Pushkar - beautiful spiritual village or cheater palace?

This small village welcomed us with it´s spiritual atmosphere, a wholly lake which is said to be created by the Hindu god Brahma -- he dropped a lotus flower on the ground and the lake appeared.
Patricia, Agus and I found a very homely hotel recommended by a nice couple we met in Udaipur and started to feel relaxed and comfortable here right from the beginning. After a short rest I went to find the only Brahma-temple in whole India, not without having read about the dangers of getting set under serious pressure by real or fake priests to spend rather high amounts of money for the good of the souls of the beloved. Of course I thought that this would only happen to very green-horned tourists and not to such a skilled and experienced traveler like me ;) 10 minutes later I found myself with color in my face and flowers in my hands next to the holy lake repeating a rather stupid text preached by this wannabe priest. The emotional blackmail was that tuff that I ended up paying something, but of course it is never enough. The good victims get a red band, I guess in order to be left in peace afterwards. As I did not spend enough to be a good victim and thus did not deserve this band, I got stalked in many occasions until putting on a more serious attitude towards them to make clear, that they went way to far and that I wouldn´t have had any problem with drowning one of them in the holy lake in case the did not get out of sight ;)

The sun had already disappeared behind the surrounding hills when I found a silent spot from where I could enjoy the view of the lake and observe locals doing there washing rituals. I imagine that this village must have been very spiritual before the touristic exploitation began and with it the cheating under the cover of spirituality. Now this place seems to consist of hotels and shops only and for every step you take someone wants to charge you. Even for sending postcards exists a service charge, I guess it is for licking the stamps ;)

Udaipur - Hang an loose in the white city

Also called the Venice of Rajasthan this town has a very romantic and fairy-tale touch. The prince and princes of "1001 nights" might have lived here. The huge 2 lakes are surrounded by palaces, temples and palace-like luxus-resorts. There exists even one Hotel which is built as an artificial Island in the middle of the sea and can only be visited for lunch, dinner, or to stay over night for 1000 Dollars. How ever we were told, that Tony Blair stayed in an other hotel which costed only 1500 Dollars per night ;)
As the 3 of us were a bit tired from traveling every day or at least 2 days, we decided to take a break here and relax. Luckily the guesthouse had WIFI, so I spent some time downloading photos form the camera and write what you are reading here.

By the way, who is actually reading this? I am especially wandering, if my spanish friends already gave up reading in English or if you are just speechless by this masterpiece of literature ;)))

Por favor poned me comentarios (en español) para que sepa que no estoy escribiendo un monologo ;))) Si le dais al botón "Follow" os llegará una notificación cuando publique un articulo nuevo.

An die deutschsprachigen, bitte hinterlasst mir den einen oder anderen Kommentar (auf deutsch oder in welcher Sprache auch immer ihr euch wohl fühlt). Ich würde mich echt darüber freuen und hätte so etwas mehr ein Gefühl dafür, ob ich da einen Monolog schreibe, oder ob es doch den einen oder anderen von euch interessiert ;) Wenn ihr auf den "Follow" klickt, dann bekommt ihr automatisch eine Nachricht, sobald ich was poste…

Jodhpur - On the run through the blue city

Having read a book borrowed from my friends Marlene and Wolfgang which mentions Jodhpur, I felt a strong desire to visit this place. Like Jaisamer, this town has an impressing fort, but in this case it is not habituated and serves touristic purposes only. We already had seen so many palaces with its weapons, jewels and old clothes that we decided no the enter the inside of the fort, but walk around the walls and explore secret passages into the fort. When looking down on Jodhpur we felt a bit disappointed by the rather small percentage of blue buildings and when we already had planned a new law the force the inhabitants to paint there houses in blue, we spotted a very old and authentic part of the city with many buildings in the most different tones of blue. Hypnotized by this stunning view we lay down on the fort-walls and waited for the sunset which turned out to be one of the most marvelous ones I have seen so far. Our stay in this place ended with a visit to the local baser and a rather ugly park, where we seemed to be the attraction rather than the poor vegetation -- the normal Indian does not make the minor effort to dissimulate that he is observing you, more over he tends to stare at you like a cow at a passing train. To make him wake up form this trance like state you can either stop and stare back, or shout hello (Namaskar) so that he knows that you know that he is staring at you ;)
Leaving behind Jodhpur we visited the "Jaswant Thada" temple. memorial of Maharadsha Jaswat Singh II built form the same white MARBLE as the "Taj Mahal".

Everything ok!!!

Hi everybody, just wanted to let you know that my friends an me are ok after a bomb blast in Varanasi 30 minutes ago. The explosion happened near the Main Ghat next to the Ganges while we were sitting at an other Ghat some hundred meters away. We went to a friends guest house in order to read the online news and let you know that we are fine. Big hug, Volker

Desert, Serengheti, or the middle of nowhere?

In our guidebook about India we found a place run by an Austrian guy with very good reputation, so we decided to check it out and book a camel-safari with them. Helmut, the Austrian owner of the tiny hotel takes care of several orfants and subvents the local music community with the objective to preserve the old songs and history of the Bedouin tribes.
We went by Jeep 20 km into the countryside and from their rided on camels to some sand dunes. Actually the desert was reduced on a few sand spots, all the rest was an arid landscape with a similar vegetation like the Serengeti in Africa, I kept my eyes open to see lions, gnus, zebras or hyenas, but the only animals we spotted were goats, cows and eagles. Nevertheless we enjoyed the peace out there, the balanced and patient temper of the camels and the sometimes authentical songs sang by our guides. In the evening we collected a lot of wood -- whole trees which already were dead -- and made a nice camp fire. I got so hypnotized by the flames that I almost forgot to look into the sky with the stars closer than ever. It is incredible how may stars you can see, when there is no light source near by on the earth. When the moon came out, many stars lost their power and stepped back, while the moon illuminated the landscape around us.
We talked until late with our Bedouin-guides about Europe and how different our world is. When they heard that there exist unmarried couples and homosexuality their eyes became bigger and bigger ;) When the fire was consumed we went to sleep under the open sky, covered with several blankets, hoping that no animal (snakes, scorpions, shackles) would come to make us company while we sleep ;)

Jaislamer - The golden city

After the rather trashy experience in Bikaner we were very happy to come to a tranquil and clean place with a great view and hot water. We dropped our stuff and went to see the still habituated Fort with it´s impressing walls, small streets and hidden places. This place reminded me on Dubrovnik, only that it is surrounded by the desert instead of the sea. Inside the walls we passed by one shop after the other with people trying to establish a communication with us in order to do sell their products. We tried to take things with humor and philosophy and after a short walk we found some hidden corners which seemed not to get a visit by tourists very often -- generally I don´t like tourists, too bad I am considered a tourist too ;)
We observed a family preparing dinner, the husband milked the cow, while the grammy prepared chapatis (a very simple pancake made of flavor, water and salt) and the little daughter was teasing her smaller brother until he cried and got rescued by his mother.
It was a strange feeling, sitting there and observing, because I did not want to appear indiscreet or disrespectful. We enjoyed the sunset at a very nice panorama-spot on the walls of the fort and imagined how it would be to have this view every day ;)

Bikaner - getting in touch

During the first days of our trip Patricia, Agus and I had a hard time to convince our driver, that we were not sheep who wanted to be guided by him and do the standard tourist program. When we told him, that we wanted to see the city first and search for a guest-house or hotel later, he got a bit nervous and started inventing arguments. The problem was that he did not know anything apart from the route he would do with all the tourists, so he wanted to drop us somewhere and meet us there -- not even he knew, where actually "there" was --- a few hours later. Luckily Agus asked a lady about one of the city gates and as she had to go there anyways, we took here with us by car. When "Dr. Sheila" , a retired physician got of the car she instead to invite us on a Chai in the evening. The 3 of us started then to explore the old town, walked through a textile baser and searched for a famous Hindu-temple. On the way a young boy started talking to us, asking, if we would mind talking to him so that he could practice his English and Spanish. He turned out to be a very humble, educated and nice guy, who leaded us to the temple and even invited us to his home. He lives with his parents, siblings and grandmother in a tiny flat without flowing water and just the very basic things they needed to live. We asked him, if he needed anything, but he was just fine with our company, which was a refreshing difference after having been asked for money by so many people on the streets. Many children asked us for a pen, so we are thinking of buying pens, as they should be of use for them at school.
In the evening we met our driver in front of the clinic where Dr. Sheila lived and were about to leave, when she came and pulled us into her house to have tea. It turned out that she lived alone there and was afraid of a psychopathic neighbor and thus appreciated a lot our company. She invited us to stay over night, so Patricia, Agus and I shared one big bed. Before we went to sleep, we went to have dinner outside and lived 2 unforgettable happenings. The first was what I would call a real, authentic bull-fight an the streets. I am not talking about the Spanish way, but about 2 bulls fighting against each other, causing a traffic-chaos and panic among the passersby. The next instant they disappeared and prepared the scene for the second adventure. We were near the rails and could already hear the hooting of a train coming nearer. People kept crossing the rails until the last instant while I was freezing by just watching them.

After dinner we went to Dr. Sheila´s place to get some sleep. Every now and then she shouted form the hallway asking, if we were comfortable. She continued doing so, even when we were already falling asleep and we ended up under a mountain of blankets because she was afraid we could be freezing ;) Like at the boy´s place, this huge flat did not have flowing water and everything was very simple and humble. Bikaner provided us a glimpse into people´s lives, which is much more special than visiting tourist sights. Unwashed, but happy we hit the road again...