Woke up about 3:30am, I slept amazing! The bed was sooo comfortable. WAtched MTV until about 4:30, then turned off TV, and went back to bed. Shortly after, the power went out. It was pitch black....so black, you can't see nothign, not your hand in front of your face. About 5 minutes later, it came back on, thank the gods, as the room gets bleeding hot when the ceiling fan isn't going. I fell asleep again and barely heard my 8:00 alarm going off. I was so tired, and the bed was sooo comfortable, I could have slept all day long.
Showered, and I didn't think I had any hot water in this hotel, but after about 5 minutes, the hot water starting coming. Ahhhh! Went downstairs for breakfast, then back to my room and packed, then downstairs about 9:45 paid my bill and waited for my tuk-tuk ride to the bus.
My stay at the hotel (room and food) was 530 rupees, about $15CDN. Food was very expensive.
I want to comment on India's "pop culture". My vision of India is pretty much what I see in Vision TV...the INdian music videos and movies one sometimes catches when flipping through the channels. But I'm seeing another side of the Indian culture, a "pop culture", that is very different than that. It's very Western like, commercials, music videos, TV shows, movies, other advertising (billboards, etc.) show Indians in a very "Western" style. Sex sells, even here. Very attractive women, wearing tank-tops, short skirts gyrating in music videos. You should see this one commercial for a popsicle. Very sexual in nature. The "real" culture in India isn't what you see on Vision TV in Canada. :-)
Anyway, the tuk-tuk driver took me to the dude where I bought my train pass, I hung out here for a quite a while, while he sent someone else to actually pick up my printed ticket from the bus station. Spent an hour or so there. This guy owns a factory, a jewellry factory, and he travels around the world, selling this stuff. He propositioned me. He told me I could pay for my trip if I did a little something for him. Being a business, he has to pay a significant export tax to sell his stuff abroad. Because I'm on a tourist visa, I can take a large amount of jewelery back to Canada with me with no taxes or tariffs. So, he asked me if I would be interested in doing that for him. I could send a bunch of jewellery back to Canada, and then would come and pick it up in June (he's going to be in Canada at that time). Well, my Let's Go book mentions this and says it's almost always illegal, I told him now, and showed him in my Let's Go book. He was quite shocked to read it. Kind of funny.
Got to the bus depot at about 12:00, it at the Sakura Hotel. The guy who runs the Sakura HOtel was incredible helpful, giving me all kinds of advice on where to stay in each city, and to call the hotel when I reach the bus depot, and they will send a pick-up for me, so I don't have to deal with touts, etc. Told me to drink or eat anything given to me on a bus (or train), one tourist got drugged the previous week and had all his stuff stolen. It was awesome. He even called ahead and arranged a pickup for me in Jaipur.
Bus left about 12:30.
I saw so much on the bus ride. This bus ride was much more comfortable than the previous one. The highway was newly paved, the bus much more pleasant. They grow a lot of wheat in this area, and they harvest it all by hand. No animals, no machines.
Brick factories, where they make bricks. They have row housing for the workers, it's almost like a slave camp, families living in these small, one room, brick "houses", so that the mom (or dad) can work making bricks. Sad.
If I were a cow, I'd want to be a cow in India. If I were a bear, I would NOT want to be a bear in India. Saw, on many occasions, locals with bears on the side of the road, the bear being forced to do tricks, hoping that traffic will stop and toss a few rupees to them. Sad.
Children make the travelling all worthwile. Two children were sitting in front of me, and they kept sneaking peaks at me (and my hairy legs) and giggling. I twas funny.
Got to Jaipur abouyt 6:30 my pickup, Mr. Rafid, was there. He took me to a hotel, nice, plain, 200 rupees/night and cheap, cheap, cheap food. I took it. Also made arrangements with him to pick me up tomorrow morning, he'll ferry me around all day, to wherever I want for 277 rupees.
Had supper, then found an internet.
Got an e-mail from Rynette. We missed each other in India, they are in Nepal now, and she said I should fly there now. It's amazing, tons of tourists (not too many in India...they are all heading north), and we could all go on rafting tours or trekking. I'll have to see, depends on how long they will be staying there.
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