Near.. Far.. Wherever you are...

(This is Susanna making a guest blog appearance. )
So Ellen, Gillian and I had checked into our first hotel in Jaisalmer, where we were given the room directly behind the front desk, complete with window facing said desk. Relaxing that night, about to fall asleep, the quiet but distinct sound of Celine Dion being hummed by our extremely dignified, possibly Hare Krishna hotel proprietor came wafting in. Yes, Ellen confirmed it, that is definitely the Titanic theme song. Of course, we responded by singing along. Maybe it was that or maybe it was Gillian's late night political and philosphical discussions with the same fellow, and almost certainly his brother's obvious interest in Ellen played a part... in the Hotel Jeet Mahal becoming our adopted family for the week. And maybe the whole trip? We had a bit of a rough beginning since we were all a bit awkward in the bargaining department, which led to quite a scene, after which we flooded the bathroom and advised some other tourists not to stay there. But it turned out to have the best shower in all of India (as far as I know), a good internet connection, and a really sweet family that we kept going back to hang out with even though they never had space for us to stay there again after our camel adventures. We did get to use the shower again, thanks to Gillian's good work ambassadoring our successor in the reception room.
But we had to move on because I was due to fly out of Delhi and we still had an overnight train and another city and some national park exploring to do, so...
Into the wilds of rickshaw drivers, camel wagons, motorcycles carrying whole families, train stations jam packed with people , and the non a/c 2nd class 3 tiered sleeper car of the train. not for the faint hearted or the gastrointestinally challenged. Which, unfortunately, one often is when traveling in India. But we made it to: Jaipur! And immediately tried our luck with the morning bus to Bharatpur. Which we found to be a refreshingly pleasant location... clean rooms! bouganvillea! a balcony for hanging ALL of our handwashed clothing, and pretending to do yoga on! And the promise of bicycles for rent, from which we could happily explore the large bird sanctuary the next morning...
Gillian couldn't wait and borrowed a bicycle from the guy next door so she could go to the train station to get our tickets for Delhi. When someone asks you not to give them anything at all in exchange for a bicycle in India, watch out.. apparently there were no brakes, the seat was lopsided, and the pedals were about to fall off. But Gillian was very determined and off she rode into the sunset, with only the shouted directions of passersby, a constant and ever growing audience of locals, and a large swarm of gnats to keep her company. Gillian is my hero.
The next day we decided to walk to the park and rent bicycles there, only to discover that apparently the director of the park had, just a few days before our arrival, made a rule that no foreigners could ride bicycles in the park anymore. The rickshaw mafia stikes again! There were plenty of bicycle rickshaws, and we considered trying to rent one of them (without driver, so we could take turns pedaling) but decided that arguing with the park officials was a much more profitable approach. In the end, we walked. All day. But it was really lovely, and there were lots of amazing birds, even for three city girls, and monkeys and cows, and some sort of mysterious animal that apeared to be a cross between a cow and a deer but turned out to be the world's largest antelope. And then we got to have yummy banana pancakes for dinner. Or breakfast.
After that it was the morning train to Delhi, and my last day in India.
I miss you two, and I know you're having amazing adventures! Lots of love to ya