It is 2:30pm in Jaipur, India.  The electricity has decided to stay on for longer than thirty minutes allowing me to update on our trip.  I have kept notes since we left Texas.  Let’s start from the beginning.

October 12: My Dad, brothers, and myself left Dallas, TX around 12pm with a layover in Chicago.  This part of the trip was very smooth.  We arrived in Chicago on time and had a two hour lay over.  Next we headed from Chicago to Brussels, Belgium.  WOW.  What a long flight.  For the most part we arrived on time and it was a very comfortable ride.  Once we got off the plane in Brussels it was a little hectic.  It made me miss Texas and how nice people are.  In Brussels our flight gate was changed in addition to having an extra hour delay.  Needless to say most of the folks around us were not very happy about the situation.  It was a good time to watch other cultures and how they handle their problems.  Turns out short tempers are in most places of the world. 

     Once we boarded the plane (bound for New Delhi, India) it was loud and CRAZY.  I have never before seen so many babies on a plane.  Each mother or father had their baby and their lap and in my situation the baby really loved kicking my seat for the next 8 hours to Delhi.  Honestly it did not bother as much as you would think.  I was so tired by the point I think all the crying babies cried me to sleep.  We arrived in Delhi two hours behind schedule.  It was 12am when we landed (1:30pm Central Time) and our driver was waiting to pick us up. 

   We got to our hotel about 1am.  It is a pretty nice place.  I have not had time to soak in the culture yet.  The hotel did have it’s own bathroom and shower (which was surprising).  I am looking forward to seeing the city after some rest.

October 14:  Yes.  The time is correct.  We lost some time with the time difference coming to Delhi.  We will gain it back on the way home.

     We left our hotel around 9:3oam (11pm central) to see what Delhi had to offer.  I have never seen so many people in one place at one time.  It is very hard to describe what this place is like.  There is trash all over the place but it is not out of the norm.  The people are friendly, persistent, and very helpful.  It is difficult to distinguish between people who want to just speak to you or people who want to sell you something.  One US  Dollar is about 50 Rupee.  For a nice meal with clean food it costs about 300 Rupee ($6.00 US).  You can easily find cheaper foods but my stomach is not prepared for that yet.

  In Delhi it is hard to remember all that we visited.  There was so much to see and take in.  We saw some beautiful monuments but the most enjoyable part for me was driving around the city and seeing how everyone lived.  There are entire families living on the streets, in tents, under tarps, and just anywhere you can think of.  It is a lot to take in at one time.  I am exhausted and we are back at the hotel.  We leave for Jaipur tomorrow by car.  The trip is 210km (130 miles).  They say it will take 4 hours or so.

October 15:  Woke up about 5am today.  It is hard to get used to the time change.  My mind says yes, my body says no.  We left for Jaipur about 8am by car.  I swear.  Every square inch of the country has a person on it.  Once we got on the highway to Jaipur there was farm land.  Places you would expect to see no one.  There are people everywhere!  There are shops littered up and down the road.  I assume they are located close to villages but that has not been confirmed.  There are now mountain tops (large hills really) that have temples on them and 100s of steps to reach the top.  Apparently you have to really want something to go to the temple and pray.  Most of the temples look like a half or whole day hike. 

     We stopped at a farming village where our driver told us 150 people live.  I am about 99% sure we are the first foreigners they have seen.  There was a well, Six tents and that was about it.  It was comprised of a few families and they were very happy that we gave them some money.  What a hard way of life.  Each field is done by hand and a small tractor.  Nothing like working hard all day and coming home to your tent for a good nights rest.  This culture gets a lot of respect in my book.

   We got to our hotel in Jaipur about 3pm.  Our drive took us about SEVEN HOURS!  Of course it had a lot to do with the fact that we stopped a lot of times to see the culture.  We also found out that we could drink alcohol during this drive so we made sure to take advantage of that.  Once at the hotel we walked around the outside of town a bit.  I said the people in Delhi were friendly but these guys take the cake.  Very nice to talk to and VERY VERY excited to see us.  We met some kids and asked them to show us how to play cricket (the game, not the insect).  We played cricket for about an hour and then had a late night dinner. 

   I almost forgot.  When we got to our hotel they gave us an “upgrade.” Five flights up the stairs with no elevator is NOT and upgrade.  It is a workout. 

October 16h:  Got up this morning at 6am.  BRUTAL.  Please body let me sleep more.  Ate breakfast at the hotel.  I seem to be eating a lot of bread.  It feels safer that way. 

     Our driver picked us up about 8am and we hired a guide. This city is unbelievable.  We went to the Amer Fort and Pink city.  I will have to post photos later.  I cannot put into words how amazing this place is.  Imagine a v shaped hill side with fort walls built all around it, temples, and a couple palaces for kings (generations old).  It is a good feeling to see history like this and actually stand in the place where it happens.  Spent most of the day listening about the history of each palace.  Oh.  I almost forgot.  We rode an elephant.  I am pretty sure it is the largest elephant I have ever seen.  I was about 12 feet tall. 

     It is now 3:02pm and I need a nap.  Please excuse any spelling or typos.  Internet access seems to be the only expensive thing here and there is a line of folks waiting to use this one computer.  I will try to update more when I can.   This place is truly Beautiful and Crazy!