jaipur

it was a hot and tiring bus ride early one morning from pushkar to jaipur. and already the taxi touts were jumping on me as soon as i got off the bus. i waited for my pack to be off-loaded from the roof and walked resolutely away from the madness.

i had scribbled a rough map of jaipur into my travel book and used it to locate one hotel. i didn’t find it but discovered another instead: the ‘hotel new pink city’. i haggled like mad but the manager was not to be moved. “300... take it or leave it.” i left to find a cheaper place in the near... but as i found nothing, i came back. the room was small but functional, even had a tv which i didn’t need... but i got talking with my neighbour, a lebanese guy. he was there on business, and he always came to the hotel every time he was in jaipur.

i had a mission: send djembe to marta in poland. fortunately, the main g.p.o. was nearby and i went wandering around to find packing material for the djembe. i got lucky... i found a cardboard box... which i had to pay for... and also some polystyrene packing material. a roll of tape and i was ready to go. i got it all done very efficiently and took it to the post office. the stitching-service wallah was doing a good business inside and very quickly wrapped my big box with cloth, stitched it up and sealed it with wax. back at the counter, the girl said i could only send it airmail, but even then, it was not so expensive. 5 kilos or so... about 1900 rupees. i got my receipt and was happy that it hadn’t been too stressful a mission. happy also that i didn’t need to lug around a heavy djembe anymore.

the pink city was really a sight. not really pink. more a pinkish sort of orange. i wandered here and there and took some pics. jaipur is known for its markets of precious and semi-precious stones, but this is not my thing. i could easily have been scammed as they are a lot of dodgy stuff here too. i found the station and nobody at the foreign-tourist counter. and a seat left on one of the agra-bound trains. lucky me again. i got my ticket... unfortunately, it would be arriving in the evening, but at least i had a seat.

so with mission djembe accomplished and sightseeing done, i said goodbye to my neighbour and the manager and walked to the train station. it was a long slow trip, with a long wait just outside agra cannt station. in the end, we were three hours late. arriving at 11pm in a strange city in india with no hotel pre-booked... let’s see what happens!