Have been staying hampi. it is a ruined city this very reminiscent of the jungle book. the town is filled with monkeys that swagger around the ruins as if kings.
there are also regular sighting of cobras and crocodiles. have been staying in a hut next to a 'baba'. this a term given to old indian 'gurus' who sit around all day meditating and smoking a chillum. he has dreadlocks down to his ankles and tells me he has always been celibate, although he has adopted 8 children. 'baba g' has been very quick to ask me for a donation. he becomes very ambiguous when i ask him what the money is for; his perfect english suddenly becomes broken.
have spent 3 full days constantly travelling to the north. i am staying in pushkar, rajasthan. it is a small town surrounding a sacred lake in the middle of the desert. i came here with three italians that are from the north of italy and speak german. they are complete stoners who do very little else.
my german speaking companions are no student interrailling types. they are hard working, rough handed, nitty gritty european mountain folk. they are called carman, mauritz and christian. i spend most of my time with the boys, often playing pool. whenever, this happens i cant help feeling that we are being filmed for some wartime film. they look made for the army. they always have a small indian cigrette hanging from their mouths (called a beedie), and have wardrobes that look like they have been directly lifted from apocalyse now.
Have moved to western city of Jaisalmer. the centre of the town has a beautiful fort, that is the only inhabited in india. i have been staying in the fort wal, with great views of the surrounding thar desert.
one of the main attractions of the city is the camel safaris which is the main industry it seems. i spent three days in the desert with some iranians, a faroese and some amazing south koreans. the koreans were so funny, on the first day bringing chicken to be cooked in the evening meal. the funniest of the three was one character called 'teddy', who after half a beer became so drunk. gotta love asian drunk people.
the camels were amazing, with great names such as mr. india, simon, big boy, mr. bean and monkey. i was riding big boy, who was a dominant shire horse figure of a camel. he constantly groaned and made dinosaur like sounds. he was also guilty of farting, loudly and very, very regularly. by the last day, i was getting pretty confident around the camels, only to be head butted by simon as i turned around.
it is now the colour festival, a two day period where everyone in the street throws colour over each other. unaware that you should prepare for this by putting coconut oil on, i am now covered in colour that wont come out. it does not help that every indian person that sees me thinks this is the funniest thing they have ever seen.
