Made it to the pink city!
So here I am in Jaipur - finally. And I have found an internet cafe.I arrived last night at 7pm. The flight was not cancelled and everything went smoothly. At the airport, I was met by my AIESEC contacts - Himanshu and four others. They brought me flowers and some water and juice - so lovely. Part of the reception package here is to have a 'home stay' for two days or so, where you live with an AIESECer and their family before being moved to the trainee house. So we dropped my bags off at Himanshu's house, where I also met his mother (she is very kind).
Afterwards we went straight to a trainee dinner. Every few weeks or so AIESEC Jaipur has a dinner for all the current Jaipur trainees to attend. Last night we ate in a place called Uncle Sam's Pizza - some familiar food! Himanshu keeps joking about how health conscious I am - alcohol handwash before all meals, etc. He promises me that I won't get ill, but I'm not sure whether I should believe him or not. I am, however, yet to meet a trainee who has got sick here - a source of great comfort.
After the dinner we left to meet up with the trainees that had already left, but were unsure as to where they had gone. We stopped off where we thought they were, only to be approached by some poor people. A little girl waved at me, and I made the silly mistake of waving back. She came closer and motioned for food/money, and was followed by a sister and her mother, carrying a tiny baby in her arm. Himanshu shouted at them in Hindi, and was quite harsh with his words. He says that if you give to one, they all surround you - and even though I'm working on a project called HOPE, I can't give anything to them. A further concern is that they could just be collecting money for a ringleader, and seeing none of it themselves - or that they use the money, but only to buy alcohol. My travel guides say that the only useful thing you can give is food, such as fruit.
We eventually found the pub, and stayed there for a short while. Then we dropped several trainees home, and I found out where I might be living. I will most likely stay in a guest house complex that is already home to a lot of trainees. It is very near to my work and close to Himanshu's house. I will probably share a room with an American girl called Michelle (which won't do anything to correct my accent), who I met at the dinner. She seems very open and friendly. Himanshu says that nearly all trainees share rooms, as it's cost effective for them and also gives them company, stopping them from feeling lonely etc. The room was very large, with a fan and an air conditioning unit, along with an ensuite shower and a real toilet! (No toilet paper, but that can be worked on. At least it wasn't a hole in the ground.) It seemed quite clean ... no mosquitos, and some ants outside but my repellent should be fine to stop them biting. The trainees say that the landlords clean your room for you and take good care of the tenants.
Sleep didn't come easily last night - it was cool enough, but the downside of the AC unit was that it was very noisy. I then woke at 6am to the troubling sight of people walking around the room - Himanshu and another girl with a large suitcase. It turns out that one of the trainees had arrived in Delhi at midnight, and had been conned into paying a lot of money to get a taxi to Jaipur. Luckily she had Himanshu's address. Although it was frustrating to be woken, it was expected that the other trainee would sleep until midday or so (as she had had no sleep so far), which made me feel comfortable to do the same. So I am no longer tired! Her name is Tessa, and she is from Holland. She is very friendly and this is her first time here too.
After waking today I had a blissfully cool shower (no hot water needed - I never thought I would be so happy to have a cold shower), followed by lunch from Himanshu's Mum. We had chapatis and ladyfinger vegetables (am I supposed to have heard of those?), and Himanshu showed us how to eat. You wash your hands, then rip off a small portion of a chapati with your hand (I still can't do it one handed, but he says not to worry), and use it to scoop up some of the food or curry that is on offer. It was very tasty. (I'm not sure I will lose weight here as easily as I first thought.) His Mum then gave us ice cream - something that I am not supposed to eat, incase it has been made with unpasteurised milk. However, it's so hard to refuse what you're being offered, and I do think I am far more health conscious than the other trainees who have so far had few problems. (The only one being a sore toe, from falling waist deep into some mud after the monsoon rain - I hope I don't get to try out that experience.)
I felt very contented today when I was told that we could go to an internet cafe. However, I had not realised how we would go to one: by motorcycle! Here, half of the drivers use them instead of cars. Ok, so here's the deal: I have never ridden on the back of a motorcycle before, even in England, where I consider the roads and drivers to be far safer than here. Never would I voluntarily choose to ride on the back of one. Yet Himanshu insisted that I would be fine (even without a helmet, another source of great concern), and as he was giving me a lift I couldn't really argue. It was both one of the scariest and most exhilarating things I have ever done. Himanshu has gone to the AIESEC office to do some work, and his friend that also came with us to the cafe is taking us back. We will probably go by cycle rickshaw - another new experience.
posted by ladyinpink @ 8:45 pm
3 Comments:
Hi Sam
Sounds great - well done on finding a real toilet! Glad it's going ok so far - Mum and I are a little hooked on your blogs!
Best,
Charlotte
(your cousin)
Hi Sam
Hope you are well and enjoying your time in India.Everyone here at Mereway send their their love and best wishes.
We will be going on our activities trips in a couple of weeks - 87 year 8 and 9 s ! Would you like us to send a few of them out to you ?
Take care
Martyn Ayres
Just don't get any ideas of driving that thing by yourself now!
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