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The last one hundred kilometers of what was a two thousand km drive round Rajasthan and we are bowling along a three lane highway, freeway/motorway. It may be part of the project to build a three lane highway right around India, I read a magazine article about it back in Ca. Speed things up it certainly may when it is finished, but there is something rather poignant about the ladies in their saris walking down the side of the Expressway with pots on their heads, progress progress. Its downright alarming to see them crossing six lanes of traffic to reach the other side, dodging heavy trucks, cars and motorbikes all the while balancing the precious water on their heads. A slight worry as the engine temperature soars, we stop, hood up, a large metal plate has split, hmm. Adjustments are made, hoses moved, clamps reclamped, the radiator fan spins, hooray, we have lost the a/c but who cares, there is only an hour to go. Back on the expressway anxiously watching the gauge, it’s high but we are still cruising along. I smile, remembering friend Anna who had a similar problem crossing the Sierras, she survived and so will we, though now have the heat on to take the heat out of the engine compartment.
I found the night stop in Pushkar something of a challenge. One of the four or five major pilgrimage sites of the Hindu religion that all must be visited, it was of course, crowded, but not only with practicing Hindus looking pleased with having actually arrived and could take to the waters of the Holy Lake, but also what I can only describe as a lunatic fringe of Westerners. One of the more ludicrous comments I heard was “you’re not really trying to fit in”,this from a tie dye clad, blond, dreadlocked Canadian (odd as the Canadians are always so nice), ya right dude, you are fitting right in. Come on Mr Tim, don’t get all cynical, live and let live. The amplified chanting from a Temple on the mountainside behind the hotel began at midnight and ceased at four thirty, it was very loud, even the noise canceling headphones couldn’t cope. I may be a little cranky today. Oh and the temperature gauge just hit the red zone, twenty kms to go.
Of course we made it and all was well. Back to the Bissau Haveli where I was greeted as the conquering hero, well, they made me a pot of tea by the pool ! Good humor returned and I set off to find a few gifts to take home. Bit of a problem, no cash, searched and searched for an ATM and noticed lots of police and army personnel, also barricades going up, interesting. Looked around and there were banners proclaiming The Gangaur Festival starting today at five thirty, it was four o’clock. Walked up and down, noted where the crowds were gathering, on roofs initially, figured out the route and staked my spot. I was joined by two Danes, wearily jet lagged and already mosquito plagued but cheerful enough, we were hard up against the barricade. More and more pushed in behind and tried to squeeze in front, uh oh, no dice buddy, fortunately the male Dane was quite large. Lots of police activity controlling the crowd, they carry big sticks, the roofs were cleared, more pushing, the lady Dane bailed, too hot, and still they did not close the streets, oh how I missed my bottle of water, this was just a quick shopping outing. Finally at six o’clock the streets were closed, what chaos resulted in the rest of the city I can only imagine. In the distance the remaining Dane and I noticed elephants and heard drums, mighty pounding, horns, flutes, cymbals, trombones, a bassoon maybe, all the fun of the fair. Magnificently the lead elephants came into sight, decorated, painted, very big, and then my camera battery died ! Whipped out the phone, took a few photos and a short video and then it announced it was full. Fortunately it was a quite short procession and I think I digitized the important bits, we shall see. THEN, it was getting out of there time, without wishing to sound alarmist I can quite see how a stampede can occur, it bordered on the just a little bit frightening. The way out was through a market stall area, at one point I sought refuge on a pile of onions, the chaos continued for quite some time as the crowd seethed this way and that and finally I was on a broad boulevard heading towards my city gate. The people were fun, leaning over to touch me, taking my picture, letting me take theirs, smiling, laughing, the scare factor quite gone. I was somewhat exhausted and happy to arrive back at the Haveli, more tea and here I am. Great way to spend the last evening in Rajasthan, memorable even, couldn’t have been better, what great timing.
The two fifteen pm express tomorrow to Bombay, afternoon and night, arriving Bombay at seven thirty Tuesday morning.
Let’s hope the wifi works.

Children with pots, processing in Pushkar.

Pushkar !

The engine cools.

Crowds gather on the roofs.

Proper Elephants.

What I sight. Then the camera battery died. Sigh.

A Great Indian Bustard pursued across the Thar Desert on a jeep safari.

Across the dunes I strode, feeling intrepid, the Lawrence of Arabia theme in my mind.

That didn’t last long. A cross between Times Square and Piccadilly Circus was not far away.

The road to Jodhpur the next day. The Great Thar Desert was very desert like.

A stop at Manvar Desert Resort where a friend of Nat’s stayed. Looks pretty cool Nat, but getting there must be challenging.

Arriving in Jodhpur, this is the clock Tower in the main market place.

First view of the very big Fort which completely dominates the City

I felt a bit dwarfed by the size.

These spikes, set in the main doors of the gate, kept attacking elephants at bay.

The Royal Bedroom and the Royal Bed.

Jodhpur, the Blue City, apparently the blue paint contains some sort of bug repellant. Looks a little Greek don’t you think.

Night view.

The guys in Rajasthan are not lagging when it comes to bright colors.

I may have finally nailed one, at last !

An immense Jain Temple in a valley of the Aravali Range.

A detail of one of the 1,144 pillars within. No two are the same.

More detail. Many Buddhas.

Many pillars.

New Year’s Eve in Udaipur.

I may be speechless, speechless in Udaipur, sitting on the roof of my Haveli looking at the lake and there in the middle is a fairy palace, you know, out of a fairy tale. It is the one in that Bond movie of decades ago. I am sitting here with my tea and don’t think I shall move until the sun goes down. I hear a trumpet sounding a familiar tune, it sounds like some sort of salute, I hear bagpipes, bagpipes ? There is the loudest, amplified music coming from somewhere. The sun is dipping down over the Aravali Range, quite beautiful, the shadows are lengthening, the swallows are swirling around chasing the mosquitos, ten seater tourist boats putter past with orange life belt clad passengers, a man plunges into the lake and washes while his wife cleans her teeth. A queue is forming below me at the dock, sunset cruises maybe, and, yes, there is a lady taking photos with her iPad. An inexplicable loud bang, that seems to happen a lot in these parts, and every bird in the city takes flight, pigeons mostly, but a few large unidentified ones. The tourist boats leave, tootle around in a circle, come back, and now we have that silly situation, them taking pictures of us on the bank and us taking pictures of them on the lake, though actually there is no one else on our rooftop.
Night fell and I explored a bit, turns out the loud amplified music is the New Year’s celebration. Happy 2089 everybody. Jam packed on the lakeshore, mostly locals having a rip roaring time. A few Westerners, up front with massive lenses, I hung back and sat among a crowd of Moms and kids, when the compere asked for a round of applause for the attending foreigners I got a few friendly beams. The problem was of course that I had absolutely no idea what was going on due to a difference in the language so I didn’t stay too long and headed back to the hotel for dinner. Alas, no dinner at the hotel so went without and went to bed.
Breakfast, scrambled eggs and toast accompanied by thwacking, again, memories of the Kerala backwaters as the day’s wash gets under way on the lakeshore, also chanting and many Bon jours et ca vas. The Lake Palace looks bright and white in the morning light and the Aravalli hills behind are coming into focus topped by shining forts, white marble in the sunrise. A quick glance at the Guide and off to the Palaces, though will stop by the lobby and see if the wifi is working, yet.
It’s amazing how far I fall behind after just one day, now two, without the wifi, how shall I find time to tell you about Jodhpur ? Maybe in photos, will try anyway.
Meanwhile, Udaipur…………

The view from the rooftop. Wifi working but desperately slow, one photo upload takes over five minutes. It may improve!

My new little room, far off the beaten track

Posting from my phone while I have a signal. It is a bit erratic.

I am quite high in the Western Ghats.

Some rice paddy terracing. The one in the foreground was planted this morning.

Was going through this gate last night, but was warned that I would be on the elephant path, tigers too!

Will try to add more when I have a better signal. Just wanted to let you know that all is well, just a tad remote.
Prizes offered if you can find Tiruneli on the map. Google Earth ? It is on my map, but very very small.

Dining room .

Can I coax a story out of doing nothing for two days ? Maybe, though perhaps not as interesting as some that have gone before. Happily, here at Kep Lodge, there little or nothing to do. Oh sure the tuk tuk drivers have an interesting itinerary of places to go, the pepper farms, the salt extraction beds, a ruined French colonial retreat, the local capital Kampot even the beach. But the charm of the place is it’s very slow pace. Accordingly, I have done very little.I did take the fifteen km tuk tuk ride to the local capital, Kampot, with the promise of interestingly decaying colonial villas and the like.

The ride was extremely bumpy, dusty and just a little uncomfortable, no suspension in a tuk tuk. The countryside was similar to the bus trip down from PP.

Alas, Kampot was a bit of a disappointment. It was unbelievably hot, maybe because I got there at noon, incredibly dusty, veritable clouds of dust churned up by the many trucks grinding through town and basically there was a general run down feel to the place.

The street were wide, boulevards almost, with very little shade, yes I now chose to walk on the shaded side of the road. Frankly after a visit to the market I was ready to call it a day. So I did.
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Friday things.
Here is an interesting aside, I have no idea what the Cambodian currency is even called. I have the equivalent of about fifty cents US in my pocket in local money (all notes) and the rest are greenbacks. I went to the ATM yesterday and withdrawing local notes was not even an option, out came brand new dollar bills. Tuk tuk drivers quote in dollars, weird giving them just a buck, restaurant and bar bills are all presented in dollars. It’s almost impossible to find out how much to pay with the local bills and that option seems to be rather frowned upon. I don’t have an answer, inflation maybe, but I don’t see people with wheelbarrows full of local notes a la Weimar Republic. Guess I will just get over it and will let you know if I discover why.
Another bothersome problem is to do with the bottles of drinking water. They all come with a thin plastic cover over the bottle top that has to be removed before one can break the bottle top seal. So you end up with a two inch by a half inch strip of plastic each time you open a water bottle. What are you supposed to do with it ? There is of course no recycling can nearby, nor even a garbage can to dispose of this irritating packaging so I have been shoving it in my pocket. But it’s sharp, it sticks into me. I don’t know and maybe finish this paragraph like the last one.
Oh dear, I hear you saying, Tim’s lost it.
So, just to prove that maybe you are on the right track I made another MISTAKE today. Ha ha. As seen above I used the ATM yesterday and today I found that I can buy Malarone here. That, as those with elephantine memory abilities will remember from a far distant post, is the anti malaria medication that does not result in nightmares or hallucinations, and yes it is a quarter of the US price. Even so, at five bucks a pop it adds up when you need thirty. So back to yesterday’s ATM. It has a door, quite why I have no idea, it’s like standing in a glass oven. Closed door, stuck card in slot, fatal error message on screen about being unable to complete transaction due to …….whatever and please take card and try transaction later. Except, yep, you guessed, no card to take. AAAGH. Bleeping thing ate it. Oh no. Booked on a 7.00am boat to Phnom Penh tomorrow, booked into hotel in same, panic, flail, run amok. Calming I found the help phone number and called, I love my local SIM card. Press two for English, ok, did that, then it took five minutes to get my name correct, another two to get name of issuing bank, I had to give my phone to a passing stranger so he could tell the bank the location of the ATM, street number, huh, it went on and on, as it does anywhere, getting nowhere until I gently enquired when I might see my card again, oh, Monday she said. This was the mistake, I lost it. No no, that won’t work, I leave tomorrow, need card, no money, etc etc. I will meet with my colleagues and return your call. Oh no, when will that be. After I meet with colleagues, and round we went again. Suddenly I heard a familiar sound, that of a rebooting computer, bzzt, there was my card, in my hand. Bye. Watched ATM reboot, this ATM is out of order, ya right.
I think I may go out now.
More from Phnom Penh.