Good and Bad Times

Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008--Jaipur (Continued)

Found a restaurant down the street from my hotel and ate Kodai Curry (tomato, onion, peppers, and paneer cheese in a curry sauce. Had it with roti--somewhat like flour tortillas.

Adnan, one of my internet friends, came by in the evening after having dinner with a friend and his (Adnan's) two sons. We visited briefly and made plans for him to pick me up tomorrow for touring the city.

Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008--Jaipur
I finished reading The Blue Bedspread by Raj Kamal Jha while waiting for Adnan. It's an interesting book that is a fast read. I gave it 3 stars out of 4.

Adnan arrived about 10:30. We then picked up Nadeem, one of his best friends who wanted to join us for the day. We toured the city of Jaipur, especially the outter areas that are difficult for me to see by walking. We saw the government buildings in one part of town, the old walled city, the Lake Palace, the Amber Palace, a fort that had a nice view of the whole city, and other sites. Afterwards, he took me to his home to meet his family. Then we went to his brother's restaurant and ate a late lunch--for me, chicken in a dark sauce with roti.

After resting for a while, Adnan returned to my hotel and picked me up for an outing with his friends. Every Sunday, about 8 of them go into the countryside to a summer house or farm home and cook dinner. Several of them have such homes, so the site varies. This one was a summer house about 12 km out of town. We picked up the other guys and all the supplies on the way. (All of them are married, but being Indian and also being Muslim, the guys go out on their own often without the women.)

To prepare the dinner, all of us worked on peeling the garlic. The cloves of many heads were peeled. We also peeled and sliced many red onions and several pieces of ginger. Then a couple of the guys took over the chore of cooking the mutton butter curry we were to have. They started a charcoal fire and put a large pot on it. They added the vegetables, the meat, and water and let it cook for a long time. In the meantime, the guys played board games, sang, wrestled, danced, etc. There was a wonderful grass lawn with soft grass, so I spent much of the time just lying there enjoying the softness. Later, one guy went to the side and opened a package of whole herbs he had brought and began grinding them on a stone. He worked a long time, and the smell was so wonderful . He said that the herbs are not add ed until toward the end of the cooking process. And the ghee (clarified butter) isn't added until the very end. They kept watch over the pot making sure the fire stayed high and waiting for just the right thickness to develop for the sauce.

Sometime in the evening, I was invited to join the father of one of the guys and his friends who had also come there to cook for the evening. They had fish curry with chipati bread (another flat bread). I took one small piece of fish curry and half a chipati just so I could taste it and keep my appetite for the mutton curry later. It was fantastic!

Our meal wasn't ready until 22:00. It had taken 4 hours to prepare. But it was so tender and so tasty. I've never enjoyed mutton so much. And the butter in the sauce made it so rich. I understood then why so many of the guys had rounded bellies!

It was fun to watch the guys. Being Muslims, they do not drink alcohol. But during the evening, they had so much fun. There were times when they let loose and an observer would have sworn they had been drinking, but they hadn't. They all seemed to like me, although many had limited English. I'm hoping I made a good impression as an American, since so many Muslims wonder about us these days.

I was tired when Adnan got me back to my hotel around midnight after dropping everyone else off.

Monday, Aug. 11, 2008--Jaipur

Adnan, who works on an oil pipeline in Qatar, is here on leave. He works 45 days and then has 28 days of leave for which they fly him home. So he was free again today and wanted to go on another outing. He picked me up late, however, since it had been late when we got back from the outing last night. We made a quick stop at McDonalds (his choice) for a vegie burger combo before our outing of the day.

We picked up his sister and went to the Raj Mandir movie theater. It is India's greatest cinema palace, so most tourists go to a film there. His sister wanted to join us because one of her sons is a screenwriter who has a film coming out in two weeks and the trailer for it was being shown. The cinema hall was wonderful. And it wasn't built until the 1970s. I thought the decor seemed more like the 1930s, however.

The film at the cinema was a comedy. Even though it was Monday afternoon, every seat in the house was full. And the audiance participated. They hooted, they laughed, they jeered, etc. Unfortunately, they also talked on their mobile phones, talked to each other, etc. I was able to follow the story of the film, Singh is Kinng.

I ate at my hotel in the evening. I had aloo ghobi (potato-cauliflower curry) with chipatis. It was good. While there, I visited with a couple from Barcelona who were also staying there. Afterwards, I continued to visit with them as I watched for Adnan to arrive.

Adnan picked me up about 21:30, and we headed out to pick up his friends from the night before. They had agreed to meet for tea at a roadside place. It is just an open area with huge tin cans that serve as seats. I treated the group to the tea, since they had invited me to their dinner last night. We all visited until about 23:30 when they ran out of tea. The question came up about 9-11. I was asked if it was true that 5000 Isrealis worked in the buildings and that all of them had been out that day. They have been reading all the conspiracy websites. I told them it may be true that 5000 Jews worked in the buildings, and it may be true that most of them were not there. But I pointed out that Jews did die in the building and that MOST of the employees were not there, since the planes hit the towers before the normal office hours when people would have been working. Then we all separated and went home for the night. I said good-bye to Adnan, since I wouldn't be seeing him again.

Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2009--Jaipur to Jodhpur

Today has been a disaster. First, I got up early hoping to get a bus at 7: 00. I arrived at the station at 6:50 only to learn that a bus left at 6:30 and that there wouldn't be another until 9:30. I waited and took it, but that meant I didn't arrive in Jodhpur until almost 17:00.

I had problems finding a hotel. And it was so humid that my shirt soaked through. Anyway, every place I went wanted too much money for what they were offering. A couple offered to come down to 2/3 of their original price, but I didn't feel like favoring someone who had just tried to cheat me so much! Finally, I settled on a place that I would rather not be. It is cheaper than I would have paid, but there was nothing worthwhile in the price range I would normally pay.

By that time, I was upset and thinking I would leave the city tomorrow. I went to the train station to see if I could get a ticket to even leave tonight, and my pocket was picked while I was at the station. I have definitely decided to get out of here by bus tomorrow morning. I have no more interest in this city at all. I will be a happy person without seeing anything here or spending another moment here.