Jaipur

We woke up at 1am to drive the two hours to Chennai. Saying goodbye to Claartje and Ashley stung; goodbyes are the worst. Especially the ones when you know it's really goodbye. Dr. Susan and Abarna accompanied me on the drive in case of any emergency. They dropped us off curbside and it was hard to watch the RSO med van drive off. I stared at my feet and the sidewalk below me. I held back the tears. I didn't want to leave RSO-- and to be honest if I could trade the tourism trip we're on to stay at RSO for just one more week-- I'd stay at RSO with no hesitation. We made it through security and boarded our flight without any problems. I sat next to Kendra and Julia. We made it to Mumbai and had a couple hours of a layover before catching a second flight to Jaipur.

We landed in Jaipur and met Raj, our tour guide. We boarded the bus and headed to our hotel, The Ramada. It's actually super nice. Immediately after we checked in, we loaded the bus for lunch. Mind you, it was nearly 4 pm.

This bus was luxury. After our time at Rising Star, we
really enjoyed our own air conditioning vents. 

Being in Northern India is different than Southern. It seems to be more cultured and more wealthy. There are definitely slums, and they are hard to drive past. There are still kids begging in the streets to bring their parents a paycheck. There are still fruit stands. (And to be honest I think I've seen Aladdin and Abu a couple times). There are even mules pulling ancient looking carts around town among nice Audis. But it's wealthier. You can tell.

Jaipur is known as "The Pink City". It was painted pink to welcome Prince Albert of Wales. Before it was pink, it was once painted white, then yellow, and finally it was painted pink-- symbolizing luck and prosperity. The city is also known for its textiles and block printing. 

We toured around Jaipur today with a travel guide named "Sing". Actually, his real name is much longer and more complicated so he told all of us we could just call him Sing. We visited an observatory-- pretty cool for all you engineers and astronomers out there. Jaipur holds the record for the world's largest sun dial and we got to see it today. We could read the time within two seconds of what our phones had synced right off the stone. How crazy is it to think that people can measure and build things so exact? 

We also visited the City Palace. We got some great pictures there. We also learned about a king who once ruled Jaipur. He was 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide. He weighed over 550 pounds. We saw his pants -- and they were ginormous. I'm pretty sure that if anyone started the "ride your elephant to school" trend, it must have been him. He had to ride elephants because he was much too large for horses.

We visited a textile shop and learned about block printing with stamps. I loved learning about it. Their designs are beautiful and it was really fun watching them create art like I'd never seen before. They use the block stamps and dyes from vegetables to print designs on tablecloths, blankets, clothes, etc. 

We returned to the hotel at about 8pm. The group is meeting up for dessert and a movie in a room down the hall. But it's now 930 and I'm still drowsy from the Benadryl and the other medications Dr. Susan has prescribed. So I'm heading off to bed for some decent sleep. I'm loving it here. The people are beautiful. The culture is rich. There is so much to see. And I feel like a part of me has always lived here.