Happy Independence Day, India!! Today is day 3 in Jaipur, capital of the state of Rajastan, home of the Maharajahs of ancient India. I was in Delhi for the last four days of the Social Entrepreneurship course, for which I will back-post shortly, but wanted to play a little game of catch-up.
The program ended with more of a bang for me, personally, that I would have preferred... But as I have learned in the last three weeks, travel causes people to run the gamut of emotions, and in the end, it is probably best to just take your feelings in stride and not project them onto other people. I made the mistake of letting my emotions get the best of me in the wrong time and place, and am trying my best everyday not to let it affect the rest of my trip, when really, it made me want to say F- it all, and go home. Whether or not I will go home early is yet to be determined, and try to ask myself everyday, why am I here if not to learn?
I did learn that I never, ever, ever in a million years want to travel in a big group. Ever again. One, two, even three other people can be great traveling company, but a group of 20+, no thanks. It only breeds pettiness and immaturity, the likes of which I have not seen since high school and, frankly, I would have been happy to leave it there. I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say, I was happy to split from everyone on Friday, and start my independent travel.
Since then, after the most stressful road trip of my life (Indian traffic and driving is terrifying. NEVER in my life have I been so scared to ride in a motor vehicle! they swerve and honk and off-road - it's like real-life Mario Kart!), we have been roaming the busier-than-anticipated streets and sites of Jaipur. On day one, we saw the Amber Palace and fort, a lovely hilltop fortress built in the late 1500s, and had amazing thali (sort of the Rajastaini equivalent of tapas – little tastes of a bunch of dishes, but they give them to you all at once on a huge plate in tiny cups. Yum!). Day two began with a visit to the hill-top Monkey Temple and the Sun Temple, at which we were offered freshly opened pomegranate and had beautiful henna done on my hands, followed by a visit to some of the downtown Jaipur sites including Hawal Mahal, the “Wind Temple”, a 5-story temple with 1000 stained-glass windows, and Jantar Mantar, a walled park containing ancient astrological and astronomy tools, which are huge concrete structures, the size of houses – we are talking original contraptions here. The English translation of the explanation was a little rough, but for those who are into astronomy and astrology, particularly those into old school astronomy/astrology, I am sure it made a lot more sense. These devices are used to tell planetary, solar and lunar alignment and look more like something out of M.C. Escher or Alice in Wonderland than scientific tools.
Day 3 was spent shopping it up, first at FabIndia, a clothing company that works with a family cooperative and sells organic, ethically sourced hand block-printed garments. Absolutely beautiful. If we had those in the US, I would only shop there. Afterwards, we headed out to one of the street market to haggle with the not-so-nice salesmen, who always want to tell you that they will give something to you for the “best price” or “local Indian price”. Yeah.. we found out pretty quickly that they like to charge tourists, for trinkets and historical site entry alike, more than double the price they charge Indians (If you are lucky...). I am not one to complain about money, but the very obvious double standard is a little frustrating.
Along the way we made friends with Dana, an Israeli girl who is traveling alone for the year (!!!!). She was in China, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand and has been in India for almost a month. She is so lovely and made me miss Israel so much. Definitely need to get back there ASAP!
We are off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal tomorrow, so (hopefully!) more updates from there!
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