Travel Day 2

This morning the jet lag was still apparent, but it was only a 4:30 call time, so not so bad to chill out for an hour or two until breakfast. We smashed through a bunch of plates and Darcy and Ethan met some engineers & pilots from NASA while scoping out the pastries. Our morning trip was for a walk around the burb that our hotel is in and a stop at a local rug/carpet shop. The salesman was a pro, selling us on the magic carpet: silk that is light when seen from one side and dark when viewed from the other. We liked a bunch of them and he put the hard sell on us. Apparently their 75% off signs were coming down tonight and they wouldn’t be that cheap again tomorrow! What are the chances! ! I said to the guy, “but yknow, if we did come back tomorrow I’m sure you’d take care of us”… Darcy glared. The salesman sheepishly conceded, “yes, but they won’t be the price I can tell you that!”. I was not convinced. For me, a rug salesman, car salesman, vacuum salesman, they’re all the same guy. So we took a taxi to the next shop. This one was a well known store with sites across India and Europe. They didn’t have to push us, they beautiful rugs are designed and made by prisoners whilst serving their time, then on the sale a significant goes to either their defence or their families or gives them a life when they’ve served their time. At first I thought, “so prison labour?”, but then that’s a good way to make sure they’re set up when they’re done. And the designs aren’t just normal Indian rugs, they’re modern splashes of colour, basically anything the maker wants. We didn’t buy, but we’re interested. Like the modern art gallery yesterday, it’s India not as we know it.

Then we had a bite to eat at the hotel before checking out and Uber-ing the 90min to the airport. We met a nice couple who gave us some good recommendations for Jaipur (and we bumped into them on the other side too). The check in process was kind of confusing, but we made it in and onto the plane. There was some kerfuffle because someone had got on the plane as a standby passenger and there was no seat for them. The staff had to sort it out which took time, and then when they were exited, the ground crew had to have everyone identify their carry on to confirm the person hadn’t left something sinister on the plane. They found a navy bag with no owner at the rear of the plane, but we were sitting at the front and that passenger never went by us. So whose bag was it? The whole thing took an hour to sort out and the passenger and mystery bag were off the plane and we finally got on our way.

We landed in Jaipur at almost 7 and drove through the brightly coloured streets, lit up for the night economy. This was kind of more what we’d pictured India to be. This city felt like more of a “vibe” rather than Bangalore. We chatted with our driver and he told us al about all of the sites we’d probably visit over the next few days. Ethan fell asleep, so I had to carry him in while we checked in. We had room service and a beer on the balcony before getting yet another early-ish night.