9th week in India - Desert Storm, Pushkar and the Taj

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In our last episode, the intrepid travellers were leaving Jaisalmer in western Rajasthan near the Pakistan border on a seven-hour drive east to the holy city of Pushkar. The wind was howling, whipping up the desert sand and blowing it across the road like snow. A few raindrops collected on the windshield and the pavement was wet in places - this in a place that has experienced severe drought the past few years. Despite the weather, we saw huge flocks of black goats heading out into the desert to forage for the day.
After a half hour we were stopped at a level crossing as turbanned guards shivered in their shawls as they dropped the barriers. We had to wait over 10 minutes for the train. A little later we stopped in a dusty, busy village for steaming mugs of masala tea, kachori - a deep-fried savoury pastry with a spicy lentil filling - and samosas.
We drove into the wind for most of the day on an excellent road with very little traffic. After a fill-up of diesel for our little V2 IndieCar the desert got a little more habitable as we passed many small, round mud huts with conical thatched rooves surrounded with a perimeter of either mud walls or a jumble of impenetrable thorn branches. Flocks of goats and camels were grazing nearby. Women were carrying water home from the well .
The road hazards along the way included the ubiquitous cows, dogs goats, camels and even peacocks drinking from puddles. We also saw foxes and deer. We passed through beautiful countryside that got greener and more populated as the day went on - small mud-walled villages and smart little farms.
After a lunch of vegetable cutlets, dal and nan we started the last leg along a single lane road. On-coming vehicles would play 'chicken' until the last moment and then veer off with inches to spare. This was the day we finally lost our trust of our driver. His english was very poor to start with but besides that we didn't get the feeling he was very bright. His driving was highly offensive and playing this chicken game drove us mad. On the plus side, he was very good at finding the cold beer shops in the various towns where we spent the night.
The holy city of Pushkar is just into some tall, steep mountains at the edge of the desert. At the centre of town is a small lake surrounded by ghats or wide stone steps leading down to the water. Many Hindu pilgrims come here to bathe in the waters. Behind the ghats is a maze of narrow streets with backpacker hotels, restaurants and a bustling market. Long lines of pilgrims trudge wide-eyed through the market past dreadlocked backpackers. Being a holy city, the restaurants serve only strictly vegetarian fare - no meat or even eggs and no alcahol is sold anywhere in the town.
We checked into our hotel on the outskirts of town. We could see a temple half-way up the mountain and, as the sun set, we listened to some soothing, melodic singing/chanting that seemed to be speaker broadcast live from the temple. We saw peacocks hurtling through the air like slow-moving indigo-feathered footballs to land in a tree and yowl like a loud, wild cat in heat.
Out back of the hotel there was construction going on as the hotel was expanding. Included in the construction crew of some 12 - 15 people were five women dressed in traditional saris. They seemed to do much of the basic labour like screen sand, mix mortar and carry it to the masons. They looked more like they were on the way to a prom than construction workers. We wondered what the guidlines the PEI Workers Compensation Board would have for 'construction saris'. The masonry work was fairly inept and it was all I could do to not go out there and grab a trowel.
The next day we climbed up to the temple and met the yesterday's singer. Turns out he was just a visiting artist from Jaipur and we just happened to hear his two performances. He sang for us for a half-hour.
We moved on to Jaipur on the last of ten days with our driver. The road was filled with trucks, many carrying huge blocks of glistening white marble. Their destination was the next town, a centre for marble processing plants side-by-side for over two kilometres.
We had lunch at a truck-stop. Punjabi thali included three bowls of different vegetable masalas, a bowl of dal, a bowl of the best yogurt and rice. There was a plate of red onion slices and lime wedges as a garnish on the side as well as nan and papadoms. Three of these cost about C$6 including chai.
Back on the road we ended up on the six-lane national highway which we shared with the cows, goats, camels pulling carts and even bicycles loaded with garlic saddle bags and a big bag of onions across the rear carrier. There were a few toll booths along the way. We tried to ask how much a camel cart cost but no-one got the joke.
We found ourselves at a lovely 'haveli' hotel in Jaipur. It had a central, open courtyard with broad green lawns and flowers everywhere and lots more hurtling peacocks. We grabbed a bicycle ricksaw down to the old city and had a look around. Seems this is a major tourist area with many things being hustled including two men in red uniforms playing flutes and 'charming' a cobra out of a basket. I snapped a quick photo and one of them was at me in an instant asking for money. I offered ten rupees but he wanted fifty rupees. "Pleeze mister, cobra business veddy difficult."
We had some memorable meals in Jaipur - some cheap some not. One lunch was our favourite - kachori and samosa with a spicy/sweet dipping sauce sauce and (the house specialty) the best lassi we have had yet with crunchy grains of sugar and salt and served in tall unfired clay cups. We ate upstairs in a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Along the side were many large bowls of fresh yogurt. This meal was about C$2.
The we blew the budget that night on some tender chunks of marinated and then seared lamb, another lamb dish quick-fried with honey glaze and red and green chilis, dal makkhini - black lentils simmered with garlic, ginger in a cream sauce and a stewed aubergine dish. This was a fiery meal as we learned the difference between 'spicy' and 'medium spicy' the hard way. Our waiter, one of about ten hovering over only 16 tables, brought us a delicious cooling sweet frozen dish tasting loudly of cardamom that we must research when we get home.
Another delight is 'Mixed Raita" which is chopped tomato, cucumber and red onion in yogurt. We had this with rice and dal one day washed down with fresh pomegranite juice.
Enough about food and on to the wonder of the Taj Mahal. We said good-bye to the driver and jumped on the train: a 6:00am departure from Jaipur to Agra. Green, flat fields of grain, mud-walled villages and wild-looking people as we passed through the towns as people were beginning to celebrate the 'Holi" festival - the chief manifestatiopn of which is smearing colourful fluorescent dye on each other and getting very drunk.
We dropped our bags at the hotel and found a rickshaw to the Taj. It was, however, cloudy and we decided not to go in. Instead, the driver took us across the river to 'the baby Taj' which is a monument built slightly earlier than the Taj but with the same inlaid semi-precious stone on white marble that is the style of the Taj. From there we drove to a place where we got a great (free) view of the back of the Taj from across the river. Heading back into town the skies cleared so we decided to go in to the Taj. We payed our 750 rupees each (about C$20) and joined the crowd at the entrance to be frisked and scanned.
Despite the hordes of Indians and tourists, this monument is simply jaw-droppingly, spell-bindingly magnificent. We reverently walked the vast grounds enjoying the views of the monument from a distance and up very close. It is perfect from any distance and vantage point.
The next day was Holi and it was too dangerous to leave the hotel unless we wanted to be sprayed with colours - which we didn't. Around noon I jumped in a bicycle rickshaw and braved the streets for something to eat - a take-out. Later we both went to the amazing Red Fort where Shah Jahan and his eternal love, Mumtaz Mahal ruled before her death while giving birth to their 14th child (now, that's love!).
Our train to Amritsar didn't leave until the afternoon so we arranged for a bicycle rickshaw to pick us up at 6:00am for a sunrise visit to the Taj. It was even more beautiful the second time and there were fewer crowds.
We are off to the Punjab and then Himachal Pradesh - the Indian Himalayas where the valleys are green and the mountains soar to 20,000 feet.
In trying to do a little housekeeping, the First Week blog got published again. Sorry for that.
Best to al

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Comments

[ramesh]

love li pic
love life pic