rajasthan

Hello Pushkar! This was our first real stop in Rajasthan. After leaving the Taj Mahal and Agra behind we got an evening bus to Jaipur, which is the big Rajasthani city on the "Golden Triangle", tourist circuit, but we stayed only for the night. After a couple days in Agra we wanted some peace, and here in Pushkar we found it. I think it was my favourite Indian town.

This is one of the many entrances to the ghats along the lake. There are some respectful rules to follow around here - specifically to remove your shoes before entering and not to take photographs on the ghats themselves (unless of course you don't get caught!) Pushkar also serves no alcohol, no meat, and no eggs. Take your cravings elsewhere I guess.

Being new in town, it's always the proper thing to pop round and introduce yourself to the locals. Can any of you zoologists out there tell me what breed this is?

This is a typical scene from the town streets - cows and small merchants, with the tops of stunningly beautiful whitewashed minarets poking their heads over the surrounding rooftops.

We climbed a hill near the town one morning to watch the sunrise (This really is a good thing to do in India!) and watched the morning mist burn away and feasted our eyeballs on a new day over Pushkar, the sacred city by the lake. It was a happy attack morning.

This colourfully garbed couple were one of a handful of wandering musicians who would entertain and strike a pose in exchange for baksheesh. The man thrust a cassette into my hand afterward and told me I don't have to pay for it - only as much as I wished. He refused to take it back, but then followed me when I walked away asking me how much I liked to pay, so finally I put the tape down and walked away - it was the only reasonable escape. When we saw each other later in the town, however, we shared a laugh.

This is the rooftop of one of the towns many temples. It was a good place to escape from hassles and view the surrounding countryside, and it's a beautiful rooftop all by itself.

Returning from the sunrise climb I found myself amongst many fellow primates at their most active hour of the day. The trees seemed to be custom-built for them. Check out that tail!

The final evening in Pushkar we gathered along with many other travellers for the nightly event of watching the sunset over the lake from the steps in front of the appropriately-named Sunset restaurant.

And onward to... Jaisalmer, deep in the Thar Desert near the border with Pakistan. This was the view out our guesthouse window.

As you can see, Jaisalmer is a fort city made almost entirely of sandstone. It truly is unlike any other place in India, as far as I have experienced or heard. It was a long way to get there from Pushkar - perhaps 14 hours on a rickety old bus in which we occupied the rear seat so we were more or less launched toward the ceiling on every bump - and there were many. So no sleep, no way, but what better place to visit the sandman upon arrival!

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Jaisalmer, go on camel safari. We did as we were told, and took off for three days into the desert with our most excellent guides, Nadu and Mahendar and three camels. Unfortunately Marion was ill from the moment we started, but it followed its course within 24 hours and she was OK - what a place to be stuck when you are ill though!

These two are named Moli and Johnny, and they were our mode of transport for three long days. Here they are having breakfast on our first morning together. We slept within layers of blankets on the sand underneath an extremely star-filled sky and woke to find Nadu and Mahendar making breakfast.

Out there in this vast desert - one of the worlds largest in fact, there are many ancient Jain temples which are now uninhabited. It is, in fact, illegal to trespass west of here, due to smuggling activity at the Pakistani border.

Mahendar is packing up everything on the back of Moli (my hired camel) to get started with another day. Mahendar was a particularly gentile man. He is getting married this year and is just doing the camel safari thing with his cousin, Nadu, to raise some getting-married funds.

This was a boy from a family of goat herders who came by to help tidy up our camp and ask for chocolate, a pen, and rupees (typical requests) and so I gave him this postcard of the Taj Mahal. He then carried on cleaning up the camp, using one hand to do the cleaning and the other delicately cradling the postcard like it was his most prized possession. I guess he liked it, and yes - he knows what the Taj Mahal is.

Three grubby yet endearing desert children we encountered in a small village near the end of the safari. I gave the middle one an old pen and she complained that it was nearly out of ink - no fooling these guys!

Meeting more of the locals. Here up close with a leaf-munching goat. They are the most abundant life form in the desert and the staple of the local economy. If you don't know your way around goats or camels, you're in big trouble out here.

One of a female's primary duties is to collect water from the local well, and in some cases, "local" actually means walking for an hour. That's why it's such a common sight to see women carrying large jugs on their heads, and may I say they do it very well. Here two of them are checking out the cool necklace Marion had made in Pushkar.

As we look at a sunset over the dunes, consider an excellent riddle which was conveyed to us by campfire light from the etherially poetic camel driver named Nadu:

It is bigger than God
It is more evil than the Devil
Rich people need it
Poor people have it
If you eat it you will die

What is it???

Three days go by like a slow melodic dream, and then suddenly you're saying goodbye and returning to the noise of civilisation. One last photo with our guides, the ever-gracious and gentle Mahendar and the energised renaissance man Nadu bid us farewell. We'll never forget. ...And you know, right now at this moment they are still out there doing it.

Onward to the romantic city of Udaipur, after (you guessed it) another bus ride from hell, and a crack-of-dawn arrival followed by several hours of horizontal unconsciousness. Udaipur is the site of many ancient palaces set alongside a cluster of lakes. It's a gorgeous city and every rooftop has a view as with this one from the City Palace.

A major attraction, although well beyond the means of most travellers, is the Lake Palace Hotel - actually a palace built in 1754 by one of the Maharajas. The cheapest room here goes for US$210 and the largest rooftop suite costs $510 per night. You can take a boat cruise over there and have a buffet lunch for $15 though, but only if the hotel is not full. They don't want too many common folks spoiling the atmosphere, and as for me they are welcome to it.

Why spend all your money on lunch in a pretentious luxury hotel when you could be out tooling around on a cool motorbike like this for $2/day? Wa-hoo! We went to one of the dried-up lake beds (there's been quite a drought unfortunately) and tore up some dirt and cruised up to some of the hilltop palaces and lookouts. Getting around on two wheels is a great way in such a place. I especially enjoyed threading our way through the narrow and cluttered city streets at night surrounded by hundreds of people, cows, goats, bicycles, rickshaws, etc. Great intensity and contained chaos for the lively motorist!

Rajasthan is famous for it's colours and these were on display all around us. On one of many such occassions I was washing dirty clothes in my room and heard the beating of drums and clammour of a wedding procession appraoching on the street below. So what more can one do than to grab one's camera and hang out the window? This sort of thing was going on almost every day, but then again Udaipur is reknowned as a romantic city and therefore an ideal choice for a wedding party. The trouble is that weddings in India typically last for 2 weeks.

Here's another wedding party seen from down on street-level. As I was saying, the wedding party often lasts two weeks. The groom rides a decorated horse and is joined by a parade of friends and relatives which very noisily makes its way through the town and eventually arrives at the house of the bride. The groom then enters the house and meets the bride - in many cases for the first time ever - and then they get married. And then everyone parties like mad for two weeks. Pretty cool, except for that part about never meeting your wife until the wedding day.

The last night in Udaipur and a classic view of the Palace at dusk as the city lights emerge. Tomorrow we're getting a flight to Goa - no more of these bus rides from hell. Well almost...