From Pushkar

hello all

so I'm in Pushkar, Rajastan, which is a good place and I'm glad I'm here. It took much travelling to get here--Indian busses are quite inefficient. But it was a good lesson in travelling alone in India, I will learn patienceand flexability. I spent last night in Ajmer, which is the nearist biggish city, and that was surprisingly cool. I saw a very pretty Jain temple and the lake there. Pushkar is a smallish tourist destination with a holy lake and the only brahma temple in India. I've become quite secure with the fact that I am a tourist and my destinations are mostly tourist destinations. It's not like I can escape being in India--everyone here is Indian still with a few travellers mixed in, and the travellers are good people in themselves. India is hard travelling. But in a very real sense, India is amazingly easy travelling because I don't have to figure it out. It's not like I have to learn the geography of any place where I find myself, I can just tell the rickshaw walla where I want to go. If I am confused, I can ask any Indian man around me, and they usually speak English. Their mentality is so helpful and open and happy; each one considers it his duty to help tourists. I'll get ripped off by ten or twenty ruppees here and there, and that's just how it is. They're poor people, it's OK.

I still feel good about my decision to travel alone, despite moments of self doubt that I will have to learn to deal with in the coming weeks. One thing that I like about being alone is that thought becomes action immediatly, without having to be debated, miscommunicated with another person. It also means that I have to trust myself completely, and once I make a decision, to go with it to the fullest and be happy about it. That will be good for me to learn.

So I haven't yet set up my transport out of here, maybe I will do that right now, but my plan is to travel to Mumbai on monday or tuesday, spend a few days there, and then hit Gokarna, perhaps by way of Goa, on the way to Kerela.

Email me, call me, do whatever you have to do.
much love and respect
jed