What a day it was. Not quite sure where to start. How about the morning? I have been awake reading and listening to my ipod for about half an hour now, it's 7:45. Neither what I am reading nor what I am listening to has any relevance to the story so I'll skip remarking on it. In most cases I must agree with you- that they do have some importance, sometimes a significant one but for my purpose here today it does not. Days feel like months. What is the next move? Sawai Madhopur is it, Ranthambhor national park, hopefully to see some tigers to be more precise. (This was the plan but today was the trip to the park and no tigers were spotted. Many other animals and copious amount of monkey were but no tigers.)
Off to the train station it is. I have had a few nuts so far today, some India trail mix if you will, Kuch Kuch. It's delicious. A bit of water and this amazing sugar filled mango drink called Slice. I am not sure but I think I am addicted - at 20 cents a bottle I have no reason not to be. Slice, mango gold. The train ticket like any tedious task become a full event in itself. We need three tickets; one to Sawai Madhopur, one back to Jaipur and one to Ajmer. The later two on the same day. Our route has been altered by this small trip to the park but I feel it will be worth it. (It proved to be, this place is beautiful and a nice break from the major city scene.)
"I guess my feet know where they want me to go." -James Taylor.
I feel a man should work for his breakfast, so other than the trail mix we had not eaten. We had to get it over with. The bureaucracy in India is unbelievable sometimes. We had heard it would be bad and test our patience. We heard there was no way to prepare for the shock of India and what we heard was spot on.
To go back to some of the observations I pointed out in my last post, here is one more: There are no lines in India, no queues. Imagine a man behind a glass window with a hole to pass him things (forms) and another hole to speak through. Now, if you think you are ready to speak to the man behind the glass, your ticket is ready to be purchased, you filled out your form with your name, address, berth choice and train number, then why would you wait in line? Just hand the man some money your form and that's it, right? Well, in India, everyone thinks they are ready. There are a million flailing hands, oh yeah and at 11:20 they get a 20 min tea break so today I witnessed this man, mid-transaction with this elder woman, stop listening to her put up his break sign and walk away. MID-TRANSACTION! It was funny, in a wtf kind of way, but laughing. It goes without saying that we worked for our breakfast, which was 2 crushed Samosas with curry sauce on the from a leaf bowl outside the station.
Back to the hotel to regroup.
We asked our hotel manager/owner, one of two brothers, to phone the two guys who picked us up at the train station to tour us around in their auto rickshaw; Bablu and Wasseem. Both are young men from Jaipur. Their rickshaw was named "naughty boy,' again wtf kind of humor.
Being Muslim, they don't drink, they kept asking how to pick up women: I fail to see the naughty, but they were awesome guys. We paid them double what they asked cause it made no difference to us and all the difference to them. Wasseem wants to learn English like no one I've ever met, he listen to things like Akon and watched Titanic in order to improve. I may have made a few joke at his expense about him headed in the wrong direction but I don't think he got it. He love Leonardo DiCaprio so he made up for all else. Anyone passing through Jaipur in India should get them as their guide. Our first stop was 'Royal Gator', where all the royal family of Jaipur is buried and will be buried in the future. It was calm, the marble tombs were all hand crafted. It was gorgeous. We proceeded to Amber fort- again, lovely. It was a huge fort surrounded by walls, garden and monkeys. Really, what more could you ask for? We went to a Market or two to pick up some gifts. Everything is so damn cheap here, it's great. Then on to 'Bundar Mahal', Monkey temple. I fed some monkey peanuts and three little kids, friends of Bhablu and Wasseem led us to the top of a mountain where a Hindu temple was. We are blessed, red dot and all, fed some more monkeys, directly hand to hand and walked back down. 
At the end of this unforgettable tour, we headed back to our hotel, Sunder Palace, but not before picking up one last little thing: a mini guitar.
My life is complete
Off to the train station it is. I have had a few nuts so far today, some India trail mix if you will, Kuch Kuch. It's delicious. A bit of water and this amazing sugar filled mango drink called Slice. I am not sure but I think I am addicted - at 20 cents a bottle I have no reason not to be. Slice, mango gold. The train ticket like any tedious task become a full event in itself. We need three tickets; one to Sawai Madhopur, one back to Jaipur and one to Ajmer. The later two on the same day. Our route has been altered by this small trip to the park but I feel it will be worth it. (It proved to be, this place is beautiful and a nice break from the major city scene.)
"I guess my feet know where they want me to go." -James Taylor.
I feel a man should work for his breakfast, so other than the trail mix we had not eaten. We had to get it over with. The bureaucracy in India is unbelievable sometimes. We had heard it would be bad and test our patience. We heard there was no way to prepare for the shock of India and what we heard was spot on.
To go back to some of the observations I pointed out in my last post, here is one more: There are no lines in India, no queues. Imagine a man behind a glass window with a hole to pass him things (forms) and another hole to speak through. Now, if you think you are ready to speak to the man behind the glass, your ticket is ready to be purchased, you filled out your form with your name, address, berth choice and train number, then why would you wait in line? Just hand the man some money your form and that's it, right? Well, in India, everyone thinks they are ready. There are a million flailing hands, oh yeah and at 11:20 they get a 20 min tea break so today I witnessed this man, mid-transaction with this elder woman, stop listening to her put up his break sign and walk away. MID-TRANSACTION! It was funny, in a wtf kind of way, but laughing. It goes without saying that we worked for our breakfast, which was 2 crushed Samosas with curry sauce on the from a leaf bowl outside the station.
Back to the hotel to regroup.
We asked our hotel manager/owner, one of two brothers, to phone the two guys who picked us up at the train station to tour us around in their auto rickshaw; Bablu and Wasseem. Both are young men from Jaipur. Their rickshaw was named "naughty boy,' again wtf kind of humor.
Being Muslim, they don't drink, they kept asking how to pick up women: I fail to see the naughty, but they were awesome guys. We paid them double what they asked cause it made no difference to us and all the difference to them. Wasseem wants to learn English like no one I've ever met, he listen to things like Akon and watched Titanic in order to improve. I may have made a few joke at his expense about him headed in the wrong direction but I don't think he got it. He love Leonardo DiCaprio so he made up for all else. Anyone passing through Jaipur in India should get them as their guide. Our first stop was 'Royal Gator', where all the royal family of Jaipur is buried and will be buried in the future. It was calm, the marble tombs were all hand crafted. It was gorgeous. We proceeded to Amber fort- again, lovely. It was a huge fort surrounded by walls, garden and monkeys. Really, what more could you ask for? We went to a Market or two to pick up some gifts. Everything is so damn cheap here, it's great. Then on to 'Bundar Mahal', Monkey temple. I fed some monkey peanuts and three little kids, friends of Bhablu and Wasseem led us to the top of a mountain where a Hindu temple was. We are blessed, red dot and all, fed some more monkeys, directly hand to hand and walked back down. 
At the end of this unforgettable tour, we headed back to our hotel, Sunder Palace, but not before picking up one last little thing: a mini guitar.
My life is complete
Awesome Chris!!!! This is so much fun to read! You should try to find the book Shantaram by Gregory Roberts...probably a tall order out there...but none the less. It takes place in India, etc. I'm sure you would love it. Please...please get lots of pictures of tigers!!!! And...if you can find a Gibbon...all the better!! Glad you are having such a great time thus far and I look forward to reading more!!!
ReplyDeleteXOXO
Soph