Happy Halloween!

This is a cute girl on the farm
she cried when we left.


These monkeys were hanging out by the waterfall
One of them stole some of our food!



This is the family that cooked us dinner by the waterfall

-ashby

Bundi

Since Diwali happened to fall during our journey through Bundi, we've ended up staying in this sleepy town far longer than we had planned...but in the mean time we've definitely kept ourselves busy!

Bundi-with its blue buildings

The second day we were here in Bundi we befriended an Arevedic doctor who whisked us away to show us his farm-where we ate raw peanuts, papaya and guavas.!

Dr. Singh soon invited us to spend Diwali at his house, with his family...we gladly accepted.

On the day of Diwali, we had breakfast and I surprised Ashby with a birthday cake, since it was after all his birthday.

Happy birthday Ashby!

Ashby also got a marigold garland and a blessing on his for head!

We spent Ashby's birthday exploring a nearby fort and rambling through buildings overgrown by the jungle. We saw monkeys everywhere! Ashby got some great pictures of the monkeys!



An old well at the Taragarh Fort


A shrine up by the fort


Cow-at the Fort

That night we spent Diwali with the Singh family.
The best part of the evening, in my opinion was seeing the rooftops of blue Bundi aglow with the dias and firecrackers. In India, the rooftops are like a family's yard and everybody was enjoying this holiday on their rooftop yards, celebrating the beauty of light!. As far as the eye could see, the horizon was lit-up and every now and than you'd get a few bigger ones in the sky!


Dr. Singh and his son

Children lighting firecrackers on the roofs

Bundi lit up for Diwali (Ashby is there lighting a "Dia" - earthen lamp)


Firecrackers

Grandmother Singh putting out the "Dias"

Lastly...yesterday we rented a scooter and drove out to Bimlat waterfall. We swam around a little and lay on the rocks enjoying the solitude...we were virtually alone. When we were on our way out a family invited us to dinner. "Only in India", we thought as we enjoyed yet another delicious meal amongst some delightful people!

Bimlat waterfalls

Thank you Bundi!
-Cara

Bundi


A mural in our bedroom in Bundi

We are in Bundi now awaiting Diwali-the Festival of Lights...and Ashby's birthday! Coincidentally the Diwali holiday happens to begin the same day as Ashby's birthday! Lucky Ashby!!!
It is very interesting to me that it seems every religion has a major holiday that has to do with the "bringing of light"... and they all happen to fall at the end of winter and in India's case, right after the Monsoon. In Christianity the "light" is the birth of Jesus, in Hinduism Diwali marks the celebration of the homecoming of King Rama after a 14-year exile in the forest. Diwali also celebrates the victory over evil and the uplifting of spiritual darkness, which is also similar in my opinion to Christmas... The holiday is celebrated by decorating homes with lights, fireworks, and distributing sweets and gifts-also quite similar...
Anyway needless to say Ashby and I are quite excited for this major holiday! I am excited to see the night lit up by the tiny earthen pots that are filled with oil or wax...
Until next time...
-Cara

Off to Bundi!

some kids dressed up for Dewali

This monkey is angry because we were taking pictures
of it's babies. we ran away right after this picture!


Last night we were invited to a family's home for dinner, and it was incredible! It was the old man from before that suggested the thali restaurant and his son's place. It was a traditional Indian family set up, the old man and his wife, their son and his wife, and their daughter. They taught me how to make a Rajastani specialty because I told them I was a cook. It was delicious. There were crusty tandoori rolls, a lentil soup type thing, and a little dessert. We had a blast. They really treated us like family. No wonder Indian hospitality is world renowned! They showered us with small gifts, and we looked at photo albums. Right after we had to catch our bus to Bundi.
Okay, it's time to come clean. India isn't all a walk in the park. There are a lot of bad things too. It is often very noisy with honking horns, people shouting, and now that it's Diwali (a really big festival), the occasional firecracker that sounds more like a stick of dynamite. Then there are the smells. Sometimes it smells like curry, sewage, and burning garbage all at the same time, oh and some incence for good measure. The people are a bit pushy too. They don't really have "waiting in lines" in India, it's every man for himself. These are all fine though, once you get used to them. Lastly, the really good restaurant I wrote about in the last blog, maybe wasn't quite the dream come true I thought it was. First Cara got sick, then last night on the bus I got sick as a dog. This isn't an ordinary bus, though. It was a sleeper which is more comfortable then the state run buses, but still not that comfortable. You lay down in a bed and the roads in India are so bad that you roll around all night. It feels more like you are on a little boat on a stormy sea. I was so nausious that I couldn't take it. I plunged my head out of the window. First I made sure to look towards traffic so I didn't get my head taken off, as they also drive like maniacs in this country. I won't go further into detail, except to say that the rest of the night was more along these lines. All in all though, the good definately outways the bad and I don't regret any of it. Besides, I guess you haven't really lived until you've had lentils coming out of your nose! sorry-ashby


This is a sleeper bus, the one that says TOURIST,
like a big bulls-eye!

Udaipur


A Sadhu

The Soni Family who were gracious enough to have us over for dinner and showered us with gifts and their hospitality!

Ashby at the Nukkad guest house-rooftop restaurant

Windows in the City Palace

Mural

Ramu the Elephant (I think we saw him everyday in Udaipur!)

Inside the City Palace



City Palace from Lake Picholla

Udaipur is a very beautiful city, among my favorite that we've seen so far in India!
The palaces are enormous and it took us almost the whole day yesterday to explore the magnificent City Palace! To imagine living in such a place! Back at its peak it must have been so fine indeed. I really enjoyed looking into the rooms decorated with exquisite wall painting, glass/mirror work and tile work. Someday perhaps I can take some of what I've seen for inspiration in decorating my own house! The place was something straight out of a fairytale! In one of the rooms there was even a swing! From the palace there were incredible views of the Lake Palace and Jagmandir island and the surrounding hills....Today we took a boat ride out around the islands and had a nice stop-off at Jagmandir island. The boat ride was a treat and provided a different view of things.
This morning I went to a yoga class on the roof of our hotel!
Our hotel is quite charming with stained glass windows, colorful glass lanterns everywhere and its actually an old family house called a Haveli...so its been in the family for years and the family still lives there-its just partially a guest house with a nice rooftop restaurant too!
Bye for now!-Cara

Maharaja's bedroom




Cara in an old tiger trapping cage

We've been in Udaipur the last few days, and have been very busy looking at palaces. Uddaipur is known as the lake city. The palaces are amazing. Three of them were used in the James Bond movie Octopussy! They were built by maharajahs centuries ago. It's really incredible to see the wealth and power the maharajahs had. Two of the palaces are on islands in the middle of the lake. One of those is a working luxury hotel that has rooms starting at over two hundred dollars a night! The only way you can see that one is if you stay there, or eat at the restaurant which costs at least forty dollars a plate! I wouldn't mind working there, I wonder how much they pay their cooks! One of the best things about this town, though is a restaurant we found. It might be the best place to eat in India! We got the recommendation from an old man that we talked to who seemed to know what he was talking about. As soon as we walked in, we knew we were in for a treat. It was a rather dingy looking place almost filled to capacity with Indian families gleefully stuffing their faces. Obviously very popular with the locals. We sat down, and didn't receive any menus, because they only serve one thing, Gujarati thali. There were about six waiters walking around with serving dishes filled with several different items, and they just scoop some onto your plate! Any time your plate runs low, they scoop some more on. Thali is like a little of everything: dhal, curd, potato, vegetables, chipate, rice, or really whatever you want as long as it is a nice round meal. We have gone back every night we've been here, and each night is different. You could conceivably eat there every night of the week and not have the same thing! Oh, and it was only Fifty rupees per person which is roughly a dollar each. Needless to say we are on our way to eat there again tonight, I had a light lunch and I think I'm ready!-ashby

Camel Safari

What an amazing time we had on our camel safari!!!I didn't really want to leave the desert, it was a magical place.The quiet days atop our camels gave me much appreciated time to think and
enjoy the desert pass me by. We saw all sorts of birds, a snake, a fox, mice, and antelope!
The night time in the desert was indeed my favorite time though. We were graced with a full
moon for our trip. One night the moon was late to rise, giving us a nice dark sky to see the beautiful stars! We sang songs and told stories...In the evenings, we watched the sunset and were awakened by the sun rising in the mornings...I know I will dream about these four days and three nights and I will be haunted by the sound of goat bells in the desert silence.
A beautiful memory remains forever etched into my heart.The world will never cease to astonish me with all its treasures, and the Thar desert is one true treasure!

Love, Cara


Camel's shadows

Ashby and I-lunch break

I love Camels!!!

First night on the dunes

Ashby learning to make Chapati-a type of bread


Night time in the desert

Full moon

Goats

Riding

a bird on jiju!

cara on jiju, me on punga, hannif, and daniel on papu aka desert boy

nothing like a nice cold king fisher after a hard
camel ride!

We are back from our camel safari, and what a blast! Definitely an unforgettable experience. It was just us and the two guides, and a really cool German guy. One guide was about thirty five and the other was about nineteen. They both looked older. When I say about, it's because they weren't really sure exactly how old they were. The older one was named Dave, and the other one was Hannif. They lived in nearby Muslim villages. They said they weren't really sure about their age because they were desert people. Dave spoke pretty good English, and Hannif spoke a little. They both learned from tourists. They were real characters. We taught each other songs, and all sorts of things, and laughed a lot. They were also very good cooks. We ate simple, delicious, desert style Indian food. They taught me how to make chipate, and what they called desert thali which was like a spicy, Indian stew. Each night we slept underneath the full moon on the sand dunes, and watched the dung beetles work tirelessly through the night. One day when we stopped for lunch (which was more like siesta) in the shade, one of the camels had been eating from a tree and disturbed a bee hive! Poor Desert Boy was so shocked by the stings, that it didn't even know to run away. We heard it grunting, so we got up to look and Hannif ran over and saw what was going on. Dave was trying hard not to laugh, but it was pretty funny. Finally they both used their turbans to cover their faces and went over to light a nearby bush on fire. The bees dispersed and the camel ran away. Later when Desert Boy was still roaring, we had a good laugh. Another day we stopped by Dave's village and had chai with his family. That was really cool to see how they live. It was all adobe with grass roofs. His family was really nice. On the last day, we stopped by a gypsy camp and they sang and danced for us and Cara danced with them. We are both kind of sad to leave the desert, our guides, and the camels, but like Dave says," no hurry, no worry, no chicken, no curry!"-ashby







damn, I look good in a turban!






cara dancing with the gypsy girl


cara found a baby goat!

. . . the end!