The art of survival...

Being as im currently playing catch up with my blogs, this sort of puts me in a position to reflect on recent current events, ie the not too distant batch of cowardly attacks by those pathetic Islamic militants on innocent civilians.
Its quite disconcerting to think that only 36 hours previously, Heather and myself were walking in some of those areas where the bombs exploded. Other travellers who we have met along the way were also in Jaipur at the time, thankfully all of them were nowhere near when the bombs went off.
However, my heart goes out to the families of those killed by the blasts and of course to the victims of yet another pointless atrocity that has achieved absolutely nothing.

Having said all this, Jaipur gave us our first taste of being involved in an Indian traffic accident, our Rickshaw crashing head on into a moped whose driver just decided that it would be amusing to drive straight across our path. Fortunately, apart from a few cuts and bruises, nobody was seriously hurt and after our driver had spent 10 minutes bashing our Rickshaw with a hammer, we were on our way again.
We were on our way to ‘Meet the Guru’. This seems to be one of Jaipur’s latest elaborate sales tactics. While totally above board, this idea seems very cleverly thought out and brings foreign tourists in by the hoards, well it did the day that we just happened to be there!!!
Walking around the old city, the previous day, we bumped into a guy who was genuinely very friendly and after chatting for about 20 minutes he told us about a Guru, who is very good at telling you all about your karma and about your personality.
Now im not into all this, frankly id rather go for a 3 hour session of colonic irrigation, however, my dear and revered travelling companion is, so in the interests of keeping her safe and out of respect for her I decided to tag along and see where this was all going to lead.
We turn up at 10:45 and are taken by rickshaw to the Guru, who just happens to conveniently be working in his family’s jewellery shop.
Now I mean don’t get me wrong here, the guy seems to have some serious talent and an ability that I will never understand. However, the suggestion is made that you need some kind of precious or semi precious stone to unblock your “chakra/s” (wow….yahhhh, far out man!!!) and a great deal of reverse psychology is used, which is very cleverly done and almost tempts you to buy something.
Now at this point I may find myself being accused of missing the point of not being in touch with my spirituality, but I can tell you one thing…. After being in India for 2 months, the only form of “spirituality” I have found here is the one that has Mahatma Gandhi printed on it and is formally known as the Rupee….. although Dollars and Pounds will do too of course…..
I frequently bump into poor, sad, misguided girls (usually British or Australian, in their teens or early 20s, weighed down like Mr T with their Om necklaces and other adornments) who seem to be here on some kind of great spiritual conquest. While this country may be great for Yoga and all that Ayurvedic mumbo jumbo, the plain fact is that everything revolves around money and I have yet to find one single person outside of Goa and Kerala who does something and then does not expected anything in return. After hearing all the stories about staying in Ashrams, where upon you are expected to stand on your head and suck daal through your nose from a straw, while chanting, Om over and over again, then you begin to realise that it has about as much appeal as drinking 2 litres of water direct from the Ganges and then spending a week on the loo with amoebic dysentery!!!
I suppose due to the fact that im confident with who I am and don’t possess this need to ‘find myself’ means that im not attracted to all this spiritualistic hokus pokus. Who knows, I may yet find something that will surprise me, but im not going to hold my breath.

While Jaipur is the municipal capital of Rajasthan, I didn’t find it to be quite as alluring or interesting as Udaipur. Maybe this is simply because im getting a little tired of all these huge, sprawling cities. In contrast Udaipur has a clearly defined centre with a city built up around it.
Jaipur does have many interesting places to visit though. The temples have virtually disappeared and made way for large impressive forts. The Amber Fort/Palace to the north of the city sits imposingly on one of the surrounding hills and is well worth a visit.
There is also a lake with a kind of floating building situated within it, although this in no way has the same presence as the “floating palace” in Udaipur. The walled city is good fun too, containing many small bazaars and shops for you to waste more of your travel cash in. Jaipur is also the centre in India for precious stones and if you are looking for anything along these lines then this is the place to buy rare gems at the best prices.
I had always been lead to believe that most of the buildings here are painted pink, however this doesn’t seem to be the case. The predominant colour seems to be a rather fey or pale shade of terracotta, unless of course you come across one type of building that for me still remains a bit of an enigma.
Dotted around cities and towns in this part of Rajasthan you will find what at first appears to be small, thatched huts with a single window in the front of them, this window being maybe 3ft from the ground. Every now and then, locals approach it and a copper kettle or pipe is held up at the opening for them to drink from. Now these small huts seem to be nothing more ominous than the Indian version of a watering hole although to see the process in action is rather curious and somewhat elaborate!!!
Well, ive gone about as far north as im going to go for now and its time to head east towards Agra and see if the well renowned Taj is an impressive as many people say it is….

---

---