Back to Benares
I'm back home. Home? I'm back in Benares, after a ten day "vacation" or excursion in Rajashthan, and coming back to Benares feels a lot like coming back home. For now anyway, Benares is home.
I love the holidays. I love the special drinks that Starbucks features each season, I love watching Elf and It's a Wonderful Life with my sister, I love shopping for Christmas presents, I love waking up to a stocking stuffed with reese's peanut butter cups, and I love eating my mom's prime rib (that's right, cow) for Christmas dinner. My favorite tradition that my family has is making and then eating a huge breakfast for dinner feast on Christmas Eve. This year, on the evening of December 24th, I found myself not in my California kitchen, but on an overnight bus going from Jaisalmer to Jaipur. Besides the fact that I was more than a thousand miles away from where I wanted to be on that night, I wasn't a big fan of the bus. The seats were stuck at an awkward angle, the bus itself didn't smell great, the seats weren't as cushioned as I would have preferred, and it was inhumanely cold as the bus was not properly insulated. I was not in the holiday spirit on Christmas Eve. I wouldn't have thought a year ago, that on an overnight bus in India was where I'd be spending my next Christmas Eve, and this holiday season wasn't filled with the traditions that I'm used to. But I have to admit that, contrary to my dismal description of how I spent Christmas Eve, I would say that I had a great holiday season. It wasn't
ideal, but it was, surprisingly, pretty fun.
Rajashthan is an amazing state. In Jodhpur we embodied the typical tourist with audio tour headsets when we toured the Maharangarh fort. The fort was beautiful, and overlooked the blue city that is Jodhpur. After touring the fort, Hannah, Mackenzie, and I wandered aimlessly through the alleys of the city and into bangles shops, shoe shops, and Rajashthani clothing shops. I may have bought too many bangles, but I really enjoyed wandering through the alleys and experiencing a city so different from Benares.
In Jaisalmer, we stayed INSIDE a fort. But the most exciting part about our stay in Jaisalmer was riding camels through the desert. The camels weren't as comfortable as I thought they'd be, and they're much uglier than llamas, but our desert camel safari was amazing. I had never seen sand dunes before, or slept under the stars in the desert. It was a really amazing experience.
Jaipur was more of a city than Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. We visited the Amber palace, which was really beautiful. But the best part of Jaipur was...RIDING ELEPHANTS. We rode elephants up a hill to the Amber Palace. Within a 2 week spanse I saw an elephant on the streets of Benares (the first one I've seen outside of a zoo) and ridden on one. I'd call that an accomplishment.
Today is the first day of 2013!! I have several "resolutions" and I'm excited for this next year. At the beginning of 2012 I thought I'd be in college by September, but here I am spending a gap year in India. So we'll see how 2013 goes.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
One of my New Year's resolutions is to blog once every two weeks, so I'll (hopefully) be posting soon!
Until next time
Ada
Oh, and I will post pictures eventually, but there are great pictures on facebook if anyone's interested!!
I'm back home. Home? I'm back in Benares, after a ten day "vacation" or excursion in Rajashthan, and coming back to Benares feels a lot like coming back home. For now anyway, Benares is home.
I love the holidays. I love the special drinks that Starbucks features each season, I love watching Elf and It's a Wonderful Life with my sister, I love shopping for Christmas presents, I love waking up to a stocking stuffed with reese's peanut butter cups, and I love eating my mom's prime rib (that's right, cow) for Christmas dinner. My favorite tradition that my family has is making and then eating a huge breakfast for dinner feast on Christmas Eve. This year, on the evening of December 24th, I found myself not in my California kitchen, but on an overnight bus going from Jaisalmer to Jaipur. Besides the fact that I was more than a thousand miles away from where I wanted to be on that night, I wasn't a big fan of the bus. The seats were stuck at an awkward angle, the bus itself didn't smell great, the seats weren't as cushioned as I would have preferred, and it was inhumanely cold as the bus was not properly insulated. I was not in the holiday spirit on Christmas Eve. I wouldn't have thought a year ago, that on an overnight bus in India was where I'd be spending my next Christmas Eve, and this holiday season wasn't filled with the traditions that I'm used to. But I have to admit that, contrary to my dismal description of how I spent Christmas Eve, I would say that I had a great holiday season. It wasn't
ideal, but it was, surprisingly, pretty fun.
Rajashthan is an amazing state. In Jodhpur we embodied the typical tourist with audio tour headsets when we toured the Maharangarh fort. The fort was beautiful, and overlooked the blue city that is Jodhpur. After touring the fort, Hannah, Mackenzie, and I wandered aimlessly through the alleys of the city and into bangles shops, shoe shops, and Rajashthani clothing shops. I may have bought too many bangles, but I really enjoyed wandering through the alleys and experiencing a city so different from Benares.
In Jaisalmer, we stayed INSIDE a fort. But the most exciting part about our stay in Jaisalmer was riding camels through the desert. The camels weren't as comfortable as I thought they'd be, and they're much uglier than llamas, but our desert camel safari was amazing. I had never seen sand dunes before, or slept under the stars in the desert. It was a really amazing experience.
Jaipur was more of a city than Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. We visited the Amber palace, which was really beautiful. But the best part of Jaipur was...RIDING ELEPHANTS. We rode elephants up a hill to the Amber Palace. Within a 2 week spanse I saw an elephant on the streets of Benares (the first one I've seen outside of a zoo) and ridden on one. I'd call that an accomplishment.
Today is the first day of 2013!! I have several "resolutions" and I'm excited for this next year. At the beginning of 2012 I thought I'd be in college by September, but here I am spending a gap year in India. So we'll see how 2013 goes.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
One of my New Year's resolutions is to blog once every two weeks, so I'll (hopefully) be posting soon!
Until next time
Ada
Oh, and I will post pictures eventually, but there are great pictures on facebook if anyone's interested!!
Happy New Year Honey -
ReplyDeleteI can truly put an exclamation point after your comment about not having a clue one year ago that the following year would see you riding camels and elephants on the other side of the world. Boy, how things change!! I was also interested to hear you were in Rajasthan because I have a picture in one of those on-line collections of a "Chittogarh Fort" that is so amazing I've kept it on my home page for occasional viewing. Did you, by any chance, see it? And if so, were you as blown away and I am by it?
Know that you are on my mind and in my conversations with friends just about all the time. Love you...
Grandma
Thanks grandma love you very much! We didn't see the Chittogarh fort unfortunately while in Rajashthan but I googled it and it looks amazing!
DeleteThe fort - absolutely amazing - just as you, yourself, are!!! I've also just learned that your Mom is coming over and that blows my mind even more. This whole chapter in your life is way beyond anything I could have dreamed for you guys! And - your blogging is excellent...gives us a little taste of what you are experiencing even when we can hardly believe it is actually happening. Love you, honey...and I'm SO proud of you.
DeleteGrandma