Delhi to Mandawa

We flew back to Delhi and stayed there one night. The next leg of the trip would be a whirlwind tour by car of the state of Rajasthan. Back in Delhi we met up with our MAD team members, threw back a few beers and further discussed our volunteering experience. We all have too many ideas and we are excited to begin doing some research so stay tuned for what hopefully develops from our little pow wow session. It's a work in progress that will take time to develop but if you are serious about making a change you need to start somewhere. I've been very fortunate to have met like minded individuals and I know that we all met for a reason, so thank you to the universe for connecting us.  
Adrienne and I left Saturday morning and had intended to get to Jodhpur which was only 597km, again we assumed ( remember never assume in India) that it would be a casual 6 to 7 hour drive, but found out it would probably be more towards 12. If you ever come here things take twice as long, and the roads can be terrible. Never estimate by distance its all about time! We found out we would be overnighting in a small called Mandawa. Our guidebooks had nothing to say about it and we were not impressed. It took us close to 7 hours to drive 260km on a bumpy gravel road. Ugh. Feeling imprisoned in a vehicle all day is not good, but again the low energy  instantly transformed and skyrocketed as we entered our 180 year old guesthouse, The Hotel Mandawa Haveli(haveli means old heritage house or small castle). Breathtaking- yes! Loads of character-yes! It was a place that as soon as you walked into your curiosity lit up like a bonfire. I was in love and so happy that my feeling about coming to this small no name town was replaced with an abundance of warmth and happiness. It was the perfect little town. We had a candlelight dinner on the rooftop terrace which overlooked the entire village. The gentleman who took care of us was a gem, I've now realized that being in small towns here is so VALUABLE and I find myself never wanting to leave them. We had amazing conversation about life here in India- it's the best way to get the true reflection of the real everyday landscape of people here. Curiosity goes both ways and sharing your life stories about back home and life in India can be a long conversation, they are two completely different ways of life and both of us trying to understand how it works just kept to more and more questions and explanations. Even with the language barrier, silence can speak and release so much. Mandawa was a beautiful surprise and the only complaint was that I could've stayed longer.  Indian culture intrigues me, I'm absolutely infatuated by it.  Its like nothing i've ever known and the more I speak with people the more questions I have and the more I want to learn. That is what I love about traveling. Learning. Learning  about others way of life, interacting, connecting with complete strangers,being curious, getting a better understanding of all the "why's" that come into my head. For me happiness lies in the importance of getting outside the routine at home, we often fall so deeply entrenched into our everyday that we can easily forget that there is a world out there that we can learn so much from. It's an invaluable life lesson that continuously inspires me to become a better person.