sarah. on the run.

On the Rajasthani Circuit at Breakneck Speeds

Almost everyone who visits India goes through Rajasthan at some point. It's a state with history, ruins, deserts, centuries of traditions.. in many ways visiting Rajasthan is that quintessential romantic Indian experience.

But it's also packed with tourists, especially during the wintertime when temperatures are cool and comfortable. As we left Bundi and got back on the crazy "Rajasthani Circuit" we hoped our efforts would pay off as we attempted to cover a lot of ground in just over a week.

First stop: Udaipur

Built along lovely Lake Pichola, Udaipur has been called the Venice of the East (although isn't almost every city with water dubbed a Venice of some kind? "The Venice of the Former Soviet Bloc" ... "The Venice of the Steel Industry"). The old area of the city undoubtedly makes for a pretty view, but up close it's almost completely dominated by guesthouses, souvenir shops, and rickshaw drivers looking for work. The quality of the shopping is decent, but both Brendan and I were completely burned out after Jaipur and not really interested. As backpackers, we have nowhere to stash what we buy, even if we really love it. Besides, hang out in India long enough and you'll start to notice that all the westerners are dressed alike, with the same oddly crotch-sagging pants, linen tunics, and embroidered cloth over-the-shoulder bags. There's Indian fashion, and then there's "Indian tourist fashion". Dabble too much in the latter and you'll end up a walking cliche.

Ok fine, so I bought a pair of earrings. But they're really cute and non-touristy and instead of packing them I just wear them 24/7. So there.

Udaipur has its own former royal palace which, again, looks very pretty from afar, but isn't the most spectacular palace in the world. It's been preserved beautifully and turned into more of a museum, but in the process seems to have lost some authenticity. Brendan sulked through it.

After three days, we were ready to leave Udaipur. In my opinion, it's a bit overrated unless you've got the cash to stay somewhere ritzy like the Lake Palace Hotel in the middle of the water. Which we do not.

Second stop: Jodhpur

I made Brendan come to Jodhpur for the palace and fort. I have this fear that the one palace and fort we skip will be the best palace and fort ever and I'll spend the rest of my life ruing the day I passed them up. The idea was to arrive by bus (4 hours northwest from Udaipur), get a hotel, wake up early the next morning, do the palace and fort, go to sleep, wake up, and get back on a bus out of town.

Once we got to Jodhpur, we immediately wished we'd alloted more time for ourselves. The "Blue City" is indeed awesomely blue, and our guesthouse was literally right under the fort hill in the old part of town. I liked the scene a lot better than Udaipur. More dramatic.

I'm not sure if Jodhpur's palace and fort are the best palace and fort ever, but they're absolutely worth stopping for (yay me!). Make sure you take advantage of the audio tour. It helped put everything we saw into context and was actually very educational (yes, I realize that I am channeling my grandmother). The views from the top of the fort are phenomenal, and from our perch we could see thousands of people hanging out on flat roofs all across the city. Indians really do love their roofs.

At one point in our fort tour, Brendan came up to me with a funny look on his face. "That's Liz Hurley over there," he said through clenched teeth as he jerked his head in her direction. She was there with her son and fiancee, who happens to be Indian. B took an unintrusive picture and we went on our way. Later he asked me why Liz Hurley was famous.

Third stop: Jaisalmer

Another several hours west of Jodhpur lies the city of Jaisalmer, smack dab in the middle of the desert. Unsurprisingly, it also comes complete with its own fort, but Jaisalmer's is actually still inhabited. Supposedly the cool thing to do is to stay somewhere up inside the fort, but our hotel (Shahi Guesthouse) had better views from the bottom (although the roof deck was practically an icebox after sundown - it's cold in January!).

Jaisalmer's big draw is its proximity to endless sand dunes, which are naturally best visited on the back of a camel. Booking a two-day camel trek is one of those touristy things that we felt obligated to do, being all the way out here and all.

Ours was a good group: me, Brendan, Maria from Colombia, and Nicki from Australia, along with four camel men who were our guides and cooks (and buddies for Brendan, who was otherwise stuck with us three chicks). My camel had intestinal issues and farted a lot, but otherwise made for a good companion. After a few hours of ambling through the desert, we stopped to rest and made lunch. Another few hours later, we arrived at our camp for the night, situated right on the edge of some picture-perfect sand dunes. We watched the sun go down over Pakistan, performed stupid desert tricks, ate dinner, sang songs around the campfire (along with two lovely gentlemen from London who joined us later from another trek), and finally settled into our blankets for the night. We were neither very warm nor cozy sleeping under the stars, but what the desert lacked in comfort it more than made up for in atmosphere. For one night, anyway. 

Back at our hotel the next afternoon, we traded stories with another group who had just gotten back from a similar camel trek and were disappointed with their experience. Apparently their sand dunes were rather lackluster, there weren't enough blankets, and they felt cheated overall. I guess we got lucky.

Fourth Stop: Jodhpur

We didn't mean to get stuck here again, but our bus from Jaisalmer had to come back this way anyway, and it just got late. Didn't see anything new. Caught a bus out of town early the next morning.

Fifth Stop: Udaipur

We arrived back in the city where we started around noon (after our bus rear-ended an SUV on the highway and delayed us an hour or two), wasted some time eating and surfing the net, and caught a night train out of the state.

It's been fun, Rajasthan!

Gujarat, here we come!

-s

Bumming in Bundi and Loving It!

Last year as we began organizing our big trip, we decided to spend Christmas and New Year's Eve in India.

"India! How random! Yes!" We thought.

Turns out, spending Christmas and New Year's Eve in India is not at all random for the millions of travelers who come here during the holidays to get away from their own cold climates and to take advantage of India's mild season. Americans go to Florida... everybody else comes to India.

Furthermore, if you want to spend Christmas on an Indian beach, you're in for large crowds and high tariffs. Our original idea to lounge somewhere on a seaside hammock in the southern state of Kerala at the end of December was scrapped, once we saw what we were up against ("sorry ma'am, booked solid"). We wanted to find peace and serenity during our holiday away from home, not a swarm of package tourists.

So we decided to stay in Rajasthan and Brendan zeroed in on a little town called Bundi. It's the kind of place that's mentioned briefly in guidebooks as a "still undiscovered" alternative to the bigger, more tourist-oriented cities, and travelers write about it on internet message boards as "the best-kept secret in Rajasthan". So we went for it, arranging to arrive on December 24th and leave on January 2nd. That's kind of a long stretch, but we figured that even if we were disappointed and a little bored in Bundi, we'd still be glad we erred on the mellow side.

We were so right.

For the first time since we've been in India, I felt like I had gotten somewhere pre-tourist explosion. Bundi is really beautiful, despite its size still retains a traditional village lifestyle and is almost completely devoid of tourists (it's not that I don't like other tourists, but put too many of us in one place and something is lost). The old palace and fort, which loom on a hill just above town, are awesome and afford great views. Locals are friendly because they're friendly, not because they want you to buy something. After being accosted around every corner for the past month, Bundi was the welcome change we needed, big time. It took a few days to let my guard down, especially around all those monkeys.

There are very few actual restaurants outside of guesthouse kitchens, which range from really good (I highly recommend the thalis at a place called Shivam), to really bad (Kasera Paradise's kitchen must have the worst food in India...unfortunately it was also our hotel). We got by. Brendan became addicted to peanut brittle, and we also discovered world's best samosa/sweets joint in the bazaar. If you see these guys, you'll know you're in the right place. Don't leave without trying the carrot pudding. You'll thank me.

Christmas was a a bit of a letdown for me, only because it was so un-Christmasy in Bundi and I missed my mom, but that was to be expected. I got over it. New Year's Eve was also uneventful and we were asleep well before midnight, but that was ok too (though it did mark Brendan's and my fall from the grace of sobriety... we'd been dry for six weeks and having a celebratory beer seemed like the right thing to do).

Two bicycles got us out to the desert countryside, where life is still pretty simple and everyone wants their photo taken. One thing I noticed was how hard the women work. In one village where we stopped for cups of chai, I was the only one in sight not performing manual labor... the men were drinking tea and playing cards, and the women were out digging ditches. We didn't stay long for fear I'd eventually be recruited. On the way back into town, Brendan got a flat tire. An hour and 20 cents later, he was back in business.

Nine days into our anonymous little existence in Rajasthan's best-kept secret (shhhh!), we were ready to leave Bundi's calm and get back on the Rajasthan tourist circuit.  Mark my words, that town will not be the same in ten years. It's just too pleasant to stay "undiscovered." I feel so lucky to be ahead of the curve!

For details on our unforgettable train ride into Udaipur, read Brendan's play-by-play account of the evening.

Your friend in the desert,
s

New Shots...

...are up on our photo page!

Enjoy!

Liquid Uggs?

So I was catching up on celebrity gossip online and came across this article about Lindsay Lohan's latest train wreck.

I don't care so much about the Lindsay part of the article, but I do care about the drink she's holding.

GT'S KOMBUCHA!!

I'd know that bottle anywhere. Looks like either the ginger or mango flavor. God, I miss my Kombucha. It's one of the things I miss the very most about my old life. I can almost taste it. I'm tearing up. I need to take a walk.

Please don't tell me Kombucha is going to be the latest cool Hollywood craze? Actually, better that than getting photographed while not wearing underwear. Man, I'm such a trendsetter!!

:)
s

The Traveling Morans Episode 13: Soaking up the Subcontinent

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Sarah Hits Rajasthan... Indian State Claims Largest Sales Day of Year

We arrived in Jaipur without incident. I recall the rickshaw driver taking us in the opposite direction of our hotel for a while, but that's pretty standard. Our room was nice, the hotel had an internet connection, and we splurged on a room with a TV. What can I say? We're high rollers.

Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, is known as the "Pink City", after the color of the buildings in the old part of town (they really have more of a  salmon shade, but the "Salmon City" has less of a ring to it, and there would always be that question of where the river is and so on). It's a big, sprawling metropolis which seems to put a lot of visitors off, but the shopping is great and there's a lot to keep you occupied for a few days... as long as you like to shop.

 I love to shop. Brendan was, for the most part, a very  good sport. We discovered a ton of useless-to-us-yet-fun stuff for sale while I attempted to buy up all the silver in Rajasthan (I failed btw - there's way too much silver here). But casual browsing was impossible. Every five feet someone would be up in my grill, shoving fabric at me and desperately blurting out one or more of the following phrases:

1. "Hello how are you where you from? From Australia?"

2. "Yes please, very good price, cheap price for you my friend!"

3. "Madam you want pashmina? Beautiful pashmina for you madam!"

4. "Hello what is your name please?" (This one is the worst. So invasive!)

5. "Only 20 rupees for this!" (When you pause to give it a look, they claim they actually said "220 rupees")

6. "Hello just come look, you don't like you don't buy.. looking is free! Oh hahaha!"

And so on.

We got used to this sort of pushiness in Jaipur and didn't let it bother us too much, but I can see why the city has such a crappy reputation among travelers. With great shopping comes great hassle.

Speaking of hassle, I took a pic  of what I thought was an authentic street snake charmer, that is until he chased me down afterward and demanded money for the shot. I gave him half of what he wanted and when he argued that it wasn't enough, I pointed out that without some sort of sign or pricing sheet on display, he really was in no position to convince anyone that they were stingy tourists. If I knew he wanted money, I wouldn't have taken the picture. He sulked away and probably told the cobra all sorts of terrible things about me.

Another big tourist attraction in Jaipur is its astronomical observatory, an ancient collection of sundials and baffling zodiac structures that kind of resembles a playground. The idea is that during the day, falling shadows indicate the position of stars and planets and calculate the lunar calendar. We really didn't know what to make of it.

The most popular day-trip out of Jaipur is probably a visit to the palace and fort  looming over the nearby town of Amber. We unwisely chose to go on a Saturday and had to share our experience with countless tour groups and families and begging children, but it was interesting nonetheless. I wasn't overly impressed with the palace itself as it was being renovated and kind of a mess in places, but the views from the fort above were great, and the hike to the top of the hill was the most exercise I've had in an embarrassing length of time. Rajasthan is known for its palaces and forts, so hopefully I'll be back in shape by the end of the month.

On Christmas Eve we left Jaipur and took a train to Kota, followed by a bus from Kota to the small city of Bundi, where we stayed for nine whole days of rest and relaxation. It was awesome. Details in my next entry.

Love,
s

 

I Went to the Taj Mahal. Yep.

The Taj Mahal is smaller than you think it's going to be. That's not to say it isn't gorgeous. It's definitely gorgeous. Probably the most gorgeous building that I've ever seen. I actually tried to think of something more gorgeous just now and came up empty, so there you go. But it isn't all that huge as far as gorgeous buildings go.

Guidebooks strongly suggest an early start to the Taj Mahal to take advantage of the morning sun and avoid the crowds that grow throughout the day, and we had fully intended on doing just that until our train decided to arrive in Agra several hours late. Never, ever count on your train being on time in India. It won't be, and you'll be sorry. Instead of a 6 a.m. hotel check-in, quick shower, and an early start at the Taj, we ended up checking in around 10 a.m., having breakfast, and then waiting around for a few more hours until the sun dropped down a bit. Nothing like a shadowless sky to make a bunch of photos mediocre.

When we were ready to embark on the grand tour, our rickshaw driver suggested that we start in a park across the river to get a less obvious shot of the back of the Taj Mahal first. It was clear that he just wanted us to have to pay him more for the extra time and distance, but we went along with it and weren't disappointed. I think the barbed wire adds a little something extra, don't you?

The late afternoon ticket line just to enter the Taj was daunting and I worried that we wouldn't even get inside in time for the sunset, but we did (after the security guards made Brendan take the shotgun mic off our camcorder and check it into a locker beforehand, for no explicable reason). Once inside, the grounds were absolutely crawling with people and there was no chance of getting that perfect, human-free shot, but even packed with tourists it's still pretty damn photogenic. B and I attempted to out-artsy each other, but eventually had to rely on a reluctant third party for the one shot we'll probably frame and put on the mantle. Whatevs. I went to the Taj Mahal. I'm a happy gal.

The rest of Agra was lost on us as we had no spare energy to explore the city after dark, and were back on a westbound train heading to Jaipur early the next morning. It may have been just as well, though, because every other traveller we've talked to who has stayed more than a day in Agra has regretted it and advised us against doing the same. Maybe it's one of those "#1 tourist destination city in India" curses?

Jaipur will mark our first stop in the Indian desert state of Rajasthan, where B and I will be spending about a month riding camels, exploring palaces, buying silver jewelry, and blogging. Always with the blogging.

:)

s

PS- Anybody going to Brazil for Carnaval this year? If so, we'll see you in Salvador!