The Land of the Kings

I've always imagined India to be this dusty, chaotic city sprinkled with slightly worn but grand looking ancient cities and temples; just like in the movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel". So after visiting Bangalore, Ladak and Kashmir I was starting to wonder if this image I had was just some Hollywood stereotype, until we arrived in Rajasthan. Rajasthan, which means "Land of the Kings" in Hindi, is said to have more history packed into the state than the rest of India combined. We went to Jaipur, Jodphur and Jaisalmer where we visited ancient cities, forts and palaces where different Maharajas (King) ruled for centuries. The kingdoms all ended when the state of Rajasthan was created during the Dominion of India in 1949.

Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and is known as the "pink city". In the late 19th century, the Maharaja had the city painted pink, the colour of hospitality, in honour of Prince Edward VII and Queen Victoria's visit.

Hawa Mahal, the Palace of the Winds, was built by one of the Maharajas for the ladies of the royal household so they could live in purdah, which is the religious and social practice of female seclusion. Women (apparently only those of upper class) were not allowed to be seen in public so they would travel by covered palaquin and would live behind these honeycombed windows that allowed them to see out into the city but people on the street could not see in. The Hawa Mahal was a beautifully carved pink sandstone building where every window was covered with this honeycomb stonework.

Next door is an observatory, Jantar Mantar, built in 1728. The site looked like a collection of oddly shaped sculptures but each one had some purpose of measuring a celestial object in the sky!

The Amber fort was our last stop here. It was a 20 minute autoricksaw ride out of the old city where the royal capital was before Jaipur. The fort sat on top of a hill with a great vantage point to see approaching enemies!

It also had a beautifully carved and bejouled palace inside.

Jodpur, on the other hand, is known as the "blue city".  The Brahmins, the highest and priestly cast, always painted their houses blue and at some point, more recently, others in Jodphur started to paint their houses blue (some have told us to compete with Jaipur's reputation).

The fort and palace here were our favourites! The carved stone walls are beautiful and so detailed.

There were several rooms that were restored and decorated so you can get a good sense of what it was like back then.

Jodphur was my favourite city. The streets were twisty, winding and, at times, so narrow that an autoricksaw barely fit. Not to mention that I found it the most picturesque.

Jaisalmer; the final frontier! This is the end of the train line in Rajasthan and lies on the edge of the Thar desert. Here the fort is still filled with inhabitants running hotels, restaurants, and shops. It was nice to wander around but it felt a bit like walking through Disney Land; filled with tourists and gifts shops with the same useless stuff I don't ever want or need. The palace was also much smaller than the others we visited and heard that it wasn't really worth the 500rupees/person ($10CAN).

We came here to see the desert. Originally we wanted to go on a camel safari but then read reviews and decided it really wasn't for us (not to mention, it's apparently very uncomfortable and they don't use stirrups). So instead we hired the driver from our hotel to visit a few sites and the Sam dunes.

We had imagined that the Thar desert would be barren, rolling sand dunes as far as the eye can see but it's actually scrub land filled with shrubbery!

After visiting these three cities we were definitely fort-ed and palace-ed out! I'm so glad we came here because this truly was the India I have always pictured.

We also had another wonderful cultural experience - we ended up at a wedding! We were walking down the main road in the old city of Jodphur when we saw a parade of people surrounding a decorated man on a horse. We realized that this was a groom and it was the wedding procession. As we stood to the side to watch, some in the party waved at us and ran over to take photos, next thing you know we're being dragged along with them! The little girls held my hands and wouldn't let go. So we decided to walk through the streets with them figuring we'd be let go in a few minutes - nope, the father of the bride invited us to have lunch and they would not accept 'no'.

Turns out this was the last day of the three day celebration and there were two marriages going on (the brides were sisters). The men and women ate separately, the grooms sat separately from their brides (entirely different floors actually) and the tradition is that the men's faces are covered with flowers so you can't see them at all and the women's faces are covered with their veils. They will then remove these during the official ceremony that would take place that night, when they would see each other for the first time! Arranged marriages here are the norm and traditionally the bride and groom don't meet. It sounds like the more modern people now have chaperoned meetings and both have the option of accepting or refusing the proposal from their families. Also with Internet and cell phones, there are many unchaperoned conversations that go on :) The wedding was definitely an experience and the food was amazing: curried chicken, chapati and sweets.

Now back on the train for an 18hr ride to Delhi...

Off to Ceylon

Whenever we meet fellow travellers, especially those who are travelling as long as we are, we naturally compare notes. One of the biggest topics is of course where we have been and where we are going. One of the countries that came up often enough was Sri Lanka and it always received rave reviews. We heard such great things, so many times, that our conversation skipped "Do you think we should go to Sri Lanka?" directly to "when we are in Sri Lanka..." - it was really a no brainer!

We arrived in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, on a beautiful sunny afternoon. The guesthouse we were staying at was actually just south of downtown Colombo in an old beach town called Mount Lavinia. The first thing we did after being settled in was run down to the beach to put our toes in the Indian Ocean for the first time!

We spent two days in the city and visited some of the small Hindu and Buddhist temples that are sprinkled everywhere.

The biggest and most unique one is Sri Ponnambalam Vanesar Kovil. It's a hindu temple completely made of stone.

The Dutch and British presence is noticeable throughout the city (the Portuguese were actually the first to arrive but it was in 1505-1658 so not much left around from that period).

Old city hall during British rule.

British built lighthouse.

National museum. Very colonial looking building.

Surrounding these colonial legacies is the colourful Sri Lankan culture.

We spent Sunday night at Galle Face Park where thousands of families come out to fly kites.

This kite was especially big; there were 8 people holding the robe!

The more we explored and the more people watching we did, we could definitely highlight some of the British influence in the Sri Lankan culture: everyone says "please", "thank you" and "you're welcome", Tom is reffered to as "Sir" and I as "Madam" and tea is served English style (pot of tea, milk, sugar, tea cups with saucer). It just has this air of British properness mixed with the colourful Sri Lankan culture!

Our next stop was to Galle about two hours south of Colombo. We took the train which turned out to be an incredible adventure! We bought second class tickets but thanks to a "friend" (read con artist) we ended up in third class standing.

Marie was not happy. Tom was loving it.

Yes. Tom was standing out the door as the train was going.

Evidence of Canadian foreign aid through the Colombo Plan!

Looks a bit old...

Ok about the con artist. We met this local man at the station in Colombo while waiting for the train. He sat down, talked to us about how he had lived in Germany, visited Switzerland and Austria, and then gave us a great tip on a place to go. He explained that we should get off the train at the stop before Galle to visit some government run gem mine where you can see the mine in action and then buy gems for cheap. He then started adding on other stops in the area: go on a boat tour around some lagoon with 68 islands, go to a turtle hatchery and then finish at a temple with a large Buddha. He suggested hiring a tuk-tuk from the train station for the day and we can leave our big bags with him while we go to each of these sites. At first we though, ok that sounds interesting and he kept saying that no other foreigners go there so it's very quiet and reasonably priced, which appealed to us. For the whole train ride, he kept talking about it and how great it is, how much each stop should cost, how much the tuk-tuk should cost...To the point where we were almost convinced that we were getting off at that stop with him. Finally, we were able to have a quiet conversation together and agreed that something felt off and that we didn't want trust some random tuk-tuk driver to watch our bags for us. When we told this guy that we decided to continue on to Galle, he started insisting that we had to go today! Tomorrow it will be so busy! There is no time to go to Galle, drop off your bags and then come back, it had to be now! When he realized he was not going to convince us he left with a "ok safe travels" and got off at the stop before the one he said he was going too. Weirdo. Either he was getting a cut from all the fees we were going to be paying or he and the tuk-tuk driver were going to steal our bags...Part of getting an authentic experience when travelling is speaking with the locals. Unfortunately some people are more intersted in your money then you, like this con artist, but we have also met many genuinely friendly and helpful people. Like the two men in the train who made sure we got off at the right stop and helped me find a spot for my big bag so people wouldn't trip on it.

We safely made it to Galle and visited the Fort: First a Portuguese fort, turned Dutch fort, turned British fort, turned historical tourist stop. Since it's low season it turned out to be a pretty cool to just walk through the old city visiting some old buildings.

Dutch Reformed Church

Working clock tower thanks to some good British mechanisms from 1882.

Justice buildings.

Coat of Arms from 1668 (Dutch era).

Anglican Church.

Evening cricket game.

Walking on top of the old fort walls was also an experience. The views were beautiful and its always fun to walk along the top of a fort wall imagining what it was like back in 1800's!

View of the city from the fort walls.

I admit I went through a bit of a culture shock in these first few days. I'm not sure if I adapted to the South East Asian culture so quickly or if it's because we had been there before that I didn't feel like I had a culture shock then. Or maybe it's because I have never been to this part of the world that it hit me and took me by surprise! The people here are friendly and the food is delicious but it's just the little culture nuances that really threw me off. The big one being the head waggle! Just like in India, everyone does the little side to side waggle for everything, it can mean "no problem", "thank you", "yes", "I'm listening" and apparently countless more. What throws me off is when I ask a question and I get a waggle as a response. My immediate thought is that they didn't understand my question or no I can't have X. It hit me when I was choosing items from a buffet: I would point at a dish and the server would waggle his head but not put it in my plate. So I would nod my head and say "yes", he would then waggle his head and not put it in my plate. So I thought ok maybe the combo we bought does not include this dish so I would point at the next thing and then the same point-waggle and not put in dish-yes and nod-waggle and not put in dish scenario would happen again. This is when I realized he can't hear me say "yes" through the glass and he doesn't understand what I mean when I nod. His waggle was a question: do you want this? I was supposed to waggle back, I think. Because I'm incapable of doing the head waggle, the thumbs up was a good alternative and I ended up with a tasty lunch!

That's the other great thing about Sri Lanka: all different foods! No more noodles, soy sauces, stir fries or dumplings. We're in the land of spicy rice and curry :)

A little history on the name: The country was always refered to as Lanka by the Sinhalese and Serendip by the Arab traders (the origin of the word Serendipity!). But the Portuguese named the island Ceilao meaning "the island of Sinhalese", which the Dutch then changed to Ceylan and the British finally to Ceylon. In 1972 the name "Lanka" was restored with the addition of "Sri" as a title of respect: Sri Lanka.

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