Delhi

I arrived 5 AM in Delhi. The sun was just coming up to once again heat up the mess. I took a bicycle rickshaw to the main backpacker area. When we finally arrived it looked like a 1km long bombsite. The facades of couple stories high buildings were completely missing. There was rubble all over the street and no people around - only some dogs barking into the new day. Even though the devastation was really next level, I decided to make a hotel on this street my base.
Later I found out that because of the Commonwealth Games Delhi is trying to get itself into shape. I also heard and believe that they wont be able to finish it in time.
I had to organize a new camera since the last overheated in Rajasthan on the camel trek. I finally found a shop on the Bazaar. The Sikh vendor sold me a copied camera and assured me that I have warranty around the globe. This is now my 5th camera in 18 months, which gives the average camera a lifespan of 3.5 months - thefts, accidental losses included.
Old Delhi features many small alleys, bazaars, little shops and many colors. Thankfully the government decided to ban cows in the capitol city. There are big mosques and the red fort worth mentioning.
The last day in Delhi I got the "Delhi Belly". That's when India got its grip on me. Even though I felt good in the evening, I had to vomit first thing in the morning. Some rest would have been advised, but I really wanted to get out of Delhi. So I made it to the bus station with the subway system and then left with a luxury bus to Rishikesh. Once again there was no luxury visible and I had to sit next to two Indians who were to greedy to pay for two seats. The boy sat on my lap most of the time and people started to vomit in the bus.

Jaipur

Uhh. Jaipur is messy. The traffic chokes the city. Marieke and me met up with Eric again, who of course took his bike. There are some walls visible in the city, but modern Indian life and garbage has made it impossible to say if you are standing inside of the ancient walls or outside. The best thing we did is to pay a very easy going elderly rickshaw driver 6 dollars for a day and he would bring us to all major sites in the proximity of the city. First we visited the Nazi "Adlerhorst" (eagles nest) which actually is a temple high on a hill. But the swastika sign was so big and visible on the main wall that it is difficult to think of it's actual meaning: "Evolution of the universe".
Afterwards we went to the prime show peace of Jaipur which is the Amber fort. Truly amazing in size and because of a huge artificial lake in front of it. Which had no water. But to walk these ancient walls was amazing by itself and is definitely worth a visit.
Then the rickshaw driver brought us to some souvenir shops to make an extra buck. Afterwards we visited the monkey palace. Monkeys were all over and playing in a small spring of water and jumping from high above into the refreshing water. Monkeys, pigs and dogs were fighting for food. Which ended up that monkeys were pulling on the tail of pig and a pig screaming so loud that the dogs didn't join the fight.
Then we all had to go are own ways. Erik to his retreat via hospital. Marieke stayed in the suburbs in Delhi with somebody she got to know in Tamil Nadu. And I tried to enjoy Delhi even though everybody is always cursing about Delhi.

Pushkar

Pushkar is a holy city and is dedicated to Lord Brahma. Only few temples in the world are built for Brahma. Most temples are relatively new since the Muslim conquest destroyed most of Pushkar decades ago. None of the temples in this town are mind blowing. What I like about Pushkar is the amount of temples for the small size town and the people. The pilgrims come from far away to pay tribute to Brahma. These men are usually old, very thin and wear notoriously old clothes or just towels to begin with. They do their religious thing while locals take care of business and foreigners enjoy the show from the roof tops. Meat and alcohol are prohibited and only bang is served. Bang is a local drug of India. We hiked two of the surrounding hills, which both have a temple on the top because of the religious significance of the hills it self. These hikes turned out to be very adventurous.
The lake in the middle of the city is surrounded by temples. In the evening you can see the reflection of the sunset... well in fact you cant, there is no water. So there is a big hole in the middle of the city.
We met Eric in Pushkar who has been traveling with his Royal Enfield from southern India all the way to Delhi. He is here to gather inspiration for his profession as a painter (www.erikolson.ca). We made a long bicycle ride to some very disappointing Shiva temples 10 km away. But the road was beautiful and we some very interesting locals. Then we stayed in a sacred cave in the hills next to the temples. The sun and the bicycles were unforgiven and made it very hard to do some mileage.
Eric had a motorbyke accident a week later only 25 km before his final destination. He broke his collar bone and has some other problems. But he survived and is at a painter retreat close to Delhi. Hope you get better.
The fat man on the picture has not talked for the last 5 years. He serves as a guru to the shop owner in the back of the picture.
Pushkar is a nice place, if you can ignore the shit and like monkeys.

Jodhpur

The largest city in Rajasthan is still in the Thar desert. It is called the Blue City because most of the houses are painted blue. The fort is impressive in size and because of the quality in which it present itself to us. It is a de facto a city with many defensive lines to protect it against invaders. For example the main entrance gate is constructed just after a curve on the road leading inwards. There are also huge spikes 3 meters above ground level in the gate. In the good old times as an attacker you didn't have tanks - you had elephants. But to destroy a gate of the size in Jodhpur the elephant would need some space to gather speed. And the spikes would probably kill the poor animal.
Inside there are many plazas and private rooms, entrance halls etc. A truly magnificent fort.
The city itself is less delighting. Big, noisy, hot, polluted and cow shit everywhere is not the ideal setting for tourists. We hung out mostly at roof top restaurants.
The next destination Pushkar had proven to be a relief from Jodhpur.

Jaisalmer

In the desert of Thar lies the golden city. Which is not golden, but yellow brown because of the sandstone used to built the impressive fort in the middle of the city. It is the last fort in India which still serves to many people to live. It was built to

serve as protection against the Muslim aggressors from the west. Nowadays Muslims and Hindus live peacefully next to each other. But inter religious marriages are a tabu. The marriage system is pretty ugly anyway. All marriages are pre arranged by the families. Nobody is allowed to have sex before the big day. Thats why you have all these young Indian men ru nning around and tyring to get one of the "easy" Western girls. Which makes it very exhausting to travel as a wo men in India as I witnessed at many occasions and about what I heard many funny stories - some actually not so funny. On the nig day, a caravan goes through the whole city with music in the front, people dancing behind it, the older family members follow, the sp ouse on a horse wearing the clothes of a Maharaja and then the generator. These people go around town until they end up late in the evening at the house of the bride. Then the spouse goes inside and does what he never was able to tra

in before.
Jaisalmer lies on a historic route of camel traders. Because of that camels are very m uch part of daily lives - and tourist tours! That's why we decided to go to the desert with some camels and a guide. The guide it self aka "the desert man" lives in the desert village of a 100 people , is Muslim, as been to the city only 4 times in his life, sings beautifully and is a very pleasant character. They only marry within their village - since ever. He and two young boys took us - a group of six - to the dunes and some desert villages which are a one day trek with th

e camels away. But I walked half of the distance since the camel are hard on the balls.
The Thar desert hasn't seen any rain for 3 years. Locals suffer from the drought in any way. It is definitely a hard life to live. From 11 til 15 o'clock there i s absolutely nothing you c an do besides sleeping beneath one of the trees only to wake up after a few minutes because of the heat. The food consisted out of Dal and Chapati - the Indian main.
We spent the night in the sand of the dunes and listened to the stories and the s inging of the desert man. He was almost the same age as me, but looked like 45 years old, because of his hardship.
We ended the tour a bit earlier then planned because we were not eager to spent the afternoon with camel farts and the 52 degree. So we returned to our hotel which has a pool. The water has not been changed for 6 months, but it was still very enjoyable. Then we left for Jodphur.

Udaipur

Udaipur is an average size city in southern Rajasthan. It has gotten some international attention when the James Bond movie "Octopussy" was partially shot here. Restaurants show the movie every evening - all year round.
Rajasthan is hot. Udaipur was almost half way to boiling temperature when I stayed there. During mid day you should have taken care of all important things already or be willing to postpone them to afternoon, because with this temperature nothing besides of lieing on some pillows in the shade and sipping fresh juices is much fun.
The most special sight to see in Udaipur - next to the daily life - is the Maharaja Palace where until 1956 there was actually a Maharaja ruling his empire. The architecture is very distinct in Rajasthan because of the Maharajas who ruled this region autonomously for a very long

time. Islamic influences are everywhere and sometime makes you feel like I imagine Turkey. In the palace I also met Marieke from Holland with whom I would travel for almost a month across northern India. She has been doing some research in the south for a NGO about the impact of droughts in Tamil Nadu. She's great fun.
The other day we and some friends I met on the train went for a ridiculously small hike which was nevertheless exhausting because of the temperature. From the fort we were a ble to see over the whole city and the dried out river bed, the remaining water in the lake and the sunset.
After three days we went on the long night bus ride to Jaisalmer. The night bus was not as fast as promised, so we ended up being in the bus at mid day in the bus driving through the desert. The wind coming through the window consis ts of 50 degree air. Because this is above the body temperature you are able to witness the other side of the wind-chilling-factor. Shortly said. It is incredibly hot.

Mumbai

Mumbai was the gateway to India for the British Empire and as it turned out for me as well. Mumbai has about 14 million people who generate a third of all Indian (1.2 trillion people) tax incomes. It is the nucleus of the moder n, economically successful Indian civilizati

on. That is not exactly what you see if you land at Mumbai airport. The last stretch takes you over the never ending slums which are seriously polluted in the traditional way and in that particular section must have awful noise pollution as well.
A rickshaw ride takes you through the new slums in the north of the city where Indians from all over come to have a part of the cake. I checked into the Salvation Army Hotel right in the colonial heart next to the Taj Mahal Hot el, which famously got attacked by terrorist a few years ago. The Salvation Army staff are r

uthless assholes and the least christian people in the world. No casual discussion - just "pay now" and "go away". The dorms have 20 beds, no sheets and are badly maintained over the last several decades. So everybody is sweating all the da

y into these thin mattresses and then checking out to give the next guy a chance to leave his mark. But it's cheap.
Looking back - Mumbai is the nicest of all major cities I saw in India. The Victorian architecture is all over the city center and left me as stunned as the Indians must have been back in the days. Especially the Victoria Train Station is a marvel you may otherwise only find in England it self.
Street life is buzzing all the time, Ind ian tourist make pictures of themselves and with Western tourists. Entry ticket prices vary by factor twenty for foreigners and locals. Beer is a luxury good and costs 3 dollar. Even toilet paper is and comes at a price of 1 dollar per roll.
It took me a while to get used to the new environ

ment, where cricket is important, foo d is completely different, mustaches everywhere, very traditional clothes of women (Saree's) and most of all: the almost total domination of males in the daily life.
I ate mostly Southern Indian food, which was interesting. A paper masala can be a thin roll of dough of up to 1m lengt

h and 10cm diameter. I checked out the Prince of Wales museum which showcases the relicts of Hindu culture and touches the other religions and fine art collected by the Tata family.
Further more there is the huge cricket pitch in the city center which offers some refuge from the awful, awful traffic.
After three days of adjusting, sightseeing and getting on top of things I stepped into the train which would take me to Rajasthan.

Malacca

Short on time I tried to soak in all the sights of the famous city Malacca in 24 hours. I met a Australian family one the way there. They were backpacking with 3 kids from 2 to 9 years old. There plan is to go to Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Blinded by the cheap prices of Air Asia flights they will most likely end up in places they don't like and which are to dodgy for the kids. But they were fun and I was able to help since they had no Lonely Planet.
Everybody wanted to rule Malacca over history because of it's important strategic location just next to the Malacca Straits. Sultans came in the early days, then the Siam, then the Portuguese, the Dutch and finally the Queens Empire. Because of the turbulent past there are many reminders of occupation. Dutch mills, Amsterdam style houses, catholic churches built by the Portuguese, a clock tower by the British etc.
The city center is laid back which is in strong contrast to the new Malacca which is dominated by traffic and malls. I found this city very charming and recommend it.