My pack is my life

I've been officially in backpacker mode since the ride on the bus. Swapping out "moderately" priced hotels for "budget" guest houses, I've been able to meet other people on their own, doing the same thing as myself. The tradeoff of course is the little bit of luxury that would be welcoming, but it's all good.

Udaipur turned out to be one of my favorite places. I'm not sure if it was the city itself (which oddly prompted me to use the word "pretty" numerous times for the first time in a week) or the place I was staying. At the Lal Ghat Guest House (pictured above), I met loads of people traveling on their own, putting my measly 5 weeks to shame. The average backpacker leaves for 6 months, and some are on year 2, never wanting to go back. But the group gathered at Lal Ghat was special. It was comfortable and social, enough so that I didn't even mind my bathroom by the end of 4 days (in fairness, the best shower I've had in India. Hot and powerful.)

I took a day trip with a rickshaw driver I chatted with outside the guest house. Tiger (above left) was about 17 with excellent English. Never went to school at all- learned from talking to the tourists. He took me around in his rickshaw for a few hours to all the sites and waited for me in front, usually napping at the wheel upon my return. He had quite a sound system in his rickshaw and heads turned when we drove down the street. I finally had to tell Tiger "look, all these little gardens are pretty, but can we see something else please?" He then took me here:

This (above) is Ahar, and there are about 250 restored contaphs of the maharajas of Mewar here. Snowy domes built over 350 years ago. I'm not sure if the photo does it justice, but they were pretty cool to see.

The food in the south is a lot different than in the north. Gone are the fresh fish tandooris and abundant use of coconut (sorry gon-zales, i know you're upset) and In is the richer vegetable curry's with cream and butter. Both good, just different. You may think I'm sick of Indian food, but honestly, I really am not. The other day I had some pasta- the first non-Indian thing I've really ate in almost a month. It wasn't that good, and I actually missed the curry's- the bread, the rice, and the vege's. I've stayed completely vegetarian for most of the trip, except for the fish I ate in the south. In Udaipur, I went to a cooking class with 4 other people. Me, 2 Canadians (all above) and a 17 year old kid from Australia who looked like a better looking Yahoo-Serious (who??). The guy who taught it was hilarious and is kind of an institution in Udaipur. We learned chai tea, bread, biryani, and 2 curry's. Then we got to eat it all.

I left Udaipur and headed for another lovely bus ride to a town called Pushkar. The guidebook used words like "magical" and "enchanting." After two days, and countless people harrassing me, I've renamed it Pushy. Ok, the lake is nice, and I like the place I'm staying, but I've never seen more flies in my life. They wont fucking leave me alone. You may be saying, well that must be everywhere in India. True, but this seems worse. It's supposed to be very religious here, so there is no alcohol or eggs or meat (although Yougurt and milk is allowed. huh?) They also close up the town at 10pm and it's silent. I went to eat with a couple of Irish girls the last two nights. One of them was wearing a slightly clad outfit. She was gawked at by everyone, and then a local man came over to her and said "your dress is too short, and you need to cover your shoulders. This is a holy place." A bit defeated, she treated herself to a bhong lassi and everything was fine for all of us (can you tell from the picture?)

The town is full of hippies, evidenced by the Pink Floyd Hotel. Notice their slogan "Wish You Were Here" in the first picture. In the second, notice the children around the dog taking a crap. India is full of shit to photograph, literally. When I was driving through Rajasthan with Angie, she put her iPod on and showed me that she was listening to Dark Side of the Moon. I laughed, and she said something about how it just didn't feel right. Well Angie, if you had come to Pushkar, you would have fit right in.

I took a short trek up one of the mountains to this castle with 360 views of Pushkar and the surrounding desert. It was just about sunset and I was sweating like a lunatic. I got a big cold water and took the shot above and below (same photo, with and without the puppy, which seemed to really like posing!) and one other after these two.

There are two very important things I've learned about Indian Hotels. If they use the word Oasis, it's definitely not. If they use the word Palace, it's either too expensive or a shithole. My point is evidenced by the photos here of the Oasis Hotel and Pushkar Palace.

Today I leave Pushkar for the long overnight journey (by train, thank god) to a town called Varanasi. I hear it's pretty intense. This is the last of the desert shot before I head inland and to the mountains. Namaste.