11.25.2011

Day 4 & Day 5

Jaipur to Kerala

We started out the day (11/23) in Jaipur, heading to the Amber Fort in the early morning to line up for the Elephant ride. There were one-hundred and six elephants in the Amber Fort fleet that would carry two passengers up to the fort, which was located on a hill, high above the town below. One of the greatest experiences so far, the gentle land giants were a highlight of Jaipur. The fort was massive, located on the top of a tall mountain, with a great view of the surrounding area. Truly a beautiful experience, and an overall highlight of our Northern Tour. Before returning to the tour bus, we saw snake charmers in the alleyways of the fort. We rode in jeeps back to the bus that were, to say the least, hectic.It felt just like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, the jeeps were very safari-esque and crowded the streets heading downward to the fort. During the jeep ride down, Joey had been poked by a begger with "stumps" for arms, a strange experience indeed. After the Amber Fort, we bought world-famous Jaipur Blue Pottery, a special type of pottery only available in Jaipur, a practice that has continued for eight generations. The owner of the pottery store was telling us about how there used to be a significant amount of pottery shops, yet only 2-3 remain due to the new generation's lack of interest in the art. The pottery was extroardinary and was all created by hand, no two pieces were close to the same. After purchasing quite a bit of pottery we headed off to lunch proceeded by the Jantar Mantar Observatory. Jantar Mantar is a place full of ancient, highly-accurate astrological tools used to show the location of the sun, measure time, and even determine the alignments of planets and stars. Afterwards we headed to the markets of Jaipur which were filled with goodies. We haggled with the stubborn shopkeepers for camel-leather shoes, silk scarves, trinkets, and jewelry. The shopkeepers were both kind but also very persistent, pushing products into our faces that we weren't even interested in. To guilt-trip us when we offered too little money for their product, the shopkeepers would say things like "That is impossible, you kill me with no knife" while making the "slit-throat" motion. If we ran into particularly stubborn vendors we would act as though we were leaving, which would force them to choose between selling at our "not possible" price and losing a customer. Most chose to sell at our price as soon as they saw us turn to leave. After the market we headed back to Delhi, a six-hour bus journey that seemed to go by very quickly.
The next morning we woke up early (about 5 hours of sleep total), headed to the airport to board on the flight to Cochi, 4 hours of no leg room! Once we arrived in Cochi we met up with workers of the Clinic, who showed us to the bus and loaded up our luggage. The drive from Cochi to the Hope Clinic was extremely eventful, and we felt as if we were playing a driving video game, avoiding traffic by inches at nearly 50 miles per hour. After a crazy 3 hour drive in one of the most lush and green places in the world we got to Daisy's house. The house is absolutely amazing to say the least, extravagant granite floors and a terrace that faces a wonderful sunrise every morning. The people in Kerala are incredible, responding very kindly to everything we say, waving back to us, and striking up conversations in English.
So far Kerala has been extremely hospitable and open.

Thanks for reading,
Torsten, Colin, and Joey

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