Finally back to a place with internet, i will try and relive all the fantastic events of the past couple days with you.
The road to ranthambore was VERY rural. Cows, sheep, goats, camels - all roaming the road at their free will. The road was extremely bumpy and by no means could i sleep at all thru the 5 hour trip. We arrived at our hotel 'Raj Palace' - which was perfect. Even tho Harky would protest the fact that there was no TV - I thought it was great. The hotel put on a nightly rajasthani show, dancing and firebreathers! Lots of fun. The dancing was my favourite part. We were up early the next day to go out for our tiger hunt... and we saw lots of deer, beautiful birds, a hyena!! but not one tiger. There are only 45 in the park, and very rarely do you come across them. The drive thru the park was remarkable tho. We saw 2 types of kingfishers, storks, peacocks, and so many more that i cannot remember.
As soon as we finished with our ranthambore adventure, we packed up to head for Pushkar. It was a 7 hour journey that was just a bumpy as the first. We did pass thru a town that produces bricks - the majority of which is supplied to the entire state of Rajisthan. There were bricks piled everywhere. As we got closer to Pushkar, we came across more and more tractors decorated to the nines with streamers, bows, and bright colours blaring music on their way to the camel fair. I thought they were beautiful, but our driver thought otherwise... too slow and too wide! Once settled into our hotel in Pushkar, we went out for dinner at the famous Sunset Cafe (according to Lonely Planet). There I ordered a mango shake, to which Harky told me it was a bad idea. BUT me being stubborn, said that I would be fine because of the medication i had taken prior to the trip protected me from all stomach related food issues. I do not say this often.. but he was right.
The next morning, was up with liquids coming from every end of me... but i was determined to see the camel fair and all that Pushkar had to offer. We walked thru the main streets which were alive with colour and vendors from all over the province, selling anything you could want - ganesh, buddha, mala beads, oils, shoe horns - you name it, it was there! Unfortunately i couldnt last more than 20 minutes without needing a bathroom, which made if difficult to see everything.
We did find the Brahma temple - one of few in the entire world. We had a brahman say prayers for us, to which he asked me how much i was going to donate to the temple, and when i replied 50 he then said dollars in his prayers for me. Then when i interjected and said no - rupees, he went on to say oh what bad karma i will bestow on my family and future life if i do not live up to my word!! just FYI - $50 is 3,000 Rupees... half of our daily budget. When Harkaran heard this he was less than impressed, and gave this holy man a piece of his mind - and paid him only 2000. I was very upset to be conned by a 'holy man'... As I was told after, again, this is India!
We walked around the camel grounds which was great - but too hot for one who is suffering from food poisoning. We were lucky enough to come across a small hotel in the shade who were okay with me frequenting their restrooms until our driver came to pick us up. By the time he did, i was feeling somewhat better as there were no more liquids in my body. At that point we made the decision to spend the night in Jaipur and forego the Jaisalmer leg of the trip - the last place i wanted to be was on an 11 hour train ride to the desert - talk about making a trip to hell and back. The only thing we forgot to do was to tell our camel safari man that we wouldn't be making it. He somehow got ahold of my parents? No idea how that happened, but he was obviously quite resourceful!
Instead we stopped at a heritage site just outside of Jaipur - Chowki Dawni (something along those lines). It was tons of fun - traditional rajisthani dancing, magicians, games, camel and elephant rides and handicraft making. I was having a great time until we had to eat. The smell of food turned my stomach upsidedown, and with that we left right away.
We found a hotel by the airport, and booked flights to Harky's hometown, Chandigarh. I took the emergency meds I was carrying with me. They seemed to work almost instantly - to control the outflow of liquid at least. We flew out this afternoon, and it was a great suprise for Harky's family. His mum was so shocked it was perfect. It is very clean and much less crowded and noisy than all the other places we have been - and their house is gorgeous. It is a marble palace!
Now that we are here we will be doing some short day trips to some great places - which is almost more exciting as we were not planning to have the time to do so. Namaste!
