Category Archives: Food

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Kathmandu Part Deux

We’re back in Kathmandu, and though it was difficult to leave the countryside, it’s nice to have the comforts of home and to be in one place for an extended amount of time.  Once again, we are staying at the Hotel Courtyard and it’s just so comfortable here.  We’ve been borrowing DVDs and spending long lazy days recuperating.  Seth’s knee is hurting a bunch so we’re trying not to walk too much.  Luckily we don’t have to do too much walking because Thamel is so convenient.  We’ve been buying souvenirs and frequenting our favorite restaurants, like New Orleans, Fire and Ice, and Green Organic Cafe.  Like I said, we’ve been enjoying having a ‘home’ for the past week.

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McDonalds

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One evening we had dinner at the hotel.  We noticed that the group of people we were hanging out with seemed to be pretty close.  Eventually it came out that these people were expedition groups that had just gotten back from Manaslu (the mountain that seems to be the precursor to climbing Everest).  But, they happened to be on the mountain at the base came when the recent avalanche hit at 4am one morning.  That happened just before we left on our trek.  Some of them had continued on, but for some the tragedy had been too much and they decided to come back to Kathmandu.  Either way they all had some pretty intensely horrifying stories.  Two guys told of how they were catapulted 30 feet and when the movement stopped the top of their tent had been ripped off and all they could see were the stars.  When they got up they found that they were mere feet from a huge crevasse.  Though these expeditioners made it out with scary stories to tell, many died and some are still missing.  What a difficult decision to make, to continue on or to head back.  So many factors at play.

One day we revisited Pema’s clinic where I got a massage while Seth received acupuncture on his knee.  I thoroughly enjoyed my massage and wondered how Seth was enjoying his acupuncture.  I imagine that acupuncture, though being stuck with needles, is quite relaxing as well.  Otherwise, why would people do it? It’s supposed to make you feel good.  So I got the run down from Seth afterwards.  Apparently it is not relaxing and doesn’t feel good.  He says it feels just like sticking needles into you.  He said they stuck a bunch of needles into his knee, and every once in a while they would twist them and push them in a little farther.  Then they hooked electrodes to a few of the needles and zapped him.  He said that his knee felt better for about a half an hour after that, but then it was back to hurting like normal.  But staying off of it has helped it a bit this past week.  That and Tiger Balm and some pain relieving ayurvedic oil being massaged into his knee at least two times a day.

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We’re getting ready to fly to Japan tomorrow.  I’m going to be sad to leave Nepal.  It’s a beautiful country with nice people.  And, because we’ve gotten to stay in one place it’s turned into a home away from home.  This said, we are SO excited for Japan. And we are really happy that Joan and Steve are joining us.  That’s going to be so much fun.  We’re looking forward to bring in a very clean, polite, safe country.  This isn’t to say that Nepal isn’t polite or safe, or even clean.  But we’re expecting a lot from Japan.  Anyhow, we’re moving right along!

Yoo Hoo Kathmandu!

We’re still in Kathmandu, but we’re so close to heading out on our trek.  We met with our Nepal fixer Thomas Kelly, and mutual friend of August Thurmer.  He and his friend Lakpah met us at our hotel to give us the rundown on our trek.  We found out that we needed to gather up a few more things before we could consider ourselves trek ready.  So we headed back to Thamel, the tourist center,because that is where all of the outdoor equipment stores are concentrated.  These are places where you can find anything from a fluffy, down North Fake jacket, some Pseudogonia fleece long underwear, or some Nullgene water bottles.  But, all the stores are bargain-able.  And if you find the right shopkeeper, you can cut a good deal, especially if you level with them, reminding them that it’s not really the brand name gear.  But there are actual brand name stores as well.  I found my t-shirt at the Mountain Hartwear store.  It turned out that we needed a lot more gear than we had expected, but we wouldn’t have been able to carry all of it anyhow.  So, we went shopping.  

That day we, also, ate at two wonderful restaurants.  For lunch we went to Chez Caroline, which Thomas recommended.  We were in heaven.  Thomas told us that they were known for their salads and that we were safe eating there.  Seth and I split a BLT and we each ordered a Caroline Salad.  Man oh man.  It had been a while since we were able to eat a salad, and it happened to be a great one.  And the BLT was wonderful as well, with proper bacon.  The only thing missing was the Crystal hot sauce for the sandwich.  For dinner we went back to New Orleans, the restaurant from our first evening in Nepal.  It’s still beautiful, and the food is still delicious.  But, I don’t think they know what a smoothie is, or perhaps their blender broke.  The first time Seth ordered a milkshake, but ended up with chocolate milk, and this time he ordered a fruit smoothie, and ended up with fruit juice.  Both were nice options, but not what he had ordered.  Hmmm…

The next day our planned part of Nepal began.  We were picked up from our hotel by Lakpah and taken back to Budah Stupa (maybe called Budahnath in another post), that’s the place where the Buddhists circumambulate around the stupah in prayer.  It was a very different experience from our first visit.  The first time it was nice to just take in the scenery and make conjectures on what was going on.  This time, we were given a wealth of information from Thomas who explained everything we asked and more.  And he speaks Nepali, and loves to shoot the shit, so he has a lot of friends anywhere he goes.  It’s neat to watch him interact with the locals.

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Very close to the Budah Stupa lives Pema, Thomas’s foster daughter.  She runs a sort of clinic where they have herbal medicines, acupuncture, and massage therapy.  Thomas had set up a massage for Seth and I.  It was so wonderfully welcome.  And we both agreed that it was probably one of the best massages we’d ever had.  Following our massage, we found our way upstairs to the kitchen where we would help to make momos.  Momos are Nepali dumplings.  The are delicious.  We made chicken momos and potato momos.  They were served with a peanut and tomato sauce that was quite tasty.

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After that, we walked with Lakpah to Pashupatinath, which is a Shiva Temple complex.  So, we were switching from Buddhism to HIndu.  The feel of both places were quite different.  At the buddhist temple there was a warm happy feeling and an overall sense of love.  Though the Shiva temple complex was pretty, it was quite dirty, filled with monkeys, and absent of people.  There were people there, but way less than at Budah Stupa.  From the Shiva temple we made our way down to the Bagmati river where there are cremation ghats.  The hindu people have a tradition of cremation, but it involves the holy river as well.  First, they wrap the loved one in a cloth and bring them to the river.  They strategically place the body on a ramp that leads to the river so that the person’s feet are in the water.  They allow the river to wash the deceased’s feet for some time before lifting them from the water to rest them on a funeral pyre, where they set a butter lamp inside the mouth where the fire will start to burn.  Once the person is fully cremated their ashes are scattered in the river.  We were able to see different stages of this ritual during our visit.  I think it is a nice way to lend some closure. 

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BUT, there’s a reason why there is a problem with water contamination in India and Nepal.  HIndus use the rivers for way too much.  I’ve just mentioned what they do with their deceased, and on top of that they bathe, wash clothes, potentially go to the bathroom, and throw their trash in this holy river.  The water is horribly polluted.  That part is hard for me to digest, and that is why I will not touch a river near human habitation.

After the ghats we went over to a hospice center run by Mother Teresa’s nuns.  It was a really nice place for the elderly who were not able to grow old in the care of their families.  It was very nice to see, but you should not picture an old folks home like in the US.  It was quite different from that.  But the elderly here are quite different from in the States.  They are a functioning part of the community until they no longer can be.  These old ladies are tough.  The place had good vibes.

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Kathmandu Will Do!

We’re really enjoying Kathmandu. This is our third night in Kathmandu and it feels nice to stay put, to really get to know a place.

Our first night, I mentioned finding the magic.  What I neglected to mention was my glorious hotel find, ahem…  I no longer think I can trust the opinion of TripAdvisor.  I found Hotel Silver Home on TripAdvisor and it was rated at 4.5 out of 5 stars, and the reviews mentioned large rooms, comfort, and cleanliness.  Well, the room was a nice size.  It was large enough for a twin and a double bed, a table, and a couch.  But that’s where the review’s reliability ends.  I couldn’t get comfortable in the room due to the uncleanliness.  The carpet was gross, the bathroom was even grosser, and the sheets were definitely not clean.  The toilet seat was an abomination, and there was a hole in the wall of the bathroom that lead to nastiness.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, as we were getting comfy in our travel sheets (a must while traveling) Seth found a roach trying to snuggle with him.  Yuck! So we shook out our sheets and tied the top opening in a knot.  Fire hazard, maybe, but at least it was effective in keeping out the bugs.  At the end of the day, it was really my fault.  No matter where you go, a ten dollar hotel is still a ten dollar hotel.  I had set my hopes too high on the exchange rate and put too much trust in TripAdvisor.  Never again!

The next morning we made our way to Hotel Courtyard, which is much better.  Clean and comfortable, it has it’s own quiet courtyard and it’s far enough away from the busy section to have a quiet night’s rest.  Ahhh…

In Old Kathmandu is Durbar Square.  After walking through twisting narrow streets, lined with shops, we made our way to the sectioned off part of the town.  The asian influence in this area is quite strong.  The architecture shows it.  We meandered through countless temples, pausing to take in the sights of various depictions of gods in the various forms.  The highlight for me was seeing the living goddess of Kumari Chowk.  Yes, you heard me.  The cult of Kumari worships a living prepubescent girl who is said to be the incarnation of Taleju.  There is a selection process in which girls aged around three to five from the buddhist Shakya clan of goldsmiths are interviewed a lot like how the Tibetans choose their incarnation of the Lamas.  Apparently there are 32 auspicious signs of the Kumari which include odd things like a neck like a conch shell, and eyelashes like a cow.  Horoscope is, also, rigorously checked to see that it is not in direct conflict with that of the king (though at this point in time there is no king in Nepal anymore).  The Kumari’s feet never touch the ground, and she is not allowed out except on special occasions, like festivals, where she is carried upon her throne.  Though photos are strictly forbidden, we were lucky enough to show up right as the Kumari decided to make a short appearance at one of the courtyard windows, where she looked around for about half a minute before returning inside.  This Kumari was chosen in October of 2008 at the age of three, making her about 7 years old.  It is said that when the Kumari bleeds, whether from menstruation or otherwise, the goddess’s spirit leaves the body, and therefore she retires and a new Kumari is chosen.  Becoming a mere mortal can be difficult, even to find a husband, because it is said that whoever marries a Kumari will die young.  So, Seth and I saw the incarnation of a goddess.  I thought the whole situation was weird and really interesting.

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On a side not, this has to be the most awesome cutout we’ve ever seen.

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In the evening we went to a fancy shmancy restaurant in a super fancy hotel.  In this restaurant you get to choose anywhere from a six to twenty two course meal.  We opted for twelve and it was definitely too much food, but you better believe that I finished most of it.  I think the experience was way more exciting than the actual food.  Though I did like the momos, little dumplings, and the pureed fruit and yogurt dessert was good.  It was nice to be dressed up, in a country that we, so far, like, and drink wine with my husband.  

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Today we did a bit of shopping, or at least browsing.  Then we went somewhere really cool.  We went to the Buddhist temple.  It is like walking into it’s own little world.  There is a large domed temple in the center and people walk clockwise around the temple on the path.  There are tons of restaurants and shops selling prayer beads and other handicrafts.  The temple area and the maze of streets that spiral outwards consist of a little Tibetan community.  The architecture and everything else inside reflected that.  

We ended up finding a basement restaurant called 3D.  We had delicious Tibetan food.  Buff momos (buff = buffalo), and Seth ordered hot and sour soup, and I ordered egg thukpa (a noodle soup).  The food was really delicious.  We also ordered honey, lemon, and ginger tea, which was perfect.  We were really jonesin for some warm liquids to soothe our throats.  Kathmandu has a lot of road construction taking place right now, which causes a lot of dust to be in the air.  Today we bought face masks, but the soup and tea were needed and enjoyed.

I’ve Found the Magic

Like Seth mentioned, India was easier for me to handle than for him.  But, that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t confounded or appalled at times.  As a matter of fact, upon leaving India I ended up becoming so infuriated that I was barely holding myself together.  If I were a different person I would have started punching people, but luckily I have a thread more of patience, but really it was only a thread.

We began to see enormous mountains peeking through the clouds from the airplane.  It was really exciting.  But the real excitement came when we began to walk around the area surrounding our hotel.  We, luckily, booked a crap hotel in a good area.  Thamel is the super touristy area, but that means that food is basically safe wherever you go.  There are tons of shops, overpriced of course, but many things to look at.  Bustling streets, live music, and the best part… no cows!  And when there are no cows, there are no cow patties.  And, on top of that, the streets are clean!  I can walk without looking down.  I can look at shops as I walk past.  It’s amazing.  But, what I really found here in Kathmandu on our first night, was the magic that was missing in India.  It was clean, safe, and smiling.  I felt as if a huge weight, that I didn’t even realize was there, was lifted from my shoulders.  I’m not going to say that I completely disliked India, because there were parts that I enjoyed.  But, I don’t think I felt as relaxed, comfortable, or happy one single day while in India, as I felt this first night in Nepal.  

Honk, Honk, Zoom!

We’re back in a big city.  Jaipur, known as the Pink City, we’ve decided is actually more of a tera cotta color, but that’s ok.  Yesterday, after an absurdly awkward switch in drivers, we are now in better hands.  Not only does this driver speak English, he offers tidbits of information while driving, he drives safely, he honks his horn minimally, and he answers questions.  Man, we’ve missed out.  If he had been our driver from the start we would have had a much better experience.  Oh well, what can you do?

Anyway, we started off by seeing the City Palace in the Old City.  It really is pink (or terra cotta).  Though it was a pretty complex with intricate designs on the ceilings, we’ve seen so many that we’re overloaded.  But, this palace had attractions! Heh… I finally got henna.  So, I walked around the palace trying desperately not to run into anything.  The highlight of the city palace were the giant silver urns that one of the maharajas had made to bring holy water from the Ganges on his trip to England.  They were huge!

jaipur Palace

Berkley gets Henna

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Just outside of the City Palace exit was the actual highlight of the day.  There was a snake charmer with two real live cobras.  I’m not afraid of snakes, but cobras are venomous.  So, I was a bit nervous getting near them. But, this guy was confident and they seemed still enough for the tourist before me.  They were pretty still while he played his horn like instrument, but then they got feisty.

cobraaaa

After the city palace we came back to The General’s Retreat (our hotel/homestay) to do some internet chores.  This is the first hotel on our tour that actually has functioning internet.  And it’s pretty fast.  It’s much appreciated.

In the evening we went for dinner at yet another Lonely Planet find, The Peacock Rooftop Restaurant.  It was really delicious.  We ordered the vegetarian thali (remember, that’s a set meal) and it was huge.  That alone was enough for the two of us.  But, we didn’t know that and ordered Chicken Tikka Butter Masala as well.  The sauce was really tasty, but you really can’t beat the protein in the US, the chicken was ok.  That’s why we’ve been mostly vegetarian here.  With our meals we drank our honey lassis, and they were excellent.

Today, we went to the Amber Fort.  Yet another fort.  This one didn’t have much to look at inside.  It was mostly empty, but cool to wander around.  There was an ancient underground tunnel that turned out to be filled with bats.  We smelled them before we found them.  But it was really neat.

berkley elephant

Afterwards we went for lunch at Natraj.  Seth has been searching for dosa since we went on the food tour in Delhi, and we found it.  Seth ordered the Dosa Paper Masala, and I ordered the Dosa Paneer Butter Masala.  God those were good.  Seth’s was long like a tunnel, and mine was in a triangle shape.  We ordered well, because I preferred mine, and Seth preferred his.  My paneer was the consistency of scrambled eggs and it was so delicately delicious.  We had daal (lentils) and a coconut curry concoction to dip the dosa into.  Seth really enjoyed the daal, while I really liked the coconut.

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Once our bellies were full, we ran some errands and came back to the hotel, because we had a cooking demonstration.  Because it’s the offseason, there was no proper cooking instruction available, but the wonderful women at our hotel offered for us to watch as the cooks made us dinner, and they would explain the process while it occurred.  We decided that with the right spice kit, Seth could make delicious Indian food.

On a side note.  All of the beggars call out to Seth his actual name.  They say, “Seth, Seth, Seth!”  True story.  The coincidence is that seth in Hindi means wealthy person. So, Seth keeps getting distracted and creeped out when people tap on the window at stop lights and call out his name.

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Ups & Downs

India is like a roller coaster ride.  You start off on the ground and you slowly make your way up to the top of the coaster, and then, in an instant, you are plummeting to the earth once again.  We slowly made our way to enjoying our time in Jaisalmer, despite it’s drawbacks, and then we were slapped in the face by Jodhpur.  No matter how many guide books you read, they will never prepare you for what you are getting yourself into.  If you are a westerner, you can not read a Lonely Planet blurb, or a comment from Fodors, and get an accurate picture of the town/city you are about to visit.  For example, Lonely Planet describes Jodhpur as thus:

“The Blue City really is blue! Inside is a tangle of winding, glittering, medieval streets, which never seem to lead where you expect them to, scented by incense, roses, and sewers with shops and bazaars selling everything from trumpets and temple decorations to snuff and saris.”

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Though they mentioned the sewers, and I expected such smells from my experience thus far, I was expecting nice smells as well.  And, sadly, there wasn’t anything I found to be glittery about Jodhpur.  And to top it off, it wasn’t really blue.  If you go on reading it talks about a bustling hub of merchants selling their wares throughout the winding streets that branch out from the clock tower.  It’s just not how they describe it.  Though we spent a decent amount of time wandering the maze of streets and stalls, I smelled no incense, but maybe their roses really smell like poo, poo, poo, poo (think Cee Lo), because in India, that’s the overwhelming scent wherever you are.  And for that matter, I’m not surprised.  There’s cows wherever you turn, dogs, some places have monkeys, and even the residents urinate and defecate in the streets.  Once again, I understand that this is a different culture, and a different way of living, but when everything is covered in shit (literally) it makes simple things very difficult.  And here’s the thing, I end up looking like an ass sometimes.  The Indian people, as a whole, are genuinely nice people.  Because of our celebrity status (as white people), people want to say hello to us, take photos of us, and shake our hands.  So, I have two choices, don’t shake their hand and I’m an ass, or shake their hand and deem that hand dead and unusable until I get back to the hotel where I can wash my hands with soap.  I’m a bad person?  I don’t think so.  First of all, for the most part, this is how I live in the states as well.  But here, they don’t use toilet paper (so guess what they use) and even if they did wash their hands, the likelihood is that they used the tap water to wash them, which if I ingest accidentally, I can land myself in an Indian hospital bed.  So, if we’re heading back to the hotel, I’ll usually shake a hand or two and put mine out of commission.  Otherwise, I’ll be the bitch.

So, obviously, we weren’t big fans of Jodhpur.  It was congested, loud, and really smelly.  Though we went to a sweet shop and bought some almond paste like sweets that were covered with silver leaf. To be honest, I think it was aluminum foil. But they were kinda tasty, aside from the metallic aftertaste.  And to be fair, we did enjoy our audio tour of the Mehrangarh Fort.  It was quite informative, and the fort had some interesting artifacts and architectural points.  I will say this about India, they know how to get people through a fort.  So far, there is a single path through every fort we’ve visited.  This way you know you don’t miss anything and you really can’t get lost. It’s nice.  

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We left Jodhpur and made our way through thick sheets of rain down bumpy rural roads, making our way to the small town of Ghanerao.  This place was not in our guidebook, the tour company didn’t give us any info on it, and our driver doesn’t speak English, so we didn’t know what to expect.  But, it turned out that it didn’t matter.  It was pouring buckets of rain until the sun went down.  Luckily we were staying in a castle, and we were the only patrons for the evening.  So Seth and I listened to our audiobook (The Stand, by Stephen King) and watched the rain.  While the day idled by, they offered us lunch and then dinner in the dining hall.  Silly us, we assumed that they were offering because it was included, but we ended up paying generously for our meals (in more ways than one. Forget Delhi Belly, we had the Rajasthan Runs).  Anyhow, we were able to explore the property as we liked and found some interesting abandoned rooms, and a rooftop with a nice view.  When it stopped raining briefly before sundown, we went up to check it out.  We were disappointed, because it looked like Ghanerao would have been a nice little town to walk around and there was a lot of green space close by.  Oh well, blame it on the rain (ya, I know).

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On the way to Udaipur the next morning we were going to stop in Ranakpur to see one of India’s biggest and most important Jain Temple complexes.  But, we were a bit early, so we were let out of the car a wiles away to walk a bit and take in the scenery.  It was nice to walk, and the area was beautifully lush and green with overflowing streams cutting through the grasses.  Mountains in the near distance were covered in greenery with the occasional rock face jutting out for good measure.  Eventually we came across some children, who followed us for a while down the road until they got bored and two other children took their place.  Eventually we ran into some monkeys and we hurriedly got back in the car.  They were big.  Real big.  There were, also, some large elaborately plumed peacocks, but we weren’t scared of those.  And, of course, there were cows. (Just assume that no matter where we are or what we are doing, if we’re in India, there are cows. Lots of cows.)

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The Ranakpur temples were very nice, but I think we’re getting Jain Temple’d out.  The big one was really nice though.  There were elaborate carvings in the ceilings, and a tree that grew inside.  It was an impressively large temple and the setting was beautiful, in deep greenery.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention.  The temple complex was covered in monkeys.  Cool, right? No, scary.  Maybe if they were tiny little monkeys the size of guinea pigs it might be cute, but these suckers were, at full size, pushing 50 pounds, and many of them were full size, and they have big fangs that they like to show you.  They were quite menacing.  And they filled the trees and we had to walk under them.  Ooh, bad news.  But, we made it out unscathed.  Safe, for now…

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Udaipur turned out to be the peak of our up.  See how we slowly made our way back up to the top of the coaster after our low in Jodhpur? In Udaipur we stayed in a home stay.  The woman of the house, Hemant, was full of stories and good recommendations around the city.  Our favorite area turned out to be the Jagdish Temple area.  The temple sits high above the shops on streets that spiral outward towards and away from Lake Pichola.  At night the temple is lit up with lights of different hues, making it quite a sight, magical even.  Though there were cows, they weren’t as plentiful as in other places, probably because of the plethora of motorcycles and auto rickshaws that plow through the streets unheedingly.  The streets had less ‘surprises’ for us to step in and the smells weren’t as strong.  We ended up making some good purchases, such as some Damascus knives that Seth had custom made.  And though we visited the City Palace, it was not as amazing of a spectacle as people had made it out to be.  It seemed to have been stripped of many of it’s artifacts and there were paintings and photographs in their place.  Something I found quite comical were the almost life-size picture cut outs of past maharajas ‘sitting’ in their thrones.  We ate dinner at Ambrai, because we were told that the view was unbeatable, which it was, but the food was mediocre.  The food the night before, at Lal Bagh near our home stay, was way better and had live music.  Here is an mp3.  But the view was quite pretty.  It was set on the lake and you could see the Lake palace, Jagniwas Island, and the City Palace all lit up on the still water.  

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We made our way to Chittorgarh to see the fort and some more Jain Temples.  We ended up getting ‘chased’ out of the fort (where there wasn’t much to see anyhow) by some of those monkeys I was talking about. It’s not good when they lean forward from higher ground and bare their teeth.  We made for the hills, or the temples.  They were pretty neat, one was a large tower structure, but we were tired of walking barefoot around muddy temples that were all starting to look the same.  So, we hopped back in the car (with our recently very moody and disagreeable driver BTW) and set off for Bundi.  

Bundi was a small town with a lot of monkeys, mosquitoes, and bats (and, of course, cows, dogs, and pigs. But, these are a given).  The monkeys are bandits, scaring away groups of small children and stealing peoples’ vegetables before knocking the baskets over to roll on the ground, some finding their fate in the ‘ditch’.  We were intimidated off our hotel’s rooftop by them, and decided to eat dinner (our first flavorless dinner) indoors because of them (and the mosquitoes).  The bats, apparently, live in the fort that is perched on the mountain just above the town.  At about 6:40pm they fly out from the windows by the thousands creating dark moving clouds that stretch into the dusk.

This morning we left Bundi for Pushkar.  Pushkar is a holy city that surrounds Pushkar Lake, which is said to have purifying effects.  Pilgrims make their way to this holy lake constantly, and devout Hindus are supposed to make their way to this lake at least once in their lifetime.  So the road to Pushkar is lined with throngs of people, some rolling on their bellies, making their way to the ghats (bathing temples) which appear to simply be steps that lead down to the water.  Though an interesting and enticing ritual, especially in the intense humid heat, there’s no way I could or would partake. (I needn’t explain why)  We walked through the Sadar Bazaar, which is simply the streets surrounding part of the lake, packed with shops.  We’re told that loose gems are good to buy here, but we don’t know enough to decide whether we’re buying the real deal.  And, we’d check for tips on the internet, but we haven’t had access for days.  We’re thinking that our hotels advertise that they have wifi to add to the draw (and the price), but they don’t actually have it.  I’m really hoping that’s not really the case.  After dodging motorcycles, bicycles, rickshaws, cows, and their doo doo, we made our way back to our hotel.  Tomorrow we’re off to Jaipur, the pink city.

The Sandcastle City

A glistening gold, due to the sulfurous sandstone cut from a quarry a mere 14 kilometers away, the old fort city of Jaisalmer sits atop a hill breaking up the otherwise flat horizon.  Our driver dropped us off at the gate of the fort and loaded us into a tuk tuk or auto rickshaw.  We became increasingly excited as we perilously advanced upon the center of the fort, winding through narrow, high walled streets, barely missing collisions with motorcycles, pedestrians, and cows.  We made it to our hotel, the Garh Jaisalmer, a heritage hotel, which means its architecture is an original part of the fort and has been converted into a hotel.  This hotel is fashioned in the likeness of 1001 Arabian Knights.  Picture oil lamps with genies within, fantastically embroidered tapestries and magic carpets.  An atrium courtyard that opens to the sky, surrounded by balcony like seating with romantic cushions and silky drapes adorned with embroidery and mirrors ever present in the Jaisalmer textiles.  Seth almost immediately began absentmindedly singing tunes from Disney’s Aladdin.  And it was quite apt because while wandering the halls one could expect Jafar to be scheming quietly in a dark corner.

jaislmer

fortView

After getting way too excited about our romantically clean room, we set out to find Bobby.  Our Lonely Planet guidebook mentioned that Bobby’s Henna was the best henna in Jaisalmer.  Though, we set off to find Bobby, we found ourselves in a local’s home with hopes of finding this friendly man’s wife to henna me up.  It turned out that when he said wife, what he meant to say was ten year old daughter, who was vigorously trying to sell her abilities to me.  She kept boasting about her many awards for henna, and showed me her certificate as proof.  And, though her drawings were good, they were good for a ten year old, and I wasn’t about to have doodled flowers on my arm for the next three weeks. 

Eventually we needed some dinner, and went to the restaurant next door as recommended by our hotel.  But, when we got there, the young guy who took our order was coughing all over the place in a hellish way, and we decided not to risk it.  We retreated back to our room to feast on chips and oreo cookies.  Sometimes in India that’s your best, most convenient option.

Day two in Jaisalmer we hired a guide for a walking tour.  The highlight for me has been the Jain Temples.  Jain is, I believe, a sect of Hinduism.  But, they carve amazingly elaborate temples from sandstone.

jaislmerFortView

seth Seth

Jian Temple

Jian Carving

indiaPiggy

That night we found an amazing restaurant, The Trio.  We didn’t find out until after the meal, but this restaurant was voted the best in Jaisalmer by Fodors and had many other accolades as well.  And they were well deserved.  We ordered what is called a thali (the th is not our sound. It’s more like you say the T then a soft h).  It is kind of like a sampler platter in the US, or what Europe calls the menu of the day.  We received three vegetable dishes, a yogurt, rice, naan, and a dessert.  Starting from the rice at the bottom going counter clockwise the first, red bowl contains Paneer Makhani.  This was my favorite.  It’s rich tomato flavor only becomes more sensational when you get a bite of the creamy paneer cheese.  Above that is a dish of what they have aptly called, mixed vegetables.  They were filled with spices and bits of dried fruit and nuts.  Oh so good.  Then there was the traditional bowl of lentils named Dhora Dal.  Though it was tasty, it didn’t pack a punch like the other dishes.  The bowl of white is their Veg Raita, which was simply yogurt, to cleanse and cool the palate.  The last little bowl was dessert.  Suji Ka Halwa is a sort of egg custard sprinkled with nuts and drowned in a maple syrup or honey like sauce.  Seth compared it to flan, but I don’t enjoy flan, and I truly enjoyed this!  This was the best meal by far.  Even if the food wasn’t so good, it would have been a good meal, simply because the restaurant was clean and the service was excellent.  You have to use different rating systems on every different aspect of a place while in India.  We’ve had some great meals in some places where it was so dirty, and then we’ve had some not so good meals in places that were cleaner.  This place was clean, had good service, and great food.

trioThali

We woke up and were ready for our camel adventure.  The plan was to ride into the desert on camelback to a campground where we’d spend the night under the stars surrounded by the vast scrubland desert that stretches between the India and Pakistan border.  We made our way to these camels in a round about way, stopping at beautiful Jain temples, and ghost towns.  We stopped for lunch at a lake and went for a little meander while our driver/guide/cook ate his lunch.  When we were halfway around the lake we saw that he was cleaning the dishes and utensils in the lake.  Big no no.  Aside from the fact that you don’t mess with lake water in India, he had already mentioned that this lake was used for drinking and bathing.  And I’m sure it’s commonly used as a toilet as well.  The warning bells sounded. People (us included) believe that if you get sick in India you just get a bad case of the runs and you get over it.  But, after talking to a few people (the food tour couple and some of the embassy people) you don’t necessarily just end up in the bathroom frequently, you are likely to end up in the hospital.  But, we leisurely continued our walk around the lake followed by a little ‘shadow’.  If you’ve never traveled far from the european culture, you might not know this but, we’re stars over here.  And you can be too!  So, basically, everywhere we’ve been where light skin, and especially light hair and eyes, are uncommon, you are essentially a movie star.  People wave at you, say hello to you, and follow you while you are doing absolutely nothing.  I understand that it’s because we look so different from them.  In the US we are all different, so seeing people in Africa, or India, is not something so new to us.  But for them, seeing someone with our coloring is quite unusual.  Anyhow, we had a little boy, about nine years old, I’d say, follow us as we walked around the lake.  Though we tried to talk with him a bit, he didn’t speak any english, and we don’t speak a lick of hindi, so it was pretty silent.  But Seth ‘taught’ him how to skip rocks.  They got to share that together, and that was pretty neat.

We, finally made our way to the camels. Yay! We each got to ride our own camel.  My camel was ten years old and I’m told she’s pretty fast.  Her name was rocket, and she, apparently, had explosive diarrhea.  Seth rode a camel, a young 4 year old, named Rabbit.  She must have been bouncy, because Seth eventually became uncomfortable and decided to walk.  We played around on some sand dunes, taking pictures of us jumping off of them, and made our way to the campsite.  This is where we decided it was in our best interest to sleep at a hotel for the evening.  For a few reasons.  Furst of all, it was hot.  So hot.  And missing a night of sleep during a trip like this is devastating.  You don’t just have one tired day that you deal with, you miss out on that day’s travels, and you are usually miserable for a few days thereafter.  And there’s no guarantee that the next bed, or accommodation, will be comfortable enough for a good night of catch up sleep.  Secondly, our dishes were washed in the toilet, ahem, I mean lake.  Thirdly, it was definitely going to rain within hours.  It had been raining on and off for the past few days, and during that day, and there were major storm clouds in the near distance.  Oh, and we saw the sheets we’d be sleeping on.

india Camel

rain motorcycle

So, we made our way back to the hotel that manages the camel safari.  He had told us profusely before we’d left, that if for any reason we didn’t want to sleep at the campsite we could return to his hotel at any minute.  Because it was a hotel, built to be a hotel, it was quite modern.  Well, modern in facilities, not in style.  Which is good.  Bed was comfy, showers were US style, AC worked, etc.  

We still had dinner to contend with, so we headed back to Trio, of course! Why would we go anywhere else?  We feasted on Benghan Baji (an eggplant dish), and two others that were delicious and we failed to write down their names.  One was a rich tomato sauce with onions and chicken.  The chicken was so tender you could cut it with a fork.  And a yellow curry with chicken that was also really tasty.  We decided to stray from our vegetarian lifestyle (for safety reasons in India) and have some chicken, because this place seemed reputable enough.  And it was delicious.  We finished off our meal with some gulub jamun, little doughnut hole like balls of deliciousness soaked in a sugary syrup.

And today we’re off to Jodhpur!

Off to Rajasthan

We booked a tour with Shanti Travels.  I’m not sure how much of a tour it will actually be.  It seems like we’re booking a driver and hotels.  But, here we go.

So, our drive from Delhi to our first stop, Mandawa was supposed to take between five to six hours.  Due to an insane amount of traffic due to incessant swerving and large puddles in the road, a portion that usually takes about 2 hours ended up being a good full 5 hours.  So, it ended up taking us twelve hours to reach our destination.  So, we spent our first day of our tour in the car.  And we thought we would be seeing countryside once we left Delhi.  We were wrong.  We didn’t reach anything country until the last 45 minutes.  There are an impressive amount of people in India.

Out Of Delhi Traffic

crazy roads

Mandawa was a small town.  It is known for it’s Havelis.  A haveli is basically a mansion built for the maharajas and wealthy people about 200-250 years ago.  They are decorated with intricate paintings, designs, and carvings.  They are quite crumbly and unkept, but you could imagine they were quite magical in their time.

We were staying at a haveli.  It was an interesting chambered room.  We had a sleeping room which fit the bed (I use the word bed lightly), a sitting room, a terrace, and a bathroom.  Definitely charming, but definitely not to our level of cleanliness or comfort.  The ‘bed’ was a wicker frame with a super thin mattress.  It was a painful night of ‘sleep’.

Mandawa Haveli

We left the next morning for Bikaner.  On the way we stopped at a really magnificent and well restored haveli (restored by the french artist who now owns it). It was really beautiful.

Bikaner Haveli

We then made our way to a temple of Seth’s choosing.  I was quite surprised to hear Seth’s request to visit this temple, because it is a temple that is dedicated to its holy rats.  So, Seth, the man who loathes rodents, requested to enter a place where you have to take off your shoes to walk around a temple infested with rats. Curious.  The smell was abhorrent.  I think Dr. Rock (our travel doctor) would be horrified and was waving her finger back and forth tutting inside my head.  I definitely didn’t touch anything.  But, yes, there were rats everywhere.  They had buckets of food for the rats placed everywhere, and even pans of milk for them to enjoy.  Some of them must have indulged too much, because there were many dead rats decaying as well.  It’s interesting that even an animal who carries deadly diseases can be considered holy, while the dogs are blatantly abused.

rat milk

rat hotel

Which brings me to something I realize I haven’t mentioned. We’ve all heard the stereotype that there are cows on the streets in India.  Well, it’s not a stereotype.  They are everywhere, and they rule.  If there’s a cow in the street the cars will stop or go around it. They will walk into homes, food stalls, etc. And the cows are not your garden variety dairy type cow you find all over the US.  These are what we call Brahma Bulls.  Probably because the Brahamans worship them?  Though they are a bit prettier, they are no more intelligent.

Cow Road

There are, also, a surprising amount of camels.  I didn’t expect to see camels in India, but they’re everywhere.  They are used like donkeys, but for heavier loads, I guess.  So there are cows, camels, donkeys, and then there are the street dogs.  I feel so bad for these dogs.  Many of them run on three legs, because one of them is too hurt to run on. Our first night we were walking and one of the street dogs  decided to follow us.  We weren’t doing anything special other than not being mean to it.  It wandered around a parked car near a security guard and apparently the guy kicked the dog hard because he ran away limping and squealing/crying.  It hurt my heart.  The books, and many people, will tell you that you have to be accepting of other cultures and that it’s just different, but there are some things I refuse to accept.  Cruelty of canines is one of them.

We arrived in Bikaner and visited the Junagarh Fort.  It was pretty, but stark.  It was really big, though.  Most of the fort was stripped of it’s contents, leaving most to the imagination.  Once again, it must have been magical in its time.

Bikaner Fort

For dinner we found a place in our Lonely Planet guidebook, named Gallops.  Their logo was horses running through a horseshoe, and they served really cold beer.  Perfect.  Dinner was very good.  We started off with paneer pakora, which is basically spiced battered and fried cheese.  We dipped them in ketchup and a chili sauce.  That was quite good.  For dinner we ordered paneer butter masala, which is similar to tikka masala in the US, but with spicier black roasted chills. We, also, ordered shubnam curry which had mushrooms, fresh green peas and a cream gravy.  To round it out an order of plain naan was our choice.  It was a very good meal.

Gallop Dinner

New Delhi, Hold the Belly

We needed to do a lot of planning.  We still had no plans, at all, for our time in India.  We were starting to see that a good area to visit would be Rajistan, so we began inquiring into a few tour agencies.  Then we hired a car to take us around for the day to see some Delhi sights before our evening activities.

Hiring a car is the best way to see India, so I’m told, and so far I believe it.  If only for the mere fact that they drive on the other side of the road.  But, along with that, it’s like a MarioKart race of sorts, bobbing and weaving through traffic to get to the red light first.  But, that’s another thing.  There were places where all the cars would stop, but I didn’t see any stop lights, or stop signs.  So, it seems as if there are secret rules. Did we mention we saw Batman driving around Delhi?

delhiTraffic

Anyhow, we hired a car.  His English was quite minimal, so asking cultural questions and, really, any questions at all were not worth the time.  At one point during the day we were trying to explain to him that we wanted to buy some water and snacks at a store.  We used as many descriptive words as possible, “a place where they sell food/ things to eat/ water/etc and other variations of the phrase, and we ended up at a place where they sold textiles and handicrafts. Nope.

But, we did have a list of places where we we wanted to go that were well known, large monuments, and he was able to get us to those.  We saw the Gate of India (basically Delhi’s arc du triompf), the president’s house and all the government buildings, we went to the Lodi Gardens, drove past the ultra modern Lotus Temple, and walked around Houmayoun’s tomb.  It was all pretty neat.  It was nice to walk around the tomb and the gardens, but it was super hot and humid.

berkley Temple

We made our way back to the hotel to shower up before our evening adventures.  Seth found a street food tour online called Delhi Food Tours that seemed quite trustworthy.  What sold us was that the wife, Aisha, was the tester.  Aisha apparently has a very sensitive stomach, ever since she attended an American boarding school for high school.  So, if she gets sick within 2 days after going to a restaurant, they take it off their list.

The first stop on the list was to a tea shop where we were invited to try a variety of teas from India.  This is something Seth and I really enjoy and visiting the tea shop was an unexpected treat.  There were light white teas all the way to rich, full bodied black teas. A nice start to the evening.

Delhi Tea

Our second stop was a restaurant that is spposed to have food from the area of Goa.  That’s a beach area in the south of India.  I really liked the food there.  They had a fried fish with chili powder and lime and it was so, so good.  I also really liked their chutney.

first stop curry

The next place we went to was fabulous.  There we tried something called a dosa.  A dosa is kind of like when you take cheese and slap it on a fry top until it turns into a chip.  But, it doesn’t taste like cheese, it tastes like a cracker.  And really good.  And you use it like a nacho, dipping it into sauces.  I really liked the sauce that was like a tomato lentil soup.  So good!  But, what I, also, really enjoyed here was the coffee.  I don’t normally drink coffee after about noon or so, but I was assured that this coffee would be different from any coffee I’d ever had.  And it was.  It was rich and caramelly and oh so good! And they do this thing to mix in the sugar where you pour it from glasss to cup, back and forth to mix in the sugar and make the coffee a bit frothy.  I really hope to find that again.

pour coffee

Delhi Dosa

We, then, went to a place that specializes in BBQ.  I truly loved this place.  We had BBQ chicken that was spectacular.  It was perfectly cooked, not dry, but nice and juicy and jam packed with flavor.  Seth’s favorite was the spicy lamb kabob.  I liked it too, but I was busy with the chicken.

Delhi BBQ

Then there was the dessert place.  But, before dessert we had to try some of their main courses as well!  Seth and I each got lassi, one sweet, one salty.  The sweet one was just like in the states, but the salty one was not just plain yogurt.  It had spices in it like cardamom, black pepper, and salt. Both really interesting, but I liked the sweet one best.  We then tried the ‘grenades’.  Seth tried one first, then waited for my reaction.  It was like a little puff that you crack open at the top, so that you can fill it wit a potato mixture and a green juice.  It explodes in your mouth and was quite reminiscent of eggs.  Since, I’ve heard it described as having a septic like taste.  Great.  Then came what has been lovingly named ‘the compost pile’.  I truly liked that one.  It was little flat dumpling type things covered in a yogurt and pomegranate, ginger, and some other stuff.  Not sure.  I really liked it. A delicious dish came out next with spiced chick peas.  Oh so good! Finally it was time for dessert.  The sweets were so decadent.  My favorite was gulab jamun. Almost like a doughnut soaked in syrup.

We were beyond full after all that.  It was a delicious evening and it was nice to meet some Delhi natives and some people from back home.

Kwa Heri Africa, Namaste India

Good bye Africa, hello India! 

It took us 24 hours of travel to get here, but we’re in New Delhi, India.  We left our beach bungalow at 10am to get to the Zanzibar airport.  We took a short flight, about a half hour or less, to Dar es Salaam, then we had to wait for our next flight, which was 5 hours away.  This might be ok if we were in an airport like DIA (Denver Airport) where we could wander through the stores aimlessly, have a decent bite to eat, or even post up at the New Belgium Brewery in the airport.  But, Dar es Salaam is a tiny airport. There’s 3 to 4 tiny shops that have the exact same items, and a restaurant that looked questionable and was severely overpriced, like the stores.  It was actually kinda funny.  We found little Kirkland packets of nuts for sale, but they were like $5, and not worth it.  A small pack of gum was $3.  So we sat and listened to our audio book.

Finally we took the 3 hour flight to Ethiopia.  We had another 5 hours to kill in that airport.  We had originally thought we were going to be there during the day, and that we would check in, leave our bags, and venture out into Ethiopia for lunch or dinner.  But, it was from 7pm to midnight, so we skipped that idea.  This airport was weird.  The shops were filled with random designer labels, but it all seemed fishy, like they were counterfeit, or they had “fallen off a truck”.  Also, the shelves were fairly empty, there’d be a huge shelf with two or three items on it.  And there were TONS of cigarettes.  Apparently cigarettes from China are a hot commodity, because they were expensive, $50 a carton, while Marlboro were $16.

It was finally time to head to our gate.  When the man called for passengers with children, needing special assistance, and business class members, the entire group of people in the waiting area bum rushed the entrance.  And they began to enter without being let in.  Eventually we made our way up, but the people were so pushy and then so close behind us that I kind of wish we had waited for everyone else to board first.  But we needed to assure that we had overhead luggage space. They would push up against you, and when you turned your head they would apologize, but do it again and again.  Just before the plane there was a guy trying to check everyone’s ticket, and we watched him turn away a passenger and realize that he might have been letting people on the plane who shouldn’t have been let on.  Hmm.  I’m pretty sure there were some stow aways on that flight.

The flight was about 6 hours, after the delay, but it was not a bad flight.  We dosed ourselves with our respective knock out drugs and were able to sleep a bit.  Aside from the fact that I was awoken by people walking by and bumping into me with elbows and carts, we were awoken in the middle of the night for a meal.  I think we were in a daze because we sleepily ate a meal at about 2:30 in the morning.  Totally unnecessary, but we were zoned out.  Seth barely remembered anything the next day.

The plane landed and the airport in India was much more vigilant about the passengers on the plane.  They cattle blocked the exit and checked everyone’s ticket stub, and if they couldn’t find it, they had to wait.  I thought that was awesome.

We were picked up by someone from our hotel and we made our way into Delhi.  We landed on a Sunday morning, so traffic wasn’t like it normally is.  We’ve heard a lot about Delhi traffic.  And, maybe it’s because we just spent a few weeks in Africa, but so far New Delhi is not like we expected.  It is much ‘nicer’ than we expected.  But, I’m also going to assume that we are in the nicer part of the city.  When I looked up our area it seems to be the Silverlake of New Delhi.  But, when I say this, don’t picture a street lined with pretty store fronts and welcoming restaurants.  I said it is the Silverlake of New Delhi.  We’ve already encountered areas that require ten gallon lungs to hold your breath.

Our hotel, aside from our romantic anniversary night, is the nicest hotel we’ve been in.  Amarya Haveli is a cute boutique B&B where we were offered their delicious homemade iced tea upon arrival.  Our room is the Jaipur room, so it is themed pink, with a pink temple painted on the wall.  And the bathroom is glorious.  Aside from the fact that you have to keep your mouth glued shut in the shower (we’re in India) it is amazing, with water pressure and extremely hot water.  And we had the best night sleep, probably since we moved out of our apartment in May.  AC, hot water, clean, and a comfy bed.  Awesome.

Amarya Haveli

We ventured out for a walk to a park nearby.  We ended up finding Deer Park, where they actually have deer in an enclosure.  There was a lady there who was feeding them yellow rice and naan.  I have a feeling that she wasn’t supposed to be doing that.

deerRice

Eventually we made our way to a recommended restaurant called Park Baluchi (which I bet means deer park), where we would have our first Indian meal.  We ordered two beers, two vegetarian dishes, and two types of bread. The beer was Kingfisher and the waiter presented them to each of us like one would a bottle of wine.  It was interesting.  Then there was a well packed ball of ricotta like cheese in something similar to a vodka sauce (i.e. tomato and cream).  That was really good.  It had lots of spices and a bit of a kick. Yum! Then there was a spinach based dish with string beans, corn and potatoes.  That was, also, very good.  We accompanied those with regular naan and kolcha, which is what I believe to be India’s version of pizza.  It was a flat bread with some chopped tomatoes, spices and cheese.  All very good.

firstDinner

We made our way back to our hotel and ordered some masala chai tea to keep ourselves awake so that we wouldn’t fall asleep too early.  The tea was delicious. And so was our night’s sleep. Aahhh…