Pushkar,Jaipur… castles, temples, Elephant Ride!
Friday, February 2nd, 2007Damnit, I just lost a long post and I really don’t feel like doing it over again…. so you’re going to get kind of a crappy post today…
So, we went to Pushkar, a very religious place (They don’t serve any meat there)… There, we went to the Bramah (sp?) Temple and then down to the lake that is apparently very Holy. Again, it was a little weird but we did a little prayer thing, offered the gods red (good blood), yellow (good education/business), rice (good food), sugar (sweet life), and a flower (happy life). We then got a little rope to tie around our wrists which the people here call the “Pushkar Passport”. After that, we went on a camel safari to the desert… this time we rode on the camels for a long time… it was pretty fun. John’s camel had a mangled face…. you’ll have to see the pics. Mine was a bit of a loose cannon but we made it there alive… had dinner in the desert, watched some indian dancing, and then rode the camels back in the dark… I think that was the first time there was a little bit of silence!
The next day we drove to Jaipur…. Jaipur and Pushkar aren’t as polluted as Delhi so we actually got to see some blue sky… which helped lift the spirits. In Jaipur, we went to see a big Buddist temple that was almost completely made of marble… actually, lots of stuff here is made with marble… and the craftsmanship is amazing. Then we drove around to find out most of the things were closed so we just returned to the hotel. The next day, we went and saw a couple HUGE palaces, a tomb for the Maharajas, an astrological/astronomical observatory place, and then we went on an Elephant ride! However, after we saw the stick that they hit the elephant with, we felt pretty guilty for going on the ride…. at least it wasn’t that long of a ride….
Now we are in Ranthambhur…. known for it’s Tigers! We will be going on a jungle safari tomorrow! Hopefully we get to see some tigers. As for now, I’m ready to head back to the hotel…. I jinxed myself by saying we haven’t had any stomach problems because I threw up this morning and haven’t been able to hold down food…. on the up side, at least it is coming up and not going down…
cheng.ev