Jaipur - Pushkar

  Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Sunday, July 20, 2008

7/16: Today I took the bus about 40 km west of Agra to visit the "ghost town" of Fatehpur Sikri. There's a large mosque and various palaces and courtyards.

Mosque at Fatehpur Sikri

Making a wish..can I please take this hat off now?

Can you tell I'm already palaced out?

I took the night train to Jaipur which is about a 5 hour trip. The morning train was completely booked for a couple days. I guess now's a good time to talk about train travel in India. Indian Railways is the second largest employer in the world with 1.6 million workers. Extra credit points for the first correct answer to "who is the largest employer in the world?". About 14 million passengers travel by train EVERYDAY in India. There are obviously various routes each with different classes of seating. When I took the train from Delhi to Agra, it was just a two hour trip and only had chair cars. The trip from Agra to Jaipur had 2nd class/non-AC seating and sleeper berths with AC. I'm sure you can guess which one I chose. Luckily it was an interesting and uneventful journey. I got the upper berth in a 3AC car, which means that there were two mattresses beneath me. I forgot to take pics of the cabin, but I'll remember next time.

7/17: I walked into the old city of Jaipur today. A few sites to see (I only went to one!) and jam packed bazaars.

Flower market in Jaipur

Coconuts anyone?

Bangles, bangles, and more bangles

The one site I went to was Hawa Mahal, Palace of the Winds. It is a 5 story, pink sandstone building with a lovely view of the city from the lookout.

Hawa Mahal

View of old city

Raj Mandir - #1 Hindi cinema in India

Getting lost finding my way back to the hotel, I stumbled across an ice cream shop. They actually had mint chocolate chip...so delicious!

7/18: Today I took the 1:00 bus to Pushkar, a 3 hour trip. Pushkar is known as the hippie town of India. Travelers plan to stay for three days, but they stay for three weeks. It's very laid back and very spiritual. No rickshaws, no alcohol, no eggs, no meat, no drugs. I'm still confused as to why this is a "hippie town" with these rules.

The town surrounds the Pushkar Lake which has 52 bathing ghats, where people come to pray and bathe in the sacred waters. You can't take pictures of the ghats but here is a photo from a rooftop of Ghandi Ghat, where Ghandi's ashes were sprinkled:

Ghandi Ghat in Pushkar

Ghat from across the Pushkar Lake

7/19: I walked down to Ghandi Ghat and was approached to perform a puja, or prayer, for the happiness and health of myself and my family. Of course, after they ask for a donation. What is the happiness of your family worth? I said all I had was 50 rupees, about $1.25. Please let me add that Eggeners..you know you're worth a hell of a lot more than this. Maybe $2? hehehe

Entering a ghat

I walked around the market and found a Rajasthani Massage Parlor. One hour massage for 450 rupees, about $11. Comparing it to the massages I had in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, these are a lot more expensive, I think they were about $2 in Southeast Asia, but they were also performed by the blind (definite plus!). But this was much nicer and I'm actually going back today for another. Apparently my second chakra (sp?) is blocked. Fuck, I can't let THAT continue!

Selling vegetables

Young Hindi women

There's a Canadian girl staying at the hostel that's opening up a restaurant here. It's costing her $10,000 for the rooftop and all the supplies she needs to get started. I'm considering coming back when she actually gets started to help her out, but this is my third day here and I really need a beer. So I'm not sure if I'll be coming back.

Hope all is well. Keep the emails coming.

I'm off for my massage...
Jen