Our journey to Udaipur began in a train station in Jaipur, around 10 PM. Most of the group was groggy, and not particularly looking forward to the bumpy, overnight train ride we were about to embark on. Sensing the collective lethargy within the group, Ben Ji decided to energize us with our favorite past time besides shuttlecocking(Rest in peace):a jam sesh. The minute Ben Ji started strumming his mandelin, a crowd of curious Indians began gravitating towards us. Once Jamal pulled out his traveler’s guitar, we had at least 20-30 people watching intently. Our musicians were still only tuning their instruments, I might add! Then amber started setting the beat with her shakers and Ben Ji started singing his folk songs, and it was a full on concert. People were literally pushing through the crowd to get a glimpse of the performance. Cameras were out; I had to take a video of the whole scene myself. Unfortunately, our impromptu show had to be cut short due to our train’s departure time. Thus we all boarded the train with our luggage, our good friend and mentor Rishi Ji, and a handful of memories of dehli and jaipur. After a mostly sleepless 10 hours for me, we arrived at the station in Udaipur, and the next leg of our adventure began. Udaipur is a town very similar to Jaipur. It has the consumer culture of delhi, with far less people and far more pleasant looking scenery. The guest house that we stayed at was about a mile away from a royal palace which was interesting to see, but quite boring to see for over 5 hours, in my opinion. Along the way to the palace are many street vendor selling food, trinkets and jewelry. Many a shopping spree was had through the jubilant streets of Udaipur. on the night of a full moon, the day before our departure to Jhadol, there was an incredible party in the streets. The whole group had just exited a beautifully serene rooftop dinner, and was greeted by extremely loud music, floats with hindi gods, bedazzled elephants, and even fireworks in the street. T’was quite a trip! We all survived the calamity, Sterling emerging from the madness with a small blue battle scar from the fireworks. The next day, we took a rickety ride to the rural town Jhadol. Jhadol is a farming community comprised of many small villages in the area. The lifestyle there is very simple and non materialistic. In Jhadol, we got the opportunity to help teach some English to girls from the villages in the local school. I don’t believe that much of our lessons was retained by our students, after all we only helped them for two hours total and their english ability was almost nonexistent, but the whole experience was very rewarding, by both the teachers and the students. We as the guests got to see how important the value of education is held by this small community, and I believe that the girls and the villagers were able to see some aspects of our western way of life, and im sure both gained some insight into a few pleasant similarities within the two vastly different cultures. Besides working in the schools, we visited some of the villages, learned about there way of life, and answered some questions they had about America. Many of the locals found it humorous when we told them that some people in America have no religion at all. In addition to visiting the villages, for two nights we got to sleep in the home a village family. It was a really cool experience waking up next to cows, chickens, and goats, in these tiny minimalist shacks that our beautiful families called their homes. Before we left Jhadol, the administrators of the school planned an incredibly awkward dance party for us that left us all asking in retrospect, “what just happened?” The next day, we said farewell and mirrored our drive up with an equally bumpy bus ride back to Udaipur, where we spent the last two days sightseeing, and picking out gifts for loved ones. Our last night was reserved for a relaxing boat ride around a relatively clean river, where we saw all the lovely five star hotels in the vicinity, and after dinner at the best thali resteraunt in Udaipur, we said our tearful goodbyes to the man, the myth, the legend: Rishi Ji. The overnight train ride had some sickness along the way, but we all made it in one piece to Agra, where I’m writing this very blog now. Tomorrow we take on the Taj. Its been a pleasure tracking the groups progress this week, and sharing our adventure with you all reading back home.
Your blogger of the week,
Sawyer
