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Published: January 16th 2005
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Lotus Mahal
This is only one of the many ruins you'll find in Hampi. Beautiful... It's difficult to share what has happened in the last week. Everyday I could fill an entire blog!! I'll just highlight my route, first, to let you know where I've been: After Kochi I left quickly for Mysore - nice town, fun bazaars to walk through and an interesting palace surrounded by several temples. After 1 full day, I left for Bangalore to visit friends (from my church in California) who have started a Christian music college. I will spend 2 weeks in the later part of my trip volunteering with them, but I thought that it would be fun to stop by for a New Years visit. And spending time with the Henson's was fantastic! They are such a fun family and I can't wait to see them again. There were tons of cool markets to walk through, and since Bangalore is more "urban" than some of the other places I visited, the buidings looked a little more modern, and there were more girls in western attire (which I've learned is pretty accurate guage for how modern a city is). After New Years I went north to Hampi (overnight to train to Hospet, and a local bus to Hampi) and
if I had more time I would have stayed there more than the two days I did. It has a village-like atmosphere, with tons of 15th century temple ruin sites with blends of Hindu and Muslim architecture scattered around the town. After Hampi I spent 2 days exploring the northern, more populated beaches of Goa (Anjuna, Arambol, and Vagator); And from Goa, I spent one day in the bustling Mumbai before escaping the same night for Rajasthan. In Jaipur visited the city palace, walked through the little markets, and found a nice roof top to enjoy the pink city. Jaipur is known as the pink city because one Maharaj painted the entire city pink as a welcome gesure for Prince Albert who was visiting. Wild. It was sooo pleasant to look down into the noisy and busy bazaars at the shoppers walking around the goats, cows, and dogs scavenging the ground and then look right and left and see monkeys swinging from branches and hopping roof to roof. I have been in Jaisalmer for the past 5 days with two french guys I met in the Jaipur train station. Four of those days we were on a camel desert safari.
My camel and me...
I am with my camel, Lalu, at the end of our second day. Despite the day or two that all three of us were spending a great chunk of time sick in the bushes, we had an awesome time!!...silent desert, billions of stars, with a couple falling ones, and seemingly untouched sanddunes. Tonight they head east, and I, north, for Bikaner.
I met up with another friend from the biostat department in Jaipur who was here for a few weeks, and it was great to hear his experiences and thoughts about the places he's been. And it occurred to me that I haven't shared much of my feelings about my experiences since I've arrived. I hate to leave a novel so I've only covered the geography of my trip...but it's more than the places I've been that makes this journey worthwhile. Most of what I share with you is the edited version which filters my complaints, gripes and frustrations. (thank goodness Matt is an AMAZING listener, and instead of questioning why I am here, lifts my spirits with his encouragement)(I am very lucky).
To say that I love every minute and every place I've visited in India is untrue. My response to "How do you like India?" depends on the
While some of you in Boston...
are making snow angels, here is a little sand angel from the Rajasthan desert. time of day you ask me, where you ask me, and who I've been around. I have met amazingly hospitable people -- one kid who, instead hanging out with his friends, spent 4 hours with me, taking me to a fort in Jaipur and walked me around the places where he grew up. And everyday I can think of at least 10 people who were similarly as generous and warm. With that said -- there are things that frustrate me and challenge me to be "Patsy" in an environment so unfamiliar to me. I get tired of the "dumb foreigner" tax that is added to anything from purchasing a shirt to using a public toilet; I have a hard time not saying something to the lady who instructs her child to dispose his garbage out the train/bus window; I am occasionally the rude "what are you looking at?" Patsy to the constant stares--because it's tough to figure out if the reason for those stares is that I look different than everybody, or because I am a western (aka, to some, "loose") girl traveling alone. Public and open urinals still make me cringe when I walk down the road and pass the backs of the men using them, the noise on the road is usually unbearable, the "moshpit" lines make me a madwoman, and I am torn when a barefoot child follows me 5 blocks, tugging at my shirt and asking me for a rupee. These things are not easy for me...and I am still learning how to deal with them.
I'll finish this off with a part of a poem that is the theme of my trip. From a West Bengali author, Rabindranath Tagore:
"It is the most distant course that comes nearest to thyself, and that training is the most intricate which leads to the utter simplicity of a tune. The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end."
have a wonderful week, my friends.
patsy
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