Camels through the Desert

April 31

5:49am Delhi time
We've already been up for an hour now. We loaded all our stuff into cabs. If it isn't obvious, cabs here aren't like at home. It's kinda like a small van with forward and backward facing seats and luggage carriers on the top. I noticed them strap the luggage to the car when we arrived on pushkar but I didn't notice that in Delhi. I kept waiting for us to lose a bag.
I have only taken like 10 or 15 pictures. Normally I would have at least 50 by now. I think it's hard to even think about pictures when everyone is bustling past you. It would have been nice to take pictures of the street or market or the ridiculous amounts of traffic.
It's also really hard to determine when it is okay to take a picture. I struggled with this in photo class too. When taking pictures of other people, technically you are invading their privacy even though it seems harmless. You're supposed to ask enforce you take pictures of people. I'll need to work on this. It is also hard in general to stop and take a picture when everything is so fast moving around you. Plus the second you stop in Delhi someone comes up to ask you a million questions. And I don't want to be rude and take pictures of people's misfortune or low socioeconomic status.
The businesses are all crammed together. Kind of like in Europe... Maybe most like Greece but there's still a difference. They're practically on top of one another, signs overlap even, and they are very run down.
Yesterday, Julia and I walked past a dairy stand that was closed. All the product was behind a black piece of fabric. You could have just lifted it up and taken something I'd you had wanted.
I'm not sure if its like in Europe in the sense that people live above the shops or not. I don't even know if I have seen a house. An alarming number of people sleep on the streets. Many park their various vehicles of transportation on the side (the same vehicle they transport people around in all day) of the road. They drape themselves over their bikes or sleep in the back of their trucks or tuk tuks. There were groups of people sleeping together on the sidewalk. Single men with a massive stack of blankets... Like huge, so they're practically standing but more leaning into the blankets a little bit. We passed people sleeping in their businesses (one that sticks out is a man sleeping on the couch of a tourist office). When we got to the train station a bunch of people were sleeping on the floor at the entrance as well.
Our CEO told us that a lot of people have really bad standards of living and aren't paid very much at work. As a tour group we try to tip them a little bit to help them out. We are doing a collective group tipping. We each paid 1000 rupees for all 15 days of the trip. So basically for 2 weeks I am tipping a total of $20 (there is approximately 2 dollars per 100 rupees.
He also said not to give kids begging money because then it teaches them that is an acceptable way to live. That's why you see children with their limbs cut off because their parents think they'll make more money then. Yesterday in the market, kid kept walking alongside us and tapping our arms asking for money until they realized we weren't going to give them anything. When we were on our way to the train station and stopped in traffic there were children going around to cars as well asking for money at the windows.
We're on a train to pushkar now. It's a very holy city, so much so that even alcohol, meats, and eggs are not allowed in the city.
The train is pretty nice and spacious. Although, I am way too short to lift my bag above my head and put it on the luggage rack. Apparently being vertically challenged is an issue internationally and not just in the US. So, my bag is in front of me in between my legs. Not super comfy for a 6.5 hr train ride but it will do. I'm sure I look ridiculous with my bag too. I bet it goes at least a foot above my head when I'm wearing it... If not more. It's pretty heavy too but when it's on my back the weight is distributed pretty evenly. I feel like I don't even have that much stuff but clearly I do.
Now for 6.5 hours on the train!

9:06am Delhi time
They came around and gave us bottled waters and crackers. Later they served breakfast which was some type of shaped mushy potato thing with a side of carrots and green beans. There was also a mango juice box which I didn't drink and bagged bread. The first time I had experienced box wine was with Alyssa in France on a picnic in the park. I have never had to tear open my bread from a sealed paper bag. There was even a description telling us that the Egyptians were the first to add yeast to bread to make it rise. So strange. Honestly it tasted good though. So, I guess boxed and bagged things are on the yes list.
There are also people from Austria here. And my roommate got drunk in Thailand and approached a dog too quickly and was bitten. She may have rabies and has to get the 5 shot series. She also stopped taking her malaria pills because the chance of getting it is so small... No thanks though, I'll not take that chance and keep taking my pills.
I'm assuming it is the makati me but last night when I was finishing up my blog post and drifting off I had weird imagery and sounds going on. I don't know how to describe it yet because it hasn't happened enough. It kinda reminds me of schizophrenia- although I knew it wasn't reality. It just somewhat felt like it at the time haha. Basically, I apologize if something in the blog last nigh toward the end made no sense.

3pm Delhi time
Pushkar is so beautiful. It is near the water and in the mountains. The views are breath taking.
For lunch I had vegetable korma and naan. Yum yum. We ate at our hotel. It's actually really nice. Which I wasn't expecting based on what I was seeing when we drove in.
The city is still busy, but it is different from the business of Delhi. More of the women are wearing saris and for some reason it is more what I think of when I think of India. There are monkeys and cattle all over. The vehicles look a bit different but are still similar. We rode here in a van. 1 and the driver in the front, 3 in the middle and then the back has 2 benches facing to the middle of the van and we squeezed 4 of us back there.
The people here are thinner than those in Delhi as well. It is more houses and buildings rather than store fronts crammed every which way.
It is hotter here than it was in Delhi too. Pushkar is in the dessert. I'm actually laying out by the pool right now writing this. I'm so white.
The 2 joiners are American. I think nick is from Alaska. I don't know where Steven is from. I didn't even know they were American until I saw their passports to be honest ha. So I'm not the only American here anymore.

12am Delhi time
I won't go into detail but holy moly did I have a menstral disaster on the train. I also had my first hole toilet experience on this trip. not bad. probably because i had used them before? it was also light outside. Again, quick dry clothing came in handy and Sarah, you are right. That exofficio underwear is amazing. Moving on...
After lunch and the pool, we headed to the market. I love markets. This was really cool. It reminded me of some of the markets in Italy with all the stalls lined up right next to each other so it makes a path down the street. Many people were just sitting in their stalls further back in the shade. There was one woman who was laying on the floor with her back to the street watching tv. I thought that was kind of funny. I don't know if they sleep in their shops or if they go home to somewhere. There were so many colors and different items to look at from clothing to knives to jewelry and other things. Pretty much normal market stuff actually. It was kind of cool too because there were a fair amount of Hebrew signs. I am assuming because this is a holy city and Israel is holy as well, but that is just a guess. We didn't really have time to shop but we will shop in Jaipur which has great markets as well. I kept laughing to myself when we were walking through the market though. I would be terrible here. It seems like most people just sit around all day and wait. Tonto and Chris can attest to the fact that I can't sit still for more than like 3 minutes. I would for sure go insane. Or drive everyone else around me bonkers... Most likely that one haha.
I am kind of upset because I am having a really difficult time paying attention when our CEO, Zahid, tells us things. I miss a lot about the history which is really a bummer. Today he was talking about the story of the brahma temple and the mythologies and such. There's just so many other things to pay attention to I can't focus on all of it at once. But basically there are 3 gods, the trinity, and one of them was married to one or something like that and when she left he went with another one and when she got back she was angry. So now pushkar is the only place of the one gods temple because she wouldn't let him be worshiped elsewhere as punishment. I realize that was terrible so sorry ha. I'm trying my best. Zahid also said there are about 200 temples in pushkar. All over the place!
In the middle of the market we got to the brahma temple (spelling?) which I think is the one that can't be worshipped elsewhere. You had to leave your shoes and belongings outside to go up. We ascended a staircase and at the top was the temple. It was a lot of white and black marble with the language engraved in the stone. It was not super exciting actually. It was pretty small and the marble was very hot where the sun was shining directly on it. We were told to make sure we don't accept flowers while in the town because it is mandatory that if you accept a flower you must pray. He said it sometimes turns into a scam and you end up paying a bunch of money. You had the option to collect flowers at the top of the temple. I passed...
From there we went to go see another area I don't remember what it was called. It was beautiful though. There were temples and the pushkar lake. If you walk within 30 feet of the lake you have to remove your shoes. We stayed up further on the stairs. It was all white marble again.
Then we went to go to a camel ride! It was like Israel all over again. But the camels are not nearly as fat here. We rode camels for 2 hour through the desert. At first it was great but then I started running out of water and wanting to fall asleep because of the hot sun beating down on us. I was scared I was going to pass out for a hot second. It would have been entertaining I'm sure... As long as it didn't result in accidental death by camel stomping or something ha. A lot of people were complaining of being sore but I haven't noticed or felt that yet. Maybe I just got lucky? Or I'm more flexible than other people? I don't know. I'm fine with not being sore though. While we were riding we passed a few different communities f people. There were a few tents and a handful of people. One kid by where the camels drank water was playing with a goat. It was kind of strange to watch but cute.
I am sorry that I am not posting photos. I don't know how to do it through my phone yet. I know that would make this more enjoyable.
When we got to our stop, we hopped off the camels... Mine was named Mr. Joansie... And went to take a seat outside. There were blankets laid out with places for us to sit and little tables... But like so you could sit on the floor and eat off it still... We were given water, thank god ha. And some amazing chai tea. It was so good. Then we saw a magic show, the guy was very good. The sun set toward the end of that and we waited for our other entertainment to arrive. They used to do snake charming but in the past few year that has been outlawed because of animal cruelty. Now they make their money trough entertainment and dancing. We got to do some Indian dancing which is pretty fun! Fire was involved an even fire eating.
Finally at like 9 pm maybe we got our food. Lots of naan, a hard piece of spicy thing bread, and 2 balls, one we crushed in our hand into our lentils and ate. The other was a sweet roll and it tasted like cookie dough... Snickerdoodle-ish. There was also cooked vegetables and a pickle... Not a pickle like we think... more like spicy chutney. I'm not sure why it's called pickle. It was a ton of food and I couldn't finish all of it and I felt bad for wasting it. Retrospectively, i don't know if I really want hungry or if I was put off after being told they cook their food over cow dung to give it flavor. We also had to dress in traditional clothing. Cute! I didn't get the colors I wanted but it was only for a few hours so I didn't care too much. It was really long though and made dancing difficult. Thank you again to being vertically challenged!
The stars were gorgeous. You could see everything. It was very peaceful.
They finally kicked us out, which at that point I was ready because I was so tired! I think this will be a common theme. No complaints though. Just noticing my state of mind. On the drive home we took a van and squeezed in the trunk again. I again was surprised by the number of people out on the streets. It wasn't nearly as busy as Delhi but for a smaller town at 10pm it seemed busy.
I did better today... Took about 140 photos. Back to my old self!
In the van on the way back people were talking about getting black out drunk on their journies. I get wanting to have fun and I get wanting to go partying but it blows my mind that people get trashed in a foreign country they don't know how to navigate when they are by themselves. Like we have all had our fair share of shit shows at home or school but what?! I guess I'm just not adventurous enough. I won't be venturing toward that though anytime soon I don't think. One guy woke up on a rock and couldn't remember 4 hours of his night.
Anyway, I'm trying to keep up with this blog thing so that was today and I need to go to bed. It's almost 1am here and we have another early morning. Not as early... We had the option to get up at 5 again to go hike to one of the temples on a hill for sunrise and while I'm sure that would be amazing, I need to kick this cold and try to rest. I still need to get up pretty early though. We are leaving for Jaipur at 9am. We need to be packed and ready to go and eat breakfast. I need to tackle the bucket shower again too.