Fat Rats and other stories

Although we still seem to recovering from jet lag and we are both fighting colds, we still manage to get out and see some sights from time to time.  Despite the fact that just walking out the door of the hotel is a cultural experience, we try to be actual "tourists" at least once a day.  One day, we went to the Rat Temple.   The Rat Temple is outside of Bikaner in a town called Deshnoke.  We took a local bus to the area, much to the amusement of the locals (we were the only tourists on there, and nobody else spoke English, and we hadn't brought the guidebook, which has some Hindi phrases in it).  The Rat Temple is devoted to Ganesh, who is shown to be carried around by a bevy of rats.  We arrived on what I think was a Hindi festival day, because there were loads of people, some were dancing up to the Temple itself, playing drums and singing.  I had cleverly worn my covered shoes, for fear of ratty feet and tails, but wouldn't you know it, we had to take our shoes off in order to enter the Temple, which I should have known, since that's standard for Temples.  We left our shoes with the shoe people (there is usually a desk where they will guard your shoes free of charge) and were ushered into the Temple (foreigners and ladies get to jump the queue).    Well. The ground was sticky with sweets and I shutter to think of what, and really there were more people than rats. These are possibly the FATTEST, LAZIEST, most well fed rats in the world.  It must have been too hot for them, because there were not all that many around, but those that were were sleeping, hanging off the cast iron fences and generally just lazing around.  There was enough food in that place to feed 100 times as many rats as were there.    The idea is that if a rat runs over your feet, that's good luck.  If you step on one, that's bad luck, and if you see the elusive white rat, you're the luckiest person in the world.  Well, we don't need rats to tell us our luck, but we walked through the dark tunnels, watching people bless themselves by touching the walls and bowing to the shrines.  For some reason I forget before arriving that these Temples are like our churches - they're not just tourist attractions, people actually go to worship.  People actually pray at the Vatican and at Mont Martre, too.  It's always interesting to see another culture's religion.    There are so many things that you take for granted when you're at home.  Water, for example.  I was talking to an Israeli girl on the train who has been travelling in India for 3 months.  She will be here another 3 months, then go to New Zealand.  I said "You'll find things easier in NZ" and she said "How do you mean? You mean they're more Western?" and I said, "You can open your mouth in the shower" and she opened her eyes very wide and said "REALLY?" and I nodded and smiled and she said "I think that's what I'll do first then.  Run to a shower and open my mouth". You can't do that in India.  Nathan and I go into the shower (about 6 or 8 times a day because it's so hot) with our mouths firmly shut and make sure and spit if even a drop of water gets in.  Otherwise we risk some kind of gastrointestinal upset.  What we're doing seems to be working - no sickness yet!   We have met some people who are travelling for 25 years.  THey're independently wealthy, but they are also vegans and try to eat most of their food raw.  Nathan and I were of course interested, since we like salads, but don't dare eat them from restaurants.  They shop at the local markets, peel their tomatoes/carrots/beets/cukes/onions, sprout seeds so they can have sprouts every day and use lemon and salt for seasoning.  THey showed us how and Nathan and I were inspired to do the same.  We now eat a big plate of fruit for breakfast (apples/oranges/bananas/papaya/guava/some brown fruit that tastes like caramel/pomegranate/etc) and eat a salad for dinner.  In between, we might eat some of the local stuff, but we're happy to be eating something crunchy every day.  Cheaper too, and we are starting to bargain at the markets, which is always interesting.  Hard for me though.  Nathan has an easier time.  It seems wrong to give them less when it already seems to cost so little.  BUt I will get better.