Buffalo Soldier ... Book Review

I have not done a book review for a while. I have been reading ebooks ... Lisa Unger, Lee Child and Jeffrey Dreaver. Books for a quick read with plenty of intrigue, but after a while I got bored with their predictability and plots.

I found Buffalo Soldier on the second hand book shelf of the hotel we stayed at in Delhi. I am quite confident that some of you may have already read it. I loved it from the opening page. It is a story of loss, grief, mistakes and second chances. The story is built around Terry and Laura and their foster son all lost and broken. Parallel to their story is a short history of the Buffalo Soldiers.

I really liked the way the characters developed. I thought the author wrote about loss and grief so well, I loved this book and the humanness of his characters. I am keen to read more of his work. When ever I remember India I will think of Buffalo Soldier. Those of you who are avid readers know that feeling when you find a book that you love and you get totally lost in the story and the characters ... it is no longer fiction that you are reading. That is how this story was for me.

I really hate the let down that happens when I come to the end of a book and have to say goodbye to everyone that I have met and spent the last days or weeks with. For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere who are enjoying a change of pace with summer break and are at a lose end as to what to read I recommend Buffalo Soldier. Those of you in the Northern Hemisphere who have short days and long nights ... this would be a good book to snuggle up with by a hot fire or in a warm bed with a hot chocolate. Enjoy.

Varanasi ... A Place to Die

Christmas in Varanasi

We spent 5 days including Christmas in Varanasi, famous for its location on the Ganges River. It is the spiritual centre of India and the oldest living city in the world and has had people living in it continuously since the 11th century BC. It was founded by the god Shiva and is also the place where Buddha gave his first teaching. Many Hindu believe that dying here assures salvation. Varanasi is strikingly  different to Rajasthan. The state of Rajasthan is considered to be the poorest state of India but Varanasi does not look that much more affluent to us and it is certainly not as colourful.  However, because of its spiritual significance the city has many visitors and pilgrims and there are a great number of interesting people on the Ganges River, where all of the spiritual activity seems to happen.

I have to be honest ... there are some really dodgy people down by the River. This is the only place in India, so far, that I have felt unsafe and I would not go down there by myself. People were approaching us for boat rides, trying to sell us postcards, jewellery, head massages for Pete, hash and opium. Then there are beggars and men dressed up as monks (some real some not) begging for money. 

All the cremation for Varanasi is done on the banks of the Ganges and there are bodies being burned 24 hourly. Apparently they take 3 hours to burn. They wrap them up in beautiful coloured fabric unil they are placed on piles of wood to be burnt, the coloured fabric is taken off and they are left in calico. There are stacks of wood all around the cremation areas of the river specifically for body burning. When the bodies are burnt completely their ashes are thrown into the Ganges River ... I am not sure how completely they are burnt. The cremation spot is near a hospice where people go to die ... there are touters hanging around the spot trying to convince tourists to part with their money to help pay for wood for the homeless people who die there with no money or family. All a scam!

We have had to get tough in Varanasi ...  tough with people who came up to us and would not take no for an answer. Ignore beggars who came up to us because we are white but walk right past the locals. I got really annoyed at that! It does not come naturally to us to be this kind of rude, but if not we will be hassled until we say yes. There is no bad feeling as they move on to the next person. We find all of this tiring and energising at the same time. We quite like the ability to be tough when we need to, but it's tiring always being approached by people and feeling suspicious of their intent. Inevitably there is an angle and money is wanted. I think we are growing up ... learning to look after ourselves and speak out when we feel like we are being ripped of. I don't want to give the wrong idea ... we have had some really nice moments with people and there are many friendly people who have been very helpful and generous towards us. We have been very grateful for their generosity and genuineness ... like the man at the sweet stand in Jodphur and the two men we shared a cabin with on our overnight train.

While we have been walking around the various places that we have stopped at or visited we have seen very few women on the streets. I would say the ratio is less than 1 woman to 10 men. The men do all the cleaning in the hotels, all the serving. In shops it is all men. When we visit the markets there are more women and women serving, but still the ratio is low. We bought some Indian sweets from a store up the road from our hotel, when we walked in there were a number of men, maybe 20 and I was the only woman. I suddenly thought that maybe the store was men only, so I asked, 'Is this a men only store?' Apparently not. As we were leaving I noticed one other woman and I felt quite relieved, I found it very intimidating being the only woman amongst all those men. We noticed that the trains have women only carriages and in the local buses there are women only seats up the front. There are public urinals for men ... with no doors or roof ... but no public toilets for women, that we have notice. I find all of this fascinating, I find India fascinating and intriguing and I would love to return.

India is so different in so many ways. I am not suggesting that what we are seeing and experiencing is bad, but it is very different to the West. Our travelling has been so good for us ... we have been exposed to so many different places, cultures and people and we have found it so enriching. Sometimes intimidating and scary, but we have loved the interactions we have had with different cultures, people and countries and India is one of those interactions. We have realised how soft we are as Westerners and how much we have come to expect ... hot water at the turn of a tap, internet at the press of a button, warm homes at the flick of a switch, good food, privacy when we go to the toilet. It certainly is not like that here in India. Internet is very slow, we often do not have hot water, there are constant power cuts and as I have mentioned it is getting cold here and their homes are not insulated at all. There are 1,000s of street people a year who die from the cold. 

Anyway I ramble ... more photos ... some of Delhi before we caught our train to Varanasi.

Another parcel home. We went to the post office in a tuktuk and on arrival we were approached by the parcel wrapping man and followed him to his post, which was the sidewalk, over the road. Parcels are wrapped in cloth and sewn together as you can see in the photo.

Still Delhi ... I had to put this photo in ... all these bales are on one rickshaw that is ridden by one man. People work hard here for what they get.

Our overnight train to Varanasi. The trains are long here and run on wider tracks. We travelled first class, I know that sounds posh, but it is not. First class meant we had  a cabin that we shared with two men and a mouse and had the guarantee of an assigned seat/bed. All the public transport is packed with people. We left Delhi at 8pm and our arrival time in Varanasi was supposed to be 7.40am ... we did not arrive until 5.30pm the next day, 10 hours late! I love trains. I remember travelling on them a lot as a girl. I always wondered when I went to the toilet on a train where it all went. I know now ... it all goes on the track! I saw it for myself. 

You can just see the light reflecting of the tracks. It got draughty sitting on this toilet seat.

We shared our cabin with 2 other men a crop scientist and an insurance manager... they were really friendly and looked after us very well. This is Arun ... he snored loudly ... all night. I think he was the only one in our cabin that slept through the night. He has a son that is going into Cricket Academy next year, apparently he is passionate about cricket. When people ask where we are from and we reply NZ ... most people say Cricket. We seem to have a good reputation in India.

A very large statue of Buddah close to the place where he gave his first teaching as an enlightened being,which was in Varanasi.

There were a lot of monks and nuns visiting the site of Buddhas first teaching. I love the colour they are wearing ... a beetroot colour and I had to take a photo. The monks wear amazing colours. Hindu monks where a lot of saffron and shades of red. Buddhist monks wear red and orange. Jains wear all white. There is a constant haze in India ... mist ... and that is what dulls the colour in this photo, that and our poor photography. I am going to take a photography class when I get back to NZ ... maybe Gail can teach me.

A line of Buddhist monks having their lunch. They look spectacular to me.

An early morning paddle on the Ganges River ... this spot is right next to where their cremations are performed, we were not allowed to take photos. There was a flood several years ago and this Hindu temple ending up sinking and leaning as you can see.

The fog looks very Gothic on the river. There were quite a few boat loads of tourists, including us. We were supposed to see the sunrise, but it was too foggy. The fog closes down the airport and is one of the primary reasons our train was running so late.

Washing day down by the river. There was washing drying everywhere. People come to bathe in the river Ganges as part of a religious pilgrimage, while almost right next to them people are doing their washing, this happens all downstream from the cremation area. When I saw all the washing drying I wondered if our washing had ended up down here.

We went along to a Hindu religious ceremony on the banks of the Ganges on our first night. We really enjoyed it and there were so many people. 

Indians are passionate about Cricket. Of course they have one of the best teams in the world! We have seen lots of games of cricket with locals on our travels through India.

While walking along the walkway by the river Pete was approached by a monk, not this one, who was begging for money. Pete said no, as I was coming up behind Pete the monk moved on to me and grabbed my breast and squeezed it. I turned around and yelled 'don't you dare touch me!' A local came over and started to tell the so called monk off. Pete turned to the monk and started to reason with him politely until I told him he had grabbed my breast. Suddenly there was a complete change of manner in Pete ... he grabbed the monk and dragged him about 20 feet along the walkway. Yelling at him loudly to leave the area. People were rather shocked to see a western tourist working over a man of the cloth ... supposedly. I must confess, I was rather shocked at the monks assault ... I mean I am not young ... and it is not as though my breasts stick out!  

This is not my first experience of being groped by a so called priest/monk. In 1990 Pete and I went to the UK and Europe for 6 weeks. We visited the Greek Islands ... while we were touring around one of the Islands on a scooter we stopped to visit a Greek Orthodox church. One of the monks asked if he could have his photo taken with me and Pete said yes. There we were standing together, the monk and I and he grabbed my butt and held it rather firmly. I could not believe it and wish I had been a lot more assertive and turned round and slapped him, but I wasn't. Pete was taking our photo and feeling so pleased that the monk had offered to be in the picture. After Pete had finished he thanked the monk profusely and looked at me strangely as I walked off and did not say thank you. When we got outside I explained to Pete that the monk was a sick pervert who only wanted to touch my butt. I'm telling you watch those men of the cloth. At least this time I managed to be more aggressive.  

This is the walk way by the Ganges River. There are lots of people walking, working and playing along here. We would often stop and watch. It was near here that I had my encounter with the monk.

Washing in the Ganges ... we saw one or two women doing their washing, but it was mostly men. I think hotels get their sheets and towels washed here. Cold, physical work ... the washers stand in the Ganges for hours thrashing their washing on stones, wood or bits of metal.

As I have said before we love walking around and getting out amongst the people. We took a side street here and found some very cool buildings. There seemed to be a lot of silk weaving happening in this area. We think that it might have been a Muslim area because we saw quite a few around here.

This is the most colourful nativity scene I have ever seen. We found a Christian church, the Church of Saint Thomas, (one of Christ's apostles who was rumoured to have died in India), while out walking. We came back on Christmas day to visit. However it was so busy we couldn't get in.

We spotted this old building hiding behind a shop ... 

While out wandering we came across this man who is hand dying clothes, in a large pot on a small gas burner. I was fascinated by what he was doing and I loved the colours in the background which he dyed in the same way. There are some real contradictions for me here in India and this is one ... India provides cotton to many parts of the world that are woven and dyed here, I am assuming in very large factories, with modern technology ... but then we come across this man who is doing it all manually and doing an excellent job. He loved my interest and my request to take his photo.

Varanasi is known for its silk. I thought these silk pieces looked beautiful in the light of the shop window.

The chicken store! There are chickens in the cages behind the man sitting with a dead chicken on his lap, the throat of which he had just slit as we were walking past. One side of the shop is where the chickens are plucked and butchered and the other side is where they are kept in cages, waiting to be slaughtered. I don't think we will ever eat chicken again ... 

Now that the weather is colder people are wearing a lot more layers of clothing. A lot of men wear shawls, like the man in this photo. I think they look really attractive on them. I could see Tom wearing one.

Ever since we have been in India Pete has wanted me to take a photo of him amongst the cows. I have made several attempts but none of them have worked out satisfactorily. At last here he is among the cows on the banks of the River Ganges.

We really liked the age and look of this building. No real significance. Kind of hidden away. 

We spent our last day in Varanasi at the movies. We had the choice of silver, gold or diamond seating, we chose diamond (with reclining seats). We really enjoyed watching a movie again, even though we could not understand one word that was spoken it did not detract from the story line or the experience. Of course there was the usual outbreak of song at points in the film. We enjoyed ourselves and watching a movie on a big screen was a real treat. Bollywood movies are so full of colour, life, fun, vitality and enjoyment ... art duplicating life. 

Trying to leave Varanasi ... this is the local train station. Our train was scheduled to leave at 10.20pm on Dec 26. It finally turned up at 6.30am on Dec 27. There is a special "retiring room" for first class passengers where we hoped to pass the time and sleep. However the guy at the door said we had to make an on-line reservation. Pete asked how we were supposed to do that given the station had no internet service. The guy wasn't interested and Pete threw a bit of a tantrum, which didn't make any difference. We had a long night waiting in the cold in the station's cafe. There is nothing we can do in these situations we just have to sit back and relax. That was pretty hard though, it was freezing! Indians are pretty adaptable to the weather. They wrap themselves up in their shawls and go to sleep on the floor, or light a fire on the station platform. It all seems to work in the end. There was no Koru Club lounge here for first class. We arrived in New Delhi @ 11pm Dec 27. We managed to get some sleep on the train, but we were pretty exhausted when we got to Delhi. 

Pete is filling out a performance review form that one of the train attendants brought to us ... a feedback sheet on the cleanliness of the train ... e.g. were there any cockroaches, rats or mice?? No, but it was 12 hours late, nowhere for any feedback on that. The train trips were a real adventure, a test of character ...  we found ourselves really connecting with life in India. Tuesday we fly out to Thailand.

All that Glitters is not Gold ... it's Rajahstan

We love Rajasthan! The colours in this State are beautiful ... almost overwhelming. We had 14 days of driving to the hotspots. We discussed travelling by train and bus but decided that it would take too much time and driving with a driver was not horrendously expensive so we opted for a driver. I know that it sounds very touristy, but it was the most economic use of time for us. We are only in India for a month. We had a great time and stayed in some wonderful towns and some not so wonderful ... great hotels and some not so great. We enjoyed our driver, he looked after us well. The downside of driving of course is not mixing with the locals so much ... but we learnt a lot about India on the road which I will share with you later.

There is so much to say about this country. It is the most unique of any country that we have visited so far. I have mentioned the colour many times ... I think when we get back to NZ we will find it very bland ... black being one of our dominant colours. There is a strong sense of life here ... the noise, the bustle, the traffic and so many people! India is thousands of years old and has a very deep rich culture. They have been ruled by Emperors, Sultans, Maharajas and the British Monarchy. All of this history is intertwined with religions particularly, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Islam along with a few Christians and Bahai's. The legacy of all this can be seen in many impressive and beautiful buildings. The scale of many of the forts, palaces and temples is stunning and the workmanship is beautiful/outstanding, I am not sure how else to describe it ...  they seem like works of art. The beauty in these buildings took my breath away at times and of course the colour was beautiful. We have tried to post photos that capture some of what we have seen without going over the top. We seem to post more and more photos ... we hope you enjoy them.

I found the locks on the doors of our hotel rooms fascinating. They are not easy to open ... you have to take your time. A bit like India ... you have to take your time and keep your cool ... there are too many people and too much traffic to go fast or get upset. 

We are in Pushkar here ... sitting at the Holy Lake as the sun is going down. I know I have mentioned this before but the evening light is wonderful. When the sun goes down everything turns golden.

The Holy Lake ... no shoes are worn around the Lake because of its sacredness. People come and bathe here as part of a personal religious pilgrimage. As we wandered round we saw people bathing, sitting and meditating and of course cows and water buffalo. In the evening there was playing of drums as part of their evening ritual. We found it so soothing as we wandered round here enjoying the evening light and the rhythm of  the  drums.

We are now in Udaipur ... I loved the architecture of this hotel. It used to be part of the Royal Palace, which is spectacular. We enjoyed going into hotels and negotiating a price for our room for the night and checking out rooms. The room cost always included breakfast ... some breakfasts were better than others, so along with asking is there hot water, do you have wifi, we started to ask what does breakfast include. None of the rooms have any heating and it is starting to get cold here. All the buildings are built for hot weather. The temperature gets up to 48c in the summer and winter is only 2 months ... December and January so I guess they figure they can do with some discomfort for a short time, so they can be cool in summer.

I love these colours together ... every time I see colours like this I think of lucy.

While in Udaipur we went to an evening performance of traditional Indian dancing and music along with a puppet show. We really liked the colouring of the lights so of course we had to take a photo. We have not yet mastered the ability to take evening photos with our camera and some of them don't turn out very well at all, but this one was an exception.

We took heaps of photos of the dancers and very few of them turned out! This was one of the better ones, even though she is a bit blurred. I think she is beautiful and their costumes were amazing ... again so much colour.

Still in Udaipur ... on our way to the evening show we passed a tailor's shop that had some really nice looking shirts in the window. We stopped by on our way back to our hotel and there was an Australian man collecting shirts that he had ordered .... they were really nice. So we went back the next day and ordered a suit for Pete and 4 shirts. The photo is the suit material and lining and the white shirting for one of his shirts. We also bought 6 pairs of glasses! Everyone needs multiple pairs of glasses don't they?. They are so cheap here, I mean cheap as there is no tax on glasses. Pete got 2 pairs of prescription sunglasses (that he has wanted for a long time), reading glasses and two pairs of everyday glasses. I got another pair as well ... the more the merrier.

Where ever there is a car museum or any kind of engineering museum Pete is very keen to visit. While in Udaipur we visited the Maharaja's car collection. It is not a big collection maybe 12 cars at the most. We decided to put this photo in because Pete has driven  all of these cars bar one, the red MGTC. There were also Roll's Royce, Mercedes, Cadillacs, a Buick and a couple of Jeeps.

A dressed up camel in Udaipur. It is not uncommon to be walking along the road and come across a camel or an elephant carrying locals, tourists or cargo, along with cows, goats, bullocks and pigs. All on the main road with cars, bicycles, motorbikes, trucks, buses, tractors with trailers, pedestrians, tuktuks and rickshaws. You have to look down a lot to watch where you put your feet. Doesn't this camel look spectacular!

We really liked Udaipur and ended up staying for 3 nights. I don't think you can say that Indian towns or cities are pretty, but they are spectacular and very interesting with some really pretty spots and amazing historical buildings. The Palace in Udaipur is one of those buildings ... the interior of this building is beautiful as you can see by this photo and the ones that follow.

The blue here is beautiful ... I blend in very well.  So much light!

A window space that is framed with stain glass but no glass in the centre. The Palace is set right on the lake and has a fine 'prospect'.

The blue in this room is stunning. I love colour and what it can do to an atmosphere or a mood ... it can change an atmosphere or appearance dramatically, from dark to light, as you can see in this photo. I love colour that sings and this colour sings, I felt like I was stepping into a painting.

A view from one of the courtyard's at Udaipur Palace. The outsides of some of these buildings are just as stunning as the inside. 

John Scott might like this photo ... Pete standing by a very late model Royal Enfield Cafe Racer ... I think they are an Indian equivalent of Harley Davidson. I really like the older models ... they sound rumbly and look really cool. We saw a few of them when we were walking into the Upper Mustang. Pete says the non cafe racer models are not very good handling bikes and definitely not good for off road riding. A lot of tourists seem to like hiring them and riding them round India.

Still Udaipur. School had just finished for the day and we could not move for school children all over the place and filling up tuktuks. I had to take this photo to show you how full these tuktuks can get. There must have been 9 or 10 students in this one. These machines are also used for carrying cargo ... I have seen them full of bales of grass or rice. The motor bikes also get very full. Sometimes they carry 3 or 4 people. While walking along the road we saw a man carrying a washing machine on the back of his scooter.

We finally left Udaipur and headed towards Jodphur. On the way we stopped and visited this Jain Temple at Ranakpur. We felt like we were really out in the country here. We really liked the countryside and the Temple was amazing as you can see in this photo. It was built in 1439 and is made from marble and almost every part of it is carved. I had never heard of Jains before.They are strict pacifists. We saw some in Jaipur, they were dressed in white from head to toe and wore white masks so that bugs do not fly into their mouths and die. We also saw Jain monks walking to this Temple as a pilgrimage and they had no shoes on. It is quite common for Jains in their 50's to renounce all material attachments and go on pilgrimages. All Jains are strict vegetarians and also do not eat anything bulbous such as garlic or onions. Jainism is a branch of Hinduism, but seems to be more strict. 

Pete standing inside the Temple. Hindu Temples and Jain Temples look very similar. Take note of the carving on the pillar behind Pete.

I love these colours ... the monks wear amazing colours. I could have asked him if I could take his photo but I felt a little shy and he would have wanted some money for it as well. I think if Tasi said yes to every request of a photo and then asked for money she could be quite wealthy now. Do it Tasi ... ask for money.

 Outside the Jain Temple as the sun is setting.

These Peacocks were in the field next to the Jain Temple along with beautiful green parrots. Peacocks are India's national bird and in a lot of carvings in their Temples. I did not know that Peacocks could fly until I saw them flying into the trees. I have always thought they were non flying birds ...

We made it to Jodphur ... we had a dodgy hotel night there. But a bed is a bed. We did quite a good job of haggling down the price though. I love the colour of these doors. We stopped at the memorial of one of the Maharaja's of Jodphur ... it is a beautiful building overlooking the city and the grounds are really well maintained. That is not the case for all of these old buildings.

Sitting on the steps of the Memorial.

We also visited the Fort at Jodphur which is just over the road from the Memorial. A lot of the forts and palaces have been turned into museums. This was a particularly good museum. The outside of this fort is carved stone ... it looks like wood.

One of the rooms inside the fort ... absolutely stunning. There are many rooms like this in most of the forts we visited. I love the coloured balls on the ceiling. lucy brought some back from her trip to India and I use them at Christmas time. Everything glitters in these forts and palaces, they do amazing things with light.

Indian sweets ... yummy!! We had a really nice experience buying these. We came across a sweet store while exploring Jodphur and I wanted to try some. There was a man being served at the sweet store when we came across it and he asked the staff to give us samples to taste, we could not understand a word he said, but he was very excited to share the taste of Indian sweets with us. We love these moments when we meet people who are so open to us and want to share India with us with no expectation of money ... just being generous. 

We had to put this photo in ... driving in India is an experience, like no other! We came across many trucks like this ... they are stacked as high as they can be without toppling over. Can you imagine this in NZ ... I can't. 

We went for a sunset camel safari in the desert just out of Jaisalmer. The boy on the back is Pete's camel guide. Our first time riding a camel ... we enjoyed it. I do have to say, the desert in India is nothing like the desert in Dubai. lucy and I went on a safari in Dubai when I met her at the end of her mission in Mauritius. We did not go by camel, we were in 4 wheel drives, but we had fun.

Bathed in gold in the desert.

I think Pete looks really good here.

Some of the camel crews ... the men in red turbans. Rajasthan men wear coloured turbans, mostly red and have moustaches that curl up at the end. I think they are quite handsome. Our guide is the one on the end in the grey jacket. 

Sunset

Sunrise ... we slept in tents in the desert so we could see the sunrise. The tents are very nice, more like tented rooms with ensuites.

One of the rooms ... a great place for a honeymoon ... I thought they were really romantic.

A haveli in Jaisalmer  ... they are known as Merchant Houses and they are amazing ... again carved stone and marble. Jaisalmer was neat. We spent a lot of time walking round the old city which is a city in a fort. So old and interesting.

Same haveli ... the detail.

Some of the local street life ... we walked past this little pig on our way back to our hotel. She is a little hungry I think.

We bought ourselves some textiles ... 

Our favourite palace was Bikaneer. We were totally blown away by it ... it was absolutely beautiful, like a work of art. The colour, the textiles, the tiles, the light. Everything about it was artistically and beautifully created.

Get a load of this ... the colour and the light is stunning. Even the ceilings were colourful.

For a small fee one of the security people sneaked us into this part off one of the rooms we were looking at ... it was a whole wall of small stain glass design and the light in there is wonderful. I love, love, loved this palace. 

Our driver ... Kamal. He is a very good driver ... no hurry ... slowly, slowly. He is from Nepal and has been living in India for 20 years driving to support his family, who still live in Nepal. While driving with him we have learnt a lot about India and their road rules. We never saw any speeding. We never saw any yellow lines for no passing. You can pass anywhere ... on any blind bend, no matter how blind it is, no matter how much oncoming traffic there is or even how many cars or trucks you have to pass at once. In the towns no one stops at any intersection unless there are street lights. We never saw a give way or stop sign. So when coming to an intersection you toot lots, and keep driving slowly until you get through and everyone does it. Apparently there are three things that are essential ... good horn, good brakes and good luck! Tooting is their primary form of communication when driving ... toot when coming up to any pedestrians that maybe crossing the road ... toot when coming up behind a truck or passing a truck or car ... blast your horn when someone has done something rude, not sure what that would be though. No matter what .... never stop moving, the rule is first in first served. Pete was not a relaxed passenger ... sitting in the back seat leaning forward looking out the front window of the car the whole time. I felt quite relaxed surprisingly ... only had a couple of moments when I gasped.

Our driver took us to see the Rat Temple, just out of Bikaneer. I have to say that this temple creeped me out. There are rats everywhere ... and you have to take your shoes of in all temples ... we were given some white feet sheets to wear as you can see. The rats are believed to be reincarnated beings who are working their way up the ladder to enlightenment, hence they keep them alive and make them an object of worship. Some of them looked really ugly, sick and diseased! I hope you can see the rats at Pete's feet ... you may have to look hard.  

This light fixture reminds me of Chris ... the old Palace of Bikaneer  has been turned into a beautiful hotel. We had a quick look at some of the rooms. You can stay there for $NZ165 a night including breakfast and dinner. Next time we will stay here.

The mirrors in the restrooms. I thought of Carly when I saw these ...

I guess not all Indians are vegetarians ... some like fried Aborigine.

A little bit of magic in their sandwiches ...

Seems like there are two types of beer ... adult beer and child beer and this shop only sells child.

I have never seen a cold bear ... we should have stopped to look.