The Pink City
Trip Start
May 29, 2008
1
42
102
Trip End
Dec 19, 2008
Jaipur,
Rajasthan,
India
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Let me also start off by saying the food in India was amazing. I never thought I would like dishes without meat so much. The majority of the Indian population is vegetarian. They compensate for the lack of meat with spices that make the food come alive.....no pun intended. It's bad karma for Hindu's to eat anything living, so the vast majority are vegetarians because they feel you're eating another life
Eating with our hands - traditional Indian
. Rachel and I think it's bad karma to not eat meat, so we're not going to win the Hindu award for best diet of the year. Needless to say, Atkins never really caught on in India. Even McDonald's didn't serve any beef at all. McDonald's without beef is kind of sacrilegious to all MickeyD fans everywhere but they served vegetarian Big Mac's and Veggie Surprise sandwiches regardless. What kind of a surprise could be in a Veggie Surprise? I mean vegetables are vegetables unless there was some kind of supermutated tomato or it was a surprise like Surprise it's not really vegetables it's actually meat - Enjoy! That'd be cruel but funny. Michelle Vargas can relate to that one.
We also saw the City Palace in Jaipur. The City Palace was interesting as it was the Maharaja's (King's) house which was a palace. We also saw the world's biggest silverware as there were 2 huge pots made of silver that the king used to drink out of. We also got a chance to see many sarees, punjabee suits and other traditional Indian outfits. Lastly, we went to a workshop where there were tons of artists with their mini-paintings on display. They say that these artists are virtually blind by their 40's because of the strain their eyes take when doing these pieces of work. Another cool thing about the Palace was that at the entrance doors the handles were about 15 feet in the air
Tony in a turban
. The guide told us that the handles were so far up because you could only open and close them using the handles when you were on top of the elephants. It was pretty cool. Astrology and horoscopes are integral part of the culture. Our guide told us that he had an arranged marriage and the way the process works is that a friend of both families recommend that a couple should marry. At that point, a package is given to the parents of each household with a profile of the partner. In addition, to height, weight, age, and flatulence habits comes a detailed horoscope of the person - really! The horoscope is heavily weighed in the decision by the parents so much that they have an astrologer work with them in the process almost like a mediator. The astrologers of each family confer and discuss the merits of each horoscope and the compatibility of the couple. It plays a big role in these marriages and is big business. Our guide also told us that sometimes astrologers of poor families will manipulate the horoscope to be compatible to a potential spouse coming from a rich family. It's a lot cheaper way to gold-dig than getting fake breasts and botox.
Apparently, India has some of the most foremost authorities on astrology. One of the early kings swore by it and devoted much of his rule to integrating it into the culture
Namaste
. There was an observatory which was fascinating. It had multiple sundials and one really big one that was accurate enough to tell time to every other second. Interestingly, the closer the sundial is to the sun the more accurate it becomes and the impetus for the tall, tall one that we got to explore. Also, human cloning was said to occur in India hundreds of years ago and only fittingly an Indian doctor now a citizen in the US now has the intellectual property rights in the US to cloning.
Amber Fort was one of the best experiences we had in India. The area looked like the Great Wall of China with a massive palace above us in the hills. The view was really fantastic. We also took the elephant express up the mountain. It was a really cool experience riding up the mountain road on elephant back. When we got to the top we got some exceptional pictures of the elephant including it putting its snout up to pose. Work it, own it.
Although we were able to see a snake charmer in Morocco we needed to do it again not only because it just a cool thing to do but also because I was disappointed that we forgot to get a video of it. Round 2 was even better than the first. The snake charmer was dressed better and way better looking. Also, we were right next to the snakes, got to stroke them, they struck at me a couple of times, but not Rachel because she has that hypnotizing charm that has always been effective on me too. The experience was 100 times better than in Morocco.
Rachel also wore a saree, which is a traditional Indian dress that we purchased at a local textile merchant
Elephant crossing
. They showed us how they made all of the textiles from tablecloths to handkerchiefs to sarees. The next day Rachel wore it everywhere and people kept on staring and loving it. She thought we would see other tourists wearing them but we didn't. She was a little self-conscious, but she looked way better than any Indian wearing one and it seemed like the people appreciated it. I tried to buy a traditional Indian hat to wear around so that she was more comfortable, but it was too expensive to wear as a diversionary accessory. So I decided to wear a bindi which is the dot typically seen on an Indian woman's forehead. I wasn't happy with just any old, normal-looking red one I had to get the sparkly, jeweled bindi. It just looks more masculine. Also, people stared at me and I think they appreciated it because they started laughing everytime they saw me with it on. I think laughing at someone in India must mean that something is really cool. Anyways, Rachel and I had matching sparkly bindis for the rest of the day. By the way, a bindi is simply a symbol of marriage placed conspicuously on the forehead and typically a red dot. Both women and men wear them although you normally see women wearing them. I think women started forcing their men to wear them because it's a lot harder to hide a bindi on your forehead than a ring on your ring finger. Rachel and I really wanted to go to a restaurant where we could eat with only our hands and eat on the floor
Elephant ride to Amber Fort
. Our guide was taken aback and said are you sure you don't want to go to a nice restaurant. We insisted that we experience an authentic Indian experience. He arranged for us to go to a diversion park where they had a ton of cool Indian diversions and it included a traditional Indian dinner eating on the ground and with hands only. The amusement park was cool as it had magicians, a lake, slides, man-made caves, life-size dinosaur replicas, a blacksmith working away, Indian dancers, a demonstration of taboul-making and tasting right out of the oven, henna, and palm reading. Rachel and I wanted to do palm reading at the hotel but it was quite expensive so we took advantage at this place. The guy said we were going to have a long marriage, live past 80, 3 kids, and our first would come in 2009. We didn't want to hear that one - we still have a lot of traveling before we have kids. We need to get a second opinion. We also took a boat ride in the lake which was real nice. The dinner was cool as we ate lots of food that we didn't have an idea what it was. Oh well! We were eating with our hands - you don't need to know what you're eating when you do that. Rachel also thought the water was safe to drinks since the location was pretty legitimate but not touristy. I had to respectfully say hell no. When there are a lot of local Indians in a place, that means the water is not palatable or safe for us. We had to pay for some bottled water. 
