Trains, Smog, Ferris wheels, and Gandhi

Rajasthani traditional dance at Shilpgram Utsav


Indian ferris wheel

Shilpgram Utsav

Making juice from sugar cane

I'll let the pictures and video do most of my talking for me. Shilpgram Utsav was a fair taking place approximately 6km outside of Udaipur. Far enough that there were almost zero foreign tourists there. It was quite an amazing time. Hundreds of stalls selling handicrafts, great food, traditional dance and music performances, snake charmers, and a set of carnival rides that could only be legal in India. I loved it!
Indian ferris wheel

Ahmedabad - washing clothes in the river

Ahmedabad slum encampment

Sabarmati (Gandhi) Ashram

Words from an incredible life

I spent a day in Ahmedabad, one of the most polluted cities in the world. It's quite a place, and it's a world away from Udaipur. I walked through the old city, (with a hankerchief held over my nose and mouth) drank chai on the side of the road at 4:30am, napped on the floor of the train station, (yet another long story involving the wonderful ethos that is indian bureaucracy) walked through a slum encampment, (oy....) and visited the ashram where Mahatma Gandhi lived before he began his famous march to Dandi in 1930.
Ahmedabad

I took the night train from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, where I am now. This afternoon I move on to Igatpuri where I will be taking a 10 day Vipassana meditation course starting on the 3rd. It's going to be pretty intense. I won't be allowed to speak or touch anyone and I will have to stay within the grounds for the duration of the course . Here is a link to Vipassana's website for those of you who are interested.
Happy new year!

Jaisalmer/Udaipur

Jaisalmer fort

Christmas supper with Lisa and Kevin


Greetings travel fans,
So, I have a bit of catching up to do here. Jaisalmer was certainly an interesting spot to spend christmas. Unfortunately, many thousands of other tourists, both foreign and domestic, thought exactly the same thing. The place was packed. The hotel owners had a field day gouging prosepective guests for all they were worth. I arrived from Jodhpur on the evening of the 23rd to find that the hotel I had booked myself into had given my room away. Long story... but after quite a bit of haggling, many accusations, and numerous threats of ugly letters being written to guidebooks, I ended up paying very little for a very nice room... which I promptly checked out of first thing the next morning. Lisa and Kevin showed up on afternoon of the 24th, shortly after I had sorted out our accommodation. We had a lovely meal at an excellent indian restaurant. Despite the fact that I was with family, and the fact that we did christmas things, it just didn't feel like christmas. It was pretty much the same as any other day in a touristy spot in India. The fort was neat. Staying in a guesthouse on the inside of it made it that much cooler. The intricately detailed carving of the havelis and the Jain temples is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Overall however, my experience of Jaisalmer was slightly soured by the crowds and the hard sell attitude of many hotel and shop owners there.
Carvings in Jaisalmer Jain Temples



I took a night "sleeper" bus from Jaisalmer back to Jodhpur (never again, at least not with out someone I trust to share my berth with - another long story) and from there travelled to Udaipur, another firmly established spot on the tourist trail. I must confess that I am beginning to feel a bit jaded by the constant pressure to buy things that is present in the main tourist centers. I am seriously considering throwing my guidebook in the trash, or going to the places that it recommends that people don't go. I'm getting a little sick of seeing the same fat, pasty white, zoom lens, AC tour bus crowd. Yes, it's high season. Yes, Rajasthan is extremely popular and well established on tourist itineraries... But I don't have to like it.

Udaipur


WOW.
This post has turned into a bit of a bitch session... didn't mean for that. I am having a good time, but this is accompanied by numerous frustrations.

Jodhpur

Sunrise view from my guesthouse

Meherangarh Fort

While in my opinion Jaipur is undeserving of it's title "the pink city," (the old city is more of a peach/orange colour) Jodhpur is definately "the blue city." Being an indian city, it is of course filled with touts, rickshaw wallahs, and hustlers. The scam artists of Jodhpur however, are amateur and pedestrian when compared with the hustlers of Jaipur... It's pretty slack, although I did get hit by a rock thrown by some punk kid on a roof top today. While walking around the extremely well preserved fort and the colourful bazars was a very interesting and enjoyable experience, I suspect my best memories from Jodhpur will be the lazy afternoons and evenings relaxing, reading, and taking in the views on the wonderful mosaic tiled rooftop of my guesthouse, directly beneath the fort.

Pushkar

Sunset from Savitri Mandir

Pushkar Lake


Despite the out and out commercialism of the main bazar, with its hippy clothing, cheap trinkets, and Om stickers, Pushkar remains a charming, laid back, pleasant place to spend a few days. I had a couple of nice walks into the country, hung out with a sadhu, drank chai in rooftop cafes, and performed a puja at the ghat where Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharal Nehru's ashes were spread on the lake. I move on to Jodhpur tomorrow. From there I'll head to Jaisalmer, where I'll spend Christmas in the desert with my cousin Lisa and uncle Kevin, who -unexpectedly- landed in Delhi a few days ago!

Sadhu on the Ghats

The courtyard of my guesthouse, complete with live-in tortises.

Monkey Monkey

I took a walk up to the Galta monkey palace east of Jaipur this morning. It's quite a remarkable place, full of sadhus and, as the name suggests, monkeys. LOTS of them. I handed out a few oranges that I bought in the market. I'm not usually a fan of feeding wild animals, but in this case the monkey population has been used to close contact with humans for many hundreds of years. Feeding them is a local custom thought to please the hindu monkey god Hanuman, and bring good luck.

I move on to Pushkar tomorrow... into the desert.

Monkeys

Jaipur

I had an incredible walk around Jaipur yesterday. The monuments of the pink city are quite picturesque, and the bazzars are incredibly vibrant and bright. What made the walk amazing though were the conversations and the connections that I had with people. I just wandered the city, exploring the backstreets, talking with people, drinking chai, discussing religion... observing.
I saw some things that have affected me profoundly. Alas, I lack words to properly describe them... Suffice to say that, among other things, I sat for a very long time on the sidewalk with a man with no legs who's intention it was to sleep there.

Added a video of the India/Pakistan border closing ceremony to the previous post.

Amritsar/Jaipur

So... it's been awhile. For those of you who thought I was off doing sketchy things in dangerous places, you're completely wrong...... OK mom? NO danger. None.

Getting a shave

I was in the Sikh's holy city of Amritsar in Punjab visiting the golden temple (holiest shrine of the sikh faith.) I spent my nights sleeping in a gurudwara (sleeping place in the temple) with the pilgrims, which aside from the 4am mornings and lack of privacy (those pilgrims like to get as much praying in as they can.) was quite comfortable and pleasant. The setting was difficult to beat as well. The temple is absolutely beautiful.... stunning really. The sikh guards were very friendly to me, especially when they found out that I am canadian. "Canada!? VEEEEERRRRRY GOOOD!!!" was one's response. Not a particularly suprising reaction I suppose, when one considers the number of people in Punjab who have relatives in Canada. Amritsar is a pretty neat city, particularly the old part of town. I spent a full afternoon and evening exploring the laberynthine streets and alleyways.

Golden temple kitchen


Street scenes in Amritsar

One evening I took a trip out to the Pakistan border to witness the nightly border closing ceremony. The scene was completely surreal. Guards on both sides of the border in dress uniform marched up and down, yelling and marching theatrically yet aggressively, while thousands upon thousands of onlookers cheered, waved flags, and were revved up by an MC. The atmosphere was more like that of an NHL playoff game than that of one of the world's most sensitive geopolitical hotspots. There were vendors selling everything from roasted corn to postcards to peanuts, even beer! Like I said... surreal.

Border Ceremony

Border ceremony

Right before I got roughed up.... kidding! kidding mom!

I took an overnight train from Amritsar to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. I haven't really done much sight seeing yet. Mostly laying low and catching up on sleep. My guesthouse backs onto a mosque, the 5 daily prayer calls are blared into my room... which might be annoying in a city that wasn't as noisy as Jaipur. Now it's novel, and almost soothing. The touts and beggars here are the most aggressive and persistant that I have ever encountered. The usual disinterested "no" that has worked so well for me in other places is much less effective. I've come close to losing my cool a number of times with over eager rickshaw touts trying to block my path on the road while I'm being mobbed by beggar kids. I understand that everyone is trying to make some money to survive, and that i'm seen as being outrageously rich in comparison to these poor folks. BUT, I'm not willing to be cheated. I, like most well healed members of indian society give money to beggars, particularly those with disabilities. This country has no welfare system for these people, and giving alms is an important social custom, one I whole heartedly take part in. Mobs of aggressive kids are something completely different though.

Been doing quite a bit of walking in the hills around Dharamsala during the past week or so... here are a few shots from my exploits.

I'm moving on tomorrow... where to? well... you'll have to keep checking here to see...