Visit Jaipur (MUST MUUUUST)

I think I'll just start off by saying that Jaipur is AMAZING. I mean, I will definitely reiterate that fact throughout the rest of this post, but in case I forget, I figured I'd just mention it early on. This trip actually took place a few weeks ago, and amidst all the eating, teaching, and sari-wearing, I completely forgot to go through the wonders of the Pink City in great detail. So here goes...

Oh what a start. Note to self: sketchy bus companies will most probably have sketchy buses (true statement). I don't know why I didn't pick up on it earlier; guess I was just so excited about the idea of spending time in such a beautiful place, but when I arrived at the office of the tourist bus company outside New Delhi Railway station, I knew instantly that I had not made the best choice of buses for the journey. After I got a rickshaw driver to take me to where the bus would actually depart from, I was taken to the bus, where I was met with quite a surprise. I already knew that the bus would not have AC, which I did not mind, but I had no idea that I would be one of the only females on the bus. Now, I have gotten used to the staring and understand exactly why it happens, but this bus ride took it to a whole new level: 8 hours of being stared at (siiiigh).

Buuut, when the journey was finally over (YEEEES), I met up with my friend Namrata and her mom, who took me to their lovely home (but it was actually soooo nice). Although I was only in Jaipur for two days, I arrived pretty late in the afternoon on the first day, so I had not expected to actually go anywhere that first day. That's why I was so surprised when Namrata and one of her friends from school took me to Chokhi Dhani, an Indian "amusement park". I'm putting amusement park in quotes because this amusement park was quite different from typical amusement parks like Six Flags or Disney World (but still so goood!). Chokhi Dhani is essentially a mini Rajasthani village, fully equipped with traditional cuisine, jewelry, and elephant and camel rides (yeeees!). I was insanely excited. Like a little kid in a candy store (cliche but extremely accurate).

Chokhi Dhani!!

It was an amazing night, topped off by MAGNIFICENT eats. How magnificent you ask? Well, I had quite a bit of trouble walking afterwards (food baby!)

Magnificent Eats

The next day was very historic. I actually feel like I learned a lot, as though I sat in on a class about the history of Jaipur. After 9 hours of much-needed sleep, Namrata woke me up to get ready for the day (alarms?? completely ignored, as is the fashion of summer life). At the end of the day, I can definitely say that this was one of my most packed tourist days since being in India. Amber Fort, Jaigarh Fort, the Pink Palace, all explored with the help of a tour guide (I would definitely recommend getting a tour guide for Amber Fort and Pink Palace to really appreciate everything that's going on inside).

Top: Amber Fort, Bottom: Pink Palace (both pretty amazing)

After Namrata and I returned from our touristy afternoon, she headed off to take a nap while her parents gave me a tour of the neighborhood and took me to meet a relative who lived nearby. And let me just say, I definitely would not mind growing up in a place like Jaipur.

The day ended with a delicious dinner, followed by Disney's Mulan (you can never let your inner child die I always say). Around 10pm, Namrata and her brother took me to the bus station, where I boarded a MUCH better bus than I had taken to Jaipur. As usual with me on moving vehicles, I was out in a few minutes, reeling from all the wonderful memories of my time in Jaipur.

Play Dress Up! (Indian style of course)

Over the past two days, I've been fortunate enough to do something that I've been wanting to do since before I came to India; I got to try on a sari!! Even though I had planned on buying one while I was here in India, I haven't gotten around to it, so I had just accepted that I wouldn't get to wear one, at least not in India.

So you can imagine how excited I was when Vidya, one of the Asha staff members at Mayapuri to whom I've become really close, told me that she would bring in some of her saris for me to try on.

After teaching my morning English classes today and yesterday, Vidya called me into one of the rooms in the center and wrapped the saris for me. I had heard that the process of putting on a sari was complicated, but I could not believe that there could be so many different ways to wrap one piece of fabric around someone's body! Vidya wrapped the sari for me in several different ways, put a bindi on my forehead, gave me some red lipstick, and we had lots of fun doing a little Indian photo shoot throughout the center.

The saris were sooo beautiful. It caused me great pain to have to take them off, so I think there is only one solution now: time to do a bit of shopping :)

Eat LOTS (you might as well plan to, because you will)

SO. It's been a while since I've posted something, which means that A LOT has happened since my last post. Not most important, but definitely a now significant part of my time here in India, is all the food that I have been eating. Like honestly, if I wasn't running, I would have gained at least 20 lbs by now. I would really like to blame the very generous Associate Director of Asha for my overeating, but in all honesty, it is completely my fault, especially since I have compiled a list titled "Foods to Eat" (I even made food plural to reflect how much I planned to eat). The list started with 11 items, among which were jalebi, kulfi, papdi chaat and rasgulla. Over the past few weeks, the list has expanded to 24 items, the majority of which I have managed to eat (so good, but so bad).

Even though I've been to a couple cool eating places, I'll talk about one of my most memorable eating nights out, which was two weekends ago with the Doc and Associate Director. We started out the night at Karim's, which I had already been to when I went to Old Delhi. Unfortunately, as I discovered after being teased for it in the Asha office, I did not make a good choice by ordering the egg curry the first time I went (okay, I thought it was sooo delicious, but apparently Karim's is best known for it's mutton and chicken and meat dishes...oops hehe). So this time around, with lots of help from Associate Director Freddy Martin, who was a Karim's pro, I got the real, full Karim's experience. And let me just say, I definitely missed out the first time!

Chowing down on some kebabs with some guidance from Freddy Martin

Kebabs, curries, extremely fluffy bread, giant rotis, washed down by two large glasses of lime soda sweet (a MUST TRY). So basically, I ate like it was Thanksgiving, which means that I definitely had no room for dessert (or so I thought). After we finished up at Karim's, good ole Mr. Martin decided that I definitely had NOT had enough to eat yet. So he drove us up to Connaught Place, near India Gate, to get some dessert at Bengali Sweet House. One word: BEAUUUTIFUL. I was legit in heaven. Not only was the place very lovely (partially open-air), but there was so much to choose from!

Can you tell? There's no glass or anything! 

Soooo, despite my great fullness, I could not resist having something. Even though Bengali Sweet is really famous, mainly for its kulfi falooda, take a guess at what I got...

Hot Gulab Jamun!

Now that's how you end a night in happiness :)