Pushkar and Jaipur

The roads from Udaipur varied from 6-lane highways to single-lane roads carved into the side of the mountains. Other times there were construction-sites for many miles.

Once we came over a truck that had gone into the ditch and another one trying to pull it out. The were both fully loaded 6-axled semi-trucks running without attached sound-mufflers like most are (if its not vital to the running of the vehicle, it will not be replaced when broken, and they are quite exposed there just under the front bumper), it was quite the sight (and sound).

That is also an interesting observation; it seems like most trucks and buses are modular. First of all you have the running-gear mounted to a frame. Then you have a cabin for the trucks, these seem to be made in huge batches. They are simple sheet-metal made as simplistic as possible. Non-curved window-panes. Doors are simply cut out and hinged backwards or mounted as sliding-doors, and often the window in the door comes out with the frame as a single piece. The steering-wheel/instrument panel is connected to the frame, not the cabin. The seat is a simple wooden frame with a pillow, and only on the drivers side. The rest of the flat floor is usually covered with a carpet and/or pillows. Then, behind the cabin, one can attach any one of a large array of cargo-carrying fixtures. Tanks or containers or boxes in any size. Should the mission change, one simply changes the attachment. It seems like people prefer keeping their cabins though, and that only the frame/running-gear is sold. Once sold, it is simply driven to the new owner without cabin or cargo-hopper. An interesting sight for sure. To keep their cabin when transferring to a new truck, the old one is removed if there is one. That makes for an interesting selection of nosed trucks with their original cabs removed and said sheet-metal cabins replacing them. Now the same thing happens with buses. You have frames and you have bodies. There were many different bus-bodies standing jacked up along the roadside, just waiting for a chassis to be lowered onto.

I also got to see the first Indian V-8 in action during this day. It was mounted in the back of an incredibly large bus, and it was not muffled at all. It appeared to have more than enough power for the bus, as it was doing the most unlikely bypasses. No way our snappy little Tata could follow it as it weaved through highway traffic!

I have mentioned that the trucks and everything else here is loaded to the breaking point. It seems like they have found an effective way of limiting accidents involving overloaded trucks; most of the larger ones are limited to 40kp/h. This does make things a little more interesting on the highways though, as the speed difference of a car going 100 and a fully loaded truck going 35-40 can get interesting in lots of different ways. Then there is the whole deal with properly secured cargo. Mostly it is not. Secured, that is, at all. Especially stones are loaded onto a truck or tractor until it will hold no more, and then it drives away. Any good bump in the road will send the load flying, and pure luck keeps it from landing on a passing or following car.

We arrived quite late in Puskar. It is a pretty small town with little business. Apparently only the Israelis have any real trade going on there. After finding the hotel - which for once was a bit of a challenge, as the name on our voucher didn't match any actual hotels there - and checking in, Sanji arranged a guide for us to take us to the only known Brahmen(?) temple in India. Pushkar, being so small and lacking any source of income, is relying heavily on tourists. In turn, this makes the merchants even more pushy than other places. This did not turn out to be a problem as we had our guide, however. It was the first time I saw monkeys up close, as two feuding tribes were having an argument and in doing so were wrecking the market place around us, roofs collapsing and merchandise being thrown around. The temple was somewhat underwhelming compared to the others we've seen. On the way back we stopped by the lake, a nice place but also here lots of people offering to relieve us of our money.

We made it back to the hotels with most of our treasury intact and went for a snack on the rooftop restaurant., after which we went to bed.

Waking up, we barely had time to pack before we left. Once on our way Sanji told us he had also not had any breakfast and wondered if it was OK if he stopped somewhere along the highway. Of course it was! We had nice Indian breakfast with some bread with baked-in cauliflowers, a bowl of dal and "pickle". Bread and Dal was nice.

I must have fallen asleep again quite soon after breakfast, as the next thing I remember was the chaos of Jaipur traffic two hours later. Sanji found the hotel very fast this time (how one can actually manage to remember where anything is in these cities amazes me, it makes Oslo or any other large European city seem like a children's 50-piece puzzle in comparison). We checked in, had our luggage delivered to our room, freshened up a bit and then we were on our way again. Sanji would be our guide today. First we drove to a place where we could take pictures of a palace in the middle of a lake. Also first time I saw an elephant here. Then we went on to the fort. For me, it was the most fascinating fort. While it had lost most of its splendors to time and wear, the sheer grandness and the lack of blocked passages was everything I could wish for. Hardly any doors were locked, no hallway fenced off. I could have spent days there exploring every little room.  Like the fort in Udaipur they had running water here, and outside they had a small constructed lake filled with water pumped up with the use of drought-animals. Sadly I only had an hour, and I lost Susanne just once in the maze it turned out to be. When I found her again she was the point of interest for a large crowd of Indians wanting pictures with this beautiful European girl. Once free of the photographing horde we made our way back down to the parking lot. The walls surrounding the fort were also impressive by the way, very "great wall of China"-ish.

We then went to a fabrics-shop to see how they do their "block printing". Using a set of differently engraved blocks like stamps, they apply pattern to cloth. The cloth is then laid in the sun to dry for 12 hours, after which the color is so attached to the cloth that daily use and machine washing does not affect it. Susanne also got to try a Sari, very very pretty.

Next we visited a jewelry-store. First we got got see how they ground rough unimpressive stones into precious stones. Then we were presented with our "birth-stone", different stones based on our month of birth. Mine is the Ruby, and they found the Star Ruby for me. Truly amazing stones. Not only are they shiny, but these stones, when cut properly, will reflect light with 6 lines in a star pattern. One must really see this effect for themselves, as it is quite amazing. I did however favour the "black star", a black stone with a similar effect, just 4 lines instead of 6. However, at well over Rs4000 (€70) for only the stone I found it too much. Even if I could have found the money it would still have been a matter of wearing it, and I am not one for rings nor pendants. It was still nice to see all the precious and semi-precious stones they had and how they prepared them.

Next on the programme was a stop at a tomb made for a Maharajan family. It was very nicely made. Again we were approached by quite a few kids wanting sweets or rupees. We still haven't figured out what to do with these. If you give them something they just want more. If you give a few, a lot more will come. If you give them money, it will just be taken by their parents. Its obviously not very helpful giving them sweets, and its hard finding something cheap and durable we can have in the car to give them, that doesn't take a lot of space. Susanne has set her mind on nuts but have been unable to find any so far.

Personally I find the children more annoying than anything else. They are there from the car stops until it leaves again, hanging onto the doorhandles for as long as they car as it drives away. Once you get out, they are constantly doing everything they can to get attention, by talking/yelling, by pulling on your clothes or walking in your way. Saying that you don't have anything for them does not have any effect. It seems like they have learned that as long as they are at it long enough the tourists will always give up in the end and give them something. They are extremely persistent, I must give them points for that at least. Susanne finds it a lot harder than me, feeling helpless, unable to do anything useful for them but unwilling to just ignore them.

People in general here, I find, are too pushy and "in your face". Constantly. That is, except those who have no interest in you; those who are not trying to get any money from you. They are the most helpful souls imaginable and will go to great lengths to help out. They seem to be forming an ever-decreasing minority however, and wherever you turn there seems to be someone wanting money from you. It gets a little tiresome after some time. The "personal sphere" or "comfort zone" we're so used to maintain up in cold, empty Scandinavia is simply non-existent here. Even with the hotel doors locked and lights turned off one can still not feel truly on his own, with the windows and doors usually being so thin that they hardly contain  any outside noise. Now, I can fall asleep in any situation, so that's not a problem, but I do miss a little "me-time" now and then. The desert and the lake were nice like that. Just Susanne, our driver/guide/friend Sanji and I and not another human within hearing or seeing distance for a short moment. Serene.

We made one last stop on our sight-seeing round today, stopping at a nice palace garden. It is often used for scenes in Bollywood movies. Again Susanne became the local attraction and everyone wanted pictures with her.

On the way back to the hotel Susanne stopped to make a call to her father on his birthday today. Almost 3 minutes for the bank-breaking charge of... Rs33. A notch over €0.50!

Once back at the hotel we went up to the roof to find the restaurant. Susanne had a combo-dish with three different curries (omnom) and I tried the Chicken Masala (the last item on my "to-try" list of Indian meat-based dishes I know from Europe). It was a lot better than the Euro-version, but I still think the vegetarian food here tastes generally better than the non-veg. and I will try to stick to the plants from now (mostly was so far, anyway). Old habits are hard to turn, however. I do think most people would find inspiration in seeing all the animals here - either walking around 'freely', stuck in a cage going somewhere or on the butchers block about to become someones dinner - as far as going (temporarily, anyway) vegetarian. "Chicken" is no longer just a description on the package you pick up in the supermarket, but something you try not to stumble over on your way across the town square.

Lots of pigs here too, it started in Jaisalmer as far as I remember, and they have grown larger and larger as we traveled in this general direction. Goats can be seen anywhere along the road and in town. I once asked Sanji about the price of a goat, and he said Rs600.

As far as animal care goes, I think European "pet" and "use" animals  have a better life, while the food-animals might be better off here in many cases compared to the European industrialized animal-production. Still, even with so many being 'vegetarian' to some degree here, it is clearly not out of animal-welfare-related reasons. Hot-iron branding is still the most common way of marking the animals of the various families, often animals are tied up on such a short leach that they can hardly move or lay down, and access to shadow or water is non-existing. Injured animals are also left to their own.

It is interesting to see how well dogs are able to cope though, omnivores of opportunity as they are, they are usually able to come out of any situation with all hairs in place. The human-dog bonds you see in Europe has been traded back for dog-dog bonds, and there is usually two or more of them sticking together - sometimes forming large packs. Most of the time though, they are mostly just laying around snoozing and soaking up the sun. I can easily imagine Solo (the dog living with my mom and me) in a setting like this, she has always been such an independent and resourceful little creature, able to get it 'her way' whatever that might be.

Tomorrow I believe we go to Agra, the end of this part of our journey. We will have one night there, as well as a look-see at the Taj Mahal, and then the train will take us all the way to, I think, Kochin(?) in Kerala. A 40 hour train ride!

It's 23:00 again and I should sleep. Hope this post didn't get too confusing, there is just so much to experience here and so little time to remember it and note it down like this. In a way, this blog is as much a tool to help me remember the day as it is a way to share it. Unable to post pictures now as I'm logged in via my phone, the hotel WiFi doesn't cover our room and its too cold to sit in the common area for hours while uploading.