Mark & Jen's 'Around the World' Travel & Photography Blog

“Where can I buy a chocolate cake here in town?” The hotel manager hardly pauses before answering Mark’s question: “Why, Jitu’s of course. He’s the only one in town.” “Ah, good,” Mark answers, “it’s my wife’s birthday.” The manager pauses, eyebrows knit in serious contemplation. He presses his finger to his lips and then looks up at Mark in a genuine “Aha” moment: “Then you will need to make sure it is an egg-less cake.” “Egg-less?” Mark asks, confused. “Why?” “Because my brother and I are vegetarians. And do you want ALL of the rooftop restaurant?” Realization slowly dawns on Mark…. “Uh, I think just my wife and I will have dinner in a restaurant.” “Oh,” the manager continues his up-sell, “when my wife has a birthday, we invite the whole block!”

At the bakery, Mark tries to buy a chocolate cake. In the cases are a number of cakes completely smothered in icing, drowning in fluffy, sugary swirls of flowers and spirals. After numerous attempts at convincing the baker that he wants an ONLY chocolate cake with just a little icing, the baker finally acquiesces. “This is a surprise for your wife?” the baker nods. “Then you want this big!” he says, forming what looks to be an enormous sheet-sized cake with his hands. “No, no,” Mark tries again, “just a little one.” The baker looks a little disappointed in Mark, but this sugar-sweet fellow is still eager to help Mark act the romantic husband he knows he should be. “You want a heart for your wife, then, don’t you?” Mark pauses, knowing that I am not necessarily a heart kind of gal; but, he cannot argue this up-sell without looking like a jerk and so concedes. “Okay,” the baker smiles in agreement, “here’s my cell-phone number. You call if any problems. You come back and will have the best birthday cake in all Rajasthan.”

Mark takes me to an atmospheric restaurant inside the walls of the Jaisalmer Fort. Silky pillows and cushions embroidered with swirls of sequins and shining mirrors, surround the Indian-style tables. Regal-red tapestries cover the walls, candles flutter on the tables, and the small portico-sized windows gaze out from the wall of the fort to the town below. I would love to say we dined over a delicate array of Indian curries and spices, but…as both our tummies have been over-curried in the past few days, we order Italian pasta, Indian style. After dinner, Mark excuses himself and returns shortly with a dazzling chocolate-iced cake in the perfect shape of a heart. He slices through the advertised chocolate cake, and while we find that there is minimal icing on the outside, the amount of sugary cream on the inside can out-sugar any Mexican tres leches cake. And the chocolate, well…..when in India…!

Jaisalmer: Turning 30–Indian Style / Jodhpur: The Blue City

On our way back to the hotel, we stop by the shop to appease the request of the baker: “I must meet your wife!” Huge smiles light up his face as the whole street stops to listen to the goras. “How you like the cake?” he asks. “Oh, I loved it!” I praise him. “It was the best birthday cake in all Rajasthan!” “Of, course,” he smiles back, his eyes absolutely beaming. Passers-by nod in agreement.

I think this is what we are loving about India—the heart: the smile on the lassi-man’s face as he slams down his specialty on our table, the pride in the eyes of the cook when we say “acha”–very good–, the eagerness in the question of the hotel owners when they ask how we liked our stay, the pride in the voice of our guide when he explains the intricacies of India, the pleasure on the face of the telephone man when we say “thank you,” and the warmth in the handshake of the man at the Bikaner Camel Festival when he said, “Thank you for coming to our India.” People here are so proud of their country and their livelihood. They always ask, “How you like India?” People genuinely want us to love what they too love—the heart of their land.

Turning thirty…even if I am older than Mark again (only by 11 months to be clear), I think the timing is perfect.

Jaisalmer: Patwa-Ki-Haveli / Jodhpur: inside Meherangarh (fort)