Roadtripping to Jodhpur

Today, Sunday 1/30, was a road warrior day for family Huth.  We made the trek from Jaipur to Jodhpur in record time, 6 hours.  Our driver said that Sunday in India is a day off for the government and other types like bankers, etc., so it makes a fine day to drive.  The roads were busy in areas but not to bad overall.

India is amazing!  Before this trip I would say China was the culture furthest from Western influence that I have visited, now India by takes that title hands down.  It is fascinating, even through the car window. For me the hours went by very quickly as there were so many interesting things to look at and so many stories to imagine.  Far too many to capture with the eye, let alone the lense.  I did snap a few pics out the front window but most of the action was out the side and not easily captured. Also, I am trying to be somewhat inconspicuous about my photography, while Patti is a teenaged girl at a Bieber show.  Tara and I are trying to help her find couth.

We saw many women in beautiful sari's carrying out manual labor tasks which is quite a contrast.

More cows wandering in the roadway today.  As I was taking cow pics Himraj asked me, in his very broken English, "Do cows look different in United States?", I think inferring the question what are you doing?  With a laugh I said "They do not look much different, but we see them in pastures, not in intersections.". Today I even saw pigs in the road.

There is hard living in India for sure and that is more evident as the miles go by. In the region between Agra and closer to Jaipur there were many brick making operations.  In some areas you would see, at the end of long rows of stacked and drying bricks, a house made of the same bricks for the family whose lives are very clearly dependent on the sale of those bricks.

While there is a crushing poverty here that is foreign to most Americans, there is also deep familial and communal relationships in India that we, in our Western individualistic and materialistic society, have let fray.

We made what is now the customary mid-trip lunch stop at a nice spot off the road.  I was feeling a little better but my girls were not.  Tara ordered nothing and Riley ate half of a chocolate crepe, the new breakfast of champions.  We have been joking to ourselves about American speed eating vs. relaxing and taking in the meal as an event and not feed stop.  This particular rest stop was a great oasis, tents in the grass and a nice breeze.  We were enjoying ourselves with no rush to get back in the car...until we paid the check.  Seconds after picking up the money the manager type kindly asked us to leave.  The English couple that was being seated in our still warm chairs was rather horrified and expressed that to us.  We assured them that this was just fine ;-) 

Before we left the stop we snapped a pic with Himraj as we sported the shirts given to us by the company providing the car and driver, India by Car and Driver.  We had to promptly remove them so as not to go too 'Griswold'.

When we arrived close to our hotel in Jodhpur Himraj was not able to drive into the city center and we had to hire a Tuk Tuk.  I was thinking that maybe he needed to be licensed to drive into this area but once we got started it was clear that his car would never fit.  In fact we barely fit.  We were stuck for minutes in a traffic jam of humans, motorcycles, Tuk Tuks, push carts.  It was utter chaos!  Never, except in the Shanghi subway at rush hour, have we been this packed ;-)

The Hotel Discovery will be our pad for a few nights.  We checked into a really interesting room.  Interesting means, no windows (just shutters), no shower (just a pipe for some lukewarm water), only two lights with 42 different electrical switches (seriously, I counted).

Eclectic room, and a great rooftop.  From our roof you can see covering the top of the hill the Mehrangarh Fort, the biggest in all India, which we will be visiting tomorrow.  Speaking of rooftops, we have eaten almost all of our meals on rooftops, pretty cool.

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