Blogs from India, Asia - page 1978

Hello everyone. Well the last few days have been just grand. Our stay with the Maheshwari's was wonderful, and after getting a firm grasp on the (partially skewed) rules of cricket from eight year old Akosh, and having our palms read by his father Alok in Jaipur, we headed on to Pushkar. First, our palms: Apparently I (Keif) will have a long life, become a great scientist and inventor, and will only have one wife and one child. Blythe will be the money maker with a very good job and will only have one husband and also only one child. However (here's the disclaimer) only 7% of these predictions come true, the rest relies on environmental factors, so who knows what's to come. In Pushkar we enjoyed the beautiful holy lake from our hotel perched on ... read more

Jaipur again is a very busy city. It seems very dirty even compared to Delhi. We rove through a couple of nice areas yesterday but in general it has been dirty and very polluted. On the way in we stopped at the "Monkey Temple". It was a bit of a trek up past a series of temples and up e steep hill but once you got to the top there were amazing views over the whole of Jaipur. Today we have been to the two hill forts (Tiger & Jahgir). These were huge and also gave great views over the city and surrounding area. We didn't go to Amber fort as we ran out of time. We just saw an procession going down the street and followed it for a while. From what we could gather ... read more

We are reaching you from Chennai (Madras), late our Sunday afternoon. We left Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) on Friday morning traveling by driven car to Kanyakumari On the way there, we took a jog off-highway to view Kovalam beach, falling into the genre of pretty, two gentle bays, separated by rocky out croppings, well life guarded, its waters can be deceptive about their dangers. People have frequently been caught in final struggles with ebbs and flows beyond the outcroppings. One of my earlier readings on India was of a serendipitous survival experienced by a Canadian visitor to these shores. As I strolled the beach, her text in my ears, I found myself sympathetic to suspending disbelief, just enough, to be persuaded that a mystical event attended her here. Lunch was our first at a fully vegetarian establishment, deep ... read more

Geo: 28.5713, 75.4743After our impromptu detour through the Moslem village in the Shekhawati desert, we continued our semi-planned itinerary and took the train to the "Blue City" of Jodhpur, so named because the color signified the residence of a Brahmin - a high ranking class in India's caste system. Founded in 1459 by Rao Jodha, Jodhpur grew rich by its proximity to the Silk Road where opium, dates, silk, etc. were taken by camel train westward from Central Asia to the Middle East and Europe. Our own journey ended at the Saji Sanwri guesthouse - a 250 year-old haveli which was buried in the a labyrinth of twisty one-camel-wide streets. Four stories tall with a rooftop garden that has a fabulous view of the the magnificent fort of Mehrangarh, one could feel the history of the ... read more

I'm writing this from Pushkar, since my last posting I have travelled from Rhanthambore National Park to Jaipur and then to Pushkar. On the way from Rhanthambore to Jaipur, Juan - our travel-mate - suggested that we leave the main road and visit a more isolated small village away from the highway. We had been driving through innumerable roadside villages, but we wanted to see a smaller one. Our driver turned off onto an unpaved road, drove about 2 km and entered a very small village. When the four of us got out of the car, we were suddenly the centre of attention and were soon surrounded by children as well as adults. We were invited into a home, consisting of mud huts around a compound. The village was basic, but clean. The villagers were fairly ... read more