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Published: January 12th 2017
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I didn't think today's road trip would be blog worthy....Just a long uneventful bus ride. But I was wrong. We left Jaipur after a buffet breakfast, of course, first stop was a beautiful Hindu temple, all white marble. Kapil is a Hindi and gave us an intro to the basics of the religion. We got lucky and were there during the morning service. A curtain came up on a gilded, lit up statute of Vishnu and his wife. There was music and fire...At the end water was sprinkled on the worshippers. Beautiful!
Next stop, the small village of Abhaneri in northern Rajasthan. Here we saw an amazing step well, a water reservoir built in the 10th century. Next to it there was a Hindu temple. Met a group of Indian girls who are all nursing students, traveling with their tutors. They asked to take selfies with me and were eager to try out their English and talk. They were 19, dressed in red and white and adorable.
Near by was a school that Gate 1 supports. Seeing this place and hearing from Kapil about government and private education in India was very eye opening and sad, at least to my
western eyes. The school wasn't actually in session. It was closed because of the death of someone important in the village but there were some little boys around and we were met by the man who started this private school...But it doesn't have the look of any private school I've seen. The stone rooms are bare except for a chalkboard and maybe a large old rug on the floor. No teaching materials in sight. Gate 1 paid for the toilets to be built and the stone small buildings. Over 300 children go here, could be 45 kids in a class. The boys were eager to talk to us and were well dressed and cute. Many of us gave a donation to the man. Kapil said these schools are started because government schools are not good. Only 60 % of children attend regularly and there's no accountability even though teachers are well paid by the government.
Last stop was a beautiful retreat-like campsite for lunch. It's a vacation spot with tent like buildings that are furnished like hotel rooms. Lunch was a delicious buffet of veg and non veg dishes. A peaceful spot surrounded by farm land.
Then it was 3+
hours to Agra. We got there after dark, a bustling place with crowded streets and lots of honking vehicles. It's known for making shoes and you could see bike drawn carts piled high with boxes of shoes. Kapil pointed out a couple of restaurants that we could go to for dinner but by the time we got to the hotel couldn't get anyone to venture back into town. The hotel, Jaypee Palace, was huge, elegant, with flower petals floating in water around and we were met by women who gave us flowered necklaces and offered red dots for our foreheads. (I passed this time) . Can't get more of a contrast than this hotel and the town we just passed through. We had an elegant dinner in the restaurant that served North Indian food in the hotel.
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Rita
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Wow
As usual, your writing is fantastic. I am enjoying reading. Pics are great too. Sounds LIKE Another Amazing Experience.