Jodhpur - Some things in life are free

Sick of peace and tranquility? Need a smoke, but spent your last dollar on your morning martini? Always preferred a pollution tan over a natural one? Jodhpur is your walhalla! And best of it, all that is free of charge! It costs you only the ticket to get there... plus of course all the superfluous money that will kindly be extracted from you by the local retailers. The word on the street is that whenever they see a white person they think ATM. At least in this town they put some effort into it judging by the missing member of the spice girls : Mr. Allspice. "Come into my shop, have a look, no need to buy." "Okay." "Please have a seat." "No thank you." "Please sit." "No." "Sit?" "Thanks, but no." "Sit or I call the dogs." "Okay."
Then Allspice starts his performance. Making us smell all the teas he has; "this is black tea" " oh..exciting." "this is cinnamon tea" "ah...strangely smells like...no don't tell me...eh...is it cinnamon?" "whatisyournamewhereareyoufromwhogivesafuck?" "eh my name is Ar.." "this is tea of cardamom, saffron and something something"
At this point out of nowhere comes his sidekick with yes ... two cups of that same tea! Yeah! What a show! I'd pay money for this...maybe! After we had all the teas he had in his shop he continued with his small assortment of a gazillion spices. "this is curry, please smell" "yuck, smells like my grandfathers socks." "this is cinnamon" "ah...strangely smells like...no don't tell me...eh...is it cinnamon?" "okay now you buy all spices and teas" "Nah, thanks." "you don't like me? Look at my puppy eyes..buy my spices." "thanks for the free tea but no." "here's something I prepared earlier; look at it! Perfectly wrapped in plastic nine spices, and also one with nine teas! And you can use it as a pillow too!" "and I'll wake up smelling to my grandfathers socks." "nine spices nine teas perfect present" "don't think so" "nine spices, nine teas, perfect present." "Give me an N, give me an O, what's that spell? No!" "nine spices, nine teas, perfect present" "booby booby titty bum pussy do you hear anything i say!?"
Needless to say we were quite proud we walked out of that shop with merely a 250 rupee bag of curry. Any local would have to work a lifetime plus sell his kidneys to be able to afford that.

So life in Jodhpur is intense. You find people on the street 24 hours a day. Shops sit behind openings big enough to be your bathroom window. Some aren't nearly big enough for "yo mamma's big fat ass", and coincidentally might have been there so long that quite possibly your big fat great-great-great-great-grandma's big fat ass was actually in there. Find a tuk tuk driver who has two accidents on the short 10 minute way between bus station and guest house and swears it wasn't his fault and looked a bit droopy when in spite of this he received Sandra's much acclaimed worst driver of the holiday reward.

But thank god you also find peaceful rooftops overlooking the city and the ancient fort built out of the rock it stands on. And then when it is sunset prayer time and all the mosques turn their amps up to eleven and start expressing their convictions whether you want to hear them or not, this place really turns magical... Sandra was downstairs in the room sleeping and missed it all.

Rn

Pushkar - hippies & priests

After 10 days of traveling through big cities this place was a good point for resting and reflection. Pushkar is known for being an important pilgrim centre for Hindus but you can also see the beginnings of a hippy community taking place. It is a small village, thank the gods for that... All of them: Vishnu, Brahma and Ali Baba. No tuk tuks buzzing their way through the streets and less people hassling you for money or being your best friend before taking you into their shops where you should really just have a look...no need to buy...seriously. Nevertheless our nerves hit the roof after being taken into a religious ceremony where we pray for good karma for our families and were expected to pay an astronomical amount of money to help the poor (the 'priests' looked very well nourished somehow). I told him that my family always had bad karma and therefore I was unwilling to pay anything, let alone a small fortune. After a lot of arguing I gave him 100 IR and left with Arne. Later while waiting at the bus station we were approached by a guy who really wanted to talk English to a foreigner and finally got the courage to do so. He told us about his friend from New York (side note: funny how these Indians always have some friend somewhere. I'm still waiting for the guy that tells me he's besties with Obama... Any time now...) who left more than 5000 IR behind; I guess we didn't do too bad after all...

We should also mention a guy we meet whilst going around the sacred lake who wanted to take us to his home at first, later was showing us his bank credit, telling us how much money the government gives him a month (500 IR/month) and finally (i guess you already know were i am going) asking us for money by giving us his account number and pin code... We have him few rupees and he offered us pod... Was we for real?!?

On the other hand, our little hotel served us the best vegetarian food we had so far on this trip! Everyone was extremely friendly and eager to help and although we didn't have many luxuries (I had to bucket shower, the mattress was pretty hard too) the place was special.

Jaipur - shoppers paradise?

If you think Jaipur is a bargains paradise you are wrong but if you accept that your (premium) contributions will help support a business many families rely on the idea of paying more becomes secondary. Many tuk tuk drivers will entice you to go and watch handcraft making and get someone to explain you how it works; unfortunately the 'factory' is tiny (I was expecting full on production) and by this I mean two old men block printing a piece of fabric and a guy doing embroidery. I actually have more fun watching my aunt do her hand crafting and explaining me how she puts it's all together (whislt eating home made cakes and drinking tea). The centre of the pink city though is full of bazars and if you enjoy spending time bargaining you will feel right at home. The nice thing is that many workshops still look genuine and that the people that sell goods are the people who produce them on site.From all the buildings we visited Amber Fort was definitely the most impressive one due to its scale, setting and preservation. I am surprised to see that many monuments are tourist attractions yet they have been 'neglected' in terms of maintenance and refurbishment.The highlight of today though was meeting Aslam, the happiest driver we came across so far in our trip and certainly the most multi-skilled one. He sang the whole way and even did a small demonstration of his acting skills at the end of the journey as he is really keen to be feature in one of Arne's video clips. Funny too were the various comments he did about how good looking Arne really is.... As he said 'Arne looks like a movie star'. I told Arne that given the circumstances he should get a Bollywood role to help pay for the trip!

Delhi - surviving the heat

OMG (for those who don't get it means oh my %*^!good it's bloody HOT!Surviving 36 degrees is already a challenging task but 42+ is a whole new level! I only remember being this hot traveling through the Greek islands where the sea helped cool down our sweaty bodies. Here you would walk for 200 meters and feel that you needed a cool shower and new clothes; no wonder people (with money) are driven everywhere and others just manage to cope. After a while your throat gets itchy and your body is covered with dust that comes from absolutely everywhere. Did you get the picture? not so nice... Delhi is gigantic, we only managed to cover few areas and with the heat there is so much you can do in a day. The Bazars in the old part of town are a nice experience, as the lonely planet describes it challenges our senses and by this I mean all. We had lots of fun going around and that fruit juice after hour of walking was just what we needed to get going. We didn't manage to get in the mosque as the door man was abusing us by trying to charge us an entry fee; that was unfortunate but it have us some extra time to wonder around one of the main shopping areas - C Place. The best experiences in Delhi were spent in Khaus Khan village, a neighborhood in the south full of small shops, some nice restaurants and few really cool rooftop bars where only locals (and curious people) find by change hidden away from the main streets. We are meeting MAGNUS fans all over the place (see Magnus facebook page) and making sure they are captured in our photo album!This morning we almost got scammed catching our train (you wouldn't believe the stories these guys make up) but fortunately we are heading south and soon we will be arriving at our next destination - Jaipur.