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This morning, I went to Amber Fort, which is not Amber, but is a fort, built in the 16th century (in the town of Amber). We had to go through the usual gauntlet of souvenir sellers to get to the fort--these people are the most persistent I have ever seen. After seeing the fort, I got my first elephant ride. It's kind of like driving down a street that is a series of high speed bumps. Every time the elephant took a step, I got a jolt. Been there, done that.
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I did have a fascinating conversation with the "driver" of the elephant:
DRIVER: "Where you from?"
ME: "USA"
DRIVER: "Oh, USA! That's where (something unintelligible) is from!"
ME: "Pardon?"
DRIVER: "USA! W-E from there! W-E my favorite?"
ME: "Sorry, I still don't understand. (Is he talking about the We network, or
the WWW?)"
DRIVER: "You know, WWE! Steve Austin good man!"
ME: "Oh, the WWE! You mean wrestling!"
DRIVER: "The Rock, he very bad man!"
So, that's what elephant drivers do in their spare time.
During the afternoon I had an "official" tour of the Pink City and the City Palace of Jaipur. After an hour, I felt some rumbling in my intestines and asked the guide where there was a bathroom. He pointed me to a hut, and of course, it was a squat toilet, with no toilet paper. However, they were kind enough to provide a bucket of water that I could use for personal hygiene. I'm not a snob, but I draw the line at squat toilets with no paper, so I asked him if there was a Western-style facility in the area. He said there was a "nice" one in the city museum, so we went there. Well, it was a real toilet and it was nicer than the other one. The attendant offered me about 3 sheets of paper before I went into the stall--fortunately they were two-ply. I won't bore you with further details, but eventually everything came out all right.
Palace of the Winds, Jaipur | 
17th century observatory |
After dinner, I decided to take a walk in the area around the hotel. I am now firmly conviced that the world's most dangerous activity is attempting to cross a street after dark in an Indian city. Take the usual combination of cars, trucks, scooters, bicycles and pedestrians. Add to that a street full of potholes, an almost total absence of streetlights, no sidewalks, and cars using only their parking lights. Oh, I forgot, they drive on the left, too. I think in the future, I'll just watch cricket on TV instead of trying to take a walk after dark.
