Chandigar

So, to catch up a bit, let's review...

Left Pune at the beginning of June and went to Delhi.  Conference, sightseeing, good times (you've seen the post).  

Then it was off to Chandigar, home of the Nek Chand Sculpture Garden.  It is the second most

 visited tourist site in all of India,

behind (of course) the Taj Mahal.  I was alerted to the wonders of Nek Chand by my old knitting teacher and all around groovy Madison artist.  (Madisonians - check out The Green Parasol on Willy St!)  Of all the advice I got about coming to India, her recommendation that I visit the sculpture garden probably was the one thing that contributed the most happiness to my time here.  I LOVED it.

Other people seemed pretty happy there too.

I won't try to describe the place - I couldn't - but I'll leave it to my loyal Nag Champa-ions to follow the link above and google for pictures.  Instead, just a few favorite shots...

Above is a small part of the Third Phase which has a sort of country fair feel to it.  In each of the arches there is a gigantic swing and people are welcome swing to their hearts' content. There are camel rides on offer along the front of the swings, and behind you can wander through the largest house of mirrors I've ever seen.  This is the one place in all of India that Ben has ever asked to go back to.

He literally had to be carried out...  

Unfortunately the rest of Chandigar is unmitigatedly weird and awful in a Soviet-bloc era sort of way.  We found a gem of a hotel WAY out in the Punjabi countryside, for which we were hugely grateful, but 24 hours proved about as long as we wanted or needed to stay in Chandigar.  With the first of a string of great train station experiences we were off to Amritsar...