Tuesday
Oct 4, 2005 - day 5 - Delhi to Jaipur - Kathy: 99 photos, Bob: 108 photos
Today we got on the bus and headed toward the city of
The Hindus believe in a
trinity of gods, just like the Christians do, all of which are just different
manifestations of the one true God.
Instead of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit, they have
Brahma the creator, Vishnu the organizer and Shiva the destroyer. [A later
guide told us to think of GOD as an acronym: G for Generator (Brahma), O for
Operator (Vishnu), and D for Destroyer (Shiva).]
We are riding on the bus and it’s hard to see, so I will
try to write more later.
Sujay had us read aloud a joke paper of “The Highway Code of India.” This was SO MUCH like my own article “How to Drive in Cairo” that I read my article to the
fellow tourists too for their amusement.
Both articles got many laughs.
Most of the day was spent in the bus driving to
Jaipur. Still, it was not boring at
all. We got lots of good photos of the
Indian people in their native environment.
The photos were tricky because
the bus was moving very fast and bumping us up and down all the time. I set my shutter speed very fast and let the
camera pick the aperture, and hoped for the best. Some of them turned out nice.
While driving, we entered the Indian state of
Rajasthan. We stopped for a short break
at about
At
which was built by one of the
Rajput rulers. The palace was pretty
cool, offering several rooms of various
colors.
One of the coolest was the
hall of mirrors,
which was impressive, but
unfortunately, it was just about impossible to get decent photos. The walls had elaborate paintings on them
that were pretty cool.
There were paintings
everywhere, some showing Hindu religious scenes, and I liked that.
The palace had long ago been
converted into a hotel, and we ate lunch there.
Outside, the grounds were
meticulously groomed by the Indian version of the “weed whip” or “weed wacker.”
Good
thing I love Indian food. I wonder if
I’ll be tired of it by the end of the trip.
The group wanted to sit and chat for a very long time,
but Kathy and I were anxious to get going and explore. We walked around for a while and took some
photos. I saw some goats on the side of
a mountain and decided to test the limitations of my camera’s 12X optical and
4X digital zoom.
After seeing the palace, we walked through the village a
while, and that was fun. We got to see
real people doing real things up close.
There were lots of cute kids there, but many of them were being
pests. Some of them were asking me for
pens, and I was disappointed because I brought hundreds of pens (and notepads)
to India so I could give them away, but they were all locked up in my luggage
which was in the cargo area of the bus.
Riding on the bus for several hours gave me time to
reflect on many of the things I have seen.
I took brief notes on one of my own notepads so I would remember them,
and I will elaborate now. Most of these
things go in the category of “things that you don’t see in the
One. Men riding
“shotgun” on top of a semi-trailer truck.
Two. Cows walking
down the highway by themselves without any owner.
Three. Men pushing
carts of fruit down the street.
Four.
Men peeing on bushes and walls in plain sight.
Five. Women
hauling baskets of rocks from a construction site on their heads.
Six. Cars, motorcycles
and even big bad-ass trucks coming at us on the freeway the wrong
direction! I kid you not! There are actually road signs that read
“Please do not drive in the wrong direction.”
The problem is so bad that they need road signs, and still they do
it. Today I thought many times I would
be in a head-on collision with a truck, but our driver always managed to avoid
it somehow.
Seven. Men working
on freeway overpasses with their bare hands (no tools).
Eight. Horse and
donkey stables in the middle of downtown.
Nine. A cow lying
just outside the front door of a house.
Ten. People playing cricket.
Eleven. Trucks and
busses passing each other with only inches or centimeters of space between the
vehicles. Many times today, I seriously
thought that our bus would take off the side mirrors on another truck or
bus. Many times.
Twelve. Pigs
running around loose down the street.
Thirteen. Camel
carts.
On the bus today, we learned that there were terrorist
threats made against Americans in
Tonight we ate dinner at the hotel, and afterward, our
guide invited us to come to his room and share some whiskey with him. I do not like the taste of whiskey, but I
wanted to go anyway. Much to my
surprise, this whiskey was extremely smooth and tasted wonderful. It was called Royal Stag, the best whiskey
I’ve ever had.
Here’s another example of Indian weirdness: the light
switches in
That’s all for now.
I’m up too late writing, and I have more observations for tomorrow. I think keeping a notepad with observations
is an excellent way to work on a travelogue or journal.
Tomorrow we’re seeing Jaipur’s Hindu temple to