Friday, January 14th 2005, Evening time.

Where am I at? Well, I'm back on my own now, arrived today in Delhi back from my Rajasthan tour. I have grabbed a ticket to Jalandhar for Tuesday the 18th, and so I expect to connect there with some extended family, and onward.

Being back in Delhi again is interesting in that it illuminates for me how I continue to change slowly in my ... approach, or style of reactions, to India, to the pressures of a place like Delhi/Pahargange, things like that.

My brother was asking if I've been spending much time with Indians - hanging out and getting to know, that is. I guess it's not easy in a lot of circumstances that I've been in thus far to connect with the native population in a very useful way... the context of interactions is usually me as a white tourist to sell to, take advantage of, ask for money/pens/candy, or view from afar in passing, and vice versa. It's an interesting thing to notice. I expect that that will change a bit once I'm settled in a small village where tourists are not a top priority.

The tour of Rajasthan was good... 1 day Pushkar, 1 day Jodhpur, 1 day Ranakpur, 2 days Udaipur, 2 days Jaipur, 1 day Gorakhpur, 1 day Agra, and then back to Delhi! I wound up paying Rs 1300 for "insurance" for the car, Rs 800 as a part of the driver's tip, and then food, rooms, and attractions. The forts and temples wind up taking a lot of cash... 120 here, 240 there, 200, 50, 75, the Taj Mahal for 750 (Indians pay 10 I think). By the end we were dropping places. Fort after fort, temple after temple... granted they're all different, but they wind up not seeming that different. Same goes for the mosques. And as the bills mount, the enthusiasm to look at another does the opposite.

Anyway, that adventure's finished, and now it's on to other things.

dharma