Jaipur (Part I)
Having had a late night chai induced insomnia, I woke with really not enough sleep this morning. A noticeable difference immediately in this guesthouse is the absence of car noises, but birds chirping (and pigeons installed right on my window ledge) instead. I take a morning walk around the neighborhood of the hotel. Jaipur is quite different from Agra - streets are straighter, and people are actually sweeping their steps clean. In these streets are mainly women, who regardless of what they are doing, are dressed incredibly colorfully. I encounter a marching band chilling out on some steps with a dancing horse.
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Arriving early to meet Isabella, I go on a search for toilet paper. The use of TP is kind of a western thing. Indians tend to just use a little bucket of water to rinse. I still haven't figured out how to do this yet, but it sounds like it would be a good way to use fewer paper products.
***
Isabella and I have lunch on a hole-in-the-wall rooftop, where we are the only ones. The servers intermittently come out in their underwear to hang laundry on the side of the roof.
We shop! Like in Agra, shopkeepers are extremely insistent that you go and visit their wares 'Just look, no buy!'. They walk into your path, and stick their products in your face. This continues for kilometer. It is physically and mentally exhausting. We make some small purchases, then try to get the heck outta there.
***
Visiting the City Palace, my endurance is waning, working on such little sleep, but Isabella is going strong. We have a cup of way overpriced chai in the Palace Cafe, and I let my head dangle down while sitting in the chair for a quick nap. I'm learning to sleep wherever I can!
My body feels quite taxed today from travel, and processing it all. I take a nap back at the hotel, and Isabella calls just as I wake up - she says she has amazing news! We have been invited out to dinner by the owner of her hotel, and some of his friends. I consider this for a moment - getting invited out to dinner by a group of men I've never met, going somewhere in their cars, ecetera. But Isabella seems to have good sense, and I ask her if she feels okay about these people, to which she replies yes.
So off we go into the south of Jaipur, in a couple of cars, and arrive at a western style BBQ restaurant. There's a musician doing covers of Brian Adams in the background, and Isabella, who is a professional musician, goes and does some Elton John on the keyboard.
We are taken out by an ex-colonel of the Indian army, and some of his business associates, who are dressed in business suits, while I've got my dusty travel clothes and sneakers on. I think I ought to feel out of place, or that I should act properly or something, but I soon forget about that, and start singing along to The Summer of '69 (who can resist Brian Adams?). A magician comes by our table and does some sleight of hand tricks - he's quite good!
We have a great dinner, kind of a mix of Indian, and western buffet style, and then get dropped off back at our respective hotels. How randomly lovely an experience! I say goodbye to Isabella, then take another night at my guesthouse. Will have to book a ticket to Jaisalmer soon.
I'm a bit feverish from sheer exhaustion and over-stimulation, and sleep for a bit. Waking up around 1am, I go to the office to buy water. I get sent up with Rajiv, the hotel boy. Sure enough, on this short and cramped elevator ride, me half asleep and kind of nauseous, he asks me if I am married, and promptly asks me to marry him when he hears my reply. I am too tired to deal with this, and in poor humour. I react a bit with surprise, and leave quite abruptly. He calls behind me many "goodnight"s and "see you tomorrow"s.
I'm to meet the Brazilians tomorrow! Hopefully will be recharged and recovered by then!
***
Something quite curious is happening to my English. I am taking on a Hindi accent when I speak to Indians, and a decidedly British accent when speaking with Isabella and the Brazilians. This continues even when I'm by myself! My diction is also taking a turn for the British. It is really quite strange to hear myself speak, but somehow feels quite natural.
