Back at Neemrana Fort Palace!

We made our second trip to Neemrana Fort-Palace this past weekend.  We went in March for a weekend trip.  This time we went with a large group of Karen's coworkers from AES.  Highlights include, exploring the village of Neemrana and playing cricket for the first time.  I hit the ball at my first at-bat ever.  The bowler got me out with the next pitch though....seemed like he put a lot more spin and velocity on the second bowl!  Another highlight was meeting a young man sitting on his front step learning statistics.  He proudly showed us his work....looked much like my notebook in college stats!  The weekend included many really good food buffets, emerald green swimming pools (something was wrong with the pools...they blamed it on the rain.  I went in but not for long), and our room which was huge!

Here are some pictures we both took during the trip.

A picture of the top of the fort palace from our trip in March!

The Fort-Palace was converted into a "heritage hotel"

Beautiful view from the entrance

Three Porters

Karen spent about an hour on this swing reading a book!

Our room - "Malabar Mahal"

Our room

Amazing views from our room

The before-dinner show: "bicycle wheel boy"

Fire-breathing people.
You can't see me (Karen) cringing--as I inhale his kerosene fumes. 

On our walk into the village, we attracted the attention of a "friendly" group of Indian boys, teenagers, and even an interesting man with a lot of hair (can you see him in the background?) and a few gold teeth.  The boys are all telling Tim that he has to do a Punjabi dance... or play cricket!

He chose cricket!  Oops I think the stick that fell down is a bad thing...

They are all telling me that I have very soft skin.

They are playing "push the boys into the foreigners".
It's similar to bowling.

This is much of what we saw.

Village woman

Quality time with grandpa!

Neemrana Village

Streets of Neemrana Village

An advertisement for a local jewelry shop.  Makes me want to buy a nose ring
(and grow a mustache).