"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!

"This is the cleanest public bathroom I've ever seen, including in America."

Sorry for the lack of updates, it's been a tiring few days and I just haven't had the mental energy (and sometimes the internet access). We have wi-fi in our room, however, so I will try to catch up a bit now. Not too many pictures, I haven't had time to look through them all.

After some train adventures (our train was late again, we thought we missed the transfer by minutes, then it turned out the transfer was late, too, so it was all OK), we arrived in Amritsar to a thunder storm, hail, and flooding in the streets. Our hotel is across the street from the train station, so we made it over without too much trouble (and there was a temporary lull in the rain) and collapsed, a little concerned about how we were going to see anything. The hotel had room service, though, so at least we could get a late lunch. This hotel is relatively nice -- hot water, wifi, flat screen tv. Funny how our standards have shifted. :)

Mu's coworker Satinder picked us up later in the evening and had planned on taking us to some walking streets, but everything was horribly flooded! The rain had stopped, but many streets had 6 inches or more standing water, and some puddles looked over a foot deep! Craziness. So instead, he drove us around and told us about different neighborhoods. This is the first city where we've actually seen modern areas, as well as non-touristy residential areas. It's nice to have a local guide! He also took us to a little courtyard with lots of food stalls, so we got some very spicy tomato curry thing and ate in the car, because it was very muddy and not pleasant to stand outside. Oh, and we saw an Indian mall where we had ice cream on a stick (like a popsicle but creamier, though not as creamy as ice cream...and flavored with something yummy that he couldn't translate), and the Indian version of Walmart, where I purchased chocolate candy with a toy inside, like a Kinder Surprise! We also heard some stories about Sikhism (Satinder is a Sikh, and Amritsar is the most important Sikh city) and Punjab, the state we're currently in.

As an aside, I realized today that we're getting a little crash course in religious diversity. Thailand was all about Buddhism, a little different flavor of Buddhism in Darjeeling, Hinduism in Varanasi and in other places at random, a little bit of Islam in Agra, and Sikhism today. I knew in theory that India is a religious country, but it's different to see it first hand. It's much more a part of day to day life than it is for most people in the US.

Today, we were going to get going early so as to do everything on Satinder's list of "stuff tourists should see" (he was very determined that we get the proper tourist experience, including pictures of us everywhere!). The weather had other plans at first, though -- super foggy and cold in the morning. We ended up delayed by about 2 hours, not too bad. The first stop was the Golden Temple, which, unlike the Varanasi one, is a Sikh temple. It was so impressive! A huge complex with a gilded golden temple in the middle (something like 800kg of gold was used!) surrounded by a sacred pool surrounded by marble! It was also amazingly clean, including an amazingly clean public bathroom. One has to be barefoot (and with a head covering) everywhere inside the temple (it was cold, ick), so I was a little afraid of the bathroom, but it looked like it had been washed 5 minutes before, which was probably in fact the case. There were armies of volunteers everywhere, cleaning and serving food and doing service for the temple. We went inside the temple and listened to chanting, and also had lunch at the kitchen, where they serve everyone for free (we donated some money, since we are definitely not needy).

After that, Satinder had arranged a tour for us that was a walk around markets and other places in the old city. The guide was a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable lady who told us more stories about Sikhs and showed us facades of old buildings, shops of all kinds, a Hindu temple with some amazing paintings, and a gigantic ancient tree that's growing in and around several houses (you can't cut down a banyan tree, but you can build around it!). We also tried some Punjabi sweets -- something like a funnel cake but smaller and dipped in sugar syrup instead of powdered sugar. Yay for sweet deep-fried things! We also got a photo with a random shopkeeper who insisted that he wanted to give us a free candy and take our pictures. His friends took pictures of us, too -- I guess both he and us will have a souvenir :)

After another snack (unknown veggie pastry), we met Satinder's wife and son -- Harkiran and Jot -- and Harkiran's mom, niece, and mom's servant (who startled us when she brought us water on a tray and departed again. I guess it's not weird for people here to have servants, but to us, it was surprising). We hung out for a little bit and then went to the flag retrieval ceremony on the India-Pakistan border! This is the only place where the border is open (with very tight security) and there is a nightly ceremony where soldiers from both sides meet, take down flags, and close the gate (though it re-opens again after everyone leaves so busses and trucks can come through). It's rather like a sports match -- thousands of Indians (and about a third as many Pakistanis) come, fill the bleachers on either side, and cheer madly as soldiers march up and down, making incredibly high kicks and weird stompy motions (I tried to get video but haven't looked at it yet to see if it turned out). Harkiran and I were in the ladies section, and we ended up at the very top of the bleachers, standing on the outer wall, hanging on to the railings. At least we could see. :) It was really a spectacle, and a huge tourist attraction. Despite tensions politically between the countries, it seems like the people here are not really inclined to dislike one another.

After this, we returned to town and visited Satinder's family's house. His mom doesn't speak English, but she sat with us and offered us snacks and smiled and hugged me when we left. :) His dad speaks pretty good English and we chatted with him about religion (he told us more about Sikhs fighting Muslims), politics (corruption in India and Pakistan, and how most people who live near the border are friendly and don't care about the divisions), and other random things. It was neat to talk to someone who lives here and isn't paid to interact with tourists. Also, we got a great photo of Satinder and his dad, sitting identically and looking solemn. :)

Now we're home and in need of sleep! Tomorrow, we go to an Indian wedding (I don't know whose, Satinder and Harkiran are taking us), and then we're on to Jaipur. Our trip is winding down, sadly. But we still have interesting things to come, so yay!