Jaipur
Jaipur, or the "Pink City", was one of my favorite places in Rajasthan. I toured the city palace and saw one of Jaipur's famous gem "factories", which was little more than a family-owned shop that specializes in polishing and setting precious and semi-precious stones. I have a deep and abiding love of all things shiny, and this was no exception.
The next morning, my new yoga friends and I headed to the Amber Fort, which overlooks Jaipur. At that point, I had toured what felt like every fort in India, so I wasn't overly excited about it. We arrived at the fort's entrance, which was at the base of a long and winding road that led up to the main fort. This was when I realized this was going to be different. For the first time since I arrived in India, I saw a large group of pachyderms, colorfully adorned. We were going to take elephants up to the fort!
After fighting through the most aggressive group of salespeople I had encountered to date, we reached the elephant boarding area. As touristy as it was, and in spite of the ethically questionable nature of it, the elephant ride was really fun. Our elephant was slow (even for an elephant), and we were lapped by about seven elephants before we made it to the top, but it was the coolest fort experience I'd had since Jaisalmer. The fort itself was also truly unique, with narrow, winding alleyways and hidden staircases to explore.
Afterwards, we headed back to Jaipur. Our tour guide had promised he would introduce us to his brother. My companions were much more excited about this than I was, I will admit. The guide claimed his brother studied Kundalini Yoga (a particularly esoteric branch of yoga) and had psychic powers. He promised his brother's predictions would "make us cry". I inwardly rolled my eyes at this claim, guessing (somewhat correctly) that there would be a dollar sign at the end of this tunnel.
When we reached his brother, though, even I was surprised by how un-psychic he looked. He was a regular, mustachioed Indian guy working in (surprise!) a gem shop. We were invited to peruse the wares while our mates were having their fortunes read.
My turn came, and I walked into his office, not knowing what to expect. He asked me to hold out my hand and he closed his eyes, breathed deeply and held his hand out over mine. His eyes snapped open.
"You having very strange dreams lately," he announced. "Also, this," he said, pointing to my jaw, "this no good. You biting at night."
I was stunned. He was exactly right. Completely random, but completely correct. My dentist has been after me for years to get a mouth guard for my nocturnal tooth grinding. Also, I have been on Malaria pills the whole time I've been here, and one of the side effects are strange, vivid dreams. He hovered his hand over mine again.
"You have kidney infection last year," was his next utterance (also correct). "You be careful or you will have one again."
He continued in this fashion for another ten minutes, rolling out one random announcement after another. I won't get into all he said, as some of it was rather personal, but I was stunned at his accuracy. Color me corrected.
We all walked out of the gem shop quiet. It was a silent, meditative ride to Agra for the four of us. It wouldn't stay that way for long, though. The next morning, we were bound for the Taj Mahal.
The next morning, my new yoga friends and I headed to the Amber Fort, which overlooks Jaipur. At that point, I had toured what felt like every fort in India, so I wasn't overly excited about it. We arrived at the fort's entrance, which was at the base of a long and winding road that led up to the main fort. This was when I realized this was going to be different. For the first time since I arrived in India, I saw a large group of pachyderms, colorfully adorned. We were going to take elephants up to the fort!
After fighting through the most aggressive group of salespeople I had encountered to date, we reached the elephant boarding area. As touristy as it was, and in spite of the ethically questionable nature of it, the elephant ride was really fun. Our elephant was slow (even for an elephant), and we were lapped by about seven elephants before we made it to the top, but it was the coolest fort experience I'd had since Jaisalmer. The fort itself was also truly unique, with narrow, winding alleyways and hidden staircases to explore.
Afterwards, we headed back to Jaipur. Our tour guide had promised he would introduce us to his brother. My companions were much more excited about this than I was, I will admit. The guide claimed his brother studied Kundalini Yoga (a particularly esoteric branch of yoga) and had psychic powers. He promised his brother's predictions would "make us cry". I inwardly rolled my eyes at this claim, guessing (somewhat correctly) that there would be a dollar sign at the end of this tunnel.
When we reached his brother, though, even I was surprised by how un-psychic he looked. He was a regular, mustachioed Indian guy working in (surprise!) a gem shop. We were invited to peruse the wares while our mates were having their fortunes read.
My turn came, and I walked into his office, not knowing what to expect. He asked me to hold out my hand and he closed his eyes, breathed deeply and held his hand out over mine. His eyes snapped open.
"You having very strange dreams lately," he announced. "Also, this," he said, pointing to my jaw, "this no good. You biting at night."
I was stunned. He was exactly right. Completely random, but completely correct. My dentist has been after me for years to get a mouth guard for my nocturnal tooth grinding. Also, I have been on Malaria pills the whole time I've been here, and one of the side effects are strange, vivid dreams. He hovered his hand over mine again.
"You have kidney infection last year," was his next utterance (also correct). "You be careful or you will have one again."
He continued in this fashion for another ten minutes, rolling out one random announcement after another. I won't get into all he said, as some of it was rather personal, but I was stunned at his accuracy. Color me corrected.
We all walked out of the gem shop quiet. It was a silent, meditative ride to Agra for the four of us. It wouldn't stay that way for long, though. The next morning, we were bound for the Taj Mahal.
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