It's hot in India! Yeah, no kidding!

Sitting at this screen in Bikaner, Punjab province, I can finally take a deep breath and try and unscramble all my thoughts and experiences from the last 5 days.

After a very rainy two days in Udaipur not doing much else other than reading on our hotel garden patio and walking spurratically around a few of the close-knit cobbled steets, we decided that we needed to spend more time there to really take in the city that we had already grown fond of.

This decision was largely catalyzed by a night sitting on the roof of an Indian families home overlooking  the rooftops of old houses that merged into a blue smudge that surrounded the golden crown of Udaipur - the City Palace.  As we sat, watching the 'Sound and Light show' which we were privelaged enough to see (sans cost) from the Sharma's own rooftop accompanied by chai, thoughts were unanimous that we needed more time to enjoy all that Udaipur had to offer. This was also cherry-topped by an invitation from the same Indian family to return the next night and learn all about Indian cooking.

We spent the following day wandering through Shilpgram, an Indian Traditional Village - the South African Equivalent of Shakaland or a Korean Namsangol Village (ie built for tourists) - but it was interesting enough watching some sweet musicians and learnt a little about the history of Rhajastani houses, music and artistry.  We continued the day with a trip to the Sajjanghar Wildlife Sanctuary where a long, winding road up and around a very green mountain or two led us to the 'Monsoon Palace' where we ogled at the many monkeys and birds playing in the trees as well as the ancient buildings. We drove around the many lakes (apparently Udaipur requires 7 LAKES to keep it going!) and saw the famous Lake Palace ending off the site seeing part of the afternoon at the City Palace - which is a detailed museum streaming through the corridors of Royal Family history. In my opinion, a place better seen and enjoyed at sunset from the roof of the Sharma's guesthouse (and less expensive!)

After a bit of fruitful shopping, we marched up the hill with our thinking caps on, our palates ready and our hand itching to get dirty in the kitchen. On arrival at the Sharma's - whom we were fortunate enough to meet through Bittoo and his family connections - we first poured over family photo albums, learning all about Indian wedding customs, partook in a wish bracelet tying tradition and then chose what we would like to cook. Over the course of the next 3 hours we chopped up vegetables, crying as the onions stung my eyes, belnded spices, made batters, sliced cheese, smelt flavours, guessed herbs and laughed a LOT!

Aaaaaand then we ate all of what we made:
Pakora - deep fried minced vegetables and spices in a chickpea powder based batter - , Paneer Podina Masala - cottage cheese and mint masala curry - , Paneer butter Masala - Cottage cheese and butter masala curry -, tandoori potatoes and ladyfingers and a variety of breads - parantha, naan and chapati. It was delicious and the difference between home-cooking and restaurant food is a biiiig one! The rest of the evening included Indian boardgames, lots of joking, surprisingly BAD Henna - I now have a strange fish like creature occupying my hand for the next 2 weeks! and a great union of family and cultures. I have to say it was probably my favourite night of the trip thus far (and that is certainly a difficult choice as most to all thus far have been more than lovely!)

Udaipur was a glorious place, not just becasue of it's beautiful palaces, cobbled streets, 7 lakes, good shopping or rich history (I mean these were great too!) but mostly becasue of the stunning array of characters we met just along or just off one seemingly quiet street just a pin prick away from the tourist hubbub. It was these people that truly shaped the lasting impression of Udaipur now imprinted in my mind and on my heart: Bob or Babas the sly but friendly book shop owner that using nothing but sweet charm and a hilarious (practiced) American accent, 'conned' us all into buying at least one heavy, treasureful and beautiful but paaaainfully inconvenient camel leather journal. Or 'Danny Devito' the junk shop owner that had a pair of 'Ali Babas' to fit every shape, size or desire. The 'Corner-store-that-had-everything-guy' accross the street from Bob's bookstore from whom we literally bought 'everything' from.  The tailor who altered our pants on site to fit exactly how we wanted them. 'Govin', our delightfully memorable waitor  at the hotel. 'Bubbles' the tortoise who loved our cucumber shavings and made an appearance (as though he had been summoned) each time we entered the ridiculously comfortable garden restaurant for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The philopeno looking guy who joined us each mealtime to teach us 'magic tricks'.

And then there were the Sharmas - the stunningly successful family of four who welcomed us into their home, effortlessly showing us how to cook their food not missing a detail, laughing with us, sharing memories, sharing history, sharing INDIA.  Even though it is most likely that they will never read this I would like to sincerely thank them for their wonderful hospitality and generosity. It was an invaluable experience to be a part of their family, even if only for two short nights. Thank you!

And so it was time to depart from Udaipur and drive 8 hours to Jodhpur. The drive was long and very bumpy (I need a whole book to drive about the self-governing Indian road rules, driving, hooting and staring.) Never in my life have I seen anything like it. Not only are we driving along roads that make South Africa's potholes look like perfect marble and are competing not only with other cars, trucks, buses, tuk-tuks, bicycles but add cows, dogs, camels, water buffalo, elephants, sheep and goats to the mix too. And then add in hooting for no apparent reason, not the slither of an indicator and overtaking a truck around a blind mountain curve with a bus coming at you, in the pouring monsoon. that will give you an idea of what we are dealing with.

We arrived safely into Jodphur and just as we settled into our Yellow Bungalow at Saffron guesthouse the next inevitable chapter of the Indian Journey hit us with force - the joy of the power cut! Now, hanging out in the dark with a candle isn't always unpleasant, but in the heat and the monsoon which pretty much equals a bug invasion - I can't say it was the best time of my life. But we played some invisible singing games, watched the lightning (and consequent power cable explosions in the city) and eventually had a good nights sleep, waking up reasonably early to hit the road en route to Jaisalmer (not without seeing the Jodhpur Fort, temple and palace of course!)

Jaisalmer was a lovely town, complete with another mix of amusing personalities including a palm reading jewellery maker who really entertained us and somehow managed to 'make us happy' by urging us to buy stones that would help our 'aura'. We had a look at the sandcastle-esque fort and the sunset point and then drove an hour or 2 out of the city to Khuri Village where we would begin our one night 'authentic' camel safari. We drank some chai in the 'desert hotel' slash circle of mud huts and then went to mount our camels.

'Desert Tiger' was his name and he was a bit of an old man, with a funny, yellow-toothy grin. Bubbaloo was Shelly's and he (or she) was just gorgeous and always smiling. Jessie's was Halaal and he was just the team nutjob, kicking up a fuss, eating when he felt like it, taking off running at random intervals, but at least he had us laughing. Kate's was the speedster of the group and took to gunning it to the front of the queue to give Kate and the camels minder, Raj, some alone time at the front ;-) Riding a camel is a hysterical experience especially when he kneels down and it's time to jump off, it feels a bit like riding a bull in a bar, like you're going to fall off all the time, but  I loved it anyway. Gopal, my camel minder who was about 12 years old, sat on the back and we sang what I think was a Hindi song as we rode.  

We rode for about an hour until we reached the dunes, where we sat and watched the gleaming golden sunset. I actually can't explain in words how beautiful a moment it was to be sitting up there in the sand, with the 3 of my favourite friends, camels behind us, watching the sun go down, a perfect dusk! Without sounding cheesy, I really do feel so lucky that our lives have led us here, to India, together.

We rode our camels back to the mud huts and ate dinner in the dark in the company of the world's largest bug colony and an exotic Indian dancer and drum musicians. We all danced in a circle, practicing our Indian dance moves, which was very fun and utterly hilarious aaaaand then got dressed in our long shirts and pants after a long sweaty, sticky 43 degree day, to go back to the dunes on a camel cart to sleep under the open sky. We were fortunate enough to have a practically perfect evening weather-wise, a bit of lightning strobe-lit the sky but other than that it was just us and the millions of stars. We slept a sound night in the perfect desert silence underneathe a blanket of perfect glimmering lights.

We are in Bikaner now, which is a pretty boring city featuring yes another fort, another palace aaaaand you guessed it, ANOTHER famous temple. This temple however, is unlike anything I have ever seen before. It is known as the 'rat temple' and the thousands of rats that own the grounds supposedly form the large army of the hindu goddess - Karnimata and despite it's history, is probably the most bizarre, disgusting and disturbing places I have ever seen. People come from far and wide (and I literally mean thousands of devotees walk hundreds of kilometres in the blistering heat) to offer milk and food to the rats that swarm the temple grounds and in return receive luck and protection. Now thinking that this temple was a place of worship where removing one's shoes is obligatory, I don't know what made me assume that it would be at least well maintained like every other immaculate temple we have visited but UH UH think again. The place was not only infested with live rats running around but also with hundreds of DEAD, rotting or barely alive carcasses hanging our of crevaces, off gates and in holes as well as rat faeces, rotting food and anything else that ranks anywhere on the revolting scale covering the floor and walls. And to make this picture even more delightful there were hundreds of devotees, kneeling on the ground, kissing the floor.

I realise that I am commenting here on one of these situations that falls into the realms of the 'cultural differences' debate and in the end who am I, the happy tourist entering into this 'sacred place' camera in hand, to judge anyone else's cultural or religious rituals. I did, after all, choose to go there BUT the purpose of my Blog is to share with you, how I interpret and how I feel about all the things I am doing and seeing on my travels. and I'll repeat again that NEVER in my life,  in all the different places I have traveled, have I EVER seen  (with my own eyes) something as filthy and disturbing as that rat temple.

But it's all part of the adventure, we see things we love, we see things that are heartbreaking, we see things that are weird and funny, we see things that seem repulsive but it's all these things infused in a giant ball of experience and open-minded laughter that really makes traveling as fun and as truly beautiful as it is.     

The last two weeks through Rhajasthan have been fantastic. We have seen and learnt so much about India and with Bittoo's help of course have really prepared ourselves well for the next 7 weeks still to come. We leave on a train tomorrow heading for Amritser where we will go to the border of Pakistan to see the border-closing ceremony. After that we will carry on further North to Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj (the home of the Dalai Lama) up in the mountains. And then who knows where we will end up. We are expected to arrive in Kolkata on the 24th of September - but until then, it's all up in the air.

Sorry that this post is so long, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!
There are also a couple of pictures I have posted up on my facebook page.. the internet here is not so helpful for uploading so that's as much as I could do for now..

I hope everyone is well, missing you and always thinking of you!

Lots of India love
Katie
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