Somewhere in the Thar desert, about 65 kilometers from Pakistan’s eastern border, under the light of a full moon and surrounded by growling camels and Rajasthani rhythms played on traditional instruments (a plastic antifreeze jug and a metal plate), we met our doppelgangers!
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Nina and Andrew are a British couple living and working in Bangalore, and who, it seems, have done everything we’ve done, only just slightly before. Watching them was eerily like looking in a mirror, from their disastrous attempts to quit smoking, to their ability to both stay up and sleep later than anyone else in the group. We’re thrilled to know people in Bangalore, especially ones we feel like we’ve already known for years.
This video was shot, by the way, with the Canon 5D Mark II… though the HD does not come thru here, sadly, unless I join Vimeo PLUS for 59 bucks a year; am pondering.
In Rajasthan, an elaborate and unique moustache is a sign of happiness and prosperity, and if the tips point upwards, then one is said to be closer to God. Or something like that. While in the cities I have been almost every day told that I look like a WWE wrestler called The Undertaker, in Rajasthan I was more often complimented on my facial hair…
Before landing in Bangalore, but after leaving Delhi we took a honeymoon swing through the Indian state of Rajasthan.
Rajasthan, a place that, until 48 hours before we left, was just another of those far-flung duck-and-cover “sthans” I had never bothered to learn the difference between.
During the extended dance-mix car ride we took turns watching out the window as our driver wove in and out of on coming traffic like he was playing a video game; eventually we pretended to sleep curled up in the back of the hatchback like Labradors.
In Jaisalmer, we booked a luxury tent that has effectively ruined Burning Man for me, at the Ajit Bhawan Palace, which was once home to the royal family of Jodhpur. The palace, like many in India, was turned into a “heritage hotel” after falling into disrepair following Indian Independence, when the new government stopped paying the figureheads across the country just for being fabulous.
