Rajasthan Quartet

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Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Jaipur—even the names sound exotic and intriguing to me; and no less so now that we’ve been to them. Each one deserves its own post, but that isn’t going to happen. Our first stop after Pushkar was Udaipur, in the southern part of the state, and located on a pretty nice lake. Considering that Rajasthan is a desert state, lakes are a big attraction. In my last post I mentioned that Pushkar was a popular wedding location. So is Udaipur, but for an entirely different class of wedding. Udaipur has a beautiful palace, formerly the home of … Continue reading →

Riding That Train

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It turns out that a two-day train ride isn’t as fun as it sounds. Better than a bus, certainly. But by the formula “Getting there is half the fun”, the trip from Kerala to Rajasthan fell significantly short. Imagine being stuck in a summer camp cabin, in bunks about the same size as when you were a child, unable to go outside for two days, and surrounded by 50 people who talk constantly among themselves, but are unable to communicate with you. It wasn’t that people were unfriendly, exactly. But our efforts to communicate hit a brick wall. So we … Continue reading →

Saint Thomas Was Here

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Due to my trouble with time and space (i.e. reading calendars and maps) I decided we needed to get from Hampi to the coast as soon as possible, near where we soon would be catching a train to take us up to northern India. So, instead of taking our time and sightseeing along the way, we arranged to go more or less directly from Hampi to Fort Kochi in the southern state of Kerala. We spent two consecutive nights on public transportation—the first on a train and the second on a bus. I don’t know what I was thinking, but … Continue reading →

Hard Rock Hampi

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Years ago, on a different beach in another part of the world, a traveler told me of being on a Goan beach and seeing a young man standing in the breakers, obviously under the influence of something, repeating over and over, “You can’t go away from Goa, you can’t go away from Goa…” I understand that feeling, not just in regards to Goa but nearly any beach. When it was finally time to move on we weren’t sure whether we had spent too much time in Goa, or not enough. Maybe both. In any case, we stopped in at a … Continue reading →

A Little R&R

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A trip and a vacation are not the same thing. A vacation is relaxing and enjoyable. A trip on the other hand is usually tiring but interesting. If it is also enjoyable, all the better. Often at some point in our trips we’ll feel like we need a vacation, so we’ll head for some travelers’ ghetto where we can relax, eat comfort food, and not worry so much about violating the social norms of whatever conservative culture we are visiting. In India the place to go are the beaches of Goa. The beaches of Goa were a hot spot for … Continue reading →