Pink City, India extension and a Rat Temple

Greetings followers, i am going to attempt with this blog to bring you up to the present day. I have had no WIFI for the last few days and yesterday was travelling for 13 hours to Bikaner and today after visiting the 'Rat Temple' in the morning now have another 9 hours travelling to the city of Jaisalmer where we stay for 3 nights 1 of will be in the desert under the stars, travelling 2-3 hours via camel, i am really looking forward to it and glad that i decided to stay another 2 weeks in India with Dragoman. I will come back to the Rat Temple at the end of the blog.

So, i ended my last blog heading for the 'Pink City' of Jaipur. The city obtained its name when ion 1876 the Mahjara Ram Singh ordered the entire old city to be painted pink to welcome the Prince of Wales as the color pink was associated with hospitality, since then the tradition has been maintained. Personally i didn't see many pink buildings and the ones that i did were more Orange than pink, still pretty cool. Still without the overland vehicle we had a 6-7 hour journey to Jaipur from Agra, arriving late afternoon. The hotel on the out skirts of the city was lovely and the rooms very old and authentic India decor. Its also had a pool, which of course we all welcomed and as standard when we had a pool, bags dropped off and swimming costumes fished out was the main priority. Joe hadn't been feeling well for a few days suffering from Delhi belly but had been trudging along and still getting involved in activities, however it had taken its toll and decided that he needed some R&R. We soaked up the sun ion the pool and chilled out till 7ish when we were given a traditional puppet show in the hotel garden, as Jaipur was famous for its puppets, it was OK but didn't really tell a story just a a man pulling some strings, another banging a drum and one man singing. Dinner was a bit of a fiasco and the hotel really tried hard to sell the buffet, probably because another tour group had ordered it, i was easy and took the buffet others ordered AL acarte and had t wait a good hour for their food. Next day we visited the Amber fort, yep another fort and then had a bus tour of the city with a local guide, who i might add, had the most monotone voice in the world, for the first time on the trip i was bored and constantly yawning. Joe had decided to get some rest and try and get rid of the shits, Kate also decided not join the exhilarating days activities, it was a wise choice and they really didn't miss much. We got back at 4ish and myself Caroline, Warren and Cli decided to wonder the many shops and bazaar's, we jumped in a tuc tuc and headed to where we thought all the great shopping was, we got our bearings wrong and ended up wondering round aimlessly, the rain started and Warren at this point decided enough was enough and headed back to the hotel. Claire, Caz and myself decided to stick it out, after an hour of walking we came across the bazaar's and shop lined streets. After a few hours shopping we jumped in a tuc tuc and had the white knuckle ride of our lives! After many tuc tuc rides already India this one by far had us closing our eyes, hearts in mouth and colourful language, if the driver wasn't trying to kill us, he was trying to kill everyone else, hair raising yet pretty amusing.

We arrived back at the hotel to find Joe was feeling better and had even wondered out with Kate on the streets of Jaipur where they had come across some local kids playing cricket in a back alley, they of course invited Joe to play, i think this was one of the highlights of his trip and which i had been with them. Dinner was at 7.30 and tonight this was on Dragoman. It was an apology and thank you for 'josh' being out action. We also had a few drinks included which was pretty cool. It was going to be the penultimate night for some as we headed for Delhi the next day and some people including myself were going our separate ways (as you already know I decided to stay on). Everyone was at dinner, we had Indian buffet and drank beer and wine, was a really chilled night and everyone in good spirits, Joe was definitely back to his self, cracking jokes and taking the piss, think he said more in 10mins than he had in the last 3 days!

The next day we headed for the vibrant, busy up and coming city of Delhi hosting around 12million people. This would be the last stop for the Estonian's, Carl, Wendy and myself. We wouldn't arrive until around 5pm, so it was a case of dumping bags, chilling for a few hours and taking advantage of the free WIFI before dinner at 7.30. Kate had been working on the poem i mentioned in my last post all day on the bus and had almost finished it. Caz hadn't been feeling well all day with a sore eye which she think she had picked up from the chlorine in her contact lens in the pool in Jaipur and it had been weeping all day on the bus. Myself Joe and Caz chilled in the girls room and helped Kate finish the poem ready for our final dinner. Caz was feeling rough and weak and decided to miss dinner. The food and service was good at the hotel and lived up to its name 'Hotel Good times'. I told Jodie at dinner i was thinking of staying on till Mumbai, which she welcomed and there was plenty of space 5 were leaving and only 3 joining in Delhi. She said she would contact Dragoman the following day at get a price, hopefully with a 20% discount. This for me meant changing around 3 flights and having to book another one, so i told her that i would get onto my side first thing and let her know for definite but lunch time that i was going to stay. Kate read out her poem to the group and everyone loved it, we said our goodbyes to the Estonians, as they left the next day, Carl and Wendy were staying one more night as was Joe.

The next morning I worked on contacting airlines, looking at funds and so on to try and see if i could stay for another 2 weeks onto Mumbai. Caz was still not feeling good and stayed with me, the others including Joe and Kate paid for a taxi for the day, to take them round the sights if Delhi and shopping, they would come back later to pick us up in the afternoon. By lunch time after racking up i am sure a huge roaming bill and firing off multiple emails i was sorted and could tell Jodie for definite i was staying on! wahhooo!! Kate and Joe picked myself and Caz up at around 3ish and we headed for a shopping mall and hopefully it had the one thing i had been craving for since seeing a billboard on the drive in to Delhi KFC!!! The colonel was calling me! The mall did have KFC and it was alright, not they same as back home but still KFC, however i was later to regret this as by dinner I was destroying the toilet in the hotel, i have eaten Indian food for almost a month everyday, curry, spices, lunches at places that looked liked they bread flies and havent had the shits, 1 KFC in Delhi and i am playing a different game of 'ring of fire'. After KFC we shopped, or should i say i did, i was desperate for shorts and Tshirts. So far my relationship with my clothes hadn't gone too well, I had sat in yellow paint in Chitwan, I had 3 tshirts shrank at one of the hotel laundry services, i had spilt curry down my nice white cotton shirt and it hadn't come out and i had lost weight so that another pair of shorts after 2mins of walking were round my ankles! So we found an apartment store where i managed to pick up 2 Levis tshirts with 50% off one of them and 2 pairs of shorts with 30% off them, in all around £30 for all 4 items. OK, i am sure some of you well travelled peeps will now be saying 'how much?' and i should have gone to a market, and maybe i am regaining my 'flashpacker' name however none of the markets sold shorts and thus far i had not found a Tshirt that either wasn't 2inches thick or had i love India with some weird pattern or random animals. I am sure i would have found something if i had looked hard enough but when your in a group on a tour your time is limited. Anyway i was now a happy chappy with some new glad rags, we headed back to teh hotel with really not seeing anything of Delihi, however from what the other guys and gals said there really wasn't all that much to see that we hadn't seen elsewhere, i will remember Delhi though for getting Delhi belly even if it did only last one night and ironically was caused by KFC!

That night we all ate out, it was Joe, Carl and Wendy's last night and 3 new peeps joined. Carlotta from London, Kate from Aberdeen in Scotland and Rowland from Worcester. All 3 seem cool and i am sure i will get to know them more in the next 2 weeks. We said our goodbyes to Wendy (carl wasn't well and dint come to dinner and i was sharing with Joe anyway and was going to see us off the next day) who was very emotional, Wendy in her 60's was the mother hen of the group and though very quiet at times, was very sad to leave us all as she had an amazing time, i give her full credit and admiration for coming to India on her own when India is really not an easy place to travel.

The next day we set off early, we had a 13 hour drive from Delhi to Bikaner, we said our goodbye's to Joe, i was loosing my roomy and i was sad to see him go, as was Caz but perhaps maybe not as sad as Kate!! bless her. The journey to Bikaner was a real drag but i passed the time writing my previous post, finally getting in the mood to read my book 'into the wild' and playing games with the other guys and gals. Bikaner is west of Delhi and would be just a stop over on the way to the desert city of Jaisalmer which is situated in the 'Great Thar desert' where we would be camping out under the stars. We reached Bikaner at around 8pm. As Joe had now departed and we had odd numbers i was room mateless, so i would now be back with Warren  but also goon bag who had paired up with him after i had joined Joe half way through the trip. We were all shattered so had dinner and hit the sack. The next morning (which is today, wahoo.. i am up to date) we set off for jaisalmer again another long day on the bus, around 8 hours. However this morning we took a slight detour to visit 'Deshnok' a small town 30KM outside Bikaner which hosts one of weirder attractions in India Karni Mata Temple or the 'Rat Temple'. I'll give you a bit of background on this one, taken straight from lonely planet or as Jodie calls it the 'Lying Planet' guide. According to legend , karni Mata, a 14th century incarnation of Durga, as the god of death, Yama,  to restore to life the son of a grieving storyteller. when Yama refused, Karnu Mata reincarnated all dead storytellers as rats, depriving Yama of human souls. The Rat Temple is basically a homage to Rats, its an important pilgrimage site and is visited by Indians in their mass's. I can tell you this is noto for the fainted hearted or squeamish. A this is a holy and sacred place we had to remove our foot wear, not really what you want to do. I didn't know what to expect, i guess i thought i would see a few rats here and there, oh boy i was wrong, there were hundreds, thousands i am sure, they scurried around the floor, they climbed walls and railings, they drank milk from large bowls which had been especially put out for them. The floors were lined with Rat food which locals bought and then scattered i guess in some sort of offering to these sacred rats, amongst the food was rat crap, shit loads of it.. did i mention we were bare foot?!?!?!? not nice and the smell was even less nice. However it was a good experience if not a little nervy, it is deemed good luck if a rat scampers over your foot, i am pleased to say i didn't have the pleasure, however Caz did, which is typical as she probably the most freaked out of all of us, she promptly left. The people in the town however were very friendly and chatty, not the usual stop, crowd around and stare, they were open and willing to engage in conversation and shake our hand, as you can imagine we weren't here long and soon back on the road to Jaisalmer.

well, that was a big blog, apologies if i bored you, i am sure most of you would have just enjoyed reading about the Rat Temple, or maybe not. Once in a life time experience and i am pretty sure i wont be doing it again any time soon. So i am now all blogged out but it has passed the time away and think we are around 4hours from Jaisalmer, really looking forward to the desert sleep over and Camel riding, the weather is OK, rain here and there but at last we have some rest bite from humidity and mozzies, my legs were starting to look like i had chicken pox or something. Keep well people.

Ps.Just a quick one, on leaving, the Estonians asked if we could write down our life motto's on a piece of paper as Siggy is quite spiritual. Just a one liner, i had to laugh at Joe's, 'life is a struggle' hahahaha... good one Joe! i liked his positive attitude.