July 31st-August 2nd, 2009

This has been my third weekend in a row travelling, and it has been quite exhausting (and moderately expensive). Spending anywhere between 5 and 18 hours on a train every weekend for almost a month has taken its toll, and I will be spending my next weekend here relaxing. I figured I would do this before heading off to my last and most exotic trip. It will be from Thurs-Sun, August13-16th, spent in the Himalayan mountain town of Leh, the capital of Ladakh in the Jammu and Kashmir northern province of India.

Anyways, this weekend trip was in Jaipur, on my own. It was a last minute decision since my plans to visit Dharmsala or Nepal had to be cancelled due to monsoon hitting them both, severely. Jaipur is the capital of the desert province of Rajasthan, 5 hours west of Delhi. I left after work Friday, and the excitement started right away.

Stuck in Delhi traffic, I arrived at the Old Delhi train station 20 minutes after my train was scheduled to leave. Pissed off, I went into the tourism bureau hoping to get a refund. I was told no refund, sorry. But then the man's eyes widened after hearing an announcement on a loudspeaker in Hindi and said platform 4! So I ran, saw my train slowly moving, and jumped on, landing in the lowest class of 'seating'. After 20 minutes of hard staring, I jumped off at the next stop and re-locate to my actual seat in comfortable 2nd class.

5.5 hours later I arrived in Jaipur after midnight and was taken to my hotel. A very quaint (see: affordable) place that was very nicely decorated. The next morning I ate breakfast on the rooftop restaurant and head off for the city centre. I saw the underwhelming City Palace and the largest observatory in the province right next door. The highlight of this was seeing a snake charmer with his cobra right next to the gate. A crowd had gathered to take pictures, and I was the closest to him. He looked up at me, stopped playing, and patted the spot on his mat next to him, motioning for me to sit. I made hand gestures signifying, 'Uh, how about no?' but he insisted. I sat next to him, with a cobra about a foot away, staring at me and hissing. He said its fine its fine, and continued to play, as if that would soothe it. I had done enough research on the topic to know that the serpant couldn't actually hear the music, the only reason it was actually mesmerized was because it was suddenly subjected to the heat and light after being in a dark, cool basket. It also can't strike upwards, but i was sitting right in front of it. Then, he turned the basket around so the cobra faced the crowd, and motioned for me to touch it. Again, I made the 'no-thanks-i-have-many-reasons-to-live' gesture and he insisted again. So, I stroked the back of the cobras head, and was lucky someone took a picture of me doing it with my camera. Very cool, but not to be done again.

We then went to Amber Fort (pronounced Am-er) which is the most popular fort in the province. Winding through the hillside like the Great Wall in China, it's a huge and impressive complex with gardens and a beautiful view. Being in an adventurous mood, I chose to take the unpopular 2km uphill trek on the rocky path to the fort on top of the Amber Fort, Jaigarh Fort. I was out of breath about 100m into the 2000m uphill walk, but I was able to take breaks when locals insisted on pictures of me. I was either recognized as a WWE wrestler ora 'beautiful man' as only the men would say... great. Eventually I reached the top, where the world's largest cannon is perched. Using 100lbs of gunpowder to shoot, it was used once and the cannonball fired 35km. Here the view was even better, and I tragically ran out of batterypower after 3 pictures.

I walked down, and got into my driver's auto-rickshaw. 4 white people, about my age, asked if they could hop on since they were going back into town. I obliged, and we got to talking. They were a group of Irish younth working in Delhi for an educational NGO, teaching at local schools for the summer. 9 of them were in Jaipur, and invited me to go to Chokhi Dhani, an authentic Rajasthani 'ethnic resort' (essentially a theme park) later that evening for dinner and drinks. I took one of their numbers and went back to the hotel, after taking a few pictures of the floating palace.

I got home and napped until 830 (after dinner) and took the 45 minute tuktuk ride to the resort. I got there and it was huge, wondering how I'd ever find them. I saw a shock of red hair not too far in front of me and ran to meet th egroup. We paid 300IR each, then sat down in a traditional hut. Sitting cross-legged, we were fed traditional desert food. Upon viewing its freshness and ingredients, I was happy I had already eaten. Full on bread and water, we walked around the compound. We found a man-powered ferris wheel (with an acrobat powering the wheel from within its spokes, doing flips) and walked past the elephant and camel rides. We settled into a bar (I'm with 9 Irishmen/women, what did you expect?) and got to know each other and share our experiences.

It closed at midnight, and half the group wanted to go home. I wasn't tired ande ager to learn more about Ireland and talk with James, a guy who had just graduated from university and had spent his past year at Queens University in Kingston. We asked our driver to take us to another bar in Jaipur. He took us to the rooftop of a closed hotel, and we all had a KingFisher while enjoying the rare quiet of the Jaipur night.

Speaking for hours on topics ranging from the ridiculousness of immigration (its very new to Ireland) to the aghast displeasure that I had never heard of their beloved sport of 'Hurling'. This sport is apparrently much like a rugby and lacrosse hybrid, with ancient Gaelic origins. I matched their displeasure when they remarked that they had no idea how hockey was played. Overall, we had great fun talking about our differences, but internationally, youth can always count on bringing drinking together.

I returned to my hotel around 3AM, and rested up for my last sight-seeing for the weekend the next day. Around 3pm I went to Monkey Temple, a short hike through the hillside. I bought a bag of peanuts to feed the monkeys, and was on my way. Aside from being the only tourist there at the time, which seemed to encourage the local youth to throw rocks at me and laugh while running away, it was very beautiful and fun. Beautiful because of the hillside scenery, fun because I got to play with monkeys. The place was overrun with them, many of them jumping into a water tank to swim. A mother walked up to me with her young strapped to her stomach, and looked at my peanut sack. Once I gave her one, a dozen or so monkeys came to investigate. After trying to feed them in an organized fashion, I realized I was surrounded. I was told it was safe to hold out my hand, and the monkeys would gently pry open my fingers to take the nut. After snapping a few pictures, I noticed one fat monkey wouldnt move from her shade. I thought she was crippled and couldn't walk, as she was eying me curiously. I walked up, kneeled in front of her, and tossed the peanut a few feet away. She looked at me, then the peanut, then walked towards it. She looked at the nut, crushed it with her palm, looked at me and sat back down. Dumb unappreciative monkey!

I then went to catch my train and saw my Irish friends at the railway, we were in seperate cars but talked about meeting up in Delhi. All in all it was a great and adventurous trip, although very tiring from all the hiking, sun, and late nights. Travelling on my own was fine, and in person I can tell of more little exciting events that happened along the way that I don't have time to describe.

I hope everyone in Canada is enjoying their cold summer (I know it sucks for youbut there's some days I'm really jealous) and I will see you when I get home inless than 3 weeks!