Blogs from Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 12

Alright, so more decent internet means another bloggy blog. It's currently our last night in Rajasthan in northwestern India so I'll fill in on the last 10 days. We left Kochi and jumped a plane to Mumbai, then a quick connection to Udaipur. Landing in Mumbai was interesting just to see all of the slums around the airport. It put real images in my mind to match the fictional ones I had from movies like Slumdog Millionaire. And from my brief glimpses, I feel I can vouche for the validity of it all. The flights went as smooth as I could have hoped for and connecting in Mumbai was easy. Upon landing in Udaipur the announcment went, "Ladies and Gentlmen, welcome to Udaipur where the current time is 6:30 p.m and the current temperature is 40 ... read more

Steph sadly got the 'Delhi Belly' the day we were due to go on our camel safari so I had to decide whether to go on my own. I did as I knew another guy from the evening before that was going on his own too. It turned out that it was a small group of four with a couple from Singapore making up the numbers. We took a jeep out into the desert. The landscape was baron and there seemed to be nothing for miles. We stopped at several places along the way including an area where the rock was covered in fossils of sea creatures. Apparently the site used to be a massive oasis...It definitely didn't look that way now!! After a stop to see the groom at a traditional India wedding and for ... read more

Mark's tour guiding was taking us to Jaisalmer. As the arrangements brought themselves together in the couple of weeks prior to having the opportunity to make the visit, I was invited to stay with Lucky (Laxmanji) who found me through Couchsurfing. He became the first of many of the inspirational characters we had the pleasure of meeting, who call Jaisalmer home. We rolled into town in perfect time for the Gangaur festival. This is an annual event, with great significance for the women of Rajasthan and an 18 day fast (Indian style where eating occurs only in the evening) commences. Goddess Gauri (Shiva's consort) is worshiped. Their union is said to symbolise saubhagya (marital bliss). Unmarried girls pray for a good spouse while the married women pray for long life and the good health of their ... read more

It has been along time but we are now finally in India. The flight into Delhi wasn't too bad. Being a total journey of 20 something hours; Guatemala - Miami, Miami-Newark, Newark-Delhi. If we had known before hand that we must enter the US we would have taken a different route. Its a nightmare. Fingerprints recorded, photo taken, many useless questions to be answered. We fought having a 4 hour gap between our flights would be nice and relaxing. It wasn't. We spent the whole time just entering the States and then going through security again to leave. Pointless! Anyway, back to India. After landing at 23:00 we were luckily picked up by our hostel. The car however was something else. It made the Bolivian vehicles look like Bentleys. And if the car wasn't enough to ... read more

Jan 26th- Settled down for night after two and a half days of being out on the open road (aka - The Great Thar Desert!). We took a camel safari an hour into the desert along with an Aussie couple, an older French couple from Marsailles, and a 30 something French guy from Paris. We rode the camels for about 2 hours before stopping for lunch. Handmade chapati bread with cabbage/veggie curry! Yummy! And of course Chai tea. Love Chai tea now!! Mom go get some from Starbucks! Austin - we have a date at Starbucks for some Chai tea when I fly back into Brussels! Us, the tourists, took a nice little nap in the sun before setting off for a good 2/3 hours of riding to the sand dunes. We settled for nighttime at ... read more