Blogs from Pushkar, Rajasthan, India, Asia - page 30

The sun stretches across the desert but I can't find much beauty is what I see. This part of the desert is dotted with lonely emaciated trees, random patches of dry grass, rocks, pebbles and trash. The grand majestic sand dunes of the Thar Desert are far to the North and West of here. This stretch of uneven desert reminds me of a wet defeated cat who's just escaped from the bath with messy fur. Some primal survival instinct kicks in and I search the horizon for water and rain clouds--something, anything to break the harsh dry sun. No sign of moisture. I have a newfound compassion for the people who live here, completely dependent upon depleting water reserves. The dripping faucet in my old apartment that used to irritate the hell out of me seems ... read more

Ok, yet another destination... it never ends! I'm just tired right now, you'll now why later.. So we left Delhi maybe 3 days ago (the day after my last e-mail, whever that was). Oh yeah did I mention I have no knowledge of days/dates or time anymore? We went to Jaipur which is a pretty big city too. Our bus ride was quite interesting.. We were supposed to be picked up at the guesthouse at 8pm by a taxi, which never happened. We ended up having to walk there with our backpacks. It wasn't really far but when you were expecting to be picked up and don't, you're pretty ticked off. Bus arrives at the "bus stop" (on the side of a deserted road with no lights and cow dung and god knows what on the ... read more

Here I am in India sitting in front of a computer writing my first travelblog. Though I swore off online travel-diaries, this website makes mass emails with photos incredibly more easy. And though I am against writing mass-emails, they're absolutely unavoidable. So hello family and friends! Here is my photo diary that I'm going to do my best to update. Currently, I'm in Northern India and it's more chaotic than I could have ever imagined. India is loud, exciting, dirty, colorful, intriguing, confusing, overwhelming . . . entirely different in everyway from the U.S. . . but I love it. Jordana and I flew into New Delhi on March 4th to meet up with Rachel. After a couple of days of Delhi, we took a train to Varanasi to see the Ganges river, then Agra to ... read more

Namaste! Pushkar is now our home for the moment, we are glad to have left the city behind. Although we did enjoy our time in Jaipur, especially the City Palaceand the Jaipur Observatory (Jantar Mantar). This was built by Jai Singh in 1728, it's a collection of sculptures or instuments used for calculatingeclipses and star positions. One of these is 27m high set at 27 degrees it's used for calculating local and merridan pas time and attributes of heavenly bodies..and we though sundials were clever!! Anyway as we said we are now in a place called Pushkar, on the way we passed over snake mountain and Pushkar sits in a bowl surrounded by mountains absolutley breathtaking. Pushkar is a holy town it's really important pilgramage cwente for devout Hindis and they should visit here once in ... read more

I caught a bus to Ajmer at lunchtime. I had actually hoped to never take another bus journey in India, but the train connections to Ajmer are hopeless so I didn't have much of a choice. I'd been told that the bus was A/C, but that proved to not be the case. Strangely for buses here, it was never more than about three-quarters full. The reservation system had allocated me a seat next to an old chap who was on a husband-hunting expedition for his 30 year old (i.e. on the shelf, by Indian standards) daughter. He had unearthed a good prospect via a marital agency - a doctor working in Ajmer, who he was on his way to grill. Unfortunately this potential husband was originally from Hyderabad, so my neighbour was then going to journey ... read more