Desert Life

More than anything, I was super excited to go check out the desert. After a week chilling out in lovely mountainous Pushkar, I left the rock climbing and the markets for desert life. My first stop was Jodhpur, which I reached at 3pm yesterday. After setting up in a hotel, I went out to check out the town. Jodhpur is magnificent, with a fort looming over the village below. Walking backwards from the hotel as I admired the fort, I made landmarks for myself so I could get back - a row of outdoors toilets, two black cows, and an advertisement. After going on the internet and a nice fried rice (or Kashmiri Pulau as it could also be known) in a very atmospheric restaurant, I headed back to my hotel. Wait a second... where was it! I found the first two landmarks, but lost my way after that, was was the final landmark again... oh that's right two black cows. Who makes cows landmarks!!! Ridiculous! Trying each lane seperately, I tried to make a grid search pattern for my hotel. The only problem being, Jodhpur is a total maze - the streets do not run in any sort of grid format! Hopelessly lost, I wandered for 3 hours, asking many people directions to the hotel (which name I had forgotten). Due to their own commercial interest, I was unavoidably directed to their cousin's or uncles guesthouse, which saw me end up three suburbs over, now more lost than ever. By the incredible kindness of two strangers who saw me walking around and lifts on their bikes, I managed to get back to the restaurant where I ate dinner when the second gentleman recognised it in a photo in my camera. This time, carefully retracing my steps, I managed to reach my destination, despite the two cows having long ago relocated to a different spot. Massively relieved, I was finally in my room and could calm down a bit (many Indian people told me I should book somewhere else for the night and search for it in the morning, as the streets were very dangerous in Jodhpur at night). Thankyou, lucky stars!!

Early the next morning I awoke and had breakfast at a rooftop restaurant with an excellent view of the fort. It was a great experience. After some quick shopping around the Clock Tower (I bought a blanket and a tapestry for the family), I hopped a bus to Jaisalmer. Having arrived at 6pm the afternoon, I have found a nice place for 150Rp a night, and have booked a 3 day camel safari starting tomorrow. I'm very excited, and have already bought a white turban and shirt to authenticate the experience :P

Peaceful Pushkar

Pushkar is a very cool place, I love these smaller towns much better than the big cities. The markets here are verty extensive; it takes about half an hour to walk their length. Today I started off by being blessed in the lakes, I had to throw flowers into the lake and sweets over my shoulder, Shiva will watch over me now! I climbed a mountain with a temple on top of it, there were a lot of steps and I was breathing pretty hard by the end of it! It was well worth the walk, though, with a lovely view all around, and a full panorama of Pushkar and the surrounding mountains. Maybe tomorrow or the next day I will try climbing a mountain without steps.

Bollywood!!

The longest period I've ever worked for such a small amount of money! Although it was mostly sitting around in between takes, when we were doing things it was very fun; with a couple of different costumes and many different scenes. We were in a movie called “Thankyou”, which involves Akshay Kumar (apparently very famous over here) in a comedy where he cheats on his wife. Not sure how it will be comedic, we will have to wait and see; apparently it comes out in April. Afterwards I went out drinking with the Swedes Victor, Markus, and Sven – together we finished about 5 Litres of beer and a half bottle of very cheap but strong rum; good times!

Mumbai - fifteen seconds of fame and a close shave with death

Another long sleepless bus ride, this time from Goa to Mumbai. It was much improved, however, by our pre-trip preparations: seek out the nearest street stall with Samosas and buy minimum five! Jo didn't adhere to the rule too well and only bought two. It was further improved when I found a bar near the bus stop and bought a Kingfisher beer to accompany me on the journey to Mumbai. Although it only lasted the first 15 minutes of the trip, by that stage it had become an acquaintance very close to my heart. The bus trip was made all the more exciting by random stops along the way, at which our bus conductor who I christened Yeller-yeller would randomly change people's seating positions, place luggage all over the place (we weren't allowed to put it in the boot for some reason, maybe they were carrying drugs in there!), and yell at newcomers and oldtimers alike (Jo especially!!:P) A fun time was had by all on the bus (NOT!).

Once we were off the bus, first stop was to see if we could secure tourist tickets on a train in two days (trains are usually booked out 15 days ahead, but a tourist quota of two or so seats per train is reserved for foreigners). It was very important for Jo that we be able to catch a train to Ajmer, as she will be starting her Vet volunteering up there on the 24th. Success! we had no idea that it would be so easy, and what's more, it was incredibly cheap, at only 340Rp per person all the way from Mumbai to Ajmer on a second class AC sleeper. Looks like we got ripped off with previous bookings at tourist offices.

With the very kind help of One-legged Sam, we located a satisfactory hotel in the thick of Colaba. After a very brief respite we unleashed ourselves on the city...Mumbai is madness! Absolutely crazy city, the first 5 minutes walking down the street we were approached by talent scouts wanting us to be extras in a bollywood film. So if that's not dodgy that's what we will be doing tomorrow. Two minutes after that I found a barber which does shaves for 35Rp (less than a dollar) and it was the closest shave I've ever experienced! First the barber shaved me with an extremely sharp cutthroat razor (my only experience with a barber in Oz was one in which he had a semi-blunt razor), then he put the shaving cream on again and picked up another, even sharper razor for the smoothest shave possible. Two minutes after leaving the barber, a beggar died precisely as we walked past them! We also took an extremely long ferry ride to the Elephanta caves, which, after multiple tourist taxes for both the town and the attraction themselves, were not very exciting. I'd recommend that the time it takes to get out there, even without the 250Rp entrance fees, is not worth it. So ends our day's excitement in Mumbai, time for lots of sleep!!

Grunging in Goa

Got another beach shack in Goa for 200Rp's a night, and realised that the people who live in Slums probably have better living conditions than us... but it's cheap! :D Goa is excellent for chilling out, I felt like Jason Bourne in Bourne Supremacy today when I went for a beach run. After the run, took my first swim in the Arabian sea, it's lovely! We have been breakfasting on papaya lassies and fruit salad each day, and then a curry for lunch and skipping dinner, it's lovely! I bought some pants yesterday from a lovely local lady called Primadonna, who asked how long I had been here. When i said only today, she said "Oh, that is why you are still white as moonshine!" Good fun, Goa's such a nice place!!

The Ruins of Hampi

This is the most amazing place ever! There are ruins all around town, especially two main gigantic temples, as well as ruins situated far out from Hampi. Yesterday we went up to the ruins on the hill to watch the sunset and I gave Jo some bananas to carry. With her huge fear of monkeys, the best thing that could possibly have happened occurred - monkey attack! As she screamed and ran I walked calmly by and suggested that she ditch the bananas... problem averted! (Only just!). We've met some amazing people like a cool Dutch couple who taught english in Vietnam for 6 months and lots of lovely Indians!! Today we got a motorbike and rode around the more extensive ruins, it was amazing to see!

Hyderabad fright!

So while waiting near a stall for food in Hyderabad, a man came up to me dressed in long green robes and said "do you speak english?". When I said yes, he asked me if I knew what happened after the tsunami in Goa. I replied no (didn't even realise Goa had been hit by a tsunami!) and he said well hatred against tourists is increasing and yesterday a tourist was hacked to death in Hyderabad! He advised me to be very cautious and not to take anything from strangers and then left... Glad to be out of Hyderabad!!

Busy Hyderabad

Busy, busy Hyderabad! So many auto rickshaws to catch, so little time.We've visited the Qutab Shahi tombs and had a quick look at the fort near it from the outside... both were amazing to see. We found a particularly madhat gentleman called Raoul who was our auto rickshaw driver to the tombs - he insisted that Jo and I would definitely get married to each other next year, and that we would party like it's 1989 in his house, eating tandoori chicken and roti. We couldn't convince him otherwise, he said it's certain. Due to his English skills we weren't able to convince him that we were in fact not dating and that I had a girlfriend who was not the girl next to me in the auto rickshaw, but he was great fun so we didn't mind! Check the photos above for a closer look at the tombs and my amazing airport hoboing in KL! Next we'll be off to Hampi to see the ruins, we've booked a bus for tonight. I'm super excited about the ruins! The biggest problem I've experienced in Hyderabad is that I can't find any curry to eat, and haven't seen a single Tandoori oven! I hope this will be remedied in the next cities like Goa and Mumbai!!

Arrived in KL!

Just got to KL, I took my friend Jo straight to Chinatown where I was last February to have satays. A strong sense of nostalgia swept over me as I munched my satay ayam and banana and chocolate roti channai!! Off to India in the morning after I show Jo the Bird's Nest Guest house, which is the best backpackers in KL, and the markets here.