some of the best yet!

the past couple days have been some of the best and this keyboard is one of the worst! figures. so sorry for typing errors and lack of punctuation.

After leaving goa and taking a miserable 15 hour bus next to a sweaty fat man, I arrived safe and smelly to Mumbai. The plan was that I would swing by Prajakti's house, drop my bag, and head to the main train station to book tickets for Udaipur for that night. However, plans are always changing so instead I took a shower and headed to the train station a bit later to book a train ticket for the next night and to Jaipur (Udaipur is closer but has no direct train and Jaipur gets me closer to Delhi... my next destination)

I book a sleeper ticket (this is lowest class train ride.. an 18 hour overnight costs about $9USD) with no A/C from Mumbai to Jaipur for the following night at 1850, meet up with some friends in Mumbai and have a great night at the city I feel like im at home in! After one of the best nights of sleep I have had in a long time at Prajakti's house, I wake up for a day of laundry and repacking and coffee/lunch with Rebecca and Thatcher... before hopping on my 1850 train to Rajasthan.

In my compartment, i meet two awesome spaniards who are traveling together and going to Jaipur as well! We spend a freezing cold night on the train sleeper beds and wake up at 5 am to find that the scenery has changed a lot and its MUCH colder [kind of refreshing because I forgot what it was like to be cold...] We arrived in Jaipur at about 1330 and then me and my two spanish buddies decided to hike it with our packs to the hotel of choice. A sweaty 2.5 km later, we arrive on the doorstep of our chosen hotel to find out that it is no longer the same as it was in the book, and the price is wildly different! luckily, we quickly find a different hotel that will accommodate us but they only have one room so we decide to triple up and pay only Rs. 300 total [about $7.50 per night for all 3 of us]. i then spent the afternoon wandering around this beautiful city, hiking up to the top of a minaret for some gorgeous views (see picasa web albums), checking out the old city [all walled in by amzing red walls], and tiring myself out!

After dinner together, we chill out and listen to some music before crashing early only to wake up early for a FULL day!!!

Yesterday was one of the best days that i have had in India. Waking up at 8 am for a FREEZING cold shower in the morning chill was followed by a delicious omelette on the street. (contrary to popular american belief, eggs do not need to be refrigerated and can actually sit in the sun for hours or until used up... yum) We feasted on our tomato onion masala omelettes and chai before trying to find a bus to Pushkar. Turns out we had to go to Ajmer and then get another bus to Pushkar.. all in all taking about 4 hours! We get on the first bus [uneventful] for about 3 hours, riding on bumpy roads with our knees banging the seat in front of us and are dropped at a bus depot in ajmer where people are screaming out different destinations. After asking about a million people, we find a bus to Pushkar and hop on, sitting three to a bench seat while the aisles are filled. This bus ride was an amazing slice of India for me because I sat down next to a woman with child, her friend with a child, and another little family in front of me. By the end of the ride I was cradling one child, cooing at another, and we had figured out the only word that we could from Hindi to Enlish "sister." This translation took about 45 minutes because generally the women would speak to me in Hindi (or another language?) and I would raise my hands to say "I dont understand a word of what youre saying" and then they would laugh. At any rate, it was a moment of connection to discover the word for sister and have it applied to me and the indian baby i was holding!wow

so we finaly got to pushkar and had only to walk for about 4 minutes before we began to see camels galore! there is no good way for me to describe the camel fair except that there were people, vendors, camels, tourists, cotton candy, ferris wheels, garbage, other animals, dirty/dusty roads, more camels, camel necklaces, camel accessories of all kinds! I even got to ride one around for about 10 minutes for free [tough bargaining skills] and they are HIGH up off the ground! the camel gets down on its knees to let you get on and then when it stnads up, I felt like i was on a bucking bronco that lifted me wayyyy high up in the air! [its knees also buckle to let you down... this process is equally precarious]

After getting our fill of camels, we headed out to the other side of Pushkar to shop a bit, eat some AMAZING street food veg sandwiches and check out the ghats (lake). This is a sacred bit of water with the marble steps leading down from palaces all around. All in all there are 52 gates around the lake. Everyone washes their clothes, themselves, throws flower petals, prays, takes forbidden photos, and marvels at the beauty of this lake. PLEASE check out the photos of this one!

A full day behind us, we took two more buses and more arguing to get back to Jaipur at about 2130! Today I am off to Delhi and straight on to dehradun. I dont know if I will have internet access while there but please email anyhow and ILl get back to you when I can!

I love you all and miss you tons. Hope you had a spectacular turkey/tofurkey day!
Emma