Incredible India!

Well, we've got a few more hours left in India until we hop on a plane to start our Thai adventure. This trip has been incredible so far, and both Claire and I are heartbroken to leave (who knew!). Rajasthan turned out to be so much more than I expected and it had a lot to do with the people we met (and the food of course!).

Khuri was great, it's a small community near the Pakistan border, where you can see every star in the sky when night falls (and i think I did). Our camel ride was quite an adventure, and we got to watch the sunset again- I made friends with a little boy who came around dancing for foreigners with his family playing back up instruments. Our hut turned out to be a mock-hut in a hotel...complete with ensuite bathroom, and no dirt floor in sight. After we got back from he camel rides we attended a music and dance show in the village, but it was all foreigners in attendance. Desert living, while chraming in some respects (one with nature and all that junk) is not something I think i could get used to...I have never been surrounded by so many grasshoppers in my life..they were everywhere and flew all over us. We had enough of it, so we returned to the "hutel" (hehe) and had dinner. I'm pretty sure a dish called "desert bean" was the same food that my camel had feasted on a few hours before. At least I can say I roughed it for a while!

The next day we were off to Jodhpur (the Blue city). It had a beautiful fort. I'm dizzy with all the forts we've seen. fort-tastic. But they're so very cool once you wrap your head around who conquered who and how many wives the king had (some had 200+ - busy guy!)...and they're mind bogglingly gigantic of course.

Then our last spot was Pushkar, a very holy Hindu town that was founded by Brahma, one of the big 3 gods in our religion (although he's been forgotten by most because his wife put a curse on him for marrying another woman...i love how it's all a soap opera). There's a holy lake that is surrounded by 52 ghats (steps leading to the lake for bathing, rituals, etc). I was excited to find out that Gandhi's ashes were scattered at the Gau Ghat, so we checked that out (although I'm not sure if all his ashes were scattered there, or just a few). We also had an individual puja conducted by some holy men, it was a beautiful ceremony,....until they started asking for $$$...we had read about it in our travel book, but I didn't see it coming until the end of it...anyhow, it was worth it...On Wednesday morning we got up early at 5 to climb a mountain where the Savitri temple is located (she's Brahma's wife who banished him...girl power!). I was doing well for the first 10 minutes, then it was all huffing and puffing to claw my way up the stairs/cobbled surface up the mountain (took about 40 of the longest minutes of my life). It was a breeze for Claire (damn her marathon running!)...and our dear driver Yogesh came with us as well. It was a stunning view once we got up there, simply incredible. I should mention that our hotel in Pushkar was absolutely amazing- Jagat Palace...Quite luxurious for a couple of dirty backpackers!

Yogesh had been updating his family about us the entire time via cell phone, we found out that we'd become quite the discussion peice for them and Yogesh invited us to his home to visit. We decided that we couldn't say no (Claire figured there might be a marriage proposal fo one of us involved haha), so we headed back to Jaipur (we were supposed to take the train from Ajmer, but there was a bomb blast a few days before at a Mosque, so i was like, um, how about no.). We met his family, it was hilarious, I couldn't tell who they were more amazed by, the white girl, or the brown girl that doesn't speak much hindi! They were extraordinarily nice and we spent a few hours looking through their photo albums and they prepared an excellent lunch for us (it was probably the hottest food I've had on this trip...nothing clears up the sinuses better)! Then we were on the bus back to Delhi after a semi-tearful goodbye from Yogesh (it was quite touching really).

It's hard to believe that we'll be leaving India in a few hours, it's really been so memorable and surprisingly welcoming at every turn. I'm glad that I got to discover a new place in the country for the first time and I really can see myself coming back to see more of it soon (Kerala is a must I keep hearing!).

Anyhoo, onwards and upwards. I have a feeling Thailand will be a very different experience than India (full moon party anyone?:)