(...)
We took to the streets in auto-rickshaws so as to get the feeling of what the traffic in India was like. The traffic rules, if any, looked a lot more permissive than those in Europe and we would soon feel fearful that something might happen as the rickshaw we were in drove across and turned into the narrow streets among all sorts of other transportation vehicles, not to account for the hundreds of pedestrians walking about hastily.
What an experience it was!...
Christiane and Joe inside the auto-rickshaw (left) and the driver (right).
Our drive would soon end at one of the main city streets where a walk around the highly ornamental street façades started - The Bikaner "havelis" - the remaining witness of the overland caravan trade route to Central Asia and China.
The delicately carved "jaalis" (peforated screens), "chajjas" (overhangs) and "jharokhas" (balconies) left none of us indifferent (I am sure) as to the exquisite quality of their craftmanshift.
The window "framing" ... the details of the carvings and the combination of the blood red coloured façades and the pale bluish colour of the windows looked just perfect ..., and as we wandered about the alleys and the back-streets, my overall opinion was one of inevitable and inexplicable inebriating feeling of beauty ...
(To be continued)
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