more photos, ramblings

Bundi Fort, From my guest house roof


View from my Hotel Room in Jodhpur:


Marrage processional in Bundi (Sometimes you just get the perfect photo)


The Maharaha of Koti Bedroom


On a bollywood set in Mumbai (note: It was illegal that I took this picture. Even more so that I'm posting it online. So don't misuse it in any way, I don't know how you would. I'm not worried, so much as excusing myself for the bad photo angle)


McLeod Ganj at Night (yeah, this is from a while ago)


Bhimlaht, Near Bundi


Bundi



So I get to write whilst the photos upload. I'm loving jodhpur, a great city, lots of beauty in the place and the people. It's maybe got the worst roads of anywhere I've been in India, because they are narrow and they don't use cycle-rickshaws, only motorized vehicles. I ripped my shirt irreperably yesterday when an auto rickshaw nipped me--such is the close quarters every pedestrian keeps with the vehicles. I was glad to lose that shirt, because today I went out and I bought a long Kurta (it's like a long cotton shirt that is long enough to be a dress) and a Lungi, (a man skirt, worn to resembe oversized daipur), so now I have traditional clothes. How to you spell dipur? I feel like I'm not even communicating the meaning of the word, my spelling is so bad. I'm talking about the garments that babies shit in.

Some thoughts and stories from fellow travellers I've met along the way:

An english man who is staying in my hotel has come to India to export antiques. ALthough he is coming to exploit and export India, he gave me a really interesting talk about how all of European culture from the middle ages on evolved from the Silk Route that ran from China and India. Europeans didn't know how to build large monuments out of stone, like the cathedrals that we now see. Indians who grew wealthy taxing the camel caravans that passed through their state on the silk route eventually became curious as to where the goods were going, so they travelled to Europe, taught them a lot of architecture and art, and in some senses, instigated the entire European Rennisance.

I met an english couple a few years younger than me (I have yet to meet any Americans, only English and Dutch and suchlike). They got to Delhi during the high tourist season, hoping to go to Agra or Rajastan or something. But the trains were all booked, and they were stuck in Delhi, staying in Paraganj, the shithole. They were despirate to get out of Delhi, so they went the one place they could, Kashmir. They flew to Srinagar, but the plane had technical difficulties, so it took two false starts and a day and a half to get there. Of course, when they were there, they were absolutely traumatized by the number of soldiers, the checkpoints, having guns pointed at them, etc. They had packed for hot india, and were high in Kashmir during the winter. The boy got deathly ill, and was put on a drip in a military hospital. They said that the place itself wasn't even beautiful anymore, the whole landscape is scortched earth, the military is everywhere, and there are always guns in your face. The situation there sounds really bad; just the other day, there was another massive massacre in Srinagar. Anyway, the whole experience traumatized them, and now three months later they are hardened badass travellers.

OK I think the photos are done. that was nice and fast.