Onward We Go

oh, my. It's wonderful here. I guess I'll need to wait a while before adding pictures, since 1. this place has dial up and 2. old computers without the drivers needed to recognize our camery. We are in Jhodpur, an old city in the desert of northwestern India. Jhodpur is known as the blue city and when you see pictures you will know why. The vast majority of houses are painted a beautiful sky blue, which is said to repel insects as well as being traditionally the color for brahmin's houses. Now it is not restricted to Brahmin families, and just about everyone paints their house this indigo color giving the whole city an unearthly glow. On one end of the old city is a high cliff, and at the top of the cliff are massive 60 ft walls enclosing an old fortress. The fortress seems to be a natural part of the cliff with a sea of blue houses winding out beneath it. Think dr. seuss. Specifically, did you ever read the book about Bartholomew and all his hats? That's what this city looks like, except all glowing faintly with blue that perfectly blends with the faded blues, pinks and yellows of the desert landscape.

We are staying in a higgledy-piggledy hotel, on the top floor. We splurged on the spectacular suite which looks like a castle in itself. You get there by winding your way up and down and in and out, in the same way you wind through the narrow alleys of the town. The top room is made of stone, intricately carved with many extras like sitting nooks, windows on all four sides with incredible views of the town and fort, and even my deepest desire, a bathtub with hot water. In mere moments i will be taking my first hot bath in over 6 months, and that from a girl who often takes up to 3 baths a day when I need help relaxing. The room we're in was once a house in Jaiselmer, a desert town 4 hours into the western remoteness from here. We will visit there next.

Mark tells me he will get the drivers we need and upload some pics tonight, so I'll just go on a little more and then let him do his thing.

Before here we were in Jaipur, a pretty big city with great vibes, happy healthy people and all that. It is known as the pink city. we were tired of forts and palaces so skipped them there and instead walked around and mostly hung out with our friend Ahmed that we met there. He was actually our rickshaw driver from the railway station when we first arrived, and turned out to be super cool and by far the most internationally saavy young indian i've met so far. he was our companion for three days there, and may be coming to visit us in kerala soon. i expect to keep in touch with him. jaipur is the pink city, but it has not stuck to the theme as much as jhodpur has the blue, so you only pick up on the pink in the old part of the city.

one neat thing we did there was to go to a sort of disney type park that is set up like a traditional Rajistani villiage. They serve a traditional meal and you get to walk around and see people doing the traditional crafts and all that. it was really fun, and though make believe, was a good way to get to see lots of these things in one place.

oh gosh, and there were monkeys galore there which I fed peanuts to at a temple overlooking the city. walking up to this temple there were so many cows, goats, pigs, monkeys, dogs, cats, children. all wandering the streets and paths and to my amazement hanging out peacefully together. this whole trip has been animalriffic for me. i also got to hang out with and ride a camel and have seen lots of them on this trip.

and before that was Agra, city of the taj Mahal and of an amazing fort. The taj has quite a reputation, as you know, and let me tell you, it does not disappoint. How, i wondered, will something with such hype live up to expectation? well, it far surpassed it. i've never seen anything like it. it rises like a cloud and seems to float above you wherever you are in the city. it looks not to be real, but as though it is a part of a dream or a portal to another dimension. It looks as though it is constantly bursting through to this world from another world. That is the best way i can describe it. i was so happy I cartwheeled around on the big platform it sits up on.

if you don't know the story, let me tell you. Shah Jahan, a great Muhgal emporer in the 17th century, was part of the amazing history and architecture and many other cultural wonders left by his line which ruled this area for 500 years. I suppose he had many wives, as was the custom. But his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, was especially beloved. When she died giving birth to their 14th child, Shah Jahan was said to have been so bereived that all his hair turned gray over night. He immediately set about plans to build the most beautiful building in the world as a memorial that would house her body. Work on the Taj Mahal was started later that year and completed about 15 years later. Eventually, one of Shah Jahan's sons, greedy to take over the throne killed all of his brothers and imprisoned his father in the old fort (which we also toured). From the place of his imprisonment, where he eventually died, Shah Jahan could look out across the Yamina river at a perfect view of his masterpiece, the Taj Mahal. he would, of course, never go there again until his dead body was laid to rest beside his wife. Personally, I was just so relieved that his son at least let him rest there, after everything else that had happened. To me, the ultimate tragedy would have been to bury him elsewhere. But, the reunion was allowed after shah jahan's death, and both he and his wife are entombed in the Taj Mahal. When you go inside, there is a domed roof with colored glass all around and two (what do you call that thing people are sealed in above ground after they are dead? I can't remember now) Anyway there are two in there, his and hers. And every sound echoes and echoes. It is so, so seriously spooky-beautiful.

Also, we had an interesting train ride, and I got to experience waiting in the regular line to get our tickets instead of getting them at the foreign tourist office. Lets just say people were shoving so hard I could have lifted my feet off the ground and not fallen down. People cutting, yelling, fights breaking out, I literally felt a guy touch my pocket area and when I turned around i saw him put his hand ever so gently into the pocket of a man next to me. He came up empty though, so I kept my mouth shut. He was very poor and obviously homeless, and I just wanted to get out of there without making any kind of trouble. Noone saw but me. The whole thing was chaos, and yet it seemed safe enough somehow. that was followed by a seven hour ride on a very croweded train. There was a chance we would have to stand the whole way, which I was not about to do. But we did get seats, and thus made it from Jaipur to Jhodpur.

Okey-dokey. Love you guys. More to come! -Asenath