Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Cows.

Yes.

Cows.

Jaisalmer is a desert area and there is no grass for the cows to eat, so for the families who own a cow, they cook as if there was another person to feed, with the extra meals going to the cow.  These are milk cows, that provide the milk that the family needs, wants, or sells.

Cows chillin' in the street.

The cows are fat here, so clearly they're enjoying the grub.

I stumbled upon the act that this nation is a nation of vegetarians.  I inquired about it at the first hotel, and asked one of my guides for more details. Interestingly, he said that neither meat or fish of any kind, was eaten.  He had tasted chicken, but his mother and wife had never had.

Fascinating.

I saw wild pigs several times.  They don't eat these either, but I'm not sure what the benefit was for having them around.

Here's another cow resting.

Here are the pigs resting in squalor.

There is a canal in this desert, and there were schools of catfish, but people just feed them bread and the Hindu Priests give them brightly wrapped spices in balls. These looked like part favors.

The canal is to the left.

Another view of the canal.

Every doorway to homes and business had two chili peppers tied to a lemon, with five more peppers below that.  Every Sunday the folks put these in their doorways for good luck.  They throw the old ones in the street, and replace them with fresh ones.  It's a Hindu practice for good luck.

There are people under these sheds that
are shaping hot iron into knifes and tools - blacksmiths.

I slept like a rock last night.  The hotel is small and sparse, but it's clean and the folks are friendly.

I went to bed really early because I was really tired.  I woke up early, but went right back to sleep.  Besides taking a walk to a fruit stand, I've stayed inside all day.  I'll leave the hotel at about 4:00 heading for the train station.

This is a palace.

This is a view of the palace
where the royal family currently live.

I'm writing every day, but can't post because there's no Internet service.  This is a real rural area.  I saw a woman ironing with a coal iron.  There was a large area, about two inches, from the handle section to the iron plates.  In the middle there were holes for the coals to be placed and burned.

In many ways, it's like walking back in time.

This is a cool display of rifles.
This is at the palace, too.

Final note - I needed to make a local call, and my guide took me to an S. T. D.  Not sure what that stands for, but it was a telephone booth.  The room was the size of a booth as you might remember, but this one had a dirty plastic chair, and a regular looking desk phone sitting on a small shelf.  My guide placed the call, and a LCD sign above the phone lit up showing the number that we were calling and then a meter replaced the number and it was tallying the total due.  It cost less than five rupees (about 9 cents), to make a 10 minute call.

Last thing - about half of the town lives in a fort that dates back 1100 years.  It began with the people who served the royal family living along side them, and they stayed after the big wigs left.

I guess I'm living the black version of Eat, Pray, Love, minus the love part.

As always, thanks for taking this ride with me.