month already

a full month has already passed since we came to India. many ups, some downs, life stars getting a certain rythm. one gets used to the surroundings so quickly. all the hundreds of temples and havelis and palaces lose their fascinating newness and exoticness and blend into the normal sights.
What would streets even be without slow and noisy rickshaws? or groups of kids in school uniforms walking up and down the street in the oddest hours? or cows eating on the streets, touring amongst bikes, scooters and motorbikes carrying too many people at once. what is a long distance? and what means "super deluxe" bus? 14h, 22h, 10h, 6h, bumby roads, bottom aching from all the jumps and head sore from trying to lie still in the sleepers bus overnight. food seems expensive in the various rooftop restaurants attached to hotels -90 rupies (1,8e) for rice and mutton curry! such a rip off! what, this double room with own bathroom costs 250r (less than 5e)??? bahut zyada -faaar too costly. And what's the idea with fixed prices? shoudn't a shopkeeper decide how much each item costs in relation to the buyer?

enjoying india, should start working soon, maybe in a few days. today is the time for taj mahal and pretty parks, a nice book and a cup of masala chai.

Pushkar

Pushkar is a small hippie-city surrounded by mountains, and in the middle of it is a holy lake. Around the lake are many temples. And a huge amount of holy men waiting to get your money… We stayed only a few nights. It was quite relaxing... The best in the place was to lay and read in the lovely rooftop of our quest house. Tiina did a lot of sight-seeing, walked in the early morning to some temple on top of a hill, and she visited many other temples. I felt I had seen enough temples for a while, and needed a rest from all the sights. Oh, the luxury of doing nothing!

Udaipur

The Lake City, Udaipur, was so beautiful!
Octopussy, a James Bond movie, was filmed there in the Lake Place (a huge palace in the middle of the main lake). So, each night most of the hotels were showing the movie in their rooftop restaurants. I managed to skip it each time.
Days were hot and nicely slow, but there were still many things to do. I loved reading a book on the rooftops and just doing nothing. Well, not exactly nothing...time passed quickly on different small things like taking cooking classes, going horse riding in the surrounding villages, watching sunset from various pretty points ...having massage, watching a dance show...and museums, motorcycling, eating really good food, hanging around with some swedish blokes or indian guys...


Tiina's birthday was also celebrated... in the evening we ate yammie chocolate cake on our rooftop in candlelight.. and on the real birthday we pampered ourselves with massage and waxing (not real pampering that one), and of course eating delicious food.