Lost in Jaipur with no Hindi

We woke up to the imam calling people to prayer at 5 AM. After tea and biscuits, we went with Sanjay to see his silver shop and buy our tickets for the bus tomorrow. The shop was great!




Sanjay dropped us off at City Palace, but it wasn't open yet. The Palace was oppresively hot and OK but not fantastic.

We had an hour of madness, noise, and begging before we found an ATM and someone who could help us find a place for lunch (LMB). We also had fun paying a shop keeper with a quarter in place of 16 rupees. He was very excited when he saw the quarter in Lacey's change purse and after we paid him, he showed it to everyone in the shop. LMB was great and cost about $15 for lunch for two which was swanky by Jaipur standards.

After lunch, we found an autorickshaw outside and negotiated a decent price. We even convinced our driver to actually take us to our destination instead of the first place he tried to leave us.

When we got home, Anu wanted to know what Lacey's freckles were. She wondered if they were scars and was shocked when I showed her that I had freckles too but that they were harder to see because my skin was darker. While Lacey napped, I walked about a bit. I saw pigs, goats, and cows in the street and cows sleeping under shady corner trees. I can honestly say I never stood out so much my entire life before that moment.

In the evening, we relaxed on the veranda and had some beer, before heading out to buy takeout for dinner. That was a wonderful adventure. While we waited for our food, our hosts took us to a street vendor to buy food. He would take mashed potato, stuff it into a tiny pastry shell, dip the whole thing in butter and hand it to you in a bowl made our of leaves. As fast as customers could eat these things the guy could make more. He just counted as everyone ate and when folks had their fill they generally drank the butter from their bowl and paid him 5 rupees (about 8 cents) per 6 pastries. Lakshayta must have eaten twenty!