Jaipur

This morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast we went downstairs and checked out and met our driver who would take us to Jaipur. We loaded our bags into the car and were off, the drive would take 6 hours our driver said. Jimmy and I immediately fell asleep and did not wake up until we stopped for lunch; our driver teased us that we slept so long. We had a nice lunch of chicken curry and naan bread and then it was back in the car for more driving. After lunch Jimmy and I were awake and the traffic on the road became more and more interesting to look at. Among the cars, trucks and bicycles that were on the road there were also monkeys and then camels and the Elephants! It was an amazing landscape as well green grass and vegetation and pink tropical flowers. Our driver was good, but pretty aggressive always using the horn and passing.

We arrived at our hotel around 3 pm and checked into our room, which we were informed was a suit and then we were given the key with a wink. We were then shown upstairs to our room, which is actually quite large and beautiful. After a quick freshening up we went back downstairs and our driver said he was going to take us to take photos of the towns old fort and the water palace and then he informed us we would go to a textile factory and then he invited us to his friends child’s birthday party. We knew we would probably have to go to some kind of factory or restaurant or something where our driver would get a kick back for taking us there so we went with it. After taking pictures we drove to the factory. We then listen to an hour presentation, a little over the top, of how pieces were made and by whom – we saw, both block art as well as intricate needle work done on both silk and cotton, done by poor and widowed women in the surrounding villages. I wanted to get a shirt and we looked around for Christmas gifts as well, skirts, shirts, shoes, blankets, pillow covers, and suits were all taken out for us to choose from, all at a “good price”. After settling on two shirts and one gift for someone back home we said we were done. Jimmy and I then decided that we might just want to go to dinner ourselves and skip the birthday party.

However, our driver would not here any talk of this and he then took us upstairs above the factory and started to poor beer and opened a bag of chips. He said that this was where the party was; Jimmy asked where the child was who’s birthday it was – our guide responded at home, Jimmy said “where is home” our guide said 100 km away! Then the owner of the factory came into the room and sat down to have dinner with us, the men drank and wanted to talk about America and business, mostly with Jimmy. Dinner came and we ate out of a communal dish with our hands and there was much talk of honesty and integrity and much drinking. Finally when dinner was over our driver was to drunk to drive us home, so the man so kids birthday it was, who ended up being the cook and waiter of our meal, basically the servant, had to drive us back to the hotel.

When we got back Jimmy and I just looked at each other – in disbelief of what just happened?