Month: February 2019

Today, sadly, we bid farewell to Umesh; the final Umesh aphorism seems apt: “I have no words”

No pictues either.  We stay at the Red Fox, and had the nicest dinner of the India part of the trip at the nearby Marriot, which was quite a lot nicer than our super basic hotel.

The Taj Mahal Enough said.

Umesh holds court over the village elders, presumably pointing out some error in their long-held beliefs or traditional customs.

A luxury: second day at Udaipur. We went for a city tour, including the water palace on the man made lake, relaxed, then set out for an afternoon short ride around Udaipur. Almost as soon as we set out, we were distracted by a crowd shouting. As always, Umesh encouraged us to explore what the hubbub is all about, and we stumbled onto a game of “Indian national sport”, Kabadi. Rules seem a bit convoluted, but ideal to be played in the countryside, as it requires no equipment. The announcer urged the players to put on their best performance, as “the foreigners” graced them with our presence.

We visited a local cultural open air museum, where various tribes converge to showcase their varied cultures. Performers from Gujrat:

Mr. Kundan joined us for the ride, first bike ride in 30 years!

Another 6:45 am alarm – but this was the nicest scenery so far; worth it! On the way to Udaipur, olling hills, some hard ones (and Seong’s gears weren’t working properly), along rivers and through towns. We stopped to take photos of three sisters carrying heavy bundles of wood; they insisted on inviting us to one of their homes and offered us bowls of hot buttermilk and corn laced with toasted cumin.

The patriarch of the family. 90 years old!

Our guide, Umesh, gulping half a gallon of unpasteurized buffalo milk in front of the incredulous vendor on motorbike.

To Ranakpur Jain temple and Kumbalgarh fort:  I pulled a calf muscle so no morning ride. Leisurely start! On the way, two women (in yellow and pink below) had been visited by Bheruji, the companion dog god to goddesses the night before so underwent this ceremony to release the spirits. But before they go one can query them for favor or answers to questions they have.

Jodhpur to Bera Jawai leopard safari:  Today we introduce The Wisdom of Umesh, a series of his aphorisms, deep and wise.  Or maybe they are just careless?  Time will tell.

Today we slept in until 6:45! Then some black buck spotting. And the Royal Enfield Bullet shrine. A poor soul met with tragic death on this motorbike. Then, a miracle happened and the motorbike seemingly defied the confines of police impound 3 nights in a row, to be found again at the site of the accident, and thus the patron god of drivers (the tragic victim of the accident) was born.

While wending our way through some pretty country roads and villages, Umesh spotted a grain mill. Stopped in to have a look and came across this beautiful elderly woman still full of pizazz and personality.

Shortly after restarting the bike ride Umesh, for no apparent reason, stopped the bikes to peer over the walls of a home and decided to invite ourselves in to the home. We came upon two women with their respective beautiful daughters, got to see brick making operation going on in the back, and were treated to boiled fresh buffalo milk.

We cycled through some sketchy sandy back roads and parked our bikes in a clearing and were met by this giant of a man in typical ethnic garb. We had arrived at our lodging for the night, Godward Leopard Safari Camps. After a filling and tasty lunch and an hour of “freshening up”, we climbed onto a Jeep for leopard safari. Though the leopard lounging on top of the rock was really far away, we were able to get a good look at its head, a paw and its tail with the aid of good binoculars. Magnificent animal!!

Another cold, early start; a roadside masala tea.

We visited Mahrangarh Fort and museum in Jodhpur. On exiting the fort into the narrow and winding streets of the blue city, we happened on deafening and thumping music emanating from speakers strapped to the back of a pickup truck. Then we saw a young man, garbed in wedding fineries, atop a horse, looking not at all pleased with the circumstances, being prepped for the long ride to claim his bride. After gawking at the slow, jubilant procession, we turned up a narrower and steeper side street, following Umesh. In the few minutes it took for us to catch up with him, he had secured an invitation for us to enter the house of a total stranger to take in this amazing sunset view of the fort. On foot, we navigated through the markets, in search of our favorite Indian snack, Gajak (sesame and jaggery), which, we were told, is “out of season”, by those sweets shop owners who happened to have the peanut kind and not the sesame variety. When we eventually stumbled upon one vendor with the right stuff, Umesh engaged in a spirited session of haggling over 460 rupees of sweets (ultimately, 370). Then on to our evening snack, pyazki kachori (deep fried pastry filled with onion), with yoghurt and mint. That evening, we heard fireworks (wedding) so left our room to watch, and ended up meetings a recently retired Indian physician couple from London and enjoyed a long conversation about their charitable work and travels.

In the morning we walked with a guide through the “golden” fort of Jaisalmer; golden due to the color of sandstone used to build the massive fort. While walking around the winding alleys and marveling at amazingly intricately carved Havelis, Seong was struck by the many colorful patchwork quilts. The guide mentioned that there is a “government run” shop, which buys old, lavishly embroidered wedding gowns and employs ladies from the surrounding countryside to cut out the embroidered parts of these gowns to make patchwork quilts. Heavy emphasis on how much good this project is doing for the ladies who otherwise can’t find gainful employment. Though we suspected the legitimacy of the claim that this is government initiative (given the slick salesmanship; free tea and roughly 30 large pieces ultimately on the showroom floor), we ended up buying this beautiful piece, and no doubt paid way too much. We were assured that “this will never sit idle in your closet”.

Within the “Brahmin” section of the walled city, there are several Jain temples. We viewed the most beautiful of these, and encountered amazingly ornate stone carvings adorning every nook and cranny. These coming from folks who forsake all worldly pleasures for themselves (including garlic and ginger, for fear that they might disturb the microbes and insects clinging to the roots and curtail the life cycle of the plant). To get into the temple, of course, one has to take off the shoes. This enterprising cobbler, strategically sitting next to where people leave their shoes, accosted Jamie and offered to fix the soles of his running shoes, parts of which were coming apart from rough use. 30 minutes later, the shoes were good as new, for grand total of 100 rupees ($1.25).

We were then transported to Thar Desert (town of Khuri), where the sister of Mr. Kundan, our driver, lives. Mr. Kundan had graciously arranged for us to visit his sister’s home and partake in a lovely home cooked meal. The little girl, who is only a few months old, sported stylish eyeliner marks. Apparently, Indian mothers would be remiss if they did not accentuate the girls’ eyes like this, in hopes of fostering beautiful facial features.

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We checked into our desert tent camp, and were whisked away to camel safari to the nearby dunes. The herky jerky swaying of the camel’s hips needed some getting used to, but we ultimately enjoyed our sunset from the top of the dunes with a cold Kingfisher beer (shlepped up there by an enterprising man with a cooler). En route, we ran into a group of colorfully clad beautiful ladies drawing water at the well. And we met Sudhakar, who lived in US for 40 years and now, retired, has decided to become better acquainted with his native land. Here are some villagers at the local well.

Another early start; our first stop included local opium, three cups of tea, an Indian shepherd from central casting, more bike ogling.

After the ride, camels including a two day old one and a caravan of fifty!

The largest library (actually, a book depository; it’s not open to the public and has no librarian) in India. Here’s a pile of unindexed law books.

Rat temple!

Seong contemplating the crowd contemplating Seong

Chose frame sizes, got the pedals on, and rode straight from the hotel about 50k. Talli lunch, cows put out to pasture, and a camel research facility

Cows with jaggery dreams

Experimental camels

Meeting Umesh and Kundan. What a story Umesh tells. He’s 32 and several years ago quit IT for guiding and fitness training. We are learning lots about India. For instance “laddu” is a term for any ball of sweets such as the jaggery and sesame ones we like. The first quality jaggery is made without chemicals and little processing; it’s black or very dark brown and melts at low temperatures such as in your hand. The lowest quality is highly processed white cane sugar. Also, an Indian saying: “Marriage is like laddu; if you eat it you will regret it, and if you don’t eat it you will regret it.”

Cooking down buffalo milk to make candy. Tasty, as was the masala tea.

The waiter at our 250 year hotel in Mandawa

After peaceful Kerala, we were expecting things to be a bit busier. After a city tour, bought bike gloves, shorts, yoga mat (thanks Decathlon!), books, peanuts, coffee, spices, wine and local gin. Our biggest day of shopping in ages.

Biking

Then stalking wild tigers in Thekkady. There’s only one though in 26 sq kilometers so they are rarely seen

Here’s as close as we came to something tigery and elephanty:

Then the houseboat in Alleppy:

And Varkala