Liliana’s South East Asia Adventure

So I will try and give you a recount of what happened in the other cities I visited. Every place I have been to either has a fort and a palace or a temple. So the last place I wrote from was Jodhpur. It had a fort on the hilltop that I wrote about already. While there at the hotel I stayed I got my Palm read. One of the owners said he went to school and studied Palmastry and Astrology. I don’t know if he was telling the truth or not but it was only $6 USD. He seemed to look like he new what he was doing but that could all be b.s. Maybe I will have another reading to see if the other person says similar things. Just for fun. Back home it would be very expensive. So after there I went to Jaiper. Ah yes I already wrote about that place and how I did a night in the desert on a camal etc. Again the town was a surrounded by a fort. Actually most of the town is down below the fort which is on a hilltop. Lovely fort with Jain and Hindu temples. For those who don’t know about jains they are a religious group who don’t believe in killing things such as animals and bugs. During the mansoon seans they don’t travel at all because they don’t want to kills any of the bugs that are on the ground or in the air. They walk around with a mask over their face to protect them from flying bugs. A certain sect of this group doesn’t wear any clothes. They walk around naked. Anyways their is more to their religion. The one thing that is very impressive with Jains is the temples they build. They are temples of pure marble with intricate designs. I don’t know if I have any pictures of the inside of these temples because you had to pay to take pictures. Take my word for it they are lovelier then the fountains and sculptures of Italy. Hugetemples of pure white marble with maybe some grey or black combo marble. Raj is known for it’s marbe and if you had the money you could buy it. On the way from one town to the next we would pass these marble shops with huge blocks of marble waiting to be sold or carved.

Ok so I got side tracked. After the Camal town I went to Udaipur I believe. I have torn pages out of an Indian guide book and after I visted a particular city I was throwing the pages away. I threw away the map I had of Raj. I should remember the names of the places but to many with similar names. Jadpur,Jodhpur, udaipur etc. So again another town with a palace right next to a lake. This town was called the white city because it had mostly white buildings. All the temples or palaces etc I’ve visted are huge and amazing with room after room. What you can build with money! Udaipur is where the friendly hotel manager sold me a cheap train seat and then charged me $45 USD. So far its the only thing stolen or cheated from me. What upset me was he was supper friendly to me but whatever. I’m in Rishikesh a holy city and here I’m suppose to be more mindful and forgive people. Right? I will try.

So while in that city I saw a Hindu temple the palace and a boat ride out on the lake. After that we drove to the next city which I beliebe was Pushkar. Oh ya Mom would remember this perhaps but not only is Udapur known for its palace but also for being in James Bond movie Octopussy. Sorry wrong spelling. In the movie bond is chasing or being chased by bad people in a rikshaw. You can go to some of the cafes and they play the movie. So Pushkar is another holy city. The place I stayed at had a nice pool that was just freshwater without chemicals. I stayed there 2 days. A lot of the time it seemed we would leave in the morning and arrive at our new destination see the fort or temple and then the next day head on to another city. I always tried to get my driver to leave early so that I could spend more time in whatever city we were headed to. He wanted 9AM I always wanted to leave at 7am when it took more then 3 hours. Compromise was 8am. I’m paying him to drive me he should understand while I want to leave at that time but he was always saying it’s to early. So I lounged at teh pool went to the lake saw the famous Brahman temple where supposedly Brahma laid down a lotus petal. I forget but something like that. Oh Ya I remeber the name for these Merchant houses. They are called Havalas. Which probably means merchant in hindi or something. Some of these are really nice to look at as they had money to.

In Pushkar they had lots of silk items for sale at real cheap prices. Most of it was silk dresses or shirts etc. May tourist shops that went on and on. I have to say I bought a few items as they were around $2 or $3 USD. Its not top silk quality I’m sure but still.

So after Pushkar we went to Jadpur which is called the pink city because of the pink buildings. Again this town had a palace where some Majaraja lived and some temples etc. Again very lovely. We drove out of town for 5 minutes or so and saw another fort Palace on a hillside. This is where I’m going to confess something that I shouldn’t. So I walk up the hill to get to the entrance. I finally get in and start walking around. I feel that I’m going to need to go to the bathroom. When I see a guard I ask him where the bathroom is. He starts to take me up the stairs into the palace/fort. I figure it will be an actual toilet up nope. So he takes me into a small room behind a wall and points to a hole in the ground. At this point I had to go number 2 so bad it was either there or in my pants. I unfortunatly choice the first options. The guard was waiting outside and after wanted money. I feel bad that I went toilet there but he shouldn’t of brought me to that spot. I can’t believe they wouldn’t have an actual toiet there. Most major forts do considering the amount of tourists that visit. He probably thought I had to go number 1. Oh well. So I saw the temples and forts etc. Its a huge city so the charm of a small town is gone. The touristy things are nice to see but traffic is not that great.

So we stay a day or two there and then head to a small village near Agra that has a National Park called Kealodes or something like that. I was hoping to see a Tiger but no luck there. They are known for mostly the bird wildlife and some dear and other animals. During winter the park is full of migratory birds. I still saw a good amount it was nice and peaceful there even though the park is small. The weather in that area was supper hot and my fan room was just blowing around hot air. After one night there we drove to my final stop Agra. Most people go there fir the Taj and the Red Fort. I saw both and as I said before the Taj is this huge marble Moseleum. They found ruins across the river that show the raj was planning on building a black taj but never did. The Taj was aligned perfectly with all the building around it. It had 22 round domes indicating it took 22 years to build. Pictures don’t capture the beauty of it. You have to see it to comprehend its awsomeness. All pure marble except the side buildings.

So I got mad at my driver. I was told by his company that If I want I tip him $10 USD. Now maybe he meant per week. Anyways My driver wanted to leave on the 14th day instead of the 15th. Tecnically I had him for 14 nights/ 15 days. I figured he would take me to the train station the next day. Well he asked to leave that night in Agra. I couldn’t say no so I did. I went to go give him 16 USD and he said that he couldn’t except it because it wasn’t enough. First off a tip is not required. I was going to give him money. Talking to other travelers who had drivers they said $10 or $20 USD is fine. I figured what I gave him was ok. Maybe it wasn’t considering he took me all around Raj. Ok well so I gave him another more which equaled to about $25 USD. He actually wanted more. Was I in the wrong? Another reason I was mad at my driver is he took me to 2 textile shops that had everything a tourist could want. He knows that I was on a budget and these two shops were very expiensive shops. I had already purchased other items to take home such as silk shawls etc and was really only interested in some silver earings. So I go into the first shop and look at the silver but every pair of earings has a stone or stones in it. Not cheap althought they tried to tell me it was cheap. Maybe not a bad price but not what I was looking for. So I leave like 3 minute later. Next shop same thing. My driver then says to me why did you go into this shop if you didn’t have any money. I tell him that I was looking for a silver earings and that neither shop had plain ones. First off he offered to take me. Second these shops were designed for the mass tour companies not budget travelers. Se la Ve.

Ok my stomach is growling I need to go get food. So Im in Rishikesh a holy city. I shall sign up for some Yaga classes at one of the many Ashram centers or hotels. Yoga and other meditative classes are available daily. Ok so I changed my train ticket in Agra and left to the train station at 7:15am to try and get a non reserved seat on a train to Delhi. I did and it was crowded but a nice Indian guy offered me a seat. In terms of getting a seat it a dog eat dog race. From Delhi to here I had a confermed seat in the AC section. I could of gone Fan but actually the seats were plush and really nice. At first I was sitting in the fan section because I had gotton on the wrong section of train. Finally a train conductor came by and told me where to go. I had to walk through 6 or so coaches to get there. I tried not to hit anyone with my bag but with a small aisles not possible. Well It’s nice here and I’m at hotel. I was going to stay at an ashram but they wanted the same price for a room without my own bathroom. I decided to stay back at teh same hotel I had stayed last night. When I got off the train I ran into two other travelers from Italy and Austria who were also headed here. We shared at Taxi together. When we arrived last night it was late. By the time we found a room it was 12AM we ended up sharing a room. They brought in an extra bed. Nice people. Well now I have my own room and I shall find somewhere to take Yoga classes. Many styles to choose from. Well hunger is upon me. Will write later. Yes the phots are uploaded finally all 120 of them Ciao.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 at 9:23 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.