Hello, rickshaw?

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Sorry it's been so long since my last blog, but I've been constantly on the move and it's been hard to find the time to write one. So this one covers Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Pushkar.

I walked out of the Delhi airport and was immediately bombarded by tons of people pushing and jabbering and a haze of smog covering the city. It was quite a shock. The drive from the airport to the hotel was ridiculous. Tons of cars just fighting to get through and nobody can really move. I saw some crazy looking wagons with huge loads in the back chugging along while other cars are speeding by and stopping just short of slamming into somebody. All this is going on and then out of nowhere I see a horse galloping through the highway traffic.

I stayed on Main Bazzar Road in Delhi which is also crazy. Tons of street vendors all hastling you while cars and rickshaws are all cramming together and trying to push down the street while dodging each other, the people, and the cows. So many cows. The street is covered in the filthiest dirt imaginable and cow shit and human urine and cow urine. Absolutely nuts. Delhi isn't as crowded as Tokyo was, but it feels more crowded just because there seems to be no order to anything.

On my first day in Delhi I took a tour which sucked. Never taking a tour again. They took us to a bunch of places, but most of them were lame and the ones that were cool we only got to see for like 20 minutes. I saw the B'hai temple. I've now seen three out of the seven B'hai temples in the world. Although, I didn't get to go inside because I was preoccupied. I won't go into the details but I will just acknowledge why I was preoccupied with a quote from one of my favorite comerical jingles. "Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now. Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go". That's the only time I've gotten sick like that so far. The food here is amazing. It's weird eating Indian food for three meals a day, since at home when I go out to an Indian restaurant, I usually eat enough to last me for the next two days.

The next day in Delhi was more sightseeing and visiting crazy, dirty, ridiculously crowded street markets. It was more relaxing than the tour though cause I could take my time. I got stopped a couple times by people who wanted to take pictures with me. Everybody is really nice here, unless they are trying to get money from you. At night there was a wedding party procession down Main Bazzar. There were horses and a marching a band and tons of people dancing. I guess this is really common in India because I saw it a couple times in Jaipur as well. They really like to have foreigners come and dance with them too.

The 3rd day I boarded a train from Delhi to Agra and spent the day there seeing the sights. It was a difficult day because I felt nautious in the morning and that developed into a fever. So by the time I went to see the Taj Mahal I felt like dying. The Taj was really spectacular though. I wasn't expecting to be as impressed as I was. That night I took a bus from Agra to Jaipur and it was awful. I was sweating and had the chills and all I wanted to do was sleep. That was pretty much impossible though, because every five seconds I would be thrown 6 inches into the air from some bump that we hit. This happened pretty much non stop for the entire 6 hour bus ride. Then I get to my tiny, shitty, freezing hotel room and passed out.

I spent most of the next day in the hotel just reading and trying to get better. I got bored by the afternoon though, so I decided to take a walk and get some food. This was a bad idea. Jaipur has to be one of the worst places to be sick in. During the 15 minute walk to the restaurant I was constantly being poked and screamed at by people begging for money, or rickshaw drivers pestering me for a ride, or people trying to sell me some stupid souvenire. On top of trying to avoid these people, I had to make sure I didn't step into a puddle of urine, or pile of cow shit, or walk through a swarm of flies. Then there was the constant honking from the cars and the endless smell of fumes. I was getting so frustrated I just felt like punching the next person that talked to me in the face. But I didn't. I was having trouble finding the restaurant I wanted to go to and a man on the street with a bloody mouth asked me what I was looking for. In the process of asking this question, a chunk of bloody lip landed on my hand. Sick! I wasn't even hungry anymore. I just went back to the hotel and slept.

The next day I was feeling a little better and I cut a deal with a rickshaw driver to take me anywhere I wanted to go for the day for really cheap. He was great. He refers to his rickshaw as his helicopter and explains that his helicopter is crying when she is going uphill but she is laughing when she goes downhill. He also has countless expressions that he says Indians use, like, "No honey, no funny", or "No Clinton, no fun". At one point he slowed his rickshaw down so that he could talk to me for a good 45 minutes about his women problems. He has a lot of problems. Anyhow, I got to see a lot of the Pink City, the Amber Fort, some bazzars, and a bunch of cool stuff. It was a pretty good day, but I was ready to leave Jaipur.

In the morning I hopped on a train and headed to Ajmer where I would catch a bus to Pushkar. The train ride was cool because loooking out the window you can slowly see the scenery becoming more desert like. I sat in second class so there were a bunch of Indian people sitting with me and they were all really friendly. I also met these too older, European hippies who were headed to Pushkar as well, so I tagged along with them. I took a horse and buggy from the train station to the bus stop. It was sort of embarrassing because I was riding backwards and I could see all of the local people laughing at me. It was fun though.

So now I'm in Pushkar which is right outside of the desert. It is beautiful here and it feels like paradise compared to the rest of what I've scene of India. Ofcourse, after coming from Thailand, I know that it is not actually paradise. It is surrounded by mountains and there is a gorgeous lake surrounded by 52 temples where Hindus come to pray and dip in the lake. The village is a huge backpacker hangout and the streets are covered with tourist shops and street vendors. There are a ton of Israeli's here for some reason. A lot of the hotels and shops have English and Hebrew signs up, and all the internet cafes have both English and Hebrew alphabet keyboards. A lot of the Israeli's have guitars with them and play Israeli pop music. Everytime I turn a corner I feel like I'm at a Debbie Friedman concert (I've never actually been to a Debbie Friedman concert and don't know if she even has concerts. I was just mentioning the only Jewish singer that I could think of).

My hotel had an all you can eat buffet for roughly a dollar. I went straight towards it as soon as I got to the hotel and ate way to much. I felt like throwing up afterwards. I think it was because I'd eaten almost nothing in the last 3 days due to the fact that I was sick and also I didn't find any decent food in Jaipur. I hated Jaipur.

Today I went on an all day camel safari into the desert. It was really fun. I'd never ridden a camel before. We rode for a while and passed some small villages where kids always run up to you to wave hello. For lunch we built a fire in the sand and my guide made some excellent vegetable something or other. We also brewed some great chai using milk that we got fresh from a goat wandering around. After we ate and rested we trotted along some more. My camel's mouth was foaming the whole time and he kept shaking his head and all of his saliva would fly all over the place. It was pretty gross. At dusk we watched the sun go down in the desert which was beautiful.

I'm now exhausted and I think I pulled both of my groin muscles trying to ride the camel. They should really tell you to stretch before you get on. Alright, I guess I'll go get a cup of tea or something at a cafe. Tea? That's the one thing that sucks about Pushkar. It's a holy city, so they don't sell beer anywhere.

-Jonathan

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Photos

Main Bazzar Road
This is a quiet time with less traffic.

Jantar Mantar
This is me at the Astronomical Observatory in Delhi that was built in the early 18th century. It's really amazing and the structures look like an M.C. Escher paintings. I think what I'm standing in is used to measure the angles between stars (Or as the plaques in Jantar Mantar call them, "The Heavenly Bodies").

Wedding party on Main Bazzar 2
There were a bunch of kids all dancing around me during the wedding procession. Here's one of them.

Taj Mahal
Here's my Aunt Rolly shot. I was ready to collapse during this photo.

Giant piece of Silver
This is one of the largest pieces of silver in the world I guess. I took the photo in the City Palace of Jaipur. I think the Maharaja lives there. Apparently the coolest thing to do in Jaipur is to go talk to the Maharaja. I didn't get a chance to do it, but I'm not sure we would have had much to talk about anyhow. I think it would have been pretty awkward. Regardless, check out that guys sweet mustache.

Monkey at the Jaigarh Fort
I have lots of neat pictures of all these old buildings and forts in Jaipur but there are too many to choose from. So I'm just going to put this picture of a monkey up. Because, who doesn't like monkey pictures?

Comments

[SJ]

You're getting fuzzy!

[jillbord]

I can't handle you on that camel with your crazy hair and wild beard and rolled up pants and earth tones t-shirt. I guess I need to accept that you are turning into a hippie. When you get back you should call Bennie and you can tye dye shirts and make hemp necklaces together!