#but I spent several hours chilling at the livestock gate with all the people who work there that I've known since childhood

[stellamusing]

POSSIBLY eating fair food for dinner was a mistake, I'm now feeling vaguely sick.

Worth it.

[tnaypi3]

Pushkar & Jaipur

Starting our day early for our 4hr drive to Pushkar. 

Our driver, Hassan sent his buddy and fellow cab driver, Raeez to go with us. I’m not a fan of these kinds of surprises but it ended up being a nice change of atmosphere. He was a quieter, chill dude and unlike Hassan who sometimes tries to sway me away from my itinerary while suggesting other things that are usually very touristy. Raeez, who even though doesn’t speak much English, is my favorite because he is kind, fuss-free, doesn’t have schemes up his sleeve and is definitely quirky in his own little way ;-)

Asked why Hassan couldn’t make it, Raeez said he found a good deal with an older tourist couple and will be touring them around Jaipur for the day.

The drive was long but smooth. The farther we get, the quieter and less congested the streets are. But because of less traffic, the switching of lanes has become more dizzying as your driver is picking up speed. Surprisingly, none of us got sick (literally) of this. I had an entire collection of essential oils for all sorts of sickness and we never got to use the one for motion sickness!

I’m very captivated, almost bewitched by the sight of these holy men 

First camel sighting! Soooo exciting!!!

Pushkar is unlike anywhere else in Rajasthan. This small, yet enchanting town has a unique mix of mysticism, religious fervour, and magnetism. Life here is so simple and I got the most rural feel from this place compared to all the others that we’ve been to. 

The town itself encircles a holy lake, thought to have been created when Lord Brahma vanquished a demon, Vajranash, using a lotus flower. The lotus flower fell to the ground, creating Pushkar lake. To this day, the town contains one of the world’s only Brahma temples, making it a prominent Hindu pilgrimage town that devout Hindus should visit at least once in their lives.

Each year, once the month of Kartika (a popular Indian feminine given name derived from the god Kartikeya, which means "bestower of courage") arrives, 200,000 people descend on Pushkar, bringing with them 50,000 camels and horses. The city is transformed into a colourful, heaving mass of animals, tourists, mystics and musicians and traders arrive to flog their livestock.

Although business is the main order of the day, once the fair starts, a vibrant and diverse cultural program draws in the crowds; snake charmers, wedding parades, sports and competitions for ‘best moustache’ or ‘most beautifully decorated camel’ fill up the schedule. 

Aside from all of the festivities, Kartik Purnima is also the time when thousands of pilgrims arrive in Pushkar to bathe in the sacred waters. 

The fair takes place in November. Lucky us? We sure feel like it. I kept blurting out “Alex, how are we in Pushkar, in the middle of a camel fair right now?!”

According to the internet, there are about 400 temples in Pushkar. We saw a handful, randomly picking out colorful or enigmatic, old looking ones to enter. The town hums and vibrates to the constant sound of chanting, drumming and incense-fuelled puja (act of worship).

Pushkar is considered sacred, so many rules that apply within India’s religious sites, apply within the town as a whole.

Consumption of alcohol, meat or eggs is not allowed within 2 km of the Brahma temple. Not that this affects us since we couldn’t eat anything here anyway. Most of the food spots are stalls, kiosk, or in tents and I didn’t want to risk it. Foreigners are always reminded that when in India, only eat at places that look like they have a legitimate kitchen and absolutely not a makeshift one, where many other foreigners are going, places that look clean and that observe proper sanitation, etc. 

Everything looked yummy but one can never be complacent with picking out restaurants. We never let our guards down when it came to protecting our bellies!

We spent all early afternoon getting lost and weaving our way through a maze of stalls selling all kinds of goods from pots and lamps to spices, accessories, clothing, handcrafted bags and shoes, instruments, tapestries, etc. Admittely, I have a weakness for moments like this but I kept reminding myself that we really don’t have any room in our luggage for a shopping spree. I equally hated and loved being restricted in a haven like this, surrounded by all things pretty, exotic and cheap.

We spent too much time wandering around the bazaar and temple area with the intention of finding where the camels were kept. Finally we made our way to a more open space and found the stadium.

Sadly, they had the camel shows earlier during the day so we missed it. No losses here though. We were very much satisfied with all our camel sightings and encounters. 

The Pushkar camel fair is a livestock festival which happens annually and falls on the Kartik moon according to the Hindu astrological calendar. 

Camels from all over Rajasthan, Punjab and beyond will be showcased here and to in an effort to make them more alluring to prospective buyers, they’re decorated in all sorts of colorful pom-poms, elegant cloths, anklets, flowers and flair!

We were offered a lot of camel safari rides but refused each time. Out of the question! Our driver couldn’t understand why. He was upset but in a funny and cute way when he later on asked if we did the infamous tourist activity. We explained to him our stance on animal cruelty, even though we are well aware that the lines on this subject may be  blurred and crooked in places and cultures like India’s. But we still tried. I think he understood what we were saying but stiil... ;)

Kartik Poornima is the full moon day and  the main day of the fair. This is also where one can catch hundreds of Hindus bathing in Pushkar’s holy lake. The legends say this is the day that Lord Brahma, the creator of the world in Hindu mythology, created the very lake which still stands today.

This was moments before my attention was called by the city guards to tell me that photographs are prohibited. It was only then that it dawned on me.. Of course, because people are bathing here. We people-watched and roamed around for half an hour, observing men and women of all ages and coming from all walks of life praying and doing their rituals. 

Wrapping up our Camel Fair adventures in Pushkar

Back in the cab

Budha Pushkar

As per our driver’s suggestion, we stopped by this prayer stadium and sacred ponds. It was not a popular place as we did not see many tourists or locals. So, in absolute silence we walked around and maybe have taken a moment to just gaze at the jade waters and majestic hills surrounding it. A nice way to end our Pushkar adventures before heading back to the city.

Good morning! Another full day in Jaipur to explore!

First stop: City Palace

Jaipur is often referred to by one of its many nicknames; The City of Gates, The Pink City or The Paris of India. However, the present-day metropolis that is modern Jaipur has been built on centuries of history. This is the ‘Land of the Kings’, the realm of maharajas, where majestic forts and opulent palaces are more numerous than anywhere else in India. No wonder why my Disney-adoring little girl heart has been borderline obsessed over seeing this part of India. This day is one of the main reasons I voted for Jaipur to be a part of our trip. 

The splendors of Rajasthan’s past are still here to explore. At the centre of Jaipur, the elegant City Palace, still housing the former royal family, is an island of tranquillity.

Here you can enter through the pink outer walls to find a maze-like complex of gardens, courtyards, halls and buildings. 

Sarvato Bhadra 

The Sarvato Bhadra is a unique architectural feature. The unusual name refers to the building's form: a Sarvato Bhadra is a single-storeyed, square, open hall, with enclosed rooms at the four corners. One use of the Sarvato Bhadra was as the Diwan-e-Khas, or the Hall of Private Audience, which meant the ruler could hold court with the officials and nobles of the kingdom in a more private, intimate space than the grand spaces of the Sabha Niwas in the next courtyard, which was open to more people. 

Several rooms 

Pritam Niwas Chowk

Here, there are four small gates known as Ridhi Sidhi Pol. These gates are adorned with themes symoblising four different seasons and Hindu gods. At the centre, above each of the gates are miniature carved reliefs in marble dedicated to the respective gods. All four gates have beautiful, embossed brass doors.

I snapped 2 of 4 having grown tired of waiting in line for the rest of our fellow tourist to finish and move on 

Mubarak Mahal

There is no doubt that the grounds are an architectural masterpiece. From the pink sandstone architecture in the pavilion, the intricate design of Mubarak Mahal, and the chiselled marble stone structures, the city palace is both elegant and artistic.

Leaving the City Palace on foot, we set off to Hawa Mahal. Surprisingly, Google Maps didn’t let us down. I successfully got us there without getting lost. I didn’t tell Alex but my heart was dancing, bursting with pride and satisfaction.

Absolutely adoring the scenes here

This was a photo snapped after seeing the monkeys squabbling. As we drew closer, we realized that they were shrieking and yelping at something or someone to the opposite side of the road, where a dozen middle-aged tourists were loving and snapping the monkeys in action. 

Our theory is that perhaps one of the merchants hurt them in an effort to drive them away from the food/goods that they are selling. We all know how these Macaque’s can be aggressive and are expert thieves. Still not cool to hurt them though :(

The Hawa Mahal / Palace of Winds

We made it! I am shaking and my pulse is picking up again! The marvelous honeycomb facade of the Hawa Mahal looms over a traffic-clogged thoroughfare. The city’s pink-tinted walls are punctuated with 7 imposing, decorative gates. Look further to the right and you will find sprawling hilltop fortresses, Escher-like step wells, and temples left to the care of roaming packs of monkeys.

One of Jaipur’s most iconic and distinctive landmarks, the Hawa Mahal was constructed in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh as a way to allow ladies of the royal household to watch life on the streets below without being seen themselves. The five-storey tall honeycomb hive facade consists of 953 latticework windows for the ladies viewing pleasure.

For once, we decided to resist yet another tourist trap so we skipped paying for  the Palace entrance fee and opted for a more underrated experience. Having googled another way to appreciate the Hawa Mahal, I led Alex to the opposite side of the street and looked for the entrance that would take us to the  the Wind View Cafe which have absolute prime spots for viewing the structure’s magnificence to our hearts’ content. Or more like to my heart’s content. I love this day!!!

While trying to figure our where the cafe’s entrance was in the street level, I had another encounter with a young fellow. He and some others, like clockwork, came up to us. I asked if this door leads to the cafe, pointing to the entrance where my GPS brought us. He said yes and went ahead, taking the stairs  up before I could say there’s no need to accompany us. On our way up, I thought “Ugh, here we go again. He’s not gonna let us get away without any kind of scheme or something”. It was a very narrow, tight squeeze climb with several flights of winding stairs. He stopped at the second to the last level and directed us to the Tattoo Cafe. I said we were going to the Wind View Cafe. He was being pushy so I stood my ground. He saw that I refused to be swayed and meant it. This had him upset and started acting sour. He says “You come to our home and you do this to us. You are not a good person”. Sounds familiar. Right away, I realized this is a formulaic dance of intimidation and mind games that some of them pull out from their back pocket in situations like this. Again, I apologized to him saying I didn’t mean to offend, explained my side while looking him in the eye. He left without another word. But the unwanted energy sure was lingering and thick as the smog outside.

The city’s bustling streets burst with colour and chaos. Cycle rickshaws weave among clouds of exhaust and soot as they dodge camels, cars and the occasional dawdling elephant. Swarms of motorbikes honk and buzz through the city’s vibrant marketplaces and grand gateways. Not the most relaxing breakfast with a view but we’ll take it!

Heading back to the City Palace to meet with or driver. Another mini adventure because we did not exactly have the name of the spot where he said he’d wait for us. I went by my memory of the small pocket where he said was a parking lot for cabs, marking it in my mind being remotely close to the Jantar Mantar, another tourist spot we opted out. But walking around, I realized that everything started looking alike. If we weren’t pressed for time, I wouldn’t mind getting lost but OMG, I have a serious itinerary and I wanna hit all the remaining spots before the day ends please!! This is our last day in Jaipur, if I haven’t mentioned that already!!!

After about 10mins of me oficially declaring to Alex that I think we’re lost, two girls passed by. I asked, pointing to a direction we haven’t tried yet, if the Jantar Mantar is that way. Giggling they said yes, I thank them with two fruit juices from our backpack and carried on. I wonder what was so funny? Haha!

Jal Mahal

It says a lot about the sheer quantity of beautiful buildings on display in Jaipur that the Jal Mahal, or ‘Water Palace’, isn’t overrun with visitors peering across Man Sagar Lake in the hope of glimpsing it. In any other city, it would be the main tourist draw. At the moment, the palace is undergoing extensive renovations meaning that it cannot be accessed but it is worth stopping off on the road if one is headed to the famous Japur forts.

Jaigarh Fort

An opulent structure built in the early 18th century in the city of Amer and is one of the major forts in Jaipur. It is located next to the magnificent Amber Fort. The main aim for constructing this fort was to protect the Fort of Amber from Invaders.

Breathtaking views!

Wanna see every nook and cranny of this stunning place

The Jaigarh Fort is a majestic stronghold built by Sawan Jai Singh II. This almost-intact fort is surrounded by huge battlements and is connected to the Amer Fort (also called 'Amber' Fort), with subterranean passages. Sadly it’s not accessible to the public.

The fort houses the world's largest cannon on wheels, a majestic palace complex and the assembly hall of the warriors known as 'Shubhat Niwas' along with a museum and an armory. Yeah, we skipped seeing the cannon part hehehe. We have better things to do!

The Amber Fort can be seen at the center of this photo.

The one thing you can see from anywhere in Amer are the huge red sandstone walls of Jaigarh Fort. It may seem endless from certain angles but it is only a total of 3kms long.

Shot and directed by Alex. I approve :)

The watchtower that offers a magnificent view of the landscape below

The stunning Amber Fort which we skipped because it’s too touristy

So ready for our favorite part of the day - food! hahaha

I’ve noticed that the farther we are from the touristy areas, the more authentic, less fuss and not overpriced our meals were. And these are our absolute favorite moments. Don’t get me wrong, we loved and adored about 95% of all our meals on this trip. At times though, as restaurants in busier areas attempt to cater to foreigners and make it universally palatable, the local cuisine almost loses it’s magic.

This is one’s for the books though and this day just kept getting better and better.

As we were finishing up our lunch, a commotion outside drew our and the rest of the diners’ attention. Our eyes fixed at the door and windows, without warning, there came monkeys leaping off roofs and running wild in different directions. Cab drivers, restaurant workers and tourists though laughing fondly at our primate friends were shooing them away from the dining areas.

Like our last few encounters with wild monkeys, we both couldn’t contain our excitement. Alex, as always finished before me so I urged him to go and I’ll catch up with him as soon as I finish and pay our bill.

As if we needed more min-blowing moments from this day... Fam and friends, I present to you the Grey Langur monkeys of Jaigarh Fort!!! WHAAAAT?!?!?!

It took me about 10 more mins to finish my food and find Alex. This is how I found him HAHAHA

Then this happened. I almost dropped to the floor and roll laughing

“NOOOO”

The Grey Langur is a group of Old World Monkeys.

They are large, inhabiting animal and mainly found in the areas which are located in the Indian Subcontinent. These langurs are generally of grey color, with a black face. Male grey langurs are up to 75 cm long and female langurs are 65 cm long

And according to the internet, historically  and up to date, these guys at the fort have not harmed any human. They were just doing their own thing, monkeying around, pretty uninterested with us boring humans. 

We did witness this particular shameless one who came on to a cab driver walking by who had a bag of Lays chips on hand. Without second thought, the driver surrendered his chips. And I’m not sure if it was already opened or not but the monkey was gorging on it right away. 

Old chips thief!

Couldn’t get enough of this mumma and bebeh monkeh. Too precious!!!

These two pups were trying to engage the langurs in a playtime cuddle session but went unnoticed. We saw one in a submissive stance drawing himself close to the monkeys to no avail. Too cute!

As soon as we thought we were done for the day, on our way to the exit, a guard ushered us to what looked like a passageway to a tunnel. At first I wasn’t interested but for whatever reason, we still found ourselves walking into it moments later. 

More surprises in store! More halls, courtyards, secret rooms and gardens. The tunnel also led us to what seemed like a hidden room but if you keep going, inside is a puppeteer who’s just waiting to give any one a show. Too content with everything we are experiencing, we passed on that.

It’s worth mentioning though, what an eerie yet fantastical vibe it was in there. I heard females, animated voices talking as I was entering that room but came to only saw one person, a man. In that moment it definitely gave me heebeegeebees. I kept telling Alex it sounded like there were more than one person in there.

With our super lovable and dear driver, Raeez. About 30mins before this picture was taken, all three of us in his cab felt completely lost and desperate in a maze of winding and bumpy roads in the middle of a residential area, passing though the tiniest alleys and roads of our lives which of course, our driver expertly navigated through without a sweat. We were reluctantly moving to another hotel for the night because our hotel messed up our reservations. It was a last minute booking but the good thing is it was right next to Jaipur Airport which we need to be at 8am the following day. 

All our GPS kept leading us to vacant lots if not dead ends instead of our newly booked hotel. We couldn’t find a phone number in their website nor in the email confirmation I got from them. We asked a passerby but he has never heard of such hotel. Alex started thinking maybe I got scammed? Oh God. Everyone was tired and this is past the time we agreed with our driver. He patiently kept trying out different formats of our address in his GPS. We asked him to just leave us and we’ll find it by foot. He refused and made a face as if we said the most absurd thing in the world. 

I don’t know how but we did find our hotel, enclosed in a gated community. We thank and hug Raeez tight and off he went.

What a day. What an unforgettable chain of experiences, vibrant Jaipur. 

[things-with-teeth]

Hi! Okay, SO, the goats.

For someone who is a certified City Girl, I have spent a truly unlikely and borderline distressing amount of time living in the countryside, or in the woods, or in some terrifying mix of the two. I really have no actual objection to fresh air and green shit, but friends, there are so many spiders. The other living thing which such places tend to have in abundance are animals, namely animals of the farm variety. Sometimes, like when I was in Arizona, this meant actual farms with actual farm animals, and somewhere in there is the explanation for how I managed to spend several years shoveling horse poop on weekends in my teens while successfully dodging putting my tender, breakable body on top of a horse until I was in my twenties. (Look, chivalry was actually like 2% about how to treat the ladies and 98% about how not to kill people with your horse, and I know myself, I know my limits, and I have no desire to be unchivalrous, especially since the person most likely to die in any scenario involving a horse is me.)

In my current circumstances, “livestock” is a cunning misnomer for “outdoor pets,” because my landlord has a couple of acres of land and two children. In the ten years I’ve lived here, there have been:

Roughly two hundred dogs. I lost count at a certain point, but dogs are nice.

An Equal Number Of Cats, all of whom are technically indoor animals and none of whom got the memo.

Two ponies that think they are Big Dogs.

Small Dinosaurs, aka chickens.

A small and sweet chicken made of floof, too good and pure for this world, the only chicken without murder in its tiny bird heart, the only chicken I have ever loved.

The Antichrist Is A Bird (…the rooster.)

A turkey????

????a llama?????? I feel like there was a llama at one point, or maybe an alpaca, but honestly that might have been a fever dream.

Goats.

I actually really love the goats, but there are a few VERY IMPORTANT THINGS which one must remember about goats.

Goats are very clever.

Like, seriously, I have never met a paddock that can successfully, indefinitely hold a goat. 

I have legitimately lost track of the number of times I have walked out on my second story, gated porch only to have a goat make significant eye contact with me before pooping everywhere and/or trying to eat my cigarette butts.

Clever does not mean blessed with great foresight.

i.e., the paddock is where the food is and the local predators aren’t.

i.e., just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

At some point during my first couple years living here, my landlord mentioned that their goats had gone missing, and asked that I keep an eye out.

“All of them?” I asked.

“All of them.”

“Huh,” I said, and in retrospect, this should have been my first clue that the goats were not to be meddled with. I can barely muster the strength to crawl out of bed in the morning, they were staging daring midnight escapes in which No Goat Was Left Behind, the goats were clearly out of my league.

A week or so later, I was driving home around sunset when I spotted something by the side of the road about half a mile from the house. Short deer? Alarmingly large raccoons? Confused Sasquatch? No. Goats. Almost definitely my landlord’s goats, just standing there, chilling at the side of the road.

It was then that I made my first tactical error. In my defense, I’m pretty sure that I was in the middle of finals at the time, and therefore incapable of remembering how anything in life other than the coffee pot worked. Had that not been the case, it probably would have occurred to me that the best course of action was to get out of the car and phone my landlord while keeping an eye on the goats, and not do something silly like, say, drive home to tell him they had been spotted, operating under the deeply flawed assumption that the goats, who had already disappeared into the night once when there was a fence to stop them, would not, in fact, move in the time it took me to go home and collect my landlord and landlady.

Needless to say, the goats were no longer by the side of the road when we returned. 

My second tactical error was probably feeling guilty enough about my earlier lapse in judgement that I volunteered to stick around and help, which ultimately became the story of how I ended up alone in a ravine at eleven o’clock in the evening, shaking a mostly empty canister of stove-top oatmeal and yelling ridiculous goat names into the night.

(Thinking back, I don’t know if the goats were ever fed the oatmeal? It seems kind of unlikely, but then again, if there’s one thing I trust in this world, it’s a goat’s ability to figure out and/or assume that something is food, whether it actually is or not, and act accordingly. The oatmeal was probably a sound strategy.)

We had spent literal hours running around after the goats at that point. Sometimes one of us would spot a goat, only to have it evaporate into the all-encompassing shadows like a dream, or a ghost, or a confused Sasquatch. It was very dark, and very cold, and I was at that point feeling very much like That One Girl In The First Five Minutes Of A Horror Movie. I was walking through the woods in deeply inappropriate footwear at almost midnight, looking for a lost pet, and this was clearly not going to end well for me.

If you were wondering, cannibals seemed like the most likely scenario. Like, werewolves, maybe, if I was lucky, but realistically, cannibals.

The goats would probably have eaten what was left of me once the cannibals were done. Traitors.

You can  imagine about what my reaction was when two dudes in a pickup pulled up next to me as I walked along the side of the (dark, abandoned, completely devoid of streetlamps) road.

“Hey,” one of them said. “Hey.”

I considered running for the woods, but see above re: impractical footwear, and also I am a smoker and my lung capacity is not the best. I decided that if I was going to die, cooked into a stew by cannibals, as now seemed to be inevitable, I would die as I had lived: never having felt sufficiently motivated to move faster than a slow jog.

“Are you looking for some goats? They’re walking along the side of the road down the hill.”

I thanked the nice not-cannibals and went down the hill, where the goats were chewing placidly at the delicious side-of-the-road grass and very much acting like they hadn’t spent the last several hours playing hide-and-go-fuck-yourself in the woods. “Who, us????” they seemed to ask. “You must be thinking of some other goats?? We have been here the whole time, innocently gnawing on grass???????? Like goats do?”

I had learned my lesson. I stood with the goats and bellowed until someone came sprinting to my aid, as they would not have done had I been set upon by cannibals instead of finding their lost livestock. 

“Oh, R, she was such a nice girl,” they would have said later. “So brave, sacrificing her young body to those cannibals so that our goats might live. Alas.”

We got the goats bundled into the truck and drove home, which is when I made my third tactical error, which was staying in the truck with the last remaining baby goat, to like, keep him company or something, so he wouldn’t be lonely, I do not fucking know, it makes no sense, I did this to myself and I am aware that everything that happened afterward was a direct result of my own hideously poor judgement.

Some important things to note:

While my landlord’s kids were by then in their early teens, the truck still had child locks on it.

Being in his early teens, my landlord’s son did not have keys to the truck.

My landlady had locked the truck before they had taken the rest of the goats down to the paddock, presumably so that I would not become That One Girl In The Last Five Minutes Of A Horror Movie, who thinks that she’s safely home only for surprise!cannibals to come ‘round to set up the hook for the sequel.

My landlord’s son came around to collect the final goat. He pulled on the door handle. I pulled on the door handle. The door did not open, but the car alarm did start going off.

The goat, very understandably, started screaming. The goat remembered that there was actually another living thing trapped inside the noise box for it to scream at, turned to me, screamed some more, and then made significant eye contact immediately before peeing on me, and the truck, and the world.

When my landlady finally returned and released me from my loud and urine-soaked prison, I may have looked at her and asked, very seriously, “Have you considered animal sacrifice as a lifestyle choice?” I might have. Maybe. I don’t remember.

The goat was fine. I was forever changed, and also needed to change, because there was goat pee on my clothing. The end.