Jaipur

First off I have to apologize for the massive delay in posting, things simply got crazy and hectic. Historically this is the pattern with my blog, but there were some major reasons, which if people would prefer I can tell them sooner than later, but otherwise I will be doing things in chronological order.

As the train arrived departed at 6:10am I obviously didn't get to sleep the entire journey especially as it was over night. I ended up really only taking a relatively short nap until breakfast was surved (the train I was on had food included in the AC2 class), which was really bad, I started to really see here how variable food can be on the trains. The train ride mostly consisted of either trying to read 100 years of solitude (great book), listening to pod casts, sleeping, eating and getting in contact with Rahul, that really was it. I suppose it was around this train trip that I started to lose a great deal of the romanticism with Indian Rail travel. This was also my first train to be significantly late, but I would learn that this is just normal for trains in India.

So I was arriving in Nizzamoudin station, which is the southern main rail station of Delhi and was to meet Rahul's driver, who was going to drive me to meet Rahul at his factory. This was the beginning of a very surprising and interesting adventure to say the lease. Rahul's driver speaks next to no English and I'm convinced is quite crazy. He was doing chew the entire ride and driving and honking like a mad man. On this car trip I very clearly learned how lines on highways are also used as lanes. By this I mean that on a two lane high way there can be up to three cars next to each other. It seems like almost every time I entered a vehicle in India I discovered a new fear of the roads. Well I arrived at Rahul's factory and was first greeted by his wife, who brought me into his office and I had some tea and biscuits. Meeting Rahul was great, we had a great conversation and then went over to his home where I met his family and had a good shower and some good home cooked Jaine food. After some more conversation Rahul then brought me over to the bus station where I grabbed a bus for Jaipur to spend the night and the next day there.

The bust ride was a very interesting one I guess. At first it wasn't all that special, but there were a bunch people giving me very odd looks, more than usual, and the ticket taker ended up sitting next to me watching my phone. Suddenly there was the sound of a crash and shattered glass and I instinctively ducked and when I look up the windshield was partly broken. After a bit more driving we pulled over and we all got on another bus, but no major problem. When we finally did arrive in Jaipur is was raining a bit and it was late and I had no idea where the hotel was that Rahul had booked me (it would turn out to be an insanely nice one) in was so I grabbed an auto rickshaw after a little negotiating, which was impossible to fully go my way, and which I was a little too tired to even fully carry out. At first the guys seemed mostly nice, with superb english, but then he got into talking to me about illegal jobs that he wanted me to do and he simply wouldn't stop regardless of how nice I was in my entreaties to him to stop. On arriving I told him how much I thought the ride should have cost, which he first agreed I was correct about and then quickly went back on. I probably would have felt more uncomfortable continuing to do this, but a guard from the hotel came to the auto and then I quickly paid and then checked in and got room 212, I thought this was a pretty good sign. Well it was too late to go to the pool, lol, but I did grab a quick bite, the food wasn't the worst, but it wasn't really that great. I then settled into the room, tried to fix a credit card issue I'd been having and then got my phone on the task of downloading maps of the area, and finally a good nights rest.

In the morning I grabbed a quick breakfast, and then brought down my bag for them to hold durring the day. I asked them the best way to the train station (I had some ticket stuff to handle), they told me to take a car, I chose to walk. It was a bit over cast,but one of the nice things I saw when I first stepped out was a large and by large I mean a lane and half wide bike lane in each direction and separated bus lanes with bus level boarding, but it was a bit over caste outside. Walking down the street began not so bad, but the traffic quickly picked up and with that the noise and odors. At one point I turned down the street and was welcomed by the sight of a camel pulling a cart, definitely not the U.S.. For some reason that completely alludes me every station in India have huge complexes of buildings, which are generally arranged in random ways, which means it can often be a long hunt for the reservations office. The reservation office wasn't all that bad, I was able to get a new ticket for heading to Dharmsala (I was changing my ticket ticket Rahul had invited me to Delhi's first ever comic convention), but when I tried to return a ticket that I had bought in Madurai with a credit card I was told that I coud only return such a ticket in Delhi, this is where that learning why not to by tickets with a credit card came into play. I then helped an older gentleman who seemed to be an American Indian who was back in India visiting family. The advice I gave him, was technically correct, but I felt bad giving it as I think it is part of what is wrong with the Indian rail system, but I gave it because it was the correct advice to give. I told him that even if he is unsure of going he shouldn't wait because if he were to they would sell out so he might as well just buy all of the tickets that he might need. He was with a young man who seemed to be a relation of his living in India that he was visiting who agreed with my advice and then he bought his tickets.

On leaving the station I found myself suddenly in the midst of a beautiful day. There were puddles everywhere which needed dodging and cars that needed to be avoided as well as the splashes from the puddles in their paths. I continued to navigate my way around the city taking in its sights, sounds and smells, and as this was just after the rain it was actually smelling and feeling quite clean. After dodging a number of cars to cross the street I decided that I was getting quite hungry so I started to look for sustenance. Suddenly in front of my is a horse coming down the street towing behind it some people and then I notice and an interesting looking restaurant. On walking up to the restaurant I quickly got usurer in, but I didn't let them seat me until I took a look at the menu. The menu was simply scary, it was filled with a huge number of foods from a large number of countries, I felt bad in doing so, but to me such a menu is a bad sign, so I quickly extricated myself from the restaurant. I was honestly just basking in the beauty of a day that it had become. I just started to follow google maps to what looked like it might be a fort.

Well I continued wandering and wondering, and ended up getting what I almost always get, some samosa's. Well I ended up in this interesting looking neighborhood that seemed nice enough. A group of kids asked me to take their photo, I kindly obliged and they were exceedingly excited, especially after I showed them their photos. I then continued down the street where some older guys very awkwardly also asked for me to take their photo, they were both odd and forceful in their request and they really just ended up making fun of one of them after seeing the photos. I then continued down the street and found myself in a nice little market. Suddenly out of now where a whole bunch of kids started asking me for photos, and I kindly obliged and everything was going quite dandy. They then decided to start following me, which made me feel somewhat like the pied piper of hamelin, but such an interesting situation can't last long, and pretty quickly after one rude kid started asking for money they all followed suit. They then started pushing me and pushing each other into me. I decided that I would go another way as the kids showed no signs of letting up, when I passed by a shop on my way out I suddenly got water or some liquid thrown on me. I then screamed at the kids, which probably was completely incomprehensible to them. I then made haste to an auto rickshaw stand I had seen on my way still with the kids following and screaming at me from behind. I found an auto rickshaw driver relatively quickly and hopped into an auto rickshaw and waited for the driver to figure out how to get me to where I need going, but as this was India it took a little while, and durring the time the kids continued to surround me and even entered the auto. Eventually a kind man came to my aid and shooed the kids away and then I was off back to the Hotel to fetch my things.

So after actually having to guide the auto rickshaw back to the hotel using my phone as the driver and his friend didn't know how to get there, they had the gaul to try to raise the price that we had originally decided on. Well after getting payment sorted out I contacted Rahul to coordinate him picking me up at the bus. Well the people at the hotel were super nice and friendly and I fetched my bag and went over the bus station. At the bus station I grabbed some peanut brittle found my bus and sat down. The bus ride was really quite eventful. I told the driver where I was going, but I always get nervous so I had marked on my phone where the stop was. Through great coordination with Rahul and my phone I managed to get off at the right place with Rahul knowing, but I was standing on the wrong side of the highway. In the middle of the night I didn't really feel like it would be a good idea to just run across the highway, but Rahul came across and we then ran across together. Apparently there was an underpass, but it was apparently filled with mud and cow shit, rendering essentially unusable. Well getting into the car with Rahul was a very different experience. He didn't honk his horn once, which was shocking, even when there were a huge number of vehicles driving around in the incorrect directions. Well we got back to Rahul's house had a bite and then I went to bed.

Darkness Driving, Unexpected paths.
Where to is inconsequential.

No Light ahead, only here and behind.