more of jaipur

so the dutch-american adventures continued. dutch girl and i roomed together and dashed off for the bus to see the monkey temple. she's much braver than me, as i would not have wanted to take a city bus to get there. but what an amazing adventure! after figuring out which bus to take, we stood on the side of the road wondering where the stop was, only to find out that there isn't an actual stop, and what you do is basically run into the moving bus! hilarious! and so cheap, only 7 rupees to get there!

it was an amazing climb through this mountain village where we were blessed at the sun temple, got some henna done, and then trekked over to see the monkeys. it was so cool that you could literally feed them peanuts out of your hand, and they just helped themselves right to them!! "it's good karma to feed monkeys" was what i was told. and we all know how i believe in my karma! the temple was also the location for holy bathing for hindus. we were supposed to pay to take pictures, but we were just feeling so badass after hitchhiking to the internet cafe and back, running onto a bus, etc. that we just took our shots and left.















the rest of the day was just shopping and that was not successful at all. everyone just wanted much more than they did yesterday, and we didn't get as much as we would have liked. you ask for a price, and they make you go into their shop and sit and show you everything but what you asked for. and then it's never the price you want.

the staring is getting to be a bit much though. it's like we're aliens or something completely foreign, i dunno. it makes me feel like im not respected. haven't you seen a foreigner before? i am here because i am learning about your beautiful, historical country. why are you sneaking photos of me on your phone, or staring at me so much that you literally have to turn around as you walk past me?

we were taking a tuk tuk home last night for a price that we agreed upon, but then the tuk tuk driver stopped at the beginning of our long, busy street, and demanded that we double our price to get to our hotel. obviously refusing, we got out and ran right over to the police who only listened to him and asked us to pay the man more money. we both freaked out and just ran. we ran and ran and ran, and then covered our heads with our scarves so as not to stand out as much. miraculously, i dont even know how, we found our hotel. we were actually looking to just hide in a store or a big hotel, or something, but not even 10 minutes later, we just happened to get there in the dark of the night. but we were also terrified that both the police and tuk tuk driver would be there waiting for us. we ran straight into our room and only came out to eat in the hotel's restaurant.

we slept very well last night, out of pure exhaustion!

anyway, today dutch girl and i part ways, as she heads on south, and i go up to delhi for a couple of days before completing my trip in goa (the beach). this is so far an incredible learning experience, but totally NOT relaxing, and i think delhi will be the hardest part of the trip, thus far.