gonna try a bit longer update this time so
today we went from Jaisalmer to Jodphur (which was another 5hrs drive) and I gotta say that we are now used to the road conditions in India (cows building there own roundabout next to a roundabout, goats and camels crossing the road, tuk tuks and rikshas,...) and we are not any more amazed (or slightly shocked) by anything we see (e.g. pigs strolling around in Jaisalmer city, little girls making pipi on the streets - just to name a few).
Jodphur, also known as "the blue city" is very nice (see pics of the city, fort, hotel and martial arts trial under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Jodphur?authkey=Gv1sRgCK7-2d-LmdiNiwE#) but it is the 2nd city with a fort in the row (although in Jaisalmer approx. 50'000 people live in the fort whereas in Jodphur the fort is just a tourist atraction) and we kinda start getting enough of forts - lets see what the coming cities bring.
Jodphur is also very famous for its spice market and the prices are...well, lets say decent when looking at very good chai tea, vanilla or Safran. (that also equals to an a bit extensive shopping tour but well...).
The nice thing about our trip is that we keep bumping into the same people during our tour - for example an Australian guy we met the first time in Mandawa and met again in Jaisalmer.
I think I have roughly mentioned that tourist, as in many other countries are kind of seen as "cows that are to be milked" when they do not bargain etc.. He is a quite good example as he tends to see the very good in all people approaching him, without assuming that they have any "hidden" agenda...which leads to e.g. paying 4 times the price for a small bottle of cheap whiskey (although me gotta say thx again) compared to locals.But after about 3-4 weeks in India he starts to realize that people sometimes to tend to screw him over and gets a healthy portion of paranoia...
All in all India is treating us quite well - the tour we're taking is very well organized, hotels are better than expected and our driver helps us in getting not screwed too much when buying stuff(the liquor stores in Rajasthan are called "English wine and beer store" which is kinda funny as I'd assume that English wine (so it may exist) tastes like Austrian wine in the 80s...), the food is amazing (and luckily spiced for tourists in all places so far) and Matthias has been eating only vegetarian in the past days without complaining (although he sometimes has some strange mimics when seeing well-fed cows...).
so, the next 7 days we will keep travelling in Rajasthan until we finish our tour in Agra and afterwards we'll head south until the 12th..
But as we still have quite a few things to organize for the coming trips I'm afraid I'll do some further updates...
P.S.: comments are highly appreciated!! ;)
today we went from Jaisalmer to Jodphur (which was another 5hrs drive) and I gotta say that we are now used to the road conditions in India (cows building there own roundabout next to a roundabout, goats and camels crossing the road, tuk tuks and rikshas,...) and we are not any more amazed (or slightly shocked) by anything we see (e.g. pigs strolling around in Jaisalmer city, little girls making pipi on the streets - just to name a few).
Jodphur, also known as "the blue city" is very nice (see pics of the city, fort, hotel and martial arts trial under https://picasaweb.google.com/108376587121284252497/Jodphur?authkey=Gv1sRgCK7-2d-LmdiNiwE#) but it is the 2nd city with a fort in the row (although in Jaisalmer approx. 50'000 people live in the fort whereas in Jodphur the fort is just a tourist atraction) and we kinda start getting enough of forts - lets see what the coming cities bring.
Jodphur is also very famous for its spice market and the prices are...well, lets say decent when looking at very good chai tea, vanilla or Safran. (that also equals to an a bit extensive shopping tour but well...).
The nice thing about our trip is that we keep bumping into the same people during our tour - for example an Australian guy we met the first time in Mandawa and met again in Jaisalmer.
I think I have roughly mentioned that tourist, as in many other countries are kind of seen as "cows that are to be milked" when they do not bargain etc.. He is a quite good example as he tends to see the very good in all people approaching him, without assuming that they have any "hidden" agenda...which leads to e.g. paying 4 times the price for a small bottle of cheap whiskey (although me gotta say thx again) compared to locals.But after about 3-4 weeks in India he starts to realize that people sometimes to tend to screw him over and gets a healthy portion of paranoia...
All in all India is treating us quite well - the tour we're taking is very well organized, hotels are better than expected and our driver helps us in getting not screwed too much when buying stuff(the liquor stores in Rajasthan are called "English wine and beer store" which is kinda funny as I'd assume that English wine (so it may exist) tastes like Austrian wine in the 80s...), the food is amazing (and luckily spiced for tourists in all places so far) and Matthias has been eating only vegetarian in the past days without complaining (although he sometimes has some strange mimics when seeing well-fed cows...).
so, the next 7 days we will keep travelling in Rajasthan until we finish our tour in Agra and afterwards we'll head south until the 12th..
But as we still have quite a few things to organize for the coming trips I'm afraid I'll do some further updates...
P.S.: comments are highly appreciated!! ;)
@ pics: Sandhich-Foto ist ins Sammelsurium der lustigesten Übersetzungen aufgenommen!
ReplyDeleteDie Schlösser sind echt alle genial!
Und: Ihr haust ja wie die Kaiser!
I've been reading your comments right now and my colleagues are asking why I keep laughing all the time. (they are right, normally there's nothing funny on a Tuesday morning, but your blog is. did you take a foto of that English girl having the fit in the train station?)
ReplyDeleteit seems to be a really cool journey so far, I hope it'll continue like that.
keep on writing, it's very nice to know what's going on and I'd love to see one of those cow-roundabouts myself.
To keep you up to date to what's going on here: it's been snowing yesterday, it's cold and foggy and I'd swap places with the two of you right now.
Happy to hear that the blog is worthwhile reading :)
ReplyDeletewill try to continue that in the coming nearly 9 (!!!!) weeks ;)
and yes, the hotels are quite nice/ nicer than we had initially expected.
super. reibs uns nur unter die nase, deine neun wochen. :-) viel spaß noch!
ReplyDelete