Hot diggity

So, I just happend to get to Bikaner in Rajistan on Diwali. Diwali is a little bit of a cross between Christmas and the Fourth of July. I have never in all my life seen so many fireworks/firecrackers set off in such a short period of time. What makes things even more intense is that they sell these firecrackers that look like half sticks of dynamite, and when they explode there is so much force it raddles windows about a block away. Being close when they go off is amazing becasue you can feel the shockwave blow past you. I have watched a number of children, under adult super vision, holding these exsplosives. The children then light the fire cracker and wait as long as possible, then throw it into the air so it explodes before it hits the ground. I can't imagine how many lose hands during this holiday every year.

I realized that I havent had a hot shower in 1 month, and that I've only had 1 in the last month and a half. That shower lasted less that 5 minutes before it ran out of hot water. Its funny, but when you don't have access to a hot shower, they seem a lot less important. I have showered maybe 6 times in a month and a half. Thats a pretty poor average for me seeing that I enjoy taking at least one a day back home. The lack of showers was hard on my hair which has been getting pretty long... at least on top. This caused my hair to start dreading on 3 seperate occasions. Thats not really my thing, so I cut my hair today with a pair of swiss army knife scissors. I had so much fun, I may never use regular scissors again.

Lastly, I started to get frustrated with people here. Walking down the street attracts so many locals who want to talk it becomes an obstacle course just to go one block. Talking to be people would be fine, but they all have the exact same questions, and usually don't understand your answers. For this reason I've begun telling everybody that my name is Count Dracula and that I'm from Tunisha. Every once in a while I meet people who can speak English and the inevitable "are you married" question comes up. When the person who asks that question realizes I'm 25 and not married, they are often horrified. Questions sometimes range from, did you parents drop the ball when it came to arranging your marriage, to "your not that weird looking how on earth could you be single". Marrying for love (as they call it here) is sometimes a fun concept to explain to people. The best is when people offer to introduce me to an eligable girls parents.

Anyways, I leave for Pushkar tommarow. The motorcycle is great so far. Theres a motorcycle racing track across from my hotel and I got to ride slowly around it a couple of times. I'm feeling better. Everything is swell. Bye for now.