Jaipur, India

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Well I did arrive in Jaipur safe and sound but it was not totally clear when the bus driver found out the Que was too long so he just started driving on the other side of the highway. This is not a small road and three lanes on both sides and cars honking and avoiding us as we drove against the traffic. I found it quite interesting and exciting and laughed much as he was driving against all these cars. I thought to myself wow this is really cool and was chuckling the whole time. We did make it through without harm and he did find the reason for the clogged road and on to his side of the road again but hey not every day do you drive in a old rickety bus against the oncoming traffic. Seems as though you have to be a little bit crazy to do such a thing but hey here I am writing about it afterwards with no injuries from a head on collision.

One rickshaw driver approached me and asked if I needed help and I told him I was looking for a room for 150 rupees and he just laughed and said the hotel at the bus stop there cost 900 rupees or more so I had to check it out and he was correct. So I told him to find me a room for 150 rupees and he took me to a place that was dirty and they wanted no less than 200 rupees per day. I did not like the attitude of the hotel clerk and the room was filthy so I told him to find me another room and so we went to another guest house and the man showed me the room and it too was filthy and I was able to get the 150 rupees price I was after. He told me he could clean the room and if I wanted to rest he had another room I could rest in. The previous room had only a bucket to pour water over your head when showering and this is rather inconvenient. He lead me to the other room and it had a shower and small hot water tank and was reasonably clean. He told me this room was 500 rupees per night but for me he would give this room to me for 200 rupees per night and I said lets do that and here I am writing to you in this room. He did bring me clean sheets and pillow cases and a towel that smells like moth balls.

After checking my mail I found out that at the Ramada Inn where the other members of God's church is staying they are paying 2000 rupees per night to sleep there. This includes breakfast but still at ten times the cost of this room I can afford to eat out and eat well with the money I am saving by staying here. The biggest problem I am encountering here is the beep beep honk honk constantly outside my windows here. The shower was fine and now I am clean and refreshed from my long journey.

My experience at the airport was very interesting also. Upon coming out of the airport there were taxi drivers ready to take me to the train station. I simply ask the price and they said for a 45 minute drive the cost would be 1600 rupees. I said I must check around some first and went to a booth that said pre-paid taxi on it and ask the price there and the man said 400 rupees to the train station for this service. Now we are getting more reasonable The owner of this hotel just brought me chia or tea in English. He promised to wake me at six and now it is six in the evening. Getting back to my cost for the trip to the train station I then thought about it some and noticed a local city bus there and asked if he went to the train station and he did go there and so I asked the price and he told me 75 rupees. So I figured I could not get a better deal than this and hopped on this bus and took it to the city.

While on this bus other Indians were there and we struck up a conversation about how I could get to Jaipur and they said the train would cost me 200 rupees and I could of taken a sleeper car and slept the whole way if I wanted to. Since I did not sleep much on the plane I relished the thought of sleeping on the train but then he told me of the bus that was going to Jaipur and said it would also be around 200 rupees. I thought to myself a trip in a bus would be fun and I could see the countryside at the same time so I took this option. It ended up costing me 240 rupees to take this hair raising ride for 6 hours. So in the end it cost me 315 rupees to get from the airport in Delhi to the hotel in Jaipur. If you converted this to Norwegian kroner it cost me 31.5 NOK to travel 300 kilometers to this city where I am at now.

It was an exciting ride and total chaos is the norm in India but still here I am and alive and the price was right. The rickshaw driver is coming to take me to a restaurant in 25 minutes and did not accept money for finding me this hotel. He certainly thinks he will earn some money later on me so he is patient with his charges as he does have experience dealing with tourist. There is always something interesting happening here in India so this blog will not go wanting for sure. But I can say so far so good except for this constant noise of car horns outside my window. If it is such that I cannot sleep with earplugs then some other arrangement must be made. Now it is only 20 minutes before my friend comes and gets me I should get ready for his arrival. But I can say in closing down that this was an exciting trip for sure and I do still love India and the sights and sounds and smells that accompany this wonderful land.

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