I’m back home
I know, I stopped blogging halfway through my trip. Things didn’t go very well after Kevin left for the thrills of Richikesh and the hopes of ‘reconnecting’ with some of the people we had met in Leh. So I thought I would not comment on it in an attempt to remain optimistic. Which didn’t really make bad things stop happening. Sigh.
After Varanasi I went to Johdpur. The overnight train from Delhi to Johdpur was very nice as I was sharing my section of the train with an entire extended family. The father was encouraging his very polite and shy children to speak to me, which was very nice, interesting and cute. They were lovely. Johdpur, however, was not. Men were following me down the streets and some of them making rather inappropriate sexual comments. I was sitting down checking my e-mails and when I was done I looked up to see I had an audience of about 6 young males staring at me through the window. And while I was trying something on in one of the stores I was inappropriately fondled. There might have been some shouting on my part. I also got headbutted rather hard by two cows. With horns. Yeah. That was a great day.
Jaiselmer was slightly better. The men didn’t follow me around, and someone actually pushed me out of the way of a cow that was heading in my direction from across the street. However I got taken in for the first time on my trip. I arrived to Jaiselmer rather late and the office for the camel safari I had gotten multiple recommendations for was closed. So on the suggestion of one of my fellow guest house guests I took my safari with the guest house. Big mistake (I should have just gone to the original place early in the AM and things would have been better). I was lied to about multiple things, including the fact that 5 other people would be on the trip with me. It was just me. Which I was lied to about until I was an hour out of the city and by myself with my camel driver. I spent the night out in the desert by myself and my camera got sand in it, so there are no digital pictures after this trip. When I got back from the ’safari’ (which it was not), my hotel manager tried to convince me that I had to double book my sleeper bus spot if I wanted to sleep by myself. There might have been some more yelling on my part. And writing of letters to various guidebooks. I ended up getting my ticket from the people I had originally planned on getting my safari through, and he had me drink Chai and talked with me for a while because he could tell I was upset. He was done selling me things and was just being kind, which was much needed at that moment. I also was exploring the fort there and heard my name being called! It was the family from the train. That really cheered me up 
The bus ride was rather nice as I finally was with tourists who spoke English! And the girl I shared my sleeper bed with was very lovely and had also had a bad safari experience. She let me take a nap and shower in her guest room when we got to Udiper. And Udiper was gorgeous. The lake was low, but it was still beautiful. Octopussy filmed here and all of the guest houses have ‘Octopussy’ showings. I wish I could have spent more than 12 hrs there, but I had to take the train to Delhi so I could catch my flight. I did buy a disposable camera so hopefully there will be some pictures developed within the next year or so.
That is not to say that it was all bad. I had felt rather dragged down before and I got to see so many things on the last part of this trip. I have the life stories of so many different people tucked away in the back of my brain right now. Most of the people who tried chatting with me were trying to sell me something, but every once and a while they were just bored and curious and those conversations were great. I also was able to explore to my hearts content, though the pushy sales people made this difficult at times.
All in all it was nice, I just have to push some of the more unfortunate events from the end out of my head. And I barely saw any of India so who knows when I will go back to explore the south. I have to decide where to take my next trip! I definitely want to return to South America in the spring and do another Habitat build, as well as Machu Picchu. And after that I’m not sure. By then I will be hopefully traveling across America.
Anyway, here is a link to my pictures. Enjoy!
