First a story. A magician wanted to marry the queen of Bhangrah, so he mixed together the ingredients of a magic potion and put a spell on it. This potion was to be used by the queen on her hair. If she used it, she would go to the magician and do his bidding. It was sent to the queen as a gift, but the queen was also a witch. She recognized the gift for what it was. Then she cast her own spell. The potion was poured onto a stone which sprouted legs. She commanded the stone to slay the person who had sent the gift. So it hunted down the enchanter to carry out the queen's command. Just before the magician died, he muttered a curse: anyone who stayed in the queen's city after a certain date would die. When the town folk heard of the curse, they left the city.

Nine hundred years later and Bhangrah is still deserted. Locals run goats through the once magnificent grounds, but at night no one stays. The curse still has power. This is a site you won't find in the guide books. Entering through a portal in the wall that once protected the city, we peeked into a temple at the gate. A tiny candle illuminated a figure in the shadows. An eight foot high statue with a misshapen head painted blood red -- the monkey god, Hanuman -- glowered back at us from the gloom. This was the beginning of a walk that leads up a curved stone trail between symmetrical buildings that were once shops. Ancient temples covered with carvings point toward the heavens like fat skeletal fingers. Banyan trees hug the buildings with intertwined roots. Presiding over the town is a palace. It backs up against cliffs that once formed a natural protective wall. An intriguing building is a small open air temple perched on a rock outcrop high above the city. This is where the magician was reputed to have uttered the curse that resulted in the evacuation of the city. Now monkeys chatter and leap where royalty once held court. Local legend has it that bags of gold and silver coins are still hidden beneath the palace. We climbed into the palace. I thought I saw a monkey with what looked like a gold coin clutched in its hand, but the light was poor and I could have been mistaken.

The Castro Camels asked about how Dan and I get information. We rely on local papers written in English. I tried to vote in the U.S. election from India, but unfortunately the forms the US provided don't fit in the small fax machines we came up with.

Jim takes a side trip and meets another famous animal of India.