Jaiselmer, Jodhpur and Mt Abu ...

After the mega trip post-camel safari, I arrived in Jaiselmer, the golden city. I have actually been here before, 6 years ago now. The place looks much the same, last time however we stayed inside the fort walls (the first six pictures are of the fort or from inside the fort), there are many restaurants, cafes, markets, shopping and hotels inside the fort and its always 'the place to stay'. However when I was looking at where to stay in Jaiselmer in the Lonely Planet, I realised that they were no longer advertising any hotels from within the fort walls because the water usage and drainage is ruining this ancient fort. So, although i reeeeaaally wanted to stay inside the fort, I opted for one just outside the fort walls.

In the 4 days in Jaiselmer, we hired motor bikes and kicked around a bit, had an interesting time trying to hire them since the 2 local bike-hire places were rival enemies and had punched on only a couple days earlier. I told these grown men that I didnt want to get involved in their petty little boy fights but wanted to hire a fucking scooter and not get ripped off and fucked around .... was a little entertaining if nothing else. Did quite a bit of shopping for leather stuff here, went journal crazy!

We met this gorgeous woman called Rama at a little restaurant inside the fort walls. Her husband Jags had dual citizen ship (Australia and India) so spend 6 months in India and 6 months in Australia while is wife is his accountant, restaurant manager, cook, cleaner, business manager, financial advisor and fuckign mother really! She was so gorgeous, truly like everyone's mother. We told Jags off several times for not helping Rama, which he took quite well, and she LOVED! What a gorgeous woman, so generous in talking about gender roles, the role of woman and her position in her marriage in regards caste and her being born into a wealthier family than his ... really learnt a lot from her. Inspirational really.

Jaiselmer is a mystical and beautiful city, you feel like Aladdin or something here .. like a you might ACTUALLY be able to purchase a magic carpet! Got a much needed post-camel safari massage too ... she had bigger guns than me and I tipped her generously for her very vigorous massage! Fern you would have LOVED it.

After a few days of 45 degree heat, we headed off by train across the desert to Jodhpur. Purchased 3 icecreams called "Dollys" from the train station and headed off on the train. The train was fucking full on with dust across the desert, the entire train floor was literally covered in a not-so-fine layer of dust from the desert, including our stuff, our bodies, hair etc. Was not the most comfortable 6 hours I'd ever spent! Lucky I had 3 Dolly's or I would have been wild!

Jodphur was really a stop over before Mt Abu, again I got a bit crook in Jodphur (India is really fucking me over this time!!!) so checked into a nicer hotel with A/C - it was 43 degrees and rising so I didnt feel too oppulant! Jodhpur is called The Blue City for a reason - last two pictures are in Jodphur, one of the city itself and one of me with a security guard inside the Jodhpur Fort, which was really beautiful. He tweeked his moustache and spun the ends in his fingers so the stood out properlly before the shot was taken, he took the whole photo shoot very seriously!

After a couple days in Jodhpur it was off by bus to Mt Abu - mainly because I knew it would be heaps cooler there and I was chasing some relief! Winding up the hill to the top of Mt Abu, the temperature dropped by a few degrees which was greatly appreciated by all! Mt Abu was pretty uneventful, had a love affair with fresh tomato on toast (desperate for a salad or something fresh and uncooked with NO CUMIN, TUMERIC or CURRY), had some VERY STERN words with about 4 blokes about a horse that was injured and left starving to death with a fly-blown sore on his neck and you could see every single bone in his body ... I really hope he is dead now because it was fucking horrible.

In Mt Abu there is a University for this religion called Brahma Kumaris, which I knew to be a religion which basically centred on beleiveing ALL religions were true. This really interested me because I like to beleive that for myself, that Christians do go to heaven or hell, that Buddhists are reincarnated, that Muslims go to heave etc etc and that people get what they beleive in. However, after visiting the Univeristy I realised quickly that they are just like all other religions in my eyes - that they have their own faith which is just as rigid and hypocritical as the rest and at the end of the day, their priciples rely on faith. It was really interesting though to talk about a religion that beleives that through meditation, people are given the answers of life and that we are about to head into the "Golden Age" where pure peopel will be able to procreate without men and woman having sex (havent they heard of lesbian familys???!!) but rather through the power of the mind. Interesting ... but definitly not for me. It threw me back to Jehovah's Witness days ... not ones I remember fondly.

Visited some amazing Jain temples, which unfortunately I couldnt take pictures of, but were absolutely brilliant - temples made from marble and carved as intricate as the most detailed lace you've ever seen. Really amazing.

From Mt Abu it was off to Udaipur by bus. I'm still here in Udaipur now, so will blog about it tomorrow when I arrive back in Delhi and get ready to head off to Turkey on the 20th, in a few days.

Re pictures - the first 6 photos are of the fort in Jaiselmer, named perfectly the Golden City. The next shot is of a classic looking street in India, cows, bikes, motorbikes, vendours and fucking heap of people everywhere! The next shot is of a group of young Rajisthani women in Jaiselmer celebrating Rajisthan's anniversary of becomming a State of their own. Really gorgeous. The next 2 shots are taken in Jodhpur, the Blue City.