Simone's spot

Well, I am in Phuket Thailand in an attempt to go to the beach and do nothing for a few days before returning to the US on Sunday night/Monday am. I am AMAZED at how much cleaner Thailand is than India. When I arrived yesterday afternoon, I could only notice how the streets and traffic in Bangkok were so much more pleasant than those in Delhi. You can practically eat off the streets in Bangkok they are so clean. AND NO COWS!?!? Wow. AND people actually smile at you! HOWEVER.. we must not forget that advertised bus rides of 12-15 hours will always really be 18 hours. The AMAZING thai massage that I got yesterday that took care of my aching back did not prevent said long bus ride from doing it in again.

After I left Udaipur I took a 17 hour bus ride to Agra. I stayed right next to the Taj and Found it to be pretty. I did go by the Agra fort but could not bring myself to go in as I am really forted out. I did pop into the mosque and the overseer took a liking to me... wanting my address to send a letter and to send him a photo I took of him. If he only knew how little we have in common. I think he imagined marrying me. The next morning I woke up at 5:30, planning to watch the sunrise over the taj. I thought I would go in and pay the 750 rupee fee (18$ /1.50$ for indians) and just stay there. No way, my hotel had a lovely view from the rooftop and I just went up there and waited for the sun to rise. The best was making sure the everpresent monkeys did not shoo me away from my seat. You have to be firm with them... without letting them bite you...  I went to the Taj at 11 or so and stayed for about 2 hours. It IS a lovely building... but I am not sure it is perfect or anything. Maybe marble does not do it for me. I was glad to leave Agra, which I was suprised to see had a lot of green space. Delhi was mildly welcoming and I spent my time there finishing up some shopping. Any house I will ever own will surely look like my mother's house. Crowded. I really went overboard. So much JUNK. Anyway. I am not going to go so far in Bangkok for my last 2 days. No way. The bag gets WAY TOO heavy.

I am really looking forward to returning home at this point. I feel touristed out. No more energy to go look at things and no more desire to refuse tuk tuk drivers' offers.

Udaipur

I am in Udaipur and am going to Agra tonight. Today I need to be slow as I am a bit tired of sightseeing and walking around. I need to avoid walking also as I find myself doing a bit too much shopping when I walk around and I end up with things I truly do not want!

Udaipur is called by some the most romantic city in India. It’s main attraction is the lake in the center with a few palaces in and around it. It is truly lovely at night and at sunset. I got here 5 days ago at night without Sandra and Bibi as Sandra was very sick. We feared she had malaria, but a test turned out to be negative. She is feeling better, though not tip top shape yet. It was nice to spend 24 hours alone. I had my own room for the first time in 3 weeks! I spent the day going to the city palace museum and doing some shopping. Rajastan has some great items and I want to buy everything… unfortunately, I don’t want to carry it all, so I am waiting to get back to Delhi to finish my extravagances. Feeling a bit done with palaces and forts, I went to a café to get a drink and met a nice couple from Israel. They shared their early dinner with me and we talked of lots of different things. I was a bit envious as they are spending more money than myself and I am missing some luxuries that my budget does not allow.

That night Sandra and Bibi arrived. I was in the middle of watching Octopussy, the Bond movie, as it is largely set in Udaipur. It pretty much is an accurate representation of what this town looks like… ok, there are a few differences… I have seen no bikini clad women. Watch it! When They arrived, I found Sandra to be delirious from a fever. She went straight to bed and plans were made for her to see a doctor in the a.m.

The next day I went to see the main temple here. It is really cool and has great carvings on the outside. I also went to see a dance and puppet performance in the evening that I really enjoyed.

I went to the Haveli (mansion) where the performance was held and I really enjoyed it. It had the largest turban in the world! Imagine that! Also a nice exhibit on arts in India. There is a crafts village set up by the government that I went to that is not so interesting. It is 5km out of town and the drive was the most interesting thing.

I am starting to freak out that I am leaving India in 4 days! I am going to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and then to Delhi to do last minute shopping… if you want something, email me fast! I have to say, that I am really looking forward to returning home because, as insane as it sounds I am looking forward to the next part of my life and finding a job (hopefully soon) and settling for a bit. Of course, I am really excited to spend another week in Thailand before returning to Baltimore on Nov 28.

Pushkar, Rajastan

Well, Jodphur was pretty cool. We took a bus that, as usual, took too long and we arrived in the morning and found a hotel. After a short nap, we started out to walk to the old city. Jodphur is called the blue city because it has blus painted housed in the old part of town. They say that the blue housed were for the Brahmins, but then some people paint their house blue anyway. The town is very nice and the streets skinny and they wind around and it is fun to get “lost”. We wandered up towards the fort there and saw some lovely ladies making a treat for the temple and we chatted (as much as possible) and then we found ourselves on a dirt path above the old town, so we wandered back down throug the streets and made a bunch of new friends along the way. ALL the kids want their picture taken, and so many others do too. They love to ask our country, to shake our hand, and our good name. Mostly this is nice, but sometimes we can be quite overwhelmed. Some of the men and boys are too pushy and it can get a bit too much. I rarely feel threatened, but women do get groped inappropriately and sometimes I suspect I am being bumped into on purpose.

The next day we went to the fort. I forget the name... it is a really great fort. And it is made better because an audio guide is included in the price of admission. We listened to it and got to learn more than usual as there was history and fun anecdotes on the recording. We walked down from the fort and that took a while then we went to a lovely restaurant that had a fantastic view of the fort and also appeared to have great rooms. Our hotel was nearer the train station and we regretted where we chose to stay!

The next morning we took a train to Ajmer, where we took a quick bus here to Pushkar. The trains here are fun. I prefer them to the buses. We were in the unreserved class and luckily found 3 seats near eachother. A few families surrounded us and luckily the fathers spoke a little english. At times, the car got so crowded, I felt like we were in a cattle car. There is also about that much organization when we got off. Before the crowds could get off, some VERY clever men got on and blocked the way off the train. And then they complained we didn’t let more people on. It is amazing how little logic can be used. People can be so inconsiderate of eachother.

Pushkar is great. It is a holy city and has the only temple to Brahma in India. There are a lot of religious pilgrams. There is also the Camel festival, where 1000’s of people and camels converge for trading and festivities. It started and today we saw some of the cames (and horses and cows) being traded and generally harassed by potential buyers. We did not like seeing the camels’ noses being pierced... they certainly did not like it either... based on their camel noises! They are funny looking critters for sure.

We will be here for a few days... the REAL festivities start in the next few days. Woo Hoo.

Oh, and by the way. I passed the Maryland Bar exam and am very VERY happy about it. However, my celebration is rather subdued due to Pushkar being a DRY town. = No alcohol. Which is fine, but not very festive.

 

 

More in depth analysis…

I love it when you get a response from an Indian man that means ‘your welcome’, or ‘no problem’. They do a little head tilt to one side and it is very cute.

My last entry was so small that I have to add more details.

The Tibetans have been living under Chinese rule since 1950 and they are not happy about it. Chinese police systematically torture and kill Tibetan people and the culture of Tibet is being purposefully mixed with Chinese culture as the Chinese are moving to Tibet in such mass numbers that the Tibetans are becoming minorities. I really found that the Tibetans in McLeod Ganj were such friendly people and they are also some very lovely people to look at.

As I mentioned before I have been traveling with 2 German girls, Bibi and Sandra. We took walks to the waterfall, went to Dharamsala – which most people associate with the Tibetans exiled in India (and is NOT worth spending more than an minute in…), we spent long mornings in the sun on the rooftop deck of the hotel where we stayed, lots of chai tea breaks, shopped!, ate, and basically relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere.

We finally agreed it was time to move on and we decided on Amritsar in the state of Punjab. Amritsar is not so memorable except that it is home to the Golden Temple, which is the holy spot for Sikhs. The religion is a mere 500 years old and id described in my Rough Guide as a religion that grew from both Hinduism and Islam, but has its very own character. My favorite part of it is the focus on equality between all people. Nice when compared to Hinduism’s caste system and the sexual discrimination of both religions. Anyhoo, I find the Sikhs to be amongst the friendliest people here and the men much more likely to smile in a friendly way as opposed to the stares that some men give which is much more likely to make a person feel like a piece of beef. Not sure if it is revulsion or desire…

We went to the Indian – Pakistani border crossing that night. It was rather hilarious, though I am not a huge fan of such nationalistic displays. I could not help feeling like a riot could break out. Of course it didn’t. people chanted the whole time about the Indian motherland. The Pakistanis (or maybe the Indian) flag didn’t work and there was some extra time to get in a frenzy as things were made right. There was a LOT of flag waiving and goose stepping. Then we all went back to Amritsar.

That night we took a night bus to Delhi, which we had heard that 3 bombs had gone off. No one yet knows who did it as no one has publicly declared responsibility. It is determined to be terrorist but the media is making all sorts of speculation and the govt will not say who they think did it. This made us a tad nervous, but the bus people knew nothing of it and when we changed buses in Delhi the next morning, we saw nothing of the wreckage. It did happen in a popular backpacker area... though I find it so unpleasant there that I vowed not to return.

Jaipur is a much nicer city. It has about 2 million people and is in the desert. I liked coming here because there were camels on the road here. People are also much friendlier than in Delhi. Bibi and I  looked around the Pink city (as it is called) on the first day (Sandra was not feeling well) and we went to the Hawa Mahal, as well as just wandering around. We then found a driver who took us back to the Evergreen Hotel where Sandra had not done much but sleep. I started feeling a bit under the weather as well by this point.

The next day the driver came to pick us up despite the fact that Sandra and I both felt Ill and we went to the Amber fort. It was lovely. We also went to see some elephants and went to the Bollywood gardens. We of course were taken to a Textile shop. I felt too gross to do much damage.

Yesterday we went to the observatory and wandered more of the streets of the Old city. I did a bit of shopping.

Today we are waiting for a late bus to Jodphur and are taking care of things like Emails and photo uploading. I am also attempting to clean up my Ipod. Nice to do once in a while!

So Mcleaod ganj was great. The German girls and I enjoyed ourselves and just relaxed there in the mountains. There are lovely views of Himalayan peaks and just general prettiness. We went to the Tibetan temple and the museum, which was rather moving. We left MG and took a bus and a train to Amritsar, which is in Punjab. There we saw the beautiful Golden Temple, where the Sikhs pray and everyone is welcome. We also went to the hilarious border crossing for Pakistan and watched the Indians and Pakistanis make a big spectical about closing the gates and lowering the flags. Fun

The next day we took the bus to Jaipur.

I have been in Jaipur, in Rajastan, for the last 3 days. Unfortunately I  was not feeling so well for the last few. I finally got a little stomach problem from something. No biggie. I walked around a bit with Bibi on the 1^st day and we went to the Hawa Mahal. Which is a super pretty place where the women could watch the street proceeding. The best thing is the camels that we see pulling carts all over.

The next day we went with a autorickshaw driver to visit the Amber fort and some other less memorable sights. But all was lovely and fun. We also saw elephants. Last night was Dewali, and we heard fireworks all night.

Today we went to the observatory and did some shopping. Tomorrow to Jodphur.