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Published: April 13th 2008
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molly says: oh-so-much traveling!!!
left goa a few days ago. hoppped on a train and rode the FORTY HOURS to agra. trains are definitely the way to go in india. they're generally reliable and MUCH cheaper than flying and a hulluva lot more comfortable and safe than the busses. first class sleeper is well worth the few extra hundred ruppees because mostly, no one bothers you. beggars and touts are not allowed into those cars, and the beds have slightly more padding and the other passengers are usually just not that interested in foreigners.
however, if all the tickets are sold for 1st class, then you get 2nd class sleeper. beggars & touts hop on at every stop and our fellow passengers simply sit and stare at us. for hours. because clearly we are far more interesting than the scenery. watching us watch out the window must be fascinating.
anyway, 40 hours on 2nd class with dozens of indian men leering at us. buuut eventually we did make it to agra. arriving in towns in the early morning or late night
is definitely best because most rickshaw wallahs are asleep and there are minimal people to pounce on us when we exit the train/bus station. found a hotel with a partial view of the taj mahal from the rooftop, crashed and slept the morning away. made our way to the taj in the afternoon for arielle's birthday. got all dressed up and went prancing around the grounds taking cracked photos of ourselves and the taj mahal. will post them as soon as i can. the taj is quite the building. one helluva tombstone, as arielle so eloquently stated. it was strange to see so many other tourists after having been in an ittybitty beach town in the midst of the monsoon where the only foreigners were the burnout lifers who got high in our restaurant every night.
went out for a lovely and rather expensive ($25 for both of us - omigod! ... US prices are going to give us heart attacks when we get back) dinner for the birthday and had the best thali EVER and an almond & pistachio lassi that was loooovely. went home on the bicycle rickshaw with the boy that had been following us all
day, firmly told him NOT to take us to his boss's marble shop and just to take us back to our hotel.... fell into bed oh-so-full and satisfied from the taj and dinner... and woke up to hop on a bus to here. jaipur.
the bus should've taken 5 hours. but we got the new, hesitant driver. which meant we went half as slow as everyone, never feared for our lives, only slammed into the seat in front of us a few times when he braked for cows, and arrived a whopping NINE HOURS later, our rumps sore from bouncing on them for - let me reiterate - NINE HOURS. and this is no greyhound. hell, it's not even a yellow school bus. we're talking about a tin can on wheels with a horn lound enough that i couldn't hear arielle talking next to me everytime he honked. and by honked, we mean --- no one in india has side mirrors or rearview mirrors --- they all just have "horn please" painted on the back of their vehicles. and since no one stays in their lane and there are cows and goats and camels and children all over all
of the roads and highways, horns are ALWAYS blaring as a means of communication.
aaaanyway, now we're safely in a lovely hotel in jaipur with marble floors and high ceilings and soap and towels in the bathroom and clean sheets and high speed internet and a wonderful rooftop garden.... and we're loving it!
here for a few days and then on to delhi for our last stint in india.
leave next thursday. a week. then back to philadelphia and culture shock like whoa.
*********
random thoughts by mbaade:
i bought a pair of shoes today. strange, i know. they're little fancy slipper things in black camel leather and black bead work. arielle also bought two pairs of them (blue silk and silver leather) upon which i'm sure she'll elaborate. strange to buy myself pretty shoes. i wear flip flops, tennis shoes, and snow boots. but these are nice 😊
having so much fun shopping and bargaining in jaipur!
OH! and we found another lassi shop! not quite the heaven-in-a-clay-pot from varanasi, but these were pretty damn good and also in a clay pot... but no rosewater 😞
i can't believe how quickly
this summer has gone. one week left....
send good vibes our way so we can get a fantastic apartment lined up in philly and won't have to crash on couches for too long.
gonna hold out till delhi to try and find harry potter & the half blood prince, i think.
see also: one of my life goals is to ride a camel. i hope to accomplish this before leaving jaipur. they're everywhere. apparently we can purchase one (as in buy & own) for a mere 500 rupees. i'm tempted to own a camel for a day. just so i can say that i did. i'd name it. (possibly camel names: ralph. georgette. clyde. betty.) take lots of photos. and sell it at the end of the day. but i don't think arielle will let me... she probably has a point...
am reading a stephen king book. "desperation". haven't read stephen king since like 10th grade. strange.
alright, so the bottom line is that i am quite happy in jaipur. and that is all. am also slightly cracked. obbbbviously.
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