Mandawa, a peaceful town in the Desert

We arrived in our first destination, Mandawa around 10pm. The drive was long but never boring, and the temperature outside the car was blistering. Luckily we payed a few dollars more for a A/C car. We settled into our room, pleasantly surprised but how much nicer it was compared to the hotel in Delhi. Painted roof, very clean tile floors and a toilet that worked. We had dinner on the rooftop cafe and settled in fairly early.

The next morning we awoke around 10 and took a seat on the terrace outside of our room. The view during the daylight was mind blowing. The homes all a sand colored wash, camels tied up underneath trees, tractors driving by blaring Hindi style trance, children on bicycles. The sky line was dominated by the beautiful Mandawa fort. A boy was sitting in a chair below us just staring for a few minutes (Eventhough Mandawa gets a constant small flow of foreigners everyone we saw had their eyes locked on us). Eventual he asked me what country I came from and my name, we talked for a bit and he asked me to come down to meet him. We went back to our rooms and got ready and then went down to meet the boy, who spoke incredibly good english. His name was Ajer, and he is 10 years old. He offered to be our guide to Mandawa and he was most pleased when we accepted. Within a few minutes his friends on the street were coming by to say hi and one asked me to ride his bike. We moved around for about 20 minutes in the blistering hot sun, it must have been about 45 Celsius in the sun. He showed us some of the Havelis, which are 250 to 300 year old homes once owned by important Mandawa families, which are still lived in today. At each one he would poke his head in and ask the people in the home if it was alright if we came in, never did the say no. The homes are painted top to bottom with 200 year old artwork of the sacred scriptures, stories of the British solders and life experiences of the gods.

We then went back to hotel for breakfast. There are gutters along the sides of all the homes in Madawa for the water to flow down to the occasional sewer. Many of them we overflowing across the road with a bright green glow to them. India is definitely not for the walking impaired as it involves lots of jumping over puddles, balancing on curbs to avoid nasty water and such.

We found our friend Ajer later on to continue the tour. He took us to a very old water well made out stone. The women used to take their camels into adjacent stalls and then walk up the steps to the well, so they could easily put the buckets of water on the camel's back. The well was incredibly deep, Ajer threw a stone and it took about 7 or 8 seconds to hit the bottom, no joke. He took us to see a few more Havelis and the last one we entered we we greeted by the owner, a man in his mid 60s. There was grains strewn out across blankets in the courtyard and his daughters were organizing them into piles. He took us around the Haveli and told us some of the stories of the paintings. Then he invited us into a small shaded room with a fan to sit on a bed, his wife brought us black masala tea and he showed us some national geographic magazines with photos of his haveli. When he found out that I was interested in Buddhism he became very excited, he said he was born into Hinduism but that he much preferred the teachings of the Buddha. He told me many stories that I have always wanted to know, such as how the Buddha justified running away from his wife and son, and the throne. And how the Buddha's father eventually became a devotee. The compassion and knowledge in this man resonated deep. He told me he once, 25 years ago tried to become a monk at a monastery but they told him he had to many obligations to his life and must practice as a lay person.

Anyways, it seems that my blog posts are incredibly long, I cant help but blab on and on about the experiences. I am only writing a small taste of what happens yet I have been at this computer for well over an hour now!

Mandawa was lovely, we left this morning at sunrise and drove threw the beautiful desert. I took lots of photos with my new zoom lens while driving, of women deep in the desert carrying baskets on their heads, men riding camels, and goat herders. Today we are in Bikaner, and we are staying in a very posh pink hotel. Tonight we are going to ride a Tuk Tuk (motor rickshaw) around town to see all the temples and sights. But I will speak of Bikaner later.

Much Love.