D105 -- Eye-opener

We headed to Jaipur by way of Fatehpur Sikri, to tour the palace and mosque there. The “bones” of the palace were all pretty much in place, if not the decor, paintings, etc.

Thomas put up with my constant picture-taking as long as possible, and then we headed to the mosque, which dates back to 1571.

Somehow, I'm still not sure how, we got hooked up with a guide. He took us by a bunch of grave markers (separate areas for women and men) and then to the tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti, who is a kind of Muslim saint. The mausoleum was surrounded by intricately carved marble screens, and I noticed the guide kept going on and on about how the local people carve this wonderful marble. We continued around the mosque and our next stop was, you guessed it, a carved marble salesman. That's the way it goes here. Everyone (rickshaw drivers, guides) is looking for a kickback. We bought a little candle holder. About that time a guy selling various things started following us around. We went to the main gate, the Victory Gate, and he followed us there. The gate is huge, one of the largest in Asia, and there were enormous honey bee hives at the top. According to our guide book there is a quote from Jesus that appears in the Quran written on the door.

The guy following us was SO persistent. I told him we'd already bought something and we weren't going to buy anymore because we were low on cash (all true), but he just kept telling me how he's a student and he needs money and it's low season so there aren't many tourists, etc. I told him no over and over but he just wouldn't stop and I couldn't just ignore him. I even got so desperate that I (independent feminist that I am) told him to “ask my husband” but he was too smart for that. He knew his chances were much better with me. He kept lowering the prices of his goods and in the end he was asking for only 10R – what is that, like 30 cents? I felt like just giving in because he obviously needed the money and was trying to make a legitimate rupee as opposed to begging for handouts. But at the time I felt like I didn't want to reward him for ignoring me when I told him no so many time. Now I wish I would have just bought something when he first approached me. Traveling in India has been a real eye-opener.

The rest of the day was spent driving to Jaipur through sandy brown dirt and shrubby trees on a really, really bad road. There was at times only one functioning lane that had to be shared by traffic going both ways, including camel traffic.

-Elva