Tickled pink on the road to Jaipur

Hello lovelies,

I am writing to you after a 7 hour car journey (we couldn't get a train ticket) from New Delhi to the dusty city of Jaipur, also known as the pink city!

Although we were interrogated by our driver, Mr Sing, for the first portion of the journey as to why we didn't want a son, why I don't HAVE a son, and why I am still at university - the rest of the drive was rather relaxing in comparison to yesterdays drive to Agra.

Yesterday, I thought I was going to die.

I thought I was going to die a long painful death on the side of an Indian highway, possibly being eaten by rats or crows, unable to call covermore's international help number.

All thanks to Mishra, our driver from yesterday and certified mad man.

Mishra was a certified mad man, even by my tolerance to the standards of Indian driving (which is fairly high).

Mishra didn't wait for anyone or anything on the road to Agra, but he was no king of the road.

Pushing, beeping, shoving and overtaking on bends all at 140km per hour was just an average day for Mishra after smoking some hash at the rest stop he forced us to drink tea at.

To my surprise, at one point on the way back to Delhi I actually dozed off.

I think this may have been a defence mechanism where my body assumed my impending death would less painful if I went to sleep (check Bear Gryllis for factual reference).

Sadly, the nap was short lived, I woke up with a shock to a screeching of breaks and our car on the wrong side of the road, being bared down on by India's version of a semi-trailer.

Thankfully, the Taj Mahal was worth the risk with Mishra, what an architectural feat... and I got some good tourist snappies too.

So, by comparison, todays conversation about my want for offspring was a minor annoyance.

New Delhi, by contrast, was very clean compared to Kolkata and Varanasi and as the countries capital it seems like it is on the way to becoming quite a modern city in the wealthier areas.

As a result, there seemed to be a lot of construction going on everywhere which made the streets a bit of a mine field at times for fear of a falling brick or angle grinder(is this the right tool?) spark in the eye.

We went to a few sights of Delhi with a rickshaw driver, Sanjay, who took us around all day for only $4AUD and even though he seemed to have some kind of conjunctive itis that altered his view, he was a pretty good driver.

We went to the Jama Masjid which is the largest Mosque in India.

It can hold up to 25, 000 people.

To enter, I had to wear what seemed like a typical Australian grandmas shift dress/mumu even though I had made an effort to cover every single part of my skin on a stinking hot day.

I think the yellow night gown ended up just being a means to fleece some more money out of me.

Nevertheless, the mosque was beautiful and I took some photos of some very studious children reading prayers inside.

We also went to various other temples before calling it a day after Sanjay's eye wiping got a bit intense and contagious-looking.

Our hotel in Delhi was amazing, but I won't bore you with the details of the 5 headed shower and anyway, it will make me depressed about my cold bath out of a bucket tonight.

One thing I found really interesting in Delhi was the advertisements for and presence of gated communities.

These suburban cities within the city are targeted of families who want to get away from the "hustle and bustle of New Delhi".

Tucked away from poverty and pollution, they come complete with a locked gate, security guards and names that sound like toilet cleaners, ie "forest glade".

I wonder why Delhi doesn't try harder to clean up the environment, help the homeless people or even make it safer instead of just locking new developments away?

Eep! I have to dash, I have just remembered I locked Tom in the room while I searched for wifi.

He passed out from the headache drugs I gave him and is probably scratching at the door by now!

Will update about Jaipur soon.

Lots of love,

as always,

Al

Xx