20 day Tour of Rajasthan 4-18 Dec 06
Itinerary
Jaipur, Pushkar, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Ranakpur, Udaipur, Ranthambore National Park
Rajasthan can easily sound like one of the world most romantic and fairy tale-like places in terms of its rich history, majestic forts, temples and colourful atmosphere. Yet it can also have its fair share of chaos, rural poverty, rundown areas and annoyances. Our stay in this region was a bit of a whirlwind as we stayed only 1-2 nights in each place and drove around by car. If i could turn back time I would like to have stayed longer in certain cities...
The Highlights
Experiences:
- Seeing camels and elephants on the road as a normal part of the traffic! I even opened the window only to see an elephant's backside greeting me!
- Going on a overnight camel safari in the desert and sleeping under the stars, listening to our guide spontaneously burst into singing Frere Jacques!
- Seeing women in coulourful saris everywhere, bright blue, fluoro pink, golden yellow and lime green
- Impressive temples with peaceful atmospheres and intricate carvings
Cities:
Jaisalmer the 'Golden City'
Rising majestically a top the mountain, is the fort of Jaisalmer. Enclosed within its golden walls is a maze of flat roofed houses, street bazaars, temples and restaurants. We walk up the ramp to the entry of the fort and straight away our senses are hit by the sights and sounds of life in the fort. Close-knit laneways expose shops with colourful saris, skirts and scarves, while others display leather bags, shoes and jewellery. Other streets with stairs lead to rooftop balaconies with spectacular city views, We sit on one such balcony, sipping chai with two locals who invited us up when they say us walking the streets. Our feet resting on stone benches we talk about life, friends and India. At other times during our walk in the fort, we are stopped by curious families who ask us where we're from and what we are doing. We talk to an old grandfather about India's environmental issues, astrology and palm reading. We see little kids play cricket in the confined spaces of the fort and walk through the streets next to lazy cows standing in the passageways...
Even outside the fort, the atmosphere is interesting, although it doesnt have the same magic as the fort's interior. Yet we still explore the side streets where ladies are washing clothes and little kids are playing on front porches. On the main street we head straight to our favorite street vendor selling spicy samosas and Indian sweets. This is one place I would visit again...
Jodhpur the 'blue city'
Once again this city has a magnificent fort, yet without the markets and houses of the Jaisalmer Fort. This time we talk and audio tour and are pulled back into time as we listen to the fort's history and life in the time of the Raj. Glorious battles fouaght with curved daggers,swords and knives. Daily life in the fort with passages, magnificent rooms and intricate window carvings. We see things like they were in the past though our imagination as we walth though the fort. At one particular moment we we lean though the delicate archway of one of the fort's highest balcony and are stuck by the magnificent view of Jodhpur's old city - the 'blue city'. Weaved in through the landscape below the fort's outside walls, we see the red sandstone walls blending into the ground which becomes yellow green with vegetation then bright blue with the houses of the old city in the distance.
Later we amble through the old city and are struck by the beautiful atmosphere of quaint little sreets with blue walls. Yet as with all cities in India chaotic traffic prevents our walk from being too peaceful and we constantly side step, stop and run to avoid being hit by autorickshaws, bikes and cars squeezing past in the narrow roads!
Temple at Ranakpur
I sit in Ranakpur's magnificent Jain temple. More than 1000 intricately carved pillars hold up this beautiful temple and decorate its interior. Where ever I gaze, my eyes fall only on the amazing carvings of flowers and animals that form part of the patterns engraved in the stone surface. The corridors of pillars around the centre, provide an atmosphere in which one can imagine endlessly weaving through them to explore the temple. Statues of Gods and Goddesses peak out from indents in the walls, where at first they were hidden from sight. Small balconies gaze out into the quiet and sunny landscape. One can sit here for a moment of quiet contemplation within the beautiful stone walls. Such an impressive place leaves a remarkable impression on visitors even if they themselves are not part of the Jain religeon...
Lowlights
Sorry to say there are always some bad times! This was partly due to the fact all our hotels (booked through the tour) were away from the city centre so we always had to rely on our driver and eat expensive food and stay couped up in the hotel when we had free time as we couldnt get around to places we wanted to go to. Other bad experiences were due to annoying hawkers in tourist areas and constantly being stared at as we walked down the street. For example, people pestered us to buy souvenirs even though we politely said we didn't want any, until we had to yell at them or be rude to make them go away. After that you feel you have to be a 'bitch' sometimes and that makes you bad because all we wanted was chance to meet with local people and experience the culture. But obviously you cant experience the 'culture' when you are in a tourist area!
Other annoying things were guys coming up to us and saying 'madam can we have a photo with you.' All they want is a photo with you so then they can pretend to their friends that they were with these chicks etc... so obviously we didnt let them take any!
'Pushy Pushkar Priests'
One particular experience which really upset us and left us feeling that maybe India is the least accepting country for tourists was an event that happen in Pushkar, a small town of Rajathan. We had been told by our driver not to accept bracelets from people which passed as the 'Pushkar passport' to see the holy Brahman places. Apparantly this was a scam to get heaps of money of poor unsuspecting tourists. So when a guy did come up to us on the street asking us if we wanted a bracelet we politely refused. He told us we couldnt go into the temple without one, and we said thats fine we're only going to the market in the same area. All of a sudden he got really aggressive and started yelling at us. He followed us around on his motorbike and angrily told us we were 'not welcomed in Pushkar and that we should just go back to our hotel.' We were starting to get angry and upset and kept walking but he still followed us. So in then end we turned around to go back to the hotel and met our driver on the way. Only then did we find out that the angry guy yelled at the driver for warning us about the bracelets and preventing him for doing 'business'. Yeah like scamming us for heaps of money - no thanks. This happens to a lot of toursits but is bad because some people actually are real priests who do want to show people around the temple etc (and yes you do need a bracelet but then the honest people wont scam you)
This experience left me feeling really depressed, like we're not free to do anything, not even taking a simple walk down the street, without something horrible or annoying happening. It made me feel like India was so unaccepting, even though we just wanted to see the local places and experience the culture etc. It made me feel like whats the point of coming to a country to learn about its people and places if they are just going to be horrible to you... But I suppose we have to take the bad with the good...
