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!