The Pink City

The city of Jaipur is called 'The Pink City' because some past ruler of the town decreed that all buildings within the old city must be painted pink. And you thought your landlord / HOA restrictions were harsh?

We had a laundry list of things to see and do (aside from laundry).

The main attraction for us was Amber Fort, pronounced Am-beer. The fort's size is staggering considering its age. Like most similar places around the world, it was built in stages. Then after several hundred years of construction the owner decided that he liked the location a few miles down the valley, and the new city was built while Amber was left in ruins. Thanks to tourist dollars, it has been restored. We spent hours exploring the rooms, corridors, and courtyards.

Amber Fort

I think our rickshaw driver, who waited patiently in the mid-day sun for us, was cursing himself for agreeing to a "no-waiting charges" deal. Alan is such a shrewd negotiator knowing that Jen tours museums at about half the speed of a normal tourist. That poor driver earned every Rupee today.

We also spent several hours in the Observatory Park that has giant structures created to measure the angles of stars and our Sun and a full set of 12 astrological instruments that are used depending on which zodiac sign is in play.

Astronomy device for measuring position of stars

Huge sundial, accurate to 2 seconds!

The City Palace had a few objects of interest. The most memorable are two vast silver water containers that were used on a trip to England by the head of state. He carried Ganges water all the way to London so that he could wash in it every day to stay clean. Remember from our Varanasi post that the Ganges is one of the most polluted rivers in the world, and you might be as baffled as we were as to why anyone would transport even a small vase of it anywhere else, let alone 40,000 gallons in two silver vats.

The food in Jaipur was exceptional, though we stayed away from the street vendors and went to only restaurants we found in our bible: The Lonely Planet. Alan hasn't eaten this much curry since his student days in London's suburbs. Unfortunately, samosas are nowhere to be found in the restaurants we deemed safe to eat at. The waiter laughed at us and called it street food when we asked for them. Oops. We haven't been able to conjure up the courage to eat from the street vendors yet.

Train

After the ride to the border which involved 5 hours sitting on a sweltering bus that had been advertised as air conditioned, we decided that the train was the comfortable, safe way to travel.
The photos you may have seen of overcrowding on the trains do not apply if you pay a little extra for "AC" class.

Thankfully this was not our train

 It was a little difficult for Jennifer to sleep but Alan had no problem catching some zzzz's. This will be our preferred method of transit from now on.

Trying to figure out the timetable book on board a sleeper train

Toto, I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore...

Lumbini was the last town we visited in Nepal. Seeing the very spot that Buddha was born was a tad anti-climatic, but it's probably because I'm not Buddhist or Hindi. Most of the stupas there were beautiful and elaborate, some of them bordering on ostentatious.

We crossed the Nepal/India border the following day in Sunauli. People are correct when they say it's not a place to linger, being a typical border town. We decided to stay in the night in Gorakhpur instead of arriving into Varanasi late at night. Gorakhpur was not pleasant, but it was a good decision. If we had arrived in Varanasi at night, I think we would've hightailed it back across the border to Nepal.

Having heard the wild tales from fellow travelers on the Annapurna treks regarding Varanasi, we were a bit scared of the city. American writer Mark Twain wrote: "The city is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together."

One hiker we met described it as the filthiest place on the planet, and certainly it has more than its fair share of dung, pee, garbage, and rotting food. Also, it's a place where Hindu pilgrims go to die as there is some get-out-of-jail-free card if you die here. If you are "lucky" enough to pass away here, you can be cremated in full sight of boats on the river. The smoke from about 50 funeral pyres per day certainly doesn't ease the air quality problems.

The Ganges River is used daily for devout Hindus to bathe themselves, as they believe it cleanses the spirit. It may cleanse the spirit, but it certainly does not cleanse the skin. The Ganges is one of the most polluted rivers in the world. There are 14 million people living upstream and not one single sewage treatment plant. The river has at times 65,000 times the safe level of fecal matter floating in it.

The beautiful waters of the Ganges

Having said all that, the city was not as bad as it may sound. The Ganges water didn't look or smell as dirty as we had thought it would, and the city was only slightly dirtier than some of the Nepal cities we had visited.
There is quite a lot to see if historic buildings are your thing, and the religious ceremonies at the river bank ghats in the evening were a good spectacle - lots of bell-ringing, chanting, and waving fiery objects around.

River bank during the day

River bank during night-time ceremony

The accommodation was fairly nice, but the owner and the many helpers employed there gave it a very odd vibe. There was a feeling that we were under constant surveillance to make sure that all the money we spent was funneled through the hotel. They offered to walk with us to show where the nearest internet cafe was, even though there were several within a few minutes' walk. Almost every time we saw someone in the hotel, they asked if we had our train tickets booked or if we needed an Ayurvedic massage. Despite our constant refusal of their "help," the lure of a little commission seemed to affect their hearing.

Next stop is Jaipur...

Lions and Tigers and Bears - Oh, My!

Chitwan National Park in Nepal was our next destination. After a very exciting bus ride down a typical Nepali road (involving an exhaust getting knocked off, the bus engine not being able to start again, and some other various miscommunications with the bus driver), we finally arrived at Island Jungle Resort. We were able to at least watch an awesome sunset.

Early the next morning, we saddled up an elephant to go "interact" with the local wildlife.

Getting ready for the morning commute

Rhinos, wild boars, and langur monkeys were going through their morning ablutions and eating breakfast.

The tranquility of the jungle was only disturbed by 20 people riding 4 elephants trampling through the thick brush. Really, the rhinos didn't seem to mind.

Afterwards, we walked through the jungle with a local tracker to try to find tigers and sloth bears, only the most feared animals in Chitwan. No, this doesn't sound smart to me either. The weapon of choice held by our tracker and guide: a big stick. We saw neither of these beasts, but did see tiger paw prints and sloth bear pits in the mud where they forage for termites. We were instructed to run up a tree if confronted by a rhino.

The elephant and Alan worked up quite a sweat walking (it was only about 36C/97F), so they both decided to take a bath in the river. 

An elephant sneezes on Alan.

The national park was relaxing and tranquil, but we wanted to learn a bit about the Tharu people who used to live in the area that is now the park. Most of the Tharu now live in the areas surrounding the park in Sauraha. We learned that the Tharu are descendants of the Rajasthani tribes who migrated to the area. (We're currently in Rajasthan in India, and we do see some of the similarities in the customs.)

Hot as it was, we rented two bicycles to explore the local Tharu villages. Most Tharu people's mode of transportation is bicycle, not elephant, not car.

Jennifer and her trusty steed. Check out the cool brakes and bling on the bike. Just needs tassles on the handlebars.

In the evening, we visited a local Tharu family to learn how to cook a typical Tharu meal. Guess what we cooked - dal bhat!! Sapana Village Lodge organized this for us, and it was definitely a highlight for me.

It's actually a pretty sweet deal for the family. We pay them money to prepare an entire meal for them. But honestly, we learned a lot and had fun. Hopefully they had as much fun as we did (I think Alan provided some nice evening entertainment) and enjoyed the meal we cooked for them.

Alan stirring the onions while sitting on a Nepali-sized stool. The Tharu ladies laughed each time he had to stand up to stretch. Poor Alan.

Alan plants some rice. He needs to go back in a couple of months to harvest now. Rice planting is typically done by the women. Yes, the little kids are laughing at Alan. Poor Alan.

Post-Trek Play and Preen in Pokhara

With the trekking part of our trip completed at the end of March, it was time to go to the mountain town of Pokhara for a well earned shave and head massage. This was Alan's best shave in years.

Then we went to the International Museum of Mountaineering that contains an exciting rock collection.

and a scale(able) model of Manaslu. It was treacherous. White paint on rocks is suprisingly slippery!

The closest Jennifer will ever get to climbing an 8k+ meter peak.

The museum closed early because, we were told, the prime minister of Nepal had been killed! It turns out the an ex-prime minister had died of old age a few days before. It was at about this point that we realized we had not seen a newspaper for nearly a month. We pondered whether everything in the homeland was still OK and had another beer.

We plucked up courage to try paragliding as Pokhara is one of the best sites in the world for it. The feeling of running off the side of a cliff is exhilarating. We circled on thermals following hawks and then the pilot performed some acrobatics before landing by the lake. Jennifer's pilot let her take control of the wing for a few minutes and everyone survived to tell the tale.

Jennifer can barely drive a car. How can she fly?