All Wrapped Up for You

Dave and I at the Vijay Villash Palace in Mandvi

We traveled down to Mandvi this weekend for a little family get away. We toured the Palace and the grounds and then headed down to the beach. As with all things India it was an adventure. What we saw of the Palace was interesting the gardens appear to have been beautiful at one time.  We heard lots of wild life walking up to the palace from the parking area.  We removed our shoes to enter the palace and walked down the long hallway to see the sitting rooms and the dining room.  Very unimpressive, but the morning rooms and the porches had incredible views of the surrounding area.  I found myself humming "I'm proud to be an American" mostly because most Americans have homes as nice, maybe not as big but furniture and things could be found in any american household. And although the structure was large the rooms were not very big on the inside and of course it was hot. There also wasn't a very good breeze which was surprising considering most of the places I have been in India seem to be built to take advantage of the breezes here which are wonderful.  I think I was disappointed more due to hollywood rather than the actual facts, hollywood made the Indian palaces seem so wonderful in the old movies, I guess I had my expectations raised.
  
As we walked back to the car, Liz had a young man follow her all the way to the car, he couldn't take his eyes off of her.  We also had our picture taken by the various indians passing us, my guess is that white people are rare here.

We arrived at the beach which is on the Arabian sea.  As always, the water has a very calming effect on me.

The wonderful drive leading to the beach.  This is one of the cleanest
areas I have seen in India,  very beautiful.

When we arrived at the beach we were met by these 3 camel rides.  They followed us the whole
time we were at the beach arguing over who would be the one to give us a ride. They stood right behind us at the waters edge and then followed us as we walked around the water.  We opted not to get a ride as we didn't want to start a riot over having to pick one.

this boat was out on the water, a very wonderful sight.