Well, tonight my bloated head burst when we entered the "big temple" and hordes of people gathered round to ooh and awe at - yes - everyone in the group! Shit. I thought they just loved and adored me. Seems its the light coloured skin that sets them off!
The temple (which I was loathe to go see as it was the 16th temple in two days and it is still 1000 degrees outside!) was incredible, and I am glad that I bore the heat and went (though within minutes the modest white cotton skirt I wore was clinging to me like a wet towel because I was sweating to much). It was HUGE! A massive complex of mini temples and big temples and all manner of carvings. I will upload all the temple photos on another post. But truly, the best part was the continued celebrity we all enjoyed. What is interesting is that people want to take their pictures with us...but with Our cameras! They don't have cameras. They just want to see the playback on our camera. I suppose most have never owned a camera and so naturally have had few 0pportunities to see what they look like on "film."
I also got blessed by an elephant tonight. Pretty cool. You put a rupee in his truck (literally), and it puts its trunk on your head and blesses you. All Hindus revere elephants, so they are usually around the temples.
Tonight we all had dinner together - as we usually do - and decided it was time to start sharing food. That is when I knew that we had travelled together long enough there is some comfortableness with each other.
Hard not to get somewhat close when you travel for hours on end together in a van that at almost every corner is a near death experience! The roads are endlessly fascinating to me. I am obse4ssed with watching the near misses. I sit in the front seat behind the driver, ready at any moment to a) leap across Nathan's lap so that the oncoming bus takes out his right knee cap and not mine, b) videotape the nonstop chaos that unfolds out the front window, c) ask the tour guide Sanjay my endless stream of questions. It seems I am the only one that wants to know all the gooey details of dowreys, castes, reincarnation, etc. Speaking of reincarnation....today after videotaping several near miss collisions (one between an oil tanker pulled by an OX and a bus, and one between us and a herd of sheep), I asked the guide about reincarnation, and after he explained that Hindus believe you come back to a better life - a higher caste - then I said, "Well then, do Hindus not fear death? And he said no. "Well that explains the driving then doesn't it?" I said!
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