My Breakfast
Much as the waiter had anticipated, I couldn’t finish the toast and fruits. I was filled to the brim. I felt I was ready for the day. I asked for the bill, and the waiter shook his head when he saw I couldn’t finish the food. Ooops!
I headed back to my room with a tinge of regret that I had to leave the nice room so soon. I wished I had more time to laze around but I had to go. I checked myself out and waited by the gate of the hotel for Lakhbir to drive in. As I waited, I realized the hotel was really unique and beautiful. I had missed out on how it looked the previous night as it was too dark. In the daylight, it looked really nice and quaint. And I took a picture of it.
The doors lead to the rooms. Notice the pretty paintings around the doorframes. Very pretty.
It was five past eight and when Lakhbir didn’t arrive, I figured he had perhaps come earlier and parked at the car park. So I made my way there and true enough, the car was there. When I approached the car, I realized he was in the same clothes he wore the previous day. And he was frantically trying to tie his turban. The car smelt stale as I entered it, and so as not to rush him, I told him to take his time. Within minutes, he had his turban tied, his shirt tucked in again and car cleaned of fallen leaves and condensation.
I felt bad that as I stayed in the luxury and warmth of my room, Lakhbir had stayed in the car for the night. I wondered if he had eaten. I wondered if he kept warm in the car. Wasn’t there a place for him to stay? I kept quiet throughout the journey as I tried to reconcile understanding the culture and humanity. Was this how It was in India?
We were heading to Jaipur next, the City of Victory. On the way, we stopped by a bird sanctuary to find out if they conducted education tours for students. It was quite a site to see 5 to 6 bird guides surrounding me as they tried to tell me how good they were as a guide. They weren’t pushy when I told them I wasn’t going into the park. In fact, they were friendly and witty, even in their basic English. They joked and teased each other as I took a few pictures.
We reached Jaipur at around 10.30am. Lakhbir stopped the car sooner than I had expected. My itinerary Jayant set for me said I were to have a toilet stop before I headed for the City Palace Museum, but Lakhbir missed it and sent me straight to the Museum instead.
He let me down on the opposite side of the road, and pointed me to the direction of a grand building. I asked meekly if I were to cross the road, hoping that he could sense my apprehension in fighting the traffic of cars, bikes, horse-carts and what not, and drop me off on the same side of the road as the museum instead. “Yeah, you just cross.” Gulp! I wasn’t ready. I hadn’t anticipated this. I smiled bravely, told him to come pick me up some an hour and a half later and closed the door. As he drove off, I wondered how best to make it to the other side of the street. At that moment, I was thankful for the “training” I got in crossing roads in Hanoi. You just have to not worry about the traffic and cross! And so I did.
When I reached the other side of the road, I was proud of myself. But I was in for another challenge. The “museum” looked surprisingly sparse, and parts of it looked as if it were under construction. There was no ticket booth or an entrance to be seen. I spotted two Sikhs behind a cordoned area chatting away and bravely walked towards them, surpassing the restricted area. I caught their attention immediately since I was trespassing. I asked if the building behind them was the City Palace Museum.
“No, no. This not City Palace.”
“Where is the City Palace Museum?”
“Oh, half a kilometer from here.” He gestured towards the road perpendicular to where I was standing. “You walk there.”
I thanked the men and whipped out my handphone to give Lakhbir a call. But instead of a ringing tone, a message telling me that his phone was not switched on came on! I was stunned for a moment and didn’t quite know what to do next. It didn’t make sense for me to be waiting an hour and a half for Lakhbir, so I decided to walk to the City Palace Museum myself. I gazed ahead of me and saw a grand looking building straight ahead. I was quite sure it was just a short walk away.
I bravely crossed the road again and made my way down the busy road leading to the grand looking building. In between, along the grass patches laid poor local Indians who had pitched their tents and perhaps stayed there for the night. Two children and a woman found it unusual to see a foreigner walking along their roads and followed me for a while. My heart was beating faster and when strange men approached me to initiate a chat, I just looked ahead and walked in a quick steady pace. I kept a straight face, but my heart was thumping hard.
I really didn’t know what was going through my head when I started walking. I had no map with me, and I really didn’t know if I was heading in the right direction. I spoke no Hindi and I didn’t know if the people in Jaipur spoke English. I had only just entered the city and what an adventure awaited me!
After successfully crossing a major road, thanks to some locals who took the lead, I reached the grand looking building and to my disappointment, it wasn’t the City Palace Museum as I had thought. Instead, I was led to another stretch of roads, lined with shops that sold everything Indian you can imagine – cloths, pottery, flowers, cords, cables, carpets, shawls… The place was really crowded as the bikes jostled with the cars that challenged the trucks in the sounding of horns. The horse carts maneuvered with the bulls while pedestrians weaved in and out, walking ahead and shopping at the same time.
I was honestly shaken, but I knew I had to get to my destination. I spotted three young Indian women dressed casually like any Singapore youth would, and decided to walk close to them to well, blend in. All was well til they decided to take a stop to shop. I couldn’t possibly tag along! And so, I bravely walked ahead til I reached the next road junction that was far wider and far more congested than the roads I had crossed. I stood at the junction for a full two minutes and wondered if the grand building I saw across the road was the City Palace Museum. I didn’t want to take a wasted risk and so turned around and asked the shopkeeper at the side of the road if what I were facing was the museum. “Oh, this is the back-side of the museum. You got to cross this road, then cross that road, then walk down, then turn left, then walk straight then you’ll find the front side of the museum.”
“Cross this road?” I almost forgot the rest of the instructions. Looking at the road made me frightened enough. Hanoi did train me, but this is far more challenging since the cars were going at a higher speed.
“Ya..ya… Cross the road.” He waved his head from side to side as he spoke.
“The cars won’t hit me?”
“No, no… traffic is too slow. They won’t hit you.” He smiled and waved me towards the edge of the junction.
“Slow? Right…” I thought to myself, trying to gather as much courage as I could. As if God was watching down from heaven, three big-sized women walked past me and crossed the road. Instinctively, I followed them closely behind and before I knew it, I was miraculously on the other side of the road.
I just had another road more to clear and I took a full ten minutes before I got to the other side on my own. I walked towards the lane as the man had suggested and with the help of some friendly passersby, I managed to reach the entrance of the City Palace Museum.
No comments:
Post a Comment