Rajasthan – Cherry Red Shoes

We are now in Delhi and have officially left the state of Rajasthan. I found myself flipping through the Lonely Planet guidebook section on Rajasthan, and whined. I whined! I was sad! I didn’t think anywhere in India could make me miss it because India is dirty, smelly, yucky, traumatic (bus rides, touts, hasslers, hard core bargaining, etc) and I once commented to a dude who was leaving after 5 months in India, “I am sure India is not somewhere that I will miss.”

I am wrong! What happened? I don’t know! I think it’s the camels!

Let’s see where I started…

Udaipur.

Lonely Planet called it romantic. I remember my first impression. As the tuk tuk sped along the narrow lanes (they were designed for donkeys and now have to make way for cars, autorickshaws, people and COWS mooo) I thought, what a nice quaint little town. There was something about the squashiness of it. It was a sweet place. Most guesthouses have a restaurant on its roof top. These rectangular buildings have flat tops where guesthouse owners set up their restaurant, or home owners hang their clothes/children play. You can hop from roof to roof. You could if you wanted to. They are so close!

Chris tired and waiting for me to eat my wonderful fruit muesli and curd.

Woman making fresh chappati.

Oh we walked up to the Monsoon Palace. Highly recommend the walk up. And back down. Worth the tears of exasperation and tons of sweat. Makes the visit sweeter. Or. Sweatier. Whichever. It made the view better!

MOUNT ABU.

Mount Abu was wet and foggy. It was kind of nice but I wouldn’t recommend going all the way there. The locals head there as a getaway and it gets quite rowdy with most of them drunk. There are also wild animals out on the treks and walking trails. We did walk on one and only met with a bunch of crazy noisy monkeys. I was very scared. The monkeys were making a heap of noise and running back and forth pretty quickly. We got lucky. Nothing happened and at the end of the walk was a sign not to go walking around on our own unless we are in a large group!

JAISALMER

I LOVE CAMELS. OH MY GOD. no. OH MY GANESH I LOVE CAMELS.

But I’ve already mentioned that in an earlier post, so. Here is something else on Jaisalmer 🙂

People people, colourful saris colourful saris.

Chris wearing a hairband and looking more and more like a caveman/potential terrorist. A total stud.

The fort the fort! It was so impressive I HAD TO CLIMB IT. There were a bunch of locals pointing and laughing and a small crowd gathered in about 5 seconds. That’s how many people there are in India. Small crowds frequently gather.

From up there!!! OH MY OH MY. It’s so high up and formidable and impressive and I can see so far beyond! Coming from a squashy place like Singapore, this abundance of space made me pull stances like these:

Ok. That sucked. I’ll just stick to smiling.

Ok. I still look like a happy goondu (that’s a singaporean slang for ‘idiot’). SO I shall meditate and look calm and peaceful. Like this.

Argh I am too critical of myself. Chris looks better. Here:

Muahahaha.

Chris bonding with the restaurant owner. Chris is so friendly!

Little lanes with sashaying women in beautiful saris (so flattering to the figure) and a cow. of course. Which Indian street will be complete without a cow?

A peek into someone’s home 🙂

Someone’s room and the accompanying view. Are we rich or are they poor? I’m not sure.

The Lake! How cool! Dessert civilization in the monsoon!

Chris is now a complete terrorist. No. He was just getting ready for the desert. Awesome stuff. He didn’t get sun burnt!

In summary Jaisalmer was sandy coloured, vibrant, a small town you can easily walk around and had a mega huge fort to gawp at. There were also 7 little jain temples within. Lots of books to buy/exchange, and lovely little souvenirs for all those who love shopping.

There, in the Jain temple!

BIKANER

I didn’t want to go. Had enough of the desert, but Chris wanted to see the Deshnok Temple. aka RAT TEMPLE. good heavens. But first, the incredible Junargarh fort. After countless palaces and temples, this was one i was very inspired to take the craziest pictures. Why? Because it was so artistic, so colourful, and felt more original than the rest of the stuck up popular expensive ones.

Mirrors everywhere! The maharaja must have loved looking at himself.

I staaaab, I keeeeell. I is goondu in impressive palace.

(UGH. that will scare me to death in a war. No need to actually fight.)

Chris ponders in artful consideration of medieval Indian art. What a stud.

Chris has now upgraded himself from potential terrorist to Maharaja wannabe. Not bad eh. WHAT A STUD.

This is one swell way to look out into a gorgeous garden. I like this way. Mental note to become gazillionaire and do this to my ginormous private bungalow.

I swoon and take more ridiculous photos. (They aren’t all up here of course)

Kiss Kiss (Chris is getting hungry and worn out by my photo taking frenzy. can you tell?)

Ok. Rat Temple.

Guesses as to whether I was in a good mood or not:

Ewwwwwww.

EWWWWWW

I was disgusted. I was biting my shirt so as not to scream and alert one of the rats to my fear and terror. I was terrified and absolutely disgusted. NOTE THAT WE HAD TO LEAVE OUR FOOTWEAR OUTSIDE. We walked the temple bare feet. I planted myself in the centre.

Plenty of space in the middle. Space is good. Space is very good. Rats were eating bits of grain under the sheltar. Heaps of them. heaps. Chris was so happy. It put me in an extremely bad mood.

Luckily…I found snacks outside. Coconut and dates 🙂

AND I SAW A CAMEL