Cultural relativisim

When last I writ I think I was mending my saddle sores from the camel safari. It all seems sooo long ago but it was just a few days wasn't it? The camel ride took place our of Jaisalmer. Since then I've spent a few nights in Udaipur. The claim to fame there are the abundance of miniature art schools specializing in miniature. I took a two hour art class and created my own work of art. Remember the ads with the picture of pirate or something that said "Can you draw this?" It was that kind of art school. I was gonna do a camel but everyone else was doing that so I did a horse and then bought a painting of a camel. . .and a horse. . .and an elephant, too! In the hindu culture the horse is a symbol of power, the elephant is a symbol of luck and the camel is the symbol of love ("if you can love a camel you can love anything"). Udaipur is also home to several palaces. I visited the City Palace and hired a guide. One of the things about hinduism is the number of gods they can worship-there are hundreds. The story goes that once an Indian king visited Rome and saw a special devise there. He asked the Pope what it was. He was told it was a telephone for talking to God. The king called God and spoke to him and when he was done the Pope told him it would cost 1000 Rupees. Sometime later the Pope visited the City Palace in Udaipur and saw a special devise there also. He asked what it was. He was told it too was for talking to Gods. The Pope called and talked for a bit and when he was done he was told it would cost 2 Rupees because in Udaipur, it is only a local call.

Udaipur has a couple of lakes with palaces built out in the middle but I couldn't visit because the water level is too low for boats right now. :-(

Five hours by train from Udaipur and I'm now in Pushkar, a holy city. There are about 40 temples here. Fifty-three Ghats surround the holy lake in the center. Ghats are the steps down to the water where the Brahmins go to say prayers and take cleansing holy baths. I was allowed to participate in a Punja and that got me a Punja Passport, a special thread bracelet to wear which keeps the scam artists from coercing my into attending unofficial Punjas. I guess it works because no one else has tried to cleanse me since. The bracelet doesn't stop the merhants from inviting me into their shops "Only to look, madam. Free to look" A lot of the shops have the same kind of things in all the towns and cities but each town also has shops that have items that are unique to the town. In Udaipur, it was the miniature paintings. Here in Pushkar, it seems to be the leather bags. So far I have resisted the leather bags.

Well, knock wood-all of the various maladies seem to have worn themselves out trying to get me to succumb completely. All my digestive ills have long since stopped. The cold that I finally did catch didn't develop into the dreaded cough. My camel saddle sore is healing nicely. I only have to survive another 10 days or so here in India . . .and then I get to do it all again as I venture into Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. I should probably go look up 'diarrhea' in my English/Thai dictionary just to get ready!