Holi

I can’t begin to describe how fun Holi is. Fun for young and old, foreign and Indian. I was a a home with safe powder (i.e. no chemicals that would stain your skin for weeks and burn your eyes), drinks and food. When I said I didn’t want to drink because I was going elephant riding later the grandfather of the house said ‘oh just have some wine then’….and a bottle later I left! I didn’t know that Holi also involved water which was just the kids at first spraying everyone with guns or taking cups and throwing them, but after a few drinks everyone got involved. There were tons of Australians there–you know they know how to have a good time! 4 guys picked up one of their friends and threw him int he water after he shot them all with a water gun. I met tons of nice Indians, English and Americans there too.

There was also music and dancers.

After 1 1/2 showers I felt clean, but my hair had a green shine for a few more days…

After the fact, this is what my clothes looked like…

And after one wash….(I’m impressed with my washing machine!)

And after bleach…

So you CAN get clean after!

Jaipurs Holi Festival

That night I went to the Holi Festival which was supposed to have Elephants doing things like playing polo!

But there were no elephants because of protestors. I guess the tug of war was too much for them, which is understandable. But at least let them show up and walk around! They were already painted and everything (I saw them at Amber Fort).

I thought I was at the wrong festival for a bit because there were no elephants but this had signs saying it was the official Jaipur festival. Tourists kept pouring in too, so I must have been in the right spot.They did not have nearly enough seats! So many people were standing everywhere that the people who did have seats had to stand on them to be able to see anything. In the end, I kept moving and got better and better spots until I was in the front row (people were either leaving because there were no elephants–I don’t know why, the music and performance were great–or going into the field after the parade). The parade was about 10 or 15 different groups from different regions of Rajasthan playing their areas music. The parade went left to right; I’m not sure why this is important, but the announcer kept saying it.

Because there were no elephants, the groups each did their own performance but people seemed confused by this as the announcer never said that everyone was going to perform. In the middle of the performances they had people do a turban tying competition, carry water on their heads, and a tug of war.

I ended up leaving early because the tour guide next to me had his group leave because he said after the people competed there would be nothing more but after I called my driver more people went on! I wasn’t going to call again, and everything was starting to sound a bit of the same. Plus I was tired of being in such large groups. Well, large drunk groups who were covered in paint–Holi was the next day, why were they covered today!

Also at the festival, there was a dog that got partially painted by an Australian guy which was really cute. I was sitting next to some Swedish people then and we could not stop laying with the dog. After I moved, there was a cute Indian boy who would not stop waving at me and the Russian lady next to me, but when his dad brought him over he didn’t look at us at all! Kid’s are weird. When he left, he kept waving. There was another Russian lady who slapped a kid for trying to sell her a henna tattoo. She then grabbed the girls arm and made her pose for a photo. Not a nice lady…Also some not nice English children who, when their parents told them to get off their phones and stop playing games and appreciate the festival (and then walked away), said to one another that they should go closer but sit in some way that their parents couldn’t see them so they could still be on their phones. The point of this is to show the diversity of the people there (and how you can’t really judge someone by their nationality).

City Palace

City Palace is right next to Jaipur Mantar and was beautiful when you really got into the second part.

The first just seems to hold a museum for clothing (where you cannot take pictures). The end of the museum has info about pong (or at least the first playing cards which were circles), polo and chess and how Indian basically invented all of them! And here I thought England did polo and had no idea for the rest of them. India also invented night polo which is/was played with a metal (at first wooden) ball with a candle in the middle that could rotate so it never fell out or upside down, killing the flame.

There was a performance outside as well.

Into the main hall was a dignitary room (off to the right) where the Indian government welcomed famous people.

There was another performance going on outside of that as well! I liked this one more.

To the left were some famous polo paintings/drawings (who I remembered reading about in the museum) and if you go all the way though it seems like a restaurant that had been taken apart…I was pretty confused so went back to the main part.

There were also come carriages right before the exit.

Amber Fort

Amber Fort was amazing–emphasis on maze because the ‘fort’ AKA palace was really like a maze with all the hallways going to different areas and different vantage points. When I saw it on day 3 I thought it would be one of the highlights of the trip and I was right.

Upon entering the main gate you buy a ticket and can explore before using it.

There are elephant rides (which I was told later are only from 8 until 11 or so because each elephant only gives 5 rides before it is retired for the day) and people selling everything under the sun.

One of the sellers saw me take a picture of a cannon…

…and said ‘you like it? i can sell it you you’ and gave me a super big smile.

Walking into the ticket area there are a billion doors, stairs, view/vantage points and pieces of art work. Overwhelming does not describe it. I ran around the place like a kid in a maze hoping I could find my way back to the main gate so I could get back to the car. They do try to get you to go out another exit but you can make your way back to the entrance and go out there–just find a door that doesn’t have a bored security guy at it (most are sitting and spaced out).

Pushkar

I got into Pushkar around 3pm on Sunday March 24th 2013 and went to a cooking class at 5pm that night.

The next day I went to Yoga in the Pushkar Yoga Garden which was a great experience–I had never actually taken a yoga class before but had done it at home using videos I downloaded or watched on YouTube. The instructor had it be low level because one person had a hurt back and I had never been. There were 4 people total in the class, 2 boys and 2 girls; 2 had been doing a week long course; 2 were English and 1 was Swiss.

The place is a bit set back from the main road, but you can still hear a bit of the hustle and bustle of the city/town.

It took the guy leading the class about an hour to realize that I can’t bend my back which was pretty funny (I had scoliosis surgery at the age of 13). He said I had perfect form other than my back always being straight~~and that I can’t expect to change that unless they make a flexible metal!

Next I went to Brahma Temple. I was told no cameras and no shoes and was given some flowers (for ‘free’) but was suggested I make a donation to the people giving out the flowers for the temple. If I want to donate to the temple, I’ll do it inside, thank you! My driver tried to give me back my camera, but we got yelled at by a guying telling me I didn’t understand–I did understand, why can’t I told it and have them believe I wasn’t going to use it? Everyone inside (all Indians, by the way) were using their camera phones to take pictures of everything anyway.

The temple itself was very busy, however there were many signs saying what you can and cannot do which take away the specialness of the Temple.

The flowers I was given were meant to be given to some men that were closer to the shrine than we were allowed to go and one of them gave me a dirty look! I managed to slip away to a quiet area–go upstairs!00and took a few pictures on my camera phone (however, later that night my camera phone stopped letting me save pictures–curse of taking photos where I’m not allowed?). The view from the top was nicer because there were less people, but also because you can see the mountains and the top of the buildings were not destroyed or half covered by signs.

When I left I just grabbed my shoes again and walked away. One of the people running the shop ran after me for a bit but gave up once he realized I was not going to come back. There were also some kids who hissed at me.

I then went for a camel ride!

I had a bit of a break at the hotel and laid by the pool where there were some crazy pigeons!

Later I went to Pushkar Lake for the sunset.

Sunset in Pushkar

Camel Ride

I felt a bid bad for the camel because of the way it had its harness tied into his face, but camels are normally mean to people anyway, right? Spitting everywhere and everything…that’s how I try to justify it. Mine (named Mosi) didn’t seem to mind it too much. It cost 1250 rupees for 1 hour.

At first a 12 year old was leading me, but then the boss called and said it would be better if another person took me as his English was better–the 12 year old was fine for me because he’s older than most of my students anyway and we got along fine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the top of a mountain there was a palace dedicated to the first wife of a king, which I realized later that I could see from my hotel room!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a building in the sunset location for tourists to go to and a rose garden. At the start there were a few tents that people were living in as well.

I tipped my leader 200 rupees at the end, since his shoes were broken and he was telling me about his kids being in college. Maybe he was lying just to get a tip, but it wasn’t much to me and he gave me flowers and let me ‘drive’/lead Mosi at the end. Plus he didn’t make Mosi run–I feel like usually when someone asks if you want to go faster or do something else, and you say no you end up doing that anyway–which I was terrified of because I thought I would fall off.

Cooking Class in Pushkar

Cooking class cost 1500 Rupees and gave me recipes for Dal, Vegetable Rice and Aloo (potato) Paratha in 2 hours. I hope that I can find the spices in the Indian market in Korea, otherwise I will have to wait until I go back to the US or another country with a lot of Indians–or back to India again with a checked bag.

The lady was really nice–as TripAdvisor told me–and also did make-up, massages and made clothes and jewelry–busy mother of two! Her niece kept staring at me saying I was beautiful in Hindi and her nephew was too shy to keep eye contract. Her mother made spice mixes for sale which is pretty innovative–including mango powder! Some monkeys came by for a visit to eat flowers and maybe steal my shoes in exchange for some food–but they didn’t go for that.

We talked about the attack son woman without saying the word ‘rape’ and she told me I was strong and brave but she was worried for herself in her traditional family–not 100% sure what she meant, but from what I understand traditional families disown their children when they get raped. Even after being married, having 2 kids, and running many businesses she has to worry about this. She said she wished she had my opportunities.

I ended up buying some bracelets (a set) for me to keep one and give one to a friend.

When I met back up with the driver there were two cows sleeping right next to the car! Bad choice!

Driving around India

I used Savvy Journeys who used TheRedDot to plan my trip though India and had a hired driver. I would have preferred to travel by train, but my parents freaked out at that idea, and I don’t want them to be too too worried (it didn’t really help). I was probably able to do more by having a driver, so it was good in the end. Plus, I had to be back by a certain time or miss my flight and days of work and be docked in pay so it’s good that I never had the opportunity to miss a train and be stranded for a bit.

Delhi to Pushkar

We left at 8am and I saw a pig cross the road, a bike and tuktuk on the highway! I didn’t know that they could go that fast! By 2:35pm we stopped for lunch and I realized that I had seen about a million things that shouldn’t be on the highway: cows, pigs, dogs, people walking, people pushing carts, motorcycles with 4 people on them without helmets, camels…However the big trucks were decked out in ways that I thought we super pretty! We did have to stop for about half an hour because of goats crossing the road!

Pushkar to Jaipur

This drive was beautiful–and I got to do 20 minutes of it 3 times! I realized that I left my hotel vouchers in Pushkar and we had to go back. So many mountains, turns in the road to follow them, a lake, a little town at the bottom…

After this there was a lot of industrial areas and marble manufacturing.

Jaipur to Agra

On this drive we had a tax stop which was interesting….people were outside selling things (ugly necklaces and nice bracelets which I would have liked to buy but didn’t like him at the window of the car) and there was a monkey that a man had on a chain who saluted me (it was pretty cute, but I’m not giving someone money for putting a monkey on a chain).

Agra to Delhi

Not much to say here that I didn’t already mention.

Packing for India

I leave for India tomorrow, and since I keep seeing posts similar to what I am writing now about how you can travel with one bag and women commenting saying it doesn’t work for ‘us’ because ‘we’ need more clothes (I can’t find the post I commented on, and it wasn’t on anything I logged in with on Google or WordPress so I have no way other than looking at pages of history to find it). No we don’t.

I’m going to India for 9 days (technically 8, with 22 hours in Shanghai on the way back). What am I packing (clothes wise)/wearing?

• 2 pairs of jeans (I know, some people never travel with them, but I don’t like the ‘travel pant’ material, generally, and hiking stores in Korea are very expensive)
• 5 shirts
• 7 undershirts (I know I’ll sweat a lot and this usually helps with the smell and being able to re-wear stuff)
• 7 sets of bras and underwear (maybe I’ll get to wash in a hotel….I could fit more but are a bit to…flashy…for India)
• 9 pairs of socks
• 2 scarfs (can cover any exposed body part or cover your head, if necessary)
• 1 hoodie/jumper
• 1 pajama pants/shorts/boy-shorts that will double as my yoga pants
• 1 pair of sneakers

What else?

• Camera
• 2 batteries
• 4 memory cards (4gig, 2 2gig, 1 32 gig)
• camera charger
• medication (birth control, Iron pills)
• passport
• copies of my passport
• vaccination report (I have been to Southern Africa and I saw on one website that India requires a yellow fever shot if you are coming FROM there, so I figure why not bring it in case)
• 2 adapters
• phone
• phone charger
• toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, disinfectent hand cream (counts as one thing because it’s all in 1 little bag)
• deodorant
• water bottle
• hair ties (on my wrist)
• hair clips (bobby pins ONLY, because they are small)
• wallet (cash, credit cards, travel insurance, ID)
• pens
• journal
• 2 small books
• paperwork (itinerary, flight schedule, travel insurance, postcard addresses)
• hairbrush
• glasses
• sunglasses
• chapstick

This all fits into my 32L Eastern Mountain Sports Creek Freak Backpack that I love so much. I can’t find it on their website, probably because it is 4 years old. It has held up though Europe, Africa and Asia (so far, 6 months in).