BootsnAll Travel Network



Articles Tagged ‘Travel’

More articles about ‘Travel’
« Home

Pushkar – The Holy City

Friday, November 2nd, 2007


April 20-21, 2007

After our early getaway from Jodhpur, we made good time to Pushkar which is well-known for its famous camel fair. Each October, the town is inundated with thousands of buyers and sellers of over 50,000 camels causing this quiet town of 15,000 to explode with excitement and activity. It has also become a bit of a tourist attraction and we had mixed feelings about having missed it. In the end, though, like most other places we had been, we were glad to be able to see the quieter side of Pushkar on our own terms without having to deal with throngs of people – especially tourists (as opposed to seasoned “travelers” like us). After we settled into our charming hotel on the outskirts of town, Claude decided he needed to stretch his legs and decided to climb up to Gayatri’s temple which sat atop a nearby cliff overlooking Pushkar. The kids had no interest in hiking in the intense heat so I stayed behind with them and we did lessons until they were climbing the walls. Finally, we decided to take a break and go explore the marketplace. This was one of the first times I had ventured forth into an Indian market with the kids without Claude by my side and the dynamic was very interesting. Without Claude’s intimidating male presence, everyone seemed to feel at ease approaching us and calling out as we passed. Children scampered along behind us and shyly asked for candy while women and teenage girls and boys called “Hi, Mommy!” and “Hi, Boy!” and “Hi, Girl!” as we passed. They seemed to be enthralled by the sight a single Western woman traveling alone with two children. Their gentle smiling faces lit up when we responded and called “Hello!” and “Namaste” back to them and some actually followed us for a while, asking questions in broken English as we wandered through the colourful marketplace admiring the beautiful fabrics, spices and exotic smelling food for sale. The kids were delighted by the many monkeys that scurried along the rooftops and hung around the market hoping for a handout from a sympathetic food vendor.

As we finally made our way back to our hotel, all of our new friends waved and called out to us from their doorways as we passed, making us feel like visiting dignitaries. [read on]

Jodhpur – The Blue City

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007


April 19-20,2007

The next town on our itinerary was Jodhpur, the Blue City, where all the buildings are painted blue, apparently because the colour blue absorbs very little of the sun’s heat and this keeps the houses cool (you’ve got to wonder why only Jodhpur seems to be in on this secret). On the way to Jodhpur, we had a near miss with a crazy cyclist who attempted to cross traffic in front of us while we were doing about 80 km/h. Sanjay demonstrated his proficiency as a driver by managing to swerve around the wobbling bike while simultaneously avoiding a head-on collision with an oncoming truck. I will never forget the wide-eyed terror in the eyes of the cyclist as he passed within inches of my window. As soon as he regained control, Sanjay slammed on the brakes and looked over at Claude. “May I teach him a lesson, sir?” he asked.

“By all means,” replied Claude and Sanjay rolled up his sleeves and jumped out of the car to confront the cyclist whose life he had just saved. The cyclist, however, seeing the fury in Sanjay’s eyes, wisely gave him a wide berth and quickly pedaled away without an apology. [read on]

Jaisalmer – The Golden City

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
April 16-19 We returned to our hotel in Bikaner dusty and happy after our wonderful visit with Hansu and her family. Despite the lack of air-conditioning, we hadn’t been bothered by the 45+ temperatures and the kids ... [Continue reading this entry]

To act or not to act, that is the question…

Thursday, October 18th, 2007
I received the link to this video the other day and it really hit home for me. What do you think? To act or not to act Pretty convincing, huh?

Update

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
Just in case anyone is wondering what has happened to us, we are still alive and well. Unfortunately, I fell seriously behind on blogging once when we were travelling around Europe and Africa and never managed ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hansu’s Visit

Saturday, August 18th, 2007
April 15 After leaving Jaipur, we headed to Bikaner where, after a quick side-trip to visit the rat temple (ick!), we checked into the Hotel Harasar Haveli and enjoyed a lovely sunset meal at their rooftop ... [Continue reading this entry]

India – Agra to the Pink City

Saturday, July 28th, 2007
April 10-14 After leaving Nepal, our favourite destination of the trip thus far, we had mixed emotions about visiting India. Since our primary reason for visiting India was to visit our foster child, Hansu, near Bikaner, we had decided to ... [Continue reading this entry]

Adventures at the Indian Embassy

Friday, July 27th, 2007
Why, you might ask, would I devote an entire blog entry to the Indian Embassy? Well, considering the amount of time, energy and patience I expended there, it deserves an entire chapter. Let this be a lesson to ... [Continue reading this entry]

Reflections on Nepal

Friday, July 27th, 2007
Reflections on Nepal April 7-10, 2007 Before going back to our hotel in Katmandu, we had two more places to visit. First, our driver took us to Nagarkot, a little town perched on a small peak about half an hour from ... [Continue reading this entry]

Elephants Rock!

Friday, July 27th, 2007
Chitwan National Park April 5-7, 2007 I thought it would be difficult to top our jungle walk, but Gupal still had more surprises in store for us. That afternoon, he took us to the Baghmara Bufferzone on the ... [Continue reading this entry]