Around the World III

Day 3 - Good Friday 06 Apr 07 - Train/Jaipur

Slept (a lot) from about 19:00 to midnight, and again until to about 06:00. The train is rattling along a dry arid land with a few trees. It doesn't appear to be as hot as it was in Mumbai, but that could be due to the air con in the carriage!

My cabin mate has his wife in tow (in another compartment), so as soon as I surfaced then she moved into our carriage. There isn't too much else to do than sit in the carriage and wait until Jaipur.

Got in at 13:00 (just a new minutes late) and I was going to get the rest of my train tickets but there was a bit of a queue and I wasn't going to get served before the office closed at 14:00, so I got a rickshaw and headed for the hotel. Checked in, showered, changed my clothes and headed out to find an ATM machine.

By the time I got back my rickshaw driver was ready to take me on a tour, but he's not very good as the first place he takes me to is shut! The second was better, but I had to walk up a hill to get to the Monkey Temple which has some great views over the city.

Then it was back to see his boss, by this time I had a splitting headache - first it was a general chit chat, then he said something about "avoiding taxes" and needing someone who was heading for Hong Kong. I just smiled and said nothing. Then he asked "Why do you smile", and I said "It reminds me of something I read" - Then he said "You shouldn't believe what your guidebook says, you can make money if you want". I smiled, said "no", and walked out. Eventually my rickshaw driver came out, and he drove me back to the hotel in silence. He dropped me off and there was no talk of picking me up tomorrow.

Cat napped for a bit and then headed up to the roof top restaurant to get something to eat.

There were a lot of doomsayers about India, and how it's very different from anywhere else. I was wondering how I'd get on here, but it's not worse than say, Syria - and Syria wasn't exactly the most difficult place to visit. India has that feel of the middle east, but there's something missing. But as yet I don't what that is.