Sitar in Delhi

Feb25-Mar5
Well, another backtrack... Overnight bus again with a 6am arrival in
Delhi. Of course the bus sneaks right by the tourist street and you can
be sure they get a cut from the autorickshaws that overcharge you to
get back. I guided a lot of fellow tourists around the corner to the
metro instead ;) It was nice again to not have to hunt down a hotel and
deal with all the people wanting to 'help' you. If you come to India be
aware that there seems to no social stigma to lying.. as a tourist
assume everything is a lie and go from there. You'll only really
understand once you've been here though!

The big event during my return to Delhi was the Ravi Shankar concert
in the park. He's an icon of Sitar music in India. His
younger daughter is a sitar virtuoso as well and was on stage with
him. His elder daugher you might have heard of - Norah Jones. I'm not
in any way a fan of sitar music but it was fun to see an elder
statesman of Indian culture enjoying yet one more performance.

Pushkar II

Feb 24-28
It's always nice to get back to somewhere you've been before and
enjoyed. I arrived off the bus at 2:30am instead of the 4:30
advertised time... early arrival in India? I figure it's a
ploy to get you to buy more at the eating stop. They wait as long
as they can so you're hungry and then let you think you've got
hours to go yet....
I sat down near the ghats with a British woman and talked for a few
hours before checking in at Bhola guesthouse again. Once more I was
their only male guest.. I'm honored ;) One of their friends was getting
married and I got some video of his horse ride through the streets and
hung out for an impromptu bachelor party. Other parts of the wedding
were in the bride's hometown, Udaipur and were a bit far away for me.
I'm attaching a picture of the ongoing work on the lake. Click on the
image to see it fullsize so you can see who's doing the hard labour in
India...

ps, sorry I've fallen behind. Some very cool entries soon...

Camel Trek

Feb 22, 2009

A few friends showed up in town and I had a choice. A large
group of mainly Swedes for a 3 day 2 night trek or 3 young women for an
afternoon trek with sunset and dinner in the desert returning after
nightfall.
I chose the shorter trip!
We had a young American (States) family join us as well. They were
staying overnight with their 3 young children as part of a long
weekend before heading back to their volunteering/linnguistic research
base in Jodhpur.
One of the young women, Diana is from London and I had first crossed
paths with her in Bundi. The other two had been on her bus and were
Australian circus performers who are part of a small troupe who travel
to busking type events around the world. I had actually run into them
earlier when I came across them practising their hula hoops on the
guesthouse rooftops... I learned that the hula girls were actualy
Gracie and Sanya. We're all on the bus to Pushkar too ( as I write and
upload this ) along with a young Canadian woman from Vancouver.

Jaisalmer Camel Trek Ripoff - Police!

One of the people I met is a
widowed nurse from Britain named Debbie. She had succumbed to the infamous tired
arrival sales pressure of her guesthouse and put down a deposit to
join "some Canadians" on a 10,000 rupee each 2-day camel trek. I
suggested she was paying much too much and she said she had realised
that but had been so tired and hadn't been her best. I facilitated a
renegotiation with the guesthouse by half and although still too much
all seemed happy. She went on the trek the next day but the ghost
"Canadians" were sick and couldn't come.. they had another longterm
guest go for company. I discovered afterwards that they had required
her to pay almost the full price after all! She felt bad, took full
responsibility for letting them walk all over her but agreed with me
to go to the police station to at least lodge a complaint. Without a
receipt there wasn't too much hope of anything else.. except receipts
can be rare so i had my suspicions. I was interested to see how this
would turn out! The first renegotiation had made me think the
special tourist police were related in some way to the guesthouse so
we went directly to the main station.
The police almost suggested we go to the tourist branch but
then instead became interested. They informed us in a serious way that
a camel costs 10,000 rupees and immediately dispatched a constable to
go collect the guesthouse manager; a 20-something
gigalo named 'Lucky'. He arrived thinking incorrectly that the police
didn't know the guesthouse bill hadn't been settled. The police chief
grabbed a pad of paper and facilitated settling of the outstanding
bill ... with the added change that Debbie be reimbursed for all but
2,000 rupees of the camel trek! When we left the station Lucky and 8
of his friends were collected outside ( good thing too.. as one had to
lend him some more cash ;). Instead of sheepishly avoiding them I
walked up and told Lucky he shouldn't have been so greedy. I watched
my back the rest of my time in Jaisalmer...

note: I'm writing this from the sleeper
compartment of my bus well away from Jaisalmer. I love having the
internet on long bus/train rides.

Jaisalmer

Feb 16 - ?
People come to Jaisalmer to go camel treking. I'm not sure
I'll get on a smelly farting camel yet or not... maybe if some friends
heading this way arrive before I go... or I make new friends who
haven't gone yet. Not many tourists though. Yes.. I'm once more
travelling solo. It was nice to meet some people going the same
direction for a while though.

Jaisalmer has a nice fort. Smaller than
others lately it neatly fits in the picture from a nearby hilltop.

Pic2: I had to wait for another 'customer' to leave the other day!

Jodhpur

Jodhpur has a very nice large palace in a fort on the hilltop. I
arrived on a 5am morning bus and headed over to a guesthouse to meet
two young women I first met in Udaipur. One is an actress and I was able to
introduce her to an British acting troupe performing Shakespeare in the
palace there. Reminded me why I'm not a fan
of Shakespeare. Great location though! ;) I had met one of the
Shakespearean actors in Udaipor when he overheard a friend discussing
his screenplay with me ( apparantly now I've provided some character
faults for the protagonist ).
Next morning I was off to Jodhpur sans girls... oh well ;)

Oh, the guesthouse tried to kick us out early... he saw us at lunch at
a competitors guesthouse rooftop ( I waved ) and got upset despite our
use of his restaurant for the other two meals of the day! He felt the
favour of an early morning checkin made us his property? One of the
girls ( a lawyer actually ) had been referred to the guesthouse by the
area 'don' of guesthouses and the threat of a report back made our guy
back down. Funny.. but what a bad businessman!

Bundi

Feb 11 - 14
Arrived in Bundi off a 3hr train ride in general seating - meaning I had the edge of a bench to sit on. Steve sat on his backpack
and Australian Joe had another seat edge. Made the 3+ hour hop seem a
bit longer. Found a very nice 400 year old Havali ( 4 story
stone mansion ) 'paying guest house' to stay in. I like how they add
the 'paying' part as everywhere else I've been it's just 'Guest
House' . It was such a good deal I had to forgo some cheaper options.
Hot showers were delivered via the same pipes as cold ones by request.
Only way to control temp is to jump out when it gets too hot! 250
rupees a night - see pic. My first night was a disaster though and lack
of sleep helped make me sick for the next day. Bundi has a nice palace
and a great abandoned fort on the hilltop.
Steve resumed his southward travel and I headed up north on an
overnight bus meet up with yet some other travelers.