Sound Bites of Rajasthan Rides

So I finally got a youtube account.

Here's some sound bites from luxury cars, trains, motorcycles, jeeps and camels I used to get around Rajasthan. The sound with the video is live, and often most of the reason I took the video in the first place.

here's our luxury car (with private driver of course) blasting the stereo on the way to Udaipur

The myriad of things you can buy through the bars of a train window,

somewhere between The Taj Mahal and Delhi. The man at the ticket window didn't hear me say "express" train to Delhi, so I got a third class ticket with no seats?! instead. Three hour journey cost 36 rupees (90 cents). I thought that was rather cheap for the express train. I had to sit on my backpack on the floor next to the bathrooms in BACK of third class. Live and learn.

The motocycle ride up to my guesthouse in the fort in Jaisalmer

crazy music plays as we head out of Jaisalmer towards the Pakistan border to drop off the Japanese

Matar my camel driver sings his favorite Muslim song on safari

going the opposite way of pilgrims on the road from Fatehpur Sikri to the Taj Mahal

yes that's a guy spitting at the end... classy! Two hour journey cost 21 rupess (52 cents)

a bicycle rickshaw through the streets of Jaipur. Cost? 25 cents (10 rupees)

great if your not in a hurry

for more sound bite mini videos you can go to youtube.com/thiakonig

maharajas and camel farts

I'm actually splurging and spending $10/night for a room in a castle/fort, with my own carved balcony complete with silk cushions, overlooking Jaisalmer, a city carved out of sandstone near the Pakistan border. I feel like a movie star walking through the town square, never have I been so popular. I end up getting 'stuck' in Jaisalmer, as I end up meeting Tanu, and together with his friends, we hang out many evenings on the roof of his upscale hotel with the lights of the city below, and order up room service and home cooked meals like we're rock stars. I'm treated like a queen, or king, I guess, because the maharajahs didn't treat their queens very good in the day.

Tanu

adventures with Cuba (Mr. Happy)

The local dialect amongst these desert people sounds very ancient, and I can't wrap my tongue around it. They would invent names up that we could pronounce, so I ended up meeting a lot of Mickey's and Lucky's, and I had to change my name to 'Dia' so they could pronounce my name.

I caught the neighbor girls playing dress up, until they saw me. Then they played dress up with me. They had to run next door to get a bigger dress, though. 

Matar was my fearless camel driver for 5 days. He would cook me chai and 3 hot meals a day, but by the end of day 3, I was wishing for anything, ANYTHING, cold. On day 2 we saw a black cobra, so I didn't sleep as good the following nights, just nestled between 2 blankets right on the sand. Here's a tip: try to be the lead camel so you don't have to smell camel farts.

Matar was Muslim, so he didn't drink, but every now and then I'd catch him chewing opium. 

for more pics of India click on thiakonig.com/india