Still Having a Ball!

We started Wednesday with a wonderful breakfast. I see they also like wienies and pork and beans for breakfast like they do in Ghana. We left at 8:30 to enter the city gates of Jaipur. The old part of the city is run down and poor but yet very attractive in its own way. New Delhi didn't look like what I had pictured in my mind as India while Jaipur is. Everything is painted the same color - pink. Well actually it is terracotta but Jaipur is still referred to as the pink city. We went to the city palace which was interesting. It contained several galleries of old artifacts. But the best thing was a craftsman market. I saw the most beautiful miniature paintings that I have ever seen. They were painted with a brush composed of one squirrel hair. Some of them were painted on new white paper, some on silk and some on old antique pieces of official paper with the original Jaipur stamp on them. I could not leave without one - well really three! I bought a very small one painted on silk that's about the size of a postage stamp. Then I bought one larger also painted on silk. And finally the last one is painted on a piece of paper that dates back to 1886. Wow! They are beautiful and I'm very proud to be their owner. From there we went to an observatory built years and years ago. It contained ancient calendars and sundials made out of stone. While there I know it was at least 100 degrees! One highlight of the day was actually seeing two snake charmers playing their flutes while live cobras came up out of the baskets. Amazing! We visited a middle school for about an hour. No students were there because they're still out for summer vacation and won't return until next week.

Here in Jaipur it is nothing to see camels and elephants pulling carts or wagons or carrying various things on their backs. I got photos! We had a nice lunch in a local restaurant. Then we came back to the hotel for a couple of hours. My roommate and I decided to take a nap. Then back to the bus to visit a papermaking shop. This was one of our best stops in my opinion. We toured the whole place seeing them shred scrap pieces of cotton material into pulp and them make it into individual pieces of paper. There was a rainbow of colors and some even had plant fiber such as leaves and flowers in it. Young men and boys sat on the floor creating band books and intricate boxes as well as other paper items. Lastly, we visited the showroom where we had the chance to buy any of the items they made. Needless to say I bought several things. I just couldn't resist. Then on to a ceramic shop that makes blue pottery and also has a business of stamping cloth. He demonstrated that for us and took us to his showroom. A funny thing happened as we were walking down the narrow street to this man's shop. There were lots of children checking us out and some of them had never seen white people before. One little boy asked out tour guide who is Indian, "Which village did these light complected Indians come from?" Then to supper at a five star restaurant which had a village built around it in which craftsmen, musicians and dancers performed. We then returned back to the hotel to shower and go to bed.

Today we started once again with a fine breakfast. This is out favorite meal of the day. Then came the elephant ride! You took elephants up to a fort or old palace and walked down. It was one of the most fun things I've ever done. I was wondering how we would get on top of the elephants. Well it was very easy. We climbed up some stairs to a landing of sorts. The brought the elephant so that he would be right against the landing and we just sat on top of him. There was a large cushion for us to sit on. It was crazy and it had to have been one of the bumpiest rides I've ever had. Maybe it was because we had to sit side saddle instead of straddling the elephant. I got lots of photos and even video as well. As we went along the route there were Indian men and boys taking our photos and within about twenty minutes of our arrival at the top, here they come with the finished photos for us to purchase. Of course they wanted 100 ruppies per photograph; however, they gladly took 50 if you told them you weren't interested in paying that kind of price.

The front door of the palace is surrounded with intricate floral frescoes still in beautiful condition even though this was built back in the 11th century. From there we went to another carpet shop where we were treated with drinks, juices, or rum and even sandwiches. The sandwiches were made of a wonderful kind of cheese. We were all wondering what kind it was because we wanted to see if we could find some back in the states. Finally I asked and guess what? It was Kraft singles grilled in a George Forman grill! Go figure!!! LOL! Here we saw employees actually block stamping cloth as well. The designs were gorgeous with as many as 6-8 colors that were all hand stamped instead of by machine. We were then taken to the store where they sold all kinds of cloth, clothes, bedspreads, ties, etc. My roommate had a 100% silk suit made for him. They took his measurements at 11:00 a.m. and delivered the suit to him at 10:00 p.m. and is it beautiful!!! And the cost? Only $350!!!! No I didn't buy a suit. Sorry.

Then we went to a fine jewelry store. MOST of us just looked while a few bought some pieces. We returned to the hotel where we ate lunch. I took another nap and then at 5:00 we went to our Bollywood experience. We went downtown to see a movie that we thought was going to have English subtitles. Wrong! It was all in Hindi. We were as lost as could be with the very first line. We all decided to leave at intermission. Indian movies are so long that they give the audience an intermission break. However, the music was great. Naresh, out tour guide said that he would try to find us a CD with the soundtrack on it. Well it's almost midnight and time for me to go. This is costing me 150 ruppies for 30 minutes or 250 for one hour. Looks like it's going to be an hour tonight. Take care everything. I'm still having the time of my life. I'll write another entry as soon as I can.

Larry