Rajasthan - Parting Shots Part II

Jointra


Jointra


Jointra


Patwon-ki-Haveli, Jaisalmer


House in Jaisalmer fort. Jaisalmer is apparently one of the last remaining 'living' forts in the world.


Jaisalmer


Jaisalmer


Baba Ramdev Temple, Jaisalmer


Near Gadi Sagar, a water tank, Jaisalmer


Rajasthani women, Katariasar

I just got back home and am uploading these photos from my father's computer. After 3 weeks of Indian communications and computers, my fathers laptop on wireless simply zips by!! Sometimes going away makes you happy about certain things back home. :)

Random Rajasthani

This trip to Rajasthan was quite an adventure for me, although it was not back packing by a long stretch. It was also a personal journey but I think that I will leave those thoughts for a last post on Rajasthan. There are plenty of random thoughts on how this trip was done. :)

1. I booked a car and all my hotels over the internet, on the Rajasthan Travel Guide. It was a real gamble but it paid off well. In fact the best hotel I stayed in, Jagat Niwas in Udaipur, was recommended by the manager of the web site, Manuj! The worst hotel was the Hotel Khadim in Ajmer which was a hotel I insisted upon. It was the cheapest hotel though and really not bad if I was in backpacking mode.

2. When I used to shoot film on holidays, I used to plan for film and batteries before the trip started. For this digital trip to Rajasthan, having a camera with flexible iso was great! Not having to worry about x-ray machines is cool too. There was a daily ritual of charging the camera battery, the Epson P2000 battery and the handphone battery. Adaptors are very important. I brought a multisocket adaptor but it was too heavy to use. The multisocket was so heavy that it and the adaptor would just fall out of the power point. Next time I will bring the adaptor and a multi-socket attached by wire.

3. In this digital age, don't leave home without a dust blower. It was essential to try and remove dust in the desert!! I know that there are images that I will have to do cloning work on when I return but I did manage to get rid of major dust spots when I needed to.

4. I used the tripod, which incidentally I bought for the trip, all of once. And the shots of fireworks during the Bikaner Camel Festival, just did not make it into my highlights.

5.I managed to finally plug the Epson P2000 into most of the computers that I used by downloading the win98 driver from the Epson America web site. Strange but Epson America is the only Epson web site with the driver. I had to use google to find it. Why could it not also have been mirrored on the Singapore, Europe or Australian webiste? I just don't know.

6. With the P2000 and heavy on camera editing, I only needed 1 2gig card. I did not find myself stretching for a second card once. I am bringing back about 20gigs of raw files. If I had kept everything I shot, I would want to show about 1 in 15 shots. With real time editing, I think that I will still only want to show 1 in 8 shots. The rest are interesting maybes that I may just look through in my twilight years.

7. My promise to give photos to people whom I shot has made me look for shops capable of printing digital files and back tracking to my subjects. I managed to print the photos in Jaipur but I was stumped by the fact that I could not buy envelopes to send the photos at the Jaipur post office! I finally managed to buy envelopes at Delhi airport and mailed off all the photos I promised I would. I must really think about that portable digital printer.

8. The light in Rajasthan can be beautiful, but it is harsh. So often, I loose the eyes of people even if the sun is behind. I think that the best solution aside from having an assistant carrying a screen with diffuser cloth, is to move the subject into an open shade. I must admit that I lost a few really good portraits to this problem.

Edited at 10.30 Delhi time while waiting for flight back to Singapore.

Rajasthan - Parting shots Part I

The first kids that I shot in Rajasthan, Jaipur


Waiter from Kerala. India Coffee House, Jaipur


Brhama Temple, Pushkar


Pushkar


Holy man, Pushkar


Jain Temple, Ajmer


Horse cart drivers, Ajmer


School Children, Udaipur


Market, Udaipur


Rickshaw decorations, Jodhpur

Bikaner - A city engulfed in noise

Karni Marta Temple, Deshnok

This temple is in Deshnok which is near Bikaner. It is famous for its holy rats that are supposed to be the descendents of the goddess Karni Marta. The rats are quite scraggy and are not frightening like in a horror movie, but it got to me after a while. I originally thought of skipping this little temple, but thanks to two new friends, Jens and Jenny, whom I met at the hotel, we had an exchange of ideas. They went with me to the 'touristy' Camel Festival, and I followed to the holy rat temple. I must say that this is the most unforgettable part of the whole journey. :)


Old town, Bikaner


In a tut-tut, Bikaner


Old town, Bikaner


Old town, Bikaner


Old town, Bikaner


Old town, Bikaner


Old town, Bikaner


Some type of food factory near train station, Bikaner


Bhanwar Niwas Hotel rooftop, Bikaner

Like I mentioned earlier, I thought that Bikaner Camel festival would be the highlight of my trip. My driver, Bhawar, was surprised that I had booked 4 nights in a second rank town. Yes, the camel festival was a let down, but I had some fun anyway. I had a day to walk in the old town with my new friends. The fort was nice, but enough of fort photographs. :)

I stayed in an old heritage hotel in the old town, Bhanwar Niwas Hotel. It is a grand place but stuck in time. It was the only hotel in the whole trip without a television in the room. It is stuck in the back alleys of the old town and they did not have a map to the location. The price of the room and dinner were steep, but undeserved so.

The room that I had was next to a small Hindu temple. There was a prayer every evening and morning at 7 o'clock, accompanied by loud, loud drumming! I got so used to it after 4 days that it did not completely wake me up this morning. The old town must be full of mosques, for in the evening, as the sun sets, you are surrounded in the sound of the call to prayer if you are on the roof of the hotel. At night, the mosques and temples continue to give out holy music which is just about muffled in my room. But the bed in my room was a steel four-poster bed that seemed to act like a stethoscope, amplifying the drum beats of the music through the night.

Bikaner Camel Festival - A Tourist Presentation

Dr Karni Singh Stadium, Bikaner


Dr Karni Singh Stadium, Bikaner


Dr Karni Singh Stadium, Bikaner


Dr Karni Singh Stadium, Bikaner


Dr Karni Singh Stadium, Bikaner


Dr Karni Singh Stadium, Bikaner


Dr Karni Singh Stadium, Bikaner


Dr Karni Singh Stadium, Bikaner


Katariasar Village


Katariasar Village

The Pushkar Camel Fair is one of the two most important camel trading fairs in the world. So it was with a lot of anticipation that I traveled through Rajasthan, waiting to enjoy the Bikaner Camel Festival. What a disappointment when I ended up at the festival to find out that it is more a tourist showcase than a real fair. Bikaner is famous for its camels, apparently rearing half of the camels sold in Rajasthan. But this camel festival was a 3 day tourist thingy. The good part is that as a foreigner you get to see camels dressed up and their fur cut with cute patterns. The down side is the whole thing is decidedly tacky. Rajasthani men dress up as warriors and enter the Mr Bikaner competition. Couples dress up and have to answer trivia about Rajasthan in another competition. All this is an elaborate show for the foreigners. The first day was held at the Dr Karni Stadium in Bikaner. Over the next two days, the festival continues in Katariasar Village, which I went down to check out. I left when I found out that the wedding ceremony on the schedule was for foreigners participation. With the hordes of local Indians looking at white skinned tourist in wedding clothes, I seriously had no idea who was watching who.

The festival was great for capturing images of the local color and culture, but in a completely plastic manner. Somehow it did not feel like an honest transaction. The nicest part was Katariasar Village though. The people there I suspect have not had much experience with tourist yet. They were curious about tourist and enthusiastic to be photographed, but they did not demand rupees or a pen in return.

As humans we are such romantics at heart and hope for the ideal experiences, but the truth always turns out to be something mixed. But on the bright side, I rather have this mixed-experience than none at all.

Desert Journey

On the road between Jodhpur and Jaisalmer


On the road between Jodhpur and Jaisalmer


The Jaisalmer Fort


Cenotaphs of former rulers, Bada Bagh


Sand Dunes, Khuri


Sand Dunes, Khuri


On the road between Jaisalmer and Bikaner

I guess that when we hear the word desert, we think of the sand dunes in the Sahara. There are sand dunes in Rajasthan, but they are small patches compared to what must be 'semi-arid?' desert. So riding camels on small patches of dunes has become the quintessential tourist activity, like going up the Eiffel tower in Paris. :) I ended up being 'artistic' in the images I have shown, but the number of tourists and camels on 4 or 5 ridges of sand looking at the sunset must be one of the most hilarious sights of the entire journey. The package cultural show after the dunes is nothing to write home about too. But don't get me wrong, it was totally worth the experience, if just to find out what is and is not 'real'. Maybe one day I will do a proper camel safari on sand dunes stretching out like the sea, maybe I will be too lazy.

A visit to Bhawar Singh's village, Jointra

On the road to Jointra, the village of my driver Bhawar Singh.


Jointra


Jointra


Jointra


Parents of my driver, Bhawar Singh. Jointra

At the speed of a Camel

I am now in Jaisalmer. It seems like everyone is on dial-up modem in this town. So I will not be uploading photos for a few days.

As the excitement of coming to Rajasthan comes down from the initial high, I become more aware of the harsh reality of life in this part of the world. In Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, towns on the edge of the desert, it is a miracle that so many people live out here. Water, sanitation, finding work are all problems. As a tourist, every kid seems to be screaming for a pen or chocolate, like it is their due for living such a difficult life. I wonder how many tourist actually give. Sometimes I give, quite often I do not. I remember when I first came to India and got depressed by the sheer multitude of poor people I met in India. In this day and age, I am a little bit more realistic. I have not enough money to give to all the poor peopl that I meet. I give a little to those who have helped me on my journey.

Shop owners are desparate to get tourist into their shops to buy their goods. I think that their lives must be relatively well off. I visited my driver's village, Jointra, and he lives in a circle of huts outside the village. I think that he has electricity and the houses are as clean as can be in such circumstances, but I can only imagine the dry heat in summer and wonder how his family live with the cold that is happening now in winter.

This journey has not only shown me the wonder and grandeur of the Rajput past, but the present suffering of the Indian present. Honestly, there is not that much that a tourist can do but be respectful of the area that is being visited. It helps me to appreciate the life that I have in Singapore. The comforts of a modern HDB flat would seem like a luxury here. To have the opportunity to follow my own path, that is a precious gift. I guess that maybe too many of us Singaporeans take it for granted. Yes, there are still difficulties with following one's own path, but if you were born in a desert town, how are you to change your life. Possible? Yes. Easy? Not at all.