track our trek

pushkar was an interesting place...apparently famous because of its reputation as a holy city, alcohol and drugs are supposed to be forbidden here...not surprisingly, it turns out to be well known as a place where tourists stop off and score all the drugs and alcohol they could want! (contradictions are the name of the game in india!) when we arrived, we were charged 150 rupees each for a "cleaning fee"...ha! excuse me, did you say you charge tourists a "cleaning fee" for the city? exactly which part of the city is clean? next satish told us about the "holy passport"...touts harass newcomers incessantly until they pay money for flowers to throw in the holy lake as a means of paying respect. once you've paid for your "holy passport" you get a bracelet of string round your wrist, and you can feel free to roam the streets and temples of pushkar without further harassment. (at least not more than is the norm everywhere else in rajastan.) satish told us about the passport, then advised us that if we didn't want to buy into it, then we should behave as if we weren't happy with our driver while we three were in public together! apparently, drivers are expected to instruct their tourists to cooperate, and if they don't, thugs sometimes gang up and threaten or actually fight the drivers!! that's absurd! naturally, we refused to be bullied by the pushkar mafia! we attempted to walk around the lake one morning without paying for the "holy passport." we were followed by at least three people claiming to be holy men (bull shit!) who insisted we show respect and pay for a blessing or "go back to your hotel and sleep!" can you imagine...so after telling them to fuck off in so many words, we strolled through the market for a couple more hours, then bid pushkar a fond farewell. are you kidding me? it's outrageous that people should buy into this mafia-run town...

culture shock and funny antics aside, we were able to see some amazing places in rajastan...highlights for us were visiting the taj mahal (a tomb built by shah jahan in 1630 for his wife who died in childbirth), the rishabhji jain temple in ranakpur, and sleeping on the sand dunes in khuri, a small village just 50km from the border of pakistan in the thar desert. the taj mahal, one of the wonders of the world, is surreal...it looks like a painting in the early light just before sunrise. for me it was amazing to see it up close. it is incredible to think of the thousands of people who spent 23+ years building this tomb!

in ranakpur, a tiny town that is just gaining popularity with tourists for trekking in the mountains, we visited a 15th century jain temple that took 27,000 people 63 years to build! the temple is made of marble and has over 1400 pillars that are intricately carved. it was one of the few places in india where we found peace and quiet!

in khuri, outside jaisalmer, we rode camels to the sand dunes to watch the sunset, then ate dinner prepared back at the camp before heading back out to the dunes to sleep under the stars. it was freezing out there!! we shivered the night away watching the constellation and the moon move across the night sky. daryll's camel's name was disco, and mine was yusef. our camel drivers were a pair of brothers, 15 and 20 who have both been driving camels for more than 5 years. there is only one watering hole a couple of km away, and water is so scarce in the village that women clean pots with the sand!

if it ain't one thing, it's another with accommodations in india...places that advertise hot water showers do not always deliver. in 2 1/2 weeks, we averaged one hot shower per week. the rest of the time, we soaped up under cold wall faucets used for filling buckets. there are always at least 8 light switches, most of which do not seem to be connected to anything, as there are rarely more than 2 light fixtures in a room. power cuts are frequent and irregular. we stayed in several places in the course of our trip, some better than others...as tourism is his business, satish gets a commission for bringing tourists to certain restaurants and hotels... often we were able to stay in hotels that would normally have been outside our budget because of satish's network of contacts. the nicest place we stayed was in pushkar where we paid 500 rupees for a room that normally costs 1200...here we enjoyed one of our 3 proper hot showers. but our favorite story is that of "feel at home" guesthouse in jaipur...a new place on satish's itinerary, we were trying it out to see if it would meet his strict standards for bringing tourists...it is run by the ladiwala family in their home. when we first saw the room, we thought, "sweet!" it was huge and pretty comfortable and the bathroom was cleaner than any place we'd stayed yet by far. then while satish and daryll returned to the car to get our bags, ravi, the twenty-something son stayed behind with me and asked me for a kiss! "please, just one kiss? you are very pretty. just one kiss." ...are you crazy?!? he wasn't threatening, and he clearly seemed to think it was an appropriate request...i flatly refused and waited until dp and i were alone in the room to tell him what had happened...needless to say, i'd have left immediately if i were traveling by myself...and that was the last time in the trip dp was more than 5 seconds away from my side! half an hour later, while we were in the room talking, i looked up and saw ravi's face pressed against the frosted glass transom window above our door...are you crazy?!? daryll opened the door & he jumped down off the plastic chair he'd been standing on..."you need chair?" he asked with a head wobble. what?!?! we made sure we were locked in tight and resolved to tell satish about it in the morning. satish talked it over with ravi (who was apparently very contrite) the next day & he and his sister alka then spent the next day and a half trying to compensate by over-feeding us constantly.  "please, take!"the entire family seemed concerned about how comfortable we felt & kept insisting that we write comments in their guest book. and they seemed convinced that dp and i would come home and single-handedly jump start their business by telling all of our american friends and travel agents about them...yeah right...jokes! for the rest of the trip, it was the running joke..."we just want you to feel at home!"

Delhi and Agra are very vibrant cities which will dazzle your senses, in more ways than one! While on the busy streets of any given day, you'll be pushing your way through crowds of people and rickshaws. Moving outta the way of the blaring horns from tuk tuks, motorcycles, mopeds, cars, trucks, and buses (don't forget the blaring horns I just mentioned).
Avoiding the cows, ox, water buffalo, donkeys, mules, horses, pigs, monkeys, cats, dogs, low flying pigeons, and parrots. Let me not forget that depending where you are elephants and camels are also walking down the street, but there is always an owner moving it along. All other previously mentioned wildlife have NO owners, they just roam freely down streets/sidewalks/alleys.

And while you're watching your front, sides and back for traffic and animals coming from almost any direction...LOOK DOWN AND WATCH WHERE YOU STEP!!! All that wildlife piss/shit right where you walk and YOU WILL eventually step in a nice pile of it...its just unavoidable! You must also LOOK UP and be mindful when walking too close to sides of buildings, under hanging telephone/power lines or through doorways, those pigeons and parrots love to hang out above and use their droppings as target practice on your head/shoulders.

Needless to say, open toe shoes was NOT an option for us while we were walking around.
IT IS UNLIKE ANY OTHER PLACE WE'VE BEEN TO IN OUR ENTIRE LIVES!
Welcome to Incredible India!!

india is a country of startling contrasts...there is incredible beauty everywhere...in the landscape and the architecture, and the people...but there is also an abundance of filth and sickness and poverty. the cities are dirty and stinky. cows, monkeys and donkeys nose their way through vegetable markets where people spread their goods out on blankets on the ground. toilet paper is a hot commodity, as most people use a bucket and water to rinse after using the toilet. (left hand for toilet activities, right hand for eating and shaking hands.) i have never seen such abject poverty up close; & it is emotionally exhausting to turn a deaf ear to all the people, especially children naked and filthy, begging for money and food. but if you dare to make eye contact, you will be followed for blocks with people tugging on your clothes. when we had the chance, we wrapped up leftovers from restaurants to give to hungry children by the roadside...absolutely everyone has an angle...(we thought china was bad!) at every attraction, people pose as guides and want money for taking you around explaining all the information that's already displayed on signs. when you have to take your shoes off to enter a mosque or temple, you're expected to tip the person who "looks after" your shoes. when you use a public toilet, you're expected to tip the man or woman who hands you a crumpled napkin to dry your hands. women in beautiful saris will insert themselves in your photographs, then demand payment for the shot!

with limited time in india, we were anxious to get out and see as much as possible right away...we took the advice of several people and headed to a hotel to hire a driver...for a little less than $40 a day, we hired a driver to take us on a 10 day tour of rajastan to many of the major tourist attractions in north india along with some places off-the-beaten path. it's a bit expensive, but well worth it, since it was clear after half a day here that this place would be emotionally exhausting...and if we had to get ourselves from one city to the next by bus and train, we wouldn't see half as much... so satish picked us up at 8 on sunday morning and we headed off to agra...it was the best decision we could've made. satish has been driving for 7 years for a hotel which is mentioned in lonely planet...he is easy going and friendly, and easy to talk to...he is taking wonderful care of us...we just told him our budget, and in each city, he finds us clean rooms to stay in & takes us to restaurants where we are sure not to get sick (extremely high priority!)...we have both been suffering for a few days w/ indigestion, but nothing incapacitating so far, thank god! maybe this is what people mean when they say "everybody gets delhi belly." we felt immediately at home and relaxed, so it was easy to sit back and take in the sights and sounds as we drove through the countryside. we decided to extend our stay by a few days so we'd have time to travel as far west as jaisalmer and go on a camel safari....so our 13 day itinerary will take us to agra (home of the taj mahal), jaipur, pushkar, udaipur, jodhpur, ranakpur, and jaisalmer. phew!

we arrived in delhi after 26 hours of travel from bangkok...(remember we had to backtrack to hong kong from bangkok to get back on track w/ our one world tickets...) so we left from bangkok at 7:00 am friday and flew to macau, then took the ferry to hong kong, then the subway to the bus to the hong kong airport, then flew into delhi at 2:30 am saturday...hooray for budget travel! our initial plan had been to sleep in the delhi airport until daylight like we did in thailand, but we opted for a prepaid taxi to our hotel since it offered 24 hour check-in. by the time we got thru immigration & found an atm to stock up on rupees, it was close to 4...so we climbed into the taxi & off we went...(after refusing to tip the young man who expected to paid for walking us from inside the airport outside to the taxi stand...) sigh...the adventure begins!  our sullen taxi driver pretended not to understand us the entire way & kept offering to take us to a hotel other than the one we'd booked. we kept insisting he take us to the hotel star paradise in the famous paraganj area of new delhi. once we arrived at the edge of paraganj (a crowded touristy bazaar by day) - he claimed cars were not allowed down the street to where our hotel was located, & refused to take us all the way there...but he still wanted a tip! you can be sure he didn't get one! so we climbed out and started down the dark street which was deserted except for a few very sketchy looking rickshaw drivers...we made it 30 yards before a couple of stray dogs ran out and started chasing a bicyclist! naturally, we turned on our heel and headed for the train station directly across the street from the entrance to paraganj...no problem...we'll just sit down at the train station until daylight...at the train station we were harassed by several people who insisted we were not allowed to loiter, in spite of the fact that there were at least 200 indian people sleeping on the ground inside the station! we finally convinced them to leave us alone by saying we were waiting for our indian friend to arrive and meet us by train. we were tired of waiting by 6 am & headed back towards the bazaar although it wasn't quite light yet... it was much better, as shop owners were starting to open up...we found our hotel, with a little help (never would have found it down a narrow alley way on our own) and were shown to our room...the manager told us to go up to the room & that he would call us to fill out the paperwork later...the place was an absolute pit, and after our 26 hours of travel, we (i) didn't have the stamina to stay there...we sat on the edge of the bed for 15 minutes, and decided to leave. the manager was very angry..."why didn't you tell me immediately if you didn't want to stay? now you've taken a rest & you want to leave for free!" welcome to delhi! it took us two more hours of walking around to find a hotel with vacancies that was acceptable & we wound up paying an exorbitant 1400 rupees ($30)...let me tell you...the standard of accommodations in india is extremely different from what we are used to at home! meanwhile, it was full light and we got our first dose of delhi in full swing! it was crowded and noisy and stinky...full of people and cars and cows and cow shit and stray dogs, and bicyclists, and rickshaws, and horse/ox-drawn carts, and pedestrians everywhere! and i do mean everywhere! we even had to maneuver around a cow on the front steps of one hotel!

we decided to take it easy our last couple days in laos... not that there's much other choice! people get up early here, and go to bed early...everything closes by 11pm, including guest house doors, so if you're not back, you'll find yourself ringing the bell to be let in by a sleepy host...the family that runs our guest house sleeps right on the floor in the lobby, so you must tiptoe past them quietly after 9 or 10! there's a market every night where villagers sell beautiful handicrafts, and even that closes up around 9:30. there are no atm's, mcdonald's or pizza huts here (thank god). banks close early & foreigners must get cash on their visas from travel agents. people take us dollars, thai baht or lao kip here, so the exchange rate math is tricky and no matter what you pay with, you get kip back, of course...10,000 kip to the us dollar, and they round up to 40 baht to the us dollar.
we took one more excursion to the pak ou caves north of luang prabang, this time by bumpy songthaew ride, and spent the rest of the time wandering the streets and shops of luang prabang and stopping for snacks and fruit shakes along the way...we figure we need the down time before we hit india, which by all accounts will be sensory overload for sure! we met leslie and dino from michigan at a cafe a couple hours before we left. they are seasoned world travelers, and it was wonderful to meet them. they shared some stories with us, and gave us loads of advice about travel through india! thanks so much! we'll spend a day in bangkok gearing up, then it's off to delhi!

we spent one lazy afternoon walking around town visiting museums and a temple & taking in the sights along the mekong and the nam khan rivers. there were fishermen casting nets, kids swimming and playing along the banks, and people tending tiered vegetable crops along the river's edge. it feels like a real step back in time. we stopped to have fruit shakes and watch the sunset at one outdoor restaurant. the next day we met up with julie and ensofia and took a slow boat an hour down the mekong to kuangsi waterfalls. the river is calm and flat, & the mountains on both sides are beautiful. it was a nice way to travel after our nightmarish bus ride! we docked the boat and took a songthaew up into the hills to the waterfalls. the water is bright turquoise and cold! there's no swimming allowed at the upper level, but people we standing under the falls in some places anyway. we followed some steep steps in an attempt to get to the top of the falls...after twenty minutes of climbing. we passed a couple of trekkers who said they had climbed up the other side & were on their way down...they said the views were breathtaking, but one woman had fallen in the water up to her neck while crossing the stones, so be careful! we made it to the top of the path after another 15 minutes and could see the path on the other side of the water. the views out from the top were obstructed by the trees there, and not wanting to chance falling in, we picked our way upstream about 30 yards & made our way across balancing on tree roots and holding onto trees vines. unfortunately, once we crossed one tributary we realized we were just in a swampy, marshy area and we couldn't seem to make our way back towards the path...that's right about the time i started thinking about the fact that we were picking our way through a tropical jungle filled with all manner of flying and crawling and slithering insects and animals we didn't know anything about! i saw a gross looking bug inching its way along almost end over end. "yuck, what kind of worm is that??" i asked...dp said, "oh, that's just a caterpillar." really?? in any case, we all got creeped out about the same time and decided to give up the chase & head back the way we'd come. after a few minutes of backtracking, julie noticed a couple "caterpillars" on her feet...turns out they were leeches! eeeww! we all kicked off our shoes and realized we each had a few happily taking meals between our toes...disgusting! we were able to brush them off pretty easily, but it was all we could do not to run down that mountain & jump in the pool at the bottom!!! here's the part where we pray that all those pre-travel vaccinations are paying off! jokes... once we settled down & rinsed our shoes and feet at the upper level (not to mention full body checks for ticks and any other leeches), we walked down to where we could swim...dp and i jumped in for a refreshing dip...after our sweaty hike through the woods, it felt so good to rinse off in clean water and float for a few minutes!...phew! no more jungle adventures for me for a while, thanks! i'm still itching just thinking about it!

since we covered vientiane in such short order, we decided to take an overnight bus north to luang prabang rather than lose a full day taking the VIP bus the next morning. (the VIP bus has a toilet and they serve food)...so we got our tickets and headed for the bus station around an hour early to catch our 7:30 bus...we watched guys lifting huge heavy packages to the top of the bus and securing them w/ tarps and rope. they did it w/ one guy on top of the bus, and two down below standing on the tires and pushing bundles up with their heads! we saw a bus pull out w/ a motorbike on top...we have no idea how they got that up there! there were no assigned seats, so after a while we joined a group of folks and boarded the dark bus to stake our claim...we were a bit worried when we noticed the plastic stools in the aisle...(is this bus gonna be that crowded??) but it turned out to be quite the opposite. it was empty enough for us to have two seats each on either side of the aisle. even in the dark, we could tell the bus was a bit worse for the wear, so we scouted out some seats that appeared to recline properly, and that had the least amount of nasty filling spilling from the tears in the seams...jokes! we met julie and ensophia from denmark & struck up a conversation with them before the bus got rolling. before long we realized it was going to be a long night...we were hurtling down winding and bumpy dirt roads with music blaring from the bus speakers, and a racket of squeaks from seats rocking back and forth the whole way! when we stopped for a toilet break after a couple hours, the lights came on & we could see just how shabby this bus was! the entire inside panel was missing from the wall next to my window seat, so all the scabby rotted out insulation was exposed; there was not a single intact armrest to be found! the writing was all in korean, so clearly this bus was purchased after a looooonnnng service life in korea first! at the toilet break, we wound our way down a dark narrow alley behind a market to a squat toilet in a corrugated tin shed...bring your own toilet paper...use the pail in the 50 gallon barrel of water to "flush."
back on the bus, we could make out enough in the darkness to know that we were driving through some really beautiful mountainous countryside. had we known we wouldn't sleep at all, we'd have opted for the day trip to at least take in the scenery! but we'd have probably been more terrified if we could actually see how fast we were moving around those breakneck curves! we made it to luang prabang over an hour ahead of schedule...well before 6am...i was still trying to convince myself i was sleeping when dp realized we were the only ones on the bus & the driver was unloading all the luggage! jokes... we split a songthaew with julie and ensofia & got dropped off in the "center" of town...dark and pretty deserted in spite of travel agents' promises that we'd be able to find a guest house at that hour...(the only people who were out were women selling food to feed the monks who make their daily rounds for alms at 6am.) we eventually rang the bell at a guest house and found rooms for $10/night after being quoted a price of $35/night by a couple of people who were clearly looking to take advantage of road-weary travelers. needless to say, we fell into bed for a few hours before we ventured out to explore luang prabang!