(After being without internet access for a while, we're still catching up on our posts.)
We set off on our two-week road trip through northwestern India today and quickly learned that Indian drivers don’t use their vision. In fact, many drivers pull in their side mirrors and use their rearview mirror to check their hair.
In India, people drive by ear. As in horns. As in constant, incessant, mind-numbing horn blowing. If you’re going to pass someone, you blow you horn twice. If you see another car on the road coming in your direction, you honk. If you see on the road a dog, a cow, a goat, an elephant, a camel, an ostrich, a razor-sharp lizard, you honk at least 18 times, just to be sure. (We saw several of each of those things on our short two-hour drive.) I think there’s a rule that if at least 5 seconds has passed without any honking, you must honk.
After driving for two hours through the beautiful Aravalli mountains, we arrived at Kumbalgarh. This massive hilltop fort was built in the 15th century. It withstood countles
s sieges and only fell once – and that was because the enemy, Akbar, poisoned the water supply. The fort was impressive and had commanding views of the entire valley.
After lunch, we drove for about an hour to Ranakpur, the site of one of the most important Jain temples in the world. The temple is the most impressive religious monument I have ever seen. Built in 1439, the carved domed ceilings are held up by 1,440 individually-carved stone pillars. The skill and craftsmanship of the stone artists is amazing.
Jainism is an admirable religion. Similar to Hinduism, Jains believe in the karmic wheel of life. The only way to purify the soul, they believe, is to live a good life. And a “good life” means to do no harm to any living substance – humans, animals, plants, water, fire, earth, and air. They believe strictly in non-violence. In fact, the more orthodox Jains wear cloth over their mouth and nose to make sure that they don’t accidentally breathe in and harm any
insects.
I tested the non-violence of Jains when I unknowingly pointed my camera at a part of the temple that was so sacred that photography was not allowed. I think the guy was about to convert to Cheneyism to put me in my place, but I got the message from the horrified look on his face. You’d think I was munching kitten jerkey.
After visiting the Jain temple, we made our way to our hotel, the Fateh Bagh. Owned by the Maharaja of Mewar state, this 200-year old palace was disassembled piece-by-piece, moved about 50 kilometers and rebuilt here in 2002. Unfortunately, they forgot to move hotel guests to fill the rooms. If there is any testament to the falsity of the saying “If you build it, they will come,” this is it. We were one of three couples staying at this massive and grand hotel. And it was so secluded that there was nothing – absolutely NOTHING to do. So we sat there watching the groundskeeper water a 10’ x 10’ strip of grass. For FOUR HOURS. This made the “Conserve Water” signs all around the hotel a more than a little ironic, and it was a hard to watch given that we are in a desert that is suffering from a severe water shortage.
We commiserated in our boredom with another couple. Originally from Mumbai (the woman) and the Botswana (the man), they now live in Brisbane, Australia. Somehow, their tour organizer had scheduled them for three nights here. Three nights! It was no surprise that they were DESPERATE for conversation. My friendly but aloof “hello” was the only trigger they needed to grab me into a never-ending conversation. At times, I felt like I was talking to Frank Chu (San Francisco’s “12 Galaxies Guy”), such as when the guy started telling me how he's trying to contact Australia's Prime Minister to sell him on an elaborate plan to save Australia from the financial meltdown. But in the end, I understood that he was as desperate as we were to pass the time. And the lawn-watering show was becoming a bit old, so what better did I have to do?
The sunset was amazing as we watched the light fade over the desolate desert around us. We then had an uncomfortable dinner where we were the only guests in a huge dining hall with several servers standing around. No music or any other sounds, not even crickets chirping.
The upside to all this was that when we went to sleep, we were met by utter silence. A welcome change from the horn-honking and urban chaos we’ve had so far.
But that all changed. At 12:20 a.m., to be precise. Because that’s when Pakistan dropped the nuclear bomb on our hotel. Well, that was what happened in my mind as I sprang out of bed to the sound of huge explosions. We scurried to the window where we saw a full-fledged fireworks display more elaborate than some Fourth of July shows. They were shooting off the fireworks toward our hotel so they went off right in front of our window.
In India, people drive by ear. As in horns. As in constant, incessant, mind-numbing horn blowing. If you’re going to pass someone, you blow you horn twice. If you see another car on the road coming in your direction, you honk. If you see on the road a dog, a cow, a goat, an elephant, a camel, an ostrich, a razor-sharp lizard, you honk at least 18 times, just to be sure. (We saw several of each of those things on our short two-hour drive.) I think there’s a rule that if at least 5 seconds has passed without any honking, you must honk.
After driving for two hours through the beautiful Aravalli mountains, we arrived at Kumbalgarh. This massive hilltop fort was built in the 15th century. It withstood countles
s sieges and only fell once – and that was because the enemy, Akbar, poisoned the water supply. The fort was impressive and had commanding views of the entire valley.After lunch, we drove for about an hour to Ranakpur, the site of one of the most important Jain temples in the world. The temple is the most impressive religious monument I have ever seen. Built in 1439, the carved domed ceilings are held up by 1,440 individually-carved stone pillars. The skill and craftsmanship of the stone artists is amazing.
Jainism is an admirable religion. Similar to Hinduism, Jains believe in the karmic wheel of life. The only way to purify the soul, they believe, is to live a good life. And a “good life” means to do no harm to any living substance – humans, animals, plants, water, fire, earth, and air. They believe strictly in non-violence. In fact, the more orthodox Jains wear cloth over their mouth and nose to make sure that they don’t accidentally breathe in and harm any
insects.I tested the non-violence of Jains when I unknowingly pointed my camera at a part of the temple that was so sacred that photography was not allowed. I think the guy was about to convert to Cheneyism to put me in my place, but I got the message from the horrified look on his face. You’d think I was munching kitten jerkey.
After visiting the Jain temple, we made our way to our hotel, the Fateh Bagh. Owned by the Maharaja of Mewar state, this 200-year old palace was disassembled piece-by-piece, moved about 50 kilometers and rebuilt here in 2002. Unfortunately, they forgot to move hotel guests to fill the rooms. If there is any testament to the falsity of the saying “If you build it, they will come,” this is it. We were one of three couples staying at this massive and grand hotel. And it was so secluded that there was nothing – absolutely NOTHING to do. So we sat there watching the groundskeeper water a 10’ x 10’ strip of grass. For FOUR HOURS. This made the “Conserve Water” signs all around the hotel a more than a little ironic, and it was a hard to watch given that we are in a desert that is suffering from a severe water shortage.
We commiserated in our boredom with another couple. Originally from Mumbai (the woman) and the Botswana (the man), they now live in Brisbane, Australia. Somehow, their tour organizer had scheduled them for three nights here. Three nights! It was no surprise that they were DESPERATE for conversation. My friendly but aloof “hello” was the only trigger they needed to grab me into a never-ending conversation. At times, I felt like I was talking to Frank Chu (San Francisco’s “12 Galaxies Guy”), such as when the guy started telling me how he's trying to contact Australia's Prime Minister to sell him on an elaborate plan to save Australia from the financial meltdown. But in the end, I understood that he was as desperate as we were to pass the time. And the lawn-watering show was becoming a bit old, so what better did I have to do?
The sunset was amazing as we watched the light fade over the desolate desert around us. We then had an uncomfortable dinner where we were the only guests in a huge dining hall with several servers standing around. No music or any other sounds, not even crickets chirping.
The upside to all this was that when we went to sleep, we were met by utter silence. A welcome change from the horn-honking and urban chaos we’ve had so far.
But that all changed. At 12:20 a.m., to be precise. Because that’s when Pakistan dropped the nuclear bomb on our hotel. Well, that was what happened in my mind as I sprang out of bed to the sound of huge explosions. We scurried to the window where we saw a full-fledged fireworks display more elaborate than some Fourth of July shows. They were shooting off the fireworks toward our hotel so they went off right in front of our window.
You’d think that someone might have mentioned to us that our sleepy little palace would be at the center of a massive fireworks show in the middle of the night. But we shrugged this off and groggily went back to sleep, safe in knowing that Pakistan had not attacked. Yet.
2 comments:
First of all, I can always and easily tell which Brian is typing what.
Second of all, don't scare me with that Pakistan shit.
Finally, that dinner sounds AWK.WARD. How's the food? Or more importantly, how are your tumtums?
Love you, miss you, etc...
~Spotsji
Did you ever find out what the fireworks were meant to celebrate?
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