avivendi

Super Mario Brothers from Varanasi straight to the desert

Greetings from Jaisalmer, Rahjastan. The last few days have
been quite eventful so let's follow the chronological
order. Leaving Varanasi was a pleasure for us and we had a
really exciting exit from it! We took a motor riksha to the
train station and instinctively picked what comes closest
to a Super Mario Kart ride! Mario and Luigi in the front,
taking on cows, bikes and pedestrians by blowing the horn,
beating cows and driving like absolute maniacs! Fun it was
and we got to the train right in time. The train was the
first really comfortable transportation and we enjoyed the
AC a lot. So the next morning we arrived relaxed at Agra
and had an excellent breakfast at Joney's place (try the
banana lassi!). The next pleasant surprise was that just by
accident we had arrived at only 1 out of 3 days of the year
when the entrance to the Taj Mahal is free!! So we saved
about 20 USD each and were stunned by the beauty of this
tomb. It is definitely one of the most beautiful buildings
in the world! In the afternoon we took of to Fatehpur
Sikri, a deserted city which was also quite interesting and
unusually quiet for Indian standards. Later on we went to
see the fort and had a nice sunset, again at the Taj. In
the evening we entered the next night train, 14 hours to
Jodphur, Rahjastan. Jopdhur is a really pretty city with a
magnificient fort and a lot of nice restaurants and shops.
We spent two pleasant days there and on the second day we
even got into the first Hindi festival - the Durgha (she is
the main female goddess) festival. Upon visting a Shiva
temple we met a bunch of youngsters who inivited us to
their temple and later to their house to have some tea.
Later on they taught us to do a typical stick dance and we
had a great time dancing with the kids and elders. Today we
took another Indian bus to the desert town Jaisalmer where
we will hang out for the next few days and go on a camel
safari...
stay tuned,
CCP