Dehradun to Delhi to Jaipur to Ajmer.

(Photos will come later. What kind of computer doesn't have any USB port???)

Four cities in four days. I said my farewells to my dear friends in Dehradun on Monday night. It was strange to leave my home in India to head out on the next adventure. I had an email when I returned to Dehradun from the boys home at Selaqui that Joseph was already in India, so I made plans to meet up with him.

I took a night train to Delhi from Dehradun, and my good nature got the best of me. I gave up my seat so two sisters could be in the same section. However, my new seat/bed wasn't as nice as the one I had before. Instead of being one long seat/bed like the other ones, it was two seats that folded down into one, placing the metal frame in the small of my back while laying down. All night I was trying to sleep on a metal bar since the cushion was thin. I could barely sleep. But it was my fault so no complaining.

I found Joseph when I was walking up the bazaar in Paharganj in Delhi. He was riding like a king in the seat of a bicycle rickshaw on his way to check on tickets at the train station for us. So I hopped in and we booked tickets to go on a night train to Jaipur for that very night. I was exhausted after our day of sight seeing and was hoping to sleep well on the train that night. However, I was afflicted with 4 snoring men. Why?! That was the one time since I have been in India where I was wanting to escape. I was fine with bed bugs in Agra, I could handle taxi drivers and touts, but I was not patient with the snoring men. I actually thought about chucking my water bottle on the man sleeping in the bunks across from us because I was so impatient and desperately wanting to fall asleep. I think I got my fingers wet considering splashing it in his direction. The chorus of snoring men was an assault on my soul.

We arrived in Jaipur at 5am. That is when our day of aggravation began. Although, I will say upfront, I take everything as an experience rather than as a bad memory. My one day in Jaipur went something like this...

We couldn't get the hotel we wanted so we were taken to a hotel by the rickshaw driver. It was 5am and I needed sleep. Suddenly he was ours for the day. What was I to do? We slept a bit and then our rickshaw driver came back to be our tour guide. Ali, the driver, was friendly, 24 years old, and spoke pretty good English, however a bit shady. We went to some sites and he kept pressing for us to go to this textiles shop. (So we knew he would be getting a commission for taking us there.) We told him we didn't want to go and he took us there anyway. Joseph was upset and told him so. Then there was an apology. You are my bother. Jenni, you are my big sister, etc.

Somehow, during the day, which wasn't all bad, he invited us to come to a party with friends. A farewell for a friend going to England where there would be lots of travellers, etc. I wouldn't have gone on my own, but with Joseph I decided it could be okay to meet some people and we would just leave if we didn't like the party. So we went, and there wasn't any party. We sat there wondering when the party was going to start and were having a nice conversation with a couple of the guys about politics, voting, arranged marriages. One of the guys had two wives and seven children. He was 26 years old. Then they started in about being business partners with this gem business. I could not believe it! Not the notorious gem scam! I thought, there is no way I would ever deal with this. If anyone approaches me asking me to sell gems it will be easy. NO! So we told them flat out it was not going to happen. But it was irritating that the entire day was a setup to meet up with these guys to try and dupe us into reselling gems in America. At that point, we had Ali take us back to our hotel. I went inside and watched out the window as Joseph had a little heart to heart with Ali, our driver, "our friend, our brother." (I say with sarcasm.) Joseph told him he was upset. The price had been left open to us and so Joseph said he was going to pay him more, but that he would be getting less because he was trying to be dishonest with us and was disrespecting me, and wasting our time. Ali wasn't happy about this, but we really paid him well, especially for all of the run around. More than what any of the guide books say is necessary to pay for a day tour. Plus we bought him and his friend lunch and paid for a ticket he got from the police earlier that day. He was really getting out ahead. The heart to heart was a matter of principle and then we were done with it.

Let me tell you, gem scams are alive and well in Jaipur. We cleansed our system by playing cricket with some boys in the park this morning and took another teenager out to breakfast after talking with him and all of his buddies. Then Joseph and I caught a bus to Ajmer, which is where Thalis became my new best friend--an enormous plate of food with a variety of dishes and a stack of naan bread. Oh that cures everything. We love Ajmer so far and the people here are very friendly. I refuse to believe that everyone is going to scam me so even though we watch out for these things, we are still traveling with the idea that we can make friends and meet lots of interesting people.