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Published: January 8th 2007
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The view from our hotel
Blue hotel, nice late, beautiful sunset. Brilliant. The hill ended up being quite a climb. Namaste all, I'm currently spending time in the town of Pushkar in Rajasthan in India's north after having left Dehli on the morning of the fifth.
Sam and Chris met me at the airport, and it was damn fine to see them. They even had a sign to meet me with. In true overseas fashion, they had mispelt it. Sam was (and is) looking furry, and I have a lot of respect for his beard (sorry Amanda). Settle (Chris) is his good old jovial self, and stands a full foot among the people here - a real boon when trying to find him.
Whisked off from the airport, I didn't actually get to see much of Delhi, nor would I, as we left for Pushkar the next day at the ungodly hour of six am, squeezing in a little of the ashes before we did. I did get to have a late night snack in a local resturant, which was made interesting, if initially a little surreal by cows wandering past the door. Keeping in mind these are small streets, not a blade of grass or a tree to be seen, only rubbish and a thousand cars and bikes,
My Friends The Illustrious Travellers
This train ride was quite nice after being cooped up in a plane for two days, although I was glad to stay in one place after. seeing cows in fairly interesting, although no doubt it will get normal pretty quickly.
Arriving in Pushkar the next day after a six hour train ride (sleep at last) was my first daylight impression of India. Certainly I have had my immunisation against the culture shock to some extent from my past Asian travel experiences and also been eased into it from Bangkok. The touts and bargining will take longer to get used to of course.
Pushkar, the other two tell me, is a good (read easy) introduction to India, as it is a small, situated around a holy lake. It was here Gandhi's ashes were scattered, and the tourists here are a mix of those like us and those here for religious reasons. The hotel, Lakeview, was believe it or not, overlooking the lake, and is so tranquil it's ridiculous.
Wandering around the streets looking around the stalls, we were pleasantly surprised to bump into Hannah, who is in India working in an orphanage outside Delhi. Small world indeed. So the rest of her two days here were spent with us, shopping eating and, of course bargining.
The evening of the second day here was
The Main Street
Hustle and bustle is the order of the day here. While there are no cars, the motorbikes tear down here with their hands on their horns all the way spent on the rooftop of our hotel, drinking marsala chai tea, writing, reading, and eventually having a fierce but measured discussion on the fate of the world, as you do by candlelight in the Indian desert. You could just
feel the serenity.
The following day was spent mostly bargining and wandering around the various streets of the town. We spent a good half hour in one shop chatting amicably with the store owner about the cricket over chai, every now and then turning to bargining for the things Hannah and Sam wanted to buy. The four of us took liberal advantage of the sun to lie around reading and being lazy (I was glad of the rest cause of my trip, Sam was feeling a little under the weather, I don't know what Settle's excuse was, not that he needs one)
That hill you see in the background of some of the photos was conquered by us on the seventh. It was actually a hard climb, but worth it for the views. It was nice to be out of the town, above it all - you don't actually get much quiet time in India, as there
Settle and Hannah
Settle is looking over my shoulder so I'd better say something nice. Youre really cool. No really is always something happening. I was about to say this place is an assault on the senses, but that doesn't really do it credit. I suppose you could say all the senses are engaged. There are always people asking you things, or for money. The smell is, well, interesting. And there is so much activity - cows, monkeys in the streets, motorbikes, people, banners. You have to literally stand in the street to soak it up.
Last night we had dinner in a place called Enigma, which, despite having only opened three weeks ago is quick on its way to becoming an institution in Pushkar. Run by an ever friendly englishwoman named Jazz (I think), the resturant is clean and they actually have an understanding of the idea of an entree, rather than everything comming at once. We met up with some other travellers, oddly enough all of whom were from Melbourne, and spent hours playing cards and an Indian game called Caroum. It was a fine way to whittle away the night, although the hotel owner was grumpy as we didn't realise that the doors closed at 11pm.
As far as I know the plan is to
Young Samuel
Yes, that is Sammy under all that fur. The shopkeeper here gave us all chai as we bargined with him. leave tomorrow in the morning, for Jaipur, where we will meet Mr Howell, from school (my god its a small world). Then kicking around Rajasthan for a bit.
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hannah
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im on the computer
hey tris, your trip sounds awesome, you should really take some pictures of yourself so we can see how cool you look in india. new zealand was awesome if you were wondering, we got back at 8 last night so that was sad, any way have fun and get me a good present. love hannah