Week ????
Finally made it to Dehli where once again my plan has been foiled by poor organisation! I was going to go on a day trip to Agra today to see the Taj Mahal, but it's closed on fridays and I'm itching to head off to Shimla in the mountains tommorrow so the Taj will end up being my final stopin India before flying out in Mid-May.
Jodphur was an okay place, not as blue I expected a blue city to be, but there were plenty of beautiful buildings to see. While visiting one of the them (Jaswant Thada, I think) I stopped at a drink seller's place, he invited me in and went into carefully graphic detail about his hobby, the kama sutra. He talked about it for about forty five minutes before I left, and he asked me to come back later so he could continue.
At the guesthouse I stayed at I met Misr Khan, a waiter who's brothers work in a guest house in Jaisalmer, the Golden City, my next stop. He got me a room there and I ended up having a great time, the rooftop restaurant was run by Lucky Khan, who I'm gonna stay in touch with and possibly open a guesthouse with him (he wants to call it 'Martin Evergreen', as apparently 'Neil' means Green and 'O' means ever, or something.) For the first couple of days in Jaisalmer I was on a Camel Safari, the main reason people go there. The advice everyone gave me was to try and meet people beforehand to go with, but I ended up signing up at the last minute with four other solo travellers who I didn't have much in common with, and spoke varying levels of english, so it could have been a much better experience but it still great being outin the desert which was surprisingly chilled for the summertime. Each of the camels had a distinct personality, I got Johnny the Greedy one, who stopped at every single bush or tree for food, so I was left far behind the group fairly often. Sleeping out in the desert was fantastic, only fifty percent of our group drank alcohol, so could have been more of a party, but staring up at the stars while the Camel's farted in the background was magical.
I was pretty sore when I returned to Jaisalmer, met an english couple, Nick and Joy, who I ended up going to the Government authorised Bhang Shop, famous for it's Bhang Lassi's. Lassi is a type of yoghurt drink really popular over here and Bhang is a derivative of marijuana, so is illegal in many parts of india but this place was an official operation and is run by Doctor Bhang (No kidding!) After we'd been there we went to a rooftop restaurant (pretty much every restaurant is on the roof in Jaisalmer, so great views are always guranteed), the Bhang didn't really have a hug effect, just felt very mellow and we started to discuss how we had all expected Rajasthan to be unfriendly but it's actually one of the nicest places about. At this point someone somewhere started chucking stones at us.
After several waves of pebbles had been thrown we realised it was the guy who worked at the rooftop cafe next door, obviously in competition with the italian place. That was pretty funny, and reassured us that Jaisalmer is not that friendly after all. Had a greatr time there though, ended up spending two days longer than I'd planned, chilling on the rooftops and learning to play Karem, that Sri Lankan pool style game where you have to flick counters about. After two days careful tuiton from Lucky I can proudly claim to kind of understand the rules, so if I keep practising I may oneday learn how to be good at it. I was sad to leave Jaisalmer, met a lot of people there who I'll stay in touch with, the Khan Brothers all got me presents (Clothes, Jewellery etc.) when I left, whenever I return to India I'll make sure I go back there again, desert lifestyle is really laidback, and only about half the population want all my money and possessions, which is a major bonus.
Next stop was Rajasthan's Capital, Jaipur, the Pink City. This place reconfirmed that Jaisalmer was my kind of place, as after five days of good health my gut pain returned as soon as I got to Jaipur. Because of the pains and general sleepiness I didn't do much of interest in Jaipur, except I got my palm read. The guy was fairly accurate in describing my personality, saying I am not very mathematical or technical, but he told me I had no friends, and when I told him that I did he just gave me a pitying smile like he didn't believe me! For the future, he advised against suicide (no kidding!) and said that things will start happening for me when I am 28, which gives me an unexpected bonus four years of bumming around. Apparently I should look into being a Chartered Accountant, as that would suit me best (he obviously forgot about the lack of Maths skills), but when I am Thirty Five I will change careers and head abroad, changing country and career whenever I get bored. But I'll have two kids, at least one daughter, so may end up being a bastard who abandons his family to jaunt around the world, who knows? Finally, he said that I lack inner confidence and can remedy this by wearing a ruby on my finger, and luckily enough he had a ruby ring for just Rs 400!! I declined his offer, but will keep his prediction sheet to see how accurate it is, it would take a lot of crazy events over the next four years for me to end up as a chartered accountant, but at least I'll probably get my old swivel chair.
Got to Dehli yesterday, and wanna save funds so won't be doing much sightseeing, I'm staying in the Paharganj district, known as the seedy part of town. From what I've seen of the Capital it's not as bad as I've been led to believe, the pollution is oppressive but it's got that Capital City feel that I always like, and plenty of places to go out at night. This time tommorrow I should be in Himachal Pradesh, where I'll stay untill it's time to fly, got arrangements to meet various people about the place, and hopefully, like all my favourite places so far, my guts will be calm.
Jodphur was an okay place, not as blue I expected a blue city to be, but there were plenty of beautiful buildings to see. While visiting one of the them (Jaswant Thada, I think) I stopped at a drink seller's place, he invited me in and went into carefully graphic detail about his hobby, the kama sutra. He talked about it for about forty five minutes before I left, and he asked me to come back later so he could continue.
At the guesthouse I stayed at I met Misr Khan, a waiter who's brothers work in a guest house in Jaisalmer, the Golden City, my next stop. He got me a room there and I ended up having a great time, the rooftop restaurant was run by Lucky Khan, who I'm gonna stay in touch with and possibly open a guesthouse with him (he wants to call it 'Martin Evergreen', as apparently 'Neil' means Green and 'O' means ever, or something.) For the first couple of days in Jaisalmer I was on a Camel Safari, the main reason people go there. The advice everyone gave me was to try and meet people beforehand to go with, but I ended up signing up at the last minute with four other solo travellers who I didn't have much in common with, and spoke varying levels of english, so it could have been a much better experience but it still great being outin the desert which was surprisingly chilled for the summertime. Each of the camels had a distinct personality, I got Johnny the Greedy one, who stopped at every single bush or tree for food, so I was left far behind the group fairly often. Sleeping out in the desert was fantastic, only fifty percent of our group drank alcohol, so could have been more of a party, but staring up at the stars while the Camel's farted in the background was magical.
I was pretty sore when I returned to Jaisalmer, met an english couple, Nick and Joy, who I ended up going to the Government authorised Bhang Shop, famous for it's Bhang Lassi's. Lassi is a type of yoghurt drink really popular over here and Bhang is a derivative of marijuana, so is illegal in many parts of india but this place was an official operation and is run by Doctor Bhang (No kidding!) After we'd been there we went to a rooftop restaurant (pretty much every restaurant is on the roof in Jaisalmer, so great views are always guranteed), the Bhang didn't really have a hug effect, just felt very mellow and we started to discuss how we had all expected Rajasthan to be unfriendly but it's actually one of the nicest places about. At this point someone somewhere started chucking stones at us.
After several waves of pebbles had been thrown we realised it was the guy who worked at the rooftop cafe next door, obviously in competition with the italian place. That was pretty funny, and reassured us that Jaisalmer is not that friendly after all. Had a greatr time there though, ended up spending two days longer than I'd planned, chilling on the rooftops and learning to play Karem, that Sri Lankan pool style game where you have to flick counters about. After two days careful tuiton from Lucky I can proudly claim to kind of understand the rules, so if I keep practising I may oneday learn how to be good at it. I was sad to leave Jaisalmer, met a lot of people there who I'll stay in touch with, the Khan Brothers all got me presents (Clothes, Jewellery etc.) when I left, whenever I return to India I'll make sure I go back there again, desert lifestyle is really laidback, and only about half the population want all my money and possessions, which is a major bonus.
Next stop was Rajasthan's Capital, Jaipur, the Pink City. This place reconfirmed that Jaisalmer was my kind of place, as after five days of good health my gut pain returned as soon as I got to Jaipur. Because of the pains and general sleepiness I didn't do much of interest in Jaipur, except I got my palm read. The guy was fairly accurate in describing my personality, saying I am not very mathematical or technical, but he told me I had no friends, and when I told him that I did he just gave me a pitying smile like he didn't believe me! For the future, he advised against suicide (no kidding!) and said that things will start happening for me when I am 28, which gives me an unexpected bonus four years of bumming around. Apparently I should look into being a Chartered Accountant, as that would suit me best (he obviously forgot about the lack of Maths skills), but when I am Thirty Five I will change careers and head abroad, changing country and career whenever I get bored. But I'll have two kids, at least one daughter, so may end up being a bastard who abandons his family to jaunt around the world, who knows? Finally, he said that I lack inner confidence and can remedy this by wearing a ruby on my finger, and luckily enough he had a ruby ring for just Rs 400!! I declined his offer, but will keep his prediction sheet to see how accurate it is, it would take a lot of crazy events over the next four years for me to end up as a chartered accountant, but at least I'll probably get my old swivel chair.
Got to Dehli yesterday, and wanna save funds so won't be doing much sightseeing, I'm staying in the Paharganj district, known as the seedy part of town. From what I've seen of the Capital it's not as bad as I've been led to believe, the pollution is oppressive but it's got that Capital City feel that I always like, and plenty of places to go out at night. This time tommorrow I should be in Himachal Pradesh, where I'll stay untill it's time to fly, got arrangements to meet various people about the place, and hopefully, like all my favourite places so far, my guts will be calm.
posted by Martin O'Neill at 11:15 PM
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