India – Rajasthan Road Trip

This week in Jaipur I visited the two sites that are now my favorites in the city: Galtaji (The Monkey Temple) and Amber Fort.  Galtaji is a complex of Hindu temples set on a hill with craggy, reddish rock formations rising up around it.  The temples are attractive and after a medium walk up to the top of the hill there are good views of the city below.  Best of all, there are hundreds of monkeys living on the grounds and you can buy bags of peanuts to feed them.  They come up and take them right out of your hand!

Galta Temple (Monkey Temple)

“Peanuts, you say?  Don’t mind if I do.”

The palace inside Amber Fort has attractive architecture and intricate pattern designs on its walls.  It features a pretty garden set on an island in the surrounding moat.

Amber Fort

Amber Fort

Island Garden, Amber Fort

At school we progressed through colors, body parts, shapes, weather, and even phonetic sounds (although “P” and “Z” remain elusive).  Despite the intrigue of our lessons, competition for students’ attention was fierce and often lost to the allure of blowing up and popping plastic bags, making paper airplanes, or drawing on their own hands.  Oh well.  One time as I pulled the chalkboard eraser from a high window, a lizard jumped from it onto my head and then ran across the classroom floor.  Thus ended any chance of learning that day.

5th Grade

3rd Grade

The end of the school week marked the end of a term for the students, and they will be on vacation for two weeks.  Over the next five days, 10 of us volunteers took a road trip across Rajasthan.

We started in Jodhpur where we visited Mehrangarh Fort and shopped around the bazaar at night (forts and bazaars are to Indian tourism as churches and museums are to European tourism).  The fort was luxurious and had an interesting history.  Due to its location high on a hill and its winding entry gate, no army (even armed with elephants) had ever successfully captured it.  When the last Maharajah died in the 19th century, his 31 wives all committed ritual suicide by throwing themselves on his cremation fire–a mold of their hand prints cast as they left the fort for the last time is hung just inside the gate.

Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

View of Jodhpur (The Blue City) from Mehrangarh Fort

The next day we traveled to Jaisalmer, arriving in time to visit its fort.  The Jaisalmer Fort is huge, rising out of a random hill in the desert but blending in due to its yellow sandstone construction.  It is more like a shopping village than a historical monument, with hundreds of small stores and apartments occupying the ancient structures within its walls.  We got a turban tying lesson from one textile vendor and formed a band named Camelflage.

Jaisalmer Fort

Starting to look like a local, right?

The next morning we woke up early to see the sunrise over Gadsisar Lake, visited Patwa Haveli (a mansion within the Jaisalmer Fort), and then drove into the desert.  At a small desert resort we jumped on camels and took a ride into the sand dunes to see the sun set.  After dinner at the resort, we packed camel-drawn carts and rode back into the desert to camp out overnight.  We set up our beds and then sat around a campfire talking and singing songs under the pitch-black sky and thousands of stars.  The next morning, the sun rose orange and purple over the sand slopes.  This was one of the best days of my whole trip.

Sunrise at Gadsisar Lake, Jaisalmer

Gadsisar Lake, Jaisalmer

Camel safari, Jaisalmer desert

All hat, no camel

Desert sunrise

At our final destination, Pushkar, we once again rose before the sun and climbed a steep hill to visit Savitri Temple.  From there we had great views of the city and its square holy lake.  As I walked out of the temple and attempted to collect my water bottle, a monkey slapped it over and gave me the ‘what’s up now?’ head nod, flashing its teeth.  Taking the high road, I told him “It’s cool, man–let’s both just stay cool,” as I backed away slowly.

We took the “Spiritual Walk” around the lake, stopping into several temples and participating in a blessing-ritual-slash-high-pressure-donation-solicitation at the Pushkar Ghats.

Savitri Temple, Pushkar

Savitri Temple, Pushkar

Pushkar Ghats

Rangji Temple, Pushkar

Colors of Pushkar

My visit to India is continuously fascinating: inscrutable head and hand gestures, inefficient business processes, good-natured bargaining rituals, ubiquitous cattle, colorful outfits, unspeakable bathrooms, and awkward requests to have my picture taken.  Relying on logic and expecting rational behavior of others has proven futile; best to just roll over and continue the vivid, surreal dream.

Jaisalmer desert sunrise