The cooking class in Udaipur was very fun and lasted over 3.5 hours. We learned how to cook many dishes (see photo on left of me cooking).
Pushkar, India
After arriving in our hotel we were given our room assignments. Since there was an odd number of boys we have been rotating who gets the single room and this time it was my turn. Not only did I have the room to myself, but I had the nicest of all the rooms available in the entire hotel. My bed was of the king-size' and I even had an air conditioner--thought I blew the fuse on it within the first 3 hours. I had a color TV with over 25 stations, although everyone single one was in Hindi. My bathroom was enormous, although fairly simple. At lest this time the since was inside the bathroom and we even got a mirror. Every surface was marble except for, or course, the ceiling. My bed had a very nice cover thing on it, which I am not sure of the name (see photo on right).
Today I ate a light breakfast, chai masala and a fruit salad. We all went to the lake where all but 5 of us got puja done. The people actually paid some buy 100 rupees to get a string tied on their wrists and then the 'priest' said a prayer for them and their family. Man what gullible people. And get this, our tour guide got the guy beforehand to do it. All the lonely planets say not to do this because it's a scam. For god's sake, who needs to be told that paying someone to say a prayer for you is a rip-off? Afterwards we went to a place called Pink Floyd's cafe where they played Pink Floyd and other psychedelic music. They apparently served hash drinks as well as opium teas and shakes. Afterwards the others got falafel, but I went my own way...staying with that group just slows me down. They take so damn long for everything. I went to look at some shops that had paintings, but I wasn't 100% that they weren't just prints so I left. I went to 4 or 5 other places looking for some type of patchwork. I wanted to buy some hing else since the journals were cheap enough that paying to send them home wasn't economical. At the last place I went to I found 'something close' to what I was looking for. Ideally I wanted a dark blue wall hanging with yellow, gold, or orange patches. I decided on just getting two patch works. One is dark blue which can be a wall hanging our rug and the other is orange and can be a wall hanging our a table runner. It's quite long for a table runner though. See the photos on the right, these are the ones I bought and plan to send home with my journals.
On my way back to the hotel, about 10 minutes way, the 'hotel guy' gave me a lift on his motorcycle. I was back in my room writing in my journal (as I do EVERY DAY), the power went out. It stayed out for a little under an hour. I'm down the road now on the Internet because my hotel charges too much and charge per picture I upload. This Internet is dial-up speed and the computer is SO DAMN SLOW. I had half of this posting written and it just crashed on me, so I had to re-write it ALL over again. I hope you can share in my pain. Tomorrow we leave our hotel for a 4 or such hour bus ride to Jaipur, the capital or Rajasthan. Cheers!
---END OF POSTING---
Hi scott.
ReplyDeleteYou looked very happy in your cooking class picture. Iloved looking at your smiling face.
What did you prepare? Your paintings were lovely. Is the painting on fabric or something else?
Iunderstand your frustration when your computer crashed and you lost your text, when I type two sentences and tat happens I get so mad. Also sounds like your group is frustrating you a bit...Just remember that people are different and conduct their lives in the manner they see fit. If they are not unkind to you for this trip that should be enough..Even tho this I'm sure seems overly simplistic to you maybe it will help put the situation in perspective.
Okay, what the heck is opium tea. It doesn't sound healthy!!
I start work tomorrow. It will be quite a change for me but alt least this time I know what I"m going to be doing. Continue to have fun and be safe. love Mom
Hi Scott,
ReplyDeleteIjust wanted to ask you something else....
You haven't expressed you thoughts or your impressions on the people of India. Have you had conversations with many individuals you have met? What are your overall impressions so far of th country. ..same or different than what you expected? Hope to hear from you soon. cheers..Mom
Honestly, I don't have much to say about them. Well I do, but My impression of them is not too positive. Sure there are possitive charecteristics, but one could say the same about even the worst murderer. I am trying to be 'nice' about it and 'take in' the culture as much as possible before passing any judgement. But politeness, elegance, and virtue don't exist here. You could argue that when you're dirt poor, one would do anything for money. But this was not the case in Cambodia and Lao and ever Vietnam, where people where honest dispite their circumstances. It goes a little deeper than thus, but I'll reveal my impressions at a later date, preferbly when I'm back in Cleveland.
ReplyDelete