Jaipur, the Pink City

Well, we're in Jaipur, Rahjastan. It's suppose to be beautiful here, which I'm not sure who said that, but it's rather debatable. Other than a few glimpses of green fields on the drive here, Jaipur is pretty much like the rest of India. The outer city of Jaipur itself has a few recognizable stores, but other than this, it's pretty much standard India; by which I mean filthy. I can assess this first hand because today we walked a full 3.5 miles or so to get up close and personal with the city. Like all places here, it's extremely crowded, dusty and polluted with trash strewn everywhere you look. The air is not quite as bad as Delhi or Agra, but still worst than anything you've experienced.

The important lesson I suppose is that seeing the living conditions of a vast majority of people from various places around the world makes you rather appreciate what you have. The discrepancies of wealth and welfare around the world are of an unimaginable scale unless you've witnessed it first hand. Even so, there is only so much one can stomach of the countless destitute and indigent children clamoring to me for money and food.

There is also a bit of reverse racism here it seems. Today we went to the train station to try for tickets to Udaipur tomorrow. There is a specific quota set aside for foreign tourists. Three Irish people before us got tickets for 706 rupees total with no hassles. Then this elderly British couple of Indian descent and their nephew tried to purchase tickets as well but were demanded proof of foreign passports and then quoted a ridiculous price three times more. When it was our turn, we were told that the foreign tourist quota were full and that we can try the emergency quote for 800 rupees for two people - this is to the exact same destination on the exact same train and class seats as the Irish. The Indian guy and I agree that it's impossible for India to move ahead when it treats it's own people badly while kissing the ass of the British who colonized them centuries ago.