Gurus, Riots and Rain!

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Hello again,

I am currently in Jaipur just outside the 'pink city'. Jaipur is very nice and a very friendly place. There is a lot of history here and it is very interesting to learn about the maharajas. Arriving in Jaipur we experienced our first bit of Monsoon. The streets flooded and the rain really did come down. Luckily it was only for one day.

Since my last blog I went to see the border closing just outside Amritsar. Basically, Indian and Pakistani guards perform a ceremony everyday at sunset in front of a packed stadium of people. The ceremony involves each side showing off there marching skills and trying to intimidate the opposing guards by staring them out (literally millimetres away from each other. It was fascinating to watch this and it was done in a good spirit.

After Amritsar it was off to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. We only made a short stay in Agra as there is little to do other than the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. It is a very busy place and much in the same vein as Dehli, with people constantly harrassing you for money. The Taj Mahal however is stunning. I must say that it did not wow me as much as I thought it would, maybe because I have seen it in pictures and films so many times. I also saw it in the middle of the day where as many people have told me it is much better to see it at sunrise, sunset or in the moonlight, as the light shines off the marble and water. We were extremely lucky to make our stay in Agra a short one as on the same night we left, riots broke out in the streets of Agra. We did not see or hear anything but looking on the news it looked quite bad. It was started when 4 muslims were knocked over by a speeding truck. Agra is currently shut off and a curfew is in place.

That leads me back to Jaipur where we have seen the city palace and the water palace, which unfortunately you cannot visit but is extremely beautiful to see. It is a palace sitting right in the middle of a lake which is surrounded by hills. The highlight for me in Jaipur though was seeing the Guru. Whilst on a rickshaw guided tour we were taken to a jewellery shop down a side road. My first thoughts were 'here comes a scam'. But this was not the case at all. For free I was taken to see the guru. Inside he was able to know so many things just by looking at me. He knew there were problems with my birth, he knew my mums birthday was in the same month and he knew of a history of cancer in my family. He also told me other things I wont go into but he was very accurate. He said my energy levels were low and I need to learn meditation and obtain a purified stone called a star ruby. Im not usually into this kind of thing but it really amazed me how much he could tell.

Thats about it. Im off to see ChakDee a Bollywood movie about hockey. Should be fun. Then tonight I leave for Udaipur. Bye for now.

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