Happy Birthday to Me
ALLAHU AKBAR!
is what woke me this morning when the Agra Muezzin called for Prayer at 5:00 am.
15min later my alarm went off but I was already awake.
It was still dark outside when I packed my remaining things and headed out to the Agra train station. My train was supposed to leave at 6:16 and I planned some buffer time in case I did not find a Tuck Tuck right away or there was going to be heavy traffic. (Yes, roads can get pretty congested even at 5:30 in the morning here!).
At 5:45 I was at the station only to learn our train had 1h delay.
Well I guess some things are universal. If you are barely on time the train leaves sharp according to schedule - maybe even e minute or two earlier. But if you are there well in advance you can be sure the train is at least equally late.
So then we spent a nice six hour trainride in an Indian sleeper coach. Very interesting!
So I got to Jaipur and got picked up at the train station. I had booked myself into a nice hotel as a treat for my birthday.
Then headed into town.
Saw the Hawa Mahal, the Palace of the Winds. Very nice.
But the most out of the ordinary was when I wondered into the local mosque en route of the old city walk just at two o'clock in the afternoon when everyone came for prayer. And before I new it I was shown how to wash myself for worship and then came along for my first ever prayer at a muslim mosque.
A really nice Indian guy took me along and told me what to do.
Later the two of us had some team just around the corner at a local bazzar. Turns out he also deals in precious stones! Like I never would have guessed. He also talked a little about how he knows a lot of people all over the world and how they come back frequently to buy more stones from him to sell for *a lot more* back home and make a good profit. He even showed me some he had on him just by coincidence. I casually told him precious stones were really not my business that I had to work too long every day to start a second business on the side. He did not press any further. In the end we parted bidding each other farewell and maybe I would give him a call if I came back to Jaipur again. Yeah right!
So either he didn't pull the full scam on me, a "brother in Allah" or this was going to be a long con to be continued next time we meet.
Tomorrow I'm off for Pushka at noon. Too bad I can't stay longer for I have hardly seen anyting of this great city. But Pushka with it's Mela is just must and my hotl booking is for tomorrow. So I'll come back again - eventually. I doubt I'll see my new friend here once again though...
is what woke me this morning when the Agra Muezzin called for Prayer at 5:00 am.
15min later my alarm went off but I was already awake.
It was still dark outside when I packed my remaining things and headed out to the Agra train station. My train was supposed to leave at 6:16 and I planned some buffer time in case I did not find a Tuck Tuck right away or there was going to be heavy traffic. (Yes, roads can get pretty congested even at 5:30 in the morning here!).
At 5:45 I was at the station only to learn our train had 1h delay.
Well I guess some things are universal. If you are barely on time the train leaves sharp according to schedule - maybe even e minute or two earlier. But if you are there well in advance you can be sure the train is at least equally late.
So then we spent a nice six hour trainride in an Indian sleeper coach. Very interesting!
So I got to Jaipur and got picked up at the train station. I had booked myself into a nice hotel as a treat for my birthday.
Then headed into town.
Saw the Hawa Mahal, the Palace of the Winds. Very nice.
But the most out of the ordinary was when I wondered into the local mosque en route of the old city walk just at two o'clock in the afternoon when everyone came for prayer. And before I new it I was shown how to wash myself for worship and then came along for my first ever prayer at a muslim mosque.A really nice Indian guy took me along and told me what to do.
Later the two of us had some team just around the corner at a local bazzar. Turns out he also deals in precious stones! Like I never would have guessed. He also talked a little about how he knows a lot of people all over the world and how they come back frequently to buy more stones from him to sell for *a lot more* back home and make a good profit. He even showed me some he had on him just by coincidence. I casually told him precious stones were really not my business that I had to work too long every day to start a second business on the side. He did not press any further. In the end we parted bidding each other farewell and maybe I would give him a call if I came back to Jaipur again. Yeah right!
So either he didn't pull the full scam on me, a "brother in Allah" or this was going to be a long con to be continued next time we meet.
Tomorrow I'm off for Pushka at noon. Too bad I can't stay longer for I have hardly seen anyting of this great city. But Pushka with it's Mela is just must and my hotl booking is for tomorrow. So I'll come back again - eventually. I doubt I'll see my new friend here once again though...
posted by Jan Siebrecht at 15:35:00
4 Comments:
Great Pictures!!
You will have lots of stories to tell us when you're back!
Enjoy it!
Arturo
Cool story Rittmeister! Enjoy your trip and keep us posted!
Till
Hier,
da bei dem abgebildeten palast mit den vieln Fenstrn, da kann man ja auch irgendwie hoch und raus auf einen Balkon or so.
Da weiß ich noch, wie da so ein Aff' gehockt hat, nichtsahnend und wir da hoch gekommen sind. Holger guckt hoch und sieht den Aff und erschrickt sich wahnsinnig. Und weil er sich so erschrocken hat und zusammengezuckt ist, ist der Aff auch erschrocken.
Hatten wir ja mal noch Glück, dass der uns nicht ins Gesicht gehüppt ist.
Ala, noch eine schöne Zeit und viele Grüße
der Indienexperte aus Vörstetten.
Ja, in den Palast bin ich natuerlich auch rein und hoch. Nur der Aff war diesmal nicht da. Der hat meiner Tischnachbarin morgens beim Fruehstueck ploetzlich auf dem Tisch gesessen. Und dann haben sie sich beide unentschlossen angeguckt bis sich der Aff gesagt hat, ok, wenn du die Banane nicht willst, nehm ich sie mir halt... Und weg war sie!
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