Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Oh My!
This past week has been crazy-traveling-week. I went to Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer in just seven days. Many nights were spent on buses and trains and now I am absolutely exhausted. It's so nice to be in Delhi again and just have a day to catch up on my laundry and not move for a whole day. I really think that Delhi has its own smell (no, it's not cow). I always get so nostalgic for my study abroad days when I'm in Delhi and smell the Delhi smell.
Udaipur was my first stop after Diu. It's a small city with a man made lake in the center and a bunch of palaces in and around the lake. The view from the rooftop restaurant of my guest house was just beautiful and there was a nice, soft breeze. I would just sit up there and look out on the lake for hours. You could see the palaces on one side an on the other would be the mountains and the sunset. There would be a crowd of color on the ghats by the lake as the women washed their clothes and you could hear the pounding of wet cloth. So peaceful there.
Vera joined me in Udaipur after one day and I was very glad. I was getting a bit bored of myself. From Udaipur we took a sleeper bus to Jodhpur. Sleeper buses sound like a good idea for an overnight trip because you can lay out and sleep, but really they're terrible. It took me 23 years to master sitting up in a moving vehicle and not getting sick, and all of a sudden lying down in a fast, jerky bus was a new challenge. It took all of my effort not to get sick. Not a very nice night, and I will try to avoid sleeper buses from now on. We only spent one day in Jodhpur, but I feel like we saw a lot of Jodhpur. We kind of got lost for an hour looking for the omlette shop only to find it closed, so we took a nap in the garden for an hour. The omlette man was worth the wait and he showed us EVERY picture of all the foreigners who ate there and sent him a picture. "This is me, a German girl, and some eggs." There were a lot. And then every postcard he ever got and then every newspaper article that was written about him. The fort itself was very impressive and I learned a lot from the audio tour. Apparently a hermit had cursed the fort because he was evicted from his hill, so one citizen offered to be sealed alive in the fort's foundation to counteract the curse. Kind of cool, mostly gruesome. In the afternoon we got lost in Jodhpur again and wandered around the streets. It was really pretty with tons of color.
That night we took an overnight train to Jaisalmer (yes, I told you it was a hectic week). We went straight into our camel safari. A boy we met in Udaipur, Ziggy, had arranged our camel safari and hotel and everything. I've been on a four hour camel ride before and I've slept in the desert for seven nights, so the safari wasn't that new to me. I really just wanted to see sand dunes. And although me butt was killing me, it was worth it. There was this family of white puppies that kept following us around. They were very sweet and it was kind of surreal to find them in the middle of the sand dunes away from everything. There was also a bunch of big dung beetles everywhere. They left cool little tracks behind them when they walked. The next day, I did NOT want to get on my camel. At one point, my camel turned his head around and rubbed his nose on my knee. I laughed because it tickled and because I was glad that our relationship had become so intimate that he felt he could wipe his camel boogers on my knee. Camels are very goofy animals and i do like them, but I am done with camel safaris. I don't think my butt will ever let me get on a camel again. I got attacked by my first cow in Jaisalmer! I was just walking along, sharing the road, when this cow passed by and kind of head butted me with its horn. Not cool man. It wasn't even like I was in it's way. It kind of had to go out of it's way to hit me. Jerk.
Whew! So that was my whirlwind trip through Rajasthan. I really enjoyed it. The only thing was that I was so tired by the end, I couldn't enjoy Jaisalmer properly, but oh well. After this brief stop in Delhi, I'll be traveling with friends to Varanasi, Bodh Gaya, Darjeeling, Sikkim and then off the Nepal! I think I will need another week in Nepal just to recuperate from all my traveling in India. I'm not as young as I used to be. ;0)
Udaipur was my first stop after Diu. It's a small city with a man made lake in the center and a bunch of palaces in and around the lake. The view from the rooftop restaurant of my guest house was just beautiful and there was a nice, soft breeze. I would just sit up there and look out on the lake for hours. You could see the palaces on one side an on the other would be the mountains and the sunset. There would be a crowd of color on the ghats by the lake as the women washed their clothes and you could hear the pounding of wet cloth. So peaceful there.
Vera joined me in Udaipur after one day and I was very glad. I was getting a bit bored of myself. From Udaipur we took a sleeper bus to Jodhpur. Sleeper buses sound like a good idea for an overnight trip because you can lay out and sleep, but really they're terrible. It took me 23 years to master sitting up in a moving vehicle and not getting sick, and all of a sudden lying down in a fast, jerky bus was a new challenge. It took all of my effort not to get sick. Not a very nice night, and I will try to avoid sleeper buses from now on. We only spent one day in Jodhpur, but I feel like we saw a lot of Jodhpur. We kind of got lost for an hour looking for the omlette shop only to find it closed, so we took a nap in the garden for an hour. The omlette man was worth the wait and he showed us EVERY picture of all the foreigners who ate there and sent him a picture. "This is me, a German girl, and some eggs." There were a lot. And then every postcard he ever got and then every newspaper article that was written about him. The fort itself was very impressive and I learned a lot from the audio tour. Apparently a hermit had cursed the fort because he was evicted from his hill, so one citizen offered to be sealed alive in the fort's foundation to counteract the curse. Kind of cool, mostly gruesome. In the afternoon we got lost in Jodhpur again and wandered around the streets. It was really pretty with tons of color.
That night we took an overnight train to Jaisalmer (yes, I told you it was a hectic week). We went straight into our camel safari. A boy we met in Udaipur, Ziggy, had arranged our camel safari and hotel and everything. I've been on a four hour camel ride before and I've slept in the desert for seven nights, so the safari wasn't that new to me. I really just wanted to see sand dunes. And although me butt was killing me, it was worth it. There was this family of white puppies that kept following us around. They were very sweet and it was kind of surreal to find them in the middle of the sand dunes away from everything. There was also a bunch of big dung beetles everywhere. They left cool little tracks behind them when they walked. The next day, I did NOT want to get on my camel. At one point, my camel turned his head around and rubbed his nose on my knee. I laughed because it tickled and because I was glad that our relationship had become so intimate that he felt he could wipe his camel boogers on my knee. Camels are very goofy animals and i do like them, but I am done with camel safaris. I don't think my butt will ever let me get on a camel again. I got attacked by my first cow in Jaisalmer! I was just walking along, sharing the road, when this cow passed by and kind of head butted me with its horn. Not cool man. It wasn't even like I was in it's way. It kind of had to go out of it's way to hit me. Jerk.
Whew! So that was my whirlwind trip through Rajasthan. I really enjoyed it. The only thing was that I was so tired by the end, I couldn't enjoy Jaisalmer properly, but oh well. After this brief stop in Delhi, I'll be traveling with friends to Varanasi, Bodh Gaya, Darjeeling, Sikkim and then off the Nepal! I think I will need another week in Nepal just to recuperate from all my traveling in India. I'm not as young as I used to be. ;0)
posted by Jenna Furley | 3:56 AM
1 Comments:
Jenna my love!
I can't believe you got attacked by a cow! I didn't know cow's were aggressive like that. That was a pretty hilarious story though and I'm glad you survived the attack.
Anyway...I miss you and I hope you're well. Btw, when are you coming home?
Post a Comment
<< Home