We are nearing the end of our Indian adventure. I'm excited to start a new chapter of my life upon arrival back in Seattle, but am very sad to be finished traveling. We continue to spend our last few days in the North Eastern state of Rajesthan: both the countries most traditional state, and the state with the lowest literacy rate. I've come to believe that these two things go hand in hand.

We are nearing the end of our Indian adventure. I'm excited to start a new chapter of my life upon arrival back in Seattle, but am very sad to be finished traveling. We continue to spend our last few days in the North Eastern state of Rajesthan: both the countries most traditional state, and the state with the lowest literacy rate. I've come to believe that these two things go hand in hand.

To back track a bit, I still have to write about our camel safari in Jaislmer. We were joined of cores, by three guides, as well as a lovely young German girl brave enough to travel by herself, two Spanish women who loved to complain, and one old British man who reminded me of Ozzy Ozborn in many ways.
Camels are really very very strange animals. They're like machines built to withstand the elements of the desert. They've got tiny ears and long faces, necks like giraffes to reach for food, knees that bend forward and backward, and gel-pad-like feet to absorb the shock of their weight on the hard desert ground. Their poo is surprisingly dry and pellety to conserve all water, which is somehow stored in their massive humps.
Being on them as they stand up or sit down is like being on a mechanical bull. Each corner of their bodies stands up in turn so that the rider isn't level until the animal is totally up on all fores. Being out in the desert is strangely beautiful. The land scape is rugged and hostile, but at the same time mysterious and inviting and challenging, if that makes sense. Most of the time I spent on my camel I day dreamt about how my life will be different when I get back home. It was a very relaxing and satisfying trip.

We arrived yesterday afternoon in Jhodpur, the blue city, where the majority of homes and buildings are indeed painted blue. The bus ride to Jhodpur was quite the experience. We were promise two seats next to each other, seats five and six. Upon boarding the bus however, we found an old Indian woman, who hadn't paid for a ticket and refused to move sitting in our seats. We found two other seats together toward the back. The bus wasn't double-decker, but it was divided horizontally in two so that just above the seats there were bunks that could magically fit full families of Indians in them. Overall the whole contraption was packed to the gills. People shared seats, sat in each others laps, stood or sat in the isles. The whole trip I just kept thinking what the hell India is going to do in 2030 when the population doubles. There just won't be enough room for everyone. There's hardly enough room for everyone now, there's no personal space as it is! I might have been able to doze off over the six hour trip, but there was Hindi music being blasted very loud the whole time the bus was in motion. All in all we were glad it was our last bus ride in India.

After the last train experience, (the nineteen hour ride from Jaipur to Jaislmer on Hell Express) Carmen and I decided to splurge and fly the last leg of our trip. Tomorrow we will leave Jhodpur and fly to Deli, our final destination. From Deli we'll make the essential day trip out to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, then we both have to pack our bags and get ready to go home.

Thanks for checking in on me! I should be able to post one or two more entries before the trip is over so check back in the next few days. Thanks for reading!!

Carmen and I are now in Jaisalmer, the city of deserts. We spent the last two days in the Great Thar Desert on camel back. Very lumpy, but not as uncomfortable as you'd think. I named my camel Carmen.

Sorry this is a short post, I'm in a bit of a rush, and I promise a more detailed one soon. I mostly just wanted to tell everyone to see the movie Slumdog Millionaire, if they haven't yet. It's fantastic, it's exactly what we saw in Mumbai, there's even a dance scene thrown in at the end as an homage to it's Bollywood roots. It's worth the $11 to see it on the big screen!

These are some lovely pictuers that Poppy posted now that she's home in Australia. They're all from India.

We were very sad to leave Udaipur last night. It was a lovely little city and we enjoyed our 4 days there quite a lot. I found Udaipur to be much more traditional than Mumbai and Goa, also a cooler climate and a more beautiful, rugged mountaines landscape. Defiantly my favorite of cities we've visited thus far.
While in Udaipur we did quite a variety of things. Aside from the usual palaces and museums our activities ranged from hours back riding through the rurel deserty area outside the city, to taking in a Shakespeare play put on in the city palace. We also took several boat rides around the floating palaces in the lake, and made sure to eat all our meals on roof-top restaurants with different views of the city. We ended up taking more photos in Udaipur than any where else we've been in India so far.
We took the overnight train to Jaipur last night and have spent the day relaxing and getting our barrings around town. Tomorrow we will venture into the red fort that the city is famous for.

These are some images I pulled off google to give everyone an idea of what Udaipur looks like.