| Submitted by: Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper United States |
| Submission Date: 07 February 2005 |
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) We got to the theater about 2:30 PM and the sign said
the films started at 3:30 PM, not 3 PM as we were expecting. So we decided
to wait. Someone who was sweeping the porch with a local broom made of palm
fronds told us, No 3:30 show. Okay, we will go back to the room and
write, then break up the evening going to a 6:30 PM show. We went back to
the room, listened to cassettes, and wrote.
6 PM rolled around and we walked back to the theater. It was much
cooler than it was earlier. (During the day it gets up to about 95 degrees
Fahrenheit, or 35 degrees Centigrade; at night it's about 65 degrees
Fahrenheit, or 18 degrees Centigrade.) But something was wrong. Only men
seemed to be waiting for the movie. Then we noticed the big letter A on
the poster. Is this like the British A-certificate? Mark went inside to
see the lobby cards and, sure enough, these seemed to be Indian *** films
(though probably not as explicit as R-rated films back home). Mark might
have stayed, but Evelyn was not anxious to be the only woman there.
We went back to the room a little bummed out. So the trip wasn't a
complete loss, we each bought a bottle of apple beer at a stand. It turned
out to be carbonated apple juice. Not bad.
At the hotel Mark asked if they had times for local theaters. The guy
fished a national newspaper out of the wastebasket and handed it to Mark.
Mark went through it, but there were obviously no film listings for Jaipur.
The guy smiled at Mark and said, I tried.
Back at the room we were writing but the mosquitos were actually
getting a bit thick. We decided to go out, look at the maps in the lobby to
plan our trip, and ask if they had mosquito coils. We asked the night
manager if they had coils. If you will be out of the room for ten minutes
we will use Flit. He took Mark's key. Then Mark realized he did not have
his log or Thing and if there was open food he wanted to close it up. So he
rushed to the door before the bellboy got there. He made it. He waited.
And he waited twenty-five minutes. Later Evelyn came to see what was going
on. We both went back to the desk. The manager handed Mark our key.
Bellboy is done.
I have been at my door the whole time. Bellboy never came.
The manager did not know if he should believe Mark so he went to the
room. Mark figured he would say the room had been done, but as soon as he
walked into the room he said, I will get the bellboy.
The bellboy finally showed up with a big pump aerosol. Into the room
he went while Mark held the key ready to lock the door when he finished.
And he sprayed. And sprayed. And sprayed. And sprayed and sprayed and
sprayed. My gosh, Mark thought. What is he doing to our room? I wanted
to be able to sleep without being bitten. I didn't want my room turned into
a Superfund site. Ten minutes later he came out. The whole hall reeked of
Flit. Mark said, Let's go sit in the lobby for an hour or so. Maybe we
should sleep there. Evelyn wanted to return to the room after half an
hour. Mark was not sure he ever wanted to go back. Well, we did go back
and the smell was still strong. It did seem to kill mosquitos since there
was about a pound of dead mosquitos in the bathroom.
We also debated whether to go on a camel trek in Jaiselmer and decided
we might take a one-day trip, but nothing overnight. We also decided not to
book any trains in advance; we would book the train from B to C only after
getting from A to B. Our route at this point is Jaipur-Jodhpur-Jaiselmer-
Jodhpur-Udaipur-Ajmer-Delhi. We'll see how that works out.
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Mark got two mosquito bites overnight. He had a fun
time brushing his teeth in the morning and look at dead mosquitos. GAG!
Mark came back into the bedroom and packed. The television had on Yoga for
Good Health. Mark left it on while he dressed and packed. As he describes
it, Someone was rippling stomach muscles. When I looked again at the yoga
program, somebody was demonstrating some sort of transcendental yoga
exercise in which he was sticking three fingers down his throat. At first I
thought he was brushing his teeth and spitting out water. But more and more
water came out and none was going in. Oh, I get it. This is a yoga 'make-
yourself-vomit-water-into-a-bucket' exercise. On national television, no
less. Now in the United States we do have yoga programs, but I don't think
they show water-vomiting techniques. I guess there is more nifty stuff to
yoga than I realized.
Mark continues, India is really different. Really. One of the most
rewarding experiences for the seasoned traveler is culture shock. But only
in India are you like to find actual culture hysteria. An Indian ex-
officemate once tried to convince me of the helpful value of drinking your
own urine. It is a popular pastime here. Yes, India is a land where the
traveler can find many new ideas. It makes India a challenging place to
visit.
Evelyn added, Everybody says India is a very spiritual country.
People come here looking for enlightenment. So far I can't say I see this
spirituality here more than anywhere else. I see a lot of evidence of
religion, but I've seen that other places. Most of the people we've come in
contact with (admittedly a skewed sample) evidence more greed than
spirituality. And it's clear that if you come here looking for inner peace,
you have to ignore a lot of outer discomforts. The city streets are often
open sewers and smell like them. There are cows, goats, and pigs rooting
through piles of garbage by the curbs. There are burning piles of garbage.
At night, families squat around small fires on the sidewalk cooking their
dinner and getting ready to sleep there for the night, that being their
home. Railway station floors are covered with sleeping beggars. Yes, parts
of New York are dirty, but it's not as ubiquitous as here. Yes, there are
homeless in the United States, but we're talking about orders of magnitude
of difference. Does all this mean my cultural biases are showing?
Probably. But I would say that, although I'm glad I came, I would not
recommend this trip for everyone. Even on a tour, where you'll probably get
better hotels, with fewer bed bugs, you can't avoid seeing the squalor
around you. (And most of what you want to see is *not* handicapped-
accessible--there are a lot of uneven stairs, river banks, unpaved streets,
etc.)
Breakfast for Mark was fried eggs. We called the hotel in Jodhpur that
had been our third choice and was our only remaining choice (the Ardash
Niwas Hotel) and got a reservation for the night.
If it seems that in Jaipur we spent a lot of time in the room writing,
right you are. That was partly due to planning errors, and partly because
there is a *lot* of log writing we have to do. Log writing has expanded
beyond the spare time activity it started as and has become a major chunk of
our time. The pressure not to get too far behind takes away more than it
should from activities.
It is 11:05 AM Tuesday morning and shortly we will check out and head
out for Jodhpur. We will start doing things rather than writing about them.
But for now it is nice to be caught up.
Thing tells Mark that we are now 43.93% through with the trip. What a
sense of humor Thing has!
In preparation for our train trip we are wearing shirts almost ready to
be washed. There is no point in wearing clean clothes onto the train--they
will be covered in dust by the time you arrive. Evelyn is wearing extra-
large T-shirts most of the time; they are loose to allow air circulation and
since they come almost to her knees they protect the pockets in her pants
from pickpockets. Mark has a photographer's vest with velcroed and zippered
inner pockets, and, of course, we have our passports, travelers cheques, and
most of our money in our chest pouches. (Evelyn's is actually around her
neck and threaded on her belt under her T-shirt.) It's hard to conceal them
completely as the thickness of a reasonable amount in rupees gives them
away.
Well, there we are. It is 12:50 PM and we are happily on our way to
Jodhpur. Well, not quite. Actually we are in a waiting room waiting for a
train that is two and a quarter hours late. So far. Maybe more by the time
it gets here. India does not have a government leader who has made the
trains run on time. India does not have a government leader who has made
the clocks run on time.
Mark notes, In the film PATHS OF GLORY, three innocent soldiers are to
be executed as an example to the rest. One has been knocked unconscious and
might well be unconscious for the firing squad, but the commander gives
orders that his cheeks be pinched so he is awake and knows he is about to
die.
Mark goes on to say, At about 1 PM I fell asleep in the chair. About
five minutes later Evelyn noticed I was asleep and woke me up. I guess this
wait doesn't really count as an inconvenience unless I am awake and bored.
While not waking Mark up, Evelyn spent the time studying TRAINS AT A
GLANCE, the abridged railway timetable, available for Rs8 from the Enquiry
agent (who as usual had trouble making change of a Rs20 note). While our
planned stop-over in Ajmer looks reasonable (arrive about 1:30 PM one day
and leave 8 PM on a sleeper the next), it appears that there is no overnight
train from Jodhpur to Udaipur. Then again, it doesn't list the Taj Express
either, so maybe it's just not listed in this abridgement.
The first-class waiting room has hard chairs, four wooden bed
platforms, a shower, toilets, and ceiling fans. Not exactly like the
first-class lounges in airports back home, though probably as good as one
finds in railway stations. But the announcements made on the platforms
don't seem to be piped to the waiting rooms, so about 2:15PM we went back to
the platform to wait.
Well, the train finally pulled in 140 minutes late and pulled out of
Jaipur Junction about 160 minutes late, at 3:30 PM. There is no concept of
picking up time on Indian Railways; it will be at least 1 AM before we
arrive.
Naturally they had decided we were in the wrong compartment. The
notation on the ticket is clearly inscrutable. We have no idea how you can
look at the ticket and figure out what compartment is yours. They put us in
a compartment with what appears to be an English couple in their twenties
who seem totally unsociable to each other and to us. Evelyn thinks, I feel
old. As soon as the train started they each took horizontal positions and
are napping. Evelyn thinks, I feel young again. The woman is wearing a
Sistine Chapel T-shirt just like one Evelyn has.
While we were in the first compartment at Jaipur Junction, we were
sharing the car with a prosperous-looking Indian. He looked every bit as
wealthy as we do. But when a beggar came to the window, she ignored him but
spent five minutes working on Mark. If you are Indian, the beggars leave
you alone. If you look European or American, they are on you in a flash.
We reach Phulera Junction an hour and a half later than the schedule
said. Does this mean we've gained an hour? The elapsed time shown on the
schedule for the trip is an hour less than that shown on our ticket.
Evelyn bought a cup of chai from the chai-wallah at Phulera. Chai is
tea with milk and sugar. It is served in little earthenware cups which you
fling out the window when you're done (not onto the station platform,
though). Evelyn tried to save her cup as a souvenir, but it was obviously
designed for one use only and crumbled fairly soon. The tea and the cup
cost Rs1.50. |
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