Octopussy anyone?
Sorry about the slackness of the blog, what can I say I am holidays…..
My last entry had us in Bombay now renamed Mumbai but I just don't care, I prefer the old names and I am going to use them from now on, for those that don’t know, many Indian cities have been renamed in order to fully throw off the shackles of colonialism....so Chennai was Madras, Mumbai - Bombay, Kolkata - Calcutta.
After shopping till we dropped in Bombay and sending home a massive 23kg box of stuff (give us a break neither of us has really shopped for years) we headed off to Rajasthan the desert land...we had heard many things about Rajasthan and were both excited about the colour and rich culture there, but also a little afraid of the touts who earned their legendary status as scammers and bastards in Rajasthan.
Our first stop was in Udaipur the city of lakes, and set of Octopussy as advertised by every cafe and restaurant in town which shows this movie every night. This the location of the beautiful bathing and washing ghat's you often see in images of India - a ghat is basically a public access to a river or lake, and Udaipur's ghat's are a lovely setting for packs of women, clad in wet sari’s of butter yellow, blood red and baby pink soaping clothes into a frenzied latter and then beating them within and inch of themselves with baton. Instead of staying in the busy and narrow lanes of the main town, we choose instead to cross the lake and stay on the other side in peaceful and beautiful guest house, our room had arched windows on all sides to reveal the lovely old buildings of Udaipur and of course glimpses of the lake, the guest house was also run by a rather lovely and spunky Indian man with soft green eyes. Upon hearing that his family were trying to arrange his marriage we started discussions and offers immediately on Jo's behalf so watch this space we may have two Indians in the family soon. We were lucky to be in Udaipur this year as it is the first time that the lake has been full in 7 years; apparently the young children of the town who had never seen water in the lake crowded all entrances to lake right up into the town.
Next stop in Rajasthan was Jodhpur which has the largest fort in India and of course is the blue city, blue denotes that the household is Brahmin, which being the highest caste in India is eager to show its place. It was heartening to see once we had arrived that the blue was fading and although not making for as spectacular a photo, I had hoped this reflected a fading of the caste system within India. From what I understand the caste system is basically how society was stratified in India and was determined by trade, trades being passed on from father to son. The lowest classed are the garbage or shit collectors, leatherworks etc and moved right up until the jewellery makers and priests being closer to the top. The fort is a spectacular site looming large over the city, it is an impressive and intricate structure, it is arranged in rather a modern fashion for India and operates as a living museum with and audio guided tour, spoken by and Indian man putting on a high English accent - very funny. Interestingly I learnt on the tour that opium was and still is an important social drug in Rajasthan used to celebrate births, deaths and marriages.
Our next stop was in Jaisalmer, which is also a fort city although much less spectacular than Jodhpur, we arrived in Jaisalmer in the late afternoon and were shocked to see 20 men running after our bus as soon it pulled up and then crowding around the door, calling out for us to go their hotel, this was one of the things I was dreading about Rajasthan. After 6 hours on a bus this was the last thing I wanted, but not to be a shrinking violet I met the situation head on. Pack on my back and day pack on my front I went to step off the bus and was not able to, reaching boiling point I held on to the handles at either side of the door I started kicking out at the men while shouting at to them to get out of the way, there was a police man there to help protect the tourists from the touts who found himself trying to protect the touts from the mad kicking tourist. Jaisalmer is the main town to catch camel trips from and after one day in the city, we headed out to the desert on camel but more on that later.
After three weeks of non stop sight seeing, we had earned a rest and decided to finish our trip with a week in Pushkar. Pushkar is a scenic and lovely town which is a significant spiritual pilgrimage site for Hindu's, thus the town has many Sadhus’ (holy men who devote their whole existence to pursuit of understanding and practising their religion). However it is also the place of significant drug taking and many of the Sadhu's walk around in what appears to be drunken stupors exclaiming largely inaudible words of wisdom while wobbling on the spot. Many tourist's discovering the delights of Pushkar's bhang lassies spend more time there being tripped out and speculating on life's great issues than they intended to. Pushkar is a very unusual place, it has strict religious rules and so no alcohol, meat or eggs are allowed in the town at all, and rules of conduct for tourists are posted everywhere, yet it has a big drug culture and because bhang is legal here it is not hidden.
My last entry had us in Bombay now renamed Mumbai but I just don't care, I prefer the old names and I am going to use them from now on, for those that don’t know, many Indian cities have been renamed in order to fully throw off the shackles of colonialism....so Chennai was Madras, Mumbai - Bombay, Kolkata - Calcutta.
After shopping till we dropped in Bombay and sending home a massive 23kg box of stuff (give us a break neither of us has really shopped for years) we headed off to Rajasthan the desert land...we had heard many things about Rajasthan and were both excited about the colour and rich culture there, but also a little afraid of the touts who earned their legendary status as scammers and bastards in Rajasthan.
Our first stop was in Udaipur the city of lakes, and set of Octopussy as advertised by every cafe and restaurant in town which shows this movie every night. This the location of the beautiful bathing and washing ghat's you often see in images of India - a ghat is basically a public access to a river or lake, and Udaipur's ghat's are a lovely setting for packs of women, clad in wet sari’s of butter yellow, blood red and baby pink soaping clothes into a frenzied latter and then beating them within and inch of themselves with baton. Instead of staying in the busy and narrow lanes of the main town, we choose instead to cross the lake and stay on the other side in peaceful and beautiful guest house, our room had arched windows on all sides to reveal the lovely old buildings of Udaipur and of course glimpses of the lake, the guest house was also run by a rather lovely and spunky Indian man with soft green eyes. Upon hearing that his family were trying to arrange his marriage we started discussions and offers immediately on Jo's behalf so watch this space we may have two Indians in the family soon. We were lucky to be in Udaipur this year as it is the first time that the lake has been full in 7 years; apparently the young children of the town who had never seen water in the lake crowded all entrances to lake right up into the town.
Next stop in Rajasthan was Jodhpur which has the largest fort in India and of course is the blue city, blue denotes that the household is Brahmin, which being the highest caste in India is eager to show its place. It was heartening to see once we had arrived that the blue was fading and although not making for as spectacular a photo, I had hoped this reflected a fading of the caste system within India. From what I understand the caste system is basically how society was stratified in India and was determined by trade, trades being passed on from father to son. The lowest classed are the garbage or shit collectors, leatherworks etc and moved right up until the jewellery makers and priests being closer to the top. The fort is a spectacular site looming large over the city, it is an impressive and intricate structure, it is arranged in rather a modern fashion for India and operates as a living museum with and audio guided tour, spoken by and Indian man putting on a high English accent - very funny. Interestingly I learnt on the tour that opium was and still is an important social drug in Rajasthan used to celebrate births, deaths and marriages.
Our next stop was in Jaisalmer, which is also a fort city although much less spectacular than Jodhpur, we arrived in Jaisalmer in the late afternoon and were shocked to see 20 men running after our bus as soon it pulled up and then crowding around the door, calling out for us to go their hotel, this was one of the things I was dreading about Rajasthan. After 6 hours on a bus this was the last thing I wanted, but not to be a shrinking violet I met the situation head on. Pack on my back and day pack on my front I went to step off the bus and was not able to, reaching boiling point I held on to the handles at either side of the door I started kicking out at the men while shouting at to them to get out of the way, there was a police man there to help protect the tourists from the touts who found himself trying to protect the touts from the mad kicking tourist. Jaisalmer is the main town to catch camel trips from and after one day in the city, we headed out to the desert on camel but more on that later.
After three weeks of non stop sight seeing, we had earned a rest and decided to finish our trip with a week in Pushkar. Pushkar is a scenic and lovely town which is a significant spiritual pilgrimage site for Hindu's, thus the town has many Sadhus’ (holy men who devote their whole existence to pursuit of understanding and practising their religion). However it is also the place of significant drug taking and many of the Sadhu's walk around in what appears to be drunken stupors exclaiming largely inaudible words of wisdom while wobbling on the spot. Many tourist's discovering the delights of Pushkar's bhang lassies spend more time there being tripped out and speculating on life's great issues than they intended to. Pushkar is a very unusual place, it has strict religious rules and so no alcohol, meat or eggs are allowed in the town at all, and rules of conduct for tourists are posted everywhere, yet it has a big drug culture and because bhang is legal here it is not hidden.
posted by My Little Life at 1:02 AM
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