jonathan/ferguson

pure exhaustion. that about sums up this past week. we’ve just returned home from a week on the road and we are shattered. last tuesday we left for jaisalmer on an overnight train that took 19 hours. and not just 19 hours with each other and the people on our train. but 19 hours with more cockroaches in one place than i have seen in a long time. crawling all over the seats, the walls, the floor (and probably us while we slept). and if that wasn’t enough, while trying to sleep, a mouse decided to show up and play with some paper a few inches from my head. chewing, scraping, dragging. welcome to indian national railways.

we survived and arrived in jaisalmer. a beautiful place on the edge of the great thar desert about 75 miles from the pakistani border. the hotel was perfect and so was the touristy-thing-to-do-camel-safari. yes, kyle and andrea, it redeemed our bizarre february safari, and this one actually continued after the sun set. so we enjoyed a safari by moonlight as well. the sandy fort was not at all what i expected, teeming with people going about their normal daily lives. things haven’t really changed for centuries. a stark contrast to the other three forts we’d see along the way. for the most part jaisalmer was a place frozen in time. still quite small. still a desert town. were it not for the farms of german and swedish windmills surrounding the city, you might not have known it was 2009.

from there we were off to jodhpur, a place i’d visited before. and yes, its fair to say this visit redeemed the last one as well. the fort, now an empty museum, is always stunning. the way it towers over the blue city and is visible everywhere you go. its a constant reminder of power, authority, and wealth. the maharaja. but it was here i caught the stomach virus stefanie brought over from america a week earlier. we all thought it was a mix of jet lag, culture shock, heat exhaustion, and maybe something she’d eaten when she sat crouched, vomiting on the streets of old delhi. but as i sat crouched on the corners of jodphur vomiting like there was no tomorrow, i realized it was some sort of stomach virus. not the usual delhi belly. it was not pretty. emily would be spared until we left jaipur for neemrana.

we quickly moved on the next day to jaipur, getting up at 4:30a to catch our 5:55a train that left at 6:55a. and we hit the ground running in jaipur, taking in the city palace, hawa mahal, lake palace, and plenty of shopping. i am so incredibly over shopping and over negotiating. but i’m proud of the fact that i’ve saved them thousands of rupees. the next morning on our way out we saw the amber fort and the beautiful scenery around jaipur on our way to neemrana. jaipur is a beautiful place, but i always find it somewhat lacking. maybe its because i’ve been there so many times. i’m just not sure why its so popular with all the tourists.

the last night was spent in neemrana at an old fort turned resort halfway between jaipur and delhi. we could have/should have stayed there a week. it was beautiful. and relaxing. and we did relax, poolside, for less than 24 hours. that’s all the time we had. all of the rooms were old rooms in the fort. hard to find. easy to loose. you would wind up and down stairs. through courtyards. around odd corners and gullies to find your room. no two were alike. it was just what we needed to recover, only too short. it definitely made the list of places to visit again.

it was here that the virus brewing in emily took over and she crashed. it hasn’t hit her quite as hard. we’ve returned to delhi this evening and while i’ve been eating normal, stefanie’s culture shock has mellowed out, and emily has managed to avoid regurgitating any food or liquid. none of us feel great. we’re exhausted. i still feel queasy and uneasy. unstable. like i could go at any moment. i don’t know what we’re fighting. what weird bacteria you people have been harboring in the usa, only to have stefanie pack it up and bring it with her. but at least, we’re pretty sure, it has nothing to do with pigs.

once i, we, fully recover, i’ll post more interesting entries. containing some of the over 2,000 photos we took between the three of us. for now, you’ll have to deal with this boring journal like entry of “we did this, then that, then this, then that”. at least i can say, they saw rajasthan. from one side to the other. and we made it back in three whole pieces. slightly weaker. more tired.

up next, the taj mahal and agra. then off to kerala.