So, as I've mentioned before, the state of Rajastan is chock full of ancient history of kings and royalty, dynasties and battles, all marked nowadays by ancient forts and palaces and temples. We've had our fair share of them!
In Jaisalmer, "the golden city" (the whole city is built out of golden sandstone from the desert) we did an overnight camel safari where we rode a few hours into the desert, explored some sand dunes then slept under the desert stars and an almost-full moon! It was amazing to get out of the city into the still wilderness for these two campers. The moon was so bright we could see the dunes all around all night from our sleeping bag bundles on the sand. Camels are wide backed which makes for some royally sore bums! They are bumpy, grumbly and strange creatures! But we had a great time.
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| Let the sore bums begin! |
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| At the dunes for sunset |
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| Andrew was up for sunrise with the camels |
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| Where we slept! |
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| Heading back |
Our last night in Jaisalmer we had THEE sweetest hotel room - it was built into the fort walls and we had a mini-balcony cushioned in pillows where we could watch the city from. We spent the evening watching the city and listening/singing to Christmas carols on our ipod, imagining the growing Christmas spirit back home. It was neat to sing songs about a 2000 year old story in an environment that has some resemblance to life 2000 years ago. The Christmas lyrics rang more clear to my heart in a culture that doesn't acknowledge the significance of Jesus Christ.
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| Our room - that window opens up to the outdoor window seat :) |
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| Relaxing :) |
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| The Golden City |
Next stop: Johdpur. We were pretty forted/palaced out at this point so were kinda grumpy about being in another city of the sort. But it turned out awesome. The city is traditionally "the blue city", and literally 80% of the buildings are painted in varying shades of blue. The fort was incredible - built on a natural plateau in the middle of the city, still run by the royal family, but open to tourists. It was all lit up at night, so the view from our rooftop dinner was epic! We had theeeee most amazing Indian food that night - butter chicken and garlic chicken with butter naan bread from heaven.
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| At the top of the fort in Jodhpur |
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| The fort ontop of the natural plateau |
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| Sunset over Jodhpur |
Now we are in Delhi, India's capital - only 20 million people. And I have not been impressed! (Except by The Life of Pi, which we saw today in English. An incredible movie and story, we highly recommend it!) Crappy hotels, bad-even-for-India-service, overwhelming haggling from people selling stuff... plus we are just plain old ready to come home.
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| A fantastic film to watch in India! |
This trip has surprised up - both of us used to get our biggest thrills from travelling and adventuring around the world. And don't get me wrong, it
is cool. But our hearts are so strongly being drawn homeward. Vancouver. Rooting down. Investing in people and our community. Dreaming about our future family. We have been so surprised at this! Three months is too long to travel. It's become aimless and pointless unless there is a purpose to it. Seeing sights and experiencing things doesn't cut it anymore in the same way. Travelling (for this long) for the sake of self is pointless, and selfish. We want purpose. And people. And tasks to work on. To live to serve Jesus and be others-oriented. To build a home. To invest in people. To build a life. To settle in a way that isn't settling, but in a way that is rich in life and full of love.
We're excited to come home. Vancouver: 14 days!
