valentinesday 2007

jodhpur

the second biggest city of rajasthan. a wealthy city, important place for traders from all over india. like jaisalmer, enormous fort that overlooks the city. amazing view from up there. jodhpur is called the blue city as most houses in the old city are painted blue.



it is a treat for the eye. unfortunately it does not come out on the photos so well. the blue color originally marked the house of a brahmin, but not any longer. anyone can paint his house blue now and the blues works as an insect repellent!!!
jodhpur is a dazzling and busy city. tourism is not as important for the city and you barely see travelers, except around the fort. inside the bazars you stand out as a foreigner and sometimes i got a little tired being stared at. it is not necessarily negative attention but sometimes it is just too much! you feel striped to the bone with everyone eying you like you just came from mars (i might as well).



the were so many stores that sold spices, clothes, fabrics, shoes...i took many great pictures and loved just strolling through the narrow streets. you have to be alert in india all the time as you need to manage many things at the same time: not stepping in cowshit, not bumping into sleeping dogs, not stepping in the gutter and drains but most importantly the traffic. as a human being you are nothing, either jump out of the way or hide behind a cow. these are your options when staying alive in the city. the pollution in jodhpur was pretty bad and my lungs and skin reacts immediately.
it was nice for a few days...but i am glad to be...and you will not believe it. i am back in pushkar. another very spontaneous decision.
it is sooooo great to be back. 2 minutes after leaving the bus we met the first people we knew and walking along the familiar streets, men came out from the shops to welcome us back and shake our hands. it is like coming home. amazing!!!
i love it. moved to a different guesthouse, share a room with manu again, who makes me laugh even at 8 in the morning. i love being with her, she just glows and everyone feeds of her energy. well, anyway, we have a beautiful room: huge with glass stained windows and a big mirror. it is so large that i can dance with all my stuff unpacked.

very tired from traveling. have been on a bus for about 6 hours today and it was hot. it is spring now in rajasthan,that means temperatures above 25 degrees. in the summer they have 45 degrees here.
i think i caught a cold last night, hanging out on the roof top. need a good night of rest. tomorrow will be a beautiful day, saying hello to all my favorite places here.

love to you all.

jaisalmer

in the middle of the desert. the fort there is amazing, so big. walking inside the old city walls, you feel like going back in time. the streets are so narrow that two people can barely pass each other. visited some ancient jaint temples.
traveled with a lovely group: 7 people, all different nationalities.



highlight: did a jeep tour to the desert to see the sunset. some sand dunes that looked like the sahara. we saw a camal baby just 5 minutes after it was born, it was almost black and freezing!



very nice town but nothing compares to pushkar！ the internet was so slow that it took 30 minutes to read three mails...that is why i did not write for so many days.
had a nice guesthouse with a rooftop where we hung out a lot and i did my yoga in the morning. rose early one day to see the sunrise...very special. even india is a little more quiet in the early mornings.

almost gone

o pushkar, i shall miss you. saw my last sunset today near the lake. people gather there every night to witness the sun going down. i love it. every night it is different.
actually ran into people that i traveled with before and the tried to convince us to stay another day but i feel we have to go at some point. otherwise this is turning out to be a hotel California--you can check out any time you like but you can never leave!!!!
my english will be butchered after this trip.
you just adjust after a while. you don't use question tags any longer.
you just add "no" to a sentence to turn it into a question. you like it, no?

favourite indisch-english expressions:
slowly, slowly (they use it all the time)
next time (if you do not stop at one store and wave, they yell at you: next time!!!!)
learned the hindi word for let's go/ vamos: cello
we all use it all the time to express something is finished of somebody left.
cello? cello!

top 5 questions that everyone asks you:
which country?
name?
profession?
married?
how you like india?

need to run, dinner is waiting. good bye dinner!
cello?
cello pushkar!!!

change of plans

...go with the flow and don't stop...

guess i am not going to agra yet. me and my friends here got invited to a wedding tonight and so instead of travelling on a sleeper bus we will be dancing until the early morning. i am so excited about this. agra was not calling me at this point...the cities with more than 1,000 000 inhabitants just wear you out. so what we will do instead is, that all of us (there is a guy from israel, a woman from brazil, one from portugal and one from the netherlands and me) will go to jaisalmer instead. southern part of rajasthan, totally out of the way. 10 hour busride there. jaisalmer is in the desert and famous for its fort. i felt like i wanted to see more of rajasthan before i travel east and last night we decided that we would go. all of us, out of the blue.
it is great. i love this life style.

thank you for all the love i received on my birthday. i feel so blessed! had the best day: people i care for, people singing for me, lovely gifts...even though i am so far from home it felt right to be here. i am so alive these days.

it was raining on my birthday which i decided to take for a wonderful thing. IT NEVER RAINS HERE DURING THIS TIME OF THE YEAR. it is ike everyone said: it is special, just like your birthday. in Portugal (and i am learning new things every day here) it is actually good luck if it rains on your wedding day. what do you know!!!!!

clouds

i guess life can not always be like sunshine, and ice-cream.
today is the first cloudy day and i miss the sun terribly. did not sleep well, missed yoga. trying hard to push any negative thoughts from me. think i might be successful! this is the second to last day here. will miss the place terribly. i already know that. but there is so much more out there to see.
leaving pushkar tomorrow night on a sleeper bus to agra. will take us 10 hours to get there. we intend to spent the day to the the taj and then leave the town as soon as possible. agra has a terrible reputation and i think after 2 weeks in pushkar the pollution will be probably really though on me. from agra to orcha, another small town, supposably really picturesque. should get there sunday night.
a few friends are coming over tonight, we will have dinner at the milkman and afterwards go to a jam session. instead of a cake there will be HELLO TO THE QUEEN! thanks for all your lovely mails, guy!!!!!
hugs and kisses to you all.

looking back

my first month india and i am looking back in wonder and amazement!



have not been to a supermarket for over a month
have not worn socks for 2 weeks now
have not felt so good for years
have ridden a camel and an elephant
have been to the desert
saw the sunset at pushkar lake
ate tibetan and israeli food
stayed in an ashram
saw parrots (wild ones) and cobras
ate the food in the streets and did not get sick
fed monkeys (hands touching!)



have been overjoyed more than once
have driven a vehicle in india, even though you drive on the left side of the road
bought a cd with indian music to share when i get home
learned how to cook indian food, you'll also profit from that

most dangerous situation so far:
a red monkey grabbed my leg when i was hiking in McLeod Ganj...i was freaked out and pretty close to hysteria....but nothing really happened
nb: there are red and black monkeys, the black ones are nice and those ones i like, the other ones are really fresh and steal food and even the indians do not like them

almost a local

spend the day up on the roof in the hotel. working on my tan right now. read a bit, wrote some postcards, slept some. yoga in the morning of course.
going to my brasilian friend tonight, they are having a bonfire at their hotel.
tomorrow i am treating myself to a haircut and a manicure.
for the first time my stomach was troubled last night. we went to a place that served truly terrible food, but i was so hungry that i ate it anyway. o well. it passed. feel a lot better. i have to say that so far my body was been dealing great with all the bacteria and germs. so i can not complain. think about taking a little hike to one of the temples to see the sunset from up there.
take care, all!

discovering the area

still in pushkar. fell in love with this place, like many others. EVERY day there is a wedding, people dancing in the streets, loud music....colorful people.
we indian travellers like to talk about the energy of a place =))
whatever it is - it is like therapy for me.
i am the happiest i have been in a long time. for no special reason. maybe it is the daily yoga, the amazing food (discover something new every day....not just indian but food from all over the world...israel for example...) or the sun. probably a combination of it all.
the day before yesterday we rented scooters and went to a temple 15 km out of town. lovely place, very isolated and peaceful. no one but us there. we walked around in the desert,



had a little picknick. riding a scooter here is fabulous!!!! i was a little nervous about driving on the wrong side of the road...but you get used to it. i guess there is a little james dean in me: love the speed, love the driving.
yesterday we went out again with the scooters and ended up feeding monkeys a little outside of town....the mokeys are so human, especially when they look at you. they grab your hand and the pick the nuts from your palm, bit by bit. have some pictures to share again. will be my task for tomorrow.
heading out for dinner now, two of the regulars of the hotel are leaving tomorrow and we are having a goodbye dinner.
there is a dessert here that is to die for, called HELLO TO THE QUEEN...it is fried banana, vanilla ice-cream, topped with cookie crumbles, nuts and hot chocolate sauce. it is a meal in its own, but it is o-so-amazing!!!!

life in pushkar

...is really chilled and relaxed. moved to a different hotel yesterday, the milkman. love the owner, particually the daugther, who is a painter (she will have an opening at a gallery next week, i think, i'll go). lots of travellers just stay in pushkar for weeks (most of the people in my hotel do). so we hang out on the roof top, read, play cards. drink chai, eat delicious food.
pushkar is a little village, located at a holy lake, we people travel to in order to bath in the water and do puja (prayer, religious rituals...involving some offerings of insence, flowers, food...). it seems to be a favourite among travellers, loads of hippies here. drugs are big here, everyone seems to smoke up.
officially this is a holy place where you are not even supposed to smoke in the streets, but cigarettes (and hash) are sold everywhere. also no eggs, no meat and no alcohol in this town and these rules are follwed strictly, as far as i can tell. additionally the public display of affection is frowned upon.
my life here: in the mornings i am going to a yaoga class. a 60 year old guru teaches us, he is wonderful. then i usually go to breakfast to a place called HONEY&SPICE..best tofu toasts and fruit salad in town. meet the same people there every day. love my little routines.
the rest of the day is filled with reading, shopping, emailing, playing cards and other fun things.
the first days here i spent with a british guy-phil. he was so much fun and for 3 days we spent almost every minute together. we talked a lot about music and traveling, food, life, religion...he convinced me to go on a camal safari and he came along to the yoga session (and loved it)...when he left town yesterday we both felt odd. i guess friendships develop fast if you spent three, very intense days together. i really miss his company.
the camal safari: let me tell you, a camal is so uncomfortable to sit on- you hurt for 3 days afterwards. we were so glad that we decided for the one day tour instead of 2 days (at first phil wanted to sleep in the dessert)....the tour was still nice, except maybe the way back. we had lunch cooked on a little fire in the middle of nowhere...the best food so far!!!
yesterday i got baptized an indian name: sapnaa (meaning dream in hindi). phil and i went down to sit at the ghats (steps that lead to the lake) and a man started talking to us. turns out that he is a prefessor in ajmer (city close by) and speaks good english. he gave both of us indian names and then he took us to see a wedding. apparently yesterday was a special day so 5 couples decided to get married...the wedding parties march through the streets, flower pedals are thrown, a big bands plays and people dance madly in the streets...much fun.
later on we went to feed the monkeys: they are spoiled little animals, but cute.
om shanti from pushkar to you!