The last night in India...

We got to India on the last day of the year...now it's past Valentines Day, and we're about to leave.  It's been a good run...the tour was out of gas for the last few days, but most of the people were too...no big deal.  The last few hotels have had food service problems...the food was ok, but it took forever to get it...like today, 90 minutes for a chicken burger.  The old TLD flamethrower got a good workout on the chicken burger team!  We head to Bangkok for 5 days, then home...this will likely be my last post for this trip.  As usual, this trip has had it's ups and downs...mainly ups.  Lots of old men for me to take photos of...men don't seem to get as old in Thailand, but we'll see when we get there!  Thanks for reading amigos...TLD out!

Fading glory...

Meet the Maharajah, we're staying at his house.

 Times have been tough for the Prince...first the Indian government gave him the shaft, and now he can't afford to keep up his palace...has to rent it out to us!

 This is a grand old place, stuck in the 20's...hand painted walls that look like wallpaper...paintings and photos of ancestors long gone...

...yes, that's an elephant head!...

...musty libraries of books that may never get read...peeling paint, all the signs of lack of money for upkeep.  The prince and his lovely wife have resigned themselves to a life of innkeepers, no longer royalty as they knew it, they look for money to continue the renovation that may stave off the auction house.  The palace was built in the 1870's, and must have been grand in it's prime...one of the first  buildings with electricity in the region!  Legend has it that the Prince shot a man eating tiger right between the eyes in the very garden we now eat breakfast in.  We are given free run of most of the palace...the storage areas that hold so many memories, now on the verge of mildew in this tropical climate...the photos of long forgotten celebrities that used to be daily visitors, hang faded and rarely looked at.  The garden, if you could call it that, still has some nice flowers...

Is this what happened to Xanadu?  Oh well, not my problem!  The food isn't too bad...lot's of mosquitoes that rip you a new one when they bite, and the beds suck...but we have air mattresses!!!  The queen of this tour is a woman named Charlotte...she's a very cool lady that is saving the world a little at a time...and that includes the Prince and his palace!  Right now Charlotte and her tours are all the business the Prince has, but with her direction, I think he can turn this thing around.  Today we drove 2 hours to some village...not the highlight of the trip, but found a few guys worth taking photos of...

 ...this is a look down one of the more affluent streets of this particular village of 100K+...

 I don't know where the hell we go next, but I'll keep you posted!