A Quick update from Pushkar

I am still in pushkar and the monsoon has finally hit, last night the streets where flooded up to my knees, and of course being a photojournalist i had to go out and shoot it. so i waded thru what has to be the nastiest rubbish and shit filled water i have ever seen and got some incredible shots. jack on the other hand was not so lucky....after about 5 minutes of jack going out into the flooded streets..he fell down a man hole into indian sewage!...and the worst part, his camera was totally submerged and is nonfunctional now. poor jack. he is shooting a wedding on the 20th in england when he gets back so i have lent him my camera for a few days...its going to be weird not having a camera for a few days after i arrive. lets hope no big events happen in london during that time! but on a better note, i have found an incredible restaurant where i have been stuffing my face at three times a day. i am so happy to have found it as i dont think i have had a good meal i really enjoyed since i have been in india. we are finally leaving tomorrow for jaipur to shoot, well now only i can, independence day in india. i am really looking forward to it and then on the 16th we are heading to delhi for the last few nights and then i am going home! 6 weeks and 4 days. it was way to long in india. 4 weeks would have just been perfect, but i think i have been here for too long and am really looking forward to going home. hope everyone is well back on the other side!

miss you all

a well fed quinn.

The worst and the best day

today started off beautifully. our plan was to rent motorbikes and drive 160km to bundi. after a few lessons by jack on the enfield i decided it was not going to be a good idea for me to drive a temperamental beast of a machine with gears thru the insanity that is indian traffic. so i opted for the more automatic, a scooter. a few hours after setting the scooter up with the hotel manager it arrived. and it was bright pink! yes ladies and gentleman, i drove a pink scooter around india. and might i point out i have never driven a scooter, motorcycle (well i have now driven both) let alone hardly driven a car. as embarrassing as it is, i do not have my drivers license. so yes the plan was to have jack and alicia on the enfield and me buzzing along on my pink scooter 160km to bundi. to get there we had to drive thru ajmer, which is one busy city! the good thing however for me not having a driving license and not having much practice on the road is there are no road rules in india. they drive on the left hand side of the road but really it doesnt matter which side, it is a god damn free-for-all. and i was having the time of my life! honestly i think buzzing around on that scooter thru india and seeing the amazing views and everything you are passing by, the wind in your face. all of it, i dont think i have ever had a happier moment in my life. i got the hang of driving like an indian pretty fast and had no problem driving thru traffic on my scooter, and as i was having the time of my life, in the middle of no where, in the middle of the desert about 30 percent of the way to buni, BANG! my engine pretty much blows up (no mom i did not get in an accident, my engine pretty much just killed its self) my engine stops and i pull over to the side of the road, try to start up the scooter and it wont start... in the mean time i stubbed my toe, bent the nail back and it began oozing with blood, so we continued waiting for about 40 min in the rajasthani heat for the engine to cool down a bit, and it still wont start. so we are thinking, shit, we are in the middle of no where, cant go anywhere. how are we going to get out of this. luckily we had with us the chains we use to tie our luggage up on the trains and we also had two padlocks. so we wrapped the chains around the front of my scooter and around the back of the beast enfield to see if we can tow it. and it worked! i sat on the scooter while jack and alicia where on the enfield and we towed the scooter 15-20km up road to the next town to find a mechanic, we found one. but he wanted 3500Rs to repair the engine, way to expensive for me as it is almost the end of my trip and if i pay that i will be hard pressed to get back to delhi to fly home. so we arrange for a rickshaw/truck thing to pick me and the scooter to drive back to pushkar. jack and alicia kept going on the trip to bundi while i stayed behind to take the bike back to the rental place in pushkar. while i was waiting i became, well the only way to really explain it is a temporary celebrity. the town we stopped in rarely, if ever, sees foreigners...unless they are on a enfield with a chain attached towing a scooter thru town...and the moment i stepped out of the mechanic shop within 3 minutes i was surrounded by at least 30 indians just standing there starring at me with curiosity. i was quickly rushed back inside by the shop owner and offered tea. once the rickshaw arrived i packed the bike in and off i went, the entire way back half of my body was sticking out the side of the rickshaw because there wasnt enough room for the driver and me in one seat. once i arrived back in pushkar at the rental place all hell broke loose. the mechanic at the shop took apart the engine and the problem was that the piston basically blew up. and they said to repair that would cost me 8350Rs, that is about £120! ($240) and i would not have it. i do no think i have ever argued and yelled so much in my life. not with my parents, past and present girlfriends, at no point in my life have i ever argued with someone so much and so hard for so long, over one and a half hours of yelling at the top of our lungs. by the end of the argument we had both threatened to take this to the police and we almost did. the argument was that i had driven about 40km at a normal speed for a scooter, stopping every 30min to let the engine cool down, and i was told that it would be able to take me to bundi. i was not driving like a lunatic and was sensible with the machine and it just blew up on me in the middle of no where. i was not going to pay for that, it was not my fault that they had not kept the engine up to parr before renting it out. (also when i got the bike the lights did not work, the speedometer, the fuel meter and the kick where all broken) at the start of the argument i was only willing to pay 500Rs for the rental and the rickshaw back to pushkar but it had just gotten to the point where i was so angry and so drained from yelling for one and a half hours and i really did not want to have to go thru the corrupt bureaucracy of the indian police force (i would of had to of paid them also), even through i had my bags on and threatening to go to the police station. we finally agreed on 2200Rs for everything, and i walked away angry as all hell and wondering how i am getting to delhi. i am now sitting on my rock hard single bed in the shittiest little windowless/bathroom-less hotel room i have ever seen (thankfully i am getting a nicer one tomorrow morning once some people check out) sunburnt like there is no tomorrow, caked in dirt, unable to shower because someone is using the bathroom and about ready to get back to london. oh and my towel is in the laundry and my tooth paste blew up all over everything in my bag...

that was my worst and best day ever.

Ill

Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer is the city in the sand masked by the towering sand-castle fortress. So far the past few days have been pretty low-key and relaxing, ive decided to take it easy here as i am still having stomach issues, which basically consists of me sitting on my balcony reading my book in the sun during the hot part of the day and then in the afternoon wondering around the town, its a pretty small town so ive walked around it many times. I am currently in Pushkar and i havnt slept in the last 24 hours, i must have eaten something that did not sit well with me and i spent all of last night and this morning throwing up again and again. oh and diarrhea as well. so basically its me sitting on the toilet with a bucket in my hands all night long, yes i love india. Anyways back to Jaisalmer, most of the time i just spent wondering around the streets, doing a little bit of shopping and taking it pretty easy. i sadly did not take to many photos from jaisalmer but i am fine with that, i had a great time there. we arrived in jaisalmer at 4am in the morning and were taken to this really horrible run-down shitty little hotel in the middle of no where. so of course that morning after a few hours sleep we packed up our things and found a cute little hotel just outside the fort with a balcony. Jaisalmer feels like you are in the middle east in the middle of the desert, and you pretty much are, the city is only 150km away from the pakistani border in the middle of the great thar desert, all the buildings are made out of yellow sandstone and there is sand absolutely everywhere i really enjoyed it there and i enjoyed the whole feel of the place. we only stayed about 4 days and then took a twelve hour bus ride to pushkar. on the first day in pushkar i just spent walking around shooting feeling great, pushkar is a photographers paradise there are so many wonderful characters here and things to take images of. and that night i spend on the toilet throwing up into a bucket and not being able to to sleep because of that. so far today i have spent the entire day in bed hardly being able to move exempt to sprint to the bathroom. thankfully how ever we met two belgian girls in jaisalmer who recommended the hotel we are staying in. it is absolute luxury compared to any where else we have stayed, we have a massive room with two tables and chairs, tv, wardrobe huge bathroom. the works. all for about £2 a night. wonderful, so at least i get to be ill in style. i just wish that i could be out shooting! hopefully i feel better tomorrow. ill try and upload photos onto facebook asap

quinn


still sick and still in pushkar. so my sickness hasnt gotten any better, i spent most of last night and this morning with diarrhea and vomiting about every 5 minutes - 45 minutes on top of that all my muscles are aching and it hurts to move even the slightest bit. i keep getting really got and then really cold. i have just started a course of antibiotics so hopefully i will be better soon! i really want to get out there and start shooting! also jack has just rented an enfield bullet (1940s style big old british motorcycle) and he was supposed to give me lessons on it today and tomorrow so that on saturday we can drive a few house to bundi. who knows if that will happen now, i just hope i get better asap! alright now lets see if i can make it to the internet cafe without throwing up....