Rajasthan Recap

It has been a while since the last post in Nepal and a lot has happened since then, so i will start to fill in the gaps with our trip from Nepal south through Rajasthan all the way through Gujarat where we spent our christmas on the island of Diu on the Arabian Sea.

Having finally got all our papers in order for departure, we hopped a flight from Kathmandu, Nepal to Delhi, India. We had both swore we would never return to Delhi, but I was very interested to see the place again with desensitized eyes gained from 3 months in Nepal. Looking at my journal now i realize it has almost been a month since the last post. Sorry.

December 15 - New Delhi - The view out the window of the plane was absolutely stunning - the Himalayan mountains running as far as you can see along the horizon. A 2 hour flight was much better than the 2 day bus ride we took to get to Kathmandu. From the airport we took the metro train, which was awesome. The most beautiful train i have ever been on and was more like the starship enterprise than a train. When we got to the stop at Paharganj i did not want to leave my futuristic air conditioned spaceship and step into the madness, which seemed centuries behind. Delhi was not so bad the second time around. Having grown numb to the population density and aggressiveness of the city we wandered around excited by all the street food and ate various snacks while waiting for our overnight train to Jaipur.

December 16/17 - Japiur, Rajasthan - We arrove after an all night train to relentless touts (salespeople) outside the train station in our face shouting to get into their rickshaw. It was 5 in the morning. Being very tired with little patience we shoved/cursed our way past these animals, found a guesthouse and passed out until 11. We walked around all day and saw very little of interest in this dusty city. Taking advantage of the cheap alcohol we bought some bacardi, coke, and limes returning to our room to spend the evening watching satellite tv in our really luxurious room. The evening was spent watching Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Madmen on FX. It was glorious. The following day we left Jaipur to take a bus to Bundi having heard some good things about the town.

December 17/18/19 - Bundi, Rajasthan - After a 5 hour bus ride through endless fields of yellow flowered mustard plants that stretched to the horizon, we arrived in the small town of Bundi. Bundi is dense with alleyways, temples, and stepwells. Every building is painted a different color of pastel with blue being the most dominant and popular color. Above the city on a hill is an enormous palace and fort where we spent an entire day wandering the monkey infested ruins. Felt like Indiana Jones climbing around the ruins scaring off the aggressive monkey troops. We ate some delicious food - Rajasthan is known for spicy cuisine, and spent evenings lakeside at our guesthouse with two other americans from the northwest staying in the next room. We took the night bus to Udaipur on the 19th.

December 19th/20 - Udaipur - The night bus from Bundi was a terrible experience. We spent extra to get the "sleeper" bunks not knowing the road was so rough there would be no sleep. The bus would hit enormous bumps in the road every minute or so and launch us off our beds, sometimes hitting the low ceiling above or against the walls. It was like laying in a box slightly larger than a coffin that was being shaken around by a giant ape for 9 straight hours. Arriving in Udaipur our rickshaw driver attempted persistently in an obvious attempt to rip us off. With no sleep at all and being banged around all night there were little patience for this kind of behavior. We fought with him for a while as he pretended to not have any change for our 100 rupee note when we clearly saw him hide the money from us. We got the change ourselves, paid him less than he asked for and released a torrent of relentless swearing on him and those responsible for his bottom dwelling existence. The shouting was followed by a nap and then exploring the city. Udaipur was beautiful with ornate buildings all around a large lake. It was very relaxing and had many outdoor cafes to read on the waterfront and there was excellent food. The original plan was to stay here and take cooking classes, but we still had to cross the entire state of Gujarat to get to Diu for Christmas, so the next day we took an over night train followed by a 4 hour bus ride. After a day and a half of travel we were in Diu on the 22nd. The beach was a welcome site after 3 months in Nepal. Chris will pick up with the next post on Christmas in Diu.