Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

We spent our first day in Jaipur recovering. We finally had a nice (really nice) hotel room in a converted palace and took full advantage of it. After some much needed rest we headed into the city on our second day.

We didn’t have much of an agenda. We just wanted to wander around the pink city and get something to eat. We ended up doing quite a bit of shopping and needed to run to the ATM to pay for it. Since most all shops in India are run by families the brother offered to show me where it was. I assumed that it was just a short walk down the road but turns out I was going for a ride.

There are times when I realize and feel just how far away from home I am. As I hopped on the back of the brother’s motorbike with no helmet, any idea where I was headed (or where I was to begin with) it became quite obvious. We zipped through the always insane Indian traffic until he found the nearest ATM. After drawing the money we headed back to the store.

On our way back we met a bit of a delay as the bike was pulled over. I was told to stand back on the side of the street much to the enjoyment of the onlookers while my driver began to haggle with the police officer. After a few minutes he came back and asked me quietly for 50 rupees. He promised to return the money at the store and seeing as I was stuck on the side of the road I didn’t see too many options other than to hand it over. He took the money back to the police officer and slid it into his hand. The money was rather quickly refused as the police officer glanced in my direction. My friend came back to ask for 100 rupees this time slightly panicked and starting to sweat. Luckily Rs100 ($2.50) seemed enough of a bribe and we took off.

After leaving the shop we headed for McDonalds and some food that we might be able to stomach. Just as we were about to head in we were stopped by two girls running at us saying hello. Now it’s not that uncommon to be shouted hello at in India normally this is the easiest way for touts, rickshaw drivers, or anyone else looking for money to get our attention. These girls had a different story. Apparently they worked for a national newspaper and were doing a story on the shop across the street. They were looking for some tourists to photograph for the story. After assuring us it was legit (we were a bit hesitant) we went for our photoshoot.

We decided for our last day in Jaipur we should probably go out and see some of the sites. We found a really great rickshaw driver Mr. Kaif and we headed to the Amber Fort. We also got to visit the water palace, a textiles factory and an elephant farm. Pretty great day all around.