PUSHKAR TO JAIPUR

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I've gotten in the habit recently of riding shotgun on the bus, (i.e. sitting up the front next to the driver).

From the point of view of getting plenty of leg room it's great, but you have to have a steady nerve considering the amounts of times we take blind hills and curves, go head to head with lorries, pedestrians, and sacred cows, or have to suddenly swerve off road as occurances allow.

Vipal asked if he could borrow my MP3 player for the journey today, and liked my taste in music. WHICH HAS TO BE A FIRST ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!!!

He likes his music does Vipal, (always singing away the latest Bollywood hit to himself), and unlike those elitist bastards back in the developed world understands, (as do I), that variety is the spice of life.

When travelling I try to mix and match, so...

For general travelling along type music I have stuff like...

Hey Now, Hey now, (crowded house).
Take it Easy, (The Eagles).
The world aint slowing down, (Ellis Paul).
Self preservation society, (Italian job).
Holiday road, (National Lampoons Vacation).
You get what you give, (Brand New Radicals).
Whatever, (Oasis).

For feel good music I have stuff like...

Bright side of the road, (Van Morrison),
Johnny B Goode, (Chuck Berry),

Contemplative...

Dust in the wind, (The Eagles).
Mad World, (Donnie Darko version).
It's a beautiful day, (Sarah Brightman)
Affirmation, (Crowded House).
Still, (Alanis Morristette).

For things with a distinct Indian feel I've got...

From Rusholme with love, (Mint Royale).
Yeke Yeke, (cant remember by who).

For things with a tenuous link to India I've got...

Nellie the Elephant, (Toy dolls version).
The Bear Necessities, (The Jungle Book).

And cos it just seemed like a good idea...

Always look on the bright side of life, (Eric Idle).
Theme from Round the Twist, (Ozzie kids programme).
Amarillo, (Ala Peter Kaye)!
Soul Bosanova, (Quincy Jones, ala opening titles for Austin Powers).

Note... if you want to get through the crowds in Pushkar with ease, bop through town listening to Soul Bosanova, no hawker, street vendor or begger will waylay you cos you'll just hop your way passed them with a big smiley face, shaking hands, hitting palms and generally looking like you've knocked back too many 'Special' Lasies.

We've moved on to Jaipur today which is allegedly the 'pink city' but actually it's more terracota!

Jaipur, popularly known as the Pink City, was founded in 1727 AD by one of the greatest rulers of the Kachhawaha clan, the astronomer king Sawai Jai Singh. The pink color was used at the time of making to create an impression of red sandstone buildings of Mughal cities - and repainted in 1876, during the visit of the Prince of Wales. The city is best explored on foot and the adventurous visitor willing to go into the inner lanes can discover a whole new world not visible to the tourist-in-a-hurry.

It's the turn of Jamie and Me to share this time which is problamatic cos he's found a channel that shows the New Zealand cricket match and therin has hidden the remote control so I can't change it.

Jamie lives for his sport and there is already talk about a big competitive night in Kathmandu between the Brits, (Me and Nadine), and the Ozzies, (Paula, Jamie and Micheal), in the Irish bar to watch the England V Australia rugby match. (The convict related colonials are already holding a Cokey/pokey grudge so things could turn nasty)!

We all got shanghied into a real tourist trap afternoon this afternoon.

Note to June... When in Jaipur the Observatory and the City Palace is not worth the effort!

It was little more than a thinly veiled attempt to take us into gift shops under the guise of a tour of two of the principle sights. (I'm hoping the Amber Palace will be better tomorrow... at least we get an Elephant ride with that)!!!!!

Found ourselves herded along with all those American and European type tourists who never get further into India than the space between the sights, their air conditioned coaches and their 5 star hotels.

What has made things worse is that Nadine has been out of sorts since Jodhpur!

To be fair she's not been well, but it's started to manifest itself into her behaving like a tired 5 year old.

Certainly today she was very much little miss strop!

(This is very bad for group dynamics)!

She was at her worst behaved during our tour, (which was agonizing enough already). At one point I told her I'd slap her legs if she didn't behave. She didn't improve so I did, (still had no effect though)!

Eventually when there was talk of taking us to a carpet maker I jumped ship and said I'd walk back. The guide try to stop me so then I threw my own little strop. (No wonder us Brits get such a bad name abroad)!

Roaming the back streets of Jaipur was far more fun, and as always I spent a lot of the time fighting off street hawkers, rickshaw peddlers, and beggers. One bloke engaged me in conversation for three streets. Eventually I got sick of him asking me questions so asked him what he did.

'In the morning I go to college, then in the afternoon I waylay tourists like you and try and get you to buy stuff in shops so I get paid commission' he said.

(Nowt more refreshing than a bit of honesty I suppose)!

I have numerous techniques for avoiding hassle when out and about, (aside from listening to Soul Bosanova).

Pretending to be from Uzbekistan is good, (nobody knows what that sounds like so I just make noises that sound vaguely Klingon and they eventually lose interest). Sometimes I'm patronising... 'Oh yes that looks lovely, but no thanks!' Other times I tell them I'm very interested but my wife would kill me if I bought stuff for our house without her input so will bring her back later.

The principle method though is striding through the market at a quick march with a slight swagger, nose just slightly lifted in the air generally looking as if we still own the place. (Only the most persistant waylay me then cos to all intensive purposes I look as if I might just run them over in the process)!

Ran into Micheal and Nadine near the hotel. They'd been to McDonalds to try and get something more western into their bellys as neither of them have been well today.

While in there a group of 15 year old boys asked Micheal's permission to photograph Nadine. Not sure what's happening tonight? Think we're all feeling a bit tired so we may end up close to the hotel... though there is talk of a bollywood movie? I'll keep you informed!

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