Goodbye Jaipur
So, I am leaving Jaipur tonight. I just got a ticket for a train leaving at 9:30 p.m and arriving in Udaipur at about 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. Bikaner and the Karni Mata temple will have to wait until the next time I am in Rajasthan. From Udaipur I will visit Ranakpur, where India's largest Jain temple is, out in the middle of the woods. I need some woods right now. After a few days I will need to figure out how to get to Bhopal from there, which will probably be difficult and complicated.
I'm looking forward to getting back on the tracks, but I am leaving at peace with Jaipur. It would be a lot better if I could pass as Indian. Being a Westerner here is awful. Walking down the road means having rickshaws pull up to you literally every 15 seconds and say "Hello friend! Hello!" Some give up after I say 'no' a couple of times, but some follow you for a whole block. I prefer to walk. If you get in rickshaw, they will often try to take you somewhere other than where you are trying to go. They get paid commissions by business to bring clueless people to them. If the driver does go where you want, he will almost certainly "have no change" when it's time to pay. If he does have change, it is because it consists at least partly of tattered old bills that no one in India will accept as payment (you have to take them to the government). People try to pass these off on outsiders. There are no taxi cars, here, by the way -- just motorized rickshaws and unmotorized rickshaws. Both kinds heckle and harrass me as soon as I step outside. A lot of this whole hassle is because Rajasthan is one of the most touristy states in India. "Most touristy" means there are a tiny handful that you spot now and then, but it's enough to sustain a feeding frenzy among the locals. The forms the hunt takes range from the overt, constant, and extremely annoying (like the rickshaw drivers) to very subtle schemes that develop slowly. There'll be a guy that you just happened to be sitting next to and a casual conversation will begin (maybe even one you started) and on and on until whatever the scheme is. It's awful because after a while you just don't even want to talk to anyone anymore.
The power just went out but this place must have a back-up because the computer is still on. I should probably post soon, though. The power goes on and off all day, at both scheduled and unscheduled times. Every section of the city has scheduled, two-hour black outs because of energy shortages. The rest of the time it's on and off, but mostly on.
I have to say that Atithi Guesthouse has been such a cool place. Very good to me. I had breakfast with the owner this morning and we had a good talk about lots of things, like the way cars are killing Jaipur. ; ) Atithi has been a much-needed haven and extremely helpful in every way. Very clean, too, with safe food.
Ok, better go. I have to find food for the train ride and stuff like that. I will post again from Udaipur.
You can follow me on a map if you want. Here is a link to a little map:
http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/countries_map/map-picture/india_pol96.jpg
I'm looking forward to getting back on the tracks, but I am leaving at peace with Jaipur. It would be a lot better if I could pass as Indian. Being a Westerner here is awful. Walking down the road means having rickshaws pull up to you literally every 15 seconds and say "Hello friend! Hello!" Some give up after I say 'no' a couple of times, but some follow you for a whole block. I prefer to walk. If you get in rickshaw, they will often try to take you somewhere other than where you are trying to go. They get paid commissions by business to bring clueless people to them. If the driver does go where you want, he will almost certainly "have no change" when it's time to pay. If he does have change, it is because it consists at least partly of tattered old bills that no one in India will accept as payment (you have to take them to the government). People try to pass these off on outsiders. There are no taxi cars, here, by the way -- just motorized rickshaws and unmotorized rickshaws. Both kinds heckle and harrass me as soon as I step outside. A lot of this whole hassle is because Rajasthan is one of the most touristy states in India. "Most touristy" means there are a tiny handful that you spot now and then, but it's enough to sustain a feeding frenzy among the locals. The forms the hunt takes range from the overt, constant, and extremely annoying (like the rickshaw drivers) to very subtle schemes that develop slowly. There'll be a guy that you just happened to be sitting next to and a casual conversation will begin (maybe even one you started) and on and on until whatever the scheme is. It's awful because after a while you just don't even want to talk to anyone anymore.
The power just went out but this place must have a back-up because the computer is still on. I should probably post soon, though. The power goes on and off all day, at both scheduled and unscheduled times. Every section of the city has scheduled, two-hour black outs because of energy shortages. The rest of the time it's on and off, but mostly on.
I have to say that Atithi Guesthouse has been such a cool place. Very good to me. I had breakfast with the owner this morning and we had a good talk about lots of things, like the way cars are killing Jaipur. ; ) Atithi has been a much-needed haven and extremely helpful in every way. Very clean, too, with safe food.
Ok, better go. I have to find food for the train ride and stuff like that. I will post again from Udaipur.
You can follow me on a map if you want. Here is a link to a little map:
http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/countries_map/map-picture/india_pol96.jpg
posted by Michael M. at 1:54 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home