Liliana’s South East Asia Adventure

So I left yesterday around 8am with my driver to head to the state of Rajasthan for a 15 day tour.  The first port of call was a town called Mandaw.  Parts of the road getting to there were not that great but compared to Cambodia it was not that bad.  Other times the road was nice and smooth.  Getting out of Delhi took around an hour as mourning traffic was not great.  I thought it was only going to take 4 hours but I was wrong and we didn’t arrive until 5 Pm I believe.  I stayed there only one night. Ok  so guess what the name of my driver is?  Krishna!  And guess what his last name is?  Kumar.  Now if you remeber I told you I’m readin ght ebook life of PI.  Well the character in the books last name is Kumar also and the book is about god.  I’m sure the name Kumar is common but I just think it’s kinda funny.  Sometime I believe in quencidences.  Sorry no spell check. 

Ok So the roads go directly through the towns so you’ll be going fast and then youll have to slow down because theirs traffic or cows etc.  The drivers in India are crazy especially the bus drivers.  They don’t slow down for nothing.  My driver Krishna is a hindu from a small village near Agra I believe.  He’s been driving for this company for the last year but says he’s been a driver for around 5.  He’s 27 and lives with 2 other guys in Delhi.  He’s nice and says to me your funny or what not.  So this village that I stayed at was like a blast from the past.  At least the merchant buildings were.  Their is a special name for them but I forget.  Raj state was known for trading silk and other items like Hash.  They still smoke it quite a bit.  Right on the streets. 

 Last night at dinner which was over priced but what chose did I have.  The village is so small my driver said eat at the restaurant.  I payed 7 USD almost half of what it cost for my room.  But sinse only a few hotels exist I was stuck.  I couldn’t get  single dish I had to pay for a course meal oh well.  So At dinner they had two singers, a woman with a baby and then her husband most likely who played som esort of harp like instrument.  After we had this guy and two others do a puppet show with traditional dolls of Raj.  It was fun to watch but of course both were doing this for free not payed by the hotel so we had to tip.  I hate that.  After the musicians played he stood there waiting.  I gave him about .60  Of course then the puppet maker wanted money and also for you to buy some of his hand made puppets.  They were lovely but I don’t need more stuff to carry around. 

So now I’m in Bikaner and its really beautiful.  I forgot to mention but Raj is a hot and desert state.  Tomorrow I will go to the town that is known for camal safaris.  The landscape while driving here was very lovely.  Many camals on the road with drivers.  No pictures yet of camels but I will later.  I have a few pictures of India so please look.  I need to head back to the hotel to go see the forts of the town which this city is known for.  The woman in the state still wear traditional clothing.  I will try and take more pictures of this.  The men also.  To them Delhi is far away even though they are next door.  This is still a traditional state and thats why I think it is one of the most touristed next to the Taj.  Well ciao for now

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 28th, 2006 at 7:43 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.