Adventure of the month

I know I am not a normal tourist. The more offbeat and unusual an attraction is, the more I am drawn to it. In Paris, I made the obligatory trip to the Eiffel Tower, but it was the Sewer Museum that excited me most. My friend, AJ, still complains about a day sightseeing in LA that ended up in Watts (aka 'the hood') to see towers made of rebar and broken tile that had been erected by a local eccentric. I have dragged a carload of co-workers to the Funeral Museum in Houston. I live for this kind of stuff. Knowing this, it is no surprise how excited I was at the chance to visit the Karni Mata temple in Deshnoke. It is better known as the "rat temple", for its 20,000 or so furry rodents hanging out waiting to be fed and/ or venerated.

I am of two minds when it comes to Jaipur, the fifth stop on our journey throughout Northern India. On one hand, while I was there, I was extremely frustrated at the absurd amount of time wasted shopping, or to put it more accurately, sitting listlessly in stores. Our driver, Amar, had the unenviable task of making one avid shopper, one complete non-shopper and Laura, who could go either way, happy. Jaipur being a city well versed in shoving commerce down a visitor's throat, he usually opted for the path of least resistance and took us to a textile factory or a jewelry wholesaler or an antiques market or some other ring of Hell that I wanted no part of. I loathed it and by association, I loathed Jaipur and any moment not spent in a temple, fort or palace.