Exit: Udaipur

So my time in this excellent city is drawing to an end. Tomorrow I catch an overnight, 16 hour bus ride to Mumbai to get a taste of upscale India and possibly Bollywood. This bus ride I didn't cheap out, instead opting for a more comfortable air-conditioned bus.

The past two days have been really laid back and relaxing, exactly what I needed. I've been filling my time hanging out on rooftop restaurants, catching an evening screening of Hitch at a local restaurant and basically being a bum. Last night I went to see some live Indian music at a hotel across the street from mine. The Soufi genre is definitely in the extreme easy-listening circle, and wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but it was still a good night out. Out of the blue a guy I was sitting beside asked me if I was from Calgary. A close guess based on my accent, I didn't realize I had such a noticeable one.

Today so far has been filled with organizing a hotel in Mumbai and a bus ticket from there to Goa. Prices seem to be pretty steep for this leg, I'm paying almost three times what I was in the North. I also had my first shave at a barber, straight razor and everything. With that and a new haircut, I feel like a million bucks.

Next stop: Mumbai. One step away from the beaches of Goa!

Escape From Pushkar

I finally escaped from the city that had become my new hell. After a surprisingly good bus ride, I arrived in the beautiful city of Udaipur. It really is the most picturesque city I've been to so far, it's deserving of it's title: The Venice of the East. It's set on the shore of a lake, surrounded by low mountains, and has notably less hazy pollution than most other cities.

Yesterday was a total relax day, but today I ventured out and did some sightseeing. The Udaipur City Palace took up a good portion of my afternoon. Some of it is typical Indian palace scenery, which starts to all look the same after you've been to enough, but the views are amazing, as is the stained glass windows carved out in the shapes of trees. Unfortunately this place is popular enough to attract a large crowd of Indian tourists, which can be one of the worst parts of India. All of the people basically trying to butt in front, push or dry hump you in the lines starts to wear on a person's nerves, and it's hard to leave there not feeling like you want to clock somebody in the mouth. Still worth the experience though, and I have some really great pictures to upload when I get wifi access again.



The other part of my afternoon was spent walking to a sunset point south of the city, which had great views of the lake. I ended up walking another couple km's past that, meeting up and having a drink with a cool old French guy. Then the rest of the day was greatly spent on top of a rooftop restaurant eating pizza and enjoying the great view of the lakefront. This place seems like a great opportunity to balance out and drive the Pushkar from my mind.

Broken

Apparently I've fallen into a bad luck streak recently. I took the deluxe bus to Ajmer yesterday afternoon, and from there caught a short bus ride to Pushkar, a small town centered around a holy place. Now this town is supposed to be a quiet, relaxing place to hang around, but apparently the forces at work are trying to ruin that for me.

The start of all this bad luck was at the guesthouse I checked into. It looked not too bad, an okay room for a good price. That went for shit with the army of ants and some unknown, giant-ass black insect I had to kill. Then the trouble I had/having finding a room. At one hotel the owner actually told me he wouldn't rent me a room because I was only staying for three nights, he wanted to save it for people staying for the whole week of the camel fair that's about to start. Then I had to fight with the owner of the shithole hotel when I checked out.

I finally found a really nice place to stay, but can only get a room for tonight, everything is booked, I have to find another hotel tomorrow. And I couldn't even do any sight-seeing today, partly because it's raining, in the desert...And partly because of the fact that because of the rain, I horribly biffed down the slippery stone staircase at this new hotel, bruising my pelvis. Pushkar is seriously about to break my spirit. I think I'm going to blow this popsicle stand tomorrow. Fuck Pushkar and it's fucking Camel Fair.

The Blue City

Aka Jodhpur. Nicknamed the Blue City because of all the blue buildings that make up the old part of town. Diwali is still going strong, kids a couple rooftops over are detonating the loudest fireworks I've heard yet, they literally sound like mortar blasts. The guest house I checked into is definitely a cool place with tons of character.



Today I walked to and around the Mehrangarh Fort, one of the largest in India. It's perched high on top of a rock plateau, the walls almost seem to form right out of the rock itself. It looks impregnable, and it is. Nobody has ever breached the walls to sack it. It's obvious people have tried, there's giant dents in the walls near the gate, made from cannonballs fired from invaders. The fort itself is pretty impressive, with a few very nicely decorated palaces inside.

Walking back to my guest house was an adventure, the streets of Jodhpur are pretty chaotic, with a ton of narrow alleys offshooting from the main streets. Sometimes getting lost is fun though, it allows you to see India beneath the surface, away from the noisy bazaars and roads. I finally got fed up and took a rickshaw back though. One can only be lost for so long before it starts to become annoying.

A Note About Desert Trains.

Dust! Holy dust! The problem with taking sleeper class in the desert is that the windows don't completely close, and that tiny, centimeter wide crack is enough to let in a whole sand dune. As you can see by the picture above, from a 5 hour journey enough dust came in to allow me to write my name on the table. It's very unfortunate too, the desert sunset is amazing to watch from the train, but as soon as any high speed is reached, you'd better be slamming that window shut. A bandanna or some type of cloth to cover your face is a must. I can imagine inhaling a desert isn't particularly good for the lungs. I think next train trip I'm going to try the AC Class, where the windows are sealed shut, hopefully keeping the car interior dust free.

Happy Diwali!

Last night India turned into a complete war zone. Everywhere people flock to the streets after placing candles outside their home and prayer to celebrate the Hindu new year by blowing up their eardrums with fireworks. In every alley and street, all kinds of fireworks were lighting up the sky and shaking the buildings. It is a pretty amazing spectacle to see the entire city lit up by gunpowder, and the haze of smoke that settles over it. By 11pm the air just reeked of cordite.



I was lucky enough to be invited to celebrate Diwali with the owner of the hotel I'm staying at, at his house. Once again, I have to recommend the Roop Mahal Hotel in Jaisalmer, this place is nothing but great. I spent two hours at his house drinking beer and shooting off fireworks with his family. They splurge, about the equivalent of $100 on fireworks, which is a lot in Indian terms. The funniest part is the fireworks themselves. I'm sure Indian quality control isn't very effective, so some of the firecrackers will go off almost as soon as you light them (I almost blew my eardrum out with one), and we had one of the fountain fireworks blow up unexpectedly, a piece of it's glass urn cutting one of the boys. After the fireworks I was served traditional Indian food and went back home for the night. All in all, amazing hospitality.

Forts and Camels, Non-Filtered...

Camel Safari! I finally did it. Totally worth it I must say, I had a great time. To anyone reading this that's planning on doing a camel safari, I must recommend booking through the Roop Mahal hotel in Jaisalmer. It was a little pricey but worth it, we went way out past the tourist area to start our trek with the camels. We only ran into one other group of tourists the whole three days, but they were from the same company.

Riding camels is definitely an experience. It's a ass-bruising, ball-crunching experience ride on top of the saddle. While it was definitely bearable, as I sit here typing this I can't help but notice the soreness in my legs. Camels are pretty cool animals, they're assholes in their own way, they're bellows of protest when the riders try to sit or stop them always made me laugh. I liked the camel I had, Heliah. He seemed to warm up to me and by the third day he was listening to my commands and my kicks in his side actually generated speed.

The tour itself was pretty cool. It was me, two other Canadians (Rob & Heather), and two girls from Holland (Romina & Wendy). The staff were good other than some creepy incidents with one, but we were well taken care of and fed. Sleeping on the dunes under the stars was a highlight. I wasn't expecting to be woken up to the sound of the heavy tread and breathing of a big animal, which scared the shit out of everyone Canadian. In the morning we discovered the wild dog prints about ten feet away from us, and three feet away from my bed. The Dutch girls slept soundly through it. The next night the prints were even closer, but thankfully no wake-up call. The chirping of the crickets was definitely a nice break from the honking horns of the city, as was the noticeably reduced amount of pollution. While you never totally feel like you're in the wild (no wilderness with 1 billion people), it's still a peaceful experience.



The two days before the camel safari were spent walking around the Jaisalmer Fort. It's a really impressive place, the biggest living fort in the world. I took a tour of the palace, which included an impressive audio tour. The architecture in the fort is amazing. There's so much contrast between buildings, where you'll find a simple brick structure next to a stunningly carved doorway that looks like something straight out of a palace. I had a great experience in the Jain Temple I'm thankful for, one that brought my views of India more into the positive. Being in India and at the mercy of the touts, you begin to harden up towards the people that talk to you in public. It's a natural defensive reaction, tempered by people constantly trying to scam you or hawk their wares on you. Outside the temples are many tour guides offering you tours, and they can be very pushy. Walking through the Jain temple, I had a man in a robe start to show me around the temple, ignoring the Indians to explain to me the specifics of the temple. I explained to him a few times I wasn't looking for a guide, laying to groundwork to make sure I wasn't going to be forced to pay for it later. "No problem, sir", the classic response. He showed me around the whole temple, a lengthy tour, and at the end I was impressed enough to give him some money. He declined, saying it was his pleasure, and offered for me to take a picture of him. It reminded me that not all Indians are trying to rip me off and I should open myself up a little more. I'd like to thank that man again and post the picture I took of him on my blog.