Jaipur, India 06.05

We arrived in Jaipur after another overnight train. We were getting used to the Indian trains by now, and enjoying ourselves on the ride. We arrived at a small hotel with a friendly receptionist who congratulated Loren when she told the auto-rickshaw driver that we wouldn’t need his services. They must get a lot of dumb tourists there.

We decided to check out the city by foot, despite the 43 degree heat. According to the Lonely Planet map, our hotel was quite close to the old city walls. In reality, it was much, much further than it looked, and the heat made every step seem like a mile. The walk wasn’t so bad though, as we got to see Jaipur in detail. We saw camels pulling carts, and every street was lined with the pink terracotta coloured buildings that Jaipur is famous for. It is known as the ‘Pink City’.

Eventually we reached the city gates and wandered through the little, dusty streets. Each street is known for selling different types of products. The one we went through sold bracelets, but we were too anxious to find somewhere cool to sit and rest our hot feet, so we didn’t stop to buy anything. We chose an ice-cream place in Lonely Planet, and decided to head there. Unfortunately for us, the place no longer existed, and we had to resort to McDonalds sundaes instead. The air-conditioning was spectacular though. We spent our time there admiring the range of Indian style burgers and vegetarian options available.

Our next idea for escaping the heat was to go to the cinemas which were located right next to the McDonalds. We had been watching Indian music videos on the TV at each of our hotels, and loving them. They are quite hilarious actually. The stars of most of them are Bollywood actors and one or two of them dominate the playing time on the music channels. Apparently some of them can’t even sing and have other people singing for them. We decided it was time for us to see a real Bollywood film. However the cinema wasn’t playing any movies with English subtitles.

Chokhi Duani

We had heard about a place just outside of Jaipur that had food, dancing and reconstructed Rajasthani villages, so we found ourselves a driver for the night. The ride in the auto-rickshaw was quite long, but we enjoyed it because we had the wind blowing around us. We arrived well before the action started, so we sat in the shade and searched for some water. They weren’t selling bottled water until later, so we stupidly tried some tap water. Not clever. We were dehydrated, so it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Eventually the crowds started arriving, and some performances started. Basically the place had several stages and when crowds gathered around them, the performers would begin. There were two stages with dancing, one with traditional Rajasthani dance, and another with women dancing the desert dance from Jaisalmer (the one where they carry 9 or 10 pots on their heads and dance on broken glass etc).

There were also painted elephants and horses and cows pulling carts. If you wanted, you could pay to go for a ride. Loren decided to just pat the elephant, that was good enough. There were supposed to be rabbits too, but we couldn’t find them.

There were some mystical events too, such as fortune telling and palm reading. We also saw a magician perform a few tricks with doves. He pulled three doves out of an empty hat! There was also a weird machine that plays music and you have to pay to look inside the little windows. We paid, but all it was, was a few pictures moving slowly in a circle.

One of the coolest things was for free! It was a lady who painted henna patterns on your hand. She covered the back and front of Loren’s hands with patterns. The patterns are made with a thick paste of ground henna, so they look black when they are painted.

However, you leave them for an hour, and then wash it all off. The patterns look red when the paste is washed off. Red is a lucky colour in India.

After this, dinner was served in one of the huts. Everyone sat on the floor along little rows of tables. The food was served in plates that seemed to be made of leaves – they were disposable ones. The drinks were served in wooden cups – water and lassi. The food was quite nice, some of it was quite spicy, but it was very tasty.

When we were at the magician’s show, we met a group of young boys who wanted Loren to hang out with them. So the two of us joined them, with Artur as a bodyguard, and we toured the park with them. They were all from Punjab in the North of India. We think that they had just finished high-school. They were nice guys, and fun to hang out with.

After a while we headed over to the games booths and shot bows and arrows at targets, and tried the air-rifles. The air-rifles were so out of shape that hitting anything was impossible, if you tried to line up the sights correctly.

After we left the group of guys, we found a tent where you could dress up in traditional Rajasthani clothes. Loren decided to try it out. The person who dressed her chose the outfit of a Maharani, the wife of a Maharajah. It took all of about 5 minutes to dress, take the photo and undress. Loren had no choice in the clothes, she just stood there as they attached various pieces of clothing and accessories to her, then ‘click, click’, and it was all over. The picture was pretty cool though.

The Conclusion to Jaipur

(we have included no pictures, for your own wellbeing)

After this we headed back to the hotel. Artur didn’t feel too well, and was anxious to get back to the hotel. Loren was fine until we got back to the hotel, and then the trouble began for both of us. We don’t know what it was that we ate. It could have been that our dinner or breakfast was badly prepared (as we had no lunch), or it could have been the water that we drank. Whatever it was, it poisoned us badly, and we had the worst night of our lives. No exaggeration. Loren was not any better the next day and struggled to keep any water down.

We rushed to the hospital in the morning, and got a prescription for some antibiotics and other stuff. The hospital was dirty and the stretchers and equipment looked like they were hand-me-downs from the 50s. Crowds of people sat outside cooling themselves in the shade of the hospital. Inside a woman lying on a bench was screaming while people tried to hold her down. Loren was still extremely sick but would not have stayed there for any amount of money.

We bought the medications from the pharmacy across the road and headed back the hotel, where we passed out for the rest of the day. Our sickness pretty much finished off our trip in Jaipur, as we were incapable of doing anything but lying on the bed and trying to swallow water.