mobile trees


Basket vendor, Delhi


I like piles of bricks.


That's it, just sweep the trash into the sewer! Then it just disappears!


Rishikesh sunset


Rishikesh


Rishikesh

Ganges River, Rishikesh

Ganges

Beach cows, Rishikesh

Before I left Amritsar, I watched another Bollywood movie to pass the time before my night train. I saw London Dreams, which was about a poor Indian kid who dreams of being a rockstar in London, but once he does this and becomes famous, he indulges in drugs, beautiful women, self-loathing, etc. It is only when he returns to India again that he find his soul. It was pretty awful, but had some great dance sequences, especially one that involved throwing powdered pigment in the air.

Anyway, from Amritsar, I took the train to Haridwar, and then a packed bus to Rishikesh. My hotel was right on the emerald green Ganges river, although my room looked out on a cement wall. It is cold and windy in Rishikesh! Who knew? The cool weather has brought the emergence of the sweater vest among the local population; it seems to be the most popular accessory in India.
For all of you Beatles aficionados, this is where the White Album was written and where the Beatles stayed at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram (it's no longer open). Rishikesh is also the yoga center of the world, so I spent four days in yoga classes at a nearby ashram. I could have lived without the 'om' chanting, which is supposed to clean my aura (yep), but generally it wasn't a real culty atmosphere. Just a bunch of young white folks on vacation, trying to get some exercise. I don't think the chanting cleared my mind at all either because I kept making 'to-do' lists in my head while we were 'oming.'

--Sitting on the beach in Rishikesh, I have men who come and sit behind me and then have their friend take a picture of us. Without asking. Like we are friends.
--The electricity goes off every half hour in Rishikesh.
--I sat in a restaurant where the chef kept hacking and coughing and spitting repeatedly in the kitchen while I was eating. What is with the spitting here?
--I saw a woman give a beggar a 5 rupee coin and ask for change in return.

I returned to Delhi on an afternoon train, and was given a really great room in the Parharganj area, with a flatscreen TV and cable and hot water and a soft bed. I had booked a cheap room, but they were all out when I got there, so I got this deluxe one for a fraction of the price. I spent my last day in Delhi racing around town, hitting all the markets in South Delhi, and eating a huge buffet lunch at the Hare Krishna complex. I was a bit afraid that the orange soda they gave me would be spiked with a mind-deluding substance, but the food was all delicious. I have grown especially fond of the Gulab Jamun (donut ball in syrup), which is amazing, amazing. The weather in Delhi is very cool, in the 60s and 70s and rainy. I remember when I first came to this city in the middle of the night two months ago, I was so overwhelmed, and my senses were totally overloaded. And this time around, I am utterly calm and confident; Delhi is manageable and diverse and fascinating. I almost wish I didn't have a flight home tonight.

that is the sun to the right












Golden Temple, Amritsar


train station in Johdpur

I forgot to mention that on my last night in Jaisalmer, I took a share jeep out to the Sam sand dunes, 45 km from town. It turned out to be a real tourist trap with women and children begging, hundreds of Indian tourists, lots of camels, piles of trash, and pushy men with cold drinks to sell. I met a young French guy in the jeep, though, and we had fun laughing at the whole spectacle before us. He noticed immediately that I have a way of handling all the begging by just not responding at all, and he asked me if it worked. I told him that it is absolutely the best tactic in all situations in India; no matter what they are trying to sell you or get from you, just pretend you don't hear them. If you argue with them or say 'no', they only become more persistent. If I don't respond, they eventually give up and walk away. The French guy said he was incapable of this, and he would yell at the really aggressive sellers and tell them to get away, but that was like egging them on somehow. When we first arrived at the dunes, a group of beggar children starting hanging on my arms, and I just kept walking and talking like nothing was happening.

I left Jaisalmer on a comfortable morning bus, returning to Johdpur in the afternoon. I had many hours to kill before my night train, so I wandered around the old town some more, and then returned to the "Ladies Second-Class" waiting room at the train station. Another woman and I had fun chasing a few persistent mice out of the room.
Later, I would travel 19 hours to Amritsar in Punjab in northern India. Amritsar is the home of the Golden Temple, the holiest site for the Sikhs. It is a really wonderous and incredible place; one of the highlights of my trip. I saw it first at dusk, and then again after dawn, hoping to catch the perfect light. In order to enter the temple area, I had to leave my shoes behind, cover my head, and walk through a pool of water to clean my feet. Inside the courtyard/square, there are hundreds of pilgrims walking around the temple, bathing in the pool, and lining up to enter the temple via the bridge. I ate on the floor in the communal dining hall with hundreds of other pilgrims. For free, they served me chapati, dal, rice, and curry. It was quite good food, and the experience was unlike any I have had. Near the temple, the loudspeakers play live music that is coming from within the temple; the sound of prayers being sung. I really like the Sikhs, and Amritsar is full of them.

Still in Amritsar, I walked over to a nearby park memorial, and 20 school girls started following me, giggling, and asking me my name and where I was from. They walked in unison with me around the entire perimeter of the park; they told me that I was beautiful and some of them pinched me arms. I didn't mind at all because I was glad to see these girls were going to school, learning english, and hopefully some day some of them will lead this country of India.

dunes outside of Jaisalmer at dusk; a tourist circus with lots of garbage


lake in Jaisalmer, nearly dry


haveli in Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer fort from my hotel roof

watch man

Jain temple in Jaisalmer

this sign is yet another example of why I hate religion

this sculpture is called "emotional woman"
(I am rolling my eyes)

Jaisalmer

I love these paintings

Jaisalmer fort

last photo of Johdpur

I remembered that when I was in Ajmer waiting for my train, I sat down outside to look at my guidebook and behind me there was a man sweeping all the trash in the street into a pile. A moment later I felt a warmth behind me, and he had lit the whole pile on fire right there in front of the station, a few feet away from me. Now, I won't say that I was surprised, because burning trash is normal here, but sometimes this practice still gives me pause. I have said this before, and I may say it again, but the pollution and garbage is my #1 impression and memory of India. The air pollution is horrible, making the air in LA on the worst summer day seem positively healthful in comparison. Yesterday in Johdpur, I walked out of the old town and onto a busier street, and the air was so thick with exhaust fumes that it made me feel ill, and I was forced to turn back toward my hotel.

Yesterday I took a night train to Jaisalmer. The train was overbooked (or something), and there was a family of seven--two girls, two little boys, a young woman, and a mother and father--all sharing two sleeper bunks. I don't know who's fault it was; the father was arguing with his family for a while and then arguing with other men on the train, and then explaining things to the train agent and police, but eventually his wife and kids slept on the floor while he took one of the bunks for himself. Can I say how outragous that is? For about an hour in the beginning before they were all settled, the entire family sat in one bunk across from me and stared at me.

When I arrived at 5 am in Jaisalmer, the touts got on the train and were offering taxis, which is the most aggressive I've seen them get. And then a young kid stuck his head in the window of the train and said that we tourists should all be careful because there were lots of touts in the train station, but that he offered a taxi through blah blah service, and I told him that he obviously didn't know the definition of the word tout because he was one himself, and he got very upset with that. I, thankfully, had already reserved a hotel with pickup from the train station. Jaisalmer is a small, walkable town, and I was able to explore it easily in one day. It is intensely dry here, and all the buildings are sand colored; it is very monochromatic, like sandcastles in the desert. Inside the fort it is 100% tourist shops; there is no real life happening there anymore. The fort in Jaisalmer is one of the most endangered sites in the world due to the pressure of modern plumming and increased water usage inside the fort. Several of the bastions have collapsed since 1993.

My favorite line from a shopkeeper in Jaisalmer: "You want to spend your money?"

I guess it's direct.

The water from the sink in my hotel bathroom flows down the drain and then comes out again through a spout near the floor, onto my foot. I have to step out of the way to avoid it.

If I gave out stickers that said "creep" to every Indian man who came up to me and talked to me on the street, I would have to buy the stickers in bulk. They would never go up to an Indian woman and talk to her on the street, and start asking personal questions.

I ate at a really great local thali (all you can eat) restaurant in Jaisalmer. It was filled with locals at lunchtime, and I was sitting across the table from two men in turbans with long white mustaches who must have eaten ten chapatis each, or more. They seemed utterly unconcerned with me, which was a welcome change, and they concentrated very seriously on their food. They did make some strange noises when I paid my bill, which made me think that my english menu was more expensive than what the locals pay. I don't doubt it.

makhania lassi, Johdpur (nothing special to look at, but SO GOOD)


Meherangarh fort, through the smog of Johdpur


Jaswant Thada memorial, Johdpur


Johdpur


Johdpur Sardar Market






my guesthouse, Johdpur


Johdpur's traditional Brahman blue houses


fort

there is a girl sleeping in this photo (on the right)


Johdpur


Johdpur from my hotel roof

I have headed farther into western Rajasthan to Johdpur, an incredibly polluted and smelly town with a wonderfully maintained fort that has a great museum and audio tour. It is still run by the Maharaja of Johdpur, and it seems that he puts a priority on making the fort tourist-friendly. The tour includes a video about the Maharaja and his son, showing them playing polo and pool and getting dressed for special occasions. My guesthouse is also really special--a 500 year old haveli, right at the base of the fort wall; it is in a quieter section of town, mostly because the lanes are too small to accommodate larger vehicles.

A quick word about lassis. I thought that I had tasted the best lassi in India in Jaipur at Lassiwala, served in a terracotta cup with a little crusty bit on top. These were made using a modified drillpress to whip them. And, of course, having had this amazing lassi, every other lassi has tasted inferior since then. But here in Johdpur, they have an entirely different manifestation of a lassi--the makhania, made with butter and saffron and cardamom, which is much thicker and so, so good. I have never had a lassi like this in the United States. I'm not sure that it exists.