into rajasthan
well, what can we say.. we are now very much in north india.. rajasthan, a land that is soo diferent to the southern states. the exotic 'land of princes', rather than temples, we are seeing forts, palaces and barren desert.
we were quite nervous (well i was anyway, as we have been so spoilt in the south) travelling to the north as it has been renowned for its scams and hard sell to the tourists.. (ie: poison food, touts, police rackets).. we have had a few, but got away very lightly, i think this deserves a blog entry of its own, eh fi?
its also the place we have been compelled to learn some hindi, once we have made the effort we soon realised the people here are the most hospitable in india. i had a crash course on the way up north onboard the jaipur express, with an indian man called 'VK' who sold hesian sacks, he made me order snacks on the train in Hindi. the actual journey itself a feast for travel fans: 1400kms, 3 states.
then he described the sleeper system in the train, (which he i think was the same as cinema seating): top bunk > balcony, middle bunk > first class, bottom bunk > second class, floor > unreserved.. even though all of our carriage was second class..
we had the chance to get the train to jaipur two days earlier, but this guard showed us to a doorway where he said we could stand! we didnt fancy this as the journey was for 18 hours! and he wanted baksheesh (money) for this too! (this worked out to be okay as i had my bollywood screentest) i met a few men on the train who were doing just this, they were on the waiting list for a bunk, rajesh was the 550th person in line for a seat, but made the standing journey by being accompanied by a bottle of gin! going to the toilet at night meant jumping and crawling over an jigsaw of bodies!
the stars i gazed at from the bunk of the train, as the 22 carriage train hurtled into rajasthan were amazing.. from desert floor to the heavens..
fi also had some fun on the train with two very confident israeli girls, i will let her fill in the blanks.
fi's comments on entering rajasthan: deserts, camels, vultures, flat arid landscapes, and pink turbans.. bloody israelis!
so after two days trying to aclimatise to northern culture and cuisine in jaipur. we saw our first snake charmer, but after visiting the animal home is goa where snakes are taken from these guys we didnt quite feel so happy about seeing this. so we had our photo taken next to a guard and mini guard at the city palace.
we are in the town of pushkar, a very holy place for hindi's.. 52 ghats and 1000 temples, the religion is brahma here > something which we dont quite understand how it works, but its certainly very colourfull, with lots of traditional (loud) music
we were quite nervous (well i was anyway, as we have been so spoilt in the south) travelling to the north as it has been renowned for its scams and hard sell to the tourists.. (ie: poison food, touts, police rackets).. we have had a few, but got away very lightly, i think this deserves a blog entry of its own, eh fi?
its also the place we have been compelled to learn some hindi, once we have made the effort we soon realised the people here are the most hospitable in india. i had a crash course on the way up north onboard the jaipur express, with an indian man called 'VK' who sold hesian sacks, he made me order snacks on the train in Hindi. the actual journey itself a feast for travel fans: 1400kms, 3 states.
then he described the sleeper system in the train, (which he i think was the same as cinema seating): top bunk > balcony, middle bunk > first class, bottom bunk > second class, floor > unreserved.. even though all of our carriage was second class..
we had the chance to get the train to jaipur two days earlier, but this guard showed us to a doorway where he said we could stand! we didnt fancy this as the journey was for 18 hours! and he wanted baksheesh (money) for this too! (this worked out to be okay as i had my bollywood screentest) i met a few men on the train who were doing just this, they were on the waiting list for a bunk, rajesh was the 550th person in line for a seat, but made the standing journey by being accompanied by a bottle of gin! going to the toilet at night meant jumping and crawling over an jigsaw of bodies!
the stars i gazed at from the bunk of the train, as the 22 carriage train hurtled into rajasthan were amazing.. from desert floor to the heavens..
fi also had some fun on the train with two very confident israeli girls, i will let her fill in the blanks.
fi's comments on entering rajasthan: deserts, camels, vultures, flat arid landscapes, and pink turbans.. bloody israelis!
so after two days trying to aclimatise to northern culture and cuisine in jaipur. we saw our first snake charmer, but after visiting the animal home is goa where snakes are taken from these guys we didnt quite feel so happy about seeing this. so we had our photo taken next to a guard and mini guard at the city palace.
we are in the town of pushkar, a very holy place for hindi's.. 52 ghats and 1000 temples, the religion is brahma here > something which we dont quite understand how it works, but its certainly very colourfull, with lots of traditional (loud) music
posted by Fi and Jim @ 6:56 am
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