Tomorrow morning our journey will continue. We all meet at 5am to catch the train to Pushkar. I believe it will be a 5 hour trip. We are all thrilled that, on this ride, we will have access to a washroom! It takes some planning to ride a bus for 10 hours with only one pee break!
Today, I am taking it easy. I am attempting to get rid of my cold. It has become a night time cough and I would like to shake it off. Everyday is so full of activity and rest, is really, not part of the agenda. I left Taren at the Palace and I headed back to the hotel. I met up with some others from our group and had lunch. I had a brownie with ice cream! Is that a lunch? It was a fortune at 250 RP's! Buying any kind of imported drink is very expensive (before you get on my back about having a brownie while I am suffering with a cold, that is the exception. We had a great breakfast at the home of our tour leader. And, for the most part, I am eating well).
But enough of my lunch choices, back to the adventure of India.
The strangeness of India is starting to change. The other day while shopping, one of the girls casually said to Taren, "watch out there is a cow coming". They both kept on shopping without giving that a thought! I laughed and thought, you know you have accepted it when warning someone of an approaching cow, while shopping, has become common place.
Still, I find myself in amazement of the history, the people and the activity. As I take in the country I have been struck by the two extreme opposites that exist here. The ancient history, traditions, temples, the monarchy and then there is the impact of the modern world. It is like these two parts have collided and the chaos was born from it. I think the Indian people are faced with a choice. Let go of the past and embrace the future or remain in this chaos. Or, perhaps they can find a way to merge the two and truly create a unique and vibrant lives for themselves.
This photo of me was taken the other day in Jodhpur. We were in the Vishnu community and these children took a liking to me. They had many questions for me. Where was I from? What was my name? What was my religion? I had easy answers for the first two questions, but they did not understand that I had "no religion".
As our journey continues, I find I am more and more open to the culture and this experience. I had my difficult moments with this, accepting that people live in such poverty and filth. I was warned, before I left, but it is something you simply have to experience and then work out for yourself.
I have lots of pictures. I do not, however, have a way to get them off my camera! The picture posted above is one I took off Taren's blog. She has the whole set up so she can upload pictures. Check it out as we often have similar shots and she has some pretty good ones of me and her and our India trek.
Taren's Wander Lust Blog
Until I can blog again...
1 comment:
I keep thinking of you because a) you are my friend and b) Harper was just over there! I don't think his "tour" would meet up with yours, though! (o:
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