After the near tragedy discussed in a prior post, we were on to Jaipur to meet up with Steve. Turns out Jaipur is actually a comfortable city. Much different than those we had experienced to this point. Other than the small mob of Indian men calling for Jen's head at the train station, our stay was quite enjoyable. (For those of you now scratching your heads, we had been approached as soon as we got off the train by men trying to sell us a ride in their cab. I had told him no about 50 times, but he wouldn't leave our side. Finally Jen told him exactly the same thing I did...no. Well men don't really enjoy being spoken to by women here, and apparently he thought Jen was out of line. So he did what any man would do and ran to get his 6 closest friends to come put her in her place, not realizing that it was useless, this is Jen we're talking about. Thankfully we were already in another cab, and were able to drive away without incident as the mob approached with pitch forks and torches.
After our death-defying escape we arrived at our hostel, which was great! We spent the next couple of days, wandering the city, seeing teh sights, and eating some delicious Indian cuisine. We happened to take our first real adventure in Indian food at a place recommended by Lonely Planet...Niro's. Turns out every other white person in Jaipur had the same edition of Lonely Planet we did, as by the end of our meal, the place had about 9 tables of white people...hilarious. Several of them actually had their guide books on the table. The food did not disappoint however, as it was delicious! Yes, Kevin tried yet another food, and actually liked it! (No Juice, I'm still not trying a hamburger)
After our 47th meal of garlic naan and onion pakoras, we finally moved on from Jaipur to the desert town of Jaisalmer.
Jaisalmer was easily our favorite place we visited in India. While there, we ventured into the desert on a 3 day Camel Safari! (For those of you keeping score at home, this is our second of three scheduled safaris.)
The town itself is very cool. It is basically a big fort, that rises right up out of the desert sands. Quite picturesque. The people didn't hassle us nearly as much as the rest of India, and the food was excellent. There are tons of small little streets, crowded with people and cows. One of which gave Jen a small welcome by attempting to knock her off her feet with his horns. Apparently Jen walked a little too close to the Bull, and as she passed him he 'gave her the horns' as they say. But don't worry, as we've shown in previous stories, she's a survivor, and she came out of it unscathed.
We also happened to encounter a wedding one night on our way to dinner. This consisted of a truck driving slowly down teh street BLASTING dance music from mammoth speakers in the back of it, while 250 men and boys danced behind it shooting off fireworks, and just being rowdy. In the center of this mayhem was the groom on a horse, and of course trailing 5 blocks behind all of the fun were all the women. After joining in the procession (unofficially of course) we learned that they were proceeding to the bride's home for the next leg of the celebration. Fearing that we'd get lost in all of the back alleys of the city, we decided to turn back. We had to get some sleep knowing what we had in store the next day...
As anyone in Jaisalmer will tell you (and they will all tell you) the highlight of a trip to the town is a Camel Safari. So off we went into the desert. We met up with our guides (Mussa and Simon) and our camels (Rocket, Johnny, and Charlie) around 9am on day one. Camels are big. Much bigger in person than on TV (although I don't really know how many we've seen on TV, but that's what they say.) Jen was assigned to Johnny, and she now hates him with a passion but we'll get to that. Kevin had Charlie, fittingly the scruffiest of the 3 camels. And Steve had Rocket, the biggest of the 3. We knew Johnny was gonna be trouble because he had a tattoo on his face.
The trip was great. We rode and rode...and rode. The scenery was beautiful but didn't change much, and the food cooked by our guides was amazing! The most authentic food we had in India. And the most real experience we had as well, as there were no utensils. Indians traditionally eat with their hands, and that's just how we did it.
At the end of our first day we arrived at the sand dunes. It was postcard beautiful. That night we laid blankets on the sand and "slept" under the stars. It was quite peaceful until about 2 in the morning when the wind picked up and filled EVERY spot on our bodies with sand. In the morning after we shook ourselves clean of the sand, we had breakfast, and started our return trip to Jaisalmer. It was at this point that we all learned just what it means to ride a camel for two days. They are incredibly uncomfortable, and unforgiving on certain regions of the body. Ok, well maybe all of them. For the most part the ride was very enjoyable, and we'd recommend it to anyone looking for something a little different.
Just not if you have a bad back like Jen. This brings us to the reason for Jen's contempt for Johnny. He was a good camel but three weeks later, Jen still can't walk for a whole day w/o her back hurting. Thanks Johnny...thanks. Kevin initially had issues with Charlie as well, but of a much less painful sort. Charlie was slow. Very slow. After having a discussion with Simon, Kevin learned that Charlie in fact was not slow, he liked to run. The way he achieved this while walking was that he would lag behind the other camels for a while then run to catch up. Very clever.
Incase you were wondering what the title to this post has to do with all of this, it turns out camels are quite flatulent. After Kevin's bout with Delhi Belly...well, you can put two and two together.
As for the rest of our stay in India, we spent it relaxing in Bombay/Mumbai. We enjoyed Leopold's (the most famous restaurant in Bombay) to the tune of 2 meals a day for 3 days. Other than that, we just wandered around the area near our hotel, and saw the sights around town. We also visited the markets and street vendors to help Steve shop for various nautical antiques and giant balloons.
For those of you playing along at home, have you figured out our general take on India yet?
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