How Did You Get Oil There?
Trip Start
May 22, 2005
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Trip End
Jan 22, 2006
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Mandawa,
India
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Mandawa is located within the arid Shekhawati Region. At one time Mandawa was a bustling trade town. Now its main commercial activity is tourism. The rich merchants who called Mandawa home from 1830 to 1930 left as their legacy richly frescoed houses called havelis. We stayed the night in a beautiful haveli which walls were decorated by intricate frescos depicting the life of Lord Krishna. Our suite in the haveli was expansive and even had its own sitting room. That night we enjoyed dinner on the roof top with the music of a nearby wedding celebration as our soundtrack. Unfortunately, the wedding celebration went on all night and our discordant soundtrack continued long after we went to bed.
In the morning, we took a walking tour of Mandawa to see other examples of havelis.
Hustle and Bustle
The merchants of the town had engaged in a battle of brinkmanship by trying to top each other with increasingly more expensive and decorative frescos. Some merchants were more humourous than others and had artistically painted pictures of English gentlemen with no pants placed on their walls. No pants-funny everywhere. After our short stay in our haveli, we left in the afternoon for a resort out in the nearby desert. The resort consisted of a village of mud huts which were also decorated with simple frescos painted with lime paste or rice flour. The resort had a little bit of luxury with its azure blue swimming pool which overlooked the desert. The day's activities included a camel trek through the local villages around Mandawa. These camels appeared much healthier than our friends in Jordan and with the aid of actual stirrups the tandem ride was also much more comfortable.
Our trek stopped at the local leader's house where we were welcomed with a warm cup of chai. The locals in India are fascinated by foreigners. The mere presence of foreigners draws crowds. During our trek a particularly fascinated chap actually stopped his car and got out to snap his own souvenir pics of the funny foreigners riding the camels. Our first and last paparazzi experience.
At the resort we also signed up for a traditional oil massage. The months of travel had left our bodies aching for some relaxation. We arrived at our appointment and were greeted by two beefy women. We removed our clothes, put on the cloth "diapers" they provided and followed our respective masseuse into separate stalls. The massage was truly an oil massage and during the process we were convinced they were getting us ready for the deep fryer. We left dripping in oil.
