from Jodhpur to Pushkar

Wednesday night, I have been given a lift on a motorbike with all my bags from top of Jaiselmer fort until the train station, much more impressive than any rickshaw...
On the night train to Jodhpur, I slept like a baby on an upper bed, but I had to wake up at 5am otherwise I would have missed the station...
I walked in Jodhpur in early morning, like when I arrived my first day in India in Delhi. Found a nice hotel to rest one hour before visiting the city.
After, some walking to the post office and also some wandering in the city.


I visited Jodhpur fort which is very very impressive on a 150m high hill, the Rajah used to live there until very recently.

The museum is nice with an audio guide and an itinerary through the fort, I had a good moment there. On my way back, dinner in a restaurant just at the feet of the hill, with a nice view all over the city.

The next morning, early train to Ajmer, where I took a bus to Pushkar.
Pushkar is a relaxing city around a sacred lake where pilgrims and priests go bathing and take tourist to make a wish, throwing flower petals in the lake and tiding a bracelet not to break.
Well, I'm not so superstitious but I promised the guy I will come back if my wishes come true :-).
walking in the city is cool, there are no rickshaw here, the city is surrounded by small mountains. There is one popular spot where people stay having a drink on the lake banks at sunset, unfortunately I missed the sun set as I was on the other side of the lake, busy making a wish.


The streets are full of bazaars, temples and restaurants, but not so much crowded. There are a lot of tourists though, a bit "disneylandish", a lot of Israeli and French tourists, some of them with hippie style. There are some nice paths to go. I ll try a walk to the top a nearby hill with a nice view on the lake, tomorrow morning at sunrise should be perfect.
I finally bypassed Udaipur, as quite a long way in the south, my next step will be Agra and then Benares.

On the back of a camel

So monday morning, I've changed my hotel for one inside the fort, Krishna palace, a former haveli ( merchant's house ).The guys at the hotel are really cool and nice, they like to meet travellers and they seem less money-minded than in the previous hotel.

And so I booked the camel safari from there. 2 days in the deserted area 40 km away from Jaiselmer.We were 4 tourists, 2 german guys travelling together, Goran and Mickael, one other german from my hotel, Daniel ( by the way the hotel is really small, like 5-6 rooms, yesterday we had a drink with the hotel guys and also 2 young israeli ladies ).The 2 guides leading the camel were walking and preparing the food.

They were really nice, joyful, simple men. However they can talk english quite well, and they know some words from other languages too.The night was in sand dunes, watching the sunset and the beautiful light all over the dunes.


Night was very nice, under the Milky Way, very clear, and full of stars with no light polution.We enjoyed a beer bottle the german guy brought from town, had vegetarian meals, very good, and also very hot.

Then after lunch today, Daniel, the youngest guide and myself left the others as they were staying one more day.The guide jumped on Daniel's camel back and so the camels were free to run. Really great, jumpy a lot though, and now my legs are half-broken :-)We paid 100 roupies tips for the guides ( + the 1000 RS for 2 days ).

I take the train to Jodhpur tonight at 11.15pm arriving to 5am the next morning ( maybe 6 ).

The connection is eally bad here, I will check later for pictures uploading. Next cities to go : Udaipur, Pushkar, Agra... and then Benares or the mountains.

26 hours train

Last trip in train was so exhausting. Took the train on saturday 25th, in Delhi. I ve gone to the train station on a circle rickshaw.

But the traffic was so jammed at one moment that I left the rickshaw and continued on feet through Old Delhi very busy streets.
There I was in Sleeper class hopefully with an american couple, Ben and Sydney, in the same area.

What we didn't know was that there would be more people than expected and the coaches are full without any compartment door. So we couldn t lie on our beds as it was in seat position with 4 people on each seat.... Anyway for a long while I was quiet, then the american went on the up- seats to try to sleep. And finally I started to talk with the indian people, who turned to be very nice, and funny, young men of 20-25 going home from Delhi for the week-end. There was also a policeman officer in the coach, but the only difference with other travellers was his uniform, and he had some authority too, but no gun. At the moment we were talking the train has stopped for a couple of hours. Technical problem : a family was taking the train as it was already running, but could not manage to put 2 children before the train goes too fast. The guys inside told the controller to stop the train as a family cannot be separated, the train stopped next station to wait for the remaining passengers... Then another stop of 4 hours this time, for a real technical problem. There had been an accident between Delhi and Jaipur, 2 coaches on the side, hopefully, not my train :-0
Then I got some sleep as I was feeling more comfortable with other local passengers, and anyway my bag was locked and attached below the seats ( necessary precaution though ), so I slept for a while until the controller finally wake me up in middle of the night to check my ticket. Anyway I found back sleep easily later thanks to my Quies balls. On the morning, i talked a bit with the indian men and also with Ben and Sydney. Then as we were travelling through desert-like lands, I played a bit of melodica ( the coach was almost empty at that time ) I had the attention of 3 indian boys , the older being 16, they were travelling to visit this part of India as they are originated from Calcutta. They seem to be to belong to a little higher class than most of people, the 16 teenage boy was very interesting and very curious.

At the stop in Jodhpur, 10 boys harassed us selling zip fixations or shoe things, they insisted a lot, I ask then why they don't go to school, they hardly found any answer to give except than I don't go to school. 2 very different kind of teenage here. I had the honor to be drawn by the 16 boy ( don t remember his name ) who is really good in drawing, drawing me within 5 mins as the sun was slowly falling the light going off....

Then Jaiselmer at night, lots of touths are here to welcome tourists and grab them in their hotel. My choice was already done with a boy advertising an hotel in the train and bringing there by jeep, so did the american and 3 polish travellers and 2 Irish.

After a very very nice washing ( not a shower alas, just a bucket ) and a good dinner, here I go for a walk in town, but too tired to dance all night (well, no night club anyway) so bye-bye and have a good night ! Connection is very slow here so no new picture, but at least I burn a cd as my memory card is already full !

leaving Delhi for Jaizelmer

I booked one train ticket leaving today at 17h26 to Jaizelmer ( arriving the day after at 13h30 )
326 Rs for a sleeper class, and maybe more than 1000 km. My plan is to go the farest as possible now and to come back to Delhi little by little.
I could put some pictures online with a 800x600 definition.
Now taking a cycle rickshaw direction Old Delhi train station ! Rickshaw are convenient way of travelling in the city, could be a bit frightening some time, accident is always near but thanks to the horn, driving is safe ( but noisy ).

first night in India

After some pool game where I lost against a german guy, I came back to my hostel room, continued my reading of "La Promesse de l'aube" from Romain Gary, a really great autobiographical book.
Then, hopefully I had my boules Quies to find some peaceful sleep, cause around midnight there are still horns blowing from the street !
The matress is about 5 cm large, and designed for 1m60 people but even though, I had a good night sleeping in diagonale. The clothe I washed were already dry, cool !

Next morning, I wake up late 10 am, have breakfast meeting at Everest restaurant the same travellers as the day ago.


Then my plan was to go to Connaught place, very touristical area where the official tourist office is, but I've been caught by a Kashmere guy, and I decided to talk to him 5 min, there drinking Chai ( tea with a bit of milk, the common drink in India ) there were some german toursits the man knew, he proposed me to bring me to a place with music, anyway he had to go there for his pray as he is moslem. So I took a rickshaw with Guzar to Nizamaddin's shrine, a mosquee located in a muslem area. Anyway it is just next to Humayan's tomb I had planned to visit too...

So I ve been to this place that looks like a Souk, removed my shoes to enter the religious area, here some tombs a crowd of muslem people that came here to put some flowers on the tomb, here also there are lots of beggers, most of them are children.

I met some french guy I talked too, he proposed to have a coffee later in Pahaar Ganj. Walking around while Guzar was at his pray, I found a quite nice garden where people were sleeping and young children playing cricket.

I stayed a little while. Then back to the shrine, there were indeed some music players and singers playing religious songs, it was quite nice, there was percussions and an organ-piano with a pump just like an accordeon.

Finally I had lunch with Guzar who tried once again to convince me to go to Kashmere with him. But I don't think so, I don't have time anyway or I would have to change my plans... I said I would tell me tomorrow if I meet him in the street.
Then I walked to Humayan's tomb which is a wonderful and quiet place. No beggers here only tourists, and not so many, there are grass areas very very big, and it is nice to walk there and to have a little rest on the grass.

The tomb itself made me think about Taj Mahal as the architecture is similar, but Taj Mahal seems to be bigger ( I will see... )

Then going out from the place, I talked to 2 belgian tourists laying on the gras, proposing to shaer the drive back to Connaught and Pahaar Ganj. They were nice, actually it is good to hear travellers experiences of India, good information to have before going by myself !

Then a quick shower and meeting in Connaught place with Dhruv from hospitality club, his roomate Antonia, a french girl working for an ONG near in Delhi, a Czech guy, a bulgarian girl called Crassie and her indian travel companion Amano, bot fond of Osho philosophy.
We have a drink and some dinner in a bar called Blues, typically inspired from an occidental pub, with loud music, almost saturated, pop/rock from the eighties/nineties....

It was fun. Dhruv is a clothe designer working for H&M, he is very stylish and seems to be a bit cynical, but very easy going and very nice.

Then Dhruv drove me back near Pahaar Ganj, I just walked a few hundred meters to Main Bazar, people were sleeping on the pavement without anything, poverty is everywhere here and is very strong too.
Yesterday, one child begged me as I was in a rickshaw, the poor guy had one foot only, it was hard, but I decided not giving anything, thinking it is encouraging begging, and more mothers to mutilate their children to inspire tourists'pity ( which is crualry the case in India )
Then here I am in the same internet point than yesterday, before going back to the hotel.
Thinking about taking the train tomorrow to Jaizelmeer maybe ( 20 hours train ) and going back through Jodhpur, Ajmer, Pushkar and Udaipur for the next days ( it would take me maybe 10 days such a trip...

I m thinking about burning pictures on the cds I ve brought, but will try to find a better internet connection in Connaught tomorrow morning while I go ( hopefully ) to the tourist office ....
I don't understand why people cannot leave comments on this blog, but I did some changes, maybe it is working now !
Some other person told me today I look like Rahul Gandhi, let's have a look now....
http://images.google.co.in/images?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=rahul+gandhi&sa=N&tab=wi

arriving in Delhi

After some transit in Istanbul, I finally arrived in Delhi at 4am local time, 11:30pm France time.

My first objective was to go to the Pahaar Ganj area to book an hotel for a few days.
Took a bus ( like 40 years old bus ), dropped me near New Delhi train station, Pahar Ganj being on the other side of the station.
And there , people everywhere, beggers, rickshaws, an ocean of people. Everybody can see you re a tourist so they try to take your attention to get a little money. Here poverty is huge too, so they try everything to have money to survive.

So... I asked one guy about the directions, he gave me the exact opposite direction, claiming also it was far on feet and that I should better take a rickshaw... well, I knew I had to go to the west so I went the opposite way of the sun rising. I crossed the trains station and took the bridge above the railways, incredible how many people there, just like rush hour in parisian metro.

On the other side, rickshaws everywhere trying to get me in their cab, but I went by feet.
Main Bazaar street is not far and almost empty at this time. I took one room for a couple of days there in a small hotel, so that I can leave my bag and move more easily...

Rest of the day was dealing with guys, some guy from Kashmere proposed me a tour with car and driver through Rajahstan but his rate are big and my plan is to take the train.
breakfast in a little restaurant near my hotel, I met some other travellers, with who I talked for a while.
At noon, I go on Terasse of Hotel Shelton at the end of main bazaar, where there is a nepalese restaurant. There I met again once again the french guy, Christian, 40-50 years old living for about 4 years in India, his motorbike is currently being repaired. And also Jerome, an english man unlike his name, who used to be tourist guide here and also Changme, a nepalese girl, smiling a lot but with a strong accent.... I have a nice vegetarian nepalese meal, one of the less spicy meal, but still spicy for me...
After that, I go by rickshaw to the red fort. The driving is chaotic and the use of the horn is necessary not to have an accident, rickshaws and cycle rickshaws come from everywhere !

I stay a little while visiting the red fort, not many tourist, actually I did not see any other tourist except local indian tourist, and everybody here is looking curiously into my blue eyes, I guess they aer not used to blue eyes !
I came back to Pahaar Ganj by feet, crossing the local indian bazaar, not touristical at all, still crowded a lot, but at least nobody is asking me anything...

Then a little shower, clothe washing ( drying very fast ! ), some sleep, and here I am in the cybercafe of an hotel, with a damn slow connection! some news to write. some pictures uploaded, but this is much too slow, so I ll wait to find a faster connection later....
I am about to plan my trip to Rajhastan, itinerary, train tickets.
Waiting for the computer and talking with a belgian girl being heer for 8 weeks, Pushkar is a relaxing city, I think that s a good idea to go there, to get out of the crowd, and take some time to relax !

Here I go for dinner !