five hundred afternoons: Jaipur

Welcome to my favoritecity in all of India (at least out of the twelve that I was able to visit).

A quick background: Jaipur is a city within the desert state of Rajasthan. Jaipur is HOT! The heat you feel is a dry heat, though, so I enjoyed this climate much more than in other cities. Jaipur is painted pink. This is because Queen Victoria supposedly visited the city once in a pink skirt.

Picture this: You arrive at the train station in Delhi two minutes before your train to Jaipur is supposed to take off. There is a line to get through security that stretches for nearly 100 yards, and it will take you forever to get through. You are with a group of twelve other students and a professor. You all have on large hiking backpacks and traditional Indian clothing. Your professor sees that time is running short, so he ushers you all to the front of the line where you quickly toss your bags on the security conveyor belt that you realize no one is watching over anyways. You all grab your bags and RUN; run as fast as you can. This means you run up stairs, shove through groups of dozens of people, jump over a small sleeping toddler whose legs hang over the edge of the bridge that is taking you to the other side of the tracks, and over dozens of more people who are sitting around on the ground, waiting for their trains to arrive. You spot your train, but you realize you do not have time to run all the way down to your car, so, with backpacks on, you jump on the first car you reach, as the train begins to move. Your professor leads your group car by car, squeezing through the small connecting doors, past smelly squatting toilets, and down narrow aisles, trying not to knock anyone out with your travel gear. You finally make it to your seats, where you sit down and await your Hindu Times newspaper and your breakfast of toast, a veg cutlet, three french fries, and mango juice.

This is how we traveled to Jaipur.

Breakfast on the train to Jaipur.

As soon as we stepped out of the train station in Jaipur, I felt the desert heat blast hit me instantly. I could see the wave of heat traveling across the land until it crashed into us just before Chacha took us down the stairs to search for transportation to our hotel. Chacha was immediately swarmed by dozens of rickshaw drivers, who Chacha, then and there, referred to as the "rickshaw mafia." All of the drivers began jokingly yelling out, "Ghandi Chacha, we are not the rickshaw mafia! I am just a driver! I will give you the best deal." We were all eventually led to a large parking lot FULL of rickshaws. Chacha made deals and squeezed us, three by three, into rickshaws. We sat in the small backseats with our backpacks still on. We had an adventurous ride, swerving all over the city roads, making u-turns, and laughing at our driver's jokes until we made it to the Arya Nawas Hotel. Our drivers all wanted photos with us before they left us. Our driver referred to himself as a helicopter driver. His motto? "Drink and drive. Smoke and fly." Not a motto I will ever encourage amongst the children of my future.

Rickshaws squeezed into the parking lot.

Hollee, Rachel, and me crammed into the back of our rickshaw.

Hollee, Tess, and me two of our rickshaw drivers.

Once at our hotel, we checked in, got changed, and met Pawan, a man who has been hanging out with the Hope College group since 2005. He is a tour guide, but for us, he is our friend. Pawan was one of the reasons I loved Jaipur so much. He was able to answer every question I had that Chacha could not. I learned much about the religions, history, traditions, and special stories of India and Jaipur thanks to Pawan. He also taught me many jokes. I can share those with you sometime if you would like.

Our nicest (and cheapest!) hotel in India.

On our first day in Jaipur, we went saree shopping! Pawan led us through the many back alleys of Japiur; back alleys that were filled with people, motorcycles, rickshaws, children, and cows. We hung out at a small tailor's shop for a while while he fitted us all for saree blouses. On our first day in Jaipur, we also went to the Hawa Mahal. This is one of my favorite buildings in all of India! The Hawa Mahal was built for the women of the royal family. The royal women were not supposed to be seen in public, but of course they still wanted to be able to see the parades and festivals that took place in the streets of Jaipur. So...the maharaja had the Hawa Mahal built. This is a building with hundreds of tiny windows. Inside, there are a lot of walkways for the women to walk along and peer out the windows. The women can see out of the windows, but the people in the streets below could not look up and see in. After visiting the Hawa Mahal, we went to see a Ganesh Temple, but it was closed. Along the way, two boys followed us for a few blocks just so they could get a photo with me and give me their "facebook IDs." This happened many many times! Then we went to the City Palace, where we saw the evening puja to Krishna. Within the temple, there was a stage with many curtains, and there were a lot of drums and bells going off. The curtains were opened one-by-one to build up the suspense. Eventually, a statue of the god krishna was revealed, and everyone in the crowd offered gifts to him. Afterwards, everyone sang and dance and praised the god. At the City Palace, I met a young girl named Pooja. Outside of the palace walls, she begged us for money, but once inside, she became a playful young girl! Some of the girls in my group gave her balloons, and I gave her candy. She did this thing with the balloons where she would blow them up, then slowly let the air out so that they made a squeaking noise. She thought it was so funny, so naturally, I kept encouraging her to do it! She was very cute. Once we left the palace walls again, though, she began begging again, and she followed us for nearly a mile, begging us for money. It was nice to see her able to act like a child inside the palace, though. I wrote to my friend, Andrew, in a postcard that it was nice to see that the rough street life of India hadn't completely erased the children of their joyful, playful spirits.

To get back to our hotel, we all had to jump on a city bus. Imagine a city bus. Now, imagine it at full capacity. Now, triple that. That is how many people were on this bus! We all had to squeeze in! We were pushed up against many smelly and sweaty people, and we ourselves were smelly and sweaty too. Chacha had to pay the ticket man, so he handed the money along our group, and we were all yelling, in Hindi, what Chacha had said, having no idea what it meant. "Sindhi Camp! Sindhi Camp!" We were very packed, people kept banging on the sides of the bus when they wanted to get off, and one of our girls ended up falling out at our stop. That was a wild adventure!

Jaipur, the pink city.

Saree shopping.

Pawan and me atop the Hawa Mahal.

A walkway within the Hawa Mahal. Notice the small windows!

The front of the Hawa Mahal, looking up from the street.

Evening puja to krishna at the City Palace.

My friend Pooja.

On our second day in Jaipur, we had to wake up EARLY to head up the mountain to the Amber Fort. Why did we have to awake so early? To ride elephants, of course! We had to get to the elephants early because the government has set in place laws to protect the elephants. The law states that the elephants may only walk up and down the mountain so many times in one day, and they often complete their allotted number of trips early in the morning. We had to get there in time to receive our ride! My roommate in Jaipur, Lindsay, and I were partners for the ride. The ride was rocky and close to the edge, but we had so much fun! All along the way, salesmen were throwing goods up to us, hoping we would throw money back down. We ended up just throwing the goods back, though. We just wanted to enjoy our ride! After the elephant ride, we toured the fort and the adjoining palace. I walked around with Laura H and Pawan. Pawan shared many stories with us! He showed us the main door--when it opened, it made the sound of an elephant first and then the sound of a roaring lion! He showed us a room whose walls were completely covered with mirrors. This room was built for one of the king's wives. She loved to stargaze, but during India's annual monsoon season she could not due to the thick rain clouds covering the skies. Because of this, the king had this room built; a room where a servant could take the one wife into, light a match, and say, "Voila!," and the room would sparkle and twinkle like the stars in the sky. How romantic!

Elephants preparing to give us rides.

The Amber Fort.

Room of mirrors within the palace.

Our group (minus grace and chacha) atop the Amber Fort.

After the fort, we went back into the city by bus. We met a guy named Abhishek. We talked to him for a while, and we are now facebook friends! In the city, we had lunch at a favorite restaurant of Chacha's. Here, we were treated like royalty! We were greeted in the same way that one would greet their in-laws for the first time in India. That is, we were treated with the greatest of respect. We enjoyed a delicious lunch of paneer butter masala, dal makhani, and a couple of our other favorite dishes. After lunch, we split up into groups to enjoy a free afternoon. I stuck with Pawan, Laura H, Rachel, Hollee, and Kyle. We decided to head to the Prince Albert Museum. On our way, we ran into a wedding! The men ran out and invited us in. This was a ceremony for the groom and his family that takes place before the actual ceremony. The family was giving blessings to the groom when we arrived. A couple of minutes of this went by, and then ... they started playing drums and dancing, and all of a sudden someone's hat was being passed around and being placed on each of our heads, and everyone wanted to dance with us! Everyone came up to us, pointed to our cameras, and began dancing! Even the grandmother came up to me, pointed to my camera, then started busting the moves. Of course we got great photos out of this. Then, someone started spraying some sort of soapy substance out of a can all over the place, and then the dancing got really wild. We were all laughing uncontrollably with joy! Pawan saw the rowdiness, though, and pulled us away to continue our walk to the museum. After the museum, Pawan took us to a backstreet that is lined with marble shops. In these shops, men carve, by hand, beautifully intricate marble statues from large marble slabs. During the process, they do not wear eye goggles or face masks, so their eyes and lungs are filled with the dust. At night, back at our hotel, we got to see a folk dancing show!

Lunch - we were greeted with flowers and blessings on our foreheads!

Wedding dancing!

Prince Albert Museum.

Marble slab with sketches that will soon become a beautiful statue.

Folk dancers (with rachel!).

Our third and final day in Jaipur began with an early morning hike up to Galta, where there is a mysterious river flowing out of the side of the mountain into a fresh pool. Because of the combination of the heat, the spicy food, the lack of sleep, and the hiking, I began to feel very sick. Once we got down the back side of the mountain, we began to hike down a desert path that led to a desert Ashram Oasis. It was along this path that I had a very Indian experience--using the side of the road as my toilet...THREE TIMES. On our way back, we hiked up to the Sun Temple, where we had a beautiful view of the city! We then had a free afternoon again, so Pawan took a few of us to the botanical gardens. Those were a little dried up since it was the hot season, but it was still a good time. We then went to Daya Sharma's shop. Daya is a good friend of Chacha's, and he gave us each a beautiful necklace! I got one made out of amethyst. It is beautiful! We then ran into Pawan again, and he took us to a cheap saree shop. We then headed back to our hotel for dinner, where we celebrated Laura I's birthday, and Pawan gave her a birthday hat! She then carried this with her all throughout India, and I am very surprised it survived our travels! We then went to bed to prepare ourselves to head to Mumbai the following morning.