I think that Rajasthan is one of the most interesting places we have been so far. The golden city is beautiful. All of the buildings are intricately carved, and the bricks look like they were made out of the desert sand. Everyone has a romantic attitude towards the desert. The moon, the stars, the campfire, and the sand. Everybody on the streets here calls me ali babba because of my thick beard. They say "namaste ali babba!", it's really funny. The real desert men are really hard core looking. They wear turbans and have long, thick beards or curled mustaches. They look like they have had hard lives. Every year they even have the desert man contest to see who is the manliest and has the best facial hair. I bought a turban for the camel trek. I'm really looking forward to it. Most people here go for two or three days, but we are going for four days because cara is really into camels. The people here want our money more than anyone so far in India. They start young i think because we've seen kids running the shop a lot and they are even better then some of the adults! If you even glance at something outside their shop, they try to read your mind and tell you what you want. If you do buy something, before you pay them they try to sell you something else, "snacks with your mineral water?, cigarettes?, only one bottle?" pretty amazing. One guy even said " spend your money in my shop." "Give me one chance to rip you off!" That made me laugh really hard. Everyone here is like a character right out of a book. We've met some pretty sketchy characters, too. Either way, it's a good adventure. -ashby

Inside the Fort-Jaisalmer


Cow down an alley inside the Fort

This lady is selling anklets

Salesman and musician (those are Rajasthani puppets behind him)


Jaisalmer Lake-paddle boating

Today we decided to check out the lake and rent a little crocodile shaped paddle boat for a half an hour. Our legs got tired quickly, but it was totally fun! These two local boys asked if we wanted to race but we declined, probably realising we would loose!

Ashby and I are now into our second day here in Jaisalmer. We have already arranged for our wedding outfits to be made and booked our camel safari! I am so excited to spend four days and three nights in the desert with my own camel! I am also very excited for the quiet and cool nights and skies filled with stars! It is already far quieter here in this small town and last night we saw bats flying through the moonlit sky.

Today we have been invited to the home of the man who has arranged the tailoring of our wedding outfits. He says that he has four sons all under the age of 12...It will be interesting to see a traditional home and eat a traditional home-cooked meal.

Tonight we plan on attending a traditional Radjastani puppet show, which apparently happens every night at around 7pm.

We leave on the camel safari on Tues. morning, which begins with a two-hour jeep ride into the Thar desert. Before then, we still have the honey- colored Fort to see! Here in this small town, you can see the huge Fort wherever you go, and it is all lit up at night...

Love, Cara

DIU


Naida Caves

St Thomas Church

Beach Shadow

"Scooty"

Goodbye Diu...We are glad that we came here!

Now we are off to Rajasthan and the city of Jaisalmer-smack dab in the middle of the camel trade route between India and Central Asia (when it was founded in 1156). We plan on hiring some guides and a couple of camels to take us on a journey through the Thar desert! I love camels, so I am personally very excited to get to ride one! The guide book describes the camping out at night as, "huddling around a tiny fire beneath the shed of stars and listening to the camel drivers songs" (yes please!)

Rajasthan is also where Ashby and I plan on getting our wedding outfits tailored and possibly our rings...so we have some hefty tasks at hand in Rajasthan...

The city itself has been described as a giant sandcastle with a town attached. It is actually endangered of self destructing due to the pressure on the city's outdated drainage system.

So, onward we venture...

Until Rajasthan...

-Cara

Well...the island of Diu is pretty laid-back and quite an enjoyable break from the big-city blues!

Ashby and I have been romping around the island on our "scooty" and eating tons of fish...

We scored a super cheap room at hotel Jay Shankar ($3.32 per night) and we've been exploring various must-see spots, as Ashby mentioned...

The Bar-b-q party up at the old Portuguese-St. Thomas church was for-sure a blast...great food and Ashby and I really enjoyed meeting some cool kids!

I can say that meeting people when you travel is one of my favorite things!

And although a tad bit cheesy, I enjoyed the little Shell Museum, where Captain Devjibhai Vira Fulbaria ( a merchant navy captain) has collected more than 2000 shells over 50 years. Captain Fulbaria was quite the character himself and allowed for a few pictures to be taken!

Ashby and I each bought a shell-necklace souvenir after we spent a little over an hour perusing the many displayed shells with fading title cards...it seemed the Captain was alone in his passion for shells, being the soul caretaker of his little road-side museum...But I can say I thoroughly enjoyed the experience! Keep up the good work Captain Fulbaria! I love to see people who really care about something!

-Cara

great picture of cara at the fort

this is in an old church that had been converted into a museum

this one kind of looks like my dad
(just a little older though)




A couple days ago we rented a scooter (or scooty, as the locals call it) to explore the island. Although I don't have an international driver's license, nobody seems to care. Yes, I remembered to drive on the left side of the road. It was a blast. We laid on the beach, went to the shell museum, saw an old fort, some old churches, and just kind of wandered aimlessly for a while. It's nice and cool on the scooty. The sun here has been rather harsh. Yesterday I neglected to use sunscreen, thinking that I would be okay because I was mostly covered, and today my giant forehead is hating me. I guess I'd rather be in this weather than in the cold and rain in Idaho though. Ha ha. Last night we went to George D'sauza's famous barbecue party. Complete with campfire, beer, and all you can eat Portuguese BBQ for 150 rs! He cooked up quite the feast. We met some other foreign travelers including a Swedish guy and a couple from Israel. The girl was actually from Florida, but living in Israel. She even went into the army and everything though, they were pretty hard core. They had been here for like a year and had bought a motorcycle and were getting around that way. Today we are going to rent the scooty for another day and go look at some caves. We are also going to try and figure out how to get to Jaisalmer for the big camel trek! All we know is that we want to take the bus as little as possible.-ashby

Veiw from the old mosque in Junagadh

Two children at above mentioned mosque
(the parents asked if the kids could have their picture taken with us after this and the little one was not having it.)

cara at the sari shop

We are now in Diu! Nice little beach town. It was once Portuguese but was taken over by India. A lot of the Portuguese influence and people are still here. The dichotomy is very interesting, It is still India, but with a Portuguese twist. Very friendly people, and very good seafood. It has come to my attention that I haven't really talked about the food much. Well, the food in Dharamsala was both Indian and Tibetan styles. Menus contained items from momos (which are an Asian style dumpling) which can be filled with meat or veg and comes steamed or fried, to several classic Indian dishes. Another good Tibetan dish was Tanthuk which was like a noodle soup with vegetables and mutton if you wanted. It was very nice when it was rainy. Every restaraunt had their own homade chili sauce which was addicting. Further south we started seeing more spicy foods, and also Dosas. Dosas are delicious, I find myself ordering them when I'm not really sure what to order. They've become the old stand-by. They are like a crispy crepe kind of thing filled with several choices of savory fillings such as potatoes, veggies, or cheese, and spices. They are folded into a triangle usually bigger than your plate and served with some kind of sauce and sour curd on the side. Also the train and bus rides are a good way to taste some regional cuisine. You can get all sorts of snacks, or what they call "fast food", which is not at all what we call fast food. Snacks range from fresh peanuts roasted in sand to home-made candies or maybe fresh pomegranate seeds with special seasonings. The fast food is always different, the only similar thing is that it is always fast and usually contains something fried and is always delicious. One other commendable meal was the "Amritsar fish" which was an Amritsar specialty that we went through hell to get to (or rather the bicycle rickshaw driver did). The only information that I could get out of the waiter about this dish was that it was some kind of special fish that you could only find in Amritsar. I don't know if this is true or not, but it sounds nice. The rest was just guess work. It was chunks of White fish fried with lots of salt and some spices and no breading. It was served with shallots and lime wedges, something like a roasted jalapeno and cilantro sauce on the side, some shredded cabbage and carrots, and paratha which is a layered flat bread. The way I describe it sounds very Mexican, which is true, but it also tasted very Indian somehow. I did manage to get a very nice samosa recipe from a Sikh guy on the train. Well hopefully I will get more. -ashby