Rajasthan (Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Jaipur)
August 22, 2008Jodhpur
So not much to tell about Bombay, Oh, we missed our train from Bombay to Jodhpur…For some reason everyone thought the train was at 3:30pm when it was in fact at 3pm…I think about 5 people looked at the ticket and never realized this. As a result we scrambled for what to do because during our stay in Bombay Shikah took us to a travel agent to book our whole trip. We had 3 trains and if we missed the first one would it mess up the next one…So we once again had to buy another ticket, this time to Ahmedabad. The train left at 5:30pm and arrived in Ahmedabad at about 3am. Then we took a train from Ahmedabad to Jodhpur at 4am…Since no seats were available we took a ticket for Rs. 20 for general seating…awesome…2 cars, tons of people, musical chairs. It was seriously like a zoo on this train. And very uncomfortable. We were on it from 4am until 2pm. Worst train ride of the trip.
When we arrived in Jodhpur we took an autorickshaw (tuk-tuk in Thailand) to the big fort that rises above the city. It was really cool, but also incredible hot as we walked up the hill with our 10kg backpacks under the desert sun. After the fort it was time to eat. We got to eat on the roof of the building and look out over the Blue City as the sun set. It was very romantic…except Zack was with me. So it wasn’t romantic, but it was serene. Then it was time to catch our train to Jaisalmer, the Golden City.
Jaisalmer
At the train station that night a kid came up to us to tell us about his brother’s hotel and camel trek. The biggest draw in Jaisalmer is the ‘camel trek’. Every hotel wants you to do their trek. The kid told us that he could give us Rs. 500/day so we told him alright we will check out your hotel when we get there since they would pick us up from the train station for free. The train arrived at about 5am and we went to the hotel to find out that it would be Rs. 2600 total for 3 days and 2 nights. A far cry from Rs. 1500, but that is to be expected in India. Nothing is every what it seems and people are always deceiving you, always. It gets annoying having to deal with it on a daily–nay, hourly–basis. Even haggling for the price of liter of bottle water…
Anyway, we ended up doing the camel trek because they were leaving at 8am and we needed to do it that day so that we could get back in time for the train on Friday, being it was Monday. So they drove us out into the desert for about half an hour and dropped us off. We got on some camels and rode. It was me, Zack, a Japanese guy and girl and a cry baby from Portugal. He was the real entertainment for the next 24hrs. First, his camel was new and did not want to behave like the other camels did. Every time he would try to get on it would start growling and yelling really loud. The guide had to walk along with it, pulling it behind him so that it would behave. It would start misbehaving about every 20 minutes and nearly toss the guy off. 45 minutes after we started riding we stopped at this water hole for the guides to fill up ‘indian water’ (they called it this because tourists would get sick if they drank it, since they weren’t used to it). The Portuguese guy gets off his camel and starts wobbling around and muttering “I…I can’t see…I can’t see anything.” Dehydration blindness? He didn’t bring any water and hadn’t drank any water before coming out to the desert nor did he drink any while he was on his camel. So we tell him “Sit down and drink some water” “I don’t have any water” “Drink this!” “But it’s not mine!” “Just drink it!!!” And of course he was fine 20 minutes later. His vision miraculously restored. Around noon we stopped for lunch. The guides prepared it for us. First we had chai (my new favorite drink) with milk and sugar and then they cooked some palau (spicy rice with some sort of gourd sliced and lots of spices) and chipati bread. It was…delicious! I discovered that I can eat vegetables as long as they are spicy enough that I can’t taste them. So I was full and full of energy. The guides were taking a nap, so were the other people on the trip. But I didn’t pay to sleep for an hour, I went out and walked around a little. I went out about a quarter mile until where the terrain was elevated and I could see the surrounding area from that point. When I saw the guides wake up I began walking back and we packed up and left. We rode for about 3 hours and went through a village then came to rest at some sand dunes. Most of the Thar Desert (Western India and Pakistan) is dirt and shrubs, like the American Southwest. But there were some random places that had sand dunes. The first night we came to some big sand dunes. They were about a quarter mile wide and about one mile long. It was fun to run around on them and sit atop them during sunset. The colors were simply breathtaking. We then ate dinner, chai with some sort of potato (in Indian: alu) palau with chipati. I couldn’t get enough chai. Or food. It was delicious. Then we laid out on the dunes on top of thick blankets. Then a sandstorm and rain came as we were getting quiet and about to fall asleep. No one wanted to be the first to wimp out and go into the covered hut that the guides were in. But eventually it was too much to bear and we all ran to the hut, cold and sandy. And by sandy I mean a thin layer of sand covering every square inch of my body and a millimeter or 2 thick layer on my scalp. Somehow I ended up falling sleep and awoke at sunrise.
The next morning we had eggs and bread…with chai of course. Then we packed up our camels and headed off into the desert. We rode for about 4 hours and stopped at noon for lunch. We all ate and listened to the Portuguese guy complain of the desert and his sore legs from riding the camels. As he left, he had a very memorable quote: “If camels are in paradise, I want to go to hell.” After they left, as well as one guide, it was just Zack and I and the guide, Mila. This was more fun because we could go faster. We got to make the camels run through the desert instead of just walking in a line. We rode for about 2 hours and came to an abandoned village that was in ruins with a fort looking out over top. It was pretty cool, and we got to see wild peacocks. The area reminded me of Shadow of the Colossus, if you’ve played that game for PS2. Then we rode about a mile away to some sand dunes and made camp. I got to milk my camel and our guide boiled the milk, added sugar and we drank it. It was delicious!!! It was really thick, like a milkshake. Then we made chai with the camel milk. Very good. We had dinner. Not once during our trip did the metal plates get cleaned with water and soap. In the desert they do a ’sand wash’. This is when they cover the plate in sand and then use a large piece of sand in their fingertips to scrub the plate. Eventually the sand will absorb all the wetness of the food and soon the plate will have only loose, dry sand on it. That’s when you know it’s clean!
That night we finally were able to camp under the starts. It was a full moon and later in the night I woke up and got to see every star in the sky. It was really nice. I also got to wake up in the middle of the night from a dung beetle crawling up my back and stuck in my shirt. That wasn’t the best thing to wake up to at 4am. Then I went back to sleep, pulled the blanket back up over my head just to get a pile of sand in my ear.
The next morning we woke up, made breakfast and took off. A few hours later we came to an oasis. It was cool, and the water was really nice. We went in to swim around. I came out and about 5 minutes later my entire body was itching uncontrollably. Then our guide decided to tell me that there were small mosquito like bugs that bite…awesome. It was worse itching than poison ivy. About an hour later we came to a small village where we got off the camels and went into this small house to eat lunch. After lunch we got picked up and taken back to the hotel. Our guide went walking around Jaisalmer with us. He helped us get some good deals on clothes for Zack. He bought two traditional muslim desert outfits that have a long skirt like thing and a long sleeve top that hangs down really low to about the mid-thigh. He also bought a turban, haha. But it was just 6 meters of fabric, our guide showed us how to wrap it. I bought a kilogram of chai tea. haha. I like how that is my souvenir from Jaisalmer. Oh well, it will be delicious. Then we retired to our hotel as we were both tired from the 3 days in the desert. We took a shower, relaxed for about an hour, went out to eat, came back and watched Speed Racer. I really liked it, the style that the movie was done in was awesome. So many vibrant colors…very unique, plus I am a big fan of Emile Hirsch.
The next day we woke up around 10am and walked up to Jaisalmer Fort. It was really cool and reminded me of Gerudo Fortress from Nintendo 64’s Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Actually, it did remind me of it a lot, there were a lot of structural/architechural elements that were really similar. They did a good job of making the game realistic in terms of Arabian architecture.
We then went to the train station to confirm our ticket and get our seats. We had about an hour to waste so we went across the street and got a haircut and shave! One thing I like about India and Thailand is that you can get a shave. It is nice sit back, relax, and let them use a brush whisk and straight edge. Though I do get a better shave when I do it myself with the single blade disposable razor I got from Korean Air when they lost my luggage, but that’s because I always shave against the direction of my hair, so that I can make sure my face is smooth. And so that when I shave, I shave, I don’t just trim the length. But it was a fun experience and for Rs. 20 for a shave and Rs. 30 for a haircut, it is definitely worth it. I mean, that’s only $1.25. Then we got on the train and went to Jaipur.
Jaipur
Jaipur was definitely the low of our trip. At least for me. I didn’t have that great a time. When we got to the station a guy offered to take us to a hotel for free. So we agreed and upon our arrival he propositioned us to be our tuk-tuk driver for the day. “How much?” “However much you feel is good. You have a bad time you don’t pay anything, no problem my friend. You have a good time, then you pay what you think. No worries my friend.” “Ok…we are gonna hold that to you.” So we checked in, Zack slept for 3 hours (since it was about 6am) and I worked on my pictures from the camel trek. Then at 10am he picked us up, and he had a friend with him. So the guy that propositioned us actually didn’t do anything, he just sat in the driver’s seat with the driver, who was also pretty much our guide. He told us about places and drove around. We went to a few places but most of the places weren’t very spectacular. The Hawa Mahal (Wind Palace) was alright, just a wall with Arabian bay windows. Then we went to a textile factory that was cool. They had tons of stuff to rip off tourists on. They had bed covers, sheets, wall hangings, paintings. It was a cool place. I ended up buying a wall hanging of Ganesh, the elephant looking god of good luck. Then our driver took us to another textile place, and was talking about later we can go to his friend’s house to eat dinner and then go to the disco because there was a big festival in Jaipur that weekend, the Brother and Sister festival. “Ok ok, we’ll see.” Of course all of these places he is taking us he gets commission. It was clearly written in the Lonely Planet guide book. But the textile place was cool enough and I got, what I found out later, was a pretty good deal on my wall hanging. It was really nice quality, pure cotton, 6 feet tall, and Rs. 750, which is about $17.50. Anyway, while we were at the other place I was reading the guide book more about Jaipur and i reread the special section about Gem Scams. It was explaining that rickshaw drivers will take you to their friend/brother/whoever’s house and proposition you to get involved in business making lots of money. Its something like you buy gems and precious stones for wholesale amount and sell for a big profit in your own country. Like you buy it and then they will send it to you at your home address or something, but the punchline is, you get scammed. I showed it to Zack again and we were like “hey, this is happening to us now, he keeps saying we are going to his friend’s house.” It got really sketchy when he was driving us from the textile place to his friend’s house when he started talking a lot about money. Like really private and weird questions like, “How do you use money in India? credit card? travelers cheques? cash?” “How much have you spent on your trip so far” “how much is that mobile phone?” Like the whole day he spends being our friend and getting to be really buddy buddy with us just to ease us into this scam. It is really annoying because this sort of thing happens alllll the time here and I get really annoyed at how greedy people are. We were trying to figure out how to get out of the situation. I mean, we could just tell him to go back to the hotel but it would be annoying to argue with him. We started to get nervous when we were in the tuk-tuk for like 30 minutes driving to his friend’s house because we didn’t know where we were and it looked like we were far away from the main city. So i decided that I would fall ill. When we got out of the tuk-tuk I stumbled around a little holding my stomach and just acting lethargic. Then we got inside and there are like 4 other guys sitting there. We make introduction and they are talking with us, making small talk. I avoid conversation and act disengaged, all the whole massaging my stomach. Finally after I went to the bathroom, stood in there for 5 minutes and came out and sat for another 10 minutes holding my stomach and closing my eyes while resting my head back on the couch the guy asked me if I was ok. “I”m scamming you, thats what I’m doing!!” But really I just said, “I have a sick stomach from lunch. I forgot to take my medicine this morning. I have to take medicine for my stomach everyday and we were so busy with the train arriving so early this morning that I forgot to take it…” “We can take you to a pharmacy or call the doctor.” “No, really, it’s ok, I just need to take my medicine.” “We can go pick up some stomach medicine at the pharmacy down the street, it’s not a problem.” “No no no, it is a prescription medication for my condition.” “We can go to the pharmacy or call the doctor for you.” “No really, It is just that I have a condition…a disease, called Crohn’s Disease that affects my stomach and I have a very specific medication that I have to take. Once I take it it usually takes about an hour for me to feel better.” “We can call the doctor.” “No, i just need to take my medicine or I will get really sick. Once, a few years ago, I forgot to take my medicine and stayed at my friend’s house for the weekend. I ate some spicy pizza on a Friday night–” “Pizza in America is spicy??” (I’m sick why are you changing the subject to talk about pizza and how spicy it is in America????!!!!) “–and because my medicine was at home and my parents were gone I had to go to the hospital the next day. I think the best thing to do would to get back to the hotel and take my medicine.” “Ok ok, we can go.” So we get up and our driver says, “Can we wait just like 5 more minutes? My friend will be right back and he wants to talk to you guys–” “No, I need to go now before it gets worse.” And so we left in a hurry to race back to the hotel, which ended up only being like 10 minutes away. We got out and handed him Rs. 150 for the day and wow, what a surprised look he had. “What is this? 150? The government rate for autorickshaw is 300/day” “Well you (pointing at the other guy) said we could pay you whatever we thought was good. Plus, you got commission for us going to your stores and we bought Rs. 2000 worth of textiles (Zack bought some as well).” “What? what is this commission?? My friend, I take you around the day and show you some beautiful places and take you to the textile place.” “yea” “And Rs. 150?” “yea” “are you happy?” “yea, we are.” and we went inside. Then we ate dinner and pretty much just fell asleep. I wouldn’t say that we were in a bad situation necessarily but it was a very questionable situation to be getting into. We were just two foreigners in Jaipur, India, in an area we didn’t know, let alone know where we were in relation to where our hotel was, in a room with 6 other Indian guys. Granted they were fat and middle-aged for the most part, but it takes take much since they out number us. Advice, play sick earlier or at the request of going to his friend’s house say you don’t want to. And be firm about it, otherwise they will keep asking. You really have to be firm about things here otherwise people will keep asking and asking. That was only the real questionable situation I’ve been in here. The streets of Bangalore at 1:30am were a similar situation but I think that the situation in Jaipur had much more potential to tun bad.
The next day Zack slept allll day. Seriously all day, until about 9:30pm. He was sick from the food the night before. We didn’t get to go to the Amber Fort, but I have seen plenty of forts now so it was ok. It was kind of like in Thailand we got templed out, but now we were kind of forted out. It gave me some time to work on touching up all the pictures from our camel trek. Zack’s camera has a scratch or something on the lens to ever single picture had black splotches all over the image, it is just lucky that I have an M.S. in Photoshop and was able to fix the problem…even though it took all day to go through about 80 photos. I was also able to check my email and sort through my 50 new messages.