I only knew a few basic things about Indian culture before coming here and as I’m sure you can imagine it’s been an educational experience. One of the more interesting things I have learned is about the Hindu caste system engrained in the majority of Indian society. The general population here is born into a certain caste which dictates the person’s job, status and often whom they are allowed to marry. Changing castes is difficult if not impossible.
Although the different levels of the Indian caste system surrounded me everyday while traveling here, my next stop was Jodhpur famous for its Brahmin caste blue buildings.
Every inch of these concrete structures are covered in my favorite turquoise, sky and periwinkle blues. It’s a very prideful thing to be a part of the Brahmin caste and they paint their homes the remarkable blue to help gain the respect and recognition they were born into.
There is also a giant fort in Jodhpur, sitting on a plateau, looking over the city. I wandered up there one day and was engulfed in throngs of women, dressed in red, singing and chanting 
outside the fort’s walls. I found out they were celebrating the approaching monsoon season. It always surprises me when I’m traveling the way a seemingly peaceful, quiet street can suddenly be mobbed with people, singing, celebrating, etc. And then just as quickly as they arrive they are gone again and the peacefulness returns.
During this leg of my trip I was still traveling with the British couple I met back on the camel safari and we spent a day on a village tour watching the locals make crafts and smoke opium. I was
psyched to try my hand at a homemade potters wheel- which despite my several years of experience throwing turned out to be a little more difficult. The old local men made it look so easy but trying to make a pot on a giant slab of wobbly concrete rather than the nice electric wheels I am accustom to was a bit more tricky.
My favorite part about Jodhpur was watching the daily life on the rooftops. It’s like a whole other world that comes to life every evening. Kids fly homemade kites, adults sit on pillows on the floor and the smells of dinners cooking on open stoves waft through the air. The views are spectacular. In one direction is the fort- ever present, looming, protecting- the other direction is the town center marked by a beautiful clock town and a palace on the horizon.
Continuing back east I hopped a bus to the little town of Pushkar where meat and eggs are forbidden but you can buy a bhang lassi (hash shake) at every corner shop. Wannabe hippies flock here for the cheap drugs and peaceful vibe. I was more enamored with the cheap silver jewelry at every corner shop! The town is nestled into a valley surrounded by green mountains that jut out of the flat land and is centered around a beautiful, holy, manmade lake where people come to bathe and be spiritually cleansed. Photography of people bathing is strictly forbidden at the lake and even walking around that area with a camera warrants harsh words from the locals.
One evening the British couple and I got stranded at a rooftop restaurant when a vicious storm swept through the city. We watched in awe, as the small city streets became raging rivers of 
water and locals scrambled to salvage their goods in the increasingly rising water. The thought of walking through thigh deep water full of things I’d rather not mention made us hunker down until the wee hours of the morning when the waters finally receded enough for us to tiptoe back to our hostel.
Pushkar was the place where my British friends and I finally parted ways. We traveled together for nearly two weeks and had endless laughs. Meeting people along my travels is always a little bitter sweet. You tend to bond so close to others who share the same daily peril as you do. It’s an instant connection and sadly the fact of the matter is you probably will never see that person ever again. A meaningful friendship that fits into the blink of an eye may seem hard to believe but for those who have wandered the open road and met fellow scramblers the understanding, the common bond is definite.
