Udaipur/Pushkar

Our second day in Udaipur 4 of us did a cooking class! Indian food is actually pretty easy, as long as you have the spices. Curries are all cooked in the same basic way just with some different ingredients and spices. We cooked and got recipes for a couple curries, chai, another tea, chapati, vegetable patty things, and biryani. It was fun and now I can make yummy food! In the afternoon, Ana, Anita, and I went to the hospital. Anita is a nurse and Ana is a nurse's assistant so they both were interested in seeing an Indian hospital. I thought it sounded interesting as well, so off we went. We went to the government general hospital. It was actually a lot nicer than I was expecting! I was expecting crowded waiting rooms and chaos, but that wasn't the case. We got someone to take us to the ICU, cardiology, and a general ward. A lot of the technology was the same as us, just older. In some of the basic wards they had men and women together without curtains or anything separating them. That was weird, especially for India where more things seem to be segregated. That ward didn't have any computers; everything was hand written. There was one nurse for 22 patients. She basically just watched the patients, dealt with medicines, called the doctor if necessary, normal nurse stuff. The nurses don't wash or feed the patients; that's left up to the families and the patients themselves. Probably in the ICU they do, but not in the general or private wards. So I don't know what happens if the patients don't have any family. I guess that probably doesn't happen in India where families tend to live close together. There were computers for monitoring the patients in the ICU. The ICU was smaller than I was expecting. There also was air-conditioning which supposedly isn't usually allowed because it spreads around germs. In hot countries I don't know what else they would do though.
After the hospital we wandered around that area. It was nice because it wasn't as touristy. There were still shops selling things for tourists because there were still some tourists in that area, but it was a lot more like the real city. It was nice to just wander around and not get harassed quite as much. We discovered the best Indian dessert. It's called gulab jamun (I think...it was hard to read the man's handwriting...). They are dough balls that are fried and then put into this thick sticky sweet sauce. And they are absolutely amazing! They're kind of like doughnuts except better! I wish they were part of our cooking class!
In the evening the 3 of us went to a cultural show at one of the Udaipur museums. It was traditional music and dance and puppet shows. It was pretty cool. The highlight was when one of the women balanced a bunch of pots on her head and danced with them! I should've counted them, but it was at least 8 and I think more. Insane! There was also something going on down by the lake but we never really found out what it was. One person told us it was the filming of a Bollywood movie, another told us it was the filming of a TV show, and another told us it was a function/festival. So I have no idea! But there were a bunch of people and a big camera and a couple painted elephants.

Yesterday we travelled to Pushkar. We went by train instead of bus which was a terrible idea! It was supposed to take 5 hours but of course there were delays. We left at 7 am and finally got to Ajmer at 4:40. Then we had a 45 minute bus ride to get to Pushkar. So we lost our whole afternoon in Pushkar.
We're travelling a lot on this trip! Almost every other day we're on a bus or train. I guess that's the only way to see a bunch of different places. And the trips aren't too long. Usually...
We're staying at Hotel Kishan Palace in Pushkar. It's really nice! The rooms are big and there's a/c and hot water! Extra money for the a/c though so we're not using it. But it's still there which is novel. And the bathrooms are HUGE! It's all just one room, the shower isn't separated, but it's massive! At least compared to what we're used to... The people are really nice and the food is excellent, although a little more expensive.
After dinner we watched a Bollywood movie: Bandit Queen. It wasn't your typical Bollywood movie with singing and dancing. It was based on a true story about Phoolan Devi, an Indian woman from a low-caste who had a terrible early life and ended up becoming really popular amongst the low caste and getting a seat in Parliament. It was a horrific film though. It showed her getting raped by 20 high-class men at a time and getting beaten and all sorts of abuse. And then she took revenge by joining the bandits and brutally killing a bunch of the high-class men. It was intense and disturbing. Luckily that doesn't happen as much anymore in India, but still some and in other places all over the world. The brutal killings, rape, abuse, women not having rights...etc. Really depressing to think about!

This morning we went for a walk in Pushkar and saw a couple of the temples. Pushkar has the only Brahmin temple in India. After our walk 4 of us climbed one of the hills to the Savitri Temple. The temple wasn't anything spectacular, but the view was amazing! We could see all of Pushkar and the surrounding area. There are a bunch of "mountains" (really just hills) here. It's a pretty area! It was nice to do something more active. The trail was really nice, stone steps the whole way up. After our hike we wandered through the market for a while and relaxed by the lake on one of the ghats (steps leading down to the lake where people go to pray and bathe in the lake to clean themselves spiritually).
Pushkar is really small and centers around the lake and is supposedly a very religious city. We were expecting there to be a bunch of pilgrims on the ghats and bathing in the lake, but I think we saw about 3 total. Maybe just during the festivals? I don't know, but we were kind of disappointed.

Tomorrow we go to Jaipur. It's a big city and there's a bunch of stuff to see. We were told today by some Indians that Jaipur is the best place to visit in India. We'll see...

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