Octopussy

Location: Udaipur
Country: India

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Udaipur has been really good. There are a lot of things to see here, but because I was here for quite a long time, I was able to combine a nice amount of shanty with site seeing.
The sites and activities worth mentioning:
Monson palace – Went up there to see the sunset. The palace itself isn’t of much interest as it is rather neglected, but the view from there is spectacular. It is said to be the most romantic sunset view in Rajasthan (not much use to me…..).

City place museum – Worth mentioning not because it was so interesting, but it is the first museum I have come across in India that actually has the right to be called that.
Rajasthan dance show – Brilliant, I think it is the best thing I have done here. I was expecting something in the same professional standard of the puppet show I saw, but it was great. There were a few different types of dances; each was great with very skilled dancers.
It was at a Haveli, which is like old Indian mansions, which are restored and turned in to museums, or sometimes in to hotels. So the setting was also beautiful.


Yesterday did a half-day tour with another Israeli girl in a rickshaw, just went to all the sites written in the lonely planet that I hadn’t seen yet.
Bhartiya Lok Kala museum was very nice, exhibiting costumes, puppets and masks. It could almost be described as a real museum.
Ended the day at a sunset point. Had to climb up an illogically high hill, but I have to admit it was well worth it. There was an abandoned fort, which we managed to get in to after giving a small bakshish, the view and sunset from there were amazing. It was only the two of us up there, so it was also very peaceful.

I made myself sit down and watch Octopussy. I am no big James Bond fan, but a James Bond film from the 80’s was more that I could endure. I watched the parts that were filmed in Udaipur and gave up soon after. And Roger Moore is so not good looking.

I have now seen most of what Udaipur has to offer and feel ready to be leaving tomorrow.

I want to address the question from my most loyal reader and commenter, Mum.
Cows are holy because they symbolize fertility. They are also knows for raising and nourishing their young ones.
I’m guessing it originates from their importanc to farm life.
Bulls are holy because Shiva (one of the main Indian gods) used them for transport.
Incidentally, snakes are also considered holy (yuck) because they symbolize fertility and prosperity.

I have been doing a lot of reading on this trip, but I feel the book I have just finished deserves a special mentioning – “Angela’s Ashes” by Frank McCourt.
I bought it because I remembered really liking the film, but the book is a masterpiece, it is just brilliant. Apparently I am not alone in this opinion, as it was the winner of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize.
I think Frank McCourt’s own words best describe the book and show the great style of writing:
“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive it at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”
If you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it.

Strange point 1: Many of the guesthouse signs here have “Paying guesthouse” written on them. Is this to differentiate them from all the non-paying guesthouses?

Strange point 2: Many times when Indians want to know your name, they ask “What is your good name?” what on earth is the word “good” doing there?

Observation: Men in India wear women's earrings and go round holding hands with other men, and this in no way indicates that they are gay.

QuickTip: When you ask an Indian a question and he moves his head from side to side in that annoying manner, it either means he has totally no understanding of what you are saying or he has no idea what the answer is. You should ignore anything he says at this point, as it will not be relevant.

The Hill station town

Location: Udaipur
Country: India

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The last night in Jaislamer I went to a puppet show. Apparently the puppetry in India originated in Jaislamer, so I figured that a puppet show there would be really good, I was wrong (“The lonely goater” in “Sound of music” was way better).


The bus ride from Jaislamer to Mount Abu was really rough. 11 hours on a local bus is very hard, it is just so uncomfortable. There is no point in trying to get comfortable, as it is an impossibility. There were no other tourists on the bus, so that made it even more fun. The only comfort I had was my mp3 player, and wouldn't you know, it decide to not work. So apart from the fact that it made my trip that much harder, I was in a state of panic that my mp3 player was dead (yes, it made me panic). Later it turned out that the battery was just finished, the "on" button must have got pressed at some point without me realizing.
The one good thing I can say about the ride was that they stopped often enough for toilet brakes (sometimes they stop only every 5 hours).
After 11 hours of me almost going insane, we finally got to the destination, or actually, not. Apparently the bus doesn't go all the way to Mount Abu, it only goes to Aburoad.
So I had to get another one and a half hour bus, which was that last straw...
But at least the last part of the journey was on a comfortable bus and with a lovely view on the way of green hills (was almost as nice as driving up the Carmel).

Mount Abu is a small town with not many tourists about (unless you count Indian tourist, which I don't). It is a Hill station town, which is where the rich people retreat to in the summer, as the weather is a bit cooler there.
There is not too much to do there, 2 days of site seeing was enough.
It is quite a pleasant town, rather clean (compared with the regular filth one encounters here), and not too many cows about. The people there aren't as pushy and I could actually walk down the street without being harassed every 2 minutes.
I took an organized bus tour thingy, as it was the easiest way to see all the sites.
The one place really worth mentioning is the Dilwara temple – it is a Jiani temple made entirely out of marble, with loads of beautiful carvings and statues, very impressive.

There are many rules when going in the temple – no shoes, no cameras (the picture you see above, I took of a postcard), no water bottles. But the following one I found most amusing:

I was hoping that on the tour I would meet some other tourist, but they were all Indian.
During the tour, I had Indians falling all over me wanting to have their picture taken with me, so I could only reach the logical conclusion and I have decided to embark upon a modeling career.

The trip from Mount Abu to Udaipur was a piece of cake. It was only five and a half hours (a pop around the corner), on a comfortable bus with a functioning MP3 player.
Udaipur is quite beautiful, with loads of lakes all around.

Apparently the James Bond film Octopussy was shot here, the direct result being that the film is shown in at least 10 different restaurants around town on any given evening (and yet, I have managed to avoid seeing it so far).

There is quite a lot to do and see around here.
The other day I went to Shilpgram, which is an artist’s village (of course I am known as a great supporter of the arts). It was touristy as they come, but very nice to walk around.

Yesterday hired a jeep (a real jeep, comfortable and all) with another 6 Israelis and went on a day trip, which was great.
We went to Kumbhalgarh fort, which was beautiful. In it’s whole history it was only conquered once, and after walking up the hill to the fort, I fully understood why.


We then went to Ranakpur temple, which is another Jiani temple made out of marble and was magnificent.
I don’t know much about these Janis, or however they are called, I just know that they are a group of tree hugging hippies. They don’t believe in killing any living creature (including the small annoying ones, such as bugs), and their diet is very stricked, they don’t eat after sunset for fear that the may eat a bug by mistake (and not because of the obvious reasons that it is disgusting to eat a bug).
The one thing I can say in their favor is that I have now seen 3 of their temples, and they are the most impressive that I have come across.
The Tibetans can learn a thing 2 from them; their temples are so plain and boring.


I have another week to spend in Udaipur and from what I have seen so far; it should be a pleasant one.

The Jerusalem of India

Location: Jaislamer
Country: India

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My last night in Pushkar I was witness to something rather unpleasant. This woman of about 40 was sitting around with the pot-heads from my guesthouse and decided to drink a whole glass of medium strength Bhang lassi, which is this drink with marihuana in it. Apparently it is very strong and even people who smoke a lot have to be cautious with it. This woman had never had any drugs before in her life.
When I came along she was in a delusional state and in total paranoia. It was so scary seeing her; she had this crazed look in her eyes and all these weird twitches in her body. I have never seen anything like it.
The group there were very good and took care of her, even though no one even knew who she was, she wasn’t from our guesthouse and was alone. We didn’t know what guesthouse she was from so couldn’t take her back there and there were no spare rooms in our guesthouse. In the end one of the girls bunked with someone else and gave her her room. They managed to get her asleep eventually and I was told that she was ok in the morning.
It was a very scary situation to witness.
And that is a lesson to all you kids out there – stay away from drugs, or at least apply some sense when using them.....

The 10 hour trip from Pushkar to Jaislamer went slow but well.
I was on a sleeper bus, which is just a brilliant invention. It has chairs as normal, but on top of them there are sleeping cubicles. You have the bus windows on one side and also windows with blinds on the other side, so you are completely cut off from the rest of the bus. It is ideal to sleep all the way, but I decided to annoy myself and couldn’t sleep at all.

On the way I met a lovely girl – Moran, ended up taking a room with her in the guesthouse and spending all the time in Jaislamer together. We got on really well and it was a great arrangement, unfortunately I have just said goodbye to her and she is on her way home.

Jaislamer is nothing short of amazing, it is now officially on my top-5 list of the most amazing places I have ever seen. The visit here was just perfect.
It is a fort city, reminds me of very much of Jerusalem. It is so beautiful.

You walk along these narrow streets with all little shops and restaurants. The buildings are all from this light brown stone and the carvings on them are amazing. There are also many different temples and castles all around the fort.

The first day we just spent walking round the fort not being able to put the camera down for a minute. The pictures just won’t do it justice.

The second day we ran in to Aya – the older woman I had gotten friendly with in Pushkar, I was very glad to see her and we ended up spending the whole day with her. We walked round this nice market, some site seeing, card playing and jewelry shopping (I am becoming such a girl here).

The third day, in the morning we went to see this amazing temple in the fort, there was such a strong spiritual feeling inside, beautiful carvings and statues of the gods, all in dim light, unfortunatly couldn't take any pictures inside.

After that came the camel ride. I have to explain something here – mort people come to Jaislamer for a camel safari of 3-4 days. No way would you get me on a camel for that long or sleeping in the nature. Moran being in total agreement with me on this matter.
So our compromise was taking a jeep out of town, then riding a camel for about an hour (about 50 minutes too long for our liking) and watching the sunset on the sand dunes.
The camel ride was as bad as expected (with my backside still hurting), but it was worth doing in order to see the area out of town a bit and to see the amazing sunset.

This morning we went to see the lake. It is no ordinary lake as one would expect, it has all carved stone building in the middle of it.

Then we went to the Jaislamer folklore museum and the desert culture museum (or actually that would be an attempt at museums), both very simple and amateur (the explanation are written by hand), but was nice to see.
We were surprised to see a “chanukia” on display at one of the one of the museums; apparently the Hindus also use it for one of their festivals.

Jaislamer has been a very busy time, felt like a proper tourist. Just so you understand, I has a TV in my room and didn’t get round to watching it once. It was a nice break to the shanti mode.

Tomorrow at 05:00 am I am off to Mount Abu on a 12 hour trip on a government bus, wish me luck.

Swimming pool, shopping and sunsets

Location: Pushkar
Country: India

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Spent Rosh-Hashana in Beit Chabad, I would say that there were about 250 people there, quite a special thing to see. I think I mentioned last time, the Beit-Chabad here is still in the process of being built (they were promised that it would be ready for Rosh-Hashana, but I guess local labor, not too reliable), but they managed to arrange it quite nicely. We had all the prayer stuff and a small meal.
I was a little disappointed as I thought the atmosphere would be more special with all singing and stuff, but didn’t quite go that way.
I was concerned about the fact that there was no guard at the door and was thinking of what a perfect and easy opportunity it would be for a “pigua”, when I shared my thoughts with another girl she gave me a strange look and said living in Israel has traumatized me. I thought it was a very logical thought.
Due to many requests received from my loyal readers, I am attaching a picture of me in my chag cloths, no comments on the issue will be accepted.

I have spent almost 2 weeks in Pushkar, has been very nice and relaxing, can’t say that I have been doing too much.
I am staying in the nicest guesthouse I have been in so far. As I have mentioned, it has a pool and loads of trees all around, very nice atmosphere. Most the travelers staying there are a bit older, not straight after the army, so I can find more people to relate to and it isn’t as noisy.

The room is simple, but I have come to a conclusion that as long as the room is quite clean, has no flees, has a fan and an attached toilet and bathroom with hot water, it is enough for me, I really don’t need more than that.


The day usually starts with me sitting by the pool reading for a while, in the waking up process.
Then usually go have a musli at my favorite restaurant, which also has a TV.
Yes, after going cold turkey and having no access to a TV for a whole month, there is finally a TV I can watch, oh to the joy. I managed to re-watch the entire last season on “Friends”.
There is one problem and that is that most people want to watch stupid Israeli films all the time, so I was forced to watch a couple (“mivtsa savta” is just so dumb!!), but it was well worth the sacrifice.
Then it is either sitting by the pool, or shopping or Internet.
In the evening I go to the lake and watch the amazing sunset, and there are a couple of drummers there playing while the sun is going down.
Then supper with someone or other and hanging out at the guesthouse.

It took me about a week and a half till I managed to get myself to go do some proper shopping, Pushkar is known as the place for it.
The market is really long and I made myself walk through all of it, I almost ended up with buying nothing but then I found this really great shop and bought my self a few cloths and jewelry, was very happy with my purchases. Though compared to most girls I bought almost nothing, I think I did very well for me, especially not having my personnel shopper (Tali) with me.


One day I was walking round the town leisurely in the middle of the day when suddenly for no apparent reason, all the shops started closing.
After asking some of my local friends, I was told that two boxes of alcohol were found in one of the temples (alcohol, meat and eggs are strictly forbidden here as Pushkar is a holy place), and it would seem that one of the holy men was involved in the matter.
The police saw this as a cause to shut down the whole town for a few hours on that day and again on the next day.
Was strange and amusing. Don’t know how the matter ended, but there was no public hanging.

They seem to have festivals in Pushkar all the time, it is worse then our chagim period.
One evening was sitting in a restaurant with some people, when we heard this god awful Indian music blaring away on the worst sound system you have ever heard.
Then we saw a stage in the middle of the street with a “show” going on. Basically the show is 2-3 people sitting dressed up on the stage and a narrator telling stories.
The shows we used to do in junior school were of better quality than this.
But it was nice seeing all the little kids sitting there, for some reason totally enamored with the show.


I know I have already mentioned the cow issue in the past, but I feel I should dedicate some more words to this matter.
Having cows walking freely along the street has to be the single dumbest idea I have ever come across!! It is such a nuisance, I cannot tell you.
Now, cows may look harmless but I assure you that they are not. I have heard of several people who received painful nocks from those horns. I see a cow, I get out of the way and let her pass, and it has nothing to do with respect, only fear.
I will not argue the issue here of the Indians deciding that cows are holy (though I would have something to say on that matter), but who on earth woke up one morning with amazing idea of letting them roam the streets??
I mean, wouldn’t the cows be happier in some meadow somewhere?

Had to add this picture, as I find this amusing. They do not have any rickshaws in Pushkar, they have this instead :

I have to say that you feel like a right idiot being pushed along on one of those, but sometimes after a long day of shopping, there is just no choice.

Tomorrow night I am sadly saying goodbye to Pushkar and moving on to Jaislamer.

Tsom Kal Ve’gmar Chatima Tova.

The road to Rajesthan

Location: Pushkar
Country: India

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Getting to Pushkar was no simple task, it was long and tedious, but no problems on the way.
Headed out from Rishikesh at 06:00 am (!!!), treated myself to a taxi to Haridwar at the crazy price of 400 rupi (which is about 10 USD. But knowing it was going to be a hard day, I decided I deserve a taxi instead of a rickshaw and then a local bus).
Got a train from Haridwar to Delhi that was supposed to take 5.5 hours, and ended up taking almost 7 hours.
In Delhi I had to get to another train station to get my next train. Because of the delay, I made the train with only 10 minutes to spare, a bit too close for my liking.
This train took about 5.5 hours to get to Jaipur.
Arrived at the guesthouse at about 21:00, rather exhausted. Though traveling on the train was quite cool, I took an upper sleeper that was comfortable enough, and the people that go second-class are a bit better than the usual riffraff you encounter here.
The one good thing I can say about Jaipur is that they have meat there; I headed directly to the restaurant and had schnitzel. Seeing as both Rishikesh and Pushkar are vegetarian, it was a very welcome change.
In Jaipur I was reduced to having my first and hopefully (though not likely) my last bucket shower, I wouldn't recommend it.

The next day I was collared by a jewelry shop owner for about an hour, he tried to convince me it would be a great idea for me to bring jewelry for him to Israel (Ilana, this story may sound familiar to you). He explained that he had a limit of tax-free goods he could export and that as a tourist I had a limit I could take. He went on and on about it, and my persistent "no" did not seem to get through to him.
Read the following in an annoying Indian accent:
"Why you not want, is good for you, you get 1000 USD for 3 days work"
"You have queries? You ask me questions, I answer everything. Why you not ask?"
"I want when I come to Israel, I knock on your door, like friend"
"You have criminal record?"
"I show you more shops, I show you factory"
"All legal, no problem, I show you all documents"
"My son have birthday next week, you come"
After an hour, I finally managed to get away from him and continue on my way to Pushkar.

Got a local but that took 3 hours to Ajmer, and from there another half hour bus, and I finally arrived.
Pushkar is very nice, there is a beautiful lake (from which the sunset is amazing), and a big market place with a lot of shopping possibilities.

I am staying at a guesthouse with a swimming pool, which is very nice and quiet.
The only problem is that the locals here are very pushy and constantly begging for something, either money or for you to buy something from them.
I was told before I came that the people up north are much nicer than the people in the rest of India, but the difference in quite unbelievable.

Tomorrow is Rosh Hashana and Beit-Chabad here are supposed to be organizing something, hope it works out ok, as the building is still in the process of being built, but there are so many Israelis here that I'm sure something will be going on.
I bought myself some nice cloths for the occasion - a skirt (!!) and a white top, try and make it feel special.

Chag same'ach and shana-tova to all of you.