The Thousand-Star Hotel

After months of dreaming about it, our day in the Thar Desert had finally arrived. It is on the border of Pakistan and India, so the military closely monitors which areas are safe for tourists. But you know us, we went to the parts that were off-limits. 

But first, we were taken to an abandoned Brahmin village that was emptied in one night because a king (of a lower caste) wanted to take a Brahmin (the highest caste) for his wife. To avoid this, the entire village packed up and left in one night. They have not returned ever since.

A few kilometers away, our camels, Khalu and Papu, were waiting; munching on a defenseless shrub.

Our guide took us past dried up lakes and villages. Our camels loped along and we bounced on their backs.

We were introduced to desert life from 6 feet high.

We stopped for lunch and our guide, Alep, made chapati (wheat flatbread cooked in fire) and potato curry. Little did we know that we would have chapati for THREE STRAIGHT DAYS!

Before sunset, he took us to a big sand dune and there was no one around. He told us to run around while he gathered firewood for dinner and a campfire.

When I was younger, my dad would tell me stories about the desert, how it is hot in the morning and freezing at night. He also sent us a tape of a cartoon Little Prince that starts with the pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (his Japanese anime version) stuck in the desert, shouting at his plane. I didn't understand why he had a funny accent then, I realized later he was French!

Here we are, desert safari dream, check!

Aujourd'hui, Bonne Saint Valentin! et des anciens posts à aller voir/ Old posts to see again

Salut à tous!

Nous sommes à Pushkar depuis 3 jours et nous nous reposons un peu, ce qui veut dire qu'on reste ici 8 jours et cela fait un bien fou de poser ses valises pour plus de 2 ou 3 ou 5 jours.

Nous venons d'écrire les commentaires des posts/ We just wrote the comments on the posts:
"Ellora, Daulatabad, Aurangabad" + "Ahmedabad and it's good"+ "Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh"

posté il y a 15 jours et qui se passe il y a un mois. Voilà les liens:/ posted 2 weeks ago and happening a month ago. Here are the links:

http://henrietmarj.blogspot.in/2012/02/ellora-daulatabad-aurangabad.html#more

http://henrietmarj.blogspot.in/2012/02/amehdabad-and-its-good.html

http://henrietmarj.blogspot.in/2012/02/ranakpur-and-kumbhalgarh.html

Nous avons posté des photos sans commentaires ces derniers temps pour ne pas perdre le fils, alors il faut rattraper tout çà./ We posted pictures without comments lately so we won't get lost, but we have to catch up now.

Nous vous embrassons et pensons à vous! Big Kisses and we think about you all!

Henri et Marj

The Golden City

The bus ride from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer was unbearably long. There were no toilet or lunch stops from 10am to 4pm. But the scenery was spectacular. We saw wild antelope, camels and sheep feeding on the trees and shrubbery, it was like being on a safari! Except sometimes the bus driver suddenly hits the break or swerves to avoid the passing cows.

Instead of looking for a place to stay, the place found us. There was a tout on the bus who asked if we wanted to see his guest house and since it was cheap and clean, we stayed. It had a great view of the fort, rising like a sand castle in the desert.

We were lucky to be there on the first day of the Desert Festival. It's the time when they crown Mr. Desert ( a beauty pageant for men) and hold moustache twirling contests. There are also camel races, camel polo matches, and (gasp!) camel tattoo contests.

Rajasthani men are proud of their facial hair, and Henri's moustache gets a lot of compliments here for its (unintended) sophistication. In fact, one of the guys at the guest house pleaded, "Please sir, don't cut your moustache." 

After the festival, we wandered around the market to talk to some camel safari operators. We met a guy with a sparkly silk suit who invited us to try his lassi. I was curious why they had a picture of Anthony Bourdain Photoshopped onto a fake landscape, and they showed us a segment where they appeared on "No Reservations" on the Discovery Channel. They sell VCDs of the episode too... though I don't know if they are authorized to. They slipped Bourdain a "super sexy" bhang lassi. Bhang is religious marijuana and it's totally legal in holy places.

Jodhpur Market Day

When we talked to my mom a few weeks ago, talking about our itinerary, we said on the agenda are Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaipur and my mom said, Bakit laging poor? "Why always poor?" Mom jokes :D

Here are images from our last full day in Jodhpur.

Having breakfast at the guest house.
Sometimes a squirrel comes to upset the sugar pot.

Havelis abound in the Blue city, but if you don' look up,
you'll never spot them because of the confusion at the market.

It was chaos!

I kept getting pushed by fat lady shoulders and hips.
These women are solid like body builders!

This is the market around the clock tower.

The colors are not dull, it's just dhal :)

And we foudn another, more desolate market behind it.

When we lost ourselves in the back streets, we found out how they block print  the bedsheets.

Back on the rooftop to Skype with Henri's family before the sun disappears,
and eating something we got from Janta Sweets and a street vendor.

Making a toast with a few things we found at the English wine shop.

Oras, which means "time" in Filipino, announces the time to leave Jodhpur has  arrived.

Jaisalmer, here we come!

The Blue City

Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh

It's hard to beat the Hampi-Arambol trip for sheer difficulty, it even deposed Munnar-Ooty (which took two days and was psychologically draining)! But the Udaipur-Ranakpur-Kumbhalgarh triangle is a decent runner-up. The trip took its toll physically and mentally, because we had to make a choice between the two (we really wanted to spend the night at Kumbhalgarh). There is very little information about the two and the bus routes keep changing, so most people rent a car for the day and go back to Udaipur or go to Jodhpur, but wewere feeling cocky that day and thought we could do it the hardcore way, as usual. We got conflicting bus schedules at the bus stop so Henri left the decision up to me, and by instinct, I chose Ranakpur.

It was the worst place to stay the night, but in the end we realized the Universe put us in the right place at the right time after all. More on this later.

After half a day on the bus, we arrived in a road that was empty except for the bus stop (which was technically a chai shop), the run-down government guest house, and the Jain Temple. An elderly guide who was done working for the day told us to go to the government guest house on top of the hill because it's the most convenient. The government guys told us the other hotels and guest houses were 2 kms away, and since it was getting dark and the entire area is within a wildlife sanctuary (we walked for almost a kilometer after we dropped off our bags and there was nothing else ANYWHERE), we thought the wisest thing would be to spend the night at the overpriced government guest house. It was a far cry from the palace we slept in the night before, but that's what makes life funny.

The food was expensive and AWFUL, so the following day we started our day of sightseeing without breakfast. Henri also realized he didn't have a lot of money left, so we decided to do both Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh in a day so we won't have to spend another night in that godforsaken place. We planned to leave on the same bus that took us there at 5:30pm.

Since Ranakpur's only attraction is its marble Jain Temple that is open to foreigners solely between 1 to 5 pm, we went to Khumbalgarh first by bus.

Not a lot of foreigners come here by bus so people were curious about us, and we were curious about this boy who had light blue eyes.

We needed two bus changes to get to Kumbhalgarh Fort, and we were lucky that the bus going there hadn't left yet, or else we would be stuck at the junction in a village Henri and I started calling "Shakira." But something we observed made me feel so mad... our bus going to Ranakpur stoped there yesterday! We could have stayed in Kumbhalgarh after all! Damn Udaipur bus people!!! They told us we had to take a 4pm (instead of the 1pm we took) from a different station, but the bus to Ranakpur stops here too! Arghhhh!!!! But I had to set my anger aside for the day so I could appreciate the beauty of the fort.

Some people compare it to the Great Wall in China, and I think it's unfair. Kumbhalgarh Fort is awesome in its own right.

The impressive fort with 36km-long preimeter walls, was buit in the 15th century following a ritual sacrifice to make the walls strong.

Two Weddings and a Painting Lesson

We checked out of our first guest house, Panorama, in the morning to check into our "palace" for our final night in Udaipur. 

Even though we planned to do nothing except stay in the fancy room all day to stare at the lake from the swing or try out the jacuzzi and then swim in the pool (if we drink enough whiskey, that is), we inadvertently booked our day full with other activities. It started because we were too lazy to do anything the day before...

Let me take you back to January 29, also known as "the day before."

We wanted to go to the other sites in Udaipur that seem to be worth seeing, like the hill with the cable cars and the light and sound show at the palace which was recommended by Auntie Usha and Dr. Singhvi, who gave us a free ride from Ahmedabad to Udaipur.

First thing we did though, was meet up with a guy who owns a dress shop on our street because he promised to take us to the other side (Ganesh Ghat) to see his seamstress, so we got a free ride from him too. After having the measurements taken for my sari (with a promise to get a fitting the next morning), Henri and I started the day with a visit to Jagdish Temple, the city's main temple.

It was not as large as we thought, but very interesting all the same.

And some saddhus were the real kind, not scam saddhus or as Henri and I fondly call them, scammadoos.

Then we passed the clock tower, walking to Swaroop Sagarh, the second nearest lake (we were staying on the banks of Pichola Sagarh). But Henri was too optimistic to think that we could walk all the way to the Fateh Sagarh too.

But Swaroop Sagar was not that great, there were just three old women taking a dip with their tops off. The walk towards the other lake was a bit exhausting and scary, too. The lakeside was private and we had to go the long way, through the town. We saw propaganda flags and young guys grabbing guns at an ammo shop and the men were giving us outsiders funny looks. Yikes!

The real reason we didn't go though was because we were feeling lazy that day. Like we've seen too many temples and lakes and forts and we're just too tired to see another one. We called Auntie Usha if she's available for dinner, but she invited us to lunch the next day instead.

When we got back, we met an artist whose aura I liked (no salesman bullsh*t, finally!) so I said I'd do the art lessons with him to fill up the free time we suddenly had. But he said he couldn't this afternoon, and insisted I come back any time tomorrow. Dang! Art lessons, plus fitting, plus lunch with Auntie Usha! Hope we have time to do all that tomorrow! Henri was optimistic I could do it though, so I believed I could do it too.

That afternoon we stayed at the rooftop of Panorama, watching the lake, until we heard a band playing. There was a wedding at the opposit ghat and we got there just in time for the excahnge of gifts and the parade...

The City Of Lakes

By some good fortune, we were able to hitch a ride to Udaipur with some family friends of the Choksis. Dr. Singhji and Auntie Usha live in the city of lakes and were just on their way back and had extra space in their car for us. Whoopee!

The dramatic shift in terrain from Gujarat to Rajasthan was jaw-dropping. There are mountains between the two and after the mountain passes lay golden mounds of parched land. Turbaned shepherds walk with their sheep, children run through the leafless trees, and every so often, a patch of green farmland would appear.

When we got to Udaipur, Usha told the driver to drop us off at the guest house of our preference, hinting that the best place to stay is along Hanuman Ghat. We took her word for it. It really was the best place to stay, it was more quiet and less touristy than the other side; and we took the first guest house we found: Panorama.

The owner performed a puja and fed his servants outdoors.

The room was cute, with antique furniture that make you feel you are really in a haveli. Traditional Mewari murals depicting courtly life could be found all over the building, and we had some nice ones in our room too, but the best thing about it was the view. Unfortunately, we could only have the room for one night because it was reserved for the next day. Dang.

Henri met some French tourists at the guest house and I went out on my own, looking at souvenir shops and chatting with a painter. When Henri found out I was not in the room, he went looking for me; and when I went back to the guest house they told me my husband had just left. We found each other in the main street, just before he began to worry.

For dinner we went straight to the place recommended by Ashir: Ambrai. It probably has the most romantic atmosphere in the whole city, with a view of the City Palace and the Lake Palace from a garden terrace jutting into the lake. There were musicians and thankfully, heaters. When we came in, the maitre 'd said, “Oh! You found your wife!”

Sadly, they do not serve alcohol, so we made a toast to the honeymoon with glasses of water. Everything went smoothly today, from the free ride, to the drop off at the guest house, to the tables we got at the restaurant. If we arrived a few minutes later, we would have waited an hour for a place to sit. I guess it was our lucky day.