Tales From the Road Trip to Jaipur
On the way to Jaipur today, we saw:
Men beside the road with bears on leashes. They walked into traffic on their hind legs (the bears that is) to try and get people to stop for a photo. Question: What IDIOT stops the car when a bear is walking toward you?
We saw women carrying baskets of cow poop on their heads. Yes, cow poop. It gets taken home and patted it into cow-poop "mud pies," which then get dried in the sun -- sort of like sun-dried tomatoes -- and burned for fuel.
We also saw a fascinating abandoned city, Fatepur Sikri. Get a load of this screw-up: Back in the 1600s, a great ruler decided to build a new and beautiful city with all the modern conveniences: miles of ample fortifications, exquisite stone carvings, and a Parcheesi board big enough that humans were used as playing pieces. (No joke.) But, whoops. He made a mistake and failed to notice there was no water. So the city was abandoned after a few decades of extreme thirst, probably exascerbated by Parcheesi.
Today, as we visited the abandoned city of Fatepur Sikri, we had one goal: Stand on the royal Parcheesi board. We succeeded.
In addition to the trained bears, we also saw camel carts, monkeys, pigs, sheep, and endless cows and bullocks. We also saw flocks of green parrots chattering overhead.
And that was just the road trip. Late afternoon, we arrived at our hotel in Jaipur, which is rather impressive. Dad, if you could transport yourself straight here -- bypassing the monkeys and sun-dried "tomatoes" -- you'd love it. It's a 17th-century mansion at the end of a long, winding drive. It's got a beautiful stone stairway straight out of either "Brideshead Revisited" or "Gone With The Wind." The back porch (where we sat and had cool drinks this evening as the sun set) is lined by marble columns and looks out on a football-field-sized formal lawn and garden. Pretty nice.
Men beside the road with bears on leashes. They walked into traffic on their hind legs (the bears that is) to try and get people to stop for a photo. Question: What IDIOT stops the car when a bear is walking toward you?
We saw women carrying baskets of cow poop on their heads. Yes, cow poop. It gets taken home and patted it into cow-poop "mud pies," which then get dried in the sun -- sort of like sun-dried tomatoes -- and burned for fuel.
We also saw a fascinating abandoned city, Fatepur Sikri. Get a load of this screw-up: Back in the 1600s, a great ruler decided to build a new and beautiful city with all the modern conveniences: miles of ample fortifications, exquisite stone carvings, and a Parcheesi board big enough that humans were used as playing pieces. (No joke.) But, whoops. He made a mistake and failed to notice there was no water. So the city was abandoned after a few decades of extreme thirst, probably exascerbated by Parcheesi.
Today, as we visited the abandoned city of Fatepur Sikri, we had one goal: Stand on the royal Parcheesi board. We succeeded.
In addition to the trained bears, we also saw camel carts, monkeys, pigs, sheep, and endless cows and bullocks. We also saw flocks of green parrots chattering overhead.
And that was just the road trip. Late afternoon, we arrived at our hotel in Jaipur, which is rather impressive. Dad, if you could transport yourself straight here -- bypassing the monkeys and sun-dried "tomatoes" -- you'd love it. It's a 17th-century mansion at the end of a long, winding drive. It's got a beautiful stone stairway straight out of either "Brideshead Revisited" or "Gone With The Wind." The back porch (where we sat and had cool drinks this evening as the sun set) is lined by marble columns and looks out on a football-field-sized formal lawn and garden. Pretty nice.
posted by jespes at 10:45 AM
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