Namaste from Rajastan. We arrived yesterday in Pushkar, which is famous for it's beautiful, holy lake. Unfortunately, the holy lake needed some holy maintenance and so it's been drained and there are lots of holy bulldozers digging around inside.

It's actually cooler here than in Dehli so we're enjoying a balmy 100 degree day. We woke up early and climbed to a temple on a nearby mountain. From what we've observed, Indians don't work out much and a climb up a mountain is quite a chore. Therefore, we got a chuckle at the restaurant near the bottom of the trail that was called, "Cafe Base Camp."

It's low season in Rajastan right now due to the heat. I guess some tourists aren't keen on travelling in 119 degree weather. Go Figure. We're enjoying it because we get the locals all to ourselves. Pushkar is a pilgrimage city so many Indians journey here from smaller towns and don't see many enormous white girls. Many people just want to shake our hands and have a chance to speak with us. It's cute because they use children as an excuse to get close to you. They pretend like little Raj wants to meet you but Raj is actually terrified of you and it's his whole extended family of 29 relatives who really want to meet you and shake your hand and get their photos with you.

We've only once had a bad experience with someone who wanted to meet us. It was on an all-night bus trip and in the morning, a guy came up to us and asked if he could borrow our Lonely Planet India book. (As a side note, Indians are interested with whatever I read and always ask to see the book I'm reading.) When he gave the book back, he had a freaky, devilish look on his face and started to move his hand towards Lori and said, "Can I touch you?" Our reaction was so violent he ran back to his seat and hid for the remainder of the trip.

I've been asked by some of you about the negative in India . Overall, we've had a wonderful experience and the positives far outweigh the negatives. If there are negatives or quirky things, they are the following:

1. Everything is filthy. The streets are jammed packed with pedestrians, cows, cars, motorcyles and garbage. Littering is not only acceptable, it's expected and there is trash everywhere. When walking, you are dodging potholes, honking horns, screaming vehicles, holy cow crap and everyone's dirty garbage.

2. Horns, horns, horns. Every vehicle constantly blares their horn. If you are walking down the street and see a car coming your way and move to the side, they will still blare their horn at you from 3 feet away just to be certain you don't jump in front of their car. They don't consider it rude to contribute to your hearing loss. They think it's compassionate to let you know they're coming.

3. The begging. I expected to see much more begging than we have. I live in Santa Monica and I'd have to say begging there is comparable to India. None-the-less, it's never fun to see a dirty 10 year old carrying their 6 month old sister begging for money or food. Lori and I have a general rule that we don't give any money. What we might do is pop into a store or restaurant and buy them some naan or milk.

4. This last one isn't really negative, it's more comical. Whenever we pull into town early in the morning on a train or bus, you'll always see the men lined up around the tracks or out in the field using the toilet. But they aren't technically using a 'toilet', they are just squatting and doing what needs to be done. We never notice the women doing it and we chalk it up to women being more evolved and a little classier than men!

Right, Lori and I are off to Udaipur now on yet another overnight bus. I'll report more from there! Love K