JAIPUR
I continued my journey to Jaipur which was a 6 hour bus journey. I had booked a seat which was good, a lot of the local people jumped up on the sleeper compartments that was above the seats and as the journey continued lots of sacks were loaded on the bus and the whole corridor was blocked up with several layers of sacks with various goods. It was really amusing especially as there seemed to be very long discussions on how to load these sacks. As we entered Rajasthan we had some additions to the veichle on the roads, Camels, very funny. It also felt very different to other parts of India I been to so far, the women dressed much more colourful and a lot of men wore turbans. I arrived in Jaipur about 6.30pm and shared a rickshaw with a couple from France and South Africa to a hotel we wanted to stay at, but it was fully booked, or at least the rooms within my budget were fully booked. We continued to another hotel which also was full, so in the end we gave into the rickshaw driver who all along wanted to take us to a hotel he reccomended, the room felt very dirty and in the morning my toast was mouldy. So I checked out and went back to the Pearl Palace Hotel and got a room, with shared bathroom, but it felt like luxury, really nice and clean. In the afternoon I took a stroll down to the old city, a lot of hassle, very hot and dirty, lots of traffic. However the day after I took a day tour with a rickshaw that took me around the City Palace, which was absolutely amazing, the textiles and costumes that was worn by the Maharaja's were absolutely amasing. I also enjoyed the public hall, so grand. I then saw the observatory which was interesting, with so many different kinds of instruments to measure time, lattitude etc, but these tools looked more like some amazing sculptures. I then went to some little cafe to have Thali, there were just Indian families here, but so cheap and the food was excellent. In the afternoon the rickshaw driver drove me to Amber Fort, which was also very nice.
The following day I went to stay on an organic farm about 25 km outside Jaipur, when I arrived to this very remote place there were only about 3 people there not speaking a word of English, I was shown my room which was in a mud house furnished really simple, but so nice. The shower was in a room outside with no ceiling, had a wonderful shower with the sun shining down on me. Eventually a group of an American couple, French couple and a Spanish guy turned up. They had been there for 10 days voluneering on the farm, so I had some lunch with them and then went and read, later I went for a walk followed by a snooze. All of a sudden I was in this place with not much to do other than reading and taking little walks and naps, it is not often I am in this situation and felt a bit bored. However the eveining was an experience as it was Diwali, the whole farm was lit with candles, so beautiful, after dinner we were invited to another house on the farm, where I think 3 families lived with 3 little babies that the women were carrying around on their backs, snacks were served and then the dancing begun, it was so funny. In the end we were all up dancing. For the next 3 hours there were about 4 very rythmic indian songs played over and over again that we all danced to, I loved the style of dancing the men in the house had, it was very improvised. Had a great evening.
PUSHKAR
Arrived in Pushkar from Jaipur on a relative easy bus journey, Pushkar is by far the nicest place I been to so far in India, so peaceful and a very small place and it is easy to reach everything by foot. It is a holy city built around a holy lake and really beautiful. In the mornings at 7am I have had 2-hour yoga lessons on the roof top as the sun raise, so peaceful and I felt great. I also had a ayrevedic massage, which I think is the best one I ever had. He also gave me some tips about my health so it was really informative and so good. Been feeling so relaxed. In one of the late afternoon after it started to cool down abit, I set off by foot to the Savitri Temple, it is about an hours walk up a steep hill, but worth it as it was such an amazing view of Pushkar at the top. I must say it felt nice having a proper walk again as I don't seem to have walked much other than around cities since I arrived in India. I am missing my daily treks in Nepal. Tonight at 11pm I am setting off to Jaisalmer on a night bus.
JAISALMER
I booked a sleeper compartement on the bus to Jaisalmer, which was really good as you could draw the curtain so I had some privacy while I tried to sleep, not that easy though as it was yet another extremely bumpy bus journey. Arrived at 8.30am and found a really nice hotel and within my budget. It was called the Artist Hotel and the owner supports a music school close by, so there is a lot of music being played here. Jaisalmer is a really old city and I really like it with lots of little alleys and shops and places to eat or drink. The coloures of the city are amazing as it is built in sandstone so as the sun sets it all looks golden, very beutiful.
The day after I arrived in Jaisalmer I went on a camel safari for two days, which was amazing, I loved arriving at the sandunes at sunset and the guide started a camp fire, serving chai tea and cooking for us, Dahl, rice and chapatis that was all made from fresh doe, he made it look so easy. For afters he made us desert cake, wonderful taste, it was a mixture of cut up warm chapatis, fresh coconut, gee and sugar cane all mixed up. We had a really nice evening with the campfire and our leader telling us interesting stories. Sleeping in the open under a magical starry sky, looking up on the stars as I was falling a sleep, making wishes when I saw falling stars was a fantastic experience, I never seen a sky like this before.
Woke up being served chai tea in bed (thick blanket on the sandunes with a cople of blankets over me which had kept me warm during the night) and looking at the sky as it was getting lighter and the intense colours in the sky were changing until it was light. The ride on my camel Johnny was hard work, my legs were killing me, but the pain was definetly worth the experience.
Tomorrow I will be visiting the fort and the palace in Jaisalmer before I will be leaving for Delhi on a 19 hour train journey.
