Rajasthan and a Funny Wedding

I'm in the middle of Rajasthan, in Jodhpur, known as the Blue City. Maja from Zurich arrived in Delhi about a week ago where I picked her up and now we are travelling together. Delhi was quite interesting and funny. With my couchsurfing-friend Deb we went to a very un-Indian modern and highly sophisticated cultural center called Indian Habitat Center where we visited an exhibition of an Indian experimental photographer. The 'scene' there was chic and looked cosmopolitan:-) we even met the artist and he -of course!- felt very honoured to have 'guests' from Europe (the privilege of white skin and western origin in this country - well... at least one privilege in contrast to being ripped off and cheated everywhere!!!). However, we suddenly were approached by an Indian who talked Swiss-German. We couldn't believe it. He was married to a Swiss woman and lived there for a while. So her learned the language. He has two kids in CH and goes there every now and then doing some 'business' as he says. He invited us to join a party at his place after the exhibition so we happily accepted his invitation. His place was 'de luxe' as expected. He proudly showed us around in his marble-floored roof-top apartment and served us the best Whiskey, Swiss Cheese, Italian Pasta (really Italian!!!), Salad with Olive Oil and Balsamico (things I'm dying for here in India!!!). However, it was worth to go there for the food at least:-)
The next day we headed to Pushkar, a popular traveller's hang-out about 6 hours from Delhi. The surrounding is already desert-like but also reminded me on mediterranean regions. The place was very nice and very Hippie-touristy with a lot of shops, German bakeries and chilling restaurants. We rented a motorbike and went on a short trip to the beautiful surrounding area. In a small village finally our motorbike got some problems wo we had to stop. We decided to take a short break when suddenly a car with some westerners passed by and stopped about 50 meters before us. They entered the door to a house so we thought it might be a restaurant or something like that. One western woman was dressed up in a sari and she was greeted by a lot of Indians inside the house. The whole thing revealed to be a wedding between this western -woman and an Indian. I asked where she's from and she said she's form the CZECH REPUBLIC!!! I couldn't believe it. When I started to talk to her in Czech she was very amazed and happy that she could talk in her mother tongue at this very important day (none of her relatives and neither her friends were there) so we were almost forced to join the wedding. An Indian wedding ceremony lasts several days with the last one as the most important one. We arrived at the second last one which I was actually quite happy about since I know how long-lasting and (almost) boring these wedding ceremonies can be. However, after having been invited to several Indian weddings in Bangalore and still not having joined a single one, this was the great opportunty; a Indian-Rajasthani wedding with a Czech bride. Fantastic!! However, the wedding turned out slightly tragic since Lenka (the bride) was in a very, very, very bad mood at the last and so important day; she refused to get dressed up properly, wearing the traditional jewellery and then she finally fainted when she was supposed to march out of the temple after the religious ceremony. Her new husband had to carry her home where she went to sleep and did not turn up anymore until the party was over. Yes, things happen:-) Yesterday we went ahead to Jodhpur where we are right now. The place is - or better- could be a jewel in India. The old city is interspersed with blue oriental buildings full of carvings and paintings. But the city is a mess! Definitely one of the dirtiest, if not the dirtiest place I have seen so far in India (and everyone who's been here knows how dirty India is!!!) The second malus-point are the poeple: hassles everywhere. Poeple penetrate you every ten meters trying to sell you every sh.. possible. And if you ignore them they can be rude and naughty; something I've never seen anywhere else in India. All the more, the cows are aggressive!! I was attacked by one twice today!! The first time of such an unpleasant confrontation with this animal after almost a year in this country of the holy cow. However, since I'm quite into architecture, the beauty of the architctural style compensates a lot. But poor Maja!!! So far she's mor suffering than enjoying. Yesterday she went ill (standard here as well, of course) and stays at the guest-house right now. She goes through the classic India-adjustment phase. Well, I know what she feels like and I try my best to cheer her up and cure her as soon as possible again.
So far so good. Next destination will be Jaisalmer, close to the Pakistani boarder with lots of camel-safaris. So more adventures are about to come.
cheers.
m i s c h o