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.
Thursday 13 August 2009
Monday 10 August 2009
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.
that was my worst and best day ever.
Thursday 6 August 2009
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....
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....
Wednesday 29 July 2009
Kite Running in Jodhpur
I have been in Jodhpur for 8 days now and i have had some of the best times in my life here. Every day i meet new people and end up spending hours and even days with them. i really have the best situation traveling with jack and alicia, i am able to go off and do my own thing when ever i want, if i want to be alone i can be alone, if i want to be with people i can be with people. because i have been able to go off and do my own thing everyday i have seen so many amazing things and met so many wonderful people. for example, me, two french girls and a guy from england ended up staying up until 3 am last night just chatting and chatting the night away and i really had one of the best days/nights i think i have in a long time. before that i spent 6 hours on the roof of my guest house kite running with a guy i met from sweden (whom i am doing a collaborative media kit with over the next few months/years. i wont say on what it is about until it is finished, but its going to be damn good and hopefully bring in a fair amount of money) as i had said in previous posts, in Jodhpur you feel like you are in the middle of Kite Runner. and i just had to join in, so i went out, bought as many kites as i needed, cotton flying string, and of course, to be competitive, string with glass in the line to cut other peoples kites out of the sky (kite running is extraordinarily competitive) so we worked hard and practiced for hours until we were finally able to get the kites up on the first toss and then the battling started! i ended up cutting about 8 or so kites that day and had my own line cut about about the same amount, well, actually a little more. we also started keeping score with the kid on the roof across from us, we lost 3-2.. kite running in jodhpur is truly incredible. once the light is gone the bats come out. there are the normal tiny fruit bats that are everywhere but every now and then these massive creatures come out of the sky, bats with a wing span of probably about 5 feet, they come swooping down towards and all you can think about is batman. really incredible. Jodhpur has been my favorite place in india and i am sad to leave. i am leaving tonight at 10pm on the bus to Jaisalmer and i will leave with memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life and friendships that will as well.
Sunday 26 July 2009
Jodhpur
Jodhpur
I have arrived in Jodhpur a mere 3 hours ago and i am already in love. this is the one city i wanted to visit in rajasthan and it has lived up to my imagination, the majority of the buildings here are all painted bright blue (google: steve mccurry jodhpur) and i feel like i am the middle of the book kite runner. we found a lovely little guest house, called the Comfy Guest House, painted blue of course and with the most incredible view of the meherangarh fort which is this massive complex built right onto and into this rocky cliff. and i have been so fortunate to get the 'penthouse suite' the room is tiny tiny tiny, the smallest room i think i have ever been in, just wide enough to fit a double bed with room enough to shuffle by to the bathroom, you sit on the toilet and your nose is against the wall in front of you. but there is one thing that makes up for it all, i have the best view in jodhpur, directly out of my front door, the moment i walk out and even when i am lying in bed i have the most spectacular view of the roof tops of jodhpur leading right to megerangarh fort, one of the nicest views i think i have ever seen, and it is literally my doorstep. jodhpur is probably about 150km from the pakistani border, and when i say i am in the middle of the book kite runner, i mean it. almost every other roof top i see has 1-3 kids on top all of their kites in the air, and wonderful sight to be seen. and all the buildings are blue. ill hopefully post up pictures soon from rishikesh and jodhpur(once i get out shooting here) and i should be able to frequently update as there is an internet cafe at my guest house, and a lovely roof top restaurant.
miss you all!
quinn
the one thing i don't like about traveling: meeting people, fellow travelers, that you really get along with and if you met back home, you would become the best of friends, you meet theses people and then they leave to continue their travels only a few hours after you have met. Jodhpur is incredible, i think this is my favorite city in india so far. i am staying in the old city which is the most vibrate, colorful and wonderful place i think i have ever been to. i woke up this morning and had my daily 'indian breakfast' which consists of a small pot of black coffee, peanut butter and jam toast and/or mango lassi, two fried eggs on toast and a bowl of banana honey porridge, for under £2. india is incredible. I then decided to take a wonder around the city, not having any form of direction or plan on where i was going, i just wondered, if i think a certain street looked intriguing, then i would walk down it, simple. i ended up in one of Jodhpur's more well own markets. and it is full of spice shops. the smells in this city are incredible. i met one indian man who owned one of the spice shops and he invited me in to have a cup of tea and a conversation, so i graciously accepted, had the best tea i have ever had, a great conversation which ended up leading me to an art school just around the corner, again i met the owner and one of his students and was invited for tea, which turned out to be a few and just had a wonderful time talking with these people and learning about there life and the culture of india. afterwards i decided to come back home for dinner and wound up spending the entire night with some travelers staying at my guest house. and they are some of the most wonderful people i have ever met in my life. there was one guy from sweden whom i just finished a few beers with after everyone had left and i am now meeting up with him tomorrow morning to go kite running, then i am going back to the art school and spice shop as i have been invited over again, afterwards i am meeting up with the swede and we are being taken to a shop by one of the men who owns our guest house to a shop that sells camel leather, maybe ill even ride a camel, to buy some nice cheap leather products. i also met tonight, a couple from vienna! the girl is from wien and her fiancee (they are going to get married here in india) who i from Bulgaria. i got a long with them amazingly and they are truly wonderful wonderful people and they were always on the same level with me on pretty well every subject and 'way of life'. if i had met them say, in london or vienna i think we would become fantastic friends, but of course, with the way of the traveler, they were off to catch a train this evening, so that is that. i also met two girls from london as well who where just as wonderful, but yet again, off to another place. i started off hating india, indians, indian food, everything. all i wanted to do was go home and get the hell out of this miserable country. now, i love it, every single bit of it. i dont want to leave and i now feel as if my trip is too short where as before i thought it was too long. this trip has really been an experience of a life time and i would not give it up for anything. it has allowed me to look deeper within myself then ever before and the really know what i am capable of, it has shown me things i thought only existed in the imagination and has allowed me to experience so many new and wonderful things. i am really having a wonderful time. for those of you traveling to india, i suggest making it over to jodhpur, i dont think i am leaving so i will see you here.
i miss you all!
quinn from jodhpur.
I am still in Jodhpur and probably will be until about tuesday, i have had the most incredible past few days. Well first of all alicia is horribly sick, throwing up, fever, the works, so jack and her have been pretty well bed ridden since we have been in jodhpur. on the other hand, i have been busy busy busy and having the time of my life, i will start with friday and work my way to now. I woke up around 7 am went down to my little rooftop restaurant to read my book and have breakfast which has become somewhat of a ritual for me here. Afterwards I decided to head back down to the clock tower market to meet up with the owner of the spice shop and the owner of the art school again to have some tea and a chit chat as well as to take photos down in the market. I spent a few hours down there and wondering around the old city but needed to be back by 3pm because Amed, the brother-in-law of the owner of this guest house, Joshi, was taking me and the swedish guy to a place to buy some nice camel leather products. we ended up going to a few different shops to find what we were looking for. i ended up walking out with a wonderful camel leather computer/messenger bag and a new wallet for under £9. Afterwards Amed decided to take us out into the middle of no where which turned out to be this incredible memorial/grave site for the maharajas of jodhpur which no one seems to know about. there wasnt a soul around for almost three hours until a few of ameds friends showed up to give us a ride back, one of whom is an art coordinator who worked on a huge photo shoot here in jodhpur with steve mccury for a sony advert. Once we arrived back home me and the swede had a couple of beers and decided that we are going to do a corporative article based around kite flying and kite running in jodhpur. Basically trying to start a new 'trend' here for backpackers. we are going to try and get the piece out to all the major travel guides and magazines and see what happens. the following day i had a bit of a sleep in until 9 30 and almost just at the moment i was getting out of bed, still in my underwear, Joshi comes knocking at my door asking if i want to go on a camel safari! he said that there are 4 other people going and they need one more person. so after a bit of discussion and me being able to knock the price down from 2000Rs to 1000Rs i agreed to go. The catch was i had 15 minutes to shower and get ready because everyone else was already in the jeep on the outskirts of town and i needed to catch up. I quickly got ready and packed up my things and camera equipment and hurried down stairs where i was greeted by Amed, he was to take me to the jeep. i figured we would be taking a rickshaw but instead i hopped on the back of Ameds motorcycle and off we went into the middle of the hell that is indian traffic. great fun tho and we made up for a lot of lost time. i meet up with the others ( three scottish girls and one guy from england) at a petrol station on the outskirts of jodhpur. we needed to take a 1.5 hour jeep ride out into the middle of no where to meet up with our camels. and that was the start of my favorite day in india to date. the camel safari was incredible. we each had a our own camel, mine had a bit of a temper issue and i was almost bucked off a few times but i held my ground, or held my camel, and way able to stay on. from there we rode off into the desert. The first leg of the journey was about 2 hours and we stopped at this little hut in the middle of the desert where our guide's daughter had prepared lunch for all of us. it was one of the best thali's ive had in india so far. after lunch we took a bit of a break to sooth out sun burnt limbs and bruised butt cheeks, as well to get out of the blazing rajasthani desert heat. after a bit of a break we where off on the camels again. this leg of the journey was about 4 hours wondering thru the desert and occasionally passing buy herds of sheep and goats, plenty of peacocks and the odd gazelle. at the end of the safari we climbed up this massive dune on our camels to where we had the most spectacular view over the desert to watch the sunset and eat dinner. really amazing and i have plenty of photos now to edit and some of my best ones i think i have shot in india so far. After dinner and a bit of a rest on the dunes, we took the jeep back to our guest house which was the bumpiest 2 and a half hours of my life, i hit my head on the top of the jeep so many times i now have a nice big bump on the crown of my head. once we arrived back at the guest house we all went off to shower and get all the sand off and me and the scottish girls met up in the restaurant to have dinner and a few beers, we ended up staying well past closing until around 2 am and then finally went off to bed. this morning i woke up with the worst sunburn i have ever had (the worst is my knees because that is the one spot i forgot to put sun screen on) and one hell of a sore/bruised ass. basically everything is aching and bruised, i am walking like an old man today. but it was all worth it because i had one of the best days of my life and have great photos to show for it. i hope everyone is well back home and i shall see you all soon!
quinn
I have arrived in Jodhpur a mere 3 hours ago and i am already in love. this is the one city i wanted to visit in rajasthan and it has lived up to my imagination, the majority of the buildings here are all painted bright blue (google: steve mccurry jodhpur) and i feel like i am the middle of the book kite runner. we found a lovely little guest house, called the Comfy Guest House, painted blue of course and with the most incredible view of the meherangarh fort which is this massive complex built right onto and into this rocky cliff. and i have been so fortunate to get the 'penthouse suite' the room is tiny tiny tiny, the smallest room i think i have ever been in, just wide enough to fit a double bed with room enough to shuffle by to the bathroom, you sit on the toilet and your nose is against the wall in front of you. but there is one thing that makes up for it all, i have the best view in jodhpur, directly out of my front door, the moment i walk out and even when i am lying in bed i have the most spectacular view of the roof tops of jodhpur leading right to megerangarh fort, one of the nicest views i think i have ever seen, and it is literally my doorstep. jodhpur is probably about 150km from the pakistani border, and when i say i am in the middle of the book kite runner, i mean it. almost every other roof top i see has 1-3 kids on top all of their kites in the air, and wonderful sight to be seen. and all the buildings are blue. ill hopefully post up pictures soon from rishikesh and jodhpur(once i get out shooting here) and i should be able to frequently update as there is an internet cafe at my guest house, and a lovely roof top restaurant.
miss you all!
quinn
the one thing i don't like about traveling: meeting people, fellow travelers, that you really get along with and if you met back home, you would become the best of friends, you meet theses people and then they leave to continue their travels only a few hours after you have met. Jodhpur is incredible, i think this is my favorite city in india so far. i am staying in the old city which is the most vibrate, colorful and wonderful place i think i have ever been to. i woke up this morning and had my daily 'indian breakfast' which consists of a small pot of black coffee, peanut butter and jam toast and/or mango lassi, two fried eggs on toast and a bowl of banana honey porridge, for under £2. india is incredible. I then decided to take a wonder around the city, not having any form of direction or plan on where i was going, i just wondered, if i think a certain street looked intriguing, then i would walk down it, simple. i ended up in one of Jodhpur's more well own markets. and it is full of spice shops. the smells in this city are incredible. i met one indian man who owned one of the spice shops and he invited me in to have a cup of tea and a conversation, so i graciously accepted, had the best tea i have ever had, a great conversation which ended up leading me to an art school just around the corner, again i met the owner and one of his students and was invited for tea, which turned out to be a few and just had a wonderful time talking with these people and learning about there life and the culture of india. afterwards i decided to come back home for dinner and wound up spending the entire night with some travelers staying at my guest house. and they are some of the most wonderful people i have ever met in my life. there was one guy from sweden whom i just finished a few beers with after everyone had left and i am now meeting up with him tomorrow morning to go kite running, then i am going back to the art school and spice shop as i have been invited over again, afterwards i am meeting up with the swede and we are being taken to a shop by one of the men who owns our guest house to a shop that sells camel leather, maybe ill even ride a camel, to buy some nice cheap leather products. i also met tonight, a couple from vienna! the girl is from wien and her fiancee (they are going to get married here in india) who i from Bulgaria. i got a long with them amazingly and they are truly wonderful wonderful people and they were always on the same level with me on pretty well every subject and 'way of life'. if i had met them say, in london or vienna i think we would become fantastic friends, but of course, with the way of the traveler, they were off to catch a train this evening, so that is that. i also met two girls from london as well who where just as wonderful, but yet again, off to another place. i started off hating india, indians, indian food, everything. all i wanted to do was go home and get the hell out of this miserable country. now, i love it, every single bit of it. i dont want to leave and i now feel as if my trip is too short where as before i thought it was too long. this trip has really been an experience of a life time and i would not give it up for anything. it has allowed me to look deeper within myself then ever before and the really know what i am capable of, it has shown me things i thought only existed in the imagination and has allowed me to experience so many new and wonderful things. i am really having a wonderful time. for those of you traveling to india, i suggest making it over to jodhpur, i dont think i am leaving so i will see you here.
i miss you all!
quinn from jodhpur.
I am still in Jodhpur and probably will be until about tuesday, i have had the most incredible past few days. Well first of all alicia is horribly sick, throwing up, fever, the works, so jack and her have been pretty well bed ridden since we have been in jodhpur. on the other hand, i have been busy busy busy and having the time of my life, i will start with friday and work my way to now. I woke up around 7 am went down to my little rooftop restaurant to read my book and have breakfast which has become somewhat of a ritual for me here. Afterwards I decided to head back down to the clock tower market to meet up with the owner of the spice shop and the owner of the art school again to have some tea and a chit chat as well as to take photos down in the market. I spent a few hours down there and wondering around the old city but needed to be back by 3pm because Amed, the brother-in-law of the owner of this guest house, Joshi, was taking me and the swedish guy to a place to buy some nice camel leather products. we ended up going to a few different shops to find what we were looking for. i ended up walking out with a wonderful camel leather computer/messenger bag and a new wallet for under £9. Afterwards Amed decided to take us out into the middle of no where which turned out to be this incredible memorial/grave site for the maharajas of jodhpur which no one seems to know about. there wasnt a soul around for almost three hours until a few of ameds friends showed up to give us a ride back, one of whom is an art coordinator who worked on a huge photo shoot here in jodhpur with steve mccury for a sony advert. Once we arrived back home me and the swede had a couple of beers and decided that we are going to do a corporative article based around kite flying and kite running in jodhpur. Basically trying to start a new 'trend' here for backpackers. we are going to try and get the piece out to all the major travel guides and magazines and see what happens. the following day i had a bit of a sleep in until 9 30 and almost just at the moment i was getting out of bed, still in my underwear, Joshi comes knocking at my door asking if i want to go on a camel safari! he said that there are 4 other people going and they need one more person. so after a bit of discussion and me being able to knock the price down from 2000Rs to 1000Rs i agreed to go. The catch was i had 15 minutes to shower and get ready because everyone else was already in the jeep on the outskirts of town and i needed to catch up. I quickly got ready and packed up my things and camera equipment and hurried down stairs where i was greeted by Amed, he was to take me to the jeep. i figured we would be taking a rickshaw but instead i hopped on the back of Ameds motorcycle and off we went into the middle of the hell that is indian traffic. great fun tho and we made up for a lot of lost time. i meet up with the others ( three scottish girls and one guy from england) at a petrol station on the outskirts of jodhpur. we needed to take a 1.5 hour jeep ride out into the middle of no where to meet up with our camels. and that was the start of my favorite day in india to date. the camel safari was incredible. we each had a our own camel, mine had a bit of a temper issue and i was almost bucked off a few times but i held my ground, or held my camel, and way able to stay on. from there we rode off into the desert. The first leg of the journey was about 2 hours and we stopped at this little hut in the middle of the desert where our guide's daughter had prepared lunch for all of us. it was one of the best thali's ive had in india so far. after lunch we took a bit of a break to sooth out sun burnt limbs and bruised butt cheeks, as well to get out of the blazing rajasthani desert heat. after a bit of a break we where off on the camels again. this leg of the journey was about 4 hours wondering thru the desert and occasionally passing buy herds of sheep and goats, plenty of peacocks and the odd gazelle. at the end of the safari we climbed up this massive dune on our camels to where we had the most spectacular view over the desert to watch the sunset and eat dinner. really amazing and i have plenty of photos now to edit and some of my best ones i think i have shot in india so far. After dinner and a bit of a rest on the dunes, we took the jeep back to our guest house which was the bumpiest 2 and a half hours of my life, i hit my head on the top of the jeep so many times i now have a nice big bump on the crown of my head. once we arrived back at the guest house we all went off to shower and get all the sand off and me and the scottish girls met up in the restaurant to have dinner and a few beers, we ended up staying well past closing until around 2 am and then finally went off to bed. this morning i woke up with the worst sunburn i have ever had (the worst is my knees because that is the one spot i forgot to put sun screen on) and one hell of a sore/bruised ass. basically everything is aching and bruised, i am walking like an old man today. but it was all worth it because i had one of the best days of my life and have great photos to show for it. i hope everyone is well back home and i shall see you all soon!
quinn
Monday 20 July 2009
More from Rishikesh
A place for spirituality, yoga, karma, and being ill like never before. Thankfully the majority of what ever i had in haridwar is gone...well other then the lovely traveller's diarrhea. However Jack has been bed ridden for the past three days and is throwing up constantly, not fun. But there is a plus that, well for me... I get to wonder around the town as i please. I just got back from a 7km circuit of the upper town crossing over the two main pedestrian bridges and walking up and down little forest paths and narrow alley ways it was really wonderful and i got some nice areal shots of the bridge and the 'wedding cake' ghats as well i got some nice shots of a holy man on the side of the road who put the orange paint on my forehead opening my third eye. I am always very pleased when i get that because it is almost like the equivalent of my UK Press Pass, i seem to immediately get more respect by the locals and they are much more willing, almost to much, to have their photo taken. frankly it really makes my job easier as i become a bit more accepted into the community therefore i am able to take more and better photographs. I had this done in varanasi during a ceremony i took place in, by the end of it i had about 25 pilgrims all standing around me watching the 'event' and once i emerged with my entire forehead painted in white and red, the photos came as if pouring from the sky. taking images of the pilgrims bathing in the ganges was a breeze and they all wanted their photograph taken, they even lined up for me at one point to have a group shot. so for all photographers coming to india, make sure you frequently get the proper 'press accreditation' to take photos. the pilgrims in india that i have seen so far in the holy cities (varanasi, haridwar, and rishikesh) are not the pilgrims i was imagining in my head before i arrived in india, i imagined old tattered men dressed in robes with long white beards and paint on their faces, the sadhus really. but the pilgrims are far from that. as jack put it, they look like a group of football (thats soccer for all you north americans) fans. its thousands upon thousand of men walking the streets of these cities every day (we are here in the yatra season, so they are in abundance). The age range is between 18-30, they are all dressed in what looks like orange track suits. reebok, adidas, nike are the major brands in pilgrim fashion. any thing they can find that is orange they are wearing (i saw one guy wearing a orange polo with the 'Tide' detergent logo on the front) and they are all yelling out mantras at the top of their lungs, always messing about and making noise with drums and various noise makers, and once they get to the ganges to bathe. its more of a party in the pool type scene with them jumping off the rocks into the water, splashing about, frankly none of these pilgrimages seems to be taken very seriously, but i could be wrong. just wasn't what i was expecting i suppose.
tomorrow we are taking a 963km train journey to Jodhpur in Rajasthan to start the 4 week tour of Rajasthan before heading back to delhi to fly home. I am really looking forward to it and im trying to convince jack and alicia that taking a camel safari out into the desert and camping in the great thar desert would be amazing! maybe that is just the canadian in me wanting an outdoors experience. and the british in them wanting to stay indoors with a nice cup of tea.
before i left for india everyone was really hyping up the food here. indian food is shit. other then the thali and one restaurant in varanasi and my daily mango lassi, not to much has made me to excited about my next meal. maybe it is the spots we are choosing, but nothing is all that great. however i am certainly eating a lot better here then in london with three big meals a day. i always seems to be eating a lot here, and almost double the amount of jack and alicia. it is good food, better then in the uk at least. so dont worry mom, i am well fed here! however i am craving a nice big burger or a massive steak, frankly anything that has meat in it. in northern india the majority of indians are vegetarians and in the holy cities (the three i have been to) meat and alcohol are illegal (apart from varanasi, but it was difficult to find)... i would kill for a big mac right now. i think the first thing i do when i get back to london, even before going home, is head straight for the hamburger union on leichester square. anyways, it looks like rain right now as i am sitting here on my balcony so i think i had better head inside and to the internet cafe to post up this blog, then its dinner time. namaste.
quinn
Saturday 18 July 2009
Rishikesh
Approximately 950km north varanasi (by my calculations on the map in my guide book...) it is situated at the mouth of the great ganges river just as it is leaving the himalayan mountains, the town is surrounded by the foothills of the himalayas and running through it is the ganges, this time with an incredibly strong current. so far this is my favorite place in india i have been to. it is such a beautiful place, and also the 'yoga capital of the world' and a very spiritual destination for travelers. there is an atmosphere here unlike anywhere else i have been in india, and i love it. i only arrived yesterday afternoon, and this is easily my favorite spot on the map so far. great food here as well! oh and my hotel room, cheapest and best so far, i am paying 100Rs a night, a little more than £1, and i have a gorgeous large room with my own bathroom, shower etc, king size bed and a balcony with a wonderful view of the foothills. fantastic. and the city is damn clean as well! thankfully i am feeling much better now, i was so incredibly ill the past few days, we spent two nights in haridwar before Rishikesh, and i didnt leave my hotel room once, the moment i stood up i felt like i was either going to throw up or faint. so i really didnt see any of haridwar other then my hotel room, but thankfully it had a tv with HBO! i saw some of jacks images from hairdwar, and i am really upset, they are incredible, thousands upon thousands of pilgrims in the water and along the ghats...i think i might need to take a day trip up there tomorrow to go shooting. as i have not shot anything since varanasi because i have been so ill. however, right now i am sitting on my balcony looking over the foothills of the himalayas and the ganges river, listening to country music and working on my tan. life is pretty darn good. ill post up more soon. some photos of me in varanasi should be up on facebook aswell as should be the 'dead bodies' pictures on demtoix (just google 'quinn palmer demotix' to find them)
miss you all!
quinn from Rishikesh.
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