Violent Nausea, Mughals, Forts, and Camels (In that Order)

Hello again! We're back at Ashok's place for the day after a week of Rajasthani travel. Tonight we're headed to Rishikesh via an overnight train. Ohhhh trains. That seems a good place to start with this entry. ALl of our train rides have been at least memorable in their own way.....

Our train ride from Delhi to Udaipur started out innocently enough, but I eventually began to feel a tad queasy. You can probably see where this is going. OR - if you're one of Deepa's many medical relatives - you learned ALL about me that night! (Thanks Dakshi and co.!) I became delirious and all sorts of nauseous.....it was pretty terrifying. I started moaning and flailing and couldn't control myself - I kept telling myself to stop flailing, but my arms waved about anyway and I sort of watched them from afar. It may have something to do with the larium....ahhhh, psychosis!!! SO I changed malaria meds. Deepa and Kate did a spectacular job taking care of me. Kate showed infinitely more motherly tendencies than I knew she possessed. There was a lot of catching me as I collapsed from exhaustion and holding my hand through unsavory times...... Deepa freaking raised the alarm in India!! I was too delirious to know it until later, but apparently half of India was phoning in medical advice throughout the night. Once again, thanks everyone! It's a bit odd that the whole K-family (as Deepa tells me you're called!) knows me through a) my blog and b) my horrific illness. But I'm sure we'll find other ways to bond! Also - thanks to Murali for calling my parents and assuaging their worries. I'll leave the rest of my delirious adventures to Kate to explain because there are some REALLY funny bits and she'd do them justice. :) The Udaipur hotel was actually what I would have imagined heaven would be like while I was on the train. I sat and slept all day and attempted to eat (but didn't...) Deepa and Kate were exhausted themselves (with good reason!) so it was a wonderfully lazy day in comparison.

Rajasthan!!!! It's beautiful. Our guide in Udaipur was a perfect gentleman (Arvind Singh - we'll recommend him to anyone!). He knows EVERYTHING about Udaipur and the whole region and clearly loved sharing it with us. He was also very laid-back and let us set the pace of the day. We saw an active Hindu temple that has been around for hundreds of years. We've seen many temples at this point, but what stands out about that temple to me is the music and worship that was going on while we were there. I was too weak to walk around with the other three, so I sat with the worshipers. I sat off to the side to keep a respectful distance, but a kind lady kept welcoming me closer, so I joined in. The room felt energized and simply, but wonderfully, happy, and I loved being a small part of it. We also visited the city palace.....gorgeous!!! Again, I sat in a nice place while the others walked around. But it really did not bother me a bit - I drew and made friends with a guard and I probably would have preferred that to walking around had I been well. Still, Deepa and Kate gave me an abridged tour on our way out and I was duly impressed. That evening Kate and I took a boat ride on the lake....unfortunately Deepa was starting to feel ill. We saw an island-palace and some brilliant views from the boat. Our guide really outdid himself: he took us to his favorite local coffee place afterwards and insisted on paying for our coffee! Udaipur may have been my favorite city.....much slower-paced than anywhere else we had been, and very friendly on the whole.

The next day we visited the Ranakpur Jain Temple on our way to Jodhpur. 1444 intricated carved marble pillars - each with a unique design! (Deepa and I figured out that 1444 is a special number because......have you guessed it yet, Dad?....it's 38 squared!) The High Priest blessed the three of us because, in his words, "You are students, and the youth is the future of the world!" It's funny how things like that happen to us and we take them in stride. If the High Priest of a Jain Temple wanted to bless me in Seattle, I would be pretty floored! That may seem like a silly/erroneous comment....but wow!

Jodhpur = the blue city for good reason. Ages ago only the Brahmins were allowed to paint their houses blue. The blue paint keeps the houses cool in the heat, so now that anyone can paint their house blue - it's very in vogue. The best view of all the blue houses is from Mehrengarh Fort.

Jaisalmer! Here, everything is Golden instead of blue! WE love how all the cities have their own theme. Our driver is from around Jaisalmer - he was also incredibly good to us.....there are some stories but I'll let Kate tell them because she's hilarious. Jaisalmer Fort is unlike the others we've seen because 5,000 people still live inside the fort itself! It was built 900 years ago and is still active - how crazy is that???? Lots of little windy streets inside the fort and every building is covered in intricate carvings on the golden sandstone....SO many cows. That's truly not a Jaisalmer thing, they just seemed a little more present because the streets are so narrow. Inside the fort there are seven Jain temples - only two of which are open to the public. The architecture was spectacular in both Temples. Unfortunately, we were all quite miffed by the holy men. They were asking for money from the second we stepped into the temple. It made the place feel less like a house of worship, and more like some elaborate show. A couple young boys tried to give us tours around the temples when we clearly wanted to be left alone and we eventually paid them so they'd leave us alone and felt bad about the whole interaction. That's just how it goes sometimes.....Deepa remarked that it's the same everywhere - we want to be the first ones to see the temples so we can see the "real" Jain temples....but we wouldn't come see them unless we already knew they existed. And at this point, holy men asking for money and eight year old tour-guides forcing themselves on you are a part of those Temples. That afternoon we had a loooong rest because we were exhausted by the heat...SO HOT....and we swam in a pool. Which was brilliant. That night we went on a camel ride! YAY! Kate and I were reallllly pumped about it. Turns out, camels are way higher off the ground than horses. Also, they get up jerkily - it's so funny and not at all graceful! When you get on them they're sitting sort of like puppies.....that's a really poor comparison because they are, in fact, very large beasts.....but their legs are tucked under them. You get the idea......I hope....OH! We got caught in a sandstorm! Apparently it's very rare! we had to cut our trip a bit short and drive back in the rain/lightening/sand......My contacts kind of killed. Becky, I could have used your prowess with desert eye-care! I thought of you.

The train back to Delhi was hands down a much more fun experience than the one into Udaipur. PHEW! We read for a while while a group of 18-20 year old Indians were being really loud next to us. Eventually they invited us to join a game they were playing which involved me trying to sing an American song for them and being really excited about it but doing a poor job. We also played telephone - they obviously had a different name for it. It was hilarious!!! They said Hindi words and we mauled their language horribly....We did some English ones too. Deepa started 101 Dalmations (surprise!) and it turned into 101 Donations. Not bad, really, compared to some other attempts. The Hindi ones are impossible to replicate but very, very funny. We talked for a while - mostly being interrogated by Shetu, one of the girls...and it was all good fun. I love making friends with random people on trias etc. so it stands out as a highlight for me.

OH mannnn I'm leaving so much funny stuff for Kate - so you'd better tune in for "Kate's Corner" (Not Korner because, as you know, she's just not into that.)

MUCH LOVE!!!!
~Alice

Book I'm currently reading: Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathon Safran Foer
Next Book: Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Movie I am PINING after: Across the Universe........I'm seeing it as soon as I return with anyone who wants to come with me!
Last Musical I listened to on Deepa's i-pod: The Phantom of the Opera

PS - we're off to Rishikesh tonight (yoga central/the Beatles' place) and will probably be incommunicado for a bit but you still need to email me/comment on the blog because i want to hear from you!!! I'll probably write again when we're at Usha's house in Chennai or at Alampara at the Children's home.


PSS - ew just ordered take out and it's REALLY GOOD