holy moly the taj seems like ages ago.. but it's beauty remains embedded in my retina's like it was just yesterday.. puke... but i must say, in all cheesiness, it is quite an exquisit monument. we arrived in the town of the taj in the dark hours of the night and ventured up to the roof of our guesthouse, as per usual, to check out the view. and there it was off in the distance. a veluptuous shadow off in the hazy dark distance. really just absolutely gorgeous. pictures in books and what have you, definately do it justice though. oh, and then one day it rained and we had to hike up our pants and wade in calf deep rancid street water with floaties including: banana peels, oil, cow dung and many other horrible horrible and disgusting subtances. but the kids loved it and were splashing around and laughing and playing and so, as you do, we took the opportunity to splash back and it was great fun. the rancid street water on the face wasn't so super though.
and then we went to a very laid on back type of town called pushkar. oh and it was laid back to quite a state of utopia. definately on the list of faves. anyhoo (yep, anyhoo) it was hot and so we rented a moped for the cool breeze factor. and to check out some sites. but mostly for the breeze. it was a bit on the old and sick side right from the start but that didn't stop me and sean from cruising to all the neighbouring towns and cities and then we thought it'd be fun to ride into the middle of nowhere. 10 whole km's into the middle of nowhere. that's when we ran out of gas. on a rickety rock path surrounded by huge rocky hills and some very sad trying to survive bushes and the evening sun and a dinner date that we'd be late for. and that's when we heard the goats. and made a friend. not with a goat. a random indian dude with an inventory of about 30 english words, which is more then enough to get by, and a kind plump heart and big muscles insisted on pushing the bike all the way to the next village. no gas. so on to the next village. luckily it was a km or so downhill so we all three sqeezed on to the ancient decrepit moped and rode gasless down the hill. we found a shack and bought a wiskey bottle full of very odd colored petrol and it did the trick. but our new friend insisted that we go to his house in the village and drink some chai. it was soo soo nice. a tiny little house with one room and two shelves full of a couple pots and a few chiped cups and one bed and a picture of his passed away dad and some flowers. that about covers every single item on the premises. every member of his family and extended family and their friends and aquantences gathered around and peeped their head over the fence. it was very cute and they were all so so happy and generous with the little things they had. they insisted that me and sean eat the last pack of cookies. it's such a humbling feeling when someone that has so little is so generous and happy. i think i've said that before but it's the truth and i'll say it again dangit.
after one of the best chai's i've had and some broken but very good quality chatting, mostly one or so word sentences, we coasted on back to civilization just in time for our dinner date. an eccentric swiss woman cooked a great rajastani meal for sean and myself, an italian bearded guru and the old friendly indian owner of the guesthouse we were staying at. it was a nice gathering of some friends and food and interesting chats. and again, there was no exchange of money or payment. just some nice friendships. so nice. okey moving on..
after a few more stops at cute cities and whatnot we found ourselves in the northwest part of india, about 200km from the border to pakistan right smack in the middle of the great thar desert. jaisalmer is a really small city all made of sandstone so the place is like one big fat oven. everything's beige and hot. hot hot hot. but no, that wasn't good enough, we decided to then take a random 4 hour bus ride down a road made of tracks in the sand and occasional rocks sticking up acting as road signs. tracks in the sand. and on windy days, the road is closed becasue there's no tracks. we made it to a village of mud huts and small sandstone buildings. it's like turning the vision setting on your eyeballs to sepia. everything is the same color. beige. but only kind of beige because there's a little bit of wavyness to everything you see because of the heat. at night we pulled the beds to the roof of his house and slept under the desert stars. and somewhere in the village there was a big party with drums and singing and that was nice.
the next day we saddled up on some camels and decided to trek even further into the desert for an overnight safari. me and sean and two indian dudes and a bunch o happy chewing farting camels and the hot sun of death. in these parts life can only happen in the early mornings and evenings. from 11am to 5pm people just lay in the shade and snooze and wait for the sun to go the f away. and so we did just that. we found one lone tree to hang a blanket from for a tiny bit of shade and waited. oh, and i puked my brains out the whole day. minor d'tail. finally in the evening we arrived at some beautiful sand dunes. our dudes made a fire and cooked up some curry and chapati (which supposedly was delicious but my stomach insisted on hating me so i opted for the water diet) and cranked the hindi love songs from my ipod speakers. it was glorious. after the sun went down we threw a blanket on the dunes and slepted under the stars. oh, the life.
it's so cool how a village, consisting of four little mud huts with hay roofs and a tree to squat behind for a toilet, can be so self sufficient and busy and happy. really, surviving and eating and washing are the top priorities. i guess the homemade desert wine helps a bit too.
righteo so we're still just hanging in the desert and things have been good. last night sean ate dinner at the resaurant with no pants. that was good. and i havn't puked for like 3 days. oh, and at the train station yesterday we only had to wait in line for 5 hours. don't know if it can get any better than this. i think i'll try to eat some solids and maybe do a bit of shopping. woooo!
it's been a slice, thanks for stopping by.
love nat. my toes are miraculously very clean at the moment.
xoxo
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