Rajasthan and more!

Rajasthan (seat of the Rajas, aka kings :))

So last weekend I had one of my most enjoyable moments on this trip so far!

I took a train (Jan-Shathapti) to Kota, Rajasthan. It was a 7 hour ride, but who would've guessed. The "AC-Chair Car" was not too bad. Last time I took one of these "shathapti" trains, everything was free. Like food I mean, not ticket! So this time also I figured it would be free, I mean Shathapti is Shathapti, right? Wrong. Turns out that time I had gone on the Rajadani Shathapti, which is far superior to the Jan Shathapti. So anyway, long story short, the guy asked if I wanted lunch and I said to myself, "Sure, Im not feeling hungry at all (I had eaten at home) but if it's free, why not!?"

I ate some of the chapati and some dal, but it wasn't too great. Then everything was fine till I realized that unlike the first train, in this one people kept walking up and down the aisle yelling, "cool drinks, dood, frootiiiii" or "biscut chips biscut chips!" or "paaaaniiii, panipani paannniii" Haha. After hearing this I realized, yea they were charging for all this stuff. And surely enough, towards the end of the trip the guy came back to me and asked for 30 some rupees for the food. =)

Beside the fact that the train was 2 hours late, and that Bro. Renny, who was picking me up and with whom I was staying, had to wait at the station the whole time... the journey was not bad at all.


The people I was staying with turned out to completely blow my expectations out of the water, in a very very good way. In retrospect, I'm thinking I should have stayed longer. But unfortunately I couldn't. Saturday I spoke at the cottage meeting and Sunday again at the service.



Sitting on their terrace. This shot came out unusually well...


Eating Put! =) With banana (it was extra good because Renny bhaiya prepared the coconut by hand =) )


Taken while riding on a motorbike =P


After the cottage meeting... he came up RIGHT INTO MY FACE!!


At the park


Again at the park, above it says I'm in the hospital! =)


I saw this elephant and just HAD to take this picture haha!


Directing traffic... I was actually taller than the rim of that stand!


Being mischievous again. That statue was fenced in and about 5ft off the ground =)




Swwweeet looking shot. This is a reservoir of a dam.


Easily Distracted?


Nice bike!


Sunday night was our night out. We went to a park and then another park next to it...

We took a LOT of photos =) Then we finished the night off with some amazing Firdos food! If you ever go to Kota, go to Firdos. Buy the Mutton ... dish... with the B word after it. Its like the first one on the menu, I forgot the name though. It was amazingly awesome!

Then Monday morning 6am, took the train back to Delhi. This time the train was only 1 hour late, and I wasn't tricked into thinking the food for free. (I bought some food regardless... but that's because I was actually hungry this time) And thus ended my Rajasthan trip. There was so much more, but I just don't feel like writing it all down! Give me a break, its already 12:00 am here!

This is what the toilet in the train looked like, in case any of you were wondering:



Souvenir
Then there's that souvenir we've been working on for the past month or so. The one that would never save properly. The one where the files were like 400-500mb each. The one where if you brought the file from one computer to another (even the "proper" way) none of the fonts show up.... Yes... THAT souvenir is finally done and sent for printing!! THANK GOD. We celebrated with some KFC =] (Mind you, the KFC here tastes a little funny... kind of like the taste you get when you lick something off of aluminum foil. [don't look at me like that, you know you've licked things off of aluminum foil too!])

Now the meeting on the 6th of Feb (day after tomorrow) and I'm all set to go from here. Pune first, then Kerela! Yay!!


Wedding
Today I attended a wedding here in Delhi. The bride belonged to our church here. Married a guy from Maduri (near Agra)

The people (Bridegroom et. al. ) from Maduri were horribly late to their own wedding. But when they finally got here and we finally got started, everything went extremely well. Even afterwards (or during, for some of us) the food was awesome! I finally got to eat Gol Cupa (aka Pani Puri!) and noodles, and all these things. It was fantastic. Especially the Gol cupa, its mind boggling why it tastes so good! Only the sweet pani though, the chutney pani isnt so great.


My chow mien bowl was ripped!


Afterwards...


Next UP...
So my trip is somewhat winding down. On the 12th Ill leave from Delhi to Pune. It is about a 30 hr trip, but train, assuming the train will reach on time (which it wont). Then from Pune I'll go to Ernakulum, which is another 25-30 hr ride, with no delays.

All in all, those few days should be pretty intense! I like traveling on the train, so it will be fun.





So that finishes up another entry!

I know I forgot lots of stuff I should have added... but maybe I'll tell you those stories some other day!

Now I have to go because all these mosquitoes biting my ankles are starting to get annoying!


God Bless and Keep praying for all of us down here.



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God Bless You!