Vol 86 India Part 2

When I got up the next morning this happy lady was at the front door. She was selling plastic bags of chat (snack) mix. Anu bought a couple of bags from her and off she went. I went into the bathroom, took a shower and when I came out, Anu's housemaid was sweeping the floor in front of my room. After getting dressed I recounted my money. My wallet was untouched. My money belt was not.

I had purchased 4 bundles of 500 rupees notes from a currency exchange place at the Muscat airport. The bundles come with one bill wrapped around the rest to hold them. One of the bundles in my money belt was missing 2 500 rupee notes and the note wrapping the remaining notes was askew. It was pretty damn obvious.

What to do? Clearly, I had been stolen from. But by whom? Only Anu and the cleaning woman were home. If it was Anu then I should say something. But if it was the cleaner, who could blame her? I had left money unattended in my room while showering in a country full of ridiculously poor people. I had done what every India guide book warns not to do. I did not want to get her in trouble. And 1000 rupees is only about 23 dollars.

But what of the 500 rupees I suspected were taken from my wallet the night before? The cleaning woman was not there at that time. IF that money was taken then it had to have been Anu. But I was not sure. I wanted to talk to Cindy and her sister, the other couchsurfers staying in the house before acting.

While waiting, Sanjay and Anu's daughter came home and walked me to the corner store. Of course I took my camera along.

These little goats were hanging out on the sidewalk just down the street.

India really is as poor as I'd imagined.

Everywhere, there are people just hanging out on the streets and sidewalks.

Or sleeping.

These kids were picking through garbage, pulling out the recyclables. This is a common way to make a little money.

I bought some sodas and returned to the house to wait. Snapped this from the deck. It was weird to be around Anu. Did she take my money?

Wouldn't it be kinda nice if there were still street vendors in North America? Bringing fresh picked vegetables to your neighborhood every day?

Cindy and her sister returned from their walk and we went into their room and discussed what to do. I decided to say nothing about the theft and we decided to avoid Sanjay and Anu for the rest of the day. I had another place to stay but I did not want to impose on them until the following day. More about why in the next post. We told them we wanted to go shopping and off we went.


I have lots of blurry photos taken from auto-rickshaws. This is a tailor on the right and some sort of food on the left.

Another sidewalk scene.

These guys had just finished bathing and were hanging around to dry. Later we saw a naked (gorgeous) man squatting on a busy sidewalk in a market area bathing from a bucket. Not something you see every day in North America. I was so stunned I didn't take a photo even though I was carrying my camera in the "sneaky sneak" position.

This was the one attractive building I saw in Jaipur but it was closed for renovations. I know there are more attractive buildings in Jaipur I just never saw them.

More scenes from the auto-rickshaw.

Now we are approaching the city wall/gates. Jaipur is called the "Pink City" in all it's tourist brochures because a butt-load of years ago some royal person or other was visiting and many of the buildings were painted pink in his honor. I'm guessing that was pretty nice back then but by now all the paint was faded, cracking and peeling.

There's Cindy and her sister in the lower left corner. And there's the city gates. These are kept in nice condition.

Detail of the gate.

We headed into a market area and browsed around a bit.

Crumbling buildings are normal in Jaipur.

Lots of people ride bikes. That thatch hut is a place to get water.

More of the market area. Looks good from a distance.

When you get closer you can see the decay. That's a little bakery specializing in something or other.

Again, cows really can be anywhere they like. Every one just moves around them.

A spice shop.

Some kind of rice/puff/pastry things.

The flower market. I couldn't decide which photo I liked better, this one....

....or this one so I'm including them both.

Don't know why but I love this photo. Perhaps because it was so cool looking in person.

We went to a restaurant that was recommended in our guide books and then headed back to Anu and Sanjay's house.



The day's video. Sorry, pretty crappy stuff from auto-rickshaws. Notice how much honking there is. You can never escape the honking.