6AM and we are on the way to the train that will take us to southern Rajasthan-the land of kings.
As a matter of fact we landed in Mumbai and went north to Jaipur which is the capital .
The landscape changes, there are no green fields of wheat or yellow flowers we saw from Agra to Jaipur but rather desert like sceneary, some trees but mostly dry land.
As we get closer the white magnificence of the palaces appears.
We drive through narrow streets up and down alleys towards our hotel which sits on the lake.
As we enter The Jagat Niwas Palace we think we are on the set of the improved Marigold hotel ( some of us saw Judi Densh in Jaipur filming the sequal).
We go on a boat ride, see the palace , unfortunately it is closed as the prince is getting married tomorrow.
The mountains around reminds of Italy, There is the summer palace which sits in the middle of the lake but alas it is converted into a fancy hotel.
We have a Rajasthan diner on the roof of another hotel by the lake looking at the palace.
I am not a big fan of Indian food but there is not much choice so I tried the daal which is basically lentil soup in yellow orange sauce, basmati rice, paneer with spinach and some spicy vegetables, desert is these round sugary balls .
As we leave we try the mix of fennel and sugar to cleanse our palate, it’s actually good, does the trick.

Sunday morning, it’s only the third day but the smells, the cows walking everywhere like they own the place, the morning bell announcing it’s time to deep in the holy lake of Pushkar and the chanting that sounds like a hummmmmmm.
Morning mindfulness meditation with Dina and we are off to see something different, a ray of hope for the future.
The Barefoot college is an NGO that started by Bunker Roy ( you can hear his talk on Ted) who came visited some villages in 1967 and opened BC in 1972, It teaches women a job and by that strengthen the villagers and help them solve their own problems. The women in Indian society does not have much to say, most are illiterate , once married she moves with her husband to his family and basically works for them, then there is the cast system . At barefoot college which runs by solar power we saw women making solar oven, we saw women weaving, we met women who got trained as dental hygenice, as accupunture. The place was clean and the building well kept. The man who took us around was very proud to of the place and the fact that women do everything. It’s an empowering and eye opener.
We continued to Jaipur and 8 of us boarded a train top Agra.
The train arrived 15 minutes late , we had assigned seats, not bad, felt like a crowded old metro north…
The weather has been cold , this morning started foggy then got lighter.
Can’t wait to see the Taj.

We woke up at 6am for a hike to a temple high up in the mountain , the temple is a small building devoted to Brahama’s first wife,her name starts with Giva…all the names of the deities in INdia are long and hard to pronounce.
As we started the walk, the street are dark, few cows roaming arounnd.We arrive to the top of a steep hill and the sun was rising.
The temple opened , there are three status inside the wife and her daughter and son, the story goes that when Brahama who is the father god asked for her to come she refused and it took her long time to come , by that time Braham found another wife and when the first arrived he banished her and she disappeared however she got upset and cursed him that he will not have a temple , there is only one temple for him in all of India and it is in Pushkar . We went to it later in the day, everyone must have a pilgrimige once in his lifetime..Hindu religion there is Father Brahama then shiva and vishnu then shiva has Ram and Krishna..then there are many other deities which are reincarnation of God all this to help people understand the concept of God, how interesting.
In Pushkar there is a lake where one supposed to wash everyday , at sundown there is a ceremony with lights and a bell ringing that forbids getting into the lake after. There are also pools where one can go bath, it’s all holy so you have to take your shoes 30 feet before.
So far what I see is worshiping all around, there are many temples, the gods are painted in colors and sometimes gold or silver leaf but the temples are badly maintained, paint pilling, broken stone , half build. It feels dirty.
To no surprise we found a chabad house and hebrew signs, the shopkeeper know little hebrew and try to guess where we are from by saying shalom etc to try to get us to come shop.It reminds me of the shuk in the old city right after the six day war.
We had a mindfulness session and yoga on the roof. To end Shabbath we had Havdala and went shopping.
The food is vegetarian, tonight we had okra, puneer, rice, sou. I have never eaten so much indian food, I have to take it easy, I felt a bit sick so
I had an Ayurvedic massage in the afternoon, it was fantastic, rejuvinating.