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Published: September 16th 2008
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Henna!!
Jens hands- Indian lady did the right hand... Leanne did the Left one :-) As you can tell by the title folks, we have covered a serious amount of kilomitres in the past week and we've got quite a lot of catching up to do!!
(this is fore warning for a MASSIVE blog entry so get some popcorn and make sure you're nice and comfy!!!)
Lets start with JODHPUR
in this wonderful city we wandered through the markets...visited a big ass fort (this is the history feen in me coming out) sniffed and tasted a few spices, got rammed in the stomach by a freakin street cow (ok, ok that was just me...:-( but it was when the sun went down that things got really spicy....
I mentioned in our previous entry the prospect of being stuck in a situation which may cause one to stumble around like a drunken baby (this was in reference to the metro) ...its seems as though Johdpur was no exception to this seemingly common occurrence in India...however this city provided us a far more enjoyable venue to stumble around like drunk babies in.... enter "On The Rocks" the hippest bar in town!!!We ate dinner first before heading into the nightclub part where we both noticed a complete
atrocity- there was booze, people, good music and a dance floor...BUT NO DANCING :-• !!!!! Trust that your dancing muchachas from Canada had no intention of allowing tumble-wheats to continue blowing across that inviting linoleum floor...
so 4 shots of dark rum and a quick session of casual flirting with the DJ later... we had the YMCA blasting and taught everyone in the bar how us North Americans do it!!!! (mildly intoxicated pictures can be found below)
onto UDAIPUR
this city provided us wtih a few more ancient palaces...and a tour guide who spoke english with an accent about as thick as molasses (who we all ended up giving up on... literally, people stopped following him from room to room until our trip guide started translating his english to our english!!!) of course, more markets...more families eager to take pictures with us pale humans and a lightning and thunder storm followed by flash flooding. (again, pictures below)
PUSHKAR (yes... pronounced the way you would describe getting a car with no gas to the station) (but if you wanna be ethnic you can over pronounce the 'U' and say POOOOOOSHKAR (which is, naturally, what we both do!)
This city
more camel love
just scratchin his chin...he cant reach all the way up there with his hoof!!! gave Jaisalmer a little competition for the most beautiful sunrise we've seen so far...had it not been for the light layer of smog, it would have taken the prize hands down.
in order to appreciate this one, we hauled ass up a mountain at 4:30am...and then while gasping for air and taking water down like a pack of savage animals, we summoned the energy to hold our heads up long enough to witness the sun creep up from over the mountains., and it was breath-taking. well...the sight was, or the climb was...one of the two. Either way, there were some seriously irregular breathing patterns goin on!
in the afternoon we walked through the endless markets, watched some locals bathe in the city lake (yea there was nudity!!!) and after being harassed for money by literally everyone we passed, we finally decided to head back to the hotel for some relaxation.
( should also note, that in our attempt at being charitable while travelling we extended a package of cookies, and a 5 rupee coin to two different children who snatched and ran. there was no thank-you, no smile, no NOTHIN. obviously we were experiencing some disappointment.)
upon trying
to find our way back to the hotel, we became a little disoriented and found that a few of the locals were laughing at us :-( luckily for us tho, three young boys approached us and (speaking english) and lead us back to our hotel. Its customary to tip such behaviour so along the way we searched our pockets and came up with 3 rupees (one per kid) but when we got there and offered them the money they all shook their heads. my heart melted. In that moment my faith in the youth of INdia was restored. We completely forgot about the scams and beggars we had harassing us all day and we were in total awe of this child- who had nothing, and offered us such a favor out of the goodness of his heart.
..then the snotty nosed little twit extended his hand and said "FIFTY RUPEES" (which is approximately how much the average adult makes per day in this city)
needless to say I retracted the hand offering him the coins, gave the cheeky bugger a smile and walked into the hotel.
JAIPUR
HOT HOT HOT!!!! we did lots of running around in this city,
but strict emphasis should be put on the madness of how hot it is. To put this into perspective...we're drinking about 3-4 litres of water per day...and im only peeing twice-at most. This is a fairly good indicator of just how much sweat we are producing. yes...attractive..verry attractive. We visited the Amber palace, the City palace, a museum...and needless to say, at the end of the day we were spent!
That brings us to AGRA!!!!!
home of the Taj Mahal!!
we arrived here yesterday, and visited the Baby Taj (yes thats actually its name) and its a good thing we went to the little one first cuz we saw the real Taj Mahal after words...and there are no words to describe how huge the place is. We snuck in to see it from the other side of the river (this river runs behind the Taj Mahal) and found a place just to the right of the gates that let us through without paying the 300 rupees. (keep in mind they wanted to charge us close to $10 Canadian to see the BACK :-• there was just no way that was happening.
we waited until this morning at sunrise to
BIG TAJ!!!
this is what it looks like from tbe back pay the 750 rupees to get through the front gates and see the whole palace...and it was worth every penny. (plus they gave us a complementary bottle of water and protective booties- which are to be worn inside the Taj Mahal to protect the marble flooring)
The whole thing took around25 years to complete and isn’t a palace, but rather a monument built by muslim emperor Shahjhan as a tribute to his deceased second wife, and when he passed, as a tomb for him also.
Our day in Agra finished with some shop-hopping :-) our personal tuk tuk driver Rafeek (yea...that’s his real name!!!) took us around for about 5 hours and we barely had enough time to pack our bags up and get onto the train (which is where im finishing this entry now) (lets all give a big woot woot for the over-stuffed fresh-air-deprived overnight trains of India!!!)
Next stop is Varanassi- home of the famous river ganges :-)
….
(24 agonizing hours or so later)
Here I am in my tour guides bedroom, borrowing his computer because I have saved this entry and visited 5 different freakin internet cafes in the hopes that I
sniffles :-(
me n anne blowing our noses like crazy infront of the taj mahal...keepin it classy! would be able to attach a few pictures along with the blog entry, but as it turns out…NON of the computers in India feel like co-operating. Suffice it to say that on a scale of 1 - frustrated I am about frustrated and a half :-· (feel free to insert an array of profain expressions and hand gestures to emphasize my viewpoint on the situation....)
Unfortunately for now, the four pictures I was able to get on (which as a side note took literally 25 minutes, I am not exaggerating) along with my words will have to do. (I know I know…no one views a blog in the hopes of only reading…you’re at the end of a long ass blog entry and now you want the real entertainment of some pictures and I’ve let you down. I’ve served you an acceptably tasty dinner but offered no dessert, and for that I am sorry.
Rest assured that I will keep trying my best to get them up as soon as I find a computer in this country that is not 74 years old and running on power generated by an elderly man spinning a wheel with his frail arms.
?
...this one looked way cooler in our heads oh, as a side note...if any of you were wondering/worried, the bombings in Delhi have so far had no affect on us, or the trip plan (we are to return to Delhi on the 19th)
Thats all for now, talk to you all soon!!!!
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anil
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hi , i am anil , i want meet you , my mobile no. 9530080231