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Amber Fort - Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Whew! After two days of a grueling, but absolutely amazing mini-tour of India, I’ve finally arrived at Le Meridien hotel in Delhi. In the past two days, around 40 of us have:
- Rode on a bus from Delhi to Agra (4 hours)
- Visited the Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal,
- Rode on a bus from Agra to Jaipur (5 hours)
- Walked through an dark alley in Jaipur to our hotel, which was amazingly beautiful in the morning
- Traveled all over Jaipur, often by bus
- Rode on a bus from Jaipur to Delhi (5.5 hours)
I’ve got plenty of video footage and pictures from each of the places, and will write about each of them separately over the next several days.
One tremendously funny that happened was today in Jaipur, as we visited the Amber Fort/Palace, as well as visited a street bazaar. At the Amber Fort, JP and I were at a pretty high level when a group of Indian men a little younger than us said something about my beard, then asked if he could take a picture of me. As I laughed, I agreed and this guy has his picture taken with me on his cell phone. They look at the picture, and all of the guys are just laughing hysterically. Then, JP has a similar thing happen to him (though, he has no beard).
We take the stairs back down to the bottom, get on the bus, then go to the bazaar. As Mark and I walk down the street, all of these Indians start talking to me and/or saying “Ali Baba” and “Mr. Basketball Man”. About the time when I crossed the street, it started to actually get really uncomfortable! Basically, all of these men were saying that due to my beard, I looked like Ali Baba (without the 40 thieves by my side, of course). Eventually, Mark and I go back to the bus, as the harassment to visit the shops and heckling was getting a bit uncomfortable.
I was only vaguely familiar with the Ali Baba story, so I looked it up. Given the laughter and playful antics of all these guys, I can only assume they thought it was funny that I have a pretty robust beard. Unless of course, they thought I was there to steal all their treasures!
Ali Baba, Mr. Basketball Man come take a look at my store just looking 100 rupees your size…HELLO!
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