Jaipur

            We arrive at the train station and its complete chaos. Absolute madness. We immediately have 15 men surrounding us asking us, wait, telling us they can take us to our hotel for only 10 rupees each. Special deal for you. We were badgered for 20 minutes until we found a guy to take us. We get in his 1950s car and he turns on some music. What does he play? Barbie girl by Aqua… and he knows every word. One of the most hysterical things that’s happened to us so far.

Our hostel was already picked out but the driver had never heard of the place before so he had to stop and ask some police people, though he was recommending that we stay in a different hotel. The police thought the driver was cheating us and took his license away. It all happened so fast but we thought the guy was legitimate and convinced the police that he was being fair. The police were so sure and escorted us to our hostel, but it was fully occupied. We then decided to go to the hotel the driver suggested and got a pretty good deal there for a king bed for all of us. The only unfortunate part was we couldn’t figure out how to turn off the fan in the room. It made it freezing in there because there were no covers. (This is a tip for those of you traveling to India: bring your own towel, toilet paper, and bed sheet/covers cause none of that shit is ever supplied.) So we froze and hardly slept again but we wanted to get up early cause we only had a half a day in Jaipur before our flight back to Mumbai.

We took a tuk tuk to the Amber fort for 400 rupees. Jaipur is the capital city of Rajasthan, which borders Pakistan. This means it’s pretty much a desert. Its nickname is the pink city because all the buildings are a soft shade of red. Our tuk tuk driver is Max and he is hilarious. He speaks amazing English and shows us a bunch of sites on the way while making all kinds of animal noises. Very random.

            Max drops us off at the bottom of the hill at Amber fort and we take an elephant ride up to the top! So cool, and Jamie in particular was freaking out cause she’s obsessed with elephants. She was in heaven, even when they sneeze on her.

            On our way up, the elephant conductor asked Michelle and I if we were from Japan. Wtf? How do you think were from Japan? But we said yes anyways, we’re from Tokyo. It took about 20 minutes and 500 rupees each but it was so worth it. Except that when an elephant poops, it looks like he dropping coconuts from his bum. Ew. You have to make sure you don’t step on the coconuts.

The amber fort was built in the 1500s and took only 20 years to build, which is remarkable considering how big it is. We all made our separate ways and did our own tour. The fort was Persian inspired so it was a change of pace from all the Hindi temples we’ve been seeing. The fort was definitely a highlight of the trip.

We got back to the hostel and quickly packed our bag to head to the airport. We checked into the only terminal they had and waited for our flight as we reminisced about the past week of anarchy.

            Because nothing runs on time in India, we waited an extra 45 minutes to board the plane. When we did get to line up for the plane, the ticket scanner spontaneously stopped working just as I was giving my ticket. Everyone was staring at me if I had something to do with it. After about 15 minutes of random typing and phone calls it started working again.

We sat in our seats and proceeded to laugh continuously for the 2-hour flight. We thought for sure that the flight attendant was going to come on the loud speaker and oust us by saying, “could the ladies in row 26 please shut up. You’re disturbing all the passengers.”

We got to Mumbai and our driver, courtesy of Shia, picked us up and took us back to Shia’s apartment. She was in the middle of a private waxing session when we arrived. Where do I get one of those? We were starving because the food on the plane was atrocious so Shia’s servants brought us some fresh coffee, chai, and a traditional Indian lunch. So bomb! Then we all showered because we were mountain women for the past week. It’s amazing how much filth and soot there was on us. A proper shower and shave did us wonders and we felt like new women. I seriously wouldn’t complain if I never left Shia’s apartment.

            Although we hadn’t slept in forever, we pulled an all nighter cause our flight to Goa left at 5am which means we had to leave for the airport at 3. I occupied myself with my computer reconnecting with the world until it was party time. Michelle passed out but Jamie, Shia, her fiancé, and me Hoff went to a local bar called the Ghetto. It was a super rad bar that was glow in the dark. All the walls were graffitied with neon paint. My favorite was the Van Morrison mural on one of the walls. We got a couple pitchers of Kingfisher (a local brew) before heading back to her apartment.