10/12/2014 [Pushkar]
This morning began with a walk into town, where we found a cafe that served delicious healthy food. We then headed to check out the Brahma Temple, which is the only one in the world. You aren't allowed to take anything inside, so we had to take it in turns and leave our stuff outside with a buddy while we went in. I was actually a little bit underwhelmed by the temple - I just figured seeing as it's the ONLY one in the world it would be a pretty big deal, but it was pretty basic. I did see a real Baba though - Baba's are religious men who generally live away from civilisation and are completely naked except for the ashes (generally human) that they coat themselves in. The Baba that I saw was wearing a loincloth to cover his front, but had a bare bum!
I lost the rest of our little group, so wandered back to the hotel on my own. This trip has really given me a new appreciation for my own company and independence. Today is Nan's birthday, which had me feeling a little homesick because I had no way to contact her - but this afternoon I received an unexpected phone call from Dad; they were all out for dinner for Nan's birthday, so I got to speak to her and wish her a happy birthday which totally made my day.
Most of the crew went for another hike this afternoon, but a few of us stayed behind and spent the afternoon drinking chai in one of the little grass huts out by the veggie garden. We then walked back into town in search of dinner, and stopped at a little street stall for curry. Unfortunately the man seems to have misunderstood my vehement 'no' when he asked me whether I wanted my malai kofta to be spicy... oh how it burned!
We headed back to our hotel for dessert, where we had seen 'roasted bananas with chocolate sauce' - on the breakfast menu, of all places! As we were drowning our super-hot-curry woes in chocolate sauce and banana, a couple of others from our group wandered in and also ordered dessert. One guy pointed to two items on the dessert menu and ordered both - despite the waiter trying to explain that 'kheer' and rice pudding were actually almost the same thing. He ordered it anyway, so soon enough t very large bowls of rice pudding appeared in front of him - the only difference that we could find was that one was warm and the other was cold. We don't know which one was which though, so it still remains a mystery as to which bowl was kheer and which was rice pudding...
11/12/2014 [Pushkar - Jaipur]
We were supposed to be catching a public transport bus to Jaipur today, but there was actually another Intrepid group staying at our hotel and heading to the same destination, so we ended up sharing a semi-private bus with them (random people still got on and off every now and then). We stopped for chai along the way, where I was charged 50 rupees just to use the toilet - it was only supposed to cost 10 rupees, but the smallest note I had was a fifty and he refused to give me any change. I'm looking forward to using toilets that work and are free when I get home!
Our new hotel seems nice enough, and it's my turn for the single room again which I am grateful for - it's nice to have a bit of a sanctuary to escape to at the end of the day when my energy is well and truly depleted and I tend to get lost in my own thoughts.
We headed out for lunch soon after arriving at out hotel - it had been a long morning on the bus, so we were all starving. A few of us went to a restaurant specialising in South Indian food - we are traveling through North India, and their traditional meals vary quite significantly. None of us knew anything much about South Indian food, so it was a bit of a lucky dip when it came to ordering. I ended up with a huge crispy pancake kind of thing which was pretty good, and most of the others ended up with something similar. One guy really lucked out though - he ended up with a bowl of floury dumpling kind of things floating in salty yoghurt. It looked pretty gross, and apparently didn't taste much better! Unfortunately he couldn't remember what it was called though, so we can't even avoid it next time!
After lunch we went for our orientation walk. We walked through the Old City of Jaipur, which is known as the Pink City because all of the buildings are painted the same teracotta pink colour. Pink is a welcoming colour, so the entire city was painted teracotta pink when the Prince of Wales came to visit in 1876. There are laws in place which mean that it is mandatory to maintain the pink facade even now.
As the sun went down, we stopped at a lassi shop for their delicious youghurty refreshments before heading to the local cinema to see a Bollywood film called 'Action Jackson'. The movie went for almost three hours, and was spoken entirely in Hindi so I have no idea what was actually happening most of the time. The movie was very strange and confusing - there was lots of singing and dancing and stabbing and fighting. Indian cinemas are certainly not quiet like the cinemas back home - people are encouraged to scream and shout and laugh and sing and cheer. It was definitely a very interesting experience!
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