vacation tales: the pink city

been there and back for a long time, but just found some time off to update about my vacation. here's the first bit about my trip. the pink city, JAIPUR and the highlights of the 'typical' touristy places.

The old city and the forts have a charm of their own. After having seen European architecture on my previous holidays, it was quite refreshing to see Rajput architecture. My limited knowledge of the history of the region was rather frustrating but the info-boards in appropriate places ensured that I wasn’t just staring at 16th century works of genius.

The architecture of the City Palace offers a distinct flavour, an essence truly refreshing.

There were some rather curious artefacts on display in the palace like gangajalis or silver urns; Largest silver objects in the world. 5-ft urns used by a Maharaja to carry the holy water of Ganga all the way to England.

The musuems within the palace house some exquisite robes, muslins, lehengas and the like worn by the royal family. Julia, I think it would have been a real treasure-house of inspiration for you. The richness of the fabrics is mind-blowing; even if I couldn’t touch them I could feel it. There is also a display of weapons that enthused my sister and an art gallery that has much to offer, but makes little sense if one has no idea about the history of the place.

The extensive Amber fort exemplifies the lives of the Rajputs – militant, fearless, self-indulgent. The hilltop fort seems to grow out of the rugged mounds around it. Constructed by Sawai Man Singh (it’s pretty much the only king’s name I remember cos there were two of these), it is a perfect blend of Hindu and Muslim architecture, a style that is prevalent in this part of the country.

A lot of guides scrounge around trying to eke out a living by feeding some standard shit to oblivious tourists. I have learned tht it is almost totally useless relying upon a guide for info.

The famous Jantar Mantar is a very interesting place. There are several constructions built in 1700s by Jai Sinmgh (after whom the city is named) that quite accurately make celestial measurements. I was flabbergasted by the accuracy of the sundial (kinda) clock. It was 14:37 when I took the pic (IST)

So at first I thought there was an error (cos the pic obv shows 10 past two), but then I realsed that IST is according to the latitude through Varanasi which lies east of Jaipur. So this sundial actually shows the time in Jaipur exactly. It would be a fascinating place if I could have actually understood more. I’m really bitter about the lack of proper guides for these places.

Hawa Mahal (Palace of Wind) is another supposed architectural wonder that stands in the swarming city centre with an ambience hardly that of a historic marvel. As I stood on the topmost level of the Palace, a very mild gust of wind blew, and I have to confess, I really did wonder what all the fuss was about?

At the end of the day, I really felt that I’d had an overdose of pink sandstone architecture, so my advice is to take it slow!!! And don’t overdo it.

P.S. There were a lot more edifices I had seen, but to my untrained eye there was little difference and the initial fascination wore off. But I still maintain, it was ethnic, earthy and enthralling!!!

P.P.S. Apart from the old city, Jaipur is not pink anywhere else. The houses and streets are very-well planned and the other parts of the city don’t suggest the Rajput history at all.

arenal volcano and cahuita

on my second weekend trip i made it to la fortuna, and later today monteverde with 4 other friends I met here. The bus drive here is the worst I have had in a long long time. long windy streetlets, no real velocity and a constant start and stop in an overcrowded bus. ew.
but here we are in the very touristy village of la fortuna, which i believe has a population of 100% of tourguides and hotels. the reason is that it is abt 17km from the active and really nice arenal volcano, and has a heap of amazing hot springs.so yesterday afternoon and evening thats what we did. we went to the hot springs baldi, though not the cheapest, definately some very nice hot springf with water of all temperatures and a couple of jacouzzi like things. while soaking in the hot tub, we watched the arenal volcano or the nicely kept exotic (for me at least exotic) garden. the volcano puffed smoke a couple
of times, accompanied by a deep grumbling. aparently there was some red as well at night, but I didnt see that sadly. We looked at the wrong side of the mountain.
So today we are being transfered to monteverde by a so called "jeep boat jeep" tour, where well do zip lining through the jungle (not very ecologically friendly, nor friendly to your purse) before returning home to my host family in San Jose on sunday evening. Monteverde is not much better than la fortuna, but actually a lot worse. a little village like any other in the middle oc costa rican nowhere that has sold out all its village charm jsut like the souvenir shops sell out the cheesy keychains or the restauraunt owners the food at an outrageous overprice. Whilst la fortuna has a volcano, which I must admit is pretty cool, monteverde has some green mountains and a load of tours through them. great. not that you cant do that anywhere else in CR. I have the impression Im not really hiding my opinion of monteverde...

but lets have a look at last weekend: the Carribean.
I went to cahuita. a beautiful little city full of the creol like culture of the carribean. that means, full of Mekatelyu (the creol english of the province limon), dark skinned people of african descent, coconut in the food, and marihuana in the air. I chilled on the beach, the playa blanca in the free national park, and the playa negra on the otehr side of the town, had yummy fruit juice and pipa, young coconut. and I had an ad hoc surf lesson. I cant do it but its very fun. apart from a horrid sunburn of the girl who went with me, some imperial in Coco's bar, the only bar in the pueblo.

greetings from hot humid to hot humid!

impressions of CR

I wrote this 2 weeks ago but couldn’t get it up due to the horrible internet connection here.

I must say I am liking this place more and more. despite daily rain, horrible horrible horrible traffic, different infastructure and different food, its great.

to the weather. it is warm, but rarely sunny, if it is, then only in the morning. I was amazed the first time I saw blue sky. this leads to frequent (daily) rain in the evenings or afternoon, sometimes accompanied by an occasional thunderstorm. I like the weather though, it is neither too warm nor too cold (for me).

the traffic...well the roads are ok i guess, with occasional holes on them. the sidewalks are separated to the place where the cars go by a dug out for the excess water. not yummy. and there are very few traffic signs...starting out there are just about no street signs, but signs signalling velocity, right to go first and direction are also usually lacking. plus as a pedestrian you are always the ideot. if you cannot take care of yourself, the cars wont do it for you. entonces you run. riding in the bus and looking out the window, I got hearattack after heartattack due to the closedriving up and ither very slose bypasses, which i swear should have ended in humoungous crashes, but luckily didnt. Im happy not to drive here.

Food? I have never had more rice with beans and chicken than here. its really yummy, like not spicy or anything but still, beans with rice, rice with beans. morning (gallo pinto), lunch (casado) and evening. despite that, there are great foods such as platanos (banana to be cooked) , tropical fruits, etc.

friendship

I have been meaning to post ever since I got back from my holiday, but there were rude interruptions whose tirades I shall provide later. It's friendship day, and this post is a small tríbute to friendship.

I always went to the same school since grade 1 till I went to Stuttgart. We did not have a floating population, so I stayed with more or less the same friends. Very rarely did a friend drift away, and when that happened our connection was lost.

I could say that I’m truly surprised, but utterly joyful that Julia’s and my friendship has lasted this while. It is strained, of course, due to the distance. No previlege of picking the phone and ranting off, or meeting on weekends for a cup of coffee. But, we have our own little things to look forward to. A stray mail, a phone call where we cram details of what life’s been like since the last time we chit-chattered, little bits in the blog, random memories of her that cross my mind as days go by.

I’l cherish this relationship forever and thankyou so much buddy for being there.. :)
This song by The White Stripes has always been a personal favourite. HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY!!!

We're gonna be friends

Fall is here
Hear the yell
Back to school
Ring the bell
Brand new shoes
Walking blues
Climb the fence
Books and pens
I can tell that we are gonna be friends
I can tell that we are gonna be friends

Walk with meSuzy-lee
Through the park and by the tree
We will rest upon the ground
and look at all the bugs we found
Safely walk to school without a sound
Safely walk to school without a sound

Here we are
No one else
We walked to school all by ourselves
Theres dirt on our uniforms
From chasing all the ants and worms
We clean up and now its time to learn
We clean up and now its time to learn

Numbers, letters
Learn to spell
Rhymes and books and show and tell
Playtime we will throw the ball
Back to class
Through the hall
Teacher marks our height against the wall
Teacher marks our height against the wall

We don't notice any time passed
We don't notice anything
We sit side by side in every class
Teacher thinks that i sound funny
But she likes the way you sing

Tonight i'll dream
While i'm in bed
When silly thoughts go through my head
'Bout the bugs and alphabet
When i wake tomorrow i'll bet
That you and I will walk together again
I can tell that we are gonna be friends
Yes, I can tell that we are gonna be friends

Brings back sweet memories!!!

P.S. See the butterfly shirt :]