India, Day 6: "Wait, where's my rug?"

We all got up bright and early this morning to get a head start on our drive back to Dehli, plenty of shopping still to do you know.  It was a bit chaotic checking out of the hotel at 6:00am, turns out the big Portuguese group had the same idea that we did and there were two mountains of luggage waiting to be loaded onto buses.  I saw my rug bag sitting right on top of my suitcase and then made sure the whole pile made it on the bus.  And were were off!

And ran straight into a monster traffic jam right less than 15 minutes outside of Jaipur.  We sat there for quite a while, enough time for the driver's assistant to run out and report back that the traffic jam was "only one kilometer or so" long, nothing to worry about.

Let's see if you can see something not-quite-right with these pictures.

This is a divided highway.  But because this is India, when there is traffic, people just hop over the median and drive along the other side of the road.  Basically its four lanes of traffic with people driving right at each other.

This entire trip, people have stared at our bus like it was decorated like the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine or something.  They would almost immediately swarm as soon as it stopped, and I always wondered how they know we are tourists.  There are lots of other white buses on the road, why do they only stare at ours?  Then at our rest stop I finally noticed the front of the bus:

Ah, now it makes more sense.

At one of our pit stops Vikram collected our spare food and snacks to give to a family that was living along the road side.  Again, beautiful women who look way to young to have families.

Another unplanned stop along the way was to take pictures of these ladies walking along the highway.  We thought they might be upset with us taking pictures of them without asking, but if you look closely, they are laughing at us.

We made to the hotel, where I did not take pictures of my four hour nap.

When I was getting ready for dinner, I realized that I was missing something.  My rug bag.  Somewhere else in the room?  Nope.  In the lobby?  Nope.  Still on the bus?  Uh-uh.  "Um, so Vikram?  My rug didn't make it to my room."  But it had to be close, I saw it go on the bus.  He assured me it was somewhere, and would check.  And oh, by the way, did I ask Wendy?  She has the same bag as me.  Wait, what?  Turns out Wendy has the exact same suitcase and rug bag as I did, and it was probably her bag I saw getting loaded on the bus, not mine.  Crap.

Assuring me that he would start making phone calls to track it down right away, the other ladies talked me into hitting the local disco with them.  Other than getting the usual slightly-unsettling-but-usually-harmless stares from the Indian men, we had a great time.

Bar of choice that night?  The Last Chance Saloon.  Nothing like a pseudo-cowboy bar in northern India.  No, no country music, it was all techno, but still a lot of fun.

Back at the hotel, I remembered about my rug again and was up all night trying to figure out how to tell David I had just spent hundreds of dollars and would now have nothing to show for it.  Double crap.

India, Day 5, Part 2: "I've got too much India between my toes."

One of my main regrets from my last trip to India was that I didn't bring enough money to buy a rug.  Did you know that it's cheaper to fly to India, buy a rug, and fly home than to buy an oriental rug in the US?  A nice rug, I mean, not those Pottery Barn ones that look cool but shed all over the place.  Our first shopping stop in Jaipur?  A rug factory, of course.

First they hand knot it, which can take weeks, months or years depending on the quality of the rug.

Then they burn the backside to get all the stray fluff off...

...they take a scissors to it to get it the right length...

...they wash it...

...and finally, the fringed ends.

And then the buying frenzy began.  The sales guys brought out food and refreshments, which today included veggie samosas and rum-and-cokes, not the best combo on the tummy but great for impulse buying.  I bought one rug, some people didn't get any, and some bought three or four.  Several made emergency phone calls to the husbands to making sure the purchase was okay.  I did not, as David trusts me completely.  Right, honey?  : )

I packed my rug up in a carry-on size bag and took it with me (this detail will become relevant later), but you can have it shipped anywhere in the world, too.

The next stop was a jewelry place, but they didn't do as well with our group, we were already starting to suffer the effects of a shopping hangover.  I did manage to find a ring that I wanted, and... aces!  They were able to re-cast it in gold instead of silver, and promised it to be delivered to my hotel first thing the next morning.  What service.

Next, McDonald's.  It's cheap, safe (if you don't forget to ask for no ice with your coke), and we needed energy.

But this being India, this was the scene right across the shiny new mall that housed the McDonald's.

I'd guess about 40 people or so lived here.

Afterward, we entered the walled part of Jaipur, the reason that this place is called The Pink City.  It's more of a terra cotta, really, but you get the idea.

Here, we loaded up on copper pots, which may not seem that exciting, but at a mere $5 a pot, the cooks among us were thrilled.  We'd figure out how to get around the 20kg baggage limit later.

Wherever we went, we were always being watched.  "Indian men have a staring problem." was the first quote of the day from Kay.

This is a common sight:  A two-year-old riding between her parents as their motorcycle dodged through traffic.  FYI, it's only required by the law that the drivers to wear helmets, not the passengers, even if they're little kids.

We had to cross the street to get to our next destination.  Which doesn't seem like it would be a big deal in itself, but this is India.  Turn up the volume to get the full effect, and double points if you spot the cow at the end.

The only thing missing from this video is Smell-O-Vision: the roadside food, the cow and camel poo, the exhaust.

After a rickshaw ride back to the bus, several of the ladies from our group stopped again when they spotted a place that sold old cricket bats, and starting loading up. "More shopping, oh my god..." was the next quote of the day from Vikram. Dusty and tired, we headed back to our hotel.  "I've got too much India between my toes." was the last quote from someone else in our group.  We had to be up bright and early at 5:30am the next day, enough time to get back to Dehli and have time enough for shopping there, too.  Believe it or not, I was actually almost shopped out.  Almost.

India, Day 5, Part 1: "That goat is smiling at you!"

We woke up in Jaipur, also known as the Pink City.  Or, land of incredible bargain shopping.  First up, a good breakfast at our gorgeous hotel.

We got our culture in for the day at my second-favorite-so-far Indian site, called Amber Fort.  A few of us forewent the popular elephant rides up to where the fort was built, as the line was way long.

It was really only a 15 minute walk up to the main part of the fort, and we got to watch all the painted elephants along the way.

And then along the way came a little peanut!

Built in 1592, Amber Fort is known for its gorgeous blend of ornate Hindu and Muslim architecture.  I just want all these colors for my house.

And I want a Hall of Mirrors.

The tour was awesome, every room was like a picture book.  The following shots were just from the walk back down.

This is my new friend Carlos who, even though I already bought 5 of his paintings, refused to leave me alone.  I asked what his real name was, and it was something completely unpronounceable, though I never ask him where he got Carlos from.  Usually the aliases are Dennis or Peter or something a little less exotic than "Carlos".

I eventually told l him to back off, we had some real shopping to do.  Up next, breaking the bank in Jaipur...

India, Day 4: "Vikram. Vikram. Vikram! Vikram! VIKRAM!!!"

On Day 4 we travelled from Agra, land of the Taj Mahal, to Jaipur, land of shopping.  It was, again, a five hour drive that we managed to stretch into eight.  Barely out of the city, we made Vikram stop when we saw water buffalo heading all by themselves to the local watering hole.

And as usual, as soon as we stepped off of the bus, there were the kids.  They didn't ask for money or pens this time, these young ladies asked for chocolate.  I obliged as best I could with a half melted Snickers bar.

Our first actual planned stop was The Abandoned City, just outside of Agra.  Taking 15 years to build, it was abandoned after only 14 years because there was no water source nearby.  Needless to say the guy who built it, Mughal Akbar, did not go down in history as the smartest Emperor in Indian history.

The royal bedroom!

Did I mention how inspired I am that the day-to-day outfits of the Indian women involve sequence and rhinestones?  Well, I'll say it again.  I'm planning on personally bringing back the bling when I get home.

Back on the bus for maybe 10 minutes, Vikram drew the line when we asked him to stop so we could take pictures of a herd of sheep crossing the road, so here they are from the bus window.  Boring Vikram.

Here's a musician that was playing outside of our lunch place.  He has more character in one of his mustache hairs than I have in my entire being. 

Reaching Jaipur, we had about a minute to freshen up before heading out to dinner and a dance show.  Dinner was amazing, and the dancers were gorgeous and entertaining. 

We also had henna painting...

...and a cooking lesson (sorry, my camera battery was dead by then), before finally heading to bed, with another early start the next day (of course!).  We must rest for the shopping.

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I have to add a personal shout out to our brave and very patient guide, Vikram.  He had been dealing with a bus full of very fickle and loud women for 4 days now, getting even less sleep than we did.  He tried to take naps on some of the longer stretches, but was constantly woken up by us either asking questions or wanting to stop to take pictures.  He answered all of our questions, including personal ones about how he feels about the dowry system, is he scared to get married to someone he's never actually met (an arranged marriage - they've only texted each other), how he feels about the call centers he used to work in (he worked for Equifax and his alias was Mark... or sometimes Mike.)  I'd call him and thank him but he's probably still catching up on his sleep.  Thanks Vikram!