"HORN PLEASE OK"...

...this is painted in large rainbow letters across the back bumper of a great many rickshaws and buses everywhere I have been in India. Since there are so few traffic lights (none in Ahmedabad at all, in fact) the main rule of the road is the one who honks loudest and longest gets through the fastest. This is the reason I have now adopted a rickshaw driver trick- earplugs as a rickshaw passenger! (I'm a bit slow to catch on sometimes, but this is a fantastic new discovery for me- I am getting such good use of my earplugs I'll tell you.)

If Goa was too soft, and Ahmedabad too hard, Pushkar was just right. I was there for 2 short days- just long enough to visit the Brahma temple, do some shopping (in the good name of research) and book onward travel tickets. (I finally booked a seat on a train- a wait-listed seat mind you, which means I could end up sitting on the luggage shelf above, which is also ok and a perfectly fine way to travel in India.) Pushkar is absolutely delightful, and I could have easily spent another 2 weeks there.

Now I am in Jaipur "The Pink City", in Rajasthan, and I have spent one full day here. Jaipur is famous for constant hassles from rickshaw drivers wanting to take you to their brother's/uncle's/cousin's hotel instead of the one you asked to be taken to, or wanting to take you on a full-sight-seeing tour instead of the one stop you want. I was given fair warning of this ahead of time and have used the don't-mess-with-me tone, and have had no problems.

Jaipur is also famous for blockprinting, and today I visited the Anokhi shop and textile museum. www.anokhi.com/html/anokhi_museum.html Fascinating information about hand blockprinting, natural dyes, as well as some information about chemical dyes and some of the history of it's use and environmental effects (not on the website but in their museum catalogue.) Also today I visited a museum park of massive sun dial instruments, built in the 1700's. Huge constructions used to measure time to the accuracy of 2 second increments, as well as giant dials used to identify and locate planets, and other instruments used to measure the angle of the sun throughout the seasons, etc. Fascinating. Endless things to visit here. Endless textiles as well. Although organic cotton rarely makes its way into the Indian marketplace, natural dyes can be found here and there. Shop-keepers falsely claim synthetic dyes to be natural though, when I ask for naturally dyed items in regular shops. Caution always, in India, but there is some authenticity to be found with an educated and critical eye. Once you know it, the beauty of natural dyes cannot be mistaken.

Tomorrow I travel by train (hopefully in a chair!) to Delhi. First time to Delhi! Lots of places to visit there before flying to Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, on Feb 7th (stream-lined the itinerary.)