India - Week Two (Feb 20-26)

Udaipur to Ranakpur (Feb 20)
At breakfast at Sunrise Cafe and spoke to the woman who runs the place. Turns out her husband was murdered by friends and the guy who did it only got one year in jail. She was very sweet but sounds like she has had a hard life. We attempted to then get our photo disks burned onto CD but found out the power was out (a planned outage of course) so there went our nice plans to pack everything in before leaving by 2pm today. Carrie had a mini-meltdown but we ended up getting our CD's, just no visit to the City Palace. Ah, you see one you see them all right?!

Drive on to Ranakpur and stopped at the most incredible temple yet,this one is totally a highlight of the trip. The main temple is the Chaumukha Mandir (Four-Faced Temple) and is India's most famous and biggest Jain temples. The carved columns (1444 in total and no two alike) and the entire design in milk-white marble was so intricate it was overwhelming in a beautiful way. I got stopped by a big Indian family to take their photo and I'm going to try to send to the address they gave me but I have my doubts when it says, "behind dangi factory" - I will try to do it though.

We really enjoyed the relaxed and out of the city feel of our next guesthouse suggested by Nand. Rapoom was spacious and open with beautiful plants and flowers everywhere. We also had probably our best meal ever here of Robodi maize and Kaju Curry, yummy!

Ranakpur to Jodphur (Blue City) - Feb 21
to Jaisalmer (Golden City)
Leaving Rankapur we once again heard our driver Nand's favorite saying, "Go to Jodphur, look see temple, leave." Look see basically means check it out but don't stay too long. :) We decided not to stay in Jodphur but to head on to Jaisalmer to arrive later. Once we arrived in Jodphur we went straight to the Fort of Meherangarh, definitely the most incredible of the forts so far. It also may have helped that it had a really interesting audio tour that we took. The views of the blue city below were gorgeous, and as you approached closer to the fort you began to realize the immensity of this structure and through the audio tour, the history and culture. Highlight for certain! We ended up taking longer then planned as Carrie really wanted to get an astrology reading.

We both ended up doing it, I figured why not right?! Very interesting and some parallels to the palm reader in Vietnam as well. I think I'll keep this reading to myself though!

Jaisalmer to Khuri - Camel Safari (Feb 22-23)
Took a walk through the city/fort walls where the inhabitants now are geared to the tourist industry but they used to work for the maharajas. The fort is an incredible site from afar as it rises 80m high and is carved out of the warm yellow sandstone rising as if it was a natural occurence coming straight out of the desert. Carrie had all sorts of errands to accomplish including getting her eyebrows done (threading in India is a pretty cool method instead of waxing that uses...you guessed it - thread) and a massage. I hung out with the woman's mother taking a picture of her god replica of Vishnu. She was a character! We attempted to do some Internet but again, the power went out on us.

Next we traveled about an hour or so to Khuri and booked a camel safari through the guesthouse. A bit of a rest and then on to meet our camel drivers Punama and Mohan and our respective camels, Soya for me and Lol for Carrie. They were pretty huge and not the prettiest of animals - later I found out not the most comfortable either! We thought according to our guesthouse host that each person including the guides would have their own camel but no...we shared the camels with our drivers for most of the time out in the desert. It certainly was an interesting perspective being so high up and also seeing the people living in the surrounding areas. Many children wanted rupees but we didn't have any change. They sometimes asked for pens as well so that might have been a good thing to bring along. I found the same thing in the Sapa hill tribes in Vietnam.

After just a couple hours we made it to our camp for the night, a beautiful sunset view on the dunes. The sand was so soft and silky, I'd never felt anything like it in my life. Punama told us when a baby is born they bring that sand back to make the baby a bed. It was interesting to watch them making our dinner but it took forever and we were already hungry. We spent the time flicking away the huge number of scarab's crawling out of the sand, black as coal against the light sand. Our dinner consisted of dahl (lentil dish) which was pretty spicy, rice with carrot, potatoes, and some chapati rolls cooked in the coals. They cleaned the pots using the sand as well, and we never got sick from this method. We rolled out the blanket from the camels and went to sleep under the most fantastic starry sky I could imagine. This safari was worth it even just to see the night sky.I didn't sleep wonderfully and Carrie was cold but I don't regret it one bit.

Breakfast was sweet parantha, basically an Indian bread with a sweet syrup in the middle. We also had a sweet paste type of food that was yummy but I can't remember the name. Then back on the camels and I was feeling a bit sore. My driver Mohan didn't speak much English so our riding was mostly silent but he let me steer the camel most of the time and I got the hang of doing it while going faster without holding on (except for my tightly clenched legs of course). We came upon the tiniest lamb all alone and looking very hungry and hot. Mohan got down and fed the lamb water directly from his mouth, it was too little to drink on its own. After looking for a sheep nearby or shepherd nearby Mohan picked up our lamb to bring him to the next shepherd. So, I was the driver as usual and we placed our little one with a number of other babies enclosed for protection by the shepherd.

Our lunch spot was in the shade of a tree and it was pretty hot out on the desert by now so it was nice to have some shade, I think I even took a baby nap after some lunch or basically the same thing as dinner. Then back on the camel (ouch) to head back to the guesthouse. Before we arrived there Punama invited us to his home for tea. He has 7 children but only 4 were there at the time. His wife was sweet but noone else spoke English so we just exchanged names. The women here have to cover their faces as a sign of respect when their husbands are there in public situations. It was such a bizarre thing for us to see, okay you married women don't tell your husbands about this one - they might try to adopt this tradition.

The guesthouse had a music and dance performance in the open circle of space in front of our huts that night. The poor dancer was not feeling well so she wasn't the most energetic although she was a trooper. The drummer and the castanet players were young men and they did an incredible job. The castanet player was so dynamic and obviously had an incredible talent. The castanet consisted of two pieces of rectangular wood and he had a set in each hand, I couldn't believe the sounds that came out of the instruments. And he was so fast, just amazing. Had a mediocre meal but slept well that night.

Leave Khuri for Rat Temple (Feb 24)
We had to leave early morning to head toward the Rat Temple, called Karni Mata in Deshnok. We were thinking of staying in Bikaner near the temple and Carrie really wanted to see this one. Having a pretty big aversion to rats I wasn't sure I would be going in there! The rats (kabas) inside the temple are considered to be holy and are incarnations of storytellers. This temple is an important place of pilgrimage; they feed the rats with holy food offerings and it is considered good luck if they run across your feet. So, I decided to just go in the main entrance and of course a rat ran across my feet. I figured I had enough good luck to go back outside the temple and just have a soda. :) After seeing the photos and video Carrie took I'm pretty happy about my decision. The guard out front told me at night there are so many rats you have to watch not to step on them. UGH!

We decided to forget staying in Bikaner and drive on to Delhi although it would be late when we arrived. So began our drive with some bad luck, so much for my rat drive by! We saw a motorcycle crash, got a tire puncture, drove by a car crash, got stuck in traffic, stopped for document check and later at train crossing. Just a few of our fun for the afternoon/evening. Finally, we arrived in Delhi almost midnight and just stayed at the place Nand took us even though it was 700 rupees a night (well that was after we bargained him down). Ah, we can sleep in the next day!

Last Day in Delhi (Feb 25-26)
So nice to sleep in but no hot shower as promised darn it! Met up with Carrie's friend Jaan for lunch. Turns out I had something bad that brought about a bad case of Delhi belly on my last freakin day in India. I lasted long enough to go pick out a Pashmina and buy the CD of the Bollywood movie soundtrack (Your Name) that Nand played for two weeks. It was the only music he had in the car. I headed back to get sick and crash while Carrie tried to figure out her travels for staying in India while I moved on to Israel. I couldn't leave the hotel at all once it started, UGH!

I had to leave for the airport by 2:30 a.m. for my early 4am flight. When I walked down to the lobby the couches and chairs were covered with hotel night staff sleeping. Nand was supposed to pick me up but he got the days wrong so luckily the hotel staff found me a driver.

So off I went to the airport with no other problems to plaue me - Bye India!