October 4 - Rajasthan Tour, India

A Rajasthan tour is not exactly forging into unmapped territory. But I think so many people do it because it is so great.

We started our Rajasthan tour in Delhi, flying up from Kochi. We had had a recommendation via a friend of a friend, someone to contact about a driver, car and arranged accommodation. The uptick of arranging all this was a friendly face to meet us at the airport in Delhi and the ease of knowing our schedule was set for the next 7 days. Of course, the downside was…we had lost a little “control” over what was happening. Now the Gosneys (Janet included) are not necessarily people comfortable with giving up control. So as you can imagine, we had ventured into new territory.

Taj Mahal, Agra
First stop, Agra and the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal was built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a monument for his second wife who died giving birth to their 14th child (yes, it is true!). Apparently Shah Jahan was not very good at showing his love and devotion to his wife while she was alive. I imagine it is difficult to spread your love and devotion to so many wives – sorry for the obvious sarcasm. Once she had died however, he immersed himself into his grief and building the Taj Mahal after seeing a vision of it in a dream. Completion took 22 years, about 20,000 workers and approximately Rs 3,000,000 or about US $70,000,000 in today’s terms. It is really hard to describe how beautiful it is; white marble set against an unbelievable blue sky and symmetrical in every way. The scale, balance and brilliance of the Taj are breathtaking. We had decided to skip staying overnight in Agra and push through to get some mileage under our belts. So we hit the monument in the absolute heat of the day and it was PACKED. We loved it but we were also just trying to survive the heat and crowds. We would have loved to be there at sunrise or sunset.

Jaipur

Our first overnight was Jaipur where we visited the Amber Fort & City Palace. We also honed our bargaining skills as the shopping was great! I have mentioned our desire to seek out some easy, western style food and Jaipur was the spot. We read our trusty Lonely Planet to find a great lunch café we would have never found on our own. Mission accomplished, our bellies were full having found sandwiches. Something we had not had in a long time. The Amber Fort was a blast. Hundreds of years old, we took a couple of hours to scour the various nooks and crannies, rooms, courtyards and temple. The girls were enthralled; busy taking photos, finding small staircases and tunnels all the while imagining the fort as it had been in its prime. The City Palace was equally interesting with an amazing audio tour and good luck as we came across a Hindu ceremony blessing the guards’ horses. Rajasthan was definitely heating up…we were puddles of sweat most of the day.

Our driver’s name was Kamaal. A nice enough guy who was quick to crack a smile and/or a joke. Whoever sat in the front seat was in charge of translating anything Kamaal said to the rest of us in the back of the car. We got better and better at deciphering his English every day. Sadly our vehicle was pretty uncomfortable for the 5 of us, the back seat for the 5th was sideways and far beyond the reach of the AC. It was a sweatbox. imagine Judy climbing into the very back of this steamy vehicle, on top of the luggage to face hours of driving. Some of you will know how hard it is to wrestle Judy away from taking the brunt of a situation but we got better at making sure she spent minimal time back there as the days wore on. The trip as it was originally planned involved an almost impossible amount of driving, especially apparent after experiencing the first day or two. So, after meeting a couple of nice girls who could not say enough great things about Udaipur, we decided to take back some of the control, change our route to end in Udaipur making it a one way trip. We booked a flight back up to Delhi. Kamaal would do the final 12 plus hours on his own.

Pushkar.
We spent only one night in Pushkar with the main objective to ride camels. Ron was not very excited – his memory of spending 3 days on a camel in India 25 years ago still brings a wince to his face and protective gesture across his rear end. I would have to say, Sadie & Anna’s most favourite experiences on our trip seem to involve animals. Big or small, domestic or wild, flea bitten or beautiful; they notice every animal and we have the photos to prove it. I can hear your collective groan now as you anticipate the slide show. We lucked out in Pushkar finding some good eats at funky local spots called The Mango Café & Little Italy. The town was teaming with a whole new flavor of tourists, the classic backpacker crowd searching for hash and the cheapest rooms possible. Pushkar kind of bills itself as a “dry” town with dedicated Hindus setting the tone. However, it was still possible to find a beer served in discrete cups at the table, no bottles.

Our camel ride was so much fun, although I think Ron and Judy next time will stick to their guns and decline participation. We each got a camel and a driver to sit behind us. In the 11th hour we decided to take a “cart” in case anyone did not want to ride. The route was a little disappointing as it took forever to get out of town and our route took us right beside the garbage dump. But the novelty outweighed the lack of comfort for sure as we weaved our way through the outskirts of Pushkar and ended up on a hill in the desert to watch the sunset. We traveled back in the dark with an amazing display of fireworks overhead celebrating…yet another festival. I drove my camel all the way home which I’m pretty sure didn’t involve much skill but it was fun anyway.

Now Pushkar is one of the 3 top holy destinations in India. The lake there, a sacred place to worship the Hindu God Brahma, is empty right now because they are scooping out excess silt & sand. However there are 52 Ghats surrounding the edge, some of which still have water. As a tourist you can look over the Ghats and see the bathers there with their Brahmans dipping, splashing, praying and sometimes tossing in loved ones ashes. My advice to anyone visiting would be to stay on the lookout and decline any invite to go right down to the Ghat and have a Brahman bless your family. We didn’t know any better and upon invite headed down to check it out. The Brahman offering this to tourists, although they may be Brahman, are really just trying to get your money. Sure, we knew we would have the experience and pay a little money (nothing in India is free)…but what they did was separate Ron, Judy and me from each other. They led us each in some prayer type rituals which we all found very interesting…until our “Brahman” began to ask us for money in amounts based on the members in our family we had just blessed. They asked for $20-$100 per family member. We scrambled out of there mad and frustrated having thrown them a little money (after digging our heals in and refusing more). We’ve never met such aggressive people asking for money. We had hired a guide recommended by Kamaal but a good guide would never put you in this situation. We felt then, more than ever, we had to constantly keep our guard up to decipher the real thing from the latest tourist scam. That being said, we loved Pushkar and felt it was giving us yet another glimpse into Rajasthan and the colourful rural life.

Ranakpur

100 agonizing kms out of our way, Ranakpur turned out to be a great stop. It is the home of the Chaumukha Mandir Temple…and there really isn’t much else around there except beautiful green forest and hills, somewhat of a rarity in the dusty desert landscape of Rajasthan we’d seen so far. The Chamukha Mandir Temple is India’s largest and most important Jain Temple. I need to read more about Jain worship, it is intriguing. Devout followers wear masks over their nose and mouth. The temple is nothing short of astounding; built in 1439, it is made of beautiful white marble, 1444 carved pillars (each one is different) creating 29 halls radiating from the centre. The clincher is, you must be appropriately dressed to visit. Judy and I thought we had done the right thing but apparently wrapping a sarong around you to cover legs is not appropriate, we had to rent large tent dresses. It was hot and definitely a “Glamour Don’t” but we survived and the photos will provide some good humour down the road. The girls were equally as enthralled inspiring and impromptu photo shoot of each other against the gorgeous marble backdrop. Sadie especially has become really interested in taking photos and she is doing a fabulous job. Her specialty seems to be taking photos of people. She has captured some of our best images.

Udaipur
Back to backpacking. We were tired of the sterile locations the tour company had been choosing for us to stay. They were usually too far out of the way (billed to us as quiet locations) and void of anyone we could talk to. Meeting other travelers is the best way to glean information about where to go and what to do, not to mention the added benefit of social contact. So we took over and booked a fabulous place in Udaipur. I should mention again what a trooper Judy is. The backpacker guest houses are usually heavy on character, most are very clean…but the charm is never very apparent on first glance. Backpackers’ lodges are not a choice for everyone, and some are a bit too much for me, but we have learned what to look for when shopping to book and we are using tripadvisor.com to back up our choices with reviews. Our home for 3 days was Hotel Kumbha Palace, situated in the thick of things just below the city palace.

Our 3 days in Udaipur were a welcome break from moving every night. We hired a guide to show us the City Palace Museum (we sought out one with excellent English which helped a great deal), took a boat ride around Pichola Lake with a stop at Jagniwas Island and past The Palace Hotel, famous as the filming location for James Bond “Octopussy”. The sun sets were phenomenal over the lake. I met a really nice guy the first night we got there and we ended up bumping into him at least a couple times every day we were there. He was friendly and full of information. The town was vibrant, especially at night; the bazaar canopied with reflective streamers and hanging glass chandeliers. The streets were incredibly narrow with gutsy rickshaw and motorcycle drivers barreling through at top speed. I can’t believe how street savvy the girls have become negotiating their way through this harrowing traffic. As a group of 5, there is no way for all of us to find a path together. Marching around in single file, every one of us has had to learn how to find and often create a route. Our highlights were; Roxy, the Great Dane belonging to the owners of our guest house and the Dharohar Dancing show we took in on the last night there. The show was a collection of colourful (colour being one of our most vivid memories of Rajasthan) traditional Rajasthan dances. The grand finale was a woman dancing with no less than 9 pots balanced on her head.