Our last day in Jaipur. Since we liked our tuk-tuk driver, Nana, yesterday and felt we could trust him (he was kind of grandfatherly and took good care of us), we asked him to come back today and show us around the city. Having such limited time, and now knowing just how much longer everything takes here, we decided it would be the most efficient use of our time and the best way to see as much as possible. It seems like such a luxury to hire a private "tax
i" for a whole day to personally escort you around a city, but for the equivalent of roughly $12 (300 Rupees) for the whole day, it was totally worth it.We made our priority for the day our first stop: the Sun Temple, affectionately referred to as the Monkey Temple. Any guesses as to why it's called the Monkey Temple? Remember how obsessed I am with bubble tea? The only other thing that co
mes close to that level of odd obsession for me is monkeys. I don't know why, but I can't get enough of them (come on, how can you NOT be mesmerized to watch an animal with the dexterity of a human carefully opening a tiny little plastic package to get to what's inside?). So while there is a small temple at the top of a hill here, the main attraction (at least for me) were the hundreds of wild monkeys running all over this area who surround you while you make the climb up and down and who eat peanuts right out of your hand. R
eal monkeys eating out of my hand! How cool is that? They had warned us repeatedly ahead of time "Don't pull out the whole bag, just take out one peanut at a time" but I, a relative monkey novice despite my fond affection for them, didn't heed the advice. I pulled out my bag, trying to open it (THEN I was going to pull them out one at a time) but one of the bigger monkeys decided he couldn't wait and came and swiped it right out of my hand. Peanuts everywhere. So my monkey adventures were sadly short-lived. But they were so awesome wh
ile they lasted.
mes close to that level of odd obsession for me is monkeys. I don't know why, but I can't get enough of them (come on, how can you NOT be mesmerized to watch an animal with the dexterity of a human carefully opening a tiny little plastic package to get to what's inside?). So while there is a small temple at the top of a hill here, the main attraction (at least for me) were the hundreds of wild monkeys running all over this area who surround you while you make the climb up and down and who eat peanuts right out of your hand. R
eal monkeys eating out of my hand! How cool is that? They had warned us repeatedly ahead of time "Don't pull out the whole bag, just take out one peanut at a time" but I, a relative monkey novice despite my fond affection for them, didn't heed the advice. I pulled out my bag, trying to open it (THEN I was going to pull them out one at a time) but one of the bigger monkeys decided he couldn't wait and came and swiped it right out of my hand. Peanuts everywhere. So my monkey adventures were sadly short-lived. But they were so awesome wh
ile they lasted. While we were up there, we also decided to get henna tattoos. Seems silly to not do it while in a country so famous for henna. Turns out there is one Indian lady in all of India who is bad at henna... and we found her. But, hey, it was still a cool process and a fun experience.
They finally pulled me away from the monkeys and then it was time for.... Thums Up!, the national soda of India. I had heard about it, I had read ab
out it and I had braced myself for it. But it turns out you can never really brace yourself for Thums Up. If you would like to try some yourself but don't imagine you'll be getting to India any time soon, just take a swig of gasoline. Gasoline spiked with 5 times the sugar and caffeine content of regular soda, that is. And, yet, despite its foul initial taste, it grows on you and I oddly found myself finishing the bottle. Another Indian contradiction.
out it and I had braced myself for it. But it turns out you can never really brace yourself for Thums Up. If you would like to try some yourself but don't imagine you'll be getting to India any time soon, just take a swig of gasoline. Gasoline spiked with 5 times the sugar and caffeine content of regular soda, that is. And, yet, despite its foul initial taste, it grows on you and I oddly found myself finishing the bottle. Another Indian contradiction. We tuk-tuked our way throu
gh the Pink City (as Jaipur is known) and over to the Red Fort. Since we think we'll be 'monumented out' after the Taj Mahal tomorrow, we mostly just meandered about aimlesslsy without any real agenda to check it all out in any sort of official way. We also had a perfectly lovely conversation with a perfectly lovely young Indian guy (part of it in Spanish, oddly); very refreshing to just sit and have a real, give and take conversation with someone here, with no pressure, no tension, no one wanting anything from you for the moment. Lovely. And then of course we had some more fab Indian food for lunch (I should mention that garlic naan is nearing an obsession of epic p
roportions for me). And then, as the grand finale to our day, on our way back to the hotel, I mentioned that I thought driving a tuk-tuk looked fun... and so Nana let me drive! An auto rickshaw. In India. On Indian streets. Insane.
gh the Pink City (as Jaipur is known) and over to the Red Fort. Since we think we'll be 'monumented out' after the Taj Mahal tomorrow, we mostly just meandered about aimlesslsy without any real agenda to check it all out in any sort of official way. We also had a perfectly lovely conversation with a perfectly lovely young Indian guy (part of it in Spanish, oddly); very refreshing to just sit and have a real, give and take conversation with someone here, with no pressure, no tension, no one wanting anything from you for the moment. Lovely. And then of course we had some more fab Indian food for lunch (I should mention that garlic naan is nearing an obsession of epic p
roportions for me). And then, as the grand finale to our day, on our way back to the hotel, I mentioned that I thought driving a tuk-tuk looked fun... and so Nana let me drive! An auto rickshaw. In India. On Indian streets. Insane. And then it was time to move on, yet again. We bid farewell to Nana and boarded a bus to Agra, the city where the Taj Mahal is. Fen had told us scary stories about her previous bus rides but ours was relatively smooth and easy, at least by Indian standards. I won't mention the greasy headrests.
1 comment:
Monkeys rule.
And so do your adventures. I'm heading to Mumbai on wednesday and your blog is definitely a superb appetizer. And now you're in one of my favorite cities in the world, Bangkok. have a blast!
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