Namaste From India Part II

If I thought a lifetime had passed before I sent my last email, well, I clearly did not know what would be in store for me over the last week and a half! First of all, Happy New Year to everyone. I hope the hangovers aren't too bad today and everyone is gearing up to get back to real life! To be honest, I think I'm almost ready for real life too. There are so many amazing things about India that I love...the culture, the people, the sights, smells, sounds and tastes...but then there are things that are harder to handle...like the pollution, the poverty, and especially the staring and hassling! I have never felt more like a "foreigner" in my life as I do here. It's a constant barrage of "Hello madam, which country?" or "Rickshaw madam? Tuk tuk?" But just when you think you've had enough, you come across a warm and friendly person who turns things positive again. It's truly incredible. But where did I leave you last time (after that absurdly long email, I will try to be more brief here!). Ah yes, we had just taken the lovely overnight bus from Udaipur to Jodhpur. I have to mention here that many of you responded with surprise that Jess almost peed in a bag. We thought the highlight of the night was the complaint about her smell, but I guess you had to be there! Once we arrived to Jodhpur we basically slept for half the morning. Jodhpur was once the capital of the state Marwar ("Land of Death") and is nicknamed "The Blue City" because of the beautiful blue-washed buildings. After getting waiting list train tickets for two days later, we took a rickshaw up to the Mehrangarh fort, originally built in 1459. Our rickshaw driver waited for us while we snuck past the entrance (not wanting to pay the inflated tourist entry fee which included a headset). We had some amazing views of the city below. We tried to go shopping in the bazaars but we accidently went to the local bazaar where they sell things that are not for tourists. We finally ended up back at our hotel, where we chatted with our amazingly helpful hotel owner, Jagdish. Next, off to dinner and bed. The following day we hired a car and driver to take us to Bishnoi villages nearby. The Bishnoi people are environmentalists who live by 29 conservation principles. They are opposed to even cutting down trees. In the first village, we went to a family's house. We took off our shoes and sat on the dried cow dung floor and they offered us chai. Clearly this was not made with mineral water, but not wanting to seem rude, I drank it. Jess did not. You could argue here about who is the smarter of the two of us... But then something strange happened. The family offered us opium! We weren't interested but their three year old daughter was. They laughed "She is opium addicted" (their only English) and gave her a big chunk to eat. I was appalled, but she was quitehappy and ended up chasing birds around her room. The family consisted of a man and his wife, both of their mothers (one was 105 years old and could still sit down cross-legged on the floor and get up again), and a bunch of other people who may or may not have been related but came to look at us. The trips through the villages continued throughout the day. We met a man who does batik block-printing, a potter, a weaver, and a village doctor who was curing a man's snake bite through a chant. Along the way we saw camels, horses, women carrying loads of grass on their head, a group of men standing on the roof of the village bus (they posed for a picture)... let me mention that I think I took 100 pictures this day. All of the women in the villages were dressed in ornate, bright saris, and the men wore nice button down shirts and pants. The men were dressed quite Western. We had lunch sitting on the floor at someone else's house. To this day, I cant tell you what we were served, but I did say a prayer before eating since the house had no running water and the women sat on the floor in the outside kitchen as they prepared everything with their bare hands. We were asked the same questions overand over, namely "Are you married?" followed by "How old are you?" followed by confused stares. To these people, we must seem like spinsters, and poor ones at that since our family obviously can't come up with a dowry to marry us off! That afternoon we tried to go to the Umaid Bhawan palace to have tea, not being able to afford the exorbitant prices to stay or dine there. Since there was a $30 minimum charge, we took a few pictures and left. That night we took an uneventful overnight train to Jaisalmer (our first and last uneventful trip). We arrived to Jaisalmer in the morning and our hotel's Jeep was not there to pick us up. The rickshaw drivers at the station were especially aggressive and we had to fight our way through them to walk to a phone hut and call the hotel. They finally picked us up and we got a few more hours of sleep. My guide book said the hotel had "marble floors" and this was true. It also had a toilet you wouldn't normally sit on. It's strange what they choose to promote! Jaisalmer was one of my favorite cities on this trip. With a population of just 40,000 people, it is in the Thar desert and only 60 miles from Pakistan. It's the "Golden City" because of the gorgeous sand colored fort and homes there. It's very small and manageable on foot. We walked through the bazaar and went into the only shop that didn't harass us. It was a beautiful wall-hanging/rug store and the owner Jacky was super friendly. We spent hours with him, drinking tea and looking at all of his items. He truly earned our sales. I regret buying heavy items so early in the trip since I've been lugging them around, but they're things I'll have the rest of my life! That first night we had a nice dinner with live Rajhastani music. Have I mentioned that we had not had one alcoholic drink at this point? They are not big drinkers here. Wendi hypothesized that this is probably why for such a poor country, Indians are quite happy and depression here is low (although rising with the outsourcing of jobs to India). Unlike in some other developing countries, people don't waste their time and money on liquor. So this brings us to Monday (Christmas). It was a Christmas like no other. It didn't seem like Christmas at all. Jess and I spent the day wandering the maze of streets in Jaisalmer and tried to coordinate picking up Wendi and Ashley. Our email from them was that the train was full so they would be arriving on a bus or a train at some point in the afternoon. They finally arrived, and talk about troopers...they flew Aeroflot from NYC to Moscow to Delhi and spent the night at the Hare Krishna Guest House. While Ashley was showering she noticed a man'shand reaching through the bathroom window with a mirror!!! They had two meals in Delhi and saw mice in the restaurants. They took a train to Jodhpur and then illegally hopped on a 3rd class connecting train to Jaisalmer. After 18 hours of flight time, one night in a hotel (with a peeping tom), and 18 hours on trains, we had one night in our hotel in Jaisalmer and then left at 7 am the following day on a camel safari! The camel safari was definitely a highlight of the trip. We piled into the hotel Jeep with a British couple and set off. We stopped along the way and saw Bada Bagh, which is a collection of 500-year old sandstone cenotaphs. It was really pretty. We stopped at another temple as well. Finally we veered off the road and into the desert. When we came upon a small group of guys and camels, we knew we had arrived at the right place. We piled onto our camels and set off. Jess was on "Johnny Walker" and "Pepsi" was walking alongside her, but the rest of the camels had Hindi names that I forgot. Dogs followed us into the desert (knowing they would have scraps off food to eat later) and we nicknamed them "Rabies 1" and "Rabies 2". The wild dogs might be cute but you just never know! We stopped for lunch after only about 2 hours on the camel's backs. My friends were laughing at me because I was bouncing around on my camel-the saddle wasn't latched tightly enough. Mind you, there are no stirrups-only a saddle packed with blankets (the same blankets we used to cover up with at night, but never mind that). You have to use your leg muscles to stay on the camel, and I gripped the handle so tightly at one point that I got a blister on my hand! My camel even had two dozen eggs strapped to the back. When we stopped for lunch, a few desert sheep herders joined us. One was a little boy of about 8 years old (or 6, or 11, it's hard for me to tell!). I was trying to imagine his life as a nomadic sheep herder...it's so different from anything we can even comprehend. Shockingly, the guides' mobile phones worked in the desert! I get dead zones at my house in Ferndale, so what the hell?! They called up some gypsies to meet us at the campsite later on that night. At the end of the day when we arrived to our remote, pristine campsite nestled amongthe dunes, there was a man waiting for us. He had traveled from his village with a bag of cold beers. Phenomenal. Once we rolled our sore bodies off of the camels, we were all too happy to buy a 22 oz.Kingfisher beer from him! We watched the sunset from the top of the sand dune, and we could see something sparkling in the distance. It was the four gypsies, traversing the desert on foot for 12 km from their village. That night we ate from the same dishes we had used at lunch-but don't worry, they used sand to clean them! We had some rice and some spicy potatoes and of course chapatti, which is like a wheat pita you use to eat the food (no silverware in the desert). We were all sitting cross-legged on the same blankets we had ridden and would soon be cuddling with. Once it got dark, the guides built a campfire and the two gypsy men played flute and drums while the women danced. We had SO much fun with them...they made us dance (Jess was the preferred dance partner and kept getting pulled off her blanket!) and our guides even danced. I'm sure the beer helped! The guides for some reason loved me and knew name and constantly asked "Emily are you good? Yes? Then we're double good". My specific guide Nehru gave me extra blankets and even a neck massage. I enjoyed the special treatment! At night we lay underneath the starriest sky I have ever seen and tried to stay warm under four blankets each. Easier said than done! Ashley and I never fell asleep all night. It was a little weird when I was burrowed under the camel-smelling blankets and thought I heard my name? I stuck my head into the cold desert air and yes, it was my guide "checking" on me. Ashley was laughing hysterically. I was glad when the sun came up and surprisingly my muscles were not as sore as I feared they might be. The guides packed up our camp and we rode the camels to the waiting Jeep. I have to say that before the trip I wished we could have a longer camel safari, but I don't think our asses would have been able to handle even another hour! We were wait-listed for that night's overnight train, but unlike our trip from Jodhpur, we did not end up with reserved beds. The train was two hours late and it was pure pandemonium! A man told us we could still get on, and we ended up riding from about 7 pm until midnight in 2nd class. We met the nicest older British couple and they let us "squat" in their sleeper car. There were even people sleeping in the linen closet. But once we reached Jodhpur they made us get off the train. Hello-what are four girls going to do alone in Jodhpur at midnight (especially since Jess and I had come from there!)? So we hopped off the train, ran about ten cars back, and climbed back on. We were in 3rd class. If 4th class existed, it would have been 4th. The seats consisted of hard, wooden benches. The windows wouldn't close and it was freezing cold inside. The only smell was that of the bathroom. People were lying on newspaper. There didn't seem to be room and not everyone looked at the four of us with our big backpacks in a friendly manner. But then I tried to explain that we paid for seats but didn't have any and someone said "You have seats here". There was tons of activity as people made room for us and parted the way. Obviously we were stared at, and one man went into the bathroom and left the door open one inch through which I could see his eyeball. We felt a little nervous about our decision to climb onto the 3rd class car. But then conversation with our fellow passengers started when we bought chai (tea). We started talking to two students on the train. They were really friendly and I ended up staying up all night talking to them about their lives, arranged marriages, Indian culture, families, etc. It was so great. Other than freezing and being up for two nights straight, it was such a memorable experience I'll never forget. Wendi, Jess and Ashley didn't fare quite as well. A soldier on the train offered that they could huddle on his bench and share his blanket. Without going into details, let me just say that he was really excited and an exhibitionist. Oh, and the girls are traumatized. I'll let you form the mental picture. Ok, apparently I've gone into way too much detail because I can see that this is as long as the last email and there's so much more that has happened! We arrived to our hotel in Jaipur after our very interesting train ride, and slept for a good part of the day. Wendi and Ashley ventured out and met a rickshaw driver named Nana, who became our constant companion over the next three days. He is a 71 year old Muslim Indian who wakes everyday at 4 am to go to yoga in a park. He had to leave school when he was eight years old and his father passed away, in order to earn money for his family. So he doesn't read or write any language but he learned English. He was like our adopted grandpa in Jaipur. He took us all through the "Pink City" and to the Jaigarh Fort and Amber Fort. We had amazing views of the city. The Amber Fort had intricately carved rooms and corridors - the Maharajah lived there with his 12 wives and 350 girlfriends. Pretty impressive (both the fort and the number of women he kept!). We visited Galta, the Monkey Temple, where between 3000-5000 monkeys live (we only saw a few hundred, but impressive nonetheless!). Nana took us to phemonenal roadside restaurants for yummy thali. We went to a Mughal shopping emporium where we went a little crazy (the packages should arrive in the next week or two). He took us to a salon where we had our eyebrows threaded for 50 cents and a one hour massage was $8. He also introduced us to Simi and Pooja, two girls who are planning to open a store. They invited us to their house for breakfast and theoretically to consult on their business. Theirs was the first house with a servant and where we didn't have to eat on the floor. We had egg sandwiches and we chatted and had a great time, and we were really excited that we actually had some girl friends in India (usually only the guys talk to us). But when it came time to leave they put the hard sell on us and we awkwardly bought some small items. So much for girl friends... Yesterday morning we were up at the crack of dawn and on a train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is hugely impressive, but it was a bit of a stressful day with the hassling and the long pushing line to get in (everyone was cutting in front of us because we don't stand pressed up against all the others). After we saw the Taj Mahal, I was in the mood to get to Delhi and take a shower. So I split off from the girls, assuring them I'd be ok, and went back to the train station. My train was delayed and apparently the one I got on was the slow train. I ended up (where else?) in 3rd class. But my train car was so fun...there were four young guys (20 years old) from Kashmir who really befriended me. They bought me a snack and we ended up drinking whiskey and coke together. We exchanged emails and phone numbers. My train was so slow, that although my friends took a later train, they beat me to Delhi. They were really nervous when they got to the hotel and I wasn't there yet! Unfortunately (don't read this, Mom!) some terrorists with bombs were arrested at the New Delhi train station about two hours before I arrived. So the station was a little hectic with police and metal detectors. I found a taxi to take me to my hotel in the Pahar Ganj (Main Bazaar area) and of course he ripped me off but less than others wanted to. The roads were closed due to New Year's celebrations so we had to walk down these dark alleys together. I kept thinking "Was this smart?" but finally we arrived. I think my friends were relieved when I got to the door. Jess had to leave for the airport at 11:30 pm last night (ringing in the New Year alone, poor girl) and she told us later that she rang in the New Year being shuttled to the hotel in a van filled with balloons, with a midget in the passenger seat.  It probably was not her best New Year's!  But we were so tired and wiped out that we just stayed in the room, wished each other Happy New Year half-heartedly at midnight, and passed out. The following day we went shopping in the bazaar all day, and tried to fight off the coolness and dampness of Delhi.  We definitely did not pack appropriately.  We had a belated New Year's Eve and went out to (no joke) a Tex-Mex bar!  After three weeks of having ONLY Indian food, it was well needed.  We finally got a proper buzz! Better late than never! Our last day's game plan is to visit the Lotus Temple, the Friday Mosque, the Red Fort and some other Delhi hot spots. I get home on Wednesday night and it's back to the office on Thursday. I am going to have culture shock when I get back to the orderliness of my life! Anyway, if you made it to the end, well, you are either a fast reader or really dedicated! Happy New Year and I will talk to you or see you really soon! XOXO Em

Comments

[Hina]

Hi Emily, informative and entertaining read! Let me assure you, you can never go into too much detail.

I'm planning a trip to India with friends, and I'd be interested to know which hotel you stayed at in Jaisalmer and with whom did you take the camel safari. Can you also give me details abt the pricing for the camel safari? Look forward to hearing from you!