Almost, wait a minute... I DID,Cut My Hair

There's a David Crosby song, him again, called 'Almost Cut My Hair' and there have been a few times on this trip that I have considered just cutting off my blonde with grey roots hair, either because of the heat or the weird striped effect of the grey root look. Well today, was the day I did it. There was no master plan to the shearing. It was all rather off the cuff actually. We had intended to go to the 'Pool in our hotel' at the Maharini Plaza. I put the quotes on as if to illustrate the empty promise or fictional feature implicit in such a phrase. We got to the roof and found out that the 'rooftop pool' was closed for maintenance. But hey, said Suniti the desk manager, 'You can use the pool over at our other location the Maharina Palace'. Inconvenient, we thought, but why not, it's hot out, so let's do it. We'll pack one of the day pack backpacks, we decided, and we'll head over there after a couple of hours of sight seeing in Jaipur. We went to the Observatory, some really neat old sundial structures in the heart of the Pink City (the walled area of Jaipur) and then went to Hawa Mahal or 'The Palace of Winds' a temple like , and of course Pink, structure that is only 2 rupees to tour. After paying 20 bucks USD for the Taj Mahal, you wonder why they even bother with the light 2 rs charge at all, but hey - if you say so. We walked around the Hawa Mahal for a few minutes, maybe an hour, then took an 'autorickshaw' to 'the pool at the other hotel'.Yes I have put that in fiction marking quotes on purpose. It seems the stagnant, partially drained and utterly dirty pool on the roof of the Maharini Palace is unswimmable. At least today it wasnt, strangely the front desk clerk, ever friendly but sadly not too helpful, neglected to tell us of the neglected state of the rooftop water pit. Plans foiled I just popped up some stairs where there was alledged to be a 'health club and massage clinic' I opened the door and discovered that this was really an airconditioned barber shop. Thinking that this was a sign, I negotiated a 100 rupee haircut. I now have short cropped gray hair again for the first time in something like seven or eight years. And more symbolically, I have trimmed off the last remains of my 'California Blonde' look, and a little tearfully, said goodbye to my California period. At least part one. Short sharp and a little shellshocked I headed back out into the Jaipur heat and off to another anonymous cyber world.

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