Thursday, February 5, 2009

Rajasthan Travels

Well its been a little while since I've had a chance to update, we have been traveling all around Rajasthan. We went from Delhi to Jaipur on a very fancy bus, but it took almost the entire morning to get to the bus station due to all the roads along the way were closed for Republic Day. Carrying our bags all around Delhi was not much fun, but we made it to Jaipur in the end. Jaipur is a bit like Delhi, crazy and loud and full of cars and people. We went to the Amber Palace which was really great and the temple of the Sun God, also know as Monkey Temple because of all the monkeys that hang out there at night. So that was pretty cool, tho the rickshaw ride on the way back was slightly terrifying, haha, but we made it in one piece.
After just one night in Jaipur we took the bus to Pushkar, which is a touristy little town, were you can actually walk down the streets without having to jump out of the way to avoid getting run over too often. There is a nice lake there but not all that much to do. We did take a small hike up to a temple on top of a large hill which had some good views of the country side. From Pushkar we took a night bus to Jaisalmer which was pretty exciting except we were not prepared for it to be so cold, so we didn't get that much sleep which was too bad. The bus was cool tho, with beds and everything, so if we do it again we will know to bring warm clothes.
Jaisalmer was a beautiful town with a living fort still at the center of the city. Its called the Golden City because all of the houses are a light brown color which goes well with the desert that surounds it. Though out hotel there we booked a two day camel safari which was really awesome, tho a bit painful by the end. We each had our own camel, mine was named Mr. Super Rocket, tho we all traded around a bit, and there was a guide and a boy who was a guide in training I think. Camels are quite bumpy, but fun to ride all the same. I even got to run with Mr Super Rocket, although the guide rode with me to make sure i didn't fall off, haha, which i might have done because we were going very fast. It was pretty crazy. We slept outside under the stars on a sand dune which was amazing. The package we got included food and whiskey haha, for some reason they seem to think we needed a entire bottle to ourselves. The second day we road the camels for what seems like forever, but mostly that was because I was quite sore from the first day of riding.
After the camels and one more night in Jaisalmer we headed to Jodpur for a day. Jodpur is a pretty big place, moslty we just checked out the Fort and wandered around the markets. The fort was a good and had great views of the city which is cool because most of the houses are painted blue. Early the next morning we headed to Udaipur, where Pieter and I met 13 years ago. The three of us shared a sleep compartment for two people which was a little crowded and since it was in the day this time if was very hot. We are still in Udaipur which is good, we have three nights here and its nice to have a small break from the fast pace traveling we have been doing. Udaipur is a fun little place with a nice lake and lots of little artsy stores. The lake is quite low tho so we decided no to do the boat ride because they can only take you around for ten minutes. We did the palace museum today, which i think was the biggest palace we have seen so far which was cool. We managed to find the hotel we stayed at 13 years ago and looked about, but decided it was a bit too fancy for us this time, haha, but it was fun to see all the same. Tomorrow we take the night train back to Agra which should be fun, i haven't done any trains yet so i'm excited.
In other news I'm starting to plan more for Thailand and Southeast Asia where i go after India and Pieter has decided to come travel with me there which is very exciting and its looking like Anjali might be able to meet up with us as well toward the end which would be awesome. Also plans for the rest of India include Agra, Varanasi, Nepal for a week or so, then down south to Chennai (Madras) and about 3 weeks traveling around the south which will be very exciting i think. Ok i think i have written enough.

1 comment:

  1. I think, if you needed a codename, you couldn't do better than Ms. Super Rocket.

    Sounds like a fun stay so far. Save me some of that bottle of whiskey!

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