Black Lungs in the Pink City, a quick word from Jaipur

Namaste everyone,

So as many of you already know from the pictures on facebook or emails, I am in Jaipur, known as the Pink City due to the paint job of the city center walls and shops.  Jaipur marks the south-western point of the "golden triangle," which consists of Dehli, Jaipur and Agra.  The train from Delhi was, for the most part, pretty happy for me, simply because I thought a lot about being on Indian trains before I came...just one of those things you see in movies and hear about a lot I guess...that and I just like trains.  As I sat waiting for the doors to my car to open, the loud speaker sounded out about train so and so being 12 hours late and 6 hours late etc...and I was very grateful that my train was already in the station.  Because of Diwali, the 5 to 12 day long (depending on what part of the country you are in) Hindu holiday that begins in the next week, the trains, especially the lower class cars, are pretty jam packed. So when the unreserved car opened up people slammed against each other and pushed each other around to get a shot at a seat inside.  At that point I was also happy to have my reserved seat in 2nd tier AC for which I was grossly overcharged by the travel agency previously mentioned.  I'm not beating myself up about how much money was spent in the first two days...I had no idea what was going on and in my first 48 hours in Delhi I got a combined total of 7 or so hours of sleep between 5 and 11 am and in chunks of an hour on average...I think it was a combination of the time change and constantly being on guard, the shortening of my breaths (unconsciously as a reaction to how polluted the air is), the spicy food, the floods of thoughts and the disturbing poverty around every corner (which I am not going to discuss until I feel I can do it in a way that is less negative and "energetic" shall we say). I have had a good deal of trouble doing "constructive" sitting as well, which I know isn't really true, I just mean to say that I am having trouble getting my mind to settle...but I know that it is never unconstructive to sit quietly and explore whats going on inside, even if what you find is that, "I'm batshit crazy right now."

I arrived in Jaipur around 9:30 pm, which I was not happy about seeing as how I had my bags and guitar and had no idea where my hotel was and I was in a city I knew nothing about and I knew the rickshaw drivers were gonna go ape when they saw the white boy...which is exactly what happened.  The two competing rickshaw families (by the way, everyone here is everyone else's brother) got into a little fight immediately after talking to me trying to figure out who was going to take me.  After a less than pleasant and at times a little frightening experience, I made a call to the hotel, found out how far it was to see who was lying to me about distance and price and then settled on Mohammad, who I also retained for a tour from 11 to 5pm the next day, which was yesterday, the 29th.  We went to Amber Fort and the Temple of Shilla inside where I got my first "tika" (the red dot the priest draws between your eyes), the Floating Palace, a fabric factory and tailor (so Mohammad could get his commission of course, its how every rickshaw driver here works -- "my friend, don't shop there, they'll rip you off...I will take you to my cousins shop and he will show you nice things...just looking ten minutes my friend"...everyone else is out to get you and they are your only friend...oy...I did buy a vest with some deep pockets so I can keep things in a safe place while I walk around without having a stupid uncomfortable bulge under my shirt from the waste-wallet which is putting unwanted pressure on my now delicate stomach)  and the Albert Hall museum (again, pictures on facebook)...all of which were quite lovely, save a few moments of high pressure sales situations and a few unpleasant encounters.

I am now staying at the Shahar Palace Guest House, which is the first place I have felt comfortable so far on the trip.  It has a very nice garden, and is owned by Mr. Singh, a jolly, proud and slightly senile retired Indian Colonel who likes to gossip to his guests for stretches at a time, and his wife, who thinks sitting quietly in a meditation center is a waste of time when there is so much to see in India.  There are peacocks in the trees, chickens on the ground, geckos on the wall.  Out on the street there are mangy strays everywhere, running past the cows and donkeys...elephants with brightly painted faces walk to and from Amber Fort and the monkeys guard its walls.  Today I went to Jantar Mantar, a reconstructed planetarium/astronomy center from many a century ago, though honestly, the signs were not very helpful and I missed the audio guides until the end so I don't have as much info as I'd like about it, and then to Elephant village where I got to pet an elephant and watch him eat and what not.  Then the tuk tuk driver ran out of gas and so I met a couple of nice Indians by the side of the road and hung out with them until he refilled.  There are so many things I want to go into detail about, little stories and details and descriptions and people, but I have things to do tonight before I leave for Pushkar tomorrow and I don't like being on timed computers.  My plan as of now is to go to Pushkar (which is the home of the only Temple of Brahma in all of India and which is a sacred place for Hindus and contains a lake which, like the Ganges, is supposed to wash away all sins, but the city is now a little more famous for the Camel Festival and hippies and pot)  for a couple of days, depending on how I like it there, then coming back to Jaipur to collect my big bag, which I am leaving with Mr. Singh since he was nice enough to offer his lock room and since its compressing my mid spine and I'm happy not to have to carry it around for a day or two, and then heading to the Vipassana center here for a few days, coming back to experience a day of Diwali in Jaipur before heading to Agra for a day, if I can get a ticket, and then to Varanasi and then I'll figure it out from there.  I will try to write again soon.

P.S. Thank you in a big way to everyone who sent me emails and messages and what not...they were quite helpful keeping it together through some of the more coo coo moments.  I am doing a lot better now that I have gotten a little bit of sleep, am getting the hang of how to speak and eat and spend here, and can string 3 or 4 breaths together at a time. Be good.