Teej Festival

8/10/02

Jaipur

We arrived back in Jaipur at 4am and walked to a hotel that we checked out on our previous stay. We got a great deal on a huge clean room with an aircooler and a tv! The tv was important since we didn't want to spend too much time in the chaos of Jaipur's streets. We took a shower and a long nap then had our pictures developed. We treated ourselves to an 'upscale' Indian meal and laughed at our photos, particularly the pictures of our safari. Elizabeth had chicken tikka and had had mutton served in a clay pot. It was good and cost us little more than $5! We went to our hotel and looked at our photos again, watched 'Top Gun' on HBO, (it was nice to see American muscle in action! Much needed these days!) and went to bed.

8/11/02

Jaipur

We slept in, watched the tube (mostly BBC and CNN) and had room service. That afternoon, we walked around the old town and took in the preparations for the Teej Festival which would be commencing later in the day. The streets were lined with pink, yellow and white chalk. We scouted out a good place to view the parade and wandered through the side street markets of the city. We had some good fresh juice at a local shop and traded differences in culture with the young owner. Indians (as well as most of Asia) can't believe that we've been married for four years and have no children! We agreed to come back and visit he and his wife when we had kids! We then jumped on the internet and more or less waded rather than surfed through our emails. After we finished, we headed to our viewing spot but found it packed with locals. We started down the street when a couple of police officers gestured for us to enter an old hotel where we were able to watch the procession from the rooftop! It was exclusively for foreigners and was out of the crowd. Our seats gave us a perfect vantage point to the start of the parade. Before the parade local women were making free henna drawings and Elizabeth had a simple pattern done. She liked it but always had the feeling that her hand was dirty. There were locals crowded on the pink rooftops opposite us. The women were dressed in their best bright sarees and the contrast of pink and flourescent clothing was a spectacular sight. The parade soon started with a tribal band blowing horns and banging drums setting the tempo for the rest of the procession. Local crews similar to Mardi Gras ran through the parade carrying 20' poles topped with small temples of various decor. Some poles were covered in bright strips of cloth while others were covered in coconuts. As the carrier would tire, he would hand the pole off with the aid of his companions to another man, and the race would continue. After a few more bands, elaborately decorated elephants joined the procession. The first ten or so were painted from head to toe with bright flowers or murals. Some had headpieces with small round mirrors set in the middle of flowers. There were at least thirty elephants! Next came camels but they weren't as nicely decorated, then Brahma bulls pulling oxcarts. Finally, after a few more bands of varying talent, The idol of the Goddess Parvati made her way through the crowd. She's a 3' statue housed in an open canopy shrine. Twelve bearers dressed in red coats and turbans carried her down the parade route while everyone threw a rupee at the temple in hopes of having a good monsoon. We waited for the crowd to thin out before we headed down the still crowded streets ourselves. Forgot to mention that while we were in Jodhpur, a man we assumed to be a local merchant approached us on the streets and asked the usual questions of where are we from (Canada of course) and where were we going next. We gave him vague information, but before he left us, he asked if we met up in Jaipur if we would buy him a beer. I said yeah right and he asked if we promised! We didn't promise and he ran off... Back to Jaipur: As we were walking down the very busy street, the same creepy man approached us and asked if we remembered him and if we would have a beer with him! We acted like we'd never seen him before and after a minute, he left us with a, 'f***ing Canadians!' We thought, 'f***ing con artist Indians!' Are we giving Canadians a bad name?? We were a little shaken to say the least... me more than Elizabeth for being so trusting and giving out too much information... appearantly Gandhi would like me for being so trusting... A television crew tried to interview us for reaction to the festival but we were in no mood after our last encounter to talk to anyone. We headed back to our hotel and had dinner at a nearby street vendor. I noticed a bug-eyed Indian on a scooter staring at us but didn't think much about it. After dinner, as we were walking back to our hotel, the bug-eyed man tells us he knows what hotel we were staying in (he was wrong but we were staying next door) and if we could give something to his friend we tell him no and he continued to follow us. As we turned towards the hotels, he shouted, 'you are a cunning fellow!' We ducked into the hotel he thought we were staying at and a few minutes later, snuck into our hotel. We informed the hotel staff of our weird evening and to be on the lookout for any strange characters. They took it seriously thankfully but nothing came of either episode. We went to bed to forget the weird day.

8/12/02

Jaipur

Not surprisingly, we stayed in until close to noon, took care of packing our shipment home, and then headed to the post office. Normally we don't say much about it but in India everything is an adventure! All the windows were labled in Hindi and as usual there was no line for any of them but a mass of men crowding around shouting questions simultaneously. We knew we had to have our package prepared but didn't know where to go. Luckily a man pointed us to the correct window, and while Elizabeth was waiting, I found the packager. We had to have our mail sewn into a bag and then sealed with wax! There was one man whos job it was to wrap all parcels before shipment. He also sold calling cards, money orders, etc. etc. In usual Indian fashion, the man was forced to do three or more jobs at once and it took him one hour to comoplete our parcel. After inspecting our goods for contraband, he cut a box to fit our packages, then took out a measuring tape and measured the box. Next he pulled out some white cloth and made a bag into which he sewed our box. Finally, he pulled out a stick of wax and sealed the corners and seams with a stamp. We went up to the overseas package window and when the man behind the counter saw us coming, he stood up and said, 'Closed! Come back tomorrow!' and threw his arms up as if to wave us off. Elizabeth shouted, 'you have GOT to be kidding me!' The man continued to the back of the post office and we could only stand there dumbfounded. Another postal official waved us over to his window and, with usual Indian flare, ignored us for several minutes before instructing us to go behind the counter and yet another man would help us. He looked at us like he couldn't do a thing for us before begrudgingly assisting us, then assuring us that the man who closed up shop in front of us would indeed return and post our package. So back out front we went and, as promised, the first 'gentleman' returned and our package was on it's way. We sent it air mail because we wanted it out of India as quickly as possible. We probably would never see it otherwise!! Soon after we left the post office, we found out that there was another parade for the Teej Festival. But there was still much of the day left so we looked for a ruby for Elizabeth's birthday present. Rumor has it that all jewels in India come through Jaipur so we thought we might have some luck. The first shop we entered was very nice and not only because it was airconditioned but had some beautiful gems. However, the salesman appearantly didn't take us seriously and wouldn't allow Elizabeth to view all the gems at once and would only show rings or pendants that he felt we should see. The quality he showed us left MUCH to be desired so we moved on. We found a store with a large selection but the quality wasn't right. Finally Elizabeth found a ring that she liked... except for the size... too small! One nice thing about serious shopping is that they offer us tea and real coffee when we shop! The only other rings he had in stock were huge and he would have had to get them out of the vault if we were REALLY serious, which at this point, we weren't, so we thanked the man and headed towards town to see the parade again. We decided not to see it from up top but from ground level... and farther down the parade route. At first we were at the front of the barricade but locals got in front of us and we had to move. They let us right through to the front and when the parade arrived we were less than 10 feet from the entire thing. It was mostly the same as the day before but some of the costumes and elephant paint was different. Another fun thing was to watch the elephants take rupees on their trunks and toss them to their drivers. All the children around us were giving money to them! We knew of a carnival/festival north of town to celebrate Teej and shoot off fireworks, but we were done with Jaipur so we headed back to our hotel, after an average meal and, were treated to an ok 'free' puppet show on the front lawn of our hotel. An older gentleman was eating with our hotel owner and he pulled out a bottle of whiskey. He offered us a shot which we took, along with a Swedish man staying at the hotel. After three shots, and half a bottle among six of us, he tells us that we drink his bottle today, and tomorrow he drinks ours!! Uhh, we stopped then! Only the three of us (E, me, and the Swede) watched the 'free' puppet show. The puppeteer could really make the marionettes move and the live music was ok. At the end of the 'free' show, the pupeteer and musician ask for tips, 'as we wish'. Ugh, as usual in India, NOTHING is free. We felt totally uncomfortable because if we had known this was coming, we would have stayed in our room! Live and learn. I pulled out 20 rupees (.50) and tried to give it to them, but the pupeteer said 100-200 rupees because there were two people! I guess our wishes weren't the same. So I stuck the mony back in my pocket and we left. As we walked away, the musician shouted, 'yes 20 rupees is ok! As you wish!' but we went back to the room wondering if all of India was the same as Rajasthan.

8/13/02

Jaipur-Delhi

This was a long day as we had to leave Jaipur at 5am to catch the train to Delhi. From Delhi, we were taking an overnight train to Kalka before heading up to Shimla and the Himalayan foothills. We'd heard nothing but good things about the area and were ready to get out of the cities and heat of Rajashtan. Will tell this tale later...

Love,

Us