blue desert buildings

recipe for banana lassi (north indian)

• one big banana
• natural yoghurt or milk curd
• topping - cashew nuts, dessicated coconut and chipped pistachio

sign outside barber shop

• catting (cutting) centre and saving (shaving) hair

jim to indian man on bus in middle of thar desert, rajasthan

"its very crowded in here?!", "of course, this is india!"

we arrived in jodphur slightly weary and dusty after a slow journey on a local bus from pushkar, we were ripped off with the bus ticket we purchased promises of being comfortable and smoke free.. these promises didnt mean much once we experienced the other extreme. fi and i looked at each other, smiled and said "oh, lets go back to south india!" as we heard about the challenge of travelling in north india.

jodphur itself was a bustling town, a fort town and still occupied by the current maharajah. yet these towns often expand to live outside the city walls, it was the old city we were interested in..

its famous for its blue buildings, and huge city palace high up on the fort escarpment. after a very good self guided tour round the palace with headphones we had a few surprises.. i was offered opium by a guard (popular medicinal treat for military) and a cold kingfisher beer in the palace lounge - we had drunk alcohol for 8 days before, as the town before was so holy no alcohol or even meat is allowed..

walking back down the winding lanes opf blue houses to the new town we witnessed an interesting muslim festival.. apparently to do with tests of strength.. there were men taking it turns to do all the following tasks infront of a huge colourfull chariott with their god on:

• men getting lashed and men also doing the lashing
• men fighting each other with bamboo sticks
• and other men banging very heavy drums whilst hanging from their necks

>> all this was done until they could do it no more..

we were tired again becuase i thought i was going to get lashed and fi thought she was going to get pickpocketed so we legged it past a bunch of guys having a fight then we found a most agreeable place to sit for a few minutes to catch our breaths and enjoy a chai and omlette (the man was proud to tell us he cooked 1400 eggs a day).

we then met two of fi's friend from manchester, sally and marcus in a desert bar with open fires, more beers were enjoyed!

found a lot of the street kiosks here sell apple juice (due to the perfect mountainous climate in the north) - mohuns gold coin apple juice.. bliss :)