india

we have returned to the lovely city of pushkar--after about a week driving around the arid hot desert that is rajasthan. first we went to jodhpur--the blue city with its narrow winding streets and its strange blue cubist architecture. the entirety of the old city is painted blue. initially it was the privilidge of the brahmin caste, (the highest of all of the castes), to paint their homes blue, but then everyone started to paint their houses and shops blue. some people say the color blue is a mosquito repellant, some people believe that it keeps the city cool in the dry scorching heat. whatever the reason, the city is so beautiful, especially when viewed from the palace fort on the mountain. when standing on the ramparts, if you make a frame with your hands and look through it, you feel as if you are looking at a picasso canvas. it is amazing.`
in the evening we visited a spice seller in the market, the shop was called M.V. spices. the woman who runs the business is fierce and charming, she made us tea and showed us the way to detect fake saffron made from newspaper. then emerson bought me a bunch of spices which made me very happy--tea spice to make chai, saffron, garam masala for dahl, tamarind for pad thai, biryani rice spices, maharaja curry powder, asafoetida--an ayurvedic herb, and something called winter tonic, a sweet powder that is good for warming the body. if anyone else is obsessed with spices you can buy amazing fresh high-quality spices very cheaply online at:
www.mvspices.com
they will ship anywhere for $10-$15 dollars, (up to one kilo).
next we drove to ranakhpur, a tiny mountain village with some amazing 600 year old jain temples. jainists are a followers of a sect of hindiusm that is very devout in its reverance of all life--they are vegetarian and some of the hardcore jainists sweep the path before them as they walk to avoid stepping on and accidentally killing small insects.
the temples were beautiful. the architecture resembled somewhat the 1,000 year old hindi temple of angkor wat in cambodia, (the main one). ranakhpur was a very relaxing place to be after our sightseeing O.D. we just took walks in the mountains, fed the friendly black-faced monkeys, and basically unwound. the monkeys were the friendliest we've met so far. they'll come right up to you and take nuts out of your hand, and if you see one sitting at the side of the road and you want to go sit down next to it, it's cool with that. it doesn't get all aggro like a lot of the thai, cambodian, laos monkeys.
next we drove to mount abu--"a honeymooners paradise!", the travel agent at our hotel in delhi had told us. it was more like little-india meets the jersey shore, minus the ocean in the off-season. indescribable really. there was some natural beauty on the drive there and away though.
now we are back in pushkar for two nights. i really like it here, it's peaceful and small and i don't feel like there's so much of the intense brodeo-stare-athon that i get everywhere else we go. probably because it's a holy city, the men who live here are beyond blatantly gaping at a woman, and the ones who are visiting on a holy pilgrimage know better. at any rate--it is a relief.
we're looking forward to the rest of our trip! in two days we'll be taking a train to the chaotic city of varanasi where they burn the bodies on the banks of the ganges.