Textile "Factory"

So when we went to Jaipur we took a bus from Dehli to Jaipur, which was 5-6 hours. I suggest never doing that ever. I have ranted about buses in the past so I will just say briefly that buses are the worst for long distance travel.

It was a bit of a stressful journey, and when we arrived we were tired and just wanted a quick taxi to take us to our hotel so we could un-crinkle ourselves from the tiny bus seat distortions. We got quoted a ridiculous price for the distance, but it was still under 10 bucks so we just didn't care and got in. Then the driver (who could sense easy money) offered to take us around the WHOLE day to all the major monuments for 30 dollars. We said we'd think about it and we'd call him.

When we were in the hotel we figured this wasn't the worst price ever for a whole day's worth of chauffeuring  and better the devil you know than the devil you don't, so we called him. The guy was a total piece of ****. He took us to three monuments and this "textile factory" where they tried to get us to buy crap we didn't want (the taxi drivers get a percentage to take tourists here) and then when we said we didn't want to buy jewelry or visit any other tourist rackets, he said we'd seen all there was to see and that we were done for the day.

When we asked to go see other places, or for recommendations for photo-worthy areas, he said there were none that we hadn't already visited that day. We were only driven around from 10 am to 2:30 pm.

We were pretty worn out to argue and when we left the cab he started talking about how the next day it would have to be an extra 10 dollars because there were more hills where we were going. We were too tired and stressed to say anything except, "okay, whatever"

When we left our scumbag cabbie, we swore to never pay him another rupee. The only problem was, we lost his card and he was coming at 9:30 am the next day.

Well, he came to our hotel, but Bret just told him we were too sick to sight see that day and that we weren't going out.

When he left, we got a rickshaw and paid the driver about 4 dollars to take us all over the place.

That's what happens when people get greedy. Both Bret and I would have been thrilled to have a car at a reasonable price because the smog and pollution were really getting to us, but that dumb dumb driver had to go and ruin it.

At least I got some photos I like

India Overview

I'm quickly going to give my overall opinion of India and do other posts about specific things. Here's what I thought of the trip!

Goa was a lot of fun. It was the first stop of the journey and if we could do it again we would probably reverse the order and make it our last. That way we could relax and de-stress before our taxis, planes, ferries and train ride home.

Although we did get swindled a couple of times, it was a beautiful, wonderful place and people weren't nearly as aggressive as other places we went after that.  Beautiful, clean, beaches were everywhere, delicious food of almost every variety was available, and people were kind, friendly and helpful.

You didn't see a lot of sad things, people were generally happy and smiling, you could rent a scooter and be generally safe as you explored about unaided.

Our first week we just swam in the ocean, took in the scenery, and ate wonderful, cheap food. It was glorious. The perfect beach getaway.

Then we went to Agra. Oh goodness. I did not think I could find tourists more poorly behaved than in the French sightseeing hubs, but sadly I have. The men were so rude and pushy. And they liked to stare, a lot. of course there were a lot of friendly ones as well, but being an extra in people's photos gets old.

I never understood why someone would want to wear a burka until I went to the red fort in Agra. Seriously got mega-leered at wearing this the whole time.

Then we got sick.
After Goa, which was a balmy 32 degrees C everyday, we were a little overconfident about the weather and both came down with colds. I had mine first and it quickly went away, but Bret's cost us a day in a crappy hotel watching chocolate commercials and hot in cleveland reruns.
All in all it was a good vacation, but a little longer than we are used to so we got a little homesick for the comforts of home. Bargaining and rejecting hawkers every 5 minutes took a lot out of us too.

I'll post more about the little things I enjoyed and more photos