Riding Thal

First, a rundown of events since last I have posted. :o)

Chesa and I have made it to our westernmost destination here in India: Jaisalmer. Situated on the edge of the Thal desert a mere 100 kilometers from the Pakistani border, I’ve fallen in love. As Chesa likes to keep pointing out, each of the cities we visit in Rajasthan is distinguished by its own special color. Jaipur is known as the pink city as one of the local Maharaja ordered the entire old city be painted that rusty hue to welcome the future (at the time) King Edward. Jodhpur (where we were yesterday) is the blue city as many of the houses are painted blue, a color originally reserved for the Brahmin (one of the higher castes) of which the capital of the Rajput kingdom had a plethora. Jaisalmer though, is known as the city of gold. We discovered the reason first hand this evening while touring the fort: at sunset, the color of the sand and stone all the buildings are made of shines a brilliant gold. It was exquisite.

I’m not exactly sure what it is about this city that I like so much, but it is truly the first one in India that I wouldn’t hesitate to stay in longer. I think part of it is the fact that it’s smaller than some of the places we’ve been, but also that the old part of town is still mostly pedestrian and quite quaint. We also discovered an excellent Italian restaurant for dinner with real tiramisu, so that might also have something to do with it. :o) Tomorrow we head out for a short camel excursion in the desert, something to which I have been looking forward for quite a while.

As for Jodhpur, where we were yesterday, the most impressive part was the fort. As I mentioned before, Jodhpur was the capital of the Rajput kingdom, and so the fort on a mesa overlooking the rest of the town is as ornate as it is solid. It dominates the town. I also quite enjoyed the tour, as it was the first place that actually had an audio tour guide—we even got to hear audio clips from the Maharaja himself. Now, since I know that most of you are avid polo fans, you won’t be surprised to hear that, indeed, jodhpur did originate in this town, as the former Maharaja was an avid polo enthusiast. For those of you have never seen polo in your life (which I hadn’t until last year in Manila), jodhpur are riding pants.

The story I found interesting is that the former Maharaja built a new palace (where his current highness continues to reside) as a drought relief program of Rooseveltian proportion. He employed over 15,000 workers in its building. But that’s an aside. The interesting story is that while touring said palace, we noted that he quite enjoyed planes, as they displayed a model collection of his actual one. Jodjpur actually even had the first international airport in India because of him. The thing we didn’t find out until on the audio tour at the fort, several kilometers away, is that his life was tragically cut short in a plane accident…guess they forgot to mention that!

Other than that, I didn’t find Jodhpur all that exciting. It was obvious that the city had a bit more money than some of the other cities we’ve been in, and the architecture was distinctly influenced by the Europeans, but it lacked a soul nevertheless.

And jumping back to Pushkar, there are a couple of stories I forgot to mention. First is related to the animals: about 3km outside of town, we followed the curve of a road right into the oncoming stampede of oxen. We were able to brake almost immediately, and the animals maneuvered around us, but it was still quite intimidating. I’m telling you, the animals in India freak me out in size and ubiquity!

Also, I mentioned that Pushkar was a holy city. What I failed to mention, however, was that it was so holy that the entire city is strictly vegetarian. Actually, I’ve been eating almost entirely veg (with the exception of mutton on two occasions) since my arrival in India, so I didn’t mind. I just found it interesting that an entire city could be veg. The other thing that happened there that assured us it was indeed a holy city happened at 3:45AM each morning.

The first night there, I awoke from strange dreams to the heavy thud of a drum. Not knowing what was happening, and still heavy with slumber, I could only assume the world was ending. After a minute of pounding though, bells chimed in and I was assuaged. The bells continued for almost five minutes, and were joined by a trumpet calling in the night. Chants of ‘om’ could be heard floating through the air. While the interruption in sleep was annoying at first, I couldn’t help but feel moved. I think it was the ‘om’ that did it for me. Chesa had explained earlier that it is believed to be the sound of the universe, and that night, hearing distant chants carried on the wind, it seemed like nothing less.