Personal Space

Day 407
I was up early and by 7 I was out of the door. I got on the first bus to Ajmer, it was a painless half hour journey, if you don't count the nasty looking latrine I passed. At the bus station I got a ticket for Jaipur and grabbed one of the smaller seats for myself. I had my big bag between my legs on the ground, my mini back pack, purse and another bag on my lap. Despite all this some guy decided to sit next to me. The bus was full though, so I couldn't complain.

At one stop a kid tried to sell me water through the window, I turned him down but he came back a few minutes later with several of his friends. They were all smiling and pointing at me. I could just hear him saying "see, I told you there was a white chick on the bus!" As the number of people on the bus thinned I kept expecting the guy next to me to move so we would both have more space. My legs were starting to get really uncomfortable and I eventually just told him that I was going to move to another seat myself (he was in the isle). This is when he finally got the hint and moved over himself.

When I got to Jaipur there was a crazy crush of tuk tuk drivers. I went with a pre-paid one and was soon at my hotel. I still had to dodge a dodgy offer of a free ride though. Once I had checked in and eaten I grabbed a tuk tuk and headed to the old town. I had meant to see some of the palaces but instead got stuck in sari land. I had been wanting to buy some but they had all be way out of my price range, here I found several from $2 - 4 each. It's just that I ended up having too much to carry.

I decided to shop a bit more but stopped for some ice cream on the way. As I walked by the different shops the owners would grab anything and then hold it up to show me. One guy tried to sell me a ripped pillow cover and told me that it was that way because it was hand made. Another held out a shirt and told me it was r 450 (I have one like it I got for r 170) and that he also carried fat sizes. There was no sale there.

Eventually I got hot, tired and bored and got a tuk tuk to my hotel. At one of the red lights about half a dozen street kids came up to me asking for money. When I said no they began to punch my legs and poke me quite hard in the sides. The driver tried to get them to go away but they just kept jabbing me harder. This was beginning to feel like the longest light ever. Eventually I lost temper and yelled at them to get away. This just provoked them more, but luckily the light changed. I ended up with bruises from them.

That night I had a quick dinner at my hotel before calling it an early night. I was pretty tired after the early start after all.

Pushing for the Goal

Day 405
I was exhausted when I arrived in Jodhpur. I had about 3 hours to kill in the station and I took a piece of floor just like everyone else. Only I think that many of them might have been living there. Every few minutes the same kid would come around and try to sell me toenail clippers. How many times do I have to say no? Other people brought their kids over to try and get me to give them money. I was really happy when it was time for me to get on the train. I had a sleeper and passed out as soon as I got on.

I woke up when I was in Ajmer. The touts were crazy and I hardly ever decided to go with one, however one guy's hotel had a mention in a guidebook that I had heard of and he would pay and take me all the way to Pushkar so I went ahead with him. After a short tuk tuk ride and then a bus ride where a few kids were made to stand up to give me their seats (I felt bad), I had arrived. The walk to the hotel was short but I had a lot of stuff so I decided to just get a cyclo. The hotel guy said it would be 20 rupees so I hopped in. About half way there the cyclo wallah told me that it would be 200 rupees because I was so heavy, I told him no way. When I got to the hotel the tout who had got me there told me not to give him any more than 20 so that's what I did.

After showering and resting a bit I headed out for some food, I hadn't eaten yet that day. I had some problems because this is just little desert outpost town. Eventually I found a nice cafe though and ended up chatting to some English girls. They told me that the people who owned their hotel had a pet cow and that it went on a date the other night, even kissing the other cow goodnight at the gate. Just as this was happening a motorbike hit a western woman from behind. She ended up on the ground crying. I tried to grab my pen to write down the license plate number, but he just drove off, I don't even think he bothered to apologize.

After lunch I wandered to the Braman temple, but there were so many touts just walking up to it that I just turned around and gave up. I didn't want to fight through them all. Pushkar is known for that temple, a few ghats, cheap clothing and weed. On the way back to my hotel I found some cheap clothing, but decided against the weed. While I was wandering four sari clad woman surrounded me and asked what my "good" name was. They were standing so close I thought that it was the sari mafia or something. One of them then grabbed my hand and tried to draw henna on me. I knew that this had to be a scam so I pulled my hand away and told her that I already had enough. Luckily they were small women and I could easily push through them.

Before heading back to my hotel I grabbed a chai and wrote in my journal for some time. I then headed to an internet cafe to work on updating everything. I am so determined to not get too far behind here! After a few hours of that I headed back to my hotel.

When it grew dark I headed out for dinner and ended up with some street falafel, it was pretty good. I was tired and decided to call it an early night. This is meant ot be a dry town anyway!