Thebeginningofsomethingunknown’s Weblog

30-12-2008

Why not possible? Possible!

Okay, hahha, our bus ride from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer was unusually good… moderately clean bus, good conversations, not too many delays, besides big rockets in a truck trying to pass through a road much too narrow for the truck to pass. Overall good transition, and then getting to this wonderful desertic city called Jaisalmer. Beautiful old forts, old city inside the fort where our hotel is actually… the Desert Haveli. Meeting our friends from Holland again, Anjo and Phelim, and spending a night eating indian thalis and drinking a few beers.

The next morning, we decided to take on a camel safari in the Thar Desert next to Jaisalmer. Convinced by an interesting man named Muna; quite the character actually! He’s hyperactive, 21, manager of the hotel where we are staying and very sociable. At first we thought, okay… three friends in the desert sleeping in sand dunes… fun stuff for sure. But soon enough, we found out that this man was going to spend the whole camel safari with us and eat with us and sleep next to us. Hahaha, we were up for adventure! Gypsy dancers, Rajasthani music, indian homecooked food and a camel ride for the day…

Sleeping under the stars with only the ringing of my ears… total silence, haven’t had that since we started travelling in India. It’s been constant hustle and bustle since the beginning, so plugging in my ipod and sleeping under the stars was quite welcome! The desert is probably the cleanest place in this country… and the most beautiful.

Muna is probably the highlight; positive and negative! He definately has fallen in love with one of the gypsy dancers, he is a muslim, so he doesn’t drink or do drugs… and sure as hell doesn’t need those to be crazy as he already is! All his English phrases have been already approved and adpoted by us… ‘Why like this?! Like this?!? and … Everything possible! Why not possible!?! You my friend right?!’ Oh man, so many valuble sayings…

Also, meeting Ramesh, our camel guide, 24 years old and pretty good looking. I rode the camel(Johnny Walker was his name) and spoke with him all day… quite the talker I might add…’ I’ll bring you to the desert every day and every night, we can go to the Pakistan border over night if you like?!’ Hhahaha, I was also told afterwards that he loved me and wanted to leave with a western woman for a different life. Anyways, it was nice while it lasted, but these guys want to go back to Canada so bad… I’m pretty sure he plays, or tries to play, at least 50 women per month!

Chicken awakening! I made a mistake of telling Guillaume that Ramesh could bring a live chicken to cook for supper that night. And of course he requested it! Live chicken! Killed with a butter knife in front of us… I was totally freaked out, I even believe that it has partially convinced me of going vegetarian for the rest ofthe trip, maybe even for a longer period of time! But the whole experience was quite overwhelming, and Ramesh wasn’t even getting close, because he is Hindu, and Hindu’s don’t kill any animal for food. He said he would make an exception for us because we were his guests, but after supper, I just felt bad eating poultry and actually knowing it got killed in front of me a few moments before.

Food for thought! The desert sleep wasn’t very comfortable, but it was a classic moment. I loved being under the desert Indian stars, and seeing nothing but sand dunes. Quite the highlight for me, realising one of my dreams, riding a camel through a desert non-tourist style of course.

New Year’s 2009 in a few days, we are going to stroll across the narrow streets of the desert city, eat some awesome vegetarian thalis and celebrate our new year’s resolution… no more amateur italian restaurants in India… it is now banned from our dinner options… lets stick to the food they know how to cook!
Cheers to all… Happy New Year… I wish you health, prosperity and happiness… love of course… if possible…

p.s. Men here believe that past 25, you become an old man if you aren’t married and have a lifetime loving woman to be by your side.

01-01-2009!

Happy new year to all… may it be a new year filled with new experiences and new discoveries for all… Personally, I hope I just continue to travel and discover as I have been doing since the beginning of last year… and have a lot more content in that blog of mine! It has become quite the workload, but I appreciate it very much and hope you appreciate it as well. It’s a day to day log, as much as a diary and travel blog.

Tomorrow, moving on to the next city, Pushkar. The white castle city as the Indians call it. I think it’s going to be quite the adventure. Although we are taking a bus again because trains are semi-existant from Jaisalmer to anywhere… the buses aren’t too bad at all in Rajasthan, because the roads are well maintained and the buses are spacious compared to those horrible Nepalese buses!
Cheers for now.

03-01-2009

Let the Bollywood classic dancing begin! Jenn has been raging to get some hindi dance lessons since we got into this country and today was the day that her dream was going to come true. We went to meet Hemant at the Saraswati music and dance school here in Pushkar and got a one and a half hour dance lesson by a very qualified instructor! He has grown up in a music and dance family cast (cast is the meaning of hierarchy in the Indian culture for marriage rights). He tought us the classic moves, although Jenn was FAR better than I was… the instructor told me I could learn how to dance, and well also, if I let my shyness behind… but he quite enjoyed the fact that I am a person that laughs from deep inside the soul… so he still enjoyed my company although I was fucking up all the dance moves.

Then, we decided to shop a bit, or look at clothes, but then ended up being loured to this clothing outlet homemade in Pushkar… meeting a few young Israelis trying to bargain on fixed prices and who were evidently very high on drugs… but this outlet… was THE place to be for clothes… shirts, skirts, dresses, pants and tank tops… for women as well as men… we had hours of fun just trying tons of clothes and buying only a few items… but literally… trying on hundreds of peices… I tried on clothes that I didn’t even know existed before discovering this spot… quite the awesome day… topped off by being able to watch No Reservations by Anthony Bourdain on the big flat screen tv on the rooftop of our hotel… I love that show! Anyone who hasn’t watched it yet and who is reading this should immediately You Tube this show!
Cheers for today!

06-01-2009

Weird pedicures and mantras… Jenn and I went to get a pedicure from our previous hotel, The White House… and the esthetician was such a f… up guy! Bringing us to a peculiar hotel across from ours, carrying a plastic bag filled with what was supposed to be pedicure products… ended up washing our feet with special soaps… that was in fact laundry detergent… the worst thing is that it made our feet really soft…. plus, scrubbing our feet to a pulp even when we told him that it hurt… he said… but your feet will feel better after! Then, telling Jenn and I that he also performed mantra… took Jenn’s head and started humming and grunting and after he let go of her head after a few minutes, told her… ‘Ohhh, your stomach is warm yes? You are not well! Three months, no bananas!’ And then told us that our body could speak to him and tell him what wasn’t good for us… a total nut case… but Jenn figured… what if he is the real thing and we are just trying to make fun of him!? So she decided to listen to him and not eat any bananas for those following months…

He also told me not to drink coffee for three months, but I already stopped drinking coffee quite a few months ago…

You should have been there to understand the degree of sillyness and embarrasment that we felt at that moment… my feet… well, badly painted, badly scrubbed. I sure miss my friend Valerie’s pedicures back at home!

Also… met quite an interesting girl at our new really chic hotel named the Milkman… Jalomi’s father comes from Quebec and her mother from Israel, so she speaks French, English and Hebrew! She’s an awesome girl and we’ve been hanging out for the past few days around Pushkar… she’s leaving for Goa in a few days and I’m incredibly tempted to leave with her… I’ll see where the wind brings me… but I’m craving the beach for quite some time… and I feel I have a few decisions to take on today…

Cheers for now kids…

A few hours later… change of pace… after speaking with Jalomi… my new friend, leaving for Goa in a few days… I decided that I was sick of the cold in the north and I just wanted to learn surfing…
Hahaha around the 15th, I should be leaving on my lonesome self to go meet Jalomi in Benaulim, one of the less touristy beaches in Goa… for some serious sun sulking…
I’ll meet up with Jenn and Guillaume a few weeks later, waiting for them in Goa… and chilling out with Jalomi and splitting all the costs… a good change for me since I’ll be spending half of what I spend now by just living with her and chilling out… then, simply continue my route with my two good friends down the southern coast of India… oh! How being spontaneous brings you continuous excitement!
Cheers to randomness in ones life, the people you meet, the decisions you take…

08-01-2009

I have decided to buy a ticket from Ahmedabad to Madgaon… going to meet up with Jalomi in Goa on the Benaulim beach the 16th… and catch some rays a few weeks before Jenn and Guillaume reach that destination. Thus, I’m leaving the group in eight days…
Travelling alone is not the best, but the train ride is directly from our next destination to where Jalomi is, so I’m not too worried… 19 hour train ride in 3AC(there are several classes in a train and 3AC is the third best), not too shabby…

This is our last day in Pushkar, tomorrow we depart for Chittorgarh and then to Udaipur, to then reach Ahmedabad… to then take the train the next day…
I’m missing part of Gujarat, but at the same time I’ve been so eager to reach a beach that I’m staying spontaneous and getting to the beach earlier, since I’ll be staying a month less than my friends in India.

Today, we made a day trip to Ajmer, just a local bus away from Pushkar. We visited the most famous temple in Rajasthan, the Dargah. One of the most important Muslim pilgrimage sites in India, thus, we had to cover our heads in the temple, and also leave our bags and cameras at the entrance… too bad for the cameras… this was quite an overwhelming experience. The offerings for the poor, were mostly flowers and sweets and of course rupees… and the strong smell of flowers overwhelmed the floors in the pilgrimage site. Hustle and bustle in the temple, people were praying and kissing the marbles floors around us… we were the only tourists there, which was nice, we got to witness the daily prayers of locals and Indian muslims from around the country.

10-01-2009

Finally, decided to simply stay in Udaipur and make a day trip to Chittorgarh, since there is only the fort to see in that town and we heard the hotels were horrible out there… hahha We’re now in the most romantic city in India, yes, I confirm it myself, this is the place to propose, or fall in love, or simply dream of it. It’s got quite the European touch to it. White buildings with a Mughal style of architecture as usual, bridges only for pedestrians, clean streets, all because of the rich foreigners that travel through here every year. We went all out yesterday and ate supper at the Udai Kothi, a chic boutique hotel that is well over our price range, but the food is affordable, actually around 10 to 12 dollars for a drink, main course and chai. It was quite the treat for us, wouldn’t do it all the time because I couldn’t stay in India for six months; but it’s nice to splurge on occasion.

Also, today, visited the City Palace Museum, sooo many palaces to visit in Udaipur, it’s really over done but well over done. Luxury and opulence live here still, even with modern life, there still is a Prince that lives in the Udaipur walls.

Of course we eat the local food, and most of the time it’s excellent, and today was no exception, actually even more spectacular, we had a 55rupee thali combined of Jain, Gujrati and Rajasthani specialties. The kofta was the best I’ve had since we arrived in ?India, and the chapatis were excellent as usual. So much food… so little of a stomach… so little time to taste it all… Trying to lose weight? Don’t come visit this country… this place is made for real food lovers who don’t mind having four or five meals per day! I’m holding back a bit… but enjoy every meal… and soon we’ll be biking across the city so I’ll get some kind of excercise!

We can’t forget that one of the James Bond movies was shot here in the seventees… Octopussy… and it plays at every hotel at 7:30pm… hahaha it’s like Marilyn Monroe when she shot her movie in the rockies… they still have pictures of her everywhere in Jasper!