there, she had vistited the place 20 years ago and she thought it looked pretty much the same.
We met two men from Kashmir and one of them became a very special friend of mine,Zaid.

It was not a joyful moment when we had to pack our bags, take a taxi to the airport for transport till Mumbai and then again to Paris and finally to Sweden.

It was sorrow in my heart to have to leave and the only concellation was that I will RETURN.

A lot of people go to India for lots of reasons,they all seek something I think, wether it is a new kind of philosophy, nice beaches, religion, just relaxation or many other things.
Every time I have returned I have learned more and more to love this country and it's people.

This site with pictures I would like to dedicate to the INDIAN PEOPLE and THE SPRIT OF THEIR GREAT COUNTRY.

VARANASI THE CITY BETWEEN TWO RIVERS.

Varanasi "the eternal city" is one of the most important pilgrimage sites of India and also a major tourist attraction.
Situated on the banks of the sacred Ganges.
Varanasi has been a centre of learning and civilisation for over two thousand years.
It was at Saranath only ten kilomtres from Varanasi, that Buddha first preached his message of enlightment,25 centuries ago.
There are over 100 ghats in all along the river, of which Dasaswamedh Gaht is probably the one Bathing Gaht that you could start out to have a visit to.
Manikarnika and the less used Harischandra Gaht are the main burning ghats.Here are the bodies cremated after making their final journey to the holy river Ganges, wrapped in white cloth and carried on a bamboo stretcher.

VRINDAVAN INDIA

This is the town of a 1000 shrines a holy place of India.