monkey-ing around jaipur

heather and i arrived in jaipur 2 days ago. jaipur is a city in the state of rajastan. we left delhi - after one incredibly hectic and intense day - at 6am to get in a land cruiser for the 5 hr drive ... it was great - just me, the miss and our driver ... in the front seat! there were 7 other passengers for a total of 10. apparently, heather was in a jeep w/ 20 people so i'm still JV.

jaipur is fantastic, so, the city itself is nestled against this beautiful backdrop, its surrounded by these massive fortresses on mountains, which were built by various rulers of jaipur to fend off invading armies (recurring theme in india's history). as with delhi, the traffic is crazy - pedestrians, bike rickshaws, autorickshaws, cars, cows, men with carts, buses, vans - all vie for space. every inch is contested. yet another facet of india that cannot be explained. i thought i was cool bc i could drive in dc. dc is nothing compared. if you can drive here, you can drive anywhere. also, you are probably insane or drunk.

yesterday, we hired a guide named 'lucky' to show us around the city in his autorickshaw. after getting the best lassis ever (like a smoothie but w/ yogurt and cream), we went to temple of hanumon (monkey temple), which is also on a hill overlooking the city. as we entered the area leading up to the temple, we saw monkeys everywhere - eating bananas, hanging out on jeeps - as well as goats, cows, dogs, and the occasional holy man. on the climb up, we tried to feed the monkeys but it didn't go so well - the damn goat and cow kept getting in the way. then a monkey jumped at heather to get the food. we decided not to keep messing around as we were on their turf (monkeys = gods). the temple itself was very cool. the brahmin, or holyman, at the top was impressed with heather's knowledge of their history. he made us tea; heather helped. he also made her wash the dishes. woman are the lesser sex here, by far ...

the elephant festival was one of the main reasons we came to jaipur. it turned out to be a tourist trap. still, we ended up hopping the arena fence and walked in and around the procession pretending to be photographers. we got our pictures taken with the elephants and watched them play elephant polo.

after that, things got weird. the hindi celebrate the coming of spring with a festival called "holi". as we were walking home, the sun was setting and people were piling hay as if to start fires. this was happening on every street and alley. people were carrying around long sticks with dried grass ... then, dudes on motorcyles would zoom by with their sticks on fire, whereupon guys on the street would run after them, light their sticks, then light the bonfires. in a few minutes, the streets were ablaze. so random, but par for the course here.

the other thing w/ holi is that people walk around and put colored powder on everyone ... as we left our hotel this morning, we wondered if we'd see any action (get any color) ... in less than a minute, 6 dudes on 2 motorcyles approached, shouting "happy holi!" and putting the color all over our faces, hair ... we couldn't go 15 yards without someone stopping and drenching us, then wanting to shake our hands or hug ... we bought some of the powder and did the same. the pictures are pricelss, everyone in the street is covered with this powder, even some of the cows. we visited a hindu temple and got lots of looks (we had, by far, the most color as westerners, even one with nascent, horrible beards stick out like sore thumbs here). it took us about an hour each to get the powder out.

enough narrative, time for quick thoughts (as cath advised) :

though i've been here just 9 full days, i have stories to bore friends and family alike for a lifetime (obviously).

we're having a blast, feeling alive as adventure beckons down every street and around each corner.

yoga proves to be elusive. we thought people would be doing downward dogs in the street but yoga teachers are in demand here, esp given india's growing obesity problem.

two more days in jaipur, then off to the small village of pushkar, which is a holy town. no meat here :( but should find some yoga.

keep the posts coming, hopefully the dearth of blog posts is unrelated to my arrival :)