Malaysia and Singapore - The video!!!

Finally... After some times, the video about our trip to Malaysia and Singapore is online!!! Enjoy!

WATCH IT HERE!!

And (re)discover our other videos here!

Travelling is a job… that everyone can do !!

After 6 months of travelling (we started on 24 April) and almost 50000 kms done, we realize that travelling is a job !! 

Of course, we don’t have exactly the same responsibilities, but please have a look at these common points :

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-     When you don’t know if you still have enough money to pay your taxes, we don’t know if we still have enough money to dive !

-        When you don’t know what to eat tonight, we don’t know where to eat tonight !

-        When you don’t know which clothes you want to wear, we don’t know if we still have a clean T shirt to wear!

-        When you don’t know if you’ll have enough time to go at the supermarket before taking your children from school, we don’t know if we will have enough time to visit a place before our visa expires!

-        When you don’t know if the Regio Train will be on time, we don’t know if your plane will take off on time

-        When you don’t know if the smell of your perfume is still on your skin, we don’t know if our deodorant is still « working » !!

-        If you don’t know if there is a WI-FI connexion in the public garden, we don’t know if our next hotel will at least have a 56k connexion…

-        If you don’t know if you put too much salt in your meal, we don’t know if they put too much spices in it.

-        If you don’t know why the world is so bad when you watch the TV news, we don’t know how the world can be so beautiful and only few know about it!

-        If you don’t know what the plural of «paparazzo» is, we don’t know if the past form from « fly » is « flew » or « flied ».

-        When you don’t know if you have a flu when you have some fever, we don’t know if we have malaria. 

-        When you don’t know if you did a good bargain for the interest rate of your flat, we don’t know if we did a good bargain for the fruits we bought.

-        When you don’t know in which dust bin you have to through your empty bottle (recycling or non-recycling bin) we don’t know if dust bins exist here…

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So, as you can see, our life is not completely different from yours. To all of you who are hesitating of “doing the first step” and taking the decision to travel, let’s go!! It’s time for it now, before you regret that you didn’t go!! And you’ll see, it’s almost like your casual daily life J!!

And more seriously, travelling is a lot of preparation, but it’s also a lot of fun, discoveries, new friends, new tastes… We really enjoy what we are doing now… and we still have a lot to see !!!! So please, keep following us to "dream" with us ;-)

Jaisalmer and Bikaner, welcome to the desert

Who never dreams about calm and a zen place ? We found what we were looking for in the desert. Riding a camel, we spent 3 days in the great Thar Desert, near Jaisalmer.

Not really like the image we have when we think about desert (like nothing but sand and maybe one oasis), we found here a rocky desert with a lot of small trees, vegetation and small villages.

Though we found sand dunes…. And we slept there under the stars! Amazing! We could even make a wish after seeing a flying star and then we had fun trying to make picture with the camel’s shadow in front of the moon! 

3 days and 2 nights of calm, riding with camel in the morning, eating and having a rest in the very hot hours of the day, riding again and finally drinking chai on the sand dune while looking at the sunset!!!

We also used these few days in Jaisalmer to visit the city and the fort; a beautiful architectural monument.

By train, we went to Bikaner. It is not really a touristic place but it is well known for its rat temple (the temple is in Deschnok in fact, but Bikaner is the nearest city with facilities such as accommodation, restaurant…). To be honest, we were a bit disappointed by this temple. We were expecting a small closed temple with hundreds of rats running everywhere, but we found a big open temple (with a courtyard) and rats staying along the walls… not always in good health! So, don’t go there extra for it…If it’s on your way you can make a quick stop!

Bikaner is also famous for its camel national research centre. They have for different camel species, which are studied, analysed..  

The Bikaner camels have a sandy colour and got long eyelashes to protect them from the sand (because of wind). They are used for transportation and for racing!

The Jaisalmer camels are a little darker and are used for transportation.

The Kachchhi camels are black and are very good runners while the Mewari camels are white and used for milk. (good for diabetics)

A camel can live up to 27 years. Adults weight up to 750kg and measure 2,50m (from ground to hump) while a new born is only 40 kg for 1m. Its maximum speed is 40km/h and it can carry (not on its back, on a wheel truck) up to 1,5T. A female will give birth to 6 to 7 babies in her life (one at the time). The gestation period is 13 months and the female produces between 6 and 7 litres milk per day.

Camels can stay 7 days without eating and drinking in summer (more than 50 degrees) thanks to the fat they stock in their hump. But usually they eat 15kg grass per day and drink up to 100L water.

We just regret that the camels are controlled by pain and fear and not by training: 2 wood pins are “installed” in a sensitive part of their face (above the nose) where the camel guy put 2 ropes. When he wants to turn left, he pulls the left rope, this makes the camel feeling pain on the left hand side of his face, so he goes left… We don’t really like this way of doing, but all camels we met had the same pins!

After this small « lesson », we spent few time in Bikaner to discover the fruit market, the spice market and the sari market: a lot of colours, a lot of odours and a good atmosphere! 

Jodhpur and the Marwar Festival

For each day, one festival… It’s almost like that in India!!! Here in Jodhpur we were lucky to attend the Marwar Festival (to celebrate and commemorate the heroes of the Marwar Region).

But before telling you more about this festival let me tell you few things about the Jain Temple that we visited in Ranakpur, on the way to Jodhpur.

First let me try to explain you what is the Jain religion (sorry we didn’t understand everything, as it is really complicated, but if you want more info, you know where to search ;-) )

The Jain religion is based on the same principle as Buddhism or Hinduism : reach the Nirvana. But in this religion there is no God or Goddess. Jain people venerate “Tirthankaras” who are men who reached the Nirvana after several reincarnations. They are 24 and are represented without any “decoration” (as it can be the case for other religions) because Jain people have to follow 5 rules to reach the Nirvana:

-        - Non-violence (for all types of living, from a microbe to the biggest elephant)

-        - Sincerity (They have to tell the truth)

-        - Honesty ( They should not steal or cheat)

-        - Chastity (Or at least fidelity for the non-religious people)

-        - Non-property (They have to refuse all types of materialism and of property) 

The Tirthankaras are seen as “Bridge provider” to reach the Nirvana.

Okay, you know as much as we know, for the rest look on Google!!!  

Now that you have the basis, you can have a look at this beautiful Ranakpur Temple. It is the symbol for a celeste “boat” on the Earth (the Boat going to Nirvana). It is composed by 1444 pillars all different but with an impression of symmetry. The 4 entrances represent the 4 cardinal points. An amazing architectural challenge!

After this spiritual break we took a bus to Jodhpur. We had our breakfast in the sound of the parade composed with camels, dancers, musicians… Who walked in the street to announce the Marwar festival which takes place at the full moon of the Hindu Month of Ashwin (between September and October). The important moments of this festival are the traditional dances and the camel tattoo.

We followed the parade and we arrived at the football stadium where we were invited to enter. In fact, what we didn’t know, is that the city of Jodhpur uses this festival to promote tourism. The afternoon was also dedicated to small “competitions” where we were invited to take part!!! We had great fun:

We started with the lady race with water pot on head : In the tradition, women walked several kilometers to get water. And they used clay pot on their head to carry it. Here we had to carry a 7 kg pot for few meters while running. Flo reached the second place and won a beautiful trophy and a picture on the front page of a local newspaper!  

The following competition was as successful as the first one. We did the tug of war. First it was foreign ladies against local ladies and then the same with men. Each time, the foreigner team won!

The moustache competition and the most beautiful Maharajah were won by local people. About the turban competition, neither Romain, nor other tourists could compete with the dexterity of Indians. 

The afternoon ended with the camel tattoo accompanied by the unique in the world camel mounted band!

After a good dinner, we watched the traditional dances and then we felt asleep very fast as the temperature of 39 degrees made us really tired!!!

The next day we booked our train ticket (and if you think it is very easy as we are used to it in Europe, here it can be very difficult…) and we visited the fort of Jodhpur, the blue city (called like this because the rooftops of the old city are all blue... to preserve against heat and mosquitoes!!!)

Now direction Jaisalmer and its desert ! 

Udaipur : Last days of Durga Festival !

First, before telling you more about Udaipur, let’s talk about our 17 hour sleeper bus journey. It was… chaotic: a lot of potholes, a lot of hoots… Not really easy to sleep in but an experience to do (at least once!)

Okay, now let’s star tour story about Udaipur, in Rajasthan (which means Kings Land). The city is built around a lake (used as shower, washing machine, cars washing station, swimming pool… and much more) and is dominated by a palace. The streets are very small and you can smell spices, Chai tea, incense… But also cow dung!!! (As you probably know, cows are sacred and are free to walk in the streets)

We arrived two days before the end of the Durga Festival. Everywhere in town, we saw many parades with music, dancers and the statue of Durga. Each community of the city does its own parade!!! Some groups of people were doing the same as for the Holi Festival (Colour Festival to celebrate the start of harvest). We were walking in the street, and one of the parade called us to join them!!! Wahou, that was really nice, we were behind the truck, and Flo danced with all ladies (while Romain was taking pictures). People in the streets applauded and were taking pictures as well! What a lovely moment… and all without one single English word except from “Dancing Dancing” when I was having a small break to breath! At the end of the parade, they throw the statue of Durga into the lake to “erase” all bad things they did before!

In the evening, people dance the specific and traditional dance for the Durga festival : the stick dance : With wood sticks they do a perfect choreography. Flo joined them, and she learnt very fast!

In Udaipur we also met (completely by chance) a lovely family. While eating in a very little restaurant, we met Meenu and her two children. They were speaking very good English and we started discussing together. When they discovered that we would visit a fort on the next day, they ask us if they can join us! Of course!!! So on the next morning we took a bus together to go to Chittohrgarh, the biggest fort of India.

While waiting for her husband, we went to a public garden and we played with all kids there at this time. First we played the famous “I lost a letter” (in each country we visit, there is one local version of this game), and then we played a game similar to the musical chairs: children throw a ball (or a scarf) and when the music stops, the kid with the ball has to sing, dance, or tell a poem (or other rule, if you want to). Really nice!

After her husband finally came, and after the delicious potato curry made by Meenu was in our stomach, we took a rickshaw to discover the fort. We learnt a lot of things about cultures and religion! We started in Padmina Palace. The legend says that a beautiful queen lived there, already married, but the King of Dehli wanted to see her beauty and he went to the palace. When he arrived, he was brought to a room with a mirror and he was told : “ the Queen will sit on the stairs in front of the water, her face will reflect in water and then in your mirror; so you can see her. But if you turn your back to directly see her, you’ll be killed”. Nice story, isn’t it?  

After, we visited a marble temple and we learnt new « believe”. First, for good luck we should always ring the bells in temple. Then it always good to make a small offer to the God or the Goddess and to “eat” some incense ashes to get purified. When we go out of the temple, we should sit for few minutes to show the God(dess) that we were not in a rush while visiting the temple. Sometimes, behind the temple, there is a smooth vertical whishing stone: if your coin stays “stuck” on the stone, then your wish will become true!!!

We then went to the sacred water of the Temple. Here people drink the water to get purified, but you can easily understand that we didn’t drink one single drop of it!

We spent an amazing time together. The only negative point is that, here, everybody wants to take us in picture. At the beginning, we were smiling but after more than 50 we got sick of it!!!! In some other countries, some people were also asking but here it’s every 3 minutes!!! So boring!

For dinner, Meenu prepared us a delicious tomato curry with mint and coconut !! Now we are ready to visit the Jain Temple of Ranakpur and go to Jodhpur!