The End of Rajasthan

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Later this evening I'm boarding a train to begin a 45 hour or so trip by train and bus to Uttarkashi, where my course begins on the 20th. I will at least have a 10 hour or so break in Delhi, but in spite of how appealing the mountains sound right now, I'm not looking forward to the process of getting there.

Rajasthan has been a good enough introduction to India, I suppose. It sees more tourists than any other state, and at times it was quite beautiful. Other times were markedly less than spectacular. It rained the last 24 hours or so that I was in Jaisalmer, which I gather is extremely rare outside of the (meager) monsoon season. I had no complaints until night fell, when the "storm" (as it was described to me by a few people, though in fact I would describe it as a "steady drizzle" most of the time) knocked out the whole city's power. What had before been poorly and spottily lit streets became utterly black. The inadequate (being charitable) sewer system was overwhelmed, so there were large rivers of multi-specied shit flowing in the streets. During my walk back to the hotel after having dinner in the fort, I assumed that every step would likely land in one of these rivers. By some miracle I seem to have avoided the worst of it, but I washed the cuffs of my pants very vigorously once back to my room. The next morning I saw a cow slip and fall on one of the slick, sloping stone streets, and I unashamedly felt a bit of schadenfreude.

Once in Jodhpur, I took an autorickshaw from the bus stand (the computers in Jaisalmer's railway station went down, so I couldn't buy a train ticket) to the railway booking office, and was proud of myself for paying even less than what I thought an Indian would have payed. After spending forty-five minutes booking my train ticket to Delhi in four days' time, I came outside to find the same autorickshaw driver waiting for me. He had assumed that I would need a ride to my hotel after booking a ticket, but in fact the guesthouse where I stayed in Jodhpur was picking me up for no charge. I called them to inform them of my location and that I was ready to be picked up, then told the persistent autorickshaw to get lost. He seemed very confused and agitated but I didn't give a damn. Shortly before the hotel arrived to pick me up (on a motorcycle), the autorickshaw disappeared. As I got on the motorcycle, the rickshaw driver came by and threw god knows what all over the guy who came on the motorcycle. I don't know what it was (it looked somewhat like the pulp of some fruit, but that's just a guess), but it missed me. He then sped off, while the guy wiped off his face and picked some of the stuff out of his hair, I'm sure very confused as to why that had just happened. I didn't bother trying to explain.

Most people who come to Jodhpur only stay here for a day, long enough to see the magnificent fort, before continuing on to more popular destinations in Rajasthan. I stayed for four, mostly because I just didn't feel like trying to cram in one more place. I saw the fort my first day here, which truly was quite impressive. It was completely derelict until the early 70s, when the local maharaja decided to clean it out and open it to tourists. Entrance was a hefty $5, but it included a private audio guide on an mp3 player. The fort was built in the late 15th century, if my memory isn't failing me, and was never overrun, despite once being under siege for 6 months by Jaipur. It was immensely more impressive than Jaisalmer's fort. The old town that surrounds the base of the fort is mostly painted blue, which was originally done as the indigo was thought to deter insects, but eventually the aesthetic effect became just as big a reason.

The next day I didn't do much of anything. I took a walk in the morning and bought some second-hand books, then spent the day reading, napping, and talking to other travelers at my guesthouse. Unfortunately the guesthouse wasn't as serene and relaxing as it should have been. An addition at the front of the building had just begun, and the workers were breaking concrete and tossing it off the 2nd story all day. The owner, despite being incandescently gay, is married and has a two year old son, and the boy is perhaps the most annoying I've ever encountered. He is an inconsolable attention whore, constantly crying for no reason other than that nobody is paying attention to him, and when not crying blathering nonsense "songs" at the top of his lungs. Two middle-aged Frenchwomen, who would normally top the Most Annoying list, spent hours cooing to the boy in French, while his mother went about cleaning, cooking, and generally running the house.

Since I'm loathe to go back out in the midday heat, here are some observations and complaints from the past two weeks.

• There seems to be a severe shortage of small bills. Rupee notes come in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000 (and higher, I'm sure), and I'm still making a conscious effort to hoard 50s and below. Every time I don't pay for something with exact change, I'm asked if I can't do so. Rickshaws are the worst, and a few times I overpaid by 5 or 10 rupees because I didn't have the exact amount. Eventually I just turned the tables -- if the fare was 25, I'd produce a 50, and when the driver said he didn't have change, I'd take the 50 and produce a 20, saying that if he couldn't make change it was the best I could do (even if I did have a 5 rupee note).
  
  
• Breakfast is awful. In South India, I believe everyone has iddly, which is a sort of rice pancake about which I've heard many good things. I'm not sure what people eat here in the North, but all the menus I've seen, including the guesthouses, have typical western fare: toast, eggs, omlettes (never spelled correctly), and cold cereal with milk. I had cereal once, but the milk was strange/bad and the cereal tasted like it had been exposed to the air for the last three weeks. The last omelette I had was supposed to be vegetable and cheese, but in reality had a half pound of onions (no other vegetables) and I think one bite had a hint of cheese. Salt and pepper, as well as catsup, seem rare. Most Indians drink copious amounts of sweet chai, which I can't stand, and I've yet to find filter coffee. Even the instant coffee somehow tastes worse than I remember in the US.
  
  
• The electrical systems here are baffling. My room at the guesthouse here in Jodhpur had nine switches for three fixtures (room light, ceiling fan, bathroom light). Every other room I've had has had at least twice as many switches as there are fixtures, and as far as I can tell none of them control electrical outlets. They're just completely useless. There's also generally a master switch outside the door, and twice I've had people turn it off while walking by. It's not a big deal but I can't say I like it.
  
  
• I still can't think in rupees very well. For things that I purchase everyday, such as rickshaws and meals, I have a good sense of how much I should pay, but for other items I still find myself converting the rupees in to dollars and then comparing that amount with what I'd pay in the US. For added uncertainty, very few things have price tags, so it seems appropriate to bargain for books, shaving cream, and other everday purchases. I dislike shopping as it is when I'm in the US and everything has a fixed price, but I certainly prefer it to shopping in India.
  
  
• There seem to be very few Americans traveling in India. I've met well over a dozen French, seven or eight Germans and Canadians, and a handful of Swiss, English, Italians, Irish, Australians, Koreans and Japanese, but not a single other American. Perhaps related to this, I've noticed that when people on the street ask where I'm from, and I reply honestly, they tend to get rather excited and will carry on what's often a rather one-sided conversation for longer than I'd prefer. I know almost always respond "Ceska Republika" and feign poor English, which is remarkably effective.
  

My original plan to travel south down to Kerala and Tamil Nadu once my course if finished is now sounding less and less appealing. I thought I could cope with the heat by taking it easy and avoiding the worst of the midday sun, but even doing that for two weeks in March has convinced me that it won't work for a few months when it's even hotter. That likely means I'll be spending the next 3+ months in the Himalayas, which should do just fine.

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