Humping Around Outside Jaisalmer

The current temperature is 107 F, but according to my weather app, it feels like 119 degrees.  Yikes. Luckily, we are staying out of the mid-day heat by hunkering down in our unusually chic palace fort hotel.
Last night we went paddle boating and Ilana insisted on the swan boat.  Above the lake, giant fruit bats swooped down out of a tree. Cool stuff.
We spent so many days in Varanasi, that it felt like we knew everyone. I was offered ganja, hashish, opium and chemicals. Each time I responded with something different. One time I offered to sell the guy marijuana from Seattle. Another time I told him that I preferred chocolate pancakes.
One of the challenging things about India is that the hawkers don't take no for an answer. Want a boat sir? No. Next guy. Want a boat, sir? No. Next guy. Want a boat sir? This went on and on, as if on the first five times that I said no I was really just waiting for the right guy to ask me.
My favorite thing from the last town was all the rituals surrounding the body after death. Here in Jaisalmer, it's all about the king, his palace, all the beautiful stonework, and of course the desert.
Within 1 minute of getting out of the air conditioned car, they had me up on my camel. The detailed instructions for our adventure were, "jump on".We rode about 40 minutes through desert scrub toward the sand dunes on the horizon. It was 4:30, about 100 degrees, and my camel liked to run.
The dunes were gorgeous, though they didn't extend very far. We shot pictures of each other while trying to not fall off our mounts. Our camel herders were an 18 year old for Ilana's camel and a 12 year old with a love of iPhones for me. Once I gave him my iPhone to snap photos, I couldn't seem to get it back. He took 74 selfies with himself and my camel in the background.
We watched the sunset from the dunes then rode over to the "camp" for music, dancing and dinner. The castanets player was amazing, but the show went on for far too long. We watched a contortionist and another girl dance on a plate, then dance on a plate, then bend over with pots on her head to pick up bills.  All very odd.
Dinner was finally served at about 10 o'clock, but it was too late for me and Ilana to be eating spicy Indian food.

Ghats on the Ganges

We cruised the Ganges last night on a sunset boat trip and then again this morning for the sunrise.  Not only is the lighting much better for pictures, but it's the only time the temperature is bearable.
Our sunset cruise was with a 4th generation boatman, borne into that caste. He told a little history about the various temples, palaces and ceremonies. The most interesting, for Ilana and me, was the burning ghats where traditional cremation is performed. Apparently it is a 3 hour ceremony in which the body is wrapped in thin cotton, submerged in the Ganges, and 5 scoops of the holy water placed into the mouth.
We witnessed one body being consumed by fire, another was about to be ignited by the holy fire that has been kept going in the temple for a thousand years. Then after we cruised past the big sunset ceremony at the main ghat, we saw a small boat cross our stern with a body draped across their bow. The poor cannot afford the pomp and circumstance (wood, priests, live music) of a formal cremation. When they got to the middle of the river, they slid the body into the river.

For our sunrise cruise we had a less informative boatman, but it was lovely watching the holy city of Varanasi wake up.

Life and Death in Varanasi

I will say India is another world . We did have a few rough days with Steve getting food poisoning and me having some trouble with diarrhea, but we are now on the mend and have medicated ourselves! Last night and this morning we spent in Varanasi on the river Ganges.
We watched the monks sing and blow conches and light fires in an offering ceremony last night, and this morning at sunrise, we put our feet in the Ganges! We did see a cremation, and also watched a body flow down the river.
I find all of this a little disturbing and fascinating at the same time. I am nervous walking down the street, not because of the people, but because the alleyways are so narrow and there are bulls and cows standing there and I'm
 afraid I will get crushed against a wall. Everybody assures me that I have nothing to fear because this is a holy city, but I'm not sure that the bulls got the memo.
Lots of sounds and smells. Bells ringing, dogs barking, goats braying, people shouting. The smell of curry and cumin and cow dung and urine and human sweat everywhere.

Views of the Ganges From Our Sickbed

Blogs, like Facebook, tend to glamorize events, buff them up until they practically glow. Well, except for the view out the window of the Ganges, there's nothing glamorous about how we are feeling. After praying at the porcelain alter yesterday morning, and traveling across the country, my fever skyrocketed last night. Ilana was my Florence Nightingale, wiping me down with a clean, wet sock as I was too delirious to make it to the bathroom.

The fever lasted nearly all night. Then, at about 3 a.m. I heard  Ilana in the bathroom, having her own un-glorious experience.
Some will say it is that one time that I ate street food, or some of the iffy non-bottled hotel water, or perhaps any of the exotic meals we ate. No one exactly knows. But I was good enough to snap some sunrise pictures before I descended into a fever-induced funk for the rest of the day with my sick Florence Nightingale.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Blogs, like Facebook, tend to glamorize events, buff them up until they practically glow. Well, except for the view out the window of the Ganges, there's nothing glamorous about how we are feeling. After praying at the porcelain alter yesterday morning, and traveling across the country, my fever skyrocketed last night. Ilana was my Florence Nightingale, wiping me down with a clean, wet sock as I was too delirious to make it to the bathroom.
The fever lasted nearly all night. Then, at about 3 a.m. I heard  Ilana in the bathroom, having her own un-glorious experience.
Some will say it is that one time that I ate street food, or some of the iffy non-bottled hotel water, or perhaps any of the exotic meals we ate. No one exactly knows. But I was good enough to snap some sunrise pictures before I descended into a fever-induced funk for the rest of the day with my sick Florence Nightingale.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Delhi Delirium

Walking around in Delhi is like stepping into a tandoori oven with a hairdryer in your face. We lunched at the famed Karim's,  which deservedly has the reputation as the best restaurant in Delhi. The naan was incredible, the chicken Tika was full of delicious spice and tender as all get out, and the chicken saag was crazy good. We successfully explored the giant mosque and were inundated with requests to take selfies with the surprised locals who could not believe that these two crazy foreigners are walking around in the blistering heat. Ilana turned bright red and looked like her head was going to pop off her body. Eventually we made it to the Red Fort by foot and rickshaw but we had no steam left in the tank. It was the wrong time of day to explore Delhi.
Here is the truth, according to Ilana Long.  It's very hard here. The traffic is terrifying, it is overcrowded, people are constantly wanting money,  food, water, or offering their services.

Terrific Trekking

33,000 steps. That was the final count after 11 miles of hiking from chang Nuno Ryan to Nargakot. We left the bus stop, only after Ilana requested some salty potato chips and very bad packaged dates that tasted like salty slugs. However we did want some hiking food. Lucky we brought it with us because as we hiked along the open countryside, there was only one Village along the way, and by Village I mean a house. The weather was fine and the hike opened up into a beautiful trail up a mountainside terrorist with rice patties. As you can see by the photo Ilana fell in love with a goat but will remain married to Steve for the perks. We made it all the way to the Village without getting lost, but ironically, once we arrived, we could not find our guest house. We hiked another 2 miles until finally, exhausted, we found the pastoral and quiet country hotel.

The next day we went for a sunrise hike with the only other person at our hotel, a college student from Nevada named Sam. We woke up at four in the morning and climb to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise over… Nothing because we were totally socked in by clouds. Undaunted by this we hiked down and went on two more hikes that day. Finally, we had a dinner of veggie curry and rice, typical fare for the area.