if you're just joining in: my first week in india was a bit rough, defined largely by an unfortunate travel arrangement with an unreliable travel agency. i'm being polite :) but anyways...
jaipur marked the beginning of my travels that were no longer being defined by the travel agency. i arrived super late at night after a long travel day from amritsar.
pictured below was my dinner at an airport (i forget which) of a slice of "veg pizza" (wow) and a cold beer (actual wow).
i decided to treat myself to a "luxury accommodation" after camping in the mountains and then staying in that amritsar shit hole (previous chapter). a $60/night hotel room in america is one of the nastier rooms you're gonna find out there. a $60/night hotel room in jaipur, india is damn near regal. 5 star treatment. kindness and helpfulness (and metal detectors) everywhere. i knew my next destination was $8/night again so i enjoyed myself. i will note, however, that for such a nice hotel, the ceiling in my room was awfully low. it was just half the room this low, but still funny. i guess i'm tall by indian standards.
it's amazing how different the indian experience is when you have a hotel to return to at the end of the day that actually feels safe and quiet and comfortable. i walked almost everywhere, and that can be a chaotic and taxing experience for a westerner in india. serious stimulation overload. and no sidewalks. and trash... like SERIOUS trash... abounds. you kind of have to pretend you're in a video game, and you're just trying to survive going from point A to point B. need to cross the street? don't stop. don't look at cars. don't hesitate. just walk. it's sounds counter-intuitive, but the safest way to cross the street in india is to just fucking walk across it like you were walking anywhere. the drivers will go around you. and it's easier for them if you are a predictably moving object instead of one that starts and stops and starts again. but i digress...
jaipur is amazing. at over 3 million people it's still a big ass city, but nothing compared to the 20 million of new delhi. yikes. jaipur felt almost quaint. almost. ok not really but it was manageable. and i was finally able to do some touristy stuff and sight see. i won't bore you with long written accounts of the places, and instead let the pictures do the talking. but some context:
this is one of the coolest fort / castle / city sights i've ever been to. it's called Amer Fort and it's about 500 years old. it's about a 30 min drive from the city center of jaipur (they have uber in jaipur, which is more money than most modes of transportation, but to me the only one i could be sure i wasn't being scammed on, and by far the most comfortable. and by american prices, sooooo cheap still. highly recommend it for trips longer than you want to walk.) for the record: i think what they do to these elephants is fucked up and should be stopped ENTIRELY. the people running the service say they've reduced the number of trips an elephant can make and they only do rides in the mornings when it's cool, but that's not enough. these creatures are so smart and peaceful and huge and beautiful and miserable. it's sad. anyways, i'm sharing the pictures to let people know that if you go there, don't ride the elephants. it's fucked up. walk up the stairs like every other decent person there. or pay a kid with a motorcycle. but don't ride the elephants. please.
these other photos were taken at the albert hall museum, but they are less about the museum and more about the photo culture of india. EVERYONE has a cell phone and EVERYONE IS OBSESSED WITH SELFIES. the selfie situation is out of control in india. out of control. constant selfie taking. with zero apparent care for location or instance. just: here's a picture of my face smiling. and taking photos of each other is also huge. it's not just india: all of southeast asia is currently experiencing a selfie epidemic. if you think it's bad in the states... you are wrong. go to asia. you will see. anyways, there was this guy in the museum who was taking pictures of himself in front of every single exhibit. it was amazing. so i tried to get a picture of him in action. another photo is of two male adult friends taking pictures of each other outside the museum. something you would rarely, if ever, see in america. i love it. also there's a picture of a funny placard in the museum that labels something as "stuff." i just thought that was really funny.
if you've read this far you're AMAZING! thank you. next chapter - varanasi, the holiest city in india. i loved it. stay tuned!
are you going anywhere i've been? ask me questions! follow me at @javierdunn
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thank you!!!