A Wedding & Burning Man

Namaste, friends and family,

Today we venture forth without a guide (no big loss, as far as we're concerned). Osiyan is in the desert and most of the guides are employed with the camera safaris.

The usual chaos on the road (see previous post). Below, a small series of women workers dressed in their finery. This is not at all unusual; in fact, I'd say it's the usual dress for women doing heavy labor.

Woman construction worker

These last are cleaning, so they are untouchables. Laborers are a higher class or caste, according to our driver, Raj.

We pull into Osiyan and make our way to what I think was the Sachiya Mata Temple (Hindu 12th century). Red sandstone intricately carved.

There are a number of these small temples on the roof.

Each containing some Hindu deities. No idea who is on the left; I believe that is Kali in the middle, and Ganesh, the elephant headed god is easy.

We're in the desert and it's hot.

Met this adorable family who wanted to have their picture taken with me.

I'm afraid I look totally stiff and awkward while they pose and move like dancers. Maybe they're in entertainment.

Getting more in the spirit of things

Down the street a beautiful Jain temple with its detailed, intricate and what have become almost familiar carvings

These Jain temples are unbelievable. How many lifetimes did it take? These are a couple of probably over a hundred columns in this small temple.

It looks as if OSHA has been here and made them put in hand railings.

Our guide book said that behind the Jain temple was a mammoth baoli or stepwell. We wandered around, saw a couple more temples, and then came upon these two young fellows who said they could show us the way.

Uh, you sure about this, guys?

Then there it was before us, massive, astounding in size. Built in the Pratihara period, which stretched from the mid-7th century to 11th century in Northern India, an amazing achievement, creating this reservoir to provide and store huge quantities of water.

Details from the photograph above.

Our young guides. It turned out one of them lives in the house across the way which looks over the baoli, the one with the turquoise door. Their last name was Singh, like our driver, from the warrior caste.

One of the young fellows and many people have wanted us to take a camel safari, which we have consistently refused. On the way out of town our driver, Raj, took us to one of the starting points so we could have a look. On the other side of the railroad tracks you can see the camels mostly resting on the sand dunes, although some are cresting the dune. It looks hot, dusty, sandy, smelly; not for us. Probably you Burning Man fans would like it.

Love from India,

Era and Don

Dear friends and family,

Before we leave Mehrangarh Fort, I always love seeing the maintenance, the installation, the repair, the work going on behind the scenes. Check out his ladder extension. Yikes.

Turban winding demo; there's a lot of yardage in one turban.

Colorful crowd entering the Mehrangarh Fort, and one American in black and white, running against them.

Jodhpur, also called The Blue City

Down to the city and the bazaar around the clock tower. Fort in the background.

A samosa and a kachori (similar to a chile relleno, but little, if any cheese). Note the Trip Advisor recommendations at the ends of their banner. They were hot, spicy and really delicious.

Samosas to the left; kachoris to the right.

Little beggar boys

I'm reading Kim, so I imagine that I have some idea of what an adventurous life these boys lead. I'm sure I'm way off. They all insisted on shaking my hand good-by. Pretty grubby little hands, but that would probably be true for most groups of boys around the world.

Sights on the road:

Some of these photos were snapped while we zoomed past on the road, but we actually stopped to see these women drying their freshly dyed fabrics.

Keeping up with the flow of traffic.

The whole family seems to be involved in digging this ditch.

There is a helmet law, which they obviously are not following, yet it was touching to see how tenderly and protectively this boy held his young sibling.

Breakneck pace, sharing the road with other crazy drivers, motorcycles, cows, pedestrians, tuk-tuks.

This is a tuk-tuk; they are everywhere, and most run on CNG, compressed natural gas (methane). It's a huge improvement over the diesel models, which you can still find occasionally, spewing black smoke.

Our driver says most Indian women are modest and would not appreciate their picture being taken by a stranger, although some smile and wave. We are careful to take our camera flaunting subtle, like this one out the car window. For portrait-type shots, we offer a payment or purchase their goods.

Love from India,

Era and Don

Dear friends and family,

Distances are great in India and travel time even longer. We’re traveling in high season, so all trains were booked months in advance. We would have loved to take an overnight train to Jaisalmer. All classes were fully booked, and I don’t think we would consider taking anything lower than first class on an Indian train, spoiled Americans that we are. So we flew to Jodhpur, which is not quite so far west as Jaisalmer. There were no flights to Jaisalmer; I read it is because it is so close to the Pakistan border and the uneasy political situation.

Our wonderful chauffeur/driver, Raj, picked us up from the airport after driving all of the previous afternoon and most of the night. Raj has the most soothing low mellow voice (not unlike a French man) and reminds Don of his Uncle Amaury Caron, also a French man.

Raj or Rajender drove us a fair distance and down a narrow dusty road where we parked in front of an imposing old building.

This is Pal Garh in the village of Pal outside of Jodhpur.

Raj tells us that this attractive woman in her gorgeous outfit is an untouchable. How can you tell? Probably her clothes, but mostly as she is sweeping and picking up trash. So far many of the untouchable women I've seen have been wearing the white arm bracelets, but Raj says that is not a strictly untouchable thing.

As only untouchables can pick up trash, this contributes greatly to the trash and litter problem all over India. There just aren't enough untouchables to do the job. I'm just repeating conversations we've had with our driver. If anybody knows better and can correct me, feel free.

Our spacious room; we were lucky to stay here 3 nights.

Breakfast off the garden

You may have noticed I didn't show you any photos of our hotel in Delhi. It was pretty mundane.

Ready for breakfast

Raj in blue shirt and other drivers eating their meal.

Across the street

And a little ways down.

The little girl noticed I was taking her picture and posed shyly.

Strolling the dusty streets

First day in Jodhpur and we went to the stunning Mehrangarh Fort. It was so gorgeously detailed that I felt I could not take it all in in my still jet-lagged condition.

Hard to imagine anyone attacking this place.

The spikes on this formidable door are meant to discourage elephant attacks. I imagined war parties on elephants, hot oil raining down on them, and the poor elephants trying to force the doors.

Shrine to the widows of Jodhpur maharajahs who had committed sati on their husband's funeral pyres. The British made the practice illegal for any widow under 16 or pregnant. Sometimes it seems as if we have not made much progress in our march or stumble through history, but we have.