A One-Pee Trip

Lodi Gardens

Our accommodation in New Delhi, the slightly run-down but very homely and refined environment of Lutyens Bungalow, was a pleasant way to catch our breath, get over jet lag and gird our loins for the rest of India.  The several days in India’s capital passed quickly with a final day of sightseeing (Purana Qila, Lodi Gardens, Hauz Khas) on Saturday.

Early on Sunday morning (early, being rather civilly defined as 830) we loaded a van with our 12 pieces of luggage, tottering rather ominously on the top like a mobile skyscraper, and headed through the shady boulevards towards the northwest and Rajasthan.  Just as we were settling in, and passing by the airport, we pulled over in a semi-industrial area and hailed down another van.  Our driver informed us this was his brother, and the best driver that Javed had, and that we were to change locations from our present vehicle to the the one that had just approached us. 

Two bleary-eyed Swedes were turfed out of the better car, we took over their positions and sped off down the highway, without a further thought for their comfort or lack thereof.  

The going was slow. Though India's highways have improved a hundred fold in the past 20 years much remains on the engineering agenda. Mainly overpasses, and detours around village crossroads where all vehicular traffic blends to a clogged and honking halt. People are let off and on buses, rickshaws, camel carts while lorries get their tires repaired and drivers urinate.   We inched our way forward through several of these junctions before stopping again for petrol around 10 o'clock.

The skies remained industrially hazy and smoggy for sometime even though we were well out of Delhi city limits but slowly the blue shone through as we rolled through a corner of Haryana and eventually into Rajasthan. Mose and Esther kept themselves entertained by playing I Spy and Hangman in the back seats while the adults enjoyed the changing rural landscape.

Lunch was taken at a roadside Punjabi dhaba, famous across the highways of India as being purveyors of great simple food.  Like a dam breaking high in the mountains, the doors to the van opened and everyone rushed forth to the toilets to relieve themselves, kids, adults and driver.   A rather long wait between ordering our food and receiving the same followed but the wait was well worth it. All vegetarian the dishes were fresh, beautifully spiced and the bread piping hot out of the tandoor.  Nate reckoned the dal makhani was the best he'd ever tasted.

Two hours and a few nana naps later we rolled into Jaipur.  Mose summed up the journey is his inimitable incisive way, "This was a one-pee journey!"

 Sunday was the last day of Mohurram, a major Muslim festival the main feature of which is crowds of people carrying tazias (model mosques) through the streets while herds of young men dance to a deafening unceasing beat of huge kettle drums.  After settling into the hotel we went out for a walk and into the madding crowds.  The kids were anxious, excited and annoyed by turns, especially as they offered a tourist attraction for the locals every bit as interesting as the tazias were for us.  Dozens of requests were made to be photographed with them and eventually it became too much...we had to tell them 'Enough was enough' and seek refuge across the street.  

Once again Yvonne faced a medical emergency as she stepped on a couple of thin nails that pushed through the sole of her sandal and darted into her skin.  And once again, our little group of Aussies were a spectacle as we hurried a limping and hopping Yvonne across the street to take a rest on the stoop of a shop.

Not wanting quite yet to return to the hotel the gang ambled through the narrow, cow-ed lanes off the main road where old folks chatted in the open doorways of small homes and children, as ever in India, laughed, cheered and asked "Hello, what is your name?"  After nearly an hour out and about in Jaipur the intrepid six-some stuffed themselves into a poorly bargained put-put and headed for Mandawa Haveli hotel.

As the sun set, the adults sipped their Kingfisher's and G's and T's and Mose and Esther challenged the hotel staff to an impromptu Test Match with their recently acquired orange plastic cricket bat set.  A tasty buffet dinner wrapped up the day.