Lawrence of Arcadia
It is amazing how you can get used to the heat here. For the past few weeks in India, with the exception of Bombay, I have been in the state of Rajasthan in the NW of India. This is mainly desert and is very hot and dusty. The average daytime temperature has been about 42 degrees C with no humidity.
Rajasthan is quite an interesting place. For many centuries it was a collection of small kingdoms ruled over by the Maharashas. Even after the British took over the rule of India in the 1850s they were allowed to continue. The relationship between them and us was a mutually beneficial one. They paid us tributes and we provided for their defence as before then, the Maharashas had needed to defend themselves against the Moghuls and the Muslims from across the border where Afghanistan now sits. They kept their palaces and forts and lived well.
Some of the Maharashas were good benefactors and looked after their people while sometimes others were not. If you visit the towns of Udaipur, Jaisalmer (where I now am), and Jaipur you will see evidence of this in their forts, palaces, and the names of monuments and public places. Some of the old Maharashas are still reviled as heroes because of their victories over Moghul aggression.
After independence in 1947 they were allowed to continue to live off their estates, collecting public money - called a Privy Purse - and playing the benefactors. However this did not continue too long as Indira Gandhi stopped this practice in the 1970s effectively making the Maharashas and their families normal citizens.
They kept the homes and estates though and being quite business-savvy they started to make a living from them. Many of the older palaces have been turned into luxury hotels or are just open to the public with their art and antiquity collections on display. For example, the Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur used to be one of the Maharana's palaces. This particular fellow also runs hotels elsewhere and his children have studied and grown up to enter the hotel and leisure business. With their wealth they are still giving to their cities and towns, normally running trusts to look after their estates or setting up schools or hospitals with their money.
I just thought that it was interesting, as normally after a revolution or independence the nobility of a country are killed or their estates seized. Not so here.
Jaipur is a city based on a fort in the middle of the Thar desert. The train journey in provides some haunting views as it looks like the surface of Mars; being rocky desert. The town itself, although off season, is a pleasant place to spend some time especially after spending a couple of days in Jodhpur. Jodhpur was okay though really the only thing to see their is the fort. This is run by a trust set up by the old Maharasha and now run by his family and provides an excellent audio guide. I really liked it and most of the history that I wrote just now stems from what was said in that guide. However it is quite polluted and noisy so getting to Jaisalmer in the desert was pleasant.
One thing that you must do here is go on a camel trek. Now camels and I do not get along. I think this is because camels are stubborn and grumpy. I guess they just remind me of me, really. But I thought that the idea of going on a trek on a camel into the desert would be good fun and besides, I could pretend to be Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia. As it turned out it was not so much Omar Sharif, more Omar Giddyaunt.
After about 10 minutes on the back of this camel my bottom became quite uncomfortable. The "saddle" was quite hard that the camel was bobbing up and down as camels do. My one also kept on ducking suddenly as if he was trying to avoid something overhead. I reckon it was just doing it to upset me even more as each time he did this my privates got squashed up against the front of the saddle. So I spent a happy 2 hours on the back of this thing swearing at it quietly (in case he heard). I did get used to it eventually and he was not that short-tempered.
The trek was good fun and our guide spoke excellent English and also cooked a mean lunch and dinner. He brought the ingredients in a tiny bag and made some tomato/onion chili with rice and fresh chappatis (like flour tortillas); all very tasty. He also made a mean cup of masala tea. Masala tea is like normal tea with milk except they add a mixture of spices to it as it is boiling. They then add sugar and drinking it reminds me more of a bedtime drink as it sometimes tastes of cinnamon with a touch of aniseed. I have had it before but not recently before coming to India. The Indians seem to drink nothing else.
Our trek was two days so that night we kipped under the stars and, in may case, about a foot of sand. This time of year the desert is very windy and the sand dunes move around a lot. As I slept I covered my whole head with one of the blankets and in the morning discovered that my mattress and my bag had been covered with sand. That was startling as well as uncomfortable as my trousers had filled up with sand too.
It was nice to get back to our hotel and make sand castles with what I shook out of my clothes and bag. I must say though I would not take a camel any distance again. These sort of trips are best done in jeeps, I think, though at least it's another thing I can say I've tried. I'm getting soft in my old age.
After this jaunt we have another few days here that I plan to spend doing very little. Then we are off to Delhi and then to Agra to see its monument the Taj Mahal.
I do like Rajasthan and I think I am enjoying it more because it is off the tourist season and everything is quiet. Even the heat is bearable after a while and it's nice to go walking around in the evening and early morning when the air is cooler.
I am cheating a bit as I am taking an air-conditioned train back to Delhi as it's a 24 hour journey. Should be interesting.
(I am also really sorry about that Omar Sharif pun).
Rajasthan is quite an interesting place. For many centuries it was a collection of small kingdoms ruled over by the Maharashas. Even after the British took over the rule of India in the 1850s they were allowed to continue. The relationship between them and us was a mutually beneficial one. They paid us tributes and we provided for their defence as before then, the Maharashas had needed to defend themselves against the Moghuls and the Muslims from across the border where Afghanistan now sits. They kept their palaces and forts and lived well.
Some of the Maharashas were good benefactors and looked after their people while sometimes others were not. If you visit the towns of Udaipur, Jaisalmer (where I now am), and Jaipur you will see evidence of this in their forts, palaces, and the names of monuments and public places. Some of the old Maharashas are still reviled as heroes because of their victories over Moghul aggression.
After independence in 1947 they were allowed to continue to live off their estates, collecting public money - called a Privy Purse - and playing the benefactors. However this did not continue too long as Indira Gandhi stopped this practice in the 1970s effectively making the Maharashas and their families normal citizens.
They kept the homes and estates though and being quite business-savvy they started to make a living from them. Many of the older palaces have been turned into luxury hotels or are just open to the public with their art and antiquity collections on display. For example, the Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur used to be one of the Maharana's palaces. This particular fellow also runs hotels elsewhere and his children have studied and grown up to enter the hotel and leisure business. With their wealth they are still giving to their cities and towns, normally running trusts to look after their estates or setting up schools or hospitals with their money.
I just thought that it was interesting, as normally after a revolution or independence the nobility of a country are killed or their estates seized. Not so here.
Jaipur is a city based on a fort in the middle of the Thar desert. The train journey in provides some haunting views as it looks like the surface of Mars; being rocky desert. The town itself, although off season, is a pleasant place to spend some time especially after spending a couple of days in Jodhpur. Jodhpur was okay though really the only thing to see their is the fort. This is run by a trust set up by the old Maharasha and now run by his family and provides an excellent audio guide. I really liked it and most of the history that I wrote just now stems from what was said in that guide. However it is quite polluted and noisy so getting to Jaisalmer in the desert was pleasant.
One thing that you must do here is go on a camel trek. Now camels and I do not get along. I think this is because camels are stubborn and grumpy. I guess they just remind me of me, really. But I thought that the idea of going on a trek on a camel into the desert would be good fun and besides, I could pretend to be Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia. As it turned out it was not so much Omar Sharif, more Omar Giddyaunt.
After about 10 minutes on the back of this camel my bottom became quite uncomfortable. The "saddle" was quite hard that the camel was bobbing up and down as camels do. My one also kept on ducking suddenly as if he was trying to avoid something overhead. I reckon it was just doing it to upset me even more as each time he did this my privates got squashed up against the front of the saddle. So I spent a happy 2 hours on the back of this thing swearing at it quietly (in case he heard). I did get used to it eventually and he was not that short-tempered.
The trek was good fun and our guide spoke excellent English and also cooked a mean lunch and dinner. He brought the ingredients in a tiny bag and made some tomato/onion chili with rice and fresh chappatis (like flour tortillas); all very tasty. He also made a mean cup of masala tea. Masala tea is like normal tea with milk except they add a mixture of spices to it as it is boiling. They then add sugar and drinking it reminds me more of a bedtime drink as it sometimes tastes of cinnamon with a touch of aniseed. I have had it before but not recently before coming to India. The Indians seem to drink nothing else.
Our trek was two days so that night we kipped under the stars and, in may case, about a foot of sand. This time of year the desert is very windy and the sand dunes move around a lot. As I slept I covered my whole head with one of the blankets and in the morning discovered that my mattress and my bag had been covered with sand. That was startling as well as uncomfortable as my trousers had filled up with sand too.
It was nice to get back to our hotel and make sand castles with what I shook out of my clothes and bag. I must say though I would not take a camel any distance again. These sort of trips are best done in jeeps, I think, though at least it's another thing I can say I've tried. I'm getting soft in my old age.
After this jaunt we have another few days here that I plan to spend doing very little. Then we are off to Delhi and then to Agra to see its monument the Taj Mahal.
I do like Rajasthan and I think I am enjoying it more because it is off the tourist season and everything is quiet. Even the heat is bearable after a while and it's nice to go walking around in the evening and early morning when the air is cooler.
I am cheating a bit as I am taking an air-conditioned train back to Delhi as it's a 24 hour journey. Should be interesting.
(I am also really sorry about that Omar Sharif pun).