Pushkar Fair & Nimaj Palace / 31 Oct 09

Joe Camel

Brahma Temple, Pushkar

Pushkar town scene

Makeshift bathing pools at ghats. Note dry lake in background.

Nimaj Palace Hotel, Nimaj

Woke up shivering and decided to do quickie sponge baths to minimize the agony of bathing in the bitter cold. We were excited to finally visit the Pushkar fair and knew it was important to get going early due to the extreme mid-day heat. We'd been told to return to the hotel at noon to rest for for a few hours and then return to the fair in late afternoon.

Fair events didn't begin until 10, so our early morning destination was the famous Brahma Temple located in the heart of town. Getting there wasn’t easy. Vijay couldn’t drive the van very far into town so we had to walk along the hot streets and alleys. Pushkar attracts religious pilgrims to bathe in its holy lake (which has been drained this year so unfortunately is currently a big muddy pit) and many tourists at this time of year so streets were jammed.

When we finally reached the Brahma Temple we were told to leave our handbags, cameras and shoes before entering. Ferris and I went inside first and left our personal items with Cliff and Cathy. Somehow a young man took befriended us and took us on a whirlwind tour of the temple. We were given flowers and stood in line to have them blessed by a priest. Then we were told to take the flowers we’d been given to the holy lake and throw them in.

A funny thing about the holy lake in Pushkar. Somehow the lake was drained for cleaning but not refilled again in time for the pilgrimages that coincide with the Pushkar camel fair. So this year's pilgrims have to bathe in makeshift pools set up along the edges of the dry lake.

We were escorted to the ghats (stairs leading down to the holy water) and then divided up. The person assigned to me recited various incantations and instructed me to repeat them. After several rounds of blessings to me and my family he had me to toss the flowers. It was when my presumably holy Hindu got upset that I wasn’t willing to contribute the offering he'd suggested that the red flags went up and I began I suspect that our nice pilgrimage experience was a fraud. Later I found that we'd each had the same experience and each had the same sudden realization that we'd be had.

Eager to escape, we headed to the fair ground for camel watching. We’d picked up the event brochure and were disappointed that most of the really interesting competitions seemed to have occurred earlier in the week. We stayed in the amphitheater until the heat became overwhelming and little shadow remained. By lunchtime we agreed that we weren’t sure what we were going to do in Pushkar for two more days.

While Cliff and Cathy enjoyed a massage in the spa tent, Ferris and I spoke to Ahmit about what to do. We decided to depart for Jodhpur in the late afternoon. But since it was too far to travel the entire distance Ahmit recommended we stop midway at a hotel called the Nimaj Palace in the town of Nimaj. We studied our maps but couldn’t find Nimaj anywhere and were a bit concerned but decided to carry on anyway.

We checked out of camp at 4pm and drove through magnificent desert with jagged red mountains. We passed men wearing lime green and bright orange turbans, women in fuchsia and yellow sarees, many of whom were veiled. I love the shops with strings of little packets of soaps and coffee hanging down, barbershops, and men sitting together drinking tea. Ox and camel carts. Trucks laden with huge bundles of cotton and grains. We rode over a large mountain and saw black-faced monkeys on the side of the road. On the other side we suddenly arrived at a beautiful lakeside town named Ajmer which had elegant houses, lush flowering trees. It looked like a Mediterranean town and stood in stark contrast to the sandy desert of Pushkar.

It was just after Ajmer that our late afternoon departure began to look ill-conceived. We got stuck in the worst traffic jam I’ve ever experienced and the kind that only India can create. There were literally miles of “goods carrier” trucks stopped on the road. Other vehicles were going around them creating third and even fourth lanes in a roadway space suitable for only two lanes. Vijay somehow managed to ride along on the edge of the road, dodging cows, dogs and people to bypass the long lines of trucks. As it got dark this kind of driving became more and more frightening. In India the rule is to constantly overtake. In darkness you watch the headlights of the oncoming car headed for you and you never know at what point the driver is going to pull back into the correct lane. For two hours I rode with my scarf over my face so I couldn’t see.

Fortunately as we got closer to Nimaj we turned off the congested crazy road and got onto a smaller two lane local road. We wound up the mountain and finally at 8pm reached our destination. Checked in exhausted and splashed water on our faces and went straight to the dining room. While the hotel was expecting 40 guests the next night, tonight it is just the four of us. The staff waited on us hand and foot. The hotel is owned by the 32nd descendant of the Tharkur of Mawar and it was he who welcomed us to dinner. Our dinner was prepared by women from the local village and was served family style. We had bowls of spinach, cauliflower, five-day dal, rice, and tomato soup. A delightful dinner and hotel.

Does A Tent With Electricity Count As Camping? / 30 Oct 09

Departed late (10am) from Jaipur. Before leaving we were met at the hotel by Mahmud who delivered rings we’d purchased yesterday that needed sizing. Because of the long distance between Jaipur and Pushkar our local contact Ahmit recommended that we eat lunch in Jaipur at the nearby Raj Palace hotel, a totally austere pretentious hotel. Not a hotel I’d ever want to stay at. Left at 2pm for Pushkar and arrived around 7. On the way we stopped at the rest stop we’d stopped at last year with Santa Fe Weaving Gallery. It must be “the rest stop” for tourists. Vijay, our wonderful driver, bought a DVD to show in the van, which turned out to be completely in Hindi but we tried to follow along anyway.

Had difficulty finding the royal tented camp as we approached and stopped several times to ask locals for directions. Pushkar looked like a honkey tonk carnival town with ferris wheels and flashing lights. Main street looked like something out of Woodstock with long matted-haired wise men and camels and awful booths selling junk.

At last we arrived the “Royal Tents” and checked in. Tents had a flap over the door and flap between main area and bathroom. The bath had what appeared to be a port-a-potty with a wooden seat but it flushed! Water at the sink came out of an old teapot; you turned the key a half turn and little water dribbled out and then another half turn to shut off. Bathing involved a hose and two buckets, one with cold water and one with hot, which you needed to request 5 minutes before needing.

The wait staff was incredibly attentive. They wore belted jackets and dhoti and beautifully colored turbans. We were supposed to put a little red flag outside when we needed something but as soon as we lifted the flag to go outside to post the flag, the staff came running across the sand.

Pushkar is located in the desert of Rajasthan and there are extreme fluxuations between day and evening temperature. At this time of year daytime can be 95 degrees and in the evening 45. I needed two blankets in order to sleep. So before leaving for the big dinner tent we put in an order for blankets. Dinner at the royal camp is a vegetarian ("Veg" as Indians call it) buffet. This is my favorite food on the trip so far. Especially wonderful are the lentil and bean dishes. By the time we returned to our tents it was freezing and we hurried into our pajamas and rushed to get under the covers.

"Contemporary is Very Temporary" / 29 Oct 09

As unbelievable as it may seem, yesterday's shopping did not quelch our appetite for looking in more of Jaipur's attractive shops. We rejoined our guide, Kr. Vikram Singh Solanki, whose life story and heritage is worthy of an entirely separate blog entry. Suffice it to say that one of his uncles is the Maharajah of Bundi (one of Rajasthan's old feudal domains). Because Vikram's father was not the eldest son (that son would be the Prince) his father has the title of Thakur of Bundi, a title that Vikram will inherit one day. As part of Vikram's current responsibilities, he inaugurates "puri" or festivals, at the 35 villages making up his family's domain. "Kr." conveys his Thakur status.

It's not interesting to detail our various shopping escapades except to note that we had all been looking forward to returning to ANDRAAB, a shop owned by two identical twin Kashmiri brothers (a photo of Moussa Andraab is included here). This is my favorite shop in Jaipur because of their exquisite Kashmir shawls. We left with multiple bags...

Another highlight of the day was finding an enamel pendant similar to something Ferris bought last year of Lord Krishna, or rather one of his many incarnations, SHREE NAT JI. It popped up completely unexpectedly. We stopped at a textile shop near the Jaipur Palace and I brushed several items off the glass countertop and immediately saw it. The shop owner, Subash, is an extremely knowledgeable and sophisticated antique dealer who specializes in exquisite antique textiles. We had stopped at this shop last year when we came to Jaipur with the Santa Fe Weaving Gallery. We were having a very pleasant conversation, looking at antique bandani and asking lots of questions about other textiles when at some point he made the sage comment "you know, contemporary is very temporary". Later, we must have been discussing bartering in India when he said "you know, I am not 100% honest". We thoroughly enjoyed Subash. He reminded me a wise Indian sage. I am thrilled to have found my Shree Nat Ji at last; it will be a treasured possession. I include a photo of me with Subash in todays post.

I'm suddenly out of time...we're headed off to Pushkar tomorrow so I will try to continue as soon as possible. I don't know how much email or blogging access we'll have but I'm sure that Cliff will move camels and elephants to get to an internet cafe.

Oh yes, as we passed a wedding palace last light, I GOT TO TOUCH AN ELEPHANT. Isn't he beautiful?

Jaipur Like A Native / 28 Oct 09

Today had total immersion into Jaipur fashion and shopping scene. Ferris contracted a young British woman whom she'd read about in Conde Nast Traveler to take us around to her favorite shops. Her company is called India Beat. We probably stopped in 20 shops and by the end of the day we collectively had acquired tablecloths, jackets, quilted vests, shawls, shibori jackets, face creams, jewelry and perhaps best of all liquor (to prepare for "dry" Pushkar).

One notable stop was at a local doctor who we needed to take a look at Cliff who's been suffering from laryngitis. We hope he will recover quickly as it is not the same with a mute Cliff writing notes to us on his iPhone and text messaging.

Jaipur Redux / 27 Oct 09

Samode Village Dollars and Scents / 26 Oct 09

Ferris and I woke up to discover that our room has a lovely patio overlooking the pool. Usually hotel pools are pretty unattractive but this one has a perfect design to fit the style of a Maharajah's palace. Here is a view of the pool from our room.

At breakfast we struck up a conversation with a waiter who invited us to come to his home in the village at the bottom of the hill. Cliff, Cathy, Ferris and I thought this was a great opportunity and agreed to meet him at 10:30. Took a jeep into town and visited his home. His family specializes in making bejeweled bangles made from laq. We left with boxes of them. Next to the home of a shoemaker. And last to the home of a stonecutter (as in gems) and, well, you can guess the result.

The town had narrow streets and blue-hued homes with doors of varying bright colors. Donkey carts passed by and goats and herd of boars...

Back to the hotel around 3. We had all scheduled massages for 4:00. Very blissful experience despite having to navigate a spiral staircase in a mini-spa robe with little underneath.

Tonight we plan to have dinner outdoors at the hotel and then watch a Bollywood movie in Cliff and Cathy's room. We'll see if we make it up that long.

Samode Palace Spectacular / 25 Oct 09

Today we met up with Ferris (who arrived last night) and visited the National Museum of Art and the Crafts Museum in Delhi. We particularly enjoyed the extraordinary Indian textile collection at the Crafts Museum. Craftspeople from all over India had been invited to sell their wares in an outdoor courtyard and we dedicated shoppers helped them out.

Caught a 5 pm flight to Jaipur and arrived around 8:30. Then drove one and a half hours to the Samode Palace Hotel which is the spectacular renovated home of a former Maharajah of Samode. We walked up a steep incline and approached the walled palace in darkness. We were told to close our eyes and turn to face the palace and after a countdown to open our eyes. When we opened them we saw the palace edged in lights. After dinner in an outdoor courtyard we were taken on a tour of the palace and finally arrived at our rooms at midnight.

Delhi Day / 24 Oct 09

Said farewell to our hotel in Bhubaneswar and to the Jagannath gods and flew via Jetlite to Delhi. Arrived at hotel by 1:30. Took taxi to Connaught Place shopping complex and descended down a pedestrian stairway into something that looked like the 14th street arcade from hell. If this had been in New York I would never have entered. But Cathy is intrepid and with LOVE DELHI book in hand she quickly and miraculously found the shop she was looking for. The very small shop sold pretty cikan (pronounced chicken) embroidered cotton and silk shirts. We found lots of things to investigate.

What puzzles me about Indian shopkeepers is their inability to read interest. They will unfurl endless numbers of garments before you while you repeadly say "no" and then when you finally do express interest they unfurl another unwanted item. It must be a cultural thing. Anyway we did eventually bridge our communication gap while Cliff watched the latest David Pogue technology update on his iPhone. Next stop was a DVD/CD shop. I bought two sitar CDs, not Ravi Shankar.

Then we ventured out to the Regal Building to visit a khadi cloth store. Ghandi advocated India's return to homespun simple clothes and this store is devoted to selling all types of khadi cloth. I had though that khadi came only in off white, but this shop taught me a lesson. Cliff bought material for two shirts which he will have made at an elegant tailor around the corner.

Puri-fication / 23 Oct 09

Arrived at the seaside town of Puri on the Bay of Bengal last night and checked into the Mayfair Beach Resort. After looking over our itinerary, which had been designed to include leisure time, we decided that we might have added in a bit too much. At least at this point in the beginning of trip we weren’t ready to spend much time poolside. So we rejiggered things and came up with a new plan that would enable us to do all the sightseeing in one day that had originally been scheduled over several and fly to Delhi early. That will give us time to visit museums before catching an 8pm flight on Sunday to Jaipur. Spirit of India, our outfitter, was extremely accommodating in making all these spur of the moment arrangements and we compliment them highly.

One note about the Mayfair Beach Resort in Puri…there is no resemblance whatsoever between it and its sister hotel the Mayfair Lagoon in Bhubaneswar. The Bhubaneswar hotel is luxurious and the Puri hotel is well…not. As we had a glass of wine at the bar, for example, I noticed something small and dark with four legs and a tail scamper by. From then on keep feet strictly off the floor. Dinner was in a restaurant call the “Aquarium” that had the brightest lights I’ve ever seen outside of a Japanese pharmacy. As in Bhubaneswar there seem to be no foreign tourists anywhere to be found, but there are plenty of Indian travelers.

So this morning we loaded our bags and set off early. The first stop was a pottery village where clay vessels are made for use at the famous Jagannath Temple in Puri (more about this in a minute). What I had feared would be an uninteresting stop turned out to be a great one. The village was very different from others we’ve seen. Houses had clay walls and thatched roofs and each house was painted a different color. There were attractive decorations painted next to the entry door on either side; motifs that include clay pots, palm trees and coconuts which by looking at they as you enter and exit the home are meant to bring good luck. Also charming were words painted on the front of house such as “Puspa Weds Krusna” or “Sonia Weds Purna”. We probably saw 10 small temples in this tiny village and watched a priest chant, bow his head in prayer and wave a lighted oil lamp. There was a steady flow of villagers to these small Shiva or Kali temples, stopping briefly to touch their foreheads to the ground.

Then to a spot we’d all been waiting for because we’ve seen images of these gods since our arrival in Orissa. The Jagaannath Temple in Puri is one of the four most important Hindu temples in India. The others are in the south, west and north areas of the country. The Jagaannath is the eastern-most temple. The name Jagannath means “lord of the universe”. Jagannath is the 9th reincarnation of the god Vishnu.

The temple was built in the 12th century (Kalinga style architecture) and is a four temple complex. The 1st temple is for offerings to the priest, the 2nd is the dance temple (there is still one lady in her 70s who dances each night to the gods!), the 3rd is the prayer temple and the 4th is 65 meters tall and is the temple to the gods. On top of the 4th temple is the symbol of Vishnu, the wheel. One of India’s most famous events happens in July of each year when the gods are removed from the temple and are drawn through the streets for 3 km. The “king” of Orissa sweeps in front of the chariot with a golden broom.

Despite being the god for all people, non-Hindu are not allowed inside so we were limited to exterior views only. But what we did see was amazing – up there with the Varanasi experience of last year. We exited our van nowhere near the temple and walked through a teeming crowd under broiling sun along a wide main street in town. There were people going in every direction, vendors selling food or religious objects, beggars without hands or feet, busses, tuk-tuks, bicycles, cows. Eventually we reached what was called a “library”, another room full of brown, crumbling papers, and climbed a winding stone stairway to a rooftop. From there we had the most unbelievable view of the street we had just navigated as well as a view of people walking up the 22 steps to enter the temple, and the entire temple complex. To me the vista with thousands of people in it looked like something out of a Cecil B Deville move. I took a movie with my camera and when I get back to New York I will try to upload it to YouTube. Baadal told us that the temple’s 700 ovens serve 56 kinds of food to any pilgrims who wish to have a meal. Then we walked around the perimeter of the temple complex and purchased small souvenirs.

As if that weren’t enough, we headed on to a craft village called Raghurajpur that specializes in palm leaf and other kinds of beautiful painting. The entire village came out to greet us and everyone tried to lure us into their home “just to look”. We finally acquiesced and entered the home of a long-time painting family who demonstrated various techniques. The palm leaf technique was especially interesting. They carve into the leaf and then rub waterproof ink into the etched marks and then wipe the ink away. What’s left appears to be an ink drawing.

And then for something completely different…we turned to two things Buddhist. We stopped at the Shanti Stupa (aka the Peace Pagoda) built in the 1970s by a Japanese monk to promote world peace. And at Cathy’s favorite stop of the day, the place where King Ashoka issued his edicts, carved on stone tablets in 260 BC, that decreed that the principles of Buddhism should be followed in India.

So we had a very full day, as we had had yesterday. One thing about traveling in fairly remote or primitive rural areas is there’s no place to stop for lunch and certainly no place other than behind a tree to stop for other matters. At one point we asked Baadel what villagers who have no running water and no village facility do in this regard. He told us that there is a field to which the women go once in the morning and once in the evening. I have great sympathy for them because for the past several days we too have been on this same schedule, although not trekking to a field.

Around 5pm we checked back into the Mayfair Lagoon Hotel in Bhubaneswar, a place that now seems like home. My room wasn’t quite ready so I waited in the lobby until 6 or so. When I finally got to room I discovered that my bathroom had a rather strange shower. There was a showerhead hanging from in the ceiling but it was obvious that the shower wasn’t supposed to be a huge open area, it simply wasn’t finished. When I rejoined C&C later they said their shower door had fallen off and I should ask the front desk to put shower doors on mine. I did so and was told it would be fixed straightaway. When we went back to C&C’s room to retrieve a package and we found the repairmen busily at work on their shower and no one at all working on mine. Oh well, I was happy to have running water and we all had a good laugh. Dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant. Tomorrow we catch a flight to Delhi at 9:55am.

The Great Konark / 22 Oct 09

Checked out of our little palace at the Mayfair Lagoon and loaded up the bus. Drove to see the famous Sun Temple at Konark, 75km from Bhubaneswar. The route took us through interesting scenery. There are still rice fields and occasional ponds with water hyacinth and lotus. But as we approach the coast both the flora and houses became more tropical. We started to see many palm, coconut and banana trees. Houses have thatched roofs and are wicker sided.

Konark temple was built around 1250 AD and is a dedicated to the Sun King. When it was originally built it lay near the shore of the Bay of Bengal but today the coast is quite a distance away. The temple is designed to look like a giant chariot carrying the Sun King. At the bottom are 12 gigantic wheels each intricately carved. The entire temple is decorated with carvings of beautiful women, amorous couples and panoply of gods and goddesses. Our guide told us that during the heyday of the temple unmarried young women were chosen to dance each night for the gods. What a sight that must have been.

The sun king must quite happy with his temple because during our visit between 12-2pm we were absolutely roasted. After this visit we continued on to our new destination, Puri, a coastal town where we will spend the next few nights.

Ikat Dhonga Ikat Dhonga / 21 Oct 09

Woke up to find that the electronics jinx cloud that I’ve been operating under had spread to my wonderful Indian cell phone. When I met C&C for breakfast Cliff had reception but I did not, and we have identical phones and were sitting next to each other. Cliff is pretty handy with gadgets but couldn’t fix it. For some reason he had the idea to ask one of the people in the restaurant if they could take a look at it since everyone in India has a cell phone and ours is pretty simple. A beautiful hostess was standing nearby and she a tried a few things that didn’t work. The two of them had their heads together when I left the table to get last minute items ready for the day. When we met in the hotel lobby, low and behold the hostess had fixed it, saving me/us a lengthy stop at an Indian store. I would have never thought to ask a hotel employee. What’s really wonderful about the phone is how inexpensive it is. I spoke to Eze and Scott last night for a total of 30 minutes at a cost of only $.06/minute. The US cell phone rate would be $2.99/minute. Now with our technical problems resolved we could proceed.

In the morning we visited a very interesting ikat village called Naupatana. It was only 80 km from Bhubaneswar but it took us two hours to get there. Roads in this part of India are horrible anyway, never mind going to a remote village. Although roads are paved they’re filled with enormous pot holes. Along the way we passed ox-carts, water buffalo (Scott, you would have loved the huge herd we saw wallowing in water), people herding cows and bulls, bicycles carrying six foot bundles of sticks, adorable school children in their matching uniforms and backpacks…

The ikat village was L-shaped with houses lining the street on either side. Each small house seemed to have an identical layout, long and narrow with the first room containing a loom, the room behind that a ladder to the roof, behind that a “kitchen” and that was as far as I could see. We saw women working at looms and young men sitting outside tying off ikat designs.

My favorite experience had nothing to do with weaving. We encountered a group of women with small bowls of food in their hands and they were making a “tak tak tak tak” sound. Our guide explained that they were performing a ceremony to ward off being bitten by the King Cobra. The sound was an imitation of the sound it makes. Fantastic!

Lunch on the bus. We’d been told to bring something with us and after all the food we’ve eaten we were perfectly happy to much on just nuts and bananas. After lunch we visited a bronze dhonga making village, Sadeibareni, which was much more primitive than the first and that’s saying something. Apparently this village has always made bronze but the government is trying to help the villagers by promoting sales and has put in a paved walkway for tourists to make their hovels more accessible. Children were caked with dirt but ran along accompanying us in a friendly and playful way.

Women in both villages were saris with nothing underneath but discreetly keep themselves covered. Men wear dhoti which is a long cloth wound around the hips and tucked between the legs.

Then a long, 110 km drive back to Bhubaneswar…we arrived at the hotel hot, sweaty, dusty and exhausted. I excused myself for the evening but somehow C&C had the energy for an Orissan dinner and musical performance.