13.05.18
I'm recuperating by the pool after another unsuccessful trip outside. I'm too tired, too disoriented to have the resilience to deal with outside. Oh yes, my resilience comes and goes. Simple things like snacks, sunscreen and accurate Google Map locations are beyond my reach. Simple things like not being harassed by strange men every few seconds.
But the pool is luxury! Alsisar Haveli, Jaipur is an old hotel made of marble. Seven shutter windows in my bedroom open up to the 44 degree day outside.
I see some potential friends by the pool. Drinking beer. Ah alcohol, the social lubricant. I spark up conversation with a lovely American health worker and her five other friends, from the UK, Australia and India. Actually, none of them can really answer where they are from as they have all been travelling so long. They are up from New Delhi for a cricket game. Coincidentally, most of them are project managers qualified in the same disciplines as myself. They try to convince me to become a consultant in London and I laugh at them. Clearly the sweet sun and Kingfisher beers talking.
They are planning to go to Tiger (Nahargarh) Fort in the evening to watch the sunset. How lovely, I think. I don't consider being up for something like that as I have had three hours sleep and am two hours post-landing.
However in the lobby the lovely Katie comes down to ask me 'Kiwi! Do you wanna come?' OK then. Hell yes. Who needs sleep anyway?
They have hired a car and we zip through the insane 5:00 pm traffic. They booked a car for eight people (their other friend is sick so I am the seventh). There are only six seats however. We make it work somehow.
Unfortunately Nahargarh Fort now charges foreigners 300 INR to visit. Nammit, our resident local, negotiates with the "authorities" and everyone shows their residential IDs. Apparently I am a diplomat. We get off the fee and order some food and lime sodas, they won't let us drink alcohol. Everyone is itchy to continue drinking and that's when I just know that I will get along with these people.
Regarding the foreigner fee: personally I'm happy to pay for these things, but these guys are volunteers and official residents, earning incomes far below what their skills would earn them back home.
We witness a stunning orange orb descend from the sky in the West to the sound of Jaipur winding down. Through the haze stretches a city of five million inhabitants. There are two types of kites flying; an actual bird and others darting and riding the heat waves released by the city below, impossibly high. We are still for a while and forget the night's plans for a few quiet moments as the peace of the area washes over us.
After a quick snack we drive down the hill to a stone structure and sit on the warm steps. About twenty minutes into our beers the locals from the temple across the road come out and start speaking aggressively; this is a holy site and we shouldn't be drinking here. We retreat to our cars but Vihaan is getting shouted at in fast, aggressive Hindi. The conflict gets louder and louder and we all sense trouble is on its way.
But we get away (in two cars this time) and a suitable restaurant is decided by the group. Vihaan calls his old Indian Army friends as a risk management exercise. I get to know his wife in the car, an amazing girl from Belgium.
I eat one of the most flavourful curries I've ever had the pleasure to taste. Something is bothering me though. The selective hearing of...just about everyone. Our food orders are conducted by the guys in the group. Katie tells me that sometimes when she's with her boyfriend she does the ordering for them, just to troll restaurants.
I was so lucky to run into a group of expats on my first night in India. Already feel I have soaked in so much.
May this good fortune follow me.
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