Rishikesh, 30 juli

I'm on my own again! Said goobye to Edu and Athar in Jaipur, got on the night train and arrived in Haridwar around ten thirty in the morning. Usually there is fellow backpackers here and there, but this time: no one. But there was a crowd of Indians, Prashant was right: it's busy this time of the year. I found the bus station after getting myself a new sim-card (yes you can call me, my number can be requested through FB) but the buses only had signs in Hindi and no one spoke any English... with hands and feet, RISHIKESH?? was good enough, I figured it out. I usually do. And then I saw another backpack, a European looking woman who seemed to be just as lost as I had been minutes before. Gwen turned out to be French, and on her way to the same ashram I am going to! Funny how these things work here.

Now I'm in the hostel that is recommended by 'the book', it has a beautiful view over the river and a nice restaurant, which are pretty much the only things I need here. I am relaxing before the ride up north tomorrow, which is going to take seven hours. No sight seeing for me, thank you.

But something else. It's such a challenge for me to stay on my track and not get carried away by diversions... The diversion I am talking about right now is fortunately enough a sensible (and super sweet) person who has no intention what so ever to ruin this India-experience for me. I am also reminded of what happened last year in Nicaragua and strongly advised by the Tarot to stay on my own and look for my own path. Thanks Akshay for being so unbelievably awesome. Meeting you was like a rainshower in the desert. It was a refreshing reminder, as much as a wake up call. You won't be forgotten.

Udaipur, 28 juli

Udaipur, last stop in Rajastan. Well, almost, after this I am joining Eduardo up to Jaipur where I'll be taking a night train to Haridwar. And from there on to Rishikesh and Uttarkashi... Ashram here I come!
As far as Udaipur is concerned: it's probably the most touristy place in Rajastan so far. It reminds me a little bit of Essaouira in Morocco:  the shops and restaurants are just a little less shabby and sometimes even have designer furniture (!! discovered a batch of AWESOME vintage stairs on the roof top terrace of Maxim's near the temple, and they had NO IDEA what I was talking about. Sometimes I get really looked at as if I came from Mars or something) and occasionally they play Western music, which of course diminishes the authenticity but it feels more like home. Anyway, the City palace was breath taking and the lake is gorgeous. I took a boat tour just before sunset and it was well worth the 200 rupies. AND I met Dina, my new Israeli friend, which made the boat ride even more fun. Dina, if you read this: so glad we met!! You're totally welcome in Bruges if you ever make it!!
After the boat tour there was a dancing performance in the Bahore ki Haveli, a nice villa with an inside garden, with beautifully dressed women doing their traditional dances. Pics follow.
And after that I attended some singing and dancing in the biggest temple in town. There was a huge crowd in the temple for the festival, which goes on for a month. Akshay, the Indian guide who gave us the tour of the palace, told us to go and participate. And I liked it. Even though I am no Hindu and I obviously am an outsider, I felt welcome. The services in the temple are so different from what we are used to in the West. People are chatting, children playing, there's live music and clapping and chanting... and still it feels as sacred as it gets. People do their pooja (thx for the correction Deeksha!), the Brahmans perform their rituals. And I just sat and joined the singing. Afterwards I met Dina and we went for a beer at Maxim's. And we were so engaged in our conversation that we lost track of time and apparently after eleven there's no one in the streets anymore, not even a riksha. So we walked to the hotel where I'm staying, realizing there were basically only cows, stray dogs and wrong guys with scooters on the street, telling us 'we go fuck you'. Very entertaining but not really reassuring. And when we got at the hotel the door was closed, so I had to wake up poor Athar, the driver, to ask him to open the door. He must love the irresponsible redhead like crazy by now ;) Dina got driven to her hostel by one of the hotel guys, on his scooter. She survived, we had breakfast together this morning.
This afternoon Edu and I went for a swim in a fancy palace hotel, felt wonderfully refreshing but ever since I feel queezy and I have turista... it was gonna happen eventually so there we are... yay.
After this I'll see Akshay for dinner. The third Indian I meet so far who I can relate to and have a decent conversation with. Probably no coincidence he has a degree in arts and history and lived in Sydney for a while. And he's very easy on the eyes ;)
So I bid you farewell sweet reader. Stay tuned!

Love and godspeed,
Tinie

Jodhpur, 24 juli

Posting twice today! Last post was supposed to be put on line days ago, but there were some minor technical problems: wifi is not that common around here so I end up dragging the laptop around and using internetcafe's anyway... silly but what can you do.
Last you heard from me was from Pushkar, the city with the holy lake and the beautiful Brahma temple. We bumped in to some traditional musicians who performed beautifully, which, once again, made me cry :) Yeah I'm terrible, I'm not stopping anymore... but there is really too much beautiful and touching stuff around here, I can't help it!
We also climbed the Savitri temple hill, at the best time of the day of course; around two pm we reached the temple and by the time we were back down I was sunburnt sooo badly... I did it again. Much better now but shedding skin like a snake. Ieeeuw. In the city we met the musicians again, sitting at some tea place with some dude who was obviously not Indian. Later that day he turned out to be staying at our hotel and we had a long talk: he's riding through India on a motorbike. Sweet! And he's romanian,  born in Sebes, Transylvania! Which is like, miles away from Viscri where my dear dad bought a farm! We had quite some things to talk about and I kindov hope to meet him in Nepal at some point. Raz, when you read this: I'd love to hook up at some point! You understand! ;-)
After Pushkar followed Jaisalmer. Pretty much all there is to see is the big ass fortress that is basically the town centre which houses shops, families, restaurants, you name it. I had a waxjob (funny experience) just before we headed out to the desert to go on a camel safari. Sounds more exotic than it was, it's two hours on a camel, diner, sleeping under the stars (my favourite part) and breakfast. Sunrise and sunset were not really worth mentioning. I had fun eventhough it wasn't the most spectacular of daytrips. I met a young Danish guy, Frederik, who was the perfect pal to hang out with; he was alone, I was alone, we kept eachother company and we turned out to have the love for music in common. Ever heard of Hudson Mohawke? Well neither had I until I met Fred and I'm glad he made me listen to Freek cuz it totally made me smile (not cry, sorry).
Thanks for the nice company Freddy. I'm adding you on soundcloud as we speak.. Listening will be for next time... promise.
After the camel safari we hopped back in the car and drove to here, and Jodhpur is so endearing. It has a fortress that is more impressive than the other fortresses so far, and a labyrinth of little streets to get lost in, lovely. Earlier I was invited in the house of a family and had tea and some fried stuff I forgot the name of, and they were just super nice and honored to have me in their little house... it's almost embarrassing how sweet these people are, they would seriously kiss your feet if you'd let them. No kidding. And the kids running behind you asking your name, begging for a 'school pen please', and loving to be in pics with you, no charge!!
Ok, my dear readers, so far for today. I'm sweaty and smelly and I want to get freshened up for dinner: the musicians I met up in the fortress invited me to have diner with them and Liesbeth Naessens, a Belgian musician who happens to be in town working with them. Nice huh! I am looking forward to it, these musicians seemed like such interesting and friendly people. Report will follow.

Much love and godspeed,
Tinie

Pushkar, 20 juli
Here I am, chilling and relaxing in a wonderful restaurant called 'a blue star', owned by an Israeli girl who ran into her husband on her first india trip and never got away again. Reeeeally. It was obvious there was something different about this place, there's loungy fusion music playing and the setup looks lush rather than scruffy as most average inexpensive Indian places do.
I'm gonna do this one in reverse because i have no idea where I left off: I did some attempts in cyber cafés to continue the story but I never actually got to post anything. Now I am unable to go online so I can't check what I wrote last... anyway.

Today I had the most wonderful experience at the lake of Pushkar. Around the lake are steps (ghat) where people sit and pray or go into the water to bathe and get the 'pooja'. The pooja is the blessing from the god that is worshipped in the particular temple or 'ghat' (stairs), in this case Brahma. Outside of the temple I received a string of dark pink roses and some roses for the offering (check the pics once i got to post them, you can see the woman who gave me the flowers) and once I went in a Brahman took me under his wings and took me through the pooja ritual. There were hundreds of pigeons flying over the water and the ghat, the breeze was wonderfully soothing and this general atmosphere of prayer altogether completely overwhelmed me. At some point repeating the impossibly long and strange sounding mantra's the brahman was saying, I just started crying. Yes my dear Prashant, India gets me even more emotional than I usually am. There was no stopping to it, I was reminded of the people back home, especially of the one person I so dearly love but left behind with the clear intention of moving on with my life, and the tears just poured out. Pawan, the brahman, asked if anyone died. Well, not exactly, but it probably hurts as much. Sitting near the holy water, I could almost feel the arms of Brahma holding me, reassuring me everything was gonna be ok. Once again, come and experience it, there is nothing like it. I threw the flowers into the water, held the sacred coconut, threw some stuff that Pawan put onto the coconut behind me and I felt a lot better:)

I'll spare you guys the rest: it's pretty much all bazaars and sweet people, beautiful colours and characters, the pics pretty much speak for themselves. Maybe worth mentioning anyway is my travel companion Eduardo, the Spanish guy I got hooked up with by Shaffi, the tour operator in Delhi who sold me this Rajastan tour. Eduardo is a twenty two year old economy student from Jerez de la Fronteira, who is experiencing India for the first time too. He's very unlike me, gets angry when people are 'dishonest' (basically trying to get the most money out of a transaction) and has no clue whatsoever what I am talking about half of the time. But none the less we have some good laughs and get along pretty well. Shaffi's romantic idea of this young puppy (who might even still be a virgin, he claims he never had a girlfriend) and me getting together is pretty absurd. Everything might be possible in India but there's limits to miracles :)
So speaking of romance; you guys are probably wondering whatever happened with that attractive young director I met in Delhi, Rudradeep. Well, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed ;). He picked me up at New Delhi station when I got back from Jaipur. It was around eleven and since he is staying at a family's house and doesn't have his own key, he couldn't stay. So we basically said hi, I got in a riksha and we said bye again. Bummer. I had to get a hold of Shaffi to find out in which hotel I was staying (hooray for Shaffi's clear organising), but the office was already closed (ofcourse, at eleven in the evening, na-uh) and guess what, I didn't find his card. Finally after emptying by bag i found back the voucher and the envelope had his nrs on it. But my Belgian phone wouldn't connect! I got desperate, even tried calling Rudra to ask if i could stay over but my phone wouldn't connect either, so that didn't help. In the end i just asked a random stranger if i could use his phone and finally got Shaffi, who told me where i was staying. After getting to the wrong hotel, more phonecalls, angry hotel managers and electricity beakdowns I finally got a room and I slept well for the first time. After leaving Rudra a message telling him to meet me the next day at the bar where we met. To make a long story short: he didn't show up, i left the bar, went back to the hotel for a nap and got a wake up call ten mins before I was leaving to Pushkar. And guess who was sitting there in the lobby waiting for me: Rudra. Just in time to say goodbye. That's pretty much all we do, saying goodbye. So far for Rudra: he has my number and doesn't really seem eager to stay in touch anyway so whatever. Another shady cat with very unclear intentions, I might aswell be glad it just didn't work out. There! Rudra, if you are reading this: you seem like the kind of guy I could totally hang out with, but how on earth do you want me to trust a flake like yourself? I'm a sweet and patient girl but hey, seriously. Not liking how it went down.
　

Delhi, 19 juli

Yesterday I visited Jaipur in a zombie state. Amber palace almost killed me, climbing that hill under the burning sun wasn't exactly my idea of fun. I did it anyway ( I'm a good tourist) and zombied around the palace for maybe twenty mins. After the visit Janu understood how bad I felt, and he basically just drove me around. A shamelessly shallow way of exploring a beautiful city like Jaipur but hey, I felt like crap so there. I got lured into some textile selling place where they had all this marvellous stuff so I spent another months budget on things I don't need. I'm helping Indian economy! (Blush)

In the train on the way back to ND I was sitting beside a smart and nice guy, we had a super nice conversation. He lived in the States for a while, is a computerguy. Exactly what I had guessed, he didn't look like your average Indian guy.

Jaipur, 18 juli

Die klote  airco heeft me eronder gekregen: gisteren met koorts en een hemeltergend hoestje in bed gekropen.
Deze morgen gaat het al ietsje beter maar ik voel dat ik niet echt op en top  ben, en bovendien is het zo heet dat ik geen idee heb of ik zweet van de koorts of van de warmte...
The airco got me, now I am feverish and far from my good old self... will let the guy who picked me up from the station ysterday guide me today, so atleast i have no thinking to do.

Met a very nice girl in the station yesterday, Tania from Ukrain. She's traveling alone too and seems to be a little lost: she's the easiest victim for the husslers. She paid as much as I paid for this 16 day tour, for just three days...  I tried to get her a short course in bartering and being a little tougher but I am hardly any better!

Anyway I am already riding back to Delhi today on that f****** airco train. The guide bettter be here soon.

Much love and godspeed,

Tinie

Agra, zondag 17 juli

Ik schraap al mijn moed bij elkaar en bid de goden voor veel geduld want ik ga deze blog in een cybercafeetje schrijven,in afwachting van de trein naar Jaipur. And I should do it in English, as some of the people who might read this don't understand any Dutch!

The day before yesterday, in Delhi, I met quite a few nice and interesting people. One of them was a very short but smart and clean-looking young man, who insisted that he was not a hussler and didn't wanna sell me anything. Rrrrright. He basically lured me into a 'tourist info' where the clerk tried to sell me some tour. Ofcourse. I left almost immediately, explaining my little friend that this was exactly the kind of rip-off my Belgian friend Melissa warned me about, and that I wasn't gonna fall for it. He was embarrassed and admitted that he took me there on purpose because he gets a percentage and he has to make a living too... I wasn't surprised. I told him that it's ok to make a living on percentages but that he owes it to the people he 'helps out' to be honest. We walked and talked some more and then he told me that he appeared in the film 'Little Budha' when he was a kid. His 5 minutes of fame...

Later that day I had some food (dosa mmmmm) and the guy next door asked me the typical stuff, like where you from-Belgium, you Dutch or French?-Dutch and this guy made me believe he had a letter to translate. I totally fell for it and it turned out to be references of other tourists, going on about how wonderful their experiences on the tour they got at this guy's office, were!!!Try beating that. I fell for the convenience I guess. Thing is I got a good price for a sixteen day tour of Rajastan, plus starting with Agra. And the trains and buses and transfers are all taken care of. So far so good, I made it to Agra (on a six hour bus that didn't stop blowing the horn, yay!). The hotel I stayed at probably used to be wonderful ten years ago, but nevertheless the guys working there were super kind and loved the tarot ;), it was a quiet room and a pretty decent shower too, so no complaints.

After closing the deal in the tourist office, Shaffi (the operator) said he was gonna get some cold beer. And I was like, good idea! So I go out of the office and some random dude with a rasta-colored hat catches up with me: How are you today! with this big smile. And he goes into a small bar... so I get in the bar, ask if they serve beer,and look for an empty table. And then some good looking guy with this intense gaze invites me over to sit with him and I end up having this super intense talk with this perfect stranger who turns out to be an artist who knows how to draw really well, who's a director,  who worked with Talvin Singh, who did a remake of Hair, and on top of it all totally digs whatever the hell I am talking about. We're hooking up again when I get back to Delhi the day after tomorrow. I probably shouldn't mention he tried to kiss me ;)
No need to explain this entire situation freaked me out just as much as it pleased me. Wasn't I gonna keep this trip completely romance-free? Right.

After we had a drink on a rooftop terrace I took a bike riksha back to the hotel, and I was stopped by this African guy I met the very first day I was in Delhi. He joined me for breakfast and then took off saying he'd be right back, but I didn't wait and I left the cafe so we didn't see eachother anymore. So there he appears out of thin air and joins me in the riksha, insisting he should talk to me. I just wanted to go to bed so I said no,but he wouldn't take no for an answer and escorted me back to the hotel door. And he started explaining to me something like this: You are very powerful. You are innocent, you know? Innocent, and yet so powerful. You can do so much, influence people,but be careful because 99 percent of the people they just want to destroy you. But you have such power, just go for it. Don't ever be afraid.' Be what it may, I was quite surprised by his speech and honestly felt empowered by it. He kissed my hand and took off, wishing me the best. Some day huh! So anyway... to Agra.

I overslept (my phones alarm doesn't seem to work for some reason) and had to pack my backpack like a motherfucker. To end up waiting for the taxi-ride to the bus stop. Which turned out a bike riksha.
Once I got on the bus I realised my pasport (that bloody pasport again) was still in the hotel safe. A rush of panic through my vains. I called the hotel and they told me to tell the chauffeur to stop somewhere and they'd bring the pasport over. Instead i was braught back to the hotel on a Vespa, snakedriving through small alleys, eventually catching up with the bus at its next stop... Good job Tinie!

As far as Agra is concerned: The Red Fort (which I visited yesterday) was the perfect introduction to what I saw today. Grand, impressive, elegant, all the 1001nights-features. But it doesn't compare to the Taj Mahal. I got up at five to be in time for the opening and ahead of the big crowds. It was not the least bit disappointing to finally see it. It made me cry, and that means it's pretty darn magical... come and see it for yourself to see what I mean!

I drank in as much of the magic as possible and then went for breakfast on a rooftop with view on the Taj.... awesomeness. Priceless. Met a cute Iranian-Polish couple. Nice people.

Then I checked out two more sites,one of which was the 'baby Taj',an equally magical and beautiful mausoleum, much smaller ofcourse. Pictures yet to follow on Facebook.

And tuk-tuks rule.

I'm probably overspending on taxi's, bottles of water and juice and tips for all the nice people who obviously need the money more than I do...  So hard to be hard.

Love you all and godspeed,

Tinie xox

Delhi, 15 juli 2011.

Vanuit een behoorlijk deftige maar vensterloze hotelkamer in Delhi schrijf ik m'n eerste blog. Vermoeid maar opgelucht: ik ben veilig aangekomen in de eerste kleine thuishaven op deze reis.

Het begon op de trein al goed: met een dik uur vertraging kwam ik aan in de luchthaven. Het was enorm druk maar het ging goed vooruit en het vliegtuig vertrok mooi op tijd.
Naast me zat er een vriendelijke Pakistanees in een deftig beige pak, ik stelde mezelf voor (ik heb me voorgenomen om nooit meer anoniem naast een andere persoon te zitten voor langer dan een half uur) en hij introduceerde zich als Akram Something, een zakenman gevestigd in Moeskroen die in tabak en sterke drank handelt. Vriendelijke gast. Ik bekeek Limitless (niet slecht) en na de film vroeg Akram of ik mijn plek wilde ruilen met zijn vriend en businesspartner Nadeem die een tiental rijen verder achterin zat. No problem, dus we wisselden van plek en everybody happy. Zo ontmoette ik ook nog eens een grijzende Australiër die helemaal gek is van Brugge en Gent. Leute.
Na een poging om Suckerpunch te bekijken (geen fan) en een grote tuk landden we in Abu Dhabi. Vlotjes door de security check van de transitzone en daar waren mijn twee pakistani vrienden op tax-free koopjesjacht. Ze begroetten me uitbundig, bedankten me hartelijk voor mijn vriendelijkheid mijn plaats af te staan en nodigden me uit iets te drinken. 'Mais d'abord on cherche un parfum pour ma femme et tu dois nous aider.' Dus ja, ik zeg Miss Dior Chérie en we zoeken en kletsen wat en wisselen telefoonnummers uit (al die tijd had ik mijn pasport en boarding pass voor de volgende vlucht in mijn hand) en plots heb ik alleen nog mijn boarding pass. Klein panieksje! De vriendelijke staff in de parfumerie raadde me aan onmiddellijk naar de politie te gaan maar ik WIST ZEKER dat ik het in mijn hand had een paar minuten ervoor. Die pakistani zouden toch niet... Er zat niets anders op dan toch naar de politie te gaan via de security waar ik eerder gepasseerd was. Daar kieperde ik nog eens mijn tas uit voor de zekerheid en nog steeds niets... mijn twee nieuwe vrienden weken niet van mijn zijde want bleken toch ook wel echt bezorgd te zijn. Ik vroeg ze dan voorzichtig of ze misschien niet per ongeluk mijn paspoort in hun zak hadden gestoken. En guess what: Nadeem vond hem terug in zijn tasje. En hij was zooooo gegeneerd! Pakistaanse pasports zijn ook bordeaux en hij had bij het uitwisselen van gegevens in een verstrooide reflex mijn pas als het zijne herkend en weggestopt. Resultaat: een fles Miss Dior Chérie als zoenoffer en een trolleyvaliesje toe. En ik was gewaarschuwd om ALSTEMBLIEFT waakzaam te zijn want het is snel gebeurd. En verstrooid zijn is mij nu ook niet direct vreemd!
Eind goed al goed dus en dank aan Ganesh.
Bij aankomst in Delhi stond de chauffeur van Cottage Yes Please me op te wachten (thx An voor de nummers maar bleek niet nodig afterall) en het hotel is behoorlijk, dus so far so good! De regen is wel extreem, zelfs met een paraplu geraak je in twee minuten compleet doorweekt, dus schuilen is de boodschap. En dat schept dan ook de perfecte gelegenheid om te bloggen!

Dikke knuffel en tot vlug!

Tinie x