It has been so long since I have even had time to look at myblog... To be honest, I had so much come up in the past two months...Wow, its been two months since I got back from India... I didn't realizethat until now. Anyway, so much has happened that I haven't had sparetime to spend on my computer, or even reliable internet to write it with. I guess that's a good sign, that life is so busy that you don'thave time to sit and think about it.
Its going to be a challenge but now I am going to go back and tryand write about my experiences in India, although some of the colors and smellshave faded, I hope I don't miss the important parts.
The cow had better makeup than us
View from the top of the needle
We saw the Taj, I had my first taste of Tali, Lemon tea was my newfound obsession and now then moved on to the Pink city - Jaipur. Wearrived late that night to the cutest B&B, a quiet oasis of trees andgardens tucked into a very dirty and confusing city. Within the next 24hours we would soon learn how amazing that place truly was. I listened to the old man who checked us inas he warned us of the dangers the pink city would bring us. His final words would ring fateful and ironic“don’t trust the well-dressed boys”. Just to be very clear, FORSHADOWING, and continue…
Chia tea with strangers
We got up in the morning greeted by the warm sun coupledwith gentle appeals from native roosters. After a hurried breakfast of warm chapatis with spicy potatoes and friedveggies that still taunt my taste buds with its pure deliciousness, we ran offto main city.
Dancing in stage
My first impression of Jaipur was it was dirty. Plain and simple. You may think, well lots of parts of Indiaare dirty but this place was; blow your nose and dirt comes out, wash yourshirt after walking around for an hour dirty, anticipate lung cancer if youspend any amount of time there dirty. The roads were covered in dirt, the air was filled with dirt and smog, andthe walls at one point must have been a brilliant salmon color but with thesmog and dust in the air had turned a dirty brown/pink. I guess dirty is kind of a vague word,polluted would be more appropriate. Thewater was polluted, the air was polluted and as we would see shortly, thepeople were polluted.
the best place to stay
We had a pretty tight schedule if we wanted to see everything; thefirst place we went to was the tower. Situatedin the “back of town” we ran over as our first stop. There was no one there! Being that India has something like the mostpeople per square mile or something along those lines, it was a littlesurprising that this cool monument didn’t have a line or anyone else init. We climbed up the spiral staircaseto the top, there was so much spinning I thought I was going to get motionsickness from how fast we zipped up the stairs.
When we made it to the top we met the cutest German couple. They were hilarious and told us about theiradventures through India trying to pass as friends as homosexually is not justfrowned upon here it could be extremely dangerous.
Buddy
Looking down from the needle you had the greatest unimpeded viewof the city, the pink city sat low in the valley surrounded by mountains andmountain top forts. I couldn’t wait toclimb up and look back down on the city from the other direction. Below us, I saw small boys eating their lunchon top of a neighboring building, they seemed to be playing a game with marblesbut I wasn’t sure. Soon the grand viewsand breathtaking city line lost our attention and we started our climbdown. We did not go quietly we made goofy poses in the hall and stopped for photo-ops every chance we got before we made it to the bottom.
Resting in the noon sun
Checking in!
Somehow we made friends with the old man at the door, who insistedif we ever came back to call him and we would have dinner with him and hiswife. We are just charming like that Iguess. We spent a good twenty minuteslaughing and taking pictures with the delightful grandpa, who told us storiesof the ‘old India’. He was one of thewise old men you just want to sit and listen to, with the raspy voice andcrinkled eyes that spoke more about who he was than any of his stories everwould.
Aptly Named:
The Monkey Temple
We started down the street to look for a lunch place, I straggledbehind as usual distracted by all the sights and sounds, a perpetual problemfor me and the people who walk around a new place with me. Suddenly a boy my age stepped out in front ofme and asked me to stop. I was shocked,and very aware that I could not see my friends any more. On a side note, I did not get lost nor didanyone lose me, which was my biggest fear in a city that has no google.maps andI did not have a phone. He asked in veryproper English why ‘no one would talk to him, he just wanted to know whytourist would come to a city but not talk with the locals’ and he had a validpoint. As I started crafting myresponse, I felt Robin link arms with me and Solen returned as well, restoringmy inner confidence as the three of us started a dialogue about what tourismand travel was versus safety in a place with known for its swindlers. Before any of us knew it we were sitting downto lunch continuing our discussion on traveling etiquette. I was fascinated by the discussion we werehaving and was kind of intrigued by speaking with someone who literally grew upon the other side of the world. After lunch we all went and got chai tea, black for me, as our conversation continuedthrough the late afternoon. Admittedly,by the time we had gotten our tea, I had lost interest and the boy(I do not forthe life of me remember his name so I will call him Andre…. Because I can) Andre and Robin were in thecorner discussing fortune telling Solen and I began to talk again. Starting our own conversation about life andtea.
All of a sudden Robin exclaims "let's go to the shop!" Solen and I looked over curiously shrugged and followed. Our friend Andre had family in the cloth and jewelry business and offered to bring us! I started getting really excited, having a contact in the industry! I mean that would get us a good deal and an opportunity to see the best stuff. On our wayover Andre asked us all about American life; what we ate, where we shopped and what our tv shows where like. My overall favorite question from Andre was if 'college was really like how they showed it on tv?'
View of the mountains from the Tiger temple
Our first stop was the jewelry store... We spent about two hours sifting through rings and bracelets and pendants. I found the most garish and huge ring I could find. It's this fantastic bright blue stone it just sparkles in a way I haven't seen that often. I also got a small silver pendant which was the Hindi symbol for peace. Finally we left, to head over to the fabric maker. Then we were shown bolt after bolt and embroidered blanket after blanket of fantastic fabric. I may have bought more than I intended but I got the coolest pieced elephant blanket I plan on making into a quilt for my apartment. Although I have no way of proving it, the man who sold it told me that all his pieces are hand made by women in a neighboring town and they are all paid a healthy salary.
Tiger Temple Shenanigans
After we left we invited Andre to dinner with us as he had been so patient and kind to wait while we shopped around all afternoon. He agreed, and said he knew a cool place to go but the longer we drove along in the rickshaw the quieter and less responsive he got. Finally he said to us that he was really sorry but he lied to us. Then he proceeded to tell us a sad story but not an uncommon sorry of india. He was one of four, he was not a college student on his day off but works for his uncle promoting stores. He got a commission off of what we bought, he tried to give it to use but we wouldn't take it. For his whole day of hard work he made what is equilvilantly $20. He dropped out of high school to support his family. His parents could afford the amount his three sister needed for their dowry.
Tiger temple - View of the mountains
The rickshaw got really quiet but we still tried to include him I our conversation and talk with him as... Well.. We were all going out to dinner together and I mean that would make the rest of the night a little awkward.
Aptly named: Fashion Goats
When we first Arrived at our dinner location, there was a look shared between all the girls in the cab which said "where are we right now?" . We walked through the large arch, and were immediately charged for the preamade meal 750 rupees, which is a lot for some simple Tali. Then as we got through the velvet roped I was immediately overwhelmed with everything that is kitchy India. If you took took the top 10 things that come to mind when you think of India and turned them into idealized versions of themselves, and put them all in one place- that's what this would be. India: the theme park. However, it's not as though they were all tourist, we were the only non-Indians there. It was just very interesting. There was stations located all over the park, children dancing, a woman who balanced 15 pots on top of her head, and other shows. There was also mini food stations disbursed all over the park. Robin picked up a hot salted milk drink, which I heartily declined.
We found an elephant, but he was sleeping, and I would have rather let the poor guy sleep then get two minutes to ride an elephant. After wandering about we finally found the place for dinner and enjoyed a good meal, definitely not the best meal I had but it wasn't bad.
When people ask me what I did in India:
this sums it up
The real challenge came not 4 hours later when Robin came down with a nasty case of food poisoning from the hot Lassi at dinner. We ended up postponing our next move to allow Robin the rest of the day to recover. It was nice in a way to just relax in the peaceful garden started to read Shantaram which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn about India. This place had the most phenomenal food, and is hands down my favorite place I stayed at the whole time, and was my favorite food too. I can't tell you how wonderful our hosts were and how welcoming they were. I would go back.
As we didn't actually do the list of things we had intended in Jaipur due to being led astray by a kind face and slick talking. After Robin was up and around on our extra day in Jaipur we had to cram all the stuff we wanted to accomplish in two days into one. We got up early to take on the day renting a rickshaw to take us to the mountain top fortresses/temples before our overnight bus left for our next city. We ran up and down the countryside to visit the Tiger fortress and Monkey temple before heading back to our hotel to grab our bags and move on
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