"If that's coffee, then what's in my cup?"

I'm sad that we only have a week left to the trip! There are certainly things I miss, such as not having to share a computer, or not worrying about whether the hot water will run out (or whether it will exist at all), but still, I would be happy to be traveling for a while yet. But that requires more time and money, so there we are. :)

Yesterday, we woke up much earlier than either of us wanted to (around 8:30, but we really haven't been getting enough sleep this trip, so this was unfortunate) so that Satinder could pick us up in time for the wedding. He got us, went back for Kiran and Jot, and then called the groom's mom to make sure that people were already gathering and we weren't gonna be ridiculously early (even though the wedding was scheduled to start at 10:30 and it was 11, Satinder wasn't sure that the groom's family would have arrived yet). The phone conversation was all in Punjabi, but we could tell from his tone that something was weird...and when he hung up, he told us that the wedding was cancelled! It turns out that the bride backed out at the last minute. Yikes! There were something like 500 people there for the wedding, so this was pretty nuts. Satinder decided to take us to visit relatives (Kiran's brother's brother-in-law) in a nearby village so that we'd have something to do, and part of the way over, we speculated over what could've happened. Kiran thinks that maybe the couple hadn't met before the day before the wedding (that's what happened with her and Satinder -- their marriage was arranged 6 months before, but he was working in the US, so they only talked on the phone and emailed), and maybe something just didn't work out. It's a mystery.

It all worked out for the best, however, because visiting the village was awesome! We're such city people that this was a huge novelty for us. It's probably only a little different from rural places in the US, but super different from a city! Satinder's relatives are apparently the richest family in this village, so they have a house made of brick and cement, and it's painted, and they have a servant (a local boy from a poor family). Poorer families live in mud houses and have animals living indoors with them.

The friend and the servant boy took us all around the village (the boy was so happy and smiley to get to hang out with Americans!), and we had a great time. Everyone was very curious about us, so we got stares and smiles and took lots of photos with different people and got hugged by old ladies. At one point, a small crowd of boys followed us for a while, but they were told to go away. :) There were fields of wheat and very tall sugar cane (which they cut a piece off of for us to eat later), lots of cows and buffaloes (we got a great video of one ridiculous one munching),
a village kitty, hens and roosters, and a mean goat ("don't go near it, it kicks," translated Kiran from the friend's instructions). After the two hour or so walk, we went back to have a delicious lunch at the friend's house, samosas and curry and paneer and rice and veggies. I need to learn how to cook Indian food. There was sugar cane candy for dessert, and we were even given a small jar to take with us to snack on. :)

Eventually, we headed to the train station and got on our way to Jaipur, where we arrived this morning. We didn't sleep super well on the train (there were annoying loud people sharing our compartment), but we were determined to do some touristy things today, so after arriving at our hotel and eating breakfast, we set off for the old city. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, and as such, it houses the royal family (this area was ruled by Maharajas, and after it merged with post-independence India, they retained their titles). The old city is pink! One of the maharajas decided to paint all the facades because pink is the color of hospitality, and now everyone who lives or has a business there is bound by law to preserve the color. It's crowded and hectic, but part of it is a grid, which makes it slightly easier to deal with.

There are a bunch of things to see, but since we were taking it easy, we only saw three of them. First, we went to the City Palace, a super grand complex where the royal family still officially lives. The building itself is beautiful, with lots of carvings and marble inlay. There's also a small but detailed museum of royal dress, with lots of original outfits. We got an audio guide, which gave history and talked about some of the building details.

Our next stop was Jantar Mantar, an observatory built by the maharaja who designed the whole place. He was really into astrology and astronomy both, so he designed several observatories all over India and filled them with structures that could measure positions of objects in the sky, tell time, and do other similar things. The whole place was fascinating to walk around in, and looked (as Lonely Planet put it) like a rather bizarre sculpture garden.

Our map turned out to be misleading and inaccurate, so we spent a bunch of time wandering about before we found our next destination, Hawa Mahal. This palace was built with latice windows so that royal ladies could look out over the bazaar and see processions without being seen (as that would be unseemly). We got to climb up to the top and look out the little windows, to see what view they'd get. The whole building was also gorgeous, with pink domes and columns and cool glass work on one of the floors. It looked like a real castle!

Hungry and exhausted, we headed to LMB, a veggie place that we read about in Lonely Planet. There, we got the fanciest meal we've had here so far -- a huge Rajasthani Thali, a combo plate thing showcasing local cuisine. It was immense and delicious, and we ended up spending a total of about $22 for what was essentially a multi-course tasting menu. We were stuffed by the end, and very pleased.

On our taxi ride back to the hotel, we ended up arranging for the taxi driver to pick us up and take us to the other places we want to go tomorrow, as they are pretty spread out and would be a pain to get to on our own. So, we have a sort-of tour set up, which will be nice. He was funny, too -- when we drove past the King Edward something or other, he told us, "this is in honor of the British Maharaja." Well, I'm not sure that's how the Brits would put it, but sure. :)

Tomorrow after the day's outing, we get on another train and head to Jaisalmer, where we will be picked up the following morning from the train station and taken on a camel trek! I'm not sure when we'll next have internet, but we'll update when we can!