Opium tea and horse-cows
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
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73
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Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Jodhpur,
India
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Our first stop was some random park. I have no idea where we were, but whereever it was, it was pretty special. Before I get all excited, though, I'll say the sad part. There's a memorial in the back of the park dedicated to the more than 300 people who died because they refused to let the maharaja cut down their holy trees
antelope
. But he did anyway, so that is why they are dead. Very sad and unnecessary (the tree cutting, that is). But the park is really nifty - and I think this is what all the tourists think - because it is home to the horse-cows. They're half horse, half cow, and no one can decide which they more greatly resemble. I rather thought cow, but Travis insists it's horse. I don't know what Emily thought. Anyway, they're seriously weird looking animals. And they were everywhere. Also in the park were a bunch of peafowl, although the peacocks didn't have their big tails - wrong season. But after seeing them in paintings and mosaics all over the place it was really fun to see the real thing. There was also a male antelope hanging out with the horse-cows. He had those nifty curly-twisted antlers. It was pretty cool.
Our next adventure was a stop at a Bishnoi family's home. Here we were shown how they prepare opium tea, which seems to be to these people as coca leaves are to Andean people. The woman with the seriously impressive nose-ring let us smell the opium before she crushed it. It smelled pretty good. Then she crushed it all up and added water before crushing some more. The whole mixture was poured through a conical piece of cloth so that only the opium water part came out
antelope
. This she poured in our hands so we could all have a drink. There was no way to avoid it. Travis actually drank most of his, but I just had a sip and poured it out of my hand. It really tasted vile, like earth and heavy metals mixed together. Later we each said we didn't really feel any effects, so our driver laughed and asked if we wanted more. We all said no. Actually, Travis said he initially felt some kind of weird burning in his chest area, but that was all. None of us had any idea what was going on, so we sat around looking at each other. Our hostess made us chai with camel milk (interesting...), and Shiva told us about life. The men and women don't sleep together: the women sleep inside while the men sleep outside. I asked how they had babies. Shiva laughed. The floor we were sitting on was made of mud and cow dung, and the house only had two rooms with an outdoor kitchen and courtyard. We met a bunch of children and learned that babies don't wear pants in western Rajasthan. This last through experience, not explanation.
After more uncertain looking around we were bundled back into the jeep for our second stop. This was at a house where a little old man made wheel-thrown pottery on enormous wheel spun by a stick in a groove on the top of the wheel
horse-cow
. The red turban with the white outfit and the magical emergence of a pot was rather mesmerizing. He lifted his little vase off the wheel with an air of "so there!" The we walked about and looked at the almost perfectly spherical jars for water carrying. We'd passed by piles and piles of them at different houses while we were driving, and now we saw them up close. They must go through jars pretty fast, cause there were way too many for 2-3 for every house in the area. And that's just a guess. Here we learned that the nearest water source is 3 km away and that women walk with the jars on their heads about every other day. That's a lot of work. Maria asked why they don't just do one run and pile a bunch of water in a jeep. Shiva said that was impractical because cars are too expensive. Our next stop was at a blanket weaver's house. The pattern was very simple, and the wool was somewhat rough, but it's what the average person uses to wrap up in the cold, and it works just fine. This little old man had a nifty seat cut into the floor so that his weaving could come straight to his lap. We looked around the house and saw the difference between chemically treated wool and natural wool. The weaver seemed somewhat curious about us, so we had a stilted conversation due to limited use of the same language. But it was fun. Then our little old man's granddaughter came in, so I took a photo of them together
peacock
. He seemed happy when I showed it to them. It was cute. I finally got to see how some of the patterns get woven right into the pattern without a bunch of loose ends. I've been wondering about that for years. I, who had not eaten breakfast due to a vomiting fit, was getting very ready for lunch, but, instead of taking us to food, our driver took us to a pond that's supposed to have birds. We did see one egret, but mostly it was a big, sandy, muddy cow pond. There were a couple neat things about it. While there we talked to a couple guys watching over the cows, which was entertaining. Next to where we were there was a little temple where a group of Hindu women were having a singing, praising time, and that was a neat thing to see. Usually at the temples people are rather quiet and staid...and indoors. Best of all, there was a guy with the coolest moustache of all time. Ever since examining the beards and moustaches of the majarajas of Rajasthan we've been on the lookout for seriously excellent moustaches. We found one. It's one thing about India - they're modernizing at an extremely rapid rate, but their moustaches are still from the early 20th century (I mean, the very fact that moustaches are so popular is very time warpish...how many people do you know with just a stache? I can think of two). Fun, fun.
Lunch? No
peacock 2
. Our next stop was another pottery place where we saw how they shaped the water jars and got to try our hand at making something. But we didn't really get to do what we wanted. The guy in charge decided what we were supposed to do and then bossed us around. Travis hardly got to touch his pot at all. We looked around the shop a little. There were candle holders and figurines and planters. As we left Emily was getting all excited for lunch. Then we walked into the block printing shop. Here we got a brief explanation of how it's done (it's very complicated and challenging...but it ends up looking like some screen printed wall hanging you can buy at Linens'n'Things...), and we all were very impressed with the pieces we were shown. If I had been in the mood for buying I might have gotten something, but I just wasn't. Unfortunately, no one was, so even though we were all impressed, we didn't want to get our friend all excited that we might buy. That's one thing I don't like about this type of tour. You see something, learn something, but you still feel like you're stringing the demonstrator along if you don't also buy. Sneaky ploy. Then, finally, we went to lunch. It was at a family's house down a long dirt road. We got out of the jeep to see this adorable, white, clean baby cow tied to a tree. Very cute. Huge ears. We were all ushered into the courtyard area of the house, and the husband played host while his wife sat, smacking millet chapati into shape next to the fire
potter
. While we waited for lunch I went out and played with the baby cow and eventually got Emily to come out and play with it, too. Then we were called back into lunch where we enjoyed some dal, yogurt curry stuff, millet chapati, and holy tree. I was not a fan of the holy tree - it was like purposely eating giant tea leaves - so I gave mine to Travis and Emily. But I definitely enjoyed the rest of the feast, and of that there was plenty. We all relaxed and enjoyed the peaceful setting of the house while drinking a cup of chai (no camel milk this time) before setting out on our safari once more. Our last stop before returning to Jodhpur was at a carpet weaver's. These were made in bold and colorful patterns, and there were cotton, wool, and jute carpets in different sizes. Here we learned that camel wool is special because it doesn't burn, and that jute is actually made from the hairy part of the coconut. Who knew? Now I want some camel wool just so I can try to set it on fire.
Back in Jodhpur we had a low-key evening before catching yet another night bus with an early morning arrival into Jaisalmer.
Erin
*****
Erin says a low-key evening but she forgets about my hair-raising ATM run
very round jars for water
. You see, Erin never really keeps track of how much money she has and this was a problem because we suddenly discovered she was overestimating by a thousand rupees and we didn't have enough to pay our hotel bill and our bus was leaving in an hour. So we try to explain that we need to go to an ATM or we won't be able to pay him, but there isn't an ATM nearby. Finally he phones to push our bus back an hour while getting his son to drive me on his motorcycle to the nearest ATM.This was, without a doubt, the scariest thing I have ever done in my life. To start with, we were up in the narrow maze of lanes by the guesthouse, so I jump on the back of his moto and he simply lets the bike fall down the hill in the dark while trying to start his motor. We head almost directly for a wall before he veers off and I start praying. But I much preferred this to the next segment. There was a lot of traffic this evening on the narrow lanes, and this guy rocketed towards every tiny opening in the traffic before screeching to a halt before a tuk tuk, cycle, or pedestrian. I was almost thrown over his shoulders a couple times, and was very worried about slamming my knees into a passing vehicle. I had a death grip on the small bar behind me on the bike. Finally, to my relief, we pulled up at an ATM. Repressing the urge to kiss the ground, I ran in. To my horror, the god-forsaken ATM was out of order! So trying not to cry I got on the bike for another five minutes of speed demon. Why aren't there more ATMs in this town!
I finally got some money and got on for the return journey. "I think you are a little scared of my driving," he said. He was very friendly by this point, and struck up a conversation with me while looking over his shoulder and swerving into the path of oncoming vehicles
kids posing
. It couldn't get worse, but it did when he got a phone call. Instead of putting it away, he handed it back to me to hold. So now I found myself holding on with ONE HAND and trying not to drop his stupid phone. Luckily we arrived back at the incline and he zoomed up it, almost spilling me as he turned up the road. I didn't care though, because the end was in sight. I ran into the hotel to pay the bill that nearly killed me. Definitely a memorable night.
~Travis
****
