Blogs from Pushkar, Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 33

In the last episode, Wendy was departing Thailand for India. Now Thailand seems like a distant memory.... I arrived in Dehli, India late in the evening and at the hotel early in the morning on Saturday (7/30). The next morning I met Paula at breakfast, she is an architect from London. After our tour she will be living in Bali, Indonesia, for a year to study music. Ali, Marie & Owen soon joined us. Ali, from York, England, has been traveling around the world for the past 14 months. After India she'll travel to Nepal and then return to England. Marie and Owend are both teachers in Oxford, England. Marie teaches students in "year four" and Owen teaches history, religion and philosophy at the secondary level. We had a lively discussion about schools and school systems. ... read more

Camel Safari A smoother ride than it looks Dance by the campfire. We had an early morning start on the camels since we had two hours on the camel ahead of us and any time after 9AM it starts to get pretty hot. My camel did a lot of running but that's okay...anything to make the trip shorter! We only had two day rooms so there were eight of us girls in one room. So that meant only one shower. Everybody wanted to shower up so lucky for me we went alphabetically by first name. :) Although I felt a bit of pressure to be real quick! We had another free day before having to catch the overnight train to Delhi. Robyn and I made a trip to the local palmist. Here's the little prayer he ... read more

Long, hot, sweaty bus With criminals and shackles Packed in like sardines. Basically a big transportation day to get to Pushkar. A jeep ride and then a six hour bus ride in hot, sweaty, cramped quarters. You really get to know your neighbours quickly! It actually wasn't too bad since I was plugged into my tunes and we did get a few breaks to stretch our legs and get snacks. One unforgettable moment was when a bunch of criminals in shackles came on the bus...with the authorities of course! Guess the bus is cheaper than a taxi?? Sort of reminded me when I was on the Greyhound bus from Appleton to Chicago! After settling into our accommodations, Nitin took the group out on an orientation tour of Pushkar where we had a small preview of what ... read more

Jaisalmer, (the desert city I was in the other day), and Pushkar, (the city I am in now), will probably both hold a special significance for me. Jaisalmer was the place last Friday, (after much panic and concern after getting a message at my hotel to phone home), where I discovered my dad had died. While Pushkar was the place last night I was while his funeral was taking place. To those of you who don't know, my dad chose to opt out of my life 25 years ago, and indeed had my step sister not chosen to opt back into my life 3 years ago it is doubtfull I'd have ever have known the time or location of his death anyway. So Earth shattering news this was not as I had come to regard him ... read more

From Jaipur we moved on to Pushkar for the Camel Fair and met up with Phillipe and Colleen there. Walking around the camels up for sale was interesting, but I wasn't tempted, no matter what yogic position they assumed. It was very nice to meet up with many of the travellers that I had met earlier in my India/Nepal experience - from Kashmir, Pokhara, Amritzar, etc. We decided to head away from Pushkar before the hindu festival got into full swing, but did manage a couple of rides on the big wheel just after they were erected by some very young boys. The views from the top were nice, almost as nice as the feeling when you swing the cage you are in and throw your head upside down. ... read more