Doors from around the world, a set on Flickr.
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Sunday, 3 July 2011
Saturday, 2 July 2011
The Search for the best Lassi in Rajasthan
Lassis are basically cold yoghurt drinks which come in a variety of fruit flavours and are popular amongst the Indian population, particularly when refreshments are required in the hot Rajasthan climate. We too have taken many timeouts at Lassi Cafes to chill out in order to escape the heat, crowds and chaos that characterise Indian cities. In the process we have tasted the full course of Lassis, from the thick and fruity banana and mango which you cannot drink through a straw, to chocolate and plain. We have tended to stick with the plain sweet lassi which is often prepared in front of you and served in terracotta mugs. Even these have varied from the sickly sweet, tasting like a cake batter to the only mildly sweet. But in the end we decided that the best were from Lassiwala in downtown Jaipur.
Back to invaded Kathmandu
After flying back to Delhi and having a nice japanese meal with the agency's representative, we've boarded a plane to Kathmandu in nothing less than business class.
I guess we were upgraded because the economy class was full and we were, as usual, the only 2 white faces to be seen around.
Anyway, thanks for that!
We had a very nice flight in which I watched for the last time a Bollywood movie, this time with even greater enjoyment since the movie had english subtitles!
Ok, I'll try and summarise the plot without leaving anything out.
A boy is born in a remote village in the south of India. He's born under a lucky star, there's all sorts of good signs to his birth, even the village astrologer says he's going to be come a holy man. He grows up with the love of his mum and dad until he becomes a religious man and starts performing rites of purification and blessings for a few rupees.
He's soon called to preside any official and unofficial event in the life of the village and often from afar as well.
Until one day he's called to bless the ceremony of a banquet but since the host doesn't have the money to pay for it he goes away quite upset until he reaches a swimming pool where he sees an indian woman wearing western clothes jumping in the pool and thinks she's drowning so he jumps in as well to save her but she was just taking a dip.
After a lot of embarassing apologies he goes back to his village where he now has to face a new challenge: finding a suitable wife for his 50 year old guru.
.......... I fell asleep...............
He ends up marrying the woman who jumped in the pool, but first he convinces her to drop her western clothes to wear the traditional saree.
All this lasted more than 2 hours.
Landed in Kathmandu we were faced with what we had failed to see thus far: crowds of tourists.
They were everywhere! In line waiting for the immigration, outside the airport waiting for a lift, in Thamel strolling around looking for an ATM, at the usual cafe where we like to sit sipping chai and chatting away, they were there sipping chai and chatting away.
Steve and I felt unceremoniously jealous. We had been so used to see Kathmandu as only for ourselves that now we looked at those hordes of europeans, americans, koreans, australians as if we had been living in Nepal for years and were annoyed that the seasonal trekkers had arrived.
Some, we learned, were still stranded in Nepal because of the Tibet's closure, but most were there for trekking.
We decided to put on our best and wisest smile and headed for the bookstore to spend our last hundreds (or rather thousands) of rupees.
I guess we were upgraded because the economy class was full and we were, as usual, the only 2 white faces to be seen around.
Anyway, thanks for that!
We had a very nice flight in which I watched for the last time a Bollywood movie, this time with even greater enjoyment since the movie had english subtitles!
Ok, I'll try and summarise the plot without leaving anything out.
A boy is born in a remote village in the south of India. He's born under a lucky star, there's all sorts of good signs to his birth, even the village astrologer says he's going to be come a holy man. He grows up with the love of his mum and dad until he becomes a religious man and starts performing rites of purification and blessings for a few rupees.
He's soon called to preside any official and unofficial event in the life of the village and often from afar as well.
Until one day he's called to bless the ceremony of a banquet but since the host doesn't have the money to pay for it he goes away quite upset until he reaches a swimming pool where he sees an indian woman wearing western clothes jumping in the pool and thinks she's drowning so he jumps in as well to save her but she was just taking a dip.
After a lot of embarassing apologies he goes back to his village where he now has to face a new challenge: finding a suitable wife for his 50 year old guru.
.......... I fell asleep...............
He ends up marrying the woman who jumped in the pool, but first he convinces her to drop her western clothes to wear the traditional saree.
All this lasted more than 2 hours.
Landed in Kathmandu we were faced with what we had failed to see thus far: crowds of tourists.
They were everywhere! In line waiting for the immigration, outside the airport waiting for a lift, in Thamel strolling around looking for an ATM, at the usual cafe where we like to sit sipping chai and chatting away, they were there sipping chai and chatting away.
Steve and I felt unceremoniously jealous. We had been so used to see Kathmandu as only for ourselves that now we looked at those hordes of europeans, americans, koreans, australians as if we had been living in Nepal for years and were annoyed that the seasonal trekkers had arrived.
Some, we learned, were still stranded in Nepal because of the Tibet's closure, but most were there for trekking.
We decided to put on our best and wisest smile and headed for the bookstore to spend our last hundreds (or rather thousands) of rupees.
picsie74's photostream
picsie74's photostream on Flickr.
latest photos from Jaisalmer and the camel safari
Rajasthan in June, do or don't?
You should not travel through Rajasthan in June, it is too hot!!! You're going to die!!!!
All guide books will tell you this. But due to circumstances beyond our control that is what has happened. Dehli, Agra and Jaipur are part of the famous Golden Triangle and are always going to have tourists, all year round. The weather in each was warm but not oppressive and when questioned by our respective guides we have simply commented, "hey, we live in Sydney, this is like our summer". Now we have either been extremely fortunate with our timing or we have had guides who are prone to exaggeration as we have constantly been told "you were lucky you were not here yesterday, it was very hot". These yesterday temperatures have ranged from 45'C into the 50s throughout Rajasthan.
The further we have gone into Rajasthan, the less tourists we have found. Europeans will arrive in a month or 2 while the main peak will be later in the year. Due to the circumstances of the trip we have been booked into large hotels which at this time of the year resemble small ghost towns. At times I expected to see tumbleweeds moving across their entrances. Pushkar, Bikaner and Jaisalmer would not have had more than 2 other occupied rooms. This scenario always makes the experience of showing up for breakfast and deciding at which one of the 20 empty tables you want to sit at very interesting. I have also felt guilty having declined the waiters offer of cooking an omelette just so they have something to do. It is rather uncomfortable having 3 or 4 staff hanging around just to service your needs.
Having now completed our Rajasthan experience and Silvia and I have coped with the hot conditions rather well, I believe. We have been out in the heat of the day sightseeing for up to 5-6 hours. In fact, I believe, we have survived better than many of our local guides who have at times looked as though they have just emerged from the sauna with a handkerchief in a hand constantly wiping the sweat from their brow.
As a matter of fact, more than once I (Silvia) felt the need to rug up because of a sudden gust of fresh air and constantly every time we were taking a taxi we were greeted by full blast air conditioning that we invariably asked to be turned down since really it wasn’t THAT hot.
Steve has already explained that living in Sydney you’re likely to have experienced far worse weather conditions and I have to say that coming from Italy, if it has one advantage at all, it is the one of coping well with the heat!
We debated several times this curious thing, have we really been so lucky? Or is it that Indians are so jealous of their beautiful Rajasthan (and they should be!) that they don’t want tourists the whole year round?
If that is the case, then I fully understand, sometimes I had the feeling that our presence required an effort not everyone was willing to do. People at the hotels, shopkeepers, rickshaws’ drivers, guides etc... it looked as if they were putting on an act for our benefit, when all we were asking for was not to be noticed and be able to quietly observe daily life in this wonderful region.
Maybe 99% of western tourists have demands that need to be met in such a way that they don’t feel the difference between their respective homes and the places they go on holidays to, but we’re not like that.
Anyway, I’m very happy Steve and I did this. It was a great experience overall and we can now safely say we had a great time.
Friday, 1 July 2011
Getting frisky in Udaipur...
...is frowned upon, pretty much like in the rest of the country! But the reason for this title is not that Steve and I were put in jail for public display of affection, cause we weren't, but that Udaipur is a very romantic city.
Ye sir, romantic, wouldn't imagine to say so of an indian city with all that goes with it, that is crap on the street, spit, human waste, garbage, pollution, traffic, noise etc...
Maybe it's the lake, with its pure water (not literally pure, just in the sense of calm) or maybe it's the green hills surrounding the lake, or the glorious palace facing the lake, something to do with the lake, that's for sure!
We arrived as usual in the middle of the afternoon and after a short rest we decided to venture out on feet.
It didn't take us long since we were staying at this famous Garden Hotel were they still had the collection of vintage cars mostly from Europe and the US accumulated by the local maharajas.
After a walk in the main bazaar we headed for what in our guidebook was described as a "decent coffee place - halleluja!".
Indeed "Edelweiss" is a nice pastry place where you can get a decent coffee and a pie if you're in the mood.
Sitting at a near table there were other 2 tourists, highly unusual, since for days we've been the only 2 non indians in all the places we've been to, not the only tourists, mind you, just the only non - indian tourists.
We stroke conversation and found out that the 2 girls were norwegian and were on a tour in Rajasthan for 2 weeks before going to a wedding in Sri Lanka (one of them was originally from there).
We made a couple of jokes about the difference in the weather between summer hot Rajasthan and mild Norway and arrived to the same conclusion: the 2 girls were also told all the time that "you've been lucky... yesterday there were 52 degrees... yesterday there were 65 degrees....".
We really want to check this one out someday!
We then left to try and find a sort of an italian restaurant that according to the guide was south from the Palace but according to the indications on the street it was a fair bit north.
With absolutely no doubts we followed the street signs, and a good thing it was since it was not only north of the Palace but also quite difficult to find!
Very good restaurant with excellent prices and I must say a more than decent pasta!
Our stomach thanked us for this choice, since in the last couple of weeks it's always been curry and even though we loved it, we were craving some non-flaming hot food for a change.
Ye sir, romantic, wouldn't imagine to say so of an indian city with all that goes with it, that is crap on the street, spit, human waste, garbage, pollution, traffic, noise etc...
Maybe it's the lake, with its pure water (not literally pure, just in the sense of calm) or maybe it's the green hills surrounding the lake, or the glorious palace facing the lake, something to do with the lake, that's for sure!
We arrived as usual in the middle of the afternoon and after a short rest we decided to venture out on feet.
It didn't take us long since we were staying at this famous Garden Hotel were they still had the collection of vintage cars mostly from Europe and the US accumulated by the local maharajas.
After a walk in the main bazaar we headed for what in our guidebook was described as a "decent coffee place - halleluja!".
Indeed "Edelweiss" is a nice pastry place where you can get a decent coffee and a pie if you're in the mood.
Sitting at a near table there were other 2 tourists, highly unusual, since for days we've been the only 2 non indians in all the places we've been to, not the only tourists, mind you, just the only non - indian tourists.
We stroke conversation and found out that the 2 girls were norwegian and were on a tour in Rajasthan for 2 weeks before going to a wedding in Sri Lanka (one of them was originally from there).
We made a couple of jokes about the difference in the weather between summer hot Rajasthan and mild Norway and arrived to the same conclusion: the 2 girls were also told all the time that "you've been lucky... yesterday there were 52 degrees... yesterday there were 65 degrees....".
We really want to check this one out someday!
We then left to try and find a sort of an italian restaurant that according to the guide was south from the Palace but according to the indications on the street it was a fair bit north.
With absolutely no doubts we followed the street signs, and a good thing it was since it was not only north of the Palace but also quite difficult to find!
Very good restaurant with excellent prices and I must say a more than decent pasta!
Our stomach thanked us for this choice, since in the last couple of weeks it's always been curry and even though we loved it, we were craving some non-flaming hot food for a change.
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